The Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for October 16-22

Another busy week – not much rest for the Resistance in Maryland. Check out events both statewide and in our growing number of county and regional chapters...

The Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for October 16-22

Another busy week – not much rest for the Resistance in Maryland. Check out events both statewide and in our growing number of county and regional chapters:

Statewide calendar:

Saturday, October 21, Frolick for Single Payer at the Maryland Renaissance Festival  starting at 10 a.m. at the  Maryland Renaissance Festival in Annapolis, MD Did ye suffer mortal wound at the joust? Dost have an imbalance in thy humours? Did the charlatan's snake oil or leaches kill thy family near as terrible as the plague? Join the Maryland for Guaranteed Healthcare campaign at the divine Maryland Renaissance Festival! rsvp

Monday, Oct. 23 and Monday, Nov. 6 – Phone Banking for health care at the Progressive Maryland Silver Spring Office in Silver Spring, MD  -- We will be gathering at our office in Silver Spring for a healthcare phone bank to reach out to people across the state! Bring a charged cell phone, and it is highly encouraged to bring a (show all)

Saturday, Oct. 28 -- Movement Politics Leadership Training in Baltimore, Maryland. Movement politics is the process of fighting for a democracy where people - not corporations - set the agenda, and where we all have a voice. We are looking for people to help with both issue and electoral campaigns to win victories all Maryland. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., location in Baltimore TBA -- RSVP Here or CONTACT

Progressive Montgomery

Canvassing Events for the $15 Minimum Wage in Montgomery County

Here’s an account through Progressive Montgomery’s eyes (as observed by member Helen Burns) of the committee hearing where the county minimum wage bill was watered down: http://pmdmontgomery-progressivemaryland.nationbuilder.com/pmd_montgomery_responds_to_timeline_extension_amendment_to_minimum_wage_bill_28_17 -- With the County Council vote on raising the minimum wage fast approaching, it is more important than ever to keep the pressure on. Join us for one of our upcoming canvassing weekends to continue fighting for working families in Montgomery County.

RSVP for the following weekends:

 ●Check out our website at http://pmdmontgomery-progressivemaryland.nationbuilder.com/

Progressive Prince George’s

Saturday, October 28 What if We Funded Ourselves? Progressive Maryland is starting a Community Power-Building Co-op in Prince George's County to create a sustainable way to address the specific needs in the County! Non-profits must often rely on dwindling foundation and corporate dollars to sustain their work but this gets in the way of making a difference in our County. The Co-Op will give Prince Georgians the flexibility to work more independently of these dollars. Join other interested Prince Georgians Oct. 28 at 12 noon at the Seat Pleasant Activity Center. Please RSVP using this link: https://goo.gl/forms/stNmck3ZU76p9s4c2 For more details, contact Seanniece Bamiro at 240-245-0268.

 Wednesday, October 18 at 6 p.m. Bread & Roses presents a screening of From the Land of Gandhi (48 minutes). At Busboys Hyattsville.  Today, a high-skilled immigrant from India could wait more than 20 years to be a full member of US society, often tied to an employer, unable to change careers or start businesses. This story of four immigrants, a decade after they came to study in the US, places a human face to the broken high-skilled immigration system. It sheds light on this largely unattended story of one million dreams waiting for freedom. It also highlights the need for reforming America’s high-skilled immigration at a time of intense globalization and retirement of the baby boomer generation.

Host Presenters: Busboys and Poets, DC LaborFest, Immigration Film Fest and MD Del. Jimmy Tarlau.  Busboys and Poets Hyattsville - 5331 Baltimore Ave. Hyattsville

Tuesday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m -- Community Schools Presentation - hosted by BASFA Education Committee at Church of the Brethren,

4413 Tuckerman St

University Park, MD 20782

 Friday, Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m. … PM Fellow Charles Smith will make a pitch for the Fair Elections initiative, limited public financing for local elections, at the Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt Democratic Club 7600 Hanover Parkway, Greenbelt MD 20770, 2nd Floor of the Greenbriar Community Building,  7:30-10:30 p.m.

>>You matter!  Get involved and get your issues addressed. <<

Email the issue leads below to join a group. RVSP meeting attendance with the issue lead.

 

Join Our County Council Teams Today!

We are looking for a point person for each County Council District. This team will mobilize when needed to advocate with their councilperson on a progressive issue, or to support new candidates for the office. If you are interested in this, please reach to Diane Teichert, County Council Lead [email protected].

Take Action Anne Arundel County

Saturday October 21st 2-5pm - Environmental Action Response Town Hall - Key School, Annapolis MD

Care about clean air, clean water, public health and natural gas infrastructure, clean energy, phasing out polystyrene foam, food justice, and climate justice? Have an environmental issue in your own backyard and want to network with others who maybe able to help? Want to hear about the environmental priorities of our state legislators for the next legislative session? Join the conversation at the Environmental Action Response Town Hall at the Key School Activity Building in Annapolis, MD.

RSVP for free tickets.

The Fracking Battle is not over! Two critical hearings are scheduled for Oct 19 and 24 -- Please submit comments online or attend.

Thursday, Oct 19 Cove Point LNG Plant-Lusby Md: The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC)  will hold a second hearing on October 19 regarding Dominion’s permit application to increase pollution in Cove Point’s air and set a terrible precedent for other gas infrastructure projects. You can help by submitting a public comment or attending the hearing in Lusby. http://WeAreCovePoint   https://www.facebook.com/events/282521208934070

Tuesday, Oct 24 Fracked Gas Compressor Station-Laplata Md: Dominion also wants to built a compressor station to pump it’s fracked gas into Charles County.  This presents major safety and health issues to the residents there, and facilitates the flow of fracked gas products.
http://s525533305.onlinehome.us/?p=1  https://www.facebook.com/events/1421906597924302 Or contact John Wells [email protected] 410 507-1862 
http://anind.org 

Progressive HoCo

Note that Progressive HoCo lead organizer Dave Bazell had his letter published in the Washington Post on the subject of Fair Elections.

