A bill that would have provided safe consumption sites for drug use in Maryland -- proven to save lives and reduce opioid addiction mortality in other counties -- failed (again) in the General Assembly this year. “We know that Maryland will eventually see the demonstrated benefit of safer drug consumption spaces and pass the legislation necessary to establish them here,” says Harriet Smith, the Baltimore Harm Reducation Coalition’s executive director. “We need brave policy makers who are willing to set aside their fears of reelection and do what’s right for Maryland.”

May Day tomorrow -- less than two months till the June 26 Primary Election in Maryland – a crucial time for mobilizing on behalf of not only progressive candidates but on the progressive issue stances to which we will hold them when they are elected. Make sure your neighbors and your community are energized on both counts by joining our canvasses across the state. Become part of our Movement Politics team.

Plus recent blog posts and info from around our state chapters and our allies.

Rather than have a fair, honest primary election, the DCCC "selected" the Colorado candidate ahead of time and have been shuttling money and resources to a corporate lawyer they favor. Hoyer tried to get the progressive candidate to withdraw. This is back-door, anti-democratic politics, says Drew Langlois.

Polls show that education is a top state and local concern of voters as the 2018 elections approach, and the state has a process in place to develop the most comprehensive educational reform package since the Thornton Commission of 1999-2002. The Kirwan Commission will be even more closely watched as it gets closer to polishing the package – and discussing how much it should cost.

Few reporters have paid more sustained attention to the evolving Kirwan report than veteran Len Lazarick of the online Maryland Reporter. Here he refreshes our memory on the group’s process as it resumes work after the General Assembly session. 

Voting in the June 26 Primary Election as part of your life strategy

We’re going to work through the question of voting and whether it makes a difference in a series of blog posts over the next several weeks, as we get to, and then inside, about 60 days until the June 26 primary election.

Coming up on sixty days till the June 26 Primary Election in Maryland – a crucial time for mobilizing on behalf of not only progressive candidates but on the progressive issue stances to which we will hold them when they are elected. Make sure your neighbors and your community are energized on both counts by joining our canvasses across the state. Become part of our Movement Politics team.

Historical patterns of racially tinged investment in Baltimore City over the years have devastating consequences of inequality. Investment “maps” of Baltimore City …all showed a similar pattern. The neighborhoods of the “White L,” running up the Charles street corridor and around the harbor, consistently receive more [public and private] investment, while the “Black Butterfly” of Baltimore suffers from disinvestment, as Samuel Manas reports in Maryland Matters.

Activists came away from the 2018 session seeing a rollback in enthusiasm and willingness to consolidate gains after an encouraging group of wins in the 2017 session. Pushback from industry, developers and business interests doomed many bills. One bright spot: fully funded state effort for Bay cleanup.

The Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for the coming week -- April 16 through 23 -- with statewide action and local chapter events from Frederick County to the Eastern Shore.

If you got the briefer, email version of the Memo you'll find the rest of the details here. Want to get that in your inbox once a week? Sign up here.

The struggle for workplace rights happens across all parts of working Maryland. A requirement for paid sick leave finally won this year after many years of battle in the Assembly, overriding a veto from Gov. Larry Hogan. But others face further struggle. The UMD Diamondback reports here that UMD graduate assistants have lost -- at least for this year -- their attempt to get a law allowing them collective bargaining rights with the University system.