The Maryland General Assembly has opened its 2019 session (last Wednesday) and Progressive Maryland, in harness with many progressive allies, is working to advance a progressive agenda within the session-- but meanwhile, local governments move forward on a general path to completing their local operating budgets by June; early town hall meetings for public information and input are shown below under our individual chapter links.
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Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday Jan 14 2019
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The Maryland General Assembly has opened its 2019 session (last Wednesday; see our roundup of preview articles in the previous Memo) and Progressive Maryland, in harness with many progressive allies, is working to advance a progressive agenda within the session, which has become somewhat more fluid as a result of the announced illness of Senate President Mike Miller.
But meanwhile, local governments move forward on a general path to completing their local operating budgets by June; early town hall meetings for public information and input are shown below under our individual chapter links.
Progressive Maryland is steadily focused on the local-government issues that affect many Marylanders’ everyday lives, and on the power that can be built at the local level in budget equity, education and transportation. Don’t miss news about our activism and activism around the state; sign up here to get the Memo by email every week.
OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE
Saturday, January19, Participatory Defense Community Meeting 1:00 PM at Oakcrest Community Center rsvp
 Meetings every Saturday in January; see our calendar
Prince George’s County operating budget budget listening sessions:
Tuesday, January 30, 2018 7:00 PM
Oxon Hill High School
6701 Leyte Drive
Oxon Hill, Maryland
Thursday, February 8, 2018 7:00 PM
Prince George’s Community College
Rennie Forum, 301 Largo Road
Largo, Maryland
Tuesday, February 13, 2018 7:00 PM
Laurel High School
Spartan Hall, 8000 Cherry Lane
Laurel, Maryland
FY20 Montgomery County Operating Budget forums are scheduled as follows:
Wednesday, Jan. 16 – 7 p.m. – Silver Spring Civic Building, One Veterans Place, Silver Spring.
Tuesday, Jan. 22 – 7 p.m. – Eastern Montgomery Regional Services Center, 3300 Briggs Chaney Road, Silver Spring.
Wednesday, Jan. 23 – 7 p.m. – Mid-County Recreation Center, 2004 Queensguard Road, Silver Spring. Â
Monday, Feb. 4 – 7 p.m. – Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, 4301 East West Hwy, Bethesda.Â
Take Action Anne Arundel County  -- Take Action AAC Events
Local Action on Immigration
Monday, January 14 at 6 pm - Immigration Town Hall
Steuart Pittman, County Executive, is hosting two public town halls about ending the 287g program. The purpose of the town hall is to listen to those that oppose his decision.
Attend and show your support of ending the 287g program
LOCATION CHANGED: Pascal Senior Activity Center located at 125 Dorsey Road in Glen Burnie. This link explains the change.
More information about Steuart's position and decision on 287g here.Â
Wednesday, January 16 at 6 pm - Immigration Town Hall
See details above. Second date.Â
Location: Southern High School at 4400 Solomons Island Road in Harwood
Monday, January 22 at 7 pm - Testify at Anne Arundel County Council to oppose Councilman Volke's resolutions about the 287g program and use of federal funds
Councilman Volke has introduced two resolutions about the 287g programÂ
Please testify at the County Council Meeting on Monday, January 22 to oppose these two resolutions. You need to sign up at 6:30 pm to speak.  County Council Chambers at 44 Calvert Street in Annapolis
Monthly Chapter Meeting
Wednesday, February 13 at 7 pm at the Edgewater Community Library Topics: State and county legislation
Issue Updates & Actions - Paid Family Leave, Environment, Education, Cell Tower/Wireless, Collective Bargaining Share Facebook Event
Other Anne Arundel Events
Saturday, January 19 at 11 am - Women's Unity March
Location: Civil Rights Foot Soldier Memorial -- on Calvert Street opposite County Council Chambers in Annapolis Share Facebook Event
 Wednesday, February 6 at 4 pm - Environmental Legislative Summit
The CCE (Citizen Campaign for the Environment) is hosting an environmental legislative summit in Annapolis. The CCE is an informal group of environmental advocacy organizations who work together to define and support key environmental legislation each session.Â
Environmental advocacy organizations will educate legislators and activists on the key environmental priority bills for this session including the Clean Energy Jobs Act, the EPS Foam Ban, the Green and Healthy Environment Amendment, and the environmental budget bill. Share FB EventÂ
Note that the Howard County Times has a roundup of local bills in the Assembly...
Howard County’s new exec Calvin Ball began Listening Sessions in December, and these still remain ahead, including one TONIGHT
 Hammond High School (cafeteria)
Monday, January 14, 2019
7:00-8:30 PM
8800 Guilford Road, Columbia, MD 21046
Wilde Lake High School (cafeteria)
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
7:00-8:30 PM
5460 Trumpeter Road, Columbia, MD 21044
Elkridge Library
Friday, January 18, 2019
10:30 AM -12:00 PM
6540 Washington Boulevard, Elkridge, MD 21075
 See the latest newsletter with a post-election letter from the co-chairs https://www.talbotrising.org/newsletters31/2018/11/12/weekly-newsletter-nov-12-2018
Lower Shore Progressive Caucus
Read the Caucus chair’s take on 2020 candidate mania – plus a recent blog post from the leadership team.
