what's up the pike: firsts and lasts

County Executive Ike Leggett makes the Fillmore official with a signature at a press conference two years ago.

- The Lee Development Group, who's developing the Fillmore music hall on Colesville Road, says construction could start within the next year. Two years after Montgomery County signed an agreement with promoter Live Nation to operate the venue, the Fillmore's been mired in controversy. Nearby residents complain the club will create more noise and crowds Downtown, while local activists are concerned about the "transparency" of the process used to select Live Nation.

- Of the nearly eight hundred Chrysler dealers closing around the nation, a dozen or so are in the D.C. area, and not a single one is in East County. The only Chrysler dealer on the east side is Darcars Chrysler Jeep Dodge of Silver Spring on Cherry Hill Road.

- Check out my very last column in the Diamondback, U-Md.'s independent student newspaper. This week, I'm writing about my first time at the bars in College Park. Check out the comments: they are hilarious.

- The Northeast Consortium's in the news this week: The Association of Educational Publishers has named the Blake High School newspaper, the Blake Beat (of which I was a proud member during the 2004-2005 school year) the best high school paper in the nation.

Meanwhile, Blake and Springbrook High students met with the East County Citizens Advisory Board at Montgomery County's first-ever Youth Forum, airing their concerns before their local liaisons to the county government. And Springbrook principal Michael Durso, who faced death threats from two of his own students last week, announced that he'll be retiring at the end of this school year after a half-century in education.

- Remember: the Safe Silver Spring summit is this Saturday at Montgomery College's Takoma-Silver Spring campus.