Email Archives
Subject: BCA Meeting Tomorrow
Date Sent: March 1, 2017
BCA Meeting on March 2, and a word from the County Police
Please join us at our next Bannockburn Citizens Association meeting on Thursday, March 2 at 7:30 PM at St. Mark.
Our featured speaker will be our neighbor Carol Weil, who is the Program Director, Ethical and Regulatory Affairs, at the National Cancer Institute. Carol obtained her law degree from UC Berkeley, which was followed by a fellowship in medical ethics. At the NCI Carol Weil is working to resolve and implement the multiple ethical and regulatory issues involved in administering biorepositories, including consent for collection, storage and future research use of adult and pediatric specimens and data, return of research results and incidental findings, custodianship of donated tissue, investigator access, and intellectual property/resource sharing.
Prior to working at the NCI, she served at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since 1987, first with the Inspector General's Office and then with the Office for Human Research Protections in the Office of Public Health and Science. This will be a most interesting discussion.
As always, the meeting will be an opportunity to visit with your neighbors, discuss BCA activities, hear reports from our Committees, and pass along news and comments. We would particularly like to welcome new neighbors. I look forward to seeing you on Thursday. I am also forwarding, below, a recent message from the County Police.
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Dear Parents and Guardians, The central office has shared this information with principals and asked us to share with community. I am writing to inform you about an extortion phone scam that is impacting our community.
In the last week, multiple MCPS families have been targeted by what is known as a virtual kidnapping scam. The scam begins with community members receiving a call from an unfamiliar number, often from an international area code. When the call is picked up, community members have reported that they have heard screaming sounds in the background and a message from the caller claiming that they have the person's child and intend to do the child harm unless ransom is paid. Read more about the scam from WTOP.
National and local enforcement are aware of the scam. The Montgomery County Police Department has provided the following advice:
- Do not wire money.
- Contact your child's school.
- Contact the police via 911 or on the non-emergency number, 301-279-8000.
The FBI has also provided guidance to help community members avoid becoming a victim of this scam. This guidance can be found at https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/us-citizens-threatened-by-mexican-virtual-kidnapping-scheme
Best Wishes,
Ted Garrett,
BCA President