Sine die approaches but progressive power-building never sleeps. Check out our online resources and lots right here on the Weekly Memo, including pushback against 5G radiation in our communities and the growth of progressive sentiment on the Lower Shore.
First, check out our Late Breaking IN-vite to the People's Wave.
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Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday March 25 2019
Don't miss the April 5 registration deadline for the People's Wave, the People's Action Convention in DC in late April. More below. And Baltimore is ready to welcome potentially harmful radiation from small-cell 5G transmitters, scattered throughout the city’s neighborhoods. See our entry under the Baltimore City chapter, below, for how to contest this dangerous corporate intrusion.
Save the Dates for The People's Wave: People's Action 2019 Convention
Omni Shoreham Hotel | Washington, DC
Sunday, April 28, 2019 at 2:00 PM - Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 5:00 PM (EDT)
Register Here – deadline for registration is April 5; don’t let it slide!
Who to expect:
WATCH THE WEEKLY MEMO FOR MORE NEXT WEEK
Follow The Issues – check out our website’s expanded “Our Issues” pages, with separate pages for each of our key five issues: Fight for $Fifteen, Civic Engagement, Fair Elections, Police Reform and Environmental Justicehttps://www.progressivemaryland.org/environmental_justice. Each page offers links to our past explanatory blog posts to deepen understanding of our work and our goals – building power for working people.
And to keep up with our activities and those of our progressive allies, sign up for the emailed Weekly Memo, which includes links and summaries for our most recent blog posts – one-stop shopping for the info and calendar you need to build power and agency with our movement in Maryland’s changing system.
OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE
MDOT-SHA recently roused anger in Beltway country by dropping mass transit options from plans for Larry Hogan’s pet project, private toll lanes on I-494 and I-270. See our blog post. The agency has scheduled new informational meetings this spring in Prince George’s (April 11, 23, 27) and Montgomery (April 13, 24 and 25). More on this issue with informational blogs at our Environmental Justice issue page.
SAT March 30 Maryland Poor People’s Campaign Prince George’s County meeting, Largo-Kettering Library at noon. Also March 21 at 2 PM. https://www.facebook.com/events/1726273734185287/
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MDOT-SHA recently roused anger in Beltway country by dropping mass transit options from plans for Larry Hogan’s pet project, private toll lanes on I-494 and I-270. See our blog post. The agency has scheduled new informational meetings this spring in Prince George’s (April 11, 23, 27) and Montgomery (April 13, 24 and 25). More on this issue with informational blogs at our Environmental Justice issue page.
 Frederick County Progressives
Take Action Anne Arundel County
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 Lower Shore Progressive Caucus
Check out the Lower Shore Progressive Caucus’s legislative agenda, including the Trust Act, Fight for $15, Medicare for All, clean air issues and more. Plus an explainer: why ranked choice voting would be good for the Shore.
Also, read the Caucus chair’s take on 2020 candidate mania – plus a recent blog post from the leadership team. Distance can provide perspective, and the chapter chair, recently finishing up a semester abroad, offers homecoming observations on the greening of Germany and how it might apply to our home towns, and a consideration of the need for reparations for slavery. And read Jared Schablein's new blog post about progressive gains on the Shore in Maryland Matters.
From activist Randye Williams:
Here we go again, Baltimore! Time to send e-mails and make phone calls before this March 28th meeting! These aesthetic standards for 5G small cells will be approved by the Planning Commission without delay (since FCC has limited the City's control over siting of these cells), as long as it meets the aesthetic guidelines, IF THERE IS NO PUBLIC OUTCRY.  So now's your chance!
Anyone who works, lives in, or visits Baltimore needs to get and stay involved in this process if you want to control your exposure to RF radiation from 5G. They are looking for public comment on the proposed small cell sites next to the Montgomery Park office building and elsewhere in the City. If you are a scientist, make it known! And also reiterate that you have researched, and are concerned about, the potential health effects.
