what's up the pike: sister to the east?

- Over in College Park, the University of Maryland's cut their ties with development firm Foulger Pratt/Argo to which was going to build East Campus, a mixed-use development on Route 1 "twice the size of . . . downtown Silver Spring," which FP/Argo did five years ago. University officials still say they'll have the project's first phase underway "within the next three years." (Image courtesy of Rethink College Park.)

- Also: popular off-campus coffeehouse College Perk says they're still planning to re-open after a fire and eviction forced them to close last year. They're currently in talks with Prince George's County to open at the former 94th Aero Squadron restaurant, offering fine dining alongside the traditional coffeehouse atmosphere.

- Now that the Fillmore music hall deal has been put into writing, Montgomery County might want to get that sucker under construction fast. That's because they'll be compensating the Lee Development Group for any cost overruns, according to The Gazette. The venue, to be built in the former J.C. Penney building on Colesville Road, will anchor a new mixed-use project by the Lees that could go before the Planning Board pretty soon, says county economic director Steve Silverman.

- The Gazette profiles United Therapeutics, the pioneering biotech firm whose sexy headquarters complex in Downtown Silver Spring is nearing completion. What I didn't know before reading this is that the company's spent most of its existence researching and marketing a single drug, called Remodulin, for a disorder that causes continuously high blood pressure.

- The Harvest Collective, a new organization created by recently-graduated student activist/member of Lonely are the Brave/White Oak resident/friend of JUTP Davey Rogner, is kicking off a nationwide sustainability campaign called "Pick Up America." Rogner and the collective will walk from Assateague to San Francisco, picking up trash by day and holding potluck dinners by night. "We will leave a trail of clean roadsides and streams from the Atlantic to the Pacific," he writes on The Harvest Collective's new blog. You can also follow Rogner and the group on Twitter.

- And finally: some of y'all might have gotten a glimpse of Teen Sex, a documentary I made in high school, over the weekend. Unfortunately, I had to take it down due to a variety of, um . . . well, let's just say the record labels didn't think their slutty pop songs were an appropriate soundtrack to a video with no actual depictions of teenage sex. So, there's that. Hope you enjoyed it!