Week in Review: Criminal Conflict of Interest, MCPS Budget and Former 'Meet The Press' Host Dies

This week Potomac has been graced with warmer weather and had school events, crime and the loss of a well-known journalist.

On Monday, Jeffrey Ross Williams — a Potomac resident — and making a false statement to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, after neglecting to disclose compensation received in 2006. Williams worked at the worked at the CPSC while he was also collecting about about $48,000 in compensation from his personal law firm — money he did not report as a source of income on his financial disclosure reports. Williams faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the two counts against him.

It’s been a telling week for the future of Montgomery County Public Schools. On Monday, Potomac Patch ran a story about how  for educational gains even as local systems have reduced staff, cut programs and frozen salaries in recent years. This proved to be the case when the county school board on Monday. The operating budget request includes no new programs or initiatives but increases spending by $82 million in order to keep up with enrollment growth of more than 3,300 students this school year.

The Intercounty Connector may not be opening until Feb. 22, but Patch got a . The ICC will stretch from I-270/I-370 near the Shady Grove Metro station in Gaithersburg to just east of MD 97 (Georgia Ave.) and cut time for local commuters.

Bill Monroe, a former host of NBC's "Meet the Press," . He was 90 years old. Monroe died at ManorCare Health Services, 10714 Potomac Tennis Lane, from complications of hypertension, his daughter Lee Monroe said in a New York Times article. Monroe recently moved to the  nursing home after a fall in December.

Students at the Diener School got a chance to show off some of their dance moves on Thursday when the school  The school, which serves special needs students in kindergarten through 5th grade, worked with its more than 30 students to prepare them for some of the social situations they might encounter at the dance. Check out the photo gallery from the story with many of the kids and staff having a good time.