Gaithersburg

Colleges Two goals by Mullins lift Terps men to 13th win in row Patrick Mullins , the Atlantic Coast Conference Co-Player of the Week, added two goals to his league-leading point total as the No. 1 Maryland men's soccer team earned a 2-1 victory over visiting Lehigh. The Terps won their 13th consecutive game and matched their best start in program history (14-0-1). Mullins, who has 28 points, scored in the 12th minute, then broke a 1-1 tie in the 88th minute with his 10th goal of the year.

That shout for joy you heard coming from just south of here was from the students and parents at Gaithersburg Elementary School, where the administration has decided to eliminate all homework except reading. According to Fox News , principal Stephanie Brant took a look at the work being sent home with the kids and decided it didn't match what was being taught in the class. “It was just, we were giving students something because we felt we had to give them something," she said.

If “The Voice” was the NCAA Final Four, my bracket would be looking pretty clutch right about now. If we didn't have enough numbers, during the season finale of “The Biggest Loser,” what with pounds lost, body weight percentage lost, etc., etc., NBC producers must have thought their audience simply wasn't getting enough math in their lives , because, oh Lordy, there was math Tuesday night. After Monday's show, coaches were asked to split 100 points between their two semi-finalists.

State banking regulators closed two Maryland banks Friday, the first two bank failures in the state since 2010. The Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation shut down the Bank of the Eastern Shore in Cambridge and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver. The FDIC created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Eastern Shore to allow customers to access their deposits until May 25. The state financial commissioner also closed HarVest Bank of Maryland in Gaithersburg, whose deposits and other assets were acquired by Sonabank in McLean, Va. HarVest's four branches will reopen during normal business hours as Sonabank's branches.

This recap of "The Voice" is brought to you by several pots of coffee and the frantic distractions of Election Eve in the newsroom. Bear with me, and this all-too-brief blog post.  The deal: The six members of Team Christina and Team Blake all performed live last night - 12 performances total - and America had a 12-hour window in which to vote for their favorite contestants. The audience votes save three members on each team but - SURPRISE TWIST! - the coaches can save one contestant who placed in the bottom three, meaning four members from each team progress to the quarterfinals.

A Gaithersburg priest who was put on administrative leave from his parish after a controversial funeral Mass at which he denied Communion to a lesbian said in a statement Wednesday that he "did the only thing a faithful Catholic priest could do" and suggested that archdiocesan leaders and the woman were lying. The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo had declined to comment publicly since the Feb. 25 Mass at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, where Barbara Johnson was mourning her mother. Having learned just before the Mass that Johnson, a 51-year-old D.C. artist, was a lesbian living with her partner, Guarnizo refused to let her receive Communion.

Construction of the final segment of the Intercounty Connector, the state's first all-electronic toll road, is scheduled to begin this spring. The one-mile stretch of highway will connect Interstate 95 to U.S. 1 inPrince George's County. It will cost $89 million and be completed by late 2013 or early 2014. Officials with the Maryland Transportation Authority said the ICC is being used by about 20,000 motorists on weekdays, in line with projections. The western terminus at Interstate 270 near Gaithersburg is seeing slightly greater traffic than the more recently opened eastern end. "People are using parts of the ICC to make their own alternate routes to work," said Harold Bartlett, the authority's executive secretary.

The Baltimore Police Department has reached outside its ranks to fill a top command position, hiring a former top official from Montgomery County to lead training efforts. John A. King, the former police chief in Gaithersburg and a former assistant chief with the Montgomery County police department, was hired last month to lead the department's education and training division, filling a vacancy when its commander was moved to a patrol position. Police training, a priority of Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, came under scrutiny  by the commission investigating the fatal police shooting outside the Select Lounge in January.

They gathered before dawn in a hotel parking lot, determined to prove themselves right. A former state senator. The one-time leader of Maryland's most populous county. Several local business owners. Would the Intercounty Connector, Maryland's most expensive highway, be everything they had promised the public over decades of debate and planning? To answer the question Tuesday morning, just hours after the road opened, these pillars of the community staged a road rally of sorts, pitting two time-honored Gaithersburg-to-Laurel routes against the new highway.