We’ve entered July, and in Maryland, that means change. Hundreds of new laws passed during this year's legislative session went into effect on July 1, including the Utility Relief Act, which is expected to save the average Maryland household about $150 a year on electric bills while also preventing utilities from using ratepayer dollars to fund excessive executive compensation. While there's still more work to do to lower costs and strengthen our clean energy goals, it's a reminder that organizing and advocacy can deliver real results for working families.

As we continue that work here at home, we also stand in solidarity with our friends at the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, who have faced alarming attempts at political intimidation in recent weeks with federal raids targeting organizers and voting rights advocates. An attack on organizers anywhere is an attack on all of us, and we remain committed to protecting the freedom to organize, advocate, and build power in our communities.

Summer organizing is officially underway, and we're excited for what's ahead. Read on for updates, upcoming events, and state and national news you can use.

 

In solidarity,
The Progressive Maryland Team 
 

Here’s what’s in today’s memo:

  • Issue Campaign Updates
  • Local Chapter Updates
  • State & National News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Campaigns Updates: 

Healthcare Justice: 

Our Healthcare Task Force is continuing the fight for Medicare for All. Later this month, we'll join advocates from across the country at the Congressional Progressive Caucus's Medicare for All hearing on Capitol Hill in recognition of Medicare's anniversary. As some policymakers push watered-down alternatives, we're continuing to advocate for true universal healthcare and urging more members of Maryland's congressional delegation to cosponsor the Medicare for All Act. Be on the lookout for upcoming opportunities to get involved and help us keep the pressure on!
 

Local Chapter Updates:

Frederick County: Progressives Meet & Greet

Calling all Frederick County progressives! Join us on Tuesday, July 14 at 7 PM for an evening of community, conversation, and connection. Whether you're new to the movement or have been organizing with us for years, this is a great opportunity to meet fellow progressives, learn about the issues shaping Frederick County, and discover ways to get involved in local advocacy and campaigns. We hope to see you there!

RSVP here →

Shore Progress:

After the Salisbury City Council voted to roll back collective bargaining protections for city workers and first responders, Shore Progress joined labor partners and community organizations to launch a grassroots petition campaign to let voters have the final say. In just 37 days, volunteers collected more than 6,000 signatures, successfully moving the effort to the city's verification process before it heads to the ballot. Today, the people of Salisbury made their voices impossible to ignore.

Summer Social

Join us for our 5th Annual Summer Social on July 25 at Layton's Chance Vineyard & Winery. Enjoy an afternoon of food, drinks, guest speakers, raffles, music, and community while supporting efforts to elect leaders who will fight for working families across Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Get your tickets here →
 

Maryland settles in to post-4th, post-250th and post-primary summer routines

Maryland, past the first brutal heat wave, settles down to a typical post-Fourth summer -- that long but always-too-short span until Labor Day. As Progressive Maryland's executive director, Larry Stafford, points out in a blog post today, the results of primary elections around the state (many just certified) reflect an electorate looking for change and dissatisfied with the same-old performance, including from establishment Democrats in this Business Blue state. Civic activists once dismissed as too "radical" and on the margin are now stepping up into the close-in public sphere -- and winning. As the news has related (and mainstream news agonized over) such candidates are winning around the country, from New York to Colorado to Maine. Much of it is a fight-back sensibility responding to Trump's increasingly shameless looting and grifting. The outcome of his increasing turn to Mussolini-style self aggrandizement (and plummeting approval ratings) may be more consequential than imagined. A whole framework of oligarchic top-down governance could be rejected -- for the long term. And, it may be, not only for the errant Executive Branch. The increasingly off-base Supreme Court might find itself in the bind described by the columnist Finley Peter Dunne's caricature Mr. Dooley, the mock-sage who opined "No matter whether th' constitution follows th' flag or not, th' Supreme Court follows th' iliction returns." 

We should not be surprised by the public's reaction to Trump's zany hatred of wind power and other renewables, his ruinous (and judicially rejected) tariffs or his wacky decision to follow Israel's right-wing leadership into war on Iran. It boils down very nicely to "affordability," which the public appears to understand more completely than (certainly) the MAGA gang as well as some of the mainstream Democratic Party leadership. Who comes to their senses first will be knowable in November. Somehow we doubt it will be the MAGA faithful under the thumb of an increasingly dotty Trump.

But there's more. A big take on how the Department of Homeland Security has learned to keep immigration enforcement out of the public eye. States are coming up with new ways to manage data centers (and public unrest about them). And a close look at the hucksterism that surrounded the nation's 250th, and who's raking in the dough. Are women losing ground worldwide after years of rapid progress? And how people get confused by "Sell Date" labels, and what it means for food waste. 

It's News You Can Use for this week. Read on.
 

Progressive Maryland BlogSpace:

We value creating space for our members to express their thoughts on any issues related to our campaigns. Have an idea for a blog post? You can submit writing, film, graphic design, etc., to be published on our website to the blog moderator, Woody. 

>>Read more on the homepage of progressivemaryland.org
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About

M.A. and Ph.d. from University of Maryland Merrill College of Journalism, would-be radical, sci-fi fan... retired to a life of keyboard radicalism...