Silver Spring

In a major step toward bringing the nation's largest retail and entertainment complex to Silver Spring, Montgomery County officials yesterday agreed to join forces with a Canadian real estate firm to develop the $585 million project.The agreement to proceed with the so-called American Dream represents the latest in a decade-long effort to revitalize a 28-acre tract in Silver Spring's derelict urban core, roughly equivalent in size to downtown's Charles Center.Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, in announcing the agreement with Triple Five Development Eastern Ltd., compared the project to Harborplace, the Rouse Co.'s festival marketplace that revitalized the Inner Harbor 16 years ago."

The state Mass Transit Administration has postponed cutting six bus routes between Columbia and Silver Spring until the agency can distribute surveys to every rider who uses the service.The date for discontinuing midday, late-night and Saturday bus service -- contracted to Eyre Bus Service Inc. in Glenelg -- has been delayed from Sunday to June 23, said Nancy Philips, an MTA spokeswoman."That gives commuters time to look at alternatives," she said. "And it gives us more time to absorb what [riders]

MASS TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION officials should reconsider the substantial cutback in service they plan for a bus line between Columbia and Silver Spring, a key route that links Howard County to jobs in Washington and its suburbs.Public transportation is not an option for some county commuters. It is the only way for residents without automobiles to reach their jobs or travel to social and cultural events in the nation's capital. MTA's plans to eliminate late-night, midday and Saturday trips between several Columbia stops and the Silver Spring Metro station would hurt riders who rely on this service.

The Baltimore-Washington regional headquarters of Bell Atlantic Mobile, the wireless subsidiary of Bell Atlantic Corp., said yesterday that it will move to Howard County after 14 years in Silver Spring.About 300 employees will be relocated to an office building Bell Atlantic Mobile is constructing on 30 acres in the new, 100-acre Montpelier Research Park near the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory off U.S. 29.Work on the 158,000-square-foot, three-story building is to begin in August and should be completed next summer, Gary Schulman, president of Bell Atlantic Mobile's Baltimore-Washington regional office, said at a news conference at APL.Additionally, the regional subsidiary is expected to double its number of employees in four years, and exceed 1,000 workers at the facility not long after that, Schulman said.

Health officials have traced a small outbreak of cholera in Silver Spring to a brand of frozen coconut milk, and ordered stores and restaurants throughout Maryland to get rid of the product.State Health Secretary Nelson J. Sabatini said yesterday that three people who attended a party on Aug. 16 contracted the disease when they ate a pudding with a coconut milk topping. One of the patients was hospitalized, but all recovered from the potentially fatal disease, he said.The product is sold under the brand name "Asian Best Frozen Fresh Coconut Milk," which is exported by Jack Hong Co. Ltd. of Bangkok, Thailand.

What would happen if a zombie apocalypse descended on Silver Spring? Karl Ericson recently posed that question on his blog. This weekend, we'll know the answer. Well, sort of. Ericson, a 33-year-old who lives in Silver Spring, helped organize the inaugural Silver Spring Zombie Walk, which takes place Saturday. The event encourages people to dress up as zombies, meet at the Silver Spring bar the Quarry House, stumble around the city for a bit and then reconvene for a showing of Night of the Living Dead at the AFI Silver Theatre.

The Silver Spring Inn just doesn't look like the kind of plac that serves some of the best Sour Beef around. Or does it?Sour Beef is old-time Baltimore. Heavy, filling, intensely delicious if prepared properly. Nothing lite, nothing nouvelle about it.The Silver Spring Inn is also old-time Baltimore, despite its location beyond the Beltway on Belair Road. The inn is a corner bar with dining room attached. Dark, smoky, the kind of place working folks have always stopped at for a few beers on the way home.

The weekend snowstorm that dumped up to 5 inches of snow on parts of Maryland caused two highway fatalities and led to three sledding accidents, one of them killing an 11-year-old boy in Silver Spring.Montgomery County police said Matthew Hartmann, of the 10200 block of Sutherland Road, rode his plastic sled down a hill about 10 a.m. and went beneath a moving car that dragged him several feet along Southwood Avenue.Police said that the driver, John Bobich of Silver Spring, hit his brakes immediately but that the road was covered with snow and ice at the time of the accident, and he slid several feet.

Top seed Rika Fujiwara of Japan defeated Silver Spring's Delia Causevic, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, in the first round of the USTA Women's Satellite Tournament of Baltimore yesterday at Druid Hill Park. In other first-round matches, third-seeded Tomoe Hotta defeated Milangela Morales, 6-1, 6-3, eighth-seeded Amanda Johnson beat Katie McGlennen, 6-0, 6-0, Julie Ditty topped Emily Marker, 6-3, 6-4, and Megan Bradley downed Kelly McCain, 6-2, 6-1. Olney's Lindsay Dawaf lost to Ryoko Takemura, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. Sarah Riske, Maren Haus, Marlene Mejia and Kristy Blumberg won their qualifying matches, earning them spots in the main draw.

BRUNSWICK -- The little town that the railroad built became a living tribute yesterday to the crew and passengers killed in February's fiery Silver Spring train crash -- a group that began its last journey at the historic Brunswick station.Nearly 250 people gathered outside the century-old Queen Anne-style station house as colleagues of the dead crew members unveiled two memorials to the 11 people who died that snowy night in the collision of a Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) train and an Amtrak passenger train.