Progressive Maryland and allied activist groups cheered Wednesday's introduction of bills in both Assembly chambers requiring employers statewide to offer paid sick leave to many of the 700,000 Maryland workers who now have to choose between work and a sick child.

Marriage equality and other major cultural breakthroughs have been a significant human rights accomplishment of recent years, but there are constant attempts to use flimsy "religious liberty" arguments to roll those advances back. Matthew Snider notes one such effort in this year's Maryland General Assembly session.

Citizens returning from incarceration are still locked out from many of the jobs that give them a path to a full life. Proactive public policy is needed to make this path easier for more returning citizens, Kurt Stand shows.

The Maryland General Assembly formally gets under way today (Wednesday, Jan. 13) and progressive bills and policies -- in which Progressive Maryland has a big stake -- are on the line. Here's a look at the contests ahead.

Following up on an earlier blog post about the threat that Equality MD, an important human rights organization, might have to close its doors, Matthew Snider provides an update and better news.

One of Gov. Larry Hogan's most controversial vetos was HB980, granting the right to vote to returning citizens. The Maryland Scramble blog Dec. 28 sussed out the chances of an override in the upcoming 2016 legislative session.

Marylanders deserve better end of life options and full disclosure of which providers decline those options for religious reasons. Mathew Goldstein describes a legislative move expected early next year.

Grassroots awareness is growing in Prince George's in the face of criminal justice abuses, communities without jobs and official indifference to inequality.

Privatization, and the continued push for it, reduces people's power over their everyday lives. Progressive Maryland is active in opposing, or remedying, loss of people power.

How safe a space should a university campus be? And how should individual sensibilities and feelings get balanced against the need to address and solve the conflicts -- of ideas, rights and inequalities? Hal Ginsberg takes a look at recent turmoil.