Washington

Maryland police solve massive mail theft investigation

Published

10 months ago

April 23, 2025

Maryland police solve massive mail theft investigation

A woman has been charged with stealing checks from mailboxes, altering and cashing nearly a half-million dollars’ worth.

A car stopped for speeding on Colesville Road in Silver Spring turned out to hold a portable check fraud operation.

Hundreds of business and personal checks belonging to different people, thousands in cash, a printer and blank check printing paper were found in the Chrysler 200 in February 2022.

The court documents also list two other items: a U.S. Postal Service Mail carrier’s bag and hat.
Those things, said Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, made their criminal actions go almost unnoticed.

“They would’ve seen what would’ve looked like an insignia that this was a U.S. postal worker doing their job, working hard for us at 9:30 at night,” he said. “In fact, what they were doing was emptying out a mailbox.”

McCarthy said the car’s contents helped craft a case in a frustrating series of crimes that began in Fall of 2020.

Bethesda and Silver Spring experienced a large amount of mail thefts.

Suspects obtained from Postal Service letter carriers — through force in some cases — what are known as “arrow keys.” They’d gain entry into blue mailboxes late at night. Stolen checks were altered, deposited and immediately withdrawn for cash.

Terri Tolliver with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is also involved in the investigation, urges caution with the blue boxes while security continues to be upgraded.

“If you have the opportunity, take it into the post office,” Tolliver said. “If you can’t get to the post office, we have men and women letter carriers in your neighborhood. Hand that important mail directly to the letter carrier, and they’ll make sure that it gets safely to its destination.

As part of the investigation, police contacted the owners of all the checks found, telling them that money they thought they were sending to pay a utility bill or to a grandchild, ended up in the hands of thieves.

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Washington

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.

The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.

Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.

Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.

Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.

Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).

The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.

The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.

Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.

The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.

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Washington

Washington state board awards Yakima $985,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

Published

2 days ago

February 26, 2026

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Washington state board awards Yakima 5,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.

The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.

The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.

The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.

The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.

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Washington

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Published

2 days ago

February 25, 2026

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Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.

Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.

That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.

And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.

“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”

The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.

But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.

He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”

Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.

At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.

Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.

It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.

So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?

“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”

“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”

“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”

Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.

That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.

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