MOORE ADMIN REMAINS UPBEAT IN GETTING O’s STADIUM DEAL: Facing a fast-approaching deadline and mounting public pressure to secure the Orioles’ long-term commitment to Baltimore, three officials in Gov. Wes Moore’s administration said Tuesday that they remain confident of reaching a lease deal to keep the team in the city “for decades to come,” but would not disclose any details about the status of the negotiations. Hayes Gardner and Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
- Just before a meeting of the Maryland Stadium Authority on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the governor said that negotiations, criticized by some as lethargic, continue but would not be done in public. Comments made Tuesday, however, offered no new look into the state of negotiations or when a new deal could be inked. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
State Elections Administrator Linda Lamone’s last day is Thursday.
ELECTIONS CHIEF LINDA LAMONE SET TO RETIRE: Maryland’s longest-serving elections director has one last request: there’s a violet on her desk that needs to be watered, and maybe to find a new home. Thursday is Linda Lamone’s last day on the job. “The work that she has done as the first and only administrator…she basically created what we have in Maryland with a statewide system,” said William Voelp, a Republican and vice chair of the Maryland State Board of Elections. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
PSC CHAIR WANTS TO LOWER TEMPERATURE ON RENEWABLE SITING DISPUTES: The new leader of the Maryland Public Service Commission said Tuesday that he plans to convene meetings with interested parties over the next few months to discuss the increasingly controversial issue of where to place renewable energy installations in the state. Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters.
FOUR METRO GREEN LINE STATIONS SET TO REOPEN : Four Maryland Metro Green Line stations — Greenbelt, College Park-University of Maryland, Hyattsville Crossing and West Hyattsville — that have been closed since late July for track upgrades and installation of fiber optic cables will reopen this weekend ahead of schedule, Metro said Tuesday. Justin George/The Washington Post.
STATE, FEDERAL OFFICIALS SEEK TO BROADEN BROADBAND ACCESS: Three employees of the Federal Communications Commission manned the Wicomico County Library’s Mobile Learning Lab as individuals signed up for the commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which offers a $30 a month benefit for internet access to low-income households. The FCC employees were among a contingent of federal and state officials, including Gov. Wes Moore, in town to help expand access to the program, and by extension, the internet. Dwight Weingarten/The Salisbury Daily Times.
EPA TO TEST MORE GUNPOWDER FISH FOR PCBs: The Environmental Protection Agency will test additional fish in the Gunpowder River watershed for contamination with PCBs following a lawsuit from the Gunpowder Riverkeeper. Christine Condon/The Baltimore Sun.
IGs TO WAIT ON LAW FIRM PROBE OF HARASSMENT CLAIMS AGAINST PRINCIPAL: The state inspector general for education and the Montgomery County inspector general won’t address the sexual harassment allegations made against a Montgomery County Public School principal until after an investigation conducted by a law firm hired by MCPS and the school board. Em Espey/MoCo 360.
CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST CALLS FOR FEDERAL PROBE INTO MASS SHOOTING: Longtime civil rights activist who once headed the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, Marvin “Doc” Cheatham has called on U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume to initiate a federal investigation into the July 2 mass shooting in Brooklyn Homes that left two dead and 30 injured. Fern Shen/The Baltimore Brew.
B’MORE POLICE ISSUE 100-PAGE REPORT ON MASS SHOOTING: Less than a half hour before the annual Brooklyn Day block party fractured into a chaotic shooting, a Baltimore Police district commander warned Southern District supervisors to monitor, but not intervene with a crowd that had grown to nearly 1,000 people, out of a fear that officers might “get drawn in and become a target.” It was an ill-fated instruction that hinted at an attitude of indifference, one that had been building throughout the day in the Southern District, according to a 100-page report released by the Baltimore Police Department on Wednesday. Ben Conarck/The Baltimore Banner.
BA CO COUNCILMAN SEEKS TO ALTER PLASTIC BAG LAW: Baltimore County Councilman Todd Crandell wants to amend a law banning plastic bags that advocates and the county executive say will gut the original law. Crandell, a Dundalk Republican, introduced legislation earlier this month amending the Bring Your Own Bag Act, which the Baltimore County Council passed in February. Lia Russell/The Baltimore Sun.
KAREN MUIR, ACTIVE IN DEM POLITICS, DIES AT 74: Karen S. Muir, a former Anne Arundel County Public Schools social studies teacher who was active in Maryland Democratic politics, died of a brain hemorrhage in Ludington, Mich. The Annapolis resident was 74. Frederick Rasmussen/The Baltimore Sun.
