Big Pharma's claim that high research costs cause high drug prices is a lie. “Between 2006 and 2015, 18 pharmaceutical companies in the S&P 500 spent 11% more on payments to shareholders than on research and development.” People’s Action’s George Goehl and Roosevelt Center president Felicia Wong show how unregulated Big Pharma rips off desperate prescription drug consumers, and how to fix that.

Just a few miles downtown, member organizations of People’s Action are converging in DC this weekend to have a big, organization-wide conversation: how to bring change, big change, for working families in the US.

Progressive Maryland members will be numerous -- and active -- among them. If you aren't signed up for the event, though, there is street action as well as lobbying your representatives on tap for the April 28-30 event. Read on.

Progressive Maryland and allied progressive groups have told Maryland House Democrats to stick together on choosing a new speaker or pay the price -- a clear message to deter collusion with House Republicans -- and the state Democratic Chair, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, has now echoed that imperative.

“A pact with Republicans to win” the Maryland House speakership would be “a nearly unwashable stain” on any Democratic politician, says Progressive Maryland Executive Director Larry Stafford Jr., quoted in this Maryland Matters article about the possible deviancy in the upcoming contest.

In the Weekly Memo -- alerts on Predatory Lending (a deadline to comment to the feds); our PM Movement Politics training Saturday, May 18 in Baltimore; a threat to protections against discriminatory discipline in schools; an update on the People's Action convention in DC; and more (including the week's stellar blog posts). Read on...

Progressive Prince George’s is launching an effort to mobilize parents, students and concerned members of the Prince George’s community to reset the conditions for educating our children for a sustainable future – one of good jobs, good education and an end of the school-to-prison pipeline (which grows whenever we don’t pay attention to the first two). Find out more here and save the date: Saturday, April 27.

Teacher-legislators have a big role in fleshing out the "total package" of the Kirwan Commission proposals kick-started in this year's Assembly session -- and they explain why "wrap-around" approaches are needed in many struggling school systems, in this detailed account from Maryland Matters.

Progressive Maryland is resettling its work into our communities across the state after the all-hands effort during the General Assembly session that ended last week. We build power between elections and between legislative sessions, because that is how you win when it’s all on the line.

Getting lost in the excitement over the progressive-establishment spat in the Democratic Party is a political imperative – mutual, educational exchange of information from politicians to electorate – and vice versa. Stay current with your community. Or go home.

Maryland’s General Assembly passed over 850 bills by their Sine Die deadline. About 2,500, a record number, were filed, and there’s no doubt that many of those were bad bills and good riddance. But there were some real missed opportunities – at least as far as the state’s progressive forces are concerned. Let’s look at a few.