Wired Maryland 10/06/2026 NOTES & MEDIA ROUNDUP
Quick reads, lateral moves, and news from around the Free State.
Prince George’s County Council votes 11-0 to advance the $1.4B Sphere at National Harbor
The Prince George’s County Council voted unanimously Monday to authorize up to $215 million in special obligation bonds for the 6,000-seat Sphere concert venue at National Harbor, a $1.4 billion project Sphere Entertainment hopes to open in spring 2030. The authorization did NOT include the project labor agreement unions wanted: the council approved a labor peace agreement (letting unions organize Sphere workers once it opens) but voted down two proposals that would have guaranteed 40% of construction work to unionized employees. County Executive Aisha Braveboy called it a win, saying the Sphere carries a “$1.3 billion overall impact,” more than triple the tax revenue of Six Flags or the Commanders stadium. Council member Wala Blegay voted no on one labor proposal, warning “we cannot afford to have Sphere walk away,” while Lamar Mutts of the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters pushed for guaranteed wages and conditions. A final project vote is expected soon.
Source: Maryland Matters (WTOP News)
Maryland Supreme Court removes Anne Arundel Orphans’ Court Chief Judge Vickie Gipson from the bench
The Supreme Court of Maryland ordered the immediate removal of Anne Arundel County Orphans’ Court Chief Judge Vickie Gipson on Monday for “egregious misconduct” in office, siding with the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities over Gipson’s offer to serve out her remaining months and retire. Commission attorney Kendra Jolivet argued removal was warranted for a “persistent course of unprofessional action unbecoming of a judicial officer” — including repeated verbal altercations with former Orphans’ Court Judge Marc Knapp (removed in June over conduct “fundamentally incompatible with judicial office” stemming from run-ins with Gipson), blocking Knapp from filing dissenting opinions and orders, and calling police to remove him from the courtroom. Gipson, first elected in 2018 and the first Black chief judge of the county orphans court, leaves a bench where none of the three judges elected in 2022 remain: Knapp was removed, and David Duba resigned in November 2024.
Source: Maryland Matters
The PSC kills multi-year rate plans: “largely unachieved,” no “clear, measurable benefits”
The Maryland Public Service Commission ended its pilot program Thursday that let utilities file multi-year rate plans — forward-looking ratemaking based on projected spending, in use since 2020 — finding the pilot’s goals “largely unachieved” with no “clear, measurable benefits for ratepayers.” The five-member commission ordered a working group to recommend a “substantially reformed” procedure by June 30 and a forecasting-vs.-traditional-ratemaking study by February 1 for the legislature by April 1. People’s Counsel David Lapp said the order “makes clear that MRPs have failed to deliver for customers” — his office’s March analysis found rates rose faster under the plans — while House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, who pushed to end forecast ratemaking outright before compromising with Senate President Bill Ferguson on a pause, said the findings reinforce the need to keep examining rate-setting. BGE spokesman Nick Alexopulos said the three Exelon utilities still support forward-looking ratemaking’s role.
Source: Maryland Matters
New UMBC poll: Wes Moore 51%, Dan Cox 24% — four weeks out
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Institute of Politics poll — 776 likely voters surveyed September 22–27, margin of error ±3.5 points — has Governor Wes Moore at 51% and Republican challenger Dan Cox at 24%, roughly a two-to-one margin, with 14% undecided and 11% split among other candidates. Pollster Mileah Kromer noted Cox is not rebuilding the Larry Hogan coalition, and St. Mary’s College political scientist Todd Eberly doubts tonight’s debate changes the race. Also named in the poll: Green Party nominee Andy Ellis and Working Class Party nominee Cathy White at 3% each — below the 10% threshold that kept them out of tonight’s only scheduled head-to-head debate.
Source: Maryland Matters
Debate night: Moore vs. Cox tapes this afternoon, airs at 7 p.m.
Wes Moore and Dan Cox meet for their only scheduled gubernatorial debate today — taped this afternoon by Maryland Public Television and airing at 7 p.m. on MPT (with an 11 p.m. replay), WBAL-TV 11, NBC4 Washington, WHUT and WETA, plus C-SPAN nationally. WBAL anchor Jason Newton moderates, with MPT’s Jeff Salkin, NBC4 investigative reporter Tracee Wilkins and the Baltimore Banner’s Pamela Wood on the panel. Affordability, data centers and redistricting are expected to dominate; Cox has asked for two more debates, but so far this is the one on the books.
