Gaithersburg

Aurora Loan Services LLC, the mortgage-lending subsidiary of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., has laid off 160 employees in Gaithersburg as the parent company moves to scale back its home-loan business in response to turmoil in the industry and in the secondary market where investors trade mortgage debt. The layoffs were disclosed in a notice filed with the state Labor, Licensing and Regulation Department. Aurora originates both prime and subprime mortgages. A Lehman spokesman said yesterday that the company closed a regional operating center in Gaithersburg last month.

GAITHERSBURG -- Maryland's gasoline tax would go up in 18 months - and possibly sooner - if Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to add $400 million a year in transportation funding is approved by the General Assembly. Although an immediate increase in the gas tax is not part of the $2 billion revenue plan the Democratic governor has been rolling out over the past week, he said yesterday that he will push to tie future increases to the rising cost of road and bridge construction materials. At present rates of inflation, that would average $63 million a year, an increase of about 0.8 cents a year from the current rate of 23.5 cents per gallon, state officials said.

Facing increased competition for its main product - the HPV Test - and questions about its plans for growth, Gaithersburg's Digene Corp. agreed yesterday to be acquired by a foreign company in a $1.6 billion cash and stock deal designed to boost the local biotech firm's international sales effort and speed technology development. Under the agreement, Netherlands-based Qiagen N.V. would pay $61.25 for Digene shares - up to $880 million - on a first-come, first-served basis. That represents a 37 percent premium over Digene's $44.77 closing price Friday on the Nasdaq.

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche has agreed to acquire BioVeris Corp., a Gaithersburg biotechnology business, for $600 million, the companies announced yesterday. Roche said the acquisition would help expand its diagnostics division by adding BioVeris' "electroluminescence" - or ECL - technology, which uses light emissions to help discover new drugs, monitor and diagnose diseases and identify bacteria or toxins in the environment. "In comparison with other detection technologies, ECL offers distinct advantages such as enhanced sensitivity, short incubation times and broad measuring ranges," Severin Schawn, chief executive of Roche Diagnostics, said in a statement.

On Thursday, February 8, 2007, FRANK RICUCCI, of Bel Air, MD; beloved husband of Margaret Marie Ricucci; father of Gary Ricucci, David Ricucci and Dale Canatella; brother of Connie Claydon. Also survived by eight grandchildren and two great-granddaughters. Relatives and friends may call at COLLINS FUNERAL HOME, 500 University Blvd. West, Silver Spring, MD, Monday 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Service at Covenant Life Church, 7501 Muncaster Mill Road, Gaithersburg, MD, on Tuesday, February 13, at 10 A.M. Interment Parklawn Memorial Park.

Harry M. Harrison, a former Howard County police officer and UPS security head, died Saturday of complications from emphysema at his home in Daphne, Ala. The former Ellicott City resident was 86. Mr. Harrison was born in Gaithersburg and raised in Westminster, where he graduated from high school. During World War II, he served in the merchant marine as a shipboard communications officer. In the late 1940s, he became a Maryland state trooper, serving at the Westminster and Waterloo barracks.

GAITHERSBURG -- In a challenge to both the outgoing Ehrlich administration and the incoming O'Malley regime, opponents of the proposed Inter-County Connector filed a pair of lawsuits yesterday seeking to block construction of the east-west toll highway through Washington's Maryland suburbs. In suits filed in federal courts in the District of Columbia and in Greenbelt, four environmental groups and two Montgomery County residents who live near the proposed highway contend that federal transportation and environmental agencies abrogated their duties in approving the state's plans for the 18-mile, six-lane highway.

GAITHERSBURG -- It hadn't been light for long, and already 30 men had gathered on the parking lot and yellowing lawn between Grace United Methodist Church and a strip of small businesses. They stood in clumps, sipping coffee or staring off, the telltale signs of labor apparent in their dirt-striped jeans and in faces creased by the sun. Occasionally, when a truck or car turned off Route 355 into the lot, a group of men would press toward it, clustering around the window. Words were exchanged in a jerky mix of English and Spanish, and eventually someone, or maybe a couple of lucky people, would climb into the vehicle before it drove back down the road and disappeared.

Justin Ray Davis loved people. Growing up in Gaithersburg, he had many friends, and even hung out with the parents of his friends. As an Army infantryman in Afghanistan, the 19-year-old made sure to take lots of extra pens when he went on missions - local children often flocked to the soldiers, asking for pens to do schoolwork. "He would play with the kids and joke around with them," said his friend and platoon mate, Spc. Michael Earner. Last Sunday, Pfc. Davis was killed in the eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, possibly by friendly fire, the Defense Department announced yesterday.

On Tuesday, April 4, 2006 ALFRED G. HUBER of Gaithersburg, MD, raised in Baltimore, MD. Beloved husband of the late Carolyn D. Huber; loving father of Cynthia H. Cohn and husband, Mark I. Cohn and Susan C. Huber; brother of Herbert G. and Walter E. Huber. Also survived by three grandchildren, Jack Thomas, Carolyn Hope and Cassidy Jo Cohn. Friends may call at De VOL FUNERAL HOME, 10 East Deer Park Drive, Gaithersburg, MD on Thursday, from 2 to 4 and from 6 to 8 P.M. Memorial Service will be held at Asbury Methodist Village, Parker Hall, 405 Russell Avenue, Gaithersburg, MD on Saturday, April 8th at 11:00 A.M. Interment private.