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.

Residents along the proposed track of the high-speed Maglev project between Baltimore and Washington are showing increasing concerns about the effects on neighborhoods from Baltimore to Prince George's and the (likely ultra-rich) passengers who might breeze past them without serving their needs. Maryland Matters reports on the Assembly Black Caucus's skeptical response and concerns about the best use of transportation funds and what power the project has to disrupt those neighborhoods without their consent.

“Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.’s plan to widen the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270 could be pushed back for a year if the General Assembly adopts a bill that would require the state to complete an environmental assessment before moving forward,” a report today in Maryland Matters details. As we see here, it's just the latest in a cascade of pushbacks against the proposed "Lexus Lanes."

The Assembly session is under way and we've set Monday, March 4 as a mass Lobby Day for Progressive Maryland members across the state. Find out more below. And we have a one-day training session coming up this weekend that will sharpen your skills at turning your activist passion into results and building power for your community. Plus all the events and actions in our chapters across Maryland -- all in the Memo.

The Kirwan Commission’s educational reforms would make deep improvements in our children’s education but would cost a good deal. How to fund them? “Marylanders are facing an important choice. We can continue to spend our resources on ineffective tax breaks that benefit limited special interests and don’t help our economy, or we can fix our schools and support thriving communities across the state,” says the director of a state-based economic policy think tank. Danielle Gaines in Maryland Matters explains the tax-reform proposal.