It's the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo, with upcoming events, actions taken and the permanent agenda of social justice in our state at all the points of the compass.  At Progressive Maryland (and with our progressive allies) we work for change and building power, and progressive activism around the Free State, both Progressive Maryland’s action and those of our allied organizations and individuals, are in the Weekly Memo early every week. It’s a clearinghouse for folks who are building power together; and you can be in that environment of collective action. You can get the Weekly Memo by email; just sign up here.

The Maryland State Code allows parents to refuse to immunize their children by claiming a conflict with their religious beliefs. Such exemptions, Mathew Goldstein writes, place innocent children who are denied vaccinations at risk of suffering serious, long term, health impairments. And the Centers for Disease Control has noted "almost twice as many children are exempted from vaccination in Maryland for religious beliefs than for medical reasons." The state needs to revisit its exemptions policies, for its children's safety.

It's the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo, with upcoming events, actions taken and the permanent agenda of social justice in our state at all the points of the compass.  At Progressive Maryland (and with our progressive allies) we work for environmental justice, reform of the criminal justice/policing system and cutting the school-to-prison pipeline, fair elections that loosen the grip of big money on our politics, and reform of the systems that keep our families trapped in poverty in the midst of wealth. Read more about our issues -- and how you can be a part of change and building power -- in the Memo, every week.

Some good paths for sustainable energy in Maryland – vulnerable like all states to the effects of climate change and particularly to sea level rise – emerged from the past legislative session, as Alli Gold Roberts outlines here in Maryland Matters. Clean power is critical for the coordinated attack on transportation, the single biggest chunk of our carbon footprint, through electric vehicles. But the CEJA and a companion bill kick-starting the multistate clean transportation effort open the door to activist agitation in official channels in up to a dozen states for taking on these two carbon sources – together amounting to nearly two-thirds of carbon emissions in our urbanized Eastern Seaboard.

The accompanying graphic is from Maryland Matters.

The wonders of the Public-Private Partnership (P3) have their skeptics, like columnist Frank DeFilippo here. What seems a handy way to offload expensive state projects (like toll lanes on I-495 and I-270) onto the private sector (wait, just why do they have all the money, again?) may turn out to cost users and leave the public on the hook for boneheaded decisions by private business.

It’s summer; maybe you think it’s a sleepy time – but our issues are still on the front burner, and so is our activism. Our activists are training on the Shore this weekend to build power across the state; info about that and future training opportunities below; check it out.

 We work for environmental justice , reform of the criminal justice/policing system and cutting the school-to-prison pipeline, fair elections that loosen the grip of big money on our politics, and reform of the systems that keep our families trapped in poverty in the midst of wealth. Read more about our issues here.

MoCo activists will remember Justin Vest, one of the first organizers in the PMD Montgomery chapter, who relocated his growing family back to his home state of Alabama a few years ago to apply his insights to organizing there. “As Progressive Maryland expanded into more rural areas after 2016,” Vest relates here,  “I started to realize just how similar rural Maryland was to places I knew very well in Alabama.” Leigh Friedman of Progressive Breakfast has the story.

A proposal to privatize the building of new lanes on I-495 and I-270 in Maryland – to be paid for with tolls collected by the private companies – is facing big-time local opposition in advance of a vote tomorrow (Wednesday, June 5). Three officials, including swing vote Comptroller Peter Franchot, will rule on whether a mixed-mode transit plan or a cars-only congestion infusion is in our Beltway future. Read more here.

Public planning's importance, our next training (nearer the beach!) and activism in summer, when progressives get some fresh air. All in the Weekly Memo... check it out.

Veteran Chicago and People's Action organizer Richard Hatch examines what the emerging strategy of "co-governance is coming to mean in practice:  co-governance means that once elected, officials will continue to listen to and actively work with our communities – rather than corporate lobbyists – to draft policies and move them forward, together. We don't vote and then turn our backs, and neither should the folks we vote into office. Thoughts for the first weekend of June, 2019 from Progressive Breakfast at People's Action.