MoCo Headlines: Teacher Pensions, Campaign Finance and a Parody Tweeter

With more than a dozen websites across Montgomery County, Patch brings you news from every corner of our community. Catch up on this week's headlines, including North Potomac residents looking for answers after attempted burglaries and Wheaton businesses backing a county bill to protect them from ill effects of redevelopment.

In characteristic union flair, a sea of yellow United Food and Commercial Workers Union t-shirts took over the Montgomery County Council meeting room in Rockville on Tuesday as county employees from the UFCW and five other organizations spoke out against a measure that would shift pension costs for teachers from the state to the county.

The Montgomery County Council extended its debate of the Kensington Sector Plan this week, as some councilmembers are concerned that the plan allows heights and densities that don't fit in with the residential community. 

Friendship Heights Plaza—across Western Avenue from in Chevy Chase—may be just a weed-filled parking lot right now, but construction to turn the lot into a boutique shopping center will begin soon.

Supporters of , have submitted an unsolicited proposal to the county offering the creation of an agricultural education program to launch on the Brickyard site. 

A campaign finance violation complaint against former mayoral candidate Piotr Gajewski raised questions about Rockville’s laws on contribution limits, about its campaign fund reporting process and about how much authority the city’s elections board has to enforce city election law.  

Maryland Sen. Rob Garagiola's campaign team says parody tweeter @FakeGaragiola has gone too far. Garagiola has been the target of the satirical Twitter account ever since he announced plans to run for U.S. Congress in November. 

Members of multiple North Potomac and Gaithersburg communities met with county and city officials to learn how they can prevent an attempted home burglary. There have been two incidents in late February and increased suspicious activity in the area. 

A group of Wheaton businesses testified this week in support of a bill before the Montgomery County Council that would create a program to assist small businesses damaged by county-sponsored redevelopment. A leader of the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton said the bill would show "a real commitment to the community."