Is it Larry Trump or Donald Hogan... protesters urge the Gov. to separate himself from the Prez but he doesn't come out of his mansion to see his shadow. Also lots of info on Assembly action in Annapolis, and links to the most recent blog posts.

 Welcome to the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Feb. 6-13

Progressive Maryland was in the forefront this weekend as Marylanders took Gov. Hogan’s undeniable ties to the national GOP agenda to his mansion.

Lots to do this week, a good deal of it in Annapolis at the Assembly session. Dereck Davis’s nasty attempt to keep local governments from doing the right thing when the state won’t; hearings on earned paid sick leave, local action on another stealth Walmart outrage in Prince George’s.

In the news: Baltimore’s city council is rebooting its goal of a $15/hr minimum wage as the Montgomery County Council, which has already passed the bill but had it vetoed by County Exec Ike Leggett, works to gain one more vote to override Leggett or find some common ground that will gain his support. The political struggle to improve the lives of working families stays under way at the state’s urban poles while, in Annapolis (see below) a Prince George’s legislator tries to take the right to make such decisions away from the state’s counties and cities.

Data that matta: According to the Economic Policy Institute, Maryland would see 476,000 people – nearly half a million Marylanders -- lose health insurance if the Affordable Care Act were repealed and not replaced. That’s a 123 percent increase in the uninsured in our state.

Also in the EPI calculation: Total employment in Maryland would drop by 1.0%. Twenty-seven thousand, three hundred ninety-eight jobs in Maryland would be lost. This would eliminate 10.1 out of every 1,000 jobs. Maryland would lose $2.3 billion in federal health care dollars.

Just so you know.

This week’s hearings in Annapolis:

Tues, Feb. 7, 1 p.m. hearing on HB 317 in the House Economic Matters committee… bill sponsored by committee chair Dereck Davis (D-25^th in Prince George’s) that would bar local governments from setting minimum wages (and probably paid sick leave) at levels higher than the state allows. No Senate crossfile yet. The Prince George’s County Council has written a sharp letter to Davis about this abridgement of the powers of local governments.

Thurs, Feb. 9 and Fri., Feb. 10: Bill hearings on  the 2017 Healthy Working Families Act (Earned paid sick leave) have been scheduled for February 9 at 1:00 pm in the Senate Finance Committee, and February 10 at 12:30 pm in the House Economic Matters Committee. The Job Opportunities Task Force hopes supporters of earned sick leave will come to Annapolis both days, “as it's critical that we fill the hearing room with supporters!” Click here for more information.

Other Events

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 1:30 p.m. briefing for Prince George’s County Council on rewrite of the zoning code. Make sure protections for neighborhood input into redevelopment decisions are retained to the max. County Administration Building.

Tuesday, February 7th at 7 p.m. Prince George’s County Council (public hearing) rezoning Capital Plaza to allow Walmart to expand into a 24-Hour Super Walmart: County Administration Building First Floor Hearing Room 14741 Governor Oden Bowie Dr. Upper Marlboro, MD 20772

 Friday, February 10th at 9 a.m.

Court of Special Appeals Hearing. Community is asking the state to overturn County Council and PG Circuit Court's approval to construct a new 24-Hour Super Walmart on 20 acres of farmland in the rural tier of Bowie. Court of Special Appeals 361 Rowe Boulevard Annapolis, MD

 Saturday, February 11, at 11 a.m. Orientation Training for local community leadership. Interested in becoming a leader in your community? Join us for an orientation to Progressive Maryland, our strategy to build progressive power in Maryland, and get trained on skills to build Maryland's progressive movement. This training is for members and active volunteers who have not yet completed an orientation training and want to grow and develop leadership and organizing skills to take on leadership roles in Progressive Maryland. UFCW Local 400 in Landover, MD rsvp

Mark calendars now; coming up next week: Equal Pay and Pregnancy Protection bills, Tuesday the 14th at 1 in House; Both prescription drug (lowering cost of) bills, Wednesday the 15th at 1 in the Senate, news conference at 12; Equal Pay bill, Thursday the 16th at 1 in the Senate

 Thursday, Feb. 23 -- Mark your calendar for this, too: Feb 23 our Prince George’s students will be at the School Board meeting to demonstrate their dismay that the system plans to discontinue support for free Advanced Placement tests for qualifying students. More details in future editions of the Weekly Memo.

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Reading the Progressive Maryland BlogSpace: our blogs for the previous week are shown below, but if you want a handy way to keep track – and never miss a blog post – you can sign up to get this Weekly Memo by email. Remember this is your blogspace and your participation is heartily invited. See something going on that you don’t like – or that you do like and hope to see more of? Send us your thoughts; submit to the moderator at [email protected]. We recently published these:

February 02, 2017  UM Students Mass to Protest Trump Order on Migrants

University of Maryland students rallied and marched yesterday at the College Park campus to protest the Trump administration's executive order on migrants and refugees. The students were eloquent in asking "Have we learned nothing?" from the history of past discrimination, the student newspaper The Diamondback reported.

February 01, 2017  Rascovar: Will Hogan’s slimmed-down budget implode?

Gov. Hogan's budget is delicately balanced with anticipated federal spending, direct and indirect. The irrational behavior of the Trump administration, abetted by Hogan's GOP compadres in charge of Congress, could leave Maryland in the fiscal trash heap.

January 31, 2017  Private schools getting public money violate our educational norms for facts

As Mathew Goldstein documents here, religion-based private schools in Maryland -- some of which are getting taxpayer money under a Hogan program -- have been in the "alternate facts" business long before Trump and Kellyanne Conway. Hogan wants to double down on this taxpayer funding despite the non-verifiable "facts" in their textbooks.

January 30, 2017  Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Jan. 30-Feb. 4

A week to put some fight in you, and it happened to a lot of us. Here are a few local outrages to match, plus a full calendar of progressive activism and last week's blog posts with links.

Keeping up with the blogs is easier with the index. The blogs published in the PM BlogSpace since June 2015 are all available with descriptions and links here.