The General Assembly session is finishing up its first of about three months of sausage-making, and there is a lot to be concerned about. We are building turnout for the Fight for $15 bill at Lobby Night Monday, Feb. 18 and tackling our broader progressive agenda at Progressive Maryland’s own Lobby Night March 4. See more below.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine E. Pugh (D) was joined by the Democratic county executives from Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s to endorse the Fight for Fifteen bill, which will be considered in the House Economic Matters Committee on Friday. House Bill 166 and Senate Bill 280 would phase in the wage increase over five years and tie future increases to the Consumer Price Index.

  The House Economic Matters hearing on House Bill 166, the Fight for $15 bill, was still going on at 2 PM Friday at this link/UPDATE the hearing, which lasted more than seven hours, can be viewed at this link http://mgahouse.maryland.gov/mga/play/c5bb038c-6f72-48b3-bb9d-f77eb549220c/?catalog/03e481c7-8a42-4438-a7da-93ff74bdaa4c 

  Pamela Wood covered the hearing for the Sun. The committee will vote later on whether to move the bill forward.

This year’s End of Life Options Act bill (HB 399, 49 co-sponsors) is a significant improvement over the bill offered two years ago. Various omissions in the original bill have been corrected so that we now have a comprehensive law that covers most of the forseeable issues and complications on this vexed issue of an individual's rights.

An analysis by Benjamin Orr and colleagues at the Maryland Center on Economic Policy (MCEP) finds some thin spots in the rosy picture presented by Gov. Hogan's proposed budget -- education, environment, human needs and a structural deficit top the list.

We are vertical. The Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo keeps you up on everything from the statewide to the very local, top to bottom. Plus our blog posts from the past week. Get your progressive dance card filled out right here.

An opinion writer in the UM student paper The Diamondback provides excellent background to the coming Maryland General Assembly debate on the Fight for $15 -- pushing the state's minimum wage much closer to a level that could provide working individuals and families the means for living above the poverty line.

"We are witnessing, in real time, the transformation of the Maryland General Assembly." So says Josh Kurtz in an interesting post on Maryland Matters. But Larry Stafford Jr. agrees  "We are winning! -- What Kurtz’s article doesn't mention, however, is what brought about this shift in the political landscape. This would not be possible without the dedication and hard work of progressive activists, organizers, and visionaries who were the force behind this shift in Annapolis."

Larry Hogan is trying to sneak more charter schools in as the education funding debate sharpens, draining money away from public schools. As Jeff Bryant shows in a Progressive Breakfast analysis, the LA teachers' strike was fought on the battleground of a huge charter school impact on their system -- and they won. Lessons for Maryland?

Several communities have urgent issues coming before local officials, where commercial interests -- that are trampling community interests -- MUST be opposed. In Baltimore, it's small cell wireless facilities; a hearing on the dangers is Thursday, Jan. 31. And in Prince George's, the concrete batch plant permit is back to threaten Bladensburg and its neighbors, with hearing Monday, Feb. 11. See more below.

In one of the top issues facing legislators in Annapolis this session, 61% of Maryland voters favor raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and almost half (47%) strongly favor the idea, according to a new poll for MarylandReporter.com by Gonzales Research & Media Services. Len Lazarick of Maryland Reporter has the story.