FROZEN, AND FANCY Artisanal ice maker works magic in Germantown. A-3
ENTERTAINMENT: For Rockville Musical Theatre, “Grease” is still the word. B-4
The Gazette GERMANTOWN | CLARKSBURG
SPORTS: Northwest High senior improved his running by playing chess. B-1
DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
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Mother of missing children insists they are safe, father says Mother of Clarksburg toddlers due in court for bail review Nov. 6 n
BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
The mother of two Clarksburg toddlers missing since early September insists her children are safe, but still won’t say where they are or who they are with, according to the children’s father. Troy Turner told The Gazette
Weird science
More parking, bus service proposed n
Seventh-graders help thwart ‘zombie outbreak’ at Johns Hopkins campus SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
One way to get seventh graders excited about science? Just mention zombies. At the Frontiers in Science and Medicine Day at Johns Hopkins University’s Montgomery County campus, one of the labs that students were able to choose to attend was about the spread of diseases. Students were given a scenario in which some of the people who attended a carnival became infected with the “zombie virus” and it
was their job to figure out how. “They are being disease detectives trying to determine where the zombies in their town acquired the zombie virus. We know it’s at the carnival,” said Kristina Obom, the director for the center of biotechnology education at Johns Hopkins. Seventh grade students from Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown stood up one by one and read their story about what their friends or family did at that carnival and whether or not they had become a zombie. The script came directly from the CDC web-
BY VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
site and was specifically designed to help teach children about the spread of infectious diseases. Students narrowed down the cause of the virus’ spread to the petting zoo and decided collectively that the animals should be quarantined. Obom explained that the interactive lesson introduces the career of epidemiology, which was defined on the board for students as “the science that studies the patterns, causes and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations.”
The county Department of Transportation is expected to recommend a site or sites near the Boyds MARC station in November for additional parking and new commuter bus service to serve Germantown and Clarksburg. “We’re waiting for them to pick the preferred site to see what to do next,” said Boyds resident Miriam Schoenbaum, who chairs the transit working group for the Boyds Civic Association. The Department of Transportation
See ZOMBIES, Page A-11
Nearly half of county police cars now have cameras Other departments have car-mounted equipment, too; body-worn cameras considered n
BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
After years of delay, the Montgomery County Police Department has installed video cameras in nearly half of its patrol car fleet and is eyeing putting cameras on the uniforms of its officers. The department has cameras in 450 of its 913 marked patrol vehicles, and is only adding cameras to newly acquired vehicles. Budget permitting, the department plans to add 150 more cameraequipped patrol cars this fiscal year and have cameras in the entire fleet within three years, according to the department’s press office. County officials agreed to put cameras in police cars as part of a 2000 settlement that followed the death of an unarmed man fatally shot by a county police officer in 1999. Objections from the county’s police union — which argued that cameras might violate state
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Takoma Park police display a wearable camera. The technology can be mounted on glasses and clipped to clothing. wiretapping law — kept the project on hold until 2009. Detective Torrie Cooke, president
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of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35, wrote in an email that video cameras in police cars and on police uniforms
NEWS B-11 A-2 B-8 B-4 A-13 B-1
PUPPY MILL DOG BAN?
Pet stores would be restricted to animals from rescues, shelters.
A-5
1932793
See MISSING, Page A-9
Upgrades planned for Boyds MARC station
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Roberto Clemente Middle School students (from left) Sohan Ganatra, 12, Tom Stoughton, 12, Garrett Gularson, 13, and Jack Yang, 12, work with DNA samples during the Frontiers in Science and Medicine program at the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus in Rockville on Friday.
BY
Monday that he’d spoken to Catherine Hoggle — currently being held at a state mental facility in Jessup — last week. Turner and Hoggle have three children, two of whom — 2-year-old Jacob Hoggle and 3-year-old Sarah Hoggle — went missing Sept. 7 and Sept. 8. Catherine Hoggle also disappeared Sept. 8, but was apprehended by police several days later. “She basically told me they’re fine,” Turner said. Hoggle made it sound like she could contact the
expects to issue its draft feasibility study with recommendations sometime next month, said Aruna Miller, the department’s project manager for the Boyds transit improvements, in an email. Officials have been reviewing 12 possible sites, some of which are owned by the county or the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and some of which are privately owned. The recommendations will be reviewed by the director of county’s Department of Transportation and the County Council, which can agree with or revise the recommendations, or stop the project, Miller wrote. Currently, there are 15 parking
See MARC, Page A-9
Tapestry homes in Clarksburg pipeline
are “excellent tools for law enforcement officers to use.” But any surveillance device raises privacy concerns for the public and for police officers, Cooke wrote, citing disclosures about the National Security Agency as grounds for caution. Cameras in patrol cars always are recording, but don’t start permanently saving footage until officers either turn cameras on directly or start flashing their car’s red and blue lights. At that point, audio recording begins and cameras start saving. Cameras will go back to, and save, footage collected 30 seconds before the officer started recording, said Ofc. Nicole Gamard, a county police spokeswoman. That way, if an officer sees a driver run a red light, then starts recording, footage of the violation will be captured as well, Gamard said. Cameras stay on until officers turn them off, she said. Footage is stored locally on police department servers for at least 210 days. Footage that needs to be reviewed or used as evidence is archived permanently, Gamard said. Officers don’t have
The developers of the planned Tapestry subdivision in Clarksburg plan to start work on the site early next year, pending approval of plan to rebuild the intersection at Old Baltimore Road and Frederick Road (Md. 355). Developers Miller & Smith of McLean, Va., have planned 67 housing units, including 57 single-family houses and 10 semi-detached units as five duplex pairs.
See CAMERAS, Page A-11
See TAPESTRY, Page A-11
Volume 27, No. 44, Two sections, 28 Pages Copyright © 2014 The Gazette
Please
RECYCLE
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Summerfield neighbors welcome sidewalks BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER