NEWS
By John-John Williams IV | August 14, 2008
On the day the highly anticipated comedy Tropic Thunder opened nationwide, Matthew Plantz showed up at a Howard County theater, but he wasn't lined up to buy a ticket. The 26-year-old president of an advocacy group for people with disabilities came out to urge moviegoers to boycott the film that he called "demeaning." "We've worked so hard the past couple of decades," said Plantz, who heads the group called People Power. "This movie kind of turns back the clock." Plantz was among a handful of people stationed on the parking lot at United Artists Snowden Square Stadium 14 theaters in Columbia yesterday morning to protest the opening of the DreamWorks film.
NEWS
By Dennis O'Brien | June 11, 2008
A number of cribs and changing tables commonly sold at retail outlets contain unhealthy levels of formaldehyde, a consumer advocacy group reported yesterday. A lab tested the furniture in sealed chambers and found formaldehyde levels in four changing tables and two cribs in excess of air quality standards set by California this year, according to Johanna Neumann, director of the Maryland Public Interest Research Group. Six of 21 cribs and other nursery products gave off formaldehyde at levels that increase the risk of asthma and respiratory problems, the group reported.
NEWS
By Bradley Olson | February 10, 2008
As friends tell it, E.J. Pipkin was like a relentless force when he exploded onto the political scene in 1999. Democrats across the state had quietly given their support to an effort to dump silt dredged from shipping channels at a site off Kent Island, and Pipkin, a former Wall Street bond trader, would have none of it. He bankrolled an advocacy group and was known to stay up all night long reading dense impact reports from the U.S. Army Corps of...
NEWS
By Robert Little | February 9, 2008
HYATTSVILLE -- When Tom Bacote and his five volunteers walked into Ebony Barbers to talk with the clientele yesterday, their message was simple: Be sure to vote on Tuesday. That all the customers and 12 of the 13 barbers - all African-Americans - were supporters of Barack Obama was beside the point. Bacote's get-out-the-vote effort in Prince George's County, underwritten by a San Francisco-based advocacy group called PowerPAC, is part of an eight-state campaign to increase voter turnout in African-American communities for the presidential primaries.
NEWS
By John Fritze | October 17, 2007
Otis Rolley III, who has served as Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's chief of staff since January, resigned from his powerful position and will help launch a nonprofit advocacy group focused on regional transportation, city officials said yesterday. Long considered a rising star in city government, Rolley submitted his resignation last week, according to a Dixon spokesman. His departure, which came as a surprise to many, represents one of the first major shakeups in the administration since Dixon won the primary election last month.
NEWS
By Kelly Brewington | May 19, 2007
A key provision of a Senate compromise for sweeping immigration reform would pit educated workers and foreigners with wealth against those with fewer skills, advocates for immigrants warned yesterday. The plan would replace a backlogged system in which employers and family members sponsor immigrants with a complex merit system, giving preference to advanced-degree holders and proficient English speakers. "For so long, the far right has been saying that they are upset that there are people who are trying to come here legally and have to wait so long," said Kim Propeack, director of advocacy and organizing at immigrant advocacy group CASA of Maryland.
NEWS
By Brent Jones | May 5, 2007
Reacting to the rising number of foreclosures in the Baltimore metropolitan area, a nonprofit group is working with Bank of America and Citigroup to offer financial help to homeowners who have fallen behind on mortgage payments. A study by the Reinvestment Fund shows that subprime lenders issued about half of the mortgages in Baltimore in recent years. Home buyers with bad credit records received the loans, which came with unusually high interest rates. The wave of subprime loans helped to fuel a housing boom, but many recipients are in danger of losing their homes because they cannot pay the mortgages.
NEWS
By KELLY BREWINGTON | June 30, 2006
New research from a Chicago advocacy group estimates that 14 million immigrants could become new voters by the 2008 election, representing a crucial voting group in tight races around the country. The figures, released in a report yesterday by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, illustrate an untapped electoral power at a time when Congress is engaged in a bruising battle over immigration policy, said advocates. Maryland, with an estimated 195,000 potential voters, is one of 17 states whose immigrant populations could swing tight races, the study says.
NEWS
April 20, 2006
Advocacy group endorses Duncan A statewide advocacy group for working families announced yesterday that it has endorsed Douglas M. Duncan for governor. The leadership of Progressive Maryland, which represents 20,000 members, voted Tuesday night and said the three-term Montgomery County executive impressed them with his policies on public education and affordable housing. Duncan and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley are seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in the Sept. 12 primary.
NEWS
By KELLY BREWINGTON | December 21, 2005
Saying their clients were duped by unscrupulous employers, an immigrant advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against a Howard County contracting company, saying it refused to pay 35 Maryland laborers hired for cleanup projects along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, contends that the Mount Airy firm MFC General Contractors Inc. refused to pay its workers the $10 an hour it promised them and offered no overtime pay. The owners of the company denied the accusation yesterday, saying delays in worker payments resulted from problems with the firm that hired them to do the work.