PMD Baltimore – We’re still talking about Medicare for All
TOMORROW In Baltimore County, a budget re-evaluation commission begins work: Baltimore County Commission on Fiscal Sustainability newly appointed, first meeting is TOMORROW, Tuesday, January 15, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 118 of the Historic Courthouse, 400 Washington Avenue, Towson, MD 21204.Â
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EVENTS FROM OUR PROGRESSIVE ALLIES
Tuesday, January 15, public meeting on draft Resource Recovery Master Plan (RRMP), 1801 McCormick Drive, Largo, 1st-floor conference room, 7 pm - 8 pm, strategy for the County-managed waste and recycling streams. To submit written comments before the public meeting or after the meeting email [email protected]
Saturday Jan 19 Join Our Revolution Maryland at the 2019 Women's March because energy is still needed in the fight for Civil Rights, Reproductive Rights, Immigrant's Rights, and Environmental Justice. Look for us standing near the Carousel outside the Smithsonian Castle. We will have a large ORMD banner so we should not be too hard to find. RSVP HERE (ORMD) and HERE TOO (Women's March).
Monday, January 21, Reel and Meal at the New Deal Features “Changing the World, One Wall at a Time” about a worldwide human rights mural and public art campaign; The film features interviews with popular mural artists – as well as activists with the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa, and human rights work on behalf of Iranians of all backgrounds. Sponsored by the Baha’i Community of Greenbelt  at the New Deal Café, 113 Centerway in Greenbelt’s Roosevelt Center.  Optional vegan meal ($14.00) at 6:30 PM is followed by the free screening beginning at 7 PM.
Baltimore progressives, Check in on Max Obuszewski’s highly useful activist calendar and tip sheet at http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
Reading the Progressive Maryland BlogSpace: our blogs for the previous weeks are shown below, but if you want a handy way to keep track – and never miss a blog post – you can sign up to get this Weekly Memo by email. Remember this is your blogspace and your participation is heartily invited. See something going on that you don’t like – or that you do like and hope to see more of? Send us your thoughts; submit to the moderator at [email protected]
We recently published these blog posts:
January 10, 2019 MoCo, Pr Geo leaders tackle Assembly session opener, as they must
Recently elected, the two first-time county execs of Montgomery County (Marc Elrich) and Prince George's County (Angela Alsobrooks) walked into the quite different environment of opening day at the 2019 General Assembly session to line up allies and network opportunities at the seat of state government, whence cometh a lot of their cash resources. Josh Kurtz of Maryland Matters trailed the two as they took their bows and made their visits, and reported on how our state's two biggest political units may fare in 2019 as education and its funding remains a top bone of contention.
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January 09, 2019 Assembly session opens with progressive goals on the line
The Maryland General Assembly begins its 2019 session today with a lot of handshaking and baby-carrying, as a large (though not record-setting) group of first-timers begins the process of settling in while some veterans in new positions of authority look to shore up their fiefdoms as early as possible.
Progressive Maryland and allies will be carrying an agenda for working families and empowerment to every part of the session from committees to the floor between now and the finish of business with April's sine die.
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January 08, 2019 Medicare for All gains traction among Dem 2020 aspirants
As the Assembly session opens and progressive groups call for big changes in the state's health care regime under the banner "Medicare for All," Assembly Democrats "are reintroducing their bill to establish a health care mandate, similar to the federal mandate that existed under the Affordable Care Act until Congress and President Trump eliminated it in the 2017 tax reform package," say Josh Kurtz and Danielle Gaines of Maryland Matters in their omnibus session preview. Progressive activists hope this is a wedge to do better in Maryland but understand that state legislatures are always reduced to playing small-ball where full-bore health care advances are concerned. But as Hal Ginsberg points out, the ground swell behind real health care reform -- Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All bill, doubtless soon to be refiled in the 116th Congress -- attracted major support from senators who are in the mix for the 2020 presidential nomination, including Sen. Kamala Harris of California (now an early and likely superheavyweight primary state).
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January 07, 2019 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, January 7, 2019
WE ARE READY TO WIN IN THE MARYLAND GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION.
Progressive Maryland’s Dec. 29 Statewide Meeting connected and re-energized nearly 200 activists and we are refreshed and ready to struggle for real change, not business as usual, in our communities and at the General Assembly session that begins Wednesday, January 9.
What’s in store in Annapolis? Will what they do mean anything to the health of our communities? If we hold their feet to the fire, it will. Here is a roundup of previews of the session to get you started. Stay with the Weekly Memo by email every week to stay with the action; Sign up here.
>>REMEMBER – these blog posts are expressions of political opinion from our wide-ranging membership and circle of allies. They are not expressions of opinion by Progressive Maryland. Don’t be surprised if they sometimes vary in their political content. You might even disagree with them – a good reason to contribute a blog of your own. Send it to the moderator, Woody Woodruff, at [email protected].
>>Keeping up with the blogs is easier with the index. The blogs published in the PM BlogSpace from June 2015 through December 2016 are all available with descriptions and links here. You can follow blogs for 2017-18 starting from here
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