Arundel Mills

Developers celebrated the completion of major construction at the $500 million Maryland Live! Casino at Arundel Mills mall Wednesday morning, urging the public to save their money for gambling. To mark the end of the construction phase of the 4,750-slot machine casino, built by the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. which is scheduled to open in early June, the casino's final 45-foot steel beam was hoisted by a crane about 100 feet in the air. The so-called "topping off" is a tradition in the construction business.

Surveillance video helped police arrest a security guard at the Arundel Mills Mall who has been charged with stealing a safe filled with gold jewelry and money, according to Anne Arundel County police. Authorities said they are seeking a second suspect. The guard, John Thomas Cook IV, 22, of the 500 block of Ski Lane in Millersville, was arrested Monday and charged with one count of theft between $10,000 and $100,000. Police declined to say how much money or jewelry was in the safe.

Before sunrise Monday, Kevin and Shelley Taylor set out from their Millersville home to a new employment center for the Maryland Live! Casino, a slots parlor next to the Arundel Mills mall seeking workers for 1,500 jobs. Having tracked the progress of what will be the state's largest casino, the Taylors believe the facility could provide opportunity for their five-member family. Though Kevin Taylor has a job, he wants a better-paying one. And Shelley Taylor has been out of work for several months.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold told the county's members of the House of Delegates Friday that anticipated slots revenue would likely stave off the need for public employee furloughs. The county is expecting to receive about $15 million from a slots casino at Arundel Mills mall that is expected to open later this year, officials said. The county has furloughed its employees for up to 12 days for the past two years at a savings of $7.6 million annually as revenues have fallen.

Several people were arrested at malls across Maryland as police broke up crowds of hundreds lined up to buy Nike Air Jordan Concords, part of a nationwide frenzy over the new sneakers that prompted a number of disturbances. Mobs broke down store doors in suburban Atlanta, shots were fired in Richmond, Calif., and police pepper-sprayed a crowd in Seattle. The incidents recalled violence in the 1990s when the high cost of the shoes combined with their popularity led to well-publicized violence, including a slaying of a Meade High School teen in Anne Arundel County that was the focal point of a Sports Illustrated cover story.

The state Board of Public Works approved spending of $168 million to equip the Maryland Live! Casino expected to open at Arundel Mills in June with 4,719 electronic slot machines. In a change from its previous deals to buy slots for the casinos in Perryville and at Ocean Downs, the state plans to lease the machines for the Arundel facility. The state, which will provide the machines to the casino operator, expects to collect revenue from the high taxes levied on slot machine gambling.

Workers who have “that certain something” are being invited to apply online for a job with the casino now going up in Arundel Mills. In its pitch for employees, the casino's site says: “Are you ambitious and outgoing? Do you thoroughly enjoy people and are not afraid to smile? Does doing a good job and getting fairly compensated for it excite you? Then you just may be the person we are looking for to work at the new and exciting Maryland Live! Casino at Arundel Mills.” Right now, the casino is looking to fill certain management positions such as controller, vice president of legal affairs, regulatory and compliance officer and accounts payable supervisor.

Even though police do not think the recent execution-style double murder at Arundel Mills Mall was a random act of violence, it is a scary reminder of just how close violent crime can be to Anne Arundel County residents ("Police kill suspect in mall shootings," Nov. 13). Less than 12 hours later, acting on information from a citizen, a joint task force which included police from Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, surrounded the suspect's house in Capital Heights, a community in Prince George's County, in preparation for executing a search warrant.

The man suspected of fatally shooting two people outside Arundel Mills mall in Hanover late Friday night was shot and killed, and a police officer was wounded, in an exchange of gunfire in a residential area of Prince George's County on Saturday morning, police said. Cpl. Henry Tippett, a spokesman for Prince George's County police, said the suspect, James Coleman, 22, was tracked by Anne Arundel police investigators to his house in the 8100 block of Rydal Road in District Heights.

Amid legal wrangling and a ballot fight, it seemed as though the casino proposed for Arundel Mills would never become a reality. Nearly two years ago, the state's slots commission awarded Anne Arundel County's sole slots license to Baltimore developer Cordish Cos. But construction began only this past January. That's because Cordish battled numerous opponents, including the Maryland Jockey Club, which had sought to steer the license to Laurel Park race course in an attempt to boost the track's ailing business.