/PM BlogSpace Report/ Developer cash has long ruled the roost in Prince George’s County government. In the 2012 reform of “pay to play” electoral culture outlined here, Council members and the executive were barred from such campaign contributions from active applicants as posing a clear conflict of interest.

Now a powerful committee chair, Dereck E. Davis of Prince George’s, has engineered a reversal of that protection. Bad things may happen.

The Memo this week focuses again on how our lives have changed and how to get what we need in the worst health emergency most of us have ever gone through. We start with food for our kids and move on to other matters like health care access (Maryland has reopened enrollment) and justice for all. News of our Progressive Maryland chapters and our blog posts are, as always, on offer.

We have put the details of local enhanced services in an annex post you can find here.

Here are changes and new services from counties around Maryland to meet the emergency needs of the many who are sheltering in place. Today, March 23, 2020, Governor Larry Hogan ordered all businesses not deemed essential to shut down at 5 PM until further notice.

The Memo this week focuses on how our lives have changed and how to get what we need. We start with food for our kids and move on to other matters like health care access (Maryland reopens enrollment). News of our Progressive Maryland chapters and action priorities as the General Assembly moves to adjourn this Wednesday – in other words, our regular Memo details including our blog posts --are tucked in below the lead section on access to necessities in the health emergency.

With the federal response struggling, Maryland is one of the dozen or so states where state-mandated paid sick leave can provide a faster path to channeling resources to the low-income people hardest-hit.

In the Memo this week: a roundup of the broad scope of legislation requiring attention from Maryland's progressives as the Session is nearing the home stretch; news from our chapters, events from our progressive allies, and of course our recent blog posts.

Lots still going on in the Annapolis session heading toward Crossover deadline for bills to move in both chambers. Here are good pro-people bills that need to stay viable this session and need progressive Marylanders' help.

The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision (2010) has unleashed a decade of big money into political campaigns at the national and state level. Activists propose a constitutional amendment to declare corporations are not persons with first amendment rights, which finding caused the trouble in the first place. Others worry about opening up the US Constitution to amendments by forces that -- yep -- have unchecked money to spend. Here a Maryland activist argues for a long-sought Assembly resolution favoring constitutional action. We include a link to Thursday's hearing on the measure.

Senate President Emeritus Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) has been a foe of much legislation to benefit working and low-income families throughout his long and dogged tenure as Senate autocrat. Now that he has left the top spot he seems determined to continue the state’s top-down control on anything involving spending projects – just as he did as Senate prez, despite giving lip service to local autonomy in areas where big money and the corporate wealthy who wield those dollars were not an issue. Now he moves to return top-down control over money projects to the state of Maryland.

Bruce DePuyt of Maryland Matters outlines the stakes, the stakeholders and the return of Mike Miller to bigfoot status.

In the Memo this week: a roundup of the broad scope of legislation requiring attention from Maryland's progressives in week NINE of the Session; news from our chapters, events from our progressive allies, and of course our recent blog posts.