Emphasize that you don't care about aesthetics and the only issue that matters is the very real potential of health effects; 5G (and 4G) has never been shown to be safe; no one will be measuring the levels of radiation you will be exposed to; wireless will not be responsible if you suffer health effects related to this exposure; you have not been appropriately notified on this rollout; the 1996 FCC safe exposure limits are outdated, not protective, not relevant to today's technology, do not take into account non-thermal biological effects; many studies exist that show harm; that hundreds of scientists have joined an international appeal for a moratorium on the 5G rollout; that wireless industry reps confirmed to Senator Blumenthal that there have been no independent safety studies on 5G. Emphasize you don't want 5G in your neighborhood or workplace; that the aesthetic standards don't matter if everyone is getting cancer. On Monday March 17th, CBS' 60 Minutes had a story on radiofrequency (RF) - microwave - radiation being used as weaponry on diplomats in Cuba and China, causing headaches, nausea, vomiting, memory loss, ringing in the ears, loss of balance, loss of hearing, dizziness, etc., otherwise known as "microwave sickness." Emphasize that they need to protect the citizens and workers of Baltimore, not roll over or cater to the wireless industry! Emphasize that there is no regulatory agency protecting the public and they cannot allow this to happen! Emphasize that you wouldn't choose a home near a cell tower so why is bringing cell towers into neighborhoods and in closer proximity to people suddenly okay? It's NOT okay!
Some municipalities are NOT bowing down to this FCC bulldozing and are ready to fight them in court, in order to protect their constituents from harmful health effects, which is their first priority!! Baltimore should be one of them!!
They will be putting the proposed aesthetic standards to a vote for approval at a Planning Commission meeting on March 28th. More e-mails to [email protected] and [email protected], calls to 410-396-5622 are needed to say NO to 5G!! Even better, show up in person to make public comment on March 28th!! Please share widely - we need a large response!
Here is a list of the Baltimore City Council members' e-mails as well:
[email protected] ►[email protected] ► [email protected]► [email protected] ► [email protected] ► [email protected] ►[email protected] ► [email protected] ► [email protected] ► [email protected] ► [email protected] [email protected] ►[email protected] ► [email protected] ►[email protected] ► [email protected]
EVENTS FROM OUR PROGRESSIVE ALLIES
Fellowship opportunity Friends of the Earth is recruiting applicants in 6 states including Pennsylvania and Maryland for our six month Grassroots Fellowship Program to begin in January 2019. Learn and utilize core organizing skills to take action to protect people and the environment. Focus is on training members of under-represented communities. Â $2,000 monthly stipend with a commitment of 25 hours a week -- how to apply: https://foe.org/jobs/2019-grassroots-fellowship-program/
SAT March 30 Maryland Poor People’s Campaign Prince George’s County meeting, Largo-Kettering Library at noon. Also March 21 at 2 PM. https://www.facebook.com/events/1726273734185287/
SAT April 13 Prince George’s NAMI National Alliance on Mental Illness mental health support groups 10:30 AM-12 noon at Interdynamics, Inc 4601 Forbes Blvd. Suite 100 Lanham, MD 20706. Do you or a loved one struggle with a mental health condition such as depression or anxiety? Come Share With Others Who Have Similar Experiences! Also May 11 and June 8 – every second Saturday. Info at www.namipgc.org
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Baltimore progressives, Check in on Max Obuszewski’s highly useful activist calendar and tip sheet at http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
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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]
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March 21, 2019 $15 minimum wage bill on the way to Hogan's desk
The Maryland General Assembly has passed a bill that puts Maryland on a path to reach a $15-per-hour minimum wage by 2025.
Progressive forces didn’t get everything we wanted in this bill, as Larry Stafford, Progressive Maryland’s executive director, points out. But the state's progressive forces got major traction this year, always building power.
March 20, 2019 "Restorative justice" strategies keep kids on track to graduate
Bills in the Maryland Legislature in this session would make important changes in the ways our schools are managed from the classroom to the principal’s office.
Under the general heading of “Restorative Justice” these bills would help improve classroom climates to benefit teachers and students – and, ultimately, parents and families. Using these strategies, students are more likely to stay in school, graduate, and stay out of the criminal justice system.
March 19, 2019 We need $15 by 2025!
The Senate has the already-damaged bill to raise the Maryland minimum wage to $15 an hour on its plate and is planning to vote on extending the timeline for “small businesses” to 2028, slowing the rate of increase. They think they are protecting Maryland’s small employers. However…
A longer timeline is Bad for Business.
March 18, 2019 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, March 18, 2019
TODAY IS Crossover Monday, March 18. The push is on today in Annapolis to move bills out of committee or to pass bills on the floor to improve their chances of getting considered by the full Assembly this year.
A top issue, the Fight for $15 as a minimum wage statewide, is still in play and the damage done by the two "money committees" to the bill must be reconciled before passage. You can be heard; see our Memo for details.
>>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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