Source: Delmarva Now (Salisbury Daily Times)
Ken Ulman takes the chair of the Maryland Entertainment Industry Council
Governor Wes Moore announced Monday that former Howard County Executive Ken Ulman is the new chair of the Maryland Entertainment Industry Council, serving alongside co-chair Meryam Bouadjemi; Ulman began in the role in August. The council — created in 2023 alongside the Film Production Activity Income Tax Credit overhaul — assesses the state’s competitiveness for film, television and production incentives, with the improved Preakness schedule and a new Sphere venue on the governor’s cited list of developments to watch.
Source: Office of the Governor (via EIN Presswire)
Jake Day: The Developer Whisperer (via The Maryland Wire)
Barry’s Monday paid piece makes the case that DHCD Secretary Jake Day is the reason the newest $17.6 million housing round — 555 units across seven counties and Baltimore City, including Woda Cooper Development’s 50-unit Gillis Memorial GrandFamily Apartments in Park Heights, announced alongside Mayor Brandon Scott and Woda Cooper’s Malik Jordan — matters more than its size: tax-credit projects must now close financing within 12 months or give the credits back. Day’s architect-soldier instincts — a Maryland architecture degree, Carnegie Mellon urban design, Oxford environmental policy, Salisbury’s $650 million downtown resurgence, a major in the Army National Guard — turned DHCD into what land-use lawyer Tom Coale calls, on the record, “one of the most passionate advocates for new housing in the country.”
Source: The Maryland Wire
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Aruna Miller Maryland Heroine
Aruna Miller’s American story began in Hyderabad, India, where she was born on November 6, 1964. She was seven years old when her family came to the United States — her father Rao Katragadda, a mechanical engineer, brought them here in the generation the 1965 immigration reforms made possible. She learned English in American public schools, earned a civil engineering degree from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and went to work making roads safer.
For 25 years, Aruna Miller served at the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, overseeing programs that made schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and people with disabilities. She became an American citizen in 2000. In 2010, Montgomery County sent her to Annapolis, where she represented District 15 in the House of Delegates for eight years — four on Ways and Means, four on Appropriations — working on paid family leave, transportation, domestic violence, and STEM education. In 2018 she ran for Congress in the Sixth District, finishing second to David Trone.
On January 18, 2023, she was sworn in as the 10th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, taking her oath on the Bhagavad Gita, and made history several times over: the first Indian-American lieutenant governor in Maryland history, the first South Asian woman to hold the office, the first woman of color and the first immigrant ever elected statewide in Maryland. She is the second woman to hold the office, after Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
As lieutenant governor, her portfolio is transportation, mental health, and STEM equity — the engineer’s portfolio. This summer she accepted Maryland’s designation as an AARP Age-Friendly State, part of the Longevity Ready Maryland work she has championed: “True progress is measured by how we care for every generation.”
She lives in Montgomery County with her husband Dave, where they raised three daughters, Meena, Chloe, and Sasha.
From a seven-year-old immigrant learning English in public school to the second-highest office in Maryland: that is what the American promise looks like when it is kept. We salute her.
Aruna Miller as Governor?
If the Democrats take the White House in 2028, there is a better than 50/50 chance Aruna Miller becomes Governor of Maryland within two years, and here is why. Wes Moore is a national player in Democratic presidential politics. If you think President-or-Vice-President for Wes is a long shot, we won't argue the point — but as one of the most important surrogate speakers in the country, if he's campaigning for the Democratic ticket, the worst he does in a Democratic administration is a cabinet position. And the day Wes Moore resigns to take an oath in Washington, Aruna Miller automatically becomes Governor of Maryland. No election, no appointment fight, no drama — the lieutenant governor succeeds, period. We're not ruling out governor in two years, four years, or eight years. But with Wes playing on the national stage, the two-year path runs straight through a cabinet swearing-in, and Aruna Miller is already standing exactly where she needs to stand.