Temperatures expected around 70 degrees this week – Talk about a nice way to start November: Temperatures are expected to reach highs of 66 degrees Monday, 70 degrees Tuesday, 71 Wednesday, 69 Thursday and 73 Friday, according to the National Weather Service. There’s a slight chance of showers Wednesday night; otherwise the week should be sunny or partly cloudy. Nighttime lows are expected to drop into the mid-50s.
PARCC county-by-county high school test results to be released Thursday – The full high school results for the state’s new PARCC tests, which were developed to evaluate students’ aptitude under the Common Core curriculum, are scheduled to be released Thursday. Overall results for the state released last week showed that more than half of the state’s students failed to meet standards for English and algebra on tests taken during the past school year. The results to be released Thursday should give residents a more detailed view of how their local high school fared and how Montgomery County public schools did when compared to schools in other counties. The elementary and middle school test results are expected to be released in early December.
Berliner to host ‘Day of Action’ – Montgomery County Council member Roger Berliner is hoping to get the attention of drivers and the State Highway Administration Tuesday at a 7 a.m. “Day of Action” event at Little Falls Library on Massachusetts Avenue in Bethesda. The council member and others will be at the library holding signs asking drivers to pay more attention to the road. The event comes after high-profile traffic fatalities in the area including the deaths of 64-year-old bicyclist and former Navy Seal Tim Holden and 95-year-old Bethesda resident Marge Wydro.
County Council to take up permit fee changes, radon tests – The County Council is expected to vote on a resolution Tuesday that would alter specific permit fees in the county, including permits for signs and home businesses. Last week, council member Nancy Floreen raised concerns during a committee discussion that the permitting department’s structure as a self-supporting enterprise fund may be resulting in permit fees that are more expensive than neighboring jurisdictions that use tax funds to support their permitting departments.
The council is also expected to take action on a bill that would require homeowners to conduct a radon test on their homes before selling them. Maryland law requires home sellers to notify buyers if their home has elevated radon levels, but there is no requirement to test for the odorless gas, according to The Washington Post. If approved, this bill would require homeowners to use a state-mandated testing kit to test for the gas that’s a known carcinogen. The regulation would be the first of its kind in the country.
Immigration policy discussion – The Montgomery County Council’s Public Safety Committee is scheduled to discuss policies related to detaining immigrants in the county’s jail system and then releasing them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In 2014, County Executive Ike Leggett decided, based on advice from the state attorney general, that the county would not release immigrants in the country illegally to ICE unless there was probable cause they had committed a crime. This decision arose out of a concern that many immigrants were being deported by ICE even though they had no criminal violations. Prior to Leggett’s decision, the county released 273 inmates to ICE in 2012 and 2013, but since the decision, it has released just 11 to ICE and 85 back into the community, according to a council memo.
