In Wheaton, Maryland, county and state lawmakers gathered at the site on Veirs Mill Road where a 59-year-old woman was struck and killed by a vehicle as she was crossing the street in January. They hope to bring attention to the rising number of pedestrian deaths taking place in the region.

Last year, Montgomery County saw 40 pedestrian and bicyclist incidents. Only six weeks into 2022, and the county has already seen 50 incidents and two deaths.

“In 2022, we’ve already had two people killed and 50 incidents, just six weeks into this new year,” said Montgomery County Council Vice President Evan Glass, who holds these events annually to highlight the importance of “Vision Zero” programs to reduce roadway injuries and deaths.

For months, Hameedullah Rokhan fought alongside NATO troops in Afghanistan, trying to keep the Taliban at bay. As the war-torn country’s government started to collapse, he fled his homeland.

Rokhan finally received a visa for refugees and moved his family to Montgomery County, Maryland.

He was a guest speaker at a rally Thursday to support Afghan refugees and families like his.

Montgomery County’s roughly 147,000 tons of annual food waste could soon be put to good use.

Instead of most waste being burned at an incinerator in Dickerson, it can now be used as a new option for mulching and composting on farmland.

The Montgomery County Council unanimously approved a zoning amendment to allow mulching and composting as accessory uses to farming if no more than 50% of the material comes in from off-site.

This year, for the first time, Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction formally recognized June as Pride Month — an effort spearheaded by Evan Glass, the first openly gay member of the Montgomery County Council.

At events, Glass, 42, posed with drag queens and marched triumphantly through town centers holding his husband’s hand. Behind the scenes, however, the at-large Democrat was battling a deluge of hate-filled messages.

On my first day as a Montgomery County Council member, I took two buses to get from my house in Silver Spring to the Stella B. Werner Council Office Building in Rockville. The total time was 80 minutes. The total cost was $2. That might not seem like much, but it adds up. That’s $4 a day, $20 a week, $80 a month, $960 a year — just counting weekdays.

Applicants for Montgomery County government jobs will no longer face questions about their past earnings, if new legislation passed unanimously by the county council becomes law.

Tuesday morning, all nine council members approved a bill introduced by Council member Evan Glass called the “Pay Equity” act. The bill has received an endorsement from Democratic County Executive Marc Elrich, who is expected to sign it.