Frederick County Progressives

Talbot Rising --

Thurs, Oct. 19 – Talbot Rising COORDINATING MEETING 7 p.m. , Bozman, MD
Please come to a working session to plan activities and initiatives with committee chairs and the steering group. We will hear what the teams are up to and share information about what's ahead this fall. Meeting will be at 23279 Swan Cove Rd., Bozman. 

 

Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

 EVENTS FROM OUR ALLIES

TONIGHT! -- Monday Oct 16, Reel and Meal at the New Deal presents Burned: Are Trees the New Coal? At the New Deal Café, 113 Centerway, Roosevelt Center, Greenbelt.  Optional vegan buffet served 6:30 pm, $14 free film show & discussion 7 p.m. Utopia Film Festival brings Burned -and also Lynne Cherry's 7-min. Save Tomorrow -to the Reel and Meal series. Alan Dater & Lisa Merton's film Burned tells the little-known story of the accelerating destruction of our forests for fuel, and probes the policy loopholes, huge subsidies, and blatant green washing of the burgeoning biomass power industry. The New Deal Café is accessible from Greenbelt Metro station by buses G 12 and 14.  For directions plus link to trailer of Burned, see the New Deal Café  website. Sponsored by Beaverdam Creek Watershed Watch Group, Green Vegan Networking and Prince George's Peace & Justice Coalition.  

Sunday, October 22 Candidate Forum for a Progressive Greenbelt, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. Greenbelt Community Center 15 Crescent Road
With the ongoing dismantlement of progressive policies on the Federal level, a strong local government committed to building and ensuring an inclusive, equitable, environmentally sustainable, and accessible community is more critical than ever. Join us to learn how Greenbelt City Council candidates stand on issues such as policing, the environment, equitable distribution of city resources, ward voting, interaction with Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and more.
        For more, please contact: Donna Hoffmeister, 301 441 9377
Co-sponsors: Prince George's Peace and Justice Coalition, Franklin Park Community Pride, Greenbelt Climate Action Network (GCAN), Greenbelt People Power, Greenbelt Racial Equity Alliance (GREA), Indivisible Greenbelt

 

Wed Nov. 1 – Legislative Briefing with Del. Jimmy Tarlau. 7 p.m., IBEW Local 26, 4371 Parliament Pl, Lanham. What are the concerns and issues that face us and our Prince George’s community?  Come meet & greet Delegate Jimmy Tarlau (D-47th Dist.) to discuss advancing a progressive legislative agenda in the Maryland General Assembly in 2018 and the potential impact various measures being considered might have upon the state and our county.  Panelists will pose questions about labor rights, criminal justice reform, defense of immigrants, campaign finance reform, protecting the environment, advancing the cause of peace.  Sponsored by Prince George's Democratic Socialists of America, Progressive Prince George's County, Prince George’s Peace and Justice Coalition and Our Revolution PG/ 

Come gather at 7:00 pm; meeting begins 7:30 pm at IBEW Local 26 4371 Parliament Place, Lanham.

Baltimore comrades, Check in on Max Obuszewski’s highly useful calendar and tip sheet at http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

To keep up with progressive events in and around DC consult the invaluable calendar at the Washington Peace Center, http://washingtonpeacecenter.org/alerts

 It all happens for free… right? Not exactly. Organizing for change in our society and our high-maintenance politics requires both people and money. Keep change moving with a quick, secure impulse-buy contribution here.

Reading the Progressive Maryland BlogSpace: our blogs for the previous week 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 posted these blogs:

October 13, 2017  Poll favors sick leave bill, but veto override may be at risk

The latest polls show most parts of the state favor paid sick leave (which would benefit more than 700,000 Marylanders not now covered). Most parts of the state look unfavorably on Hogan’s veto of the 2017 sick leave bill. But Kurtz’s post – he has a highly developed feel for the whole range of political activity in our state – contains a warning. He notes, in closing, “Hogan and other members of his administration have been exhorting business groups to help them whip up opposition to a veto override.”

Working families who expect the Assembly to routinely override the bill (it was passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers) need to remember that this is an election year and that “business groups” are sources of big campaign money for even ostensibly progressive Democrats who constitute the majority in both chambers. Those potentially wobbly members, especially in the Senate where the veto-proof majority was narrow, need to hear from their voters that they will push back hard on those who switch their votes when the override comes up.

October 11, 2017   Potential big changes in state education funding, practices aired tomorrow

A major meeting and hearing of the so-called Kirwan Commission on state education funding and how to use it better takes place tomorrow (Thurs Oct. 12) in Annapolis (in the a.m.) and Baltimore for the evening public hearing. This multimember education commission is being compared to the Thornton Commission, which first called out the disparities in Maryland's education funding several decades ago, and the consequences of this group's recommendations could be equally seismic. Len Lazarick of Maryland Reporter has doggedly followed the work of this group and his latest report is included here, with links to past articles and documents.

 

October 10, 2017 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Oct 10-16

Welcome to the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Oct 10-16. Here you find: reports on relaxing with Progressive MoCo, enviro-summiting with Take Action AAC; progressive cosplay at the RenFest and many other get-togethers at our chapters around the state. Read on…

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 starting from here.

woody woodruff

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...