TGR: Baltimore Brew does outstanding job covering Baltimore Mayor Pugh and “Healthy Holly”

By bmorenews on April 17, 2019

By Doni Glover, Publisher
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(BALTIMORE – April 17, 2019) – Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh finds herself in a pickle. The whole world is watching as the Baltimore chief executive, who is reportedly fighting pneumonia, aims to return to City Hall. At the same time, the Baltimore City Council, the Baltimore City Delegation to Annapolis, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, the Greater Baltimore Committee and others have asked her to step down.

It should be noted that all of this is playing out as Baltimore is a national leader in homicides, had 13 high schools last year when not one student was proficient in math, got a 2 out of 5 star rating from the State of Maryland for 46% of its schools, and is losing businesses left and right.

Further, this comes on the heels of the April 2015 Freddie Gray uprising which kicked-off in her then-state legislative district, the 40^th.

Long story short: Baltimore is a mess, Pugh has been editorialized in the national media, and the City Council President Bernard “Jack” Young is now Ex-Officio Mayor. To her credit, Baltimore looks like it finally has a police commissioner who can get the ball down the field some amidst a Consent Decree.

Technically, Pugh is on “an indefinite leave of absence,” but that has not stopped the news stories from hitting the airwaves. Every couple of days, one local news outlet or another breaks a different angle on the story – from the latest University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) board member to resign to the latest entity to have bought copies of the infamous “Healthy Holly” book.

To boot, Pugh has not escaped the comedic wrath of late night television. At present, the world has been thoroughly amused by Pugh’s antics, including the bizarre press conference where she revealed a babies’ clothing line intended to accompany the book.

To help sort out this onslaught of news, here’s a list of articles on Pugh and her book for children from the Baltimore Brew:

Three aides to Pugh placed on leave following disclosure of involvement with non-profit Gary Brown, Afra Vance-White and Poetri Deal sit on the board of the Maryland Center for Adult Training Inc, which Mayor Pugh once chaired APRIL 10, 2019

Healthy Holly buyer J.P. Grant is silent partner in company that got massive city conduit project The same company extensively renovated Mayor Pugh’s new house at a discounted price APRIL 4, 2019

Found: 8,700 Healthy Holly books in a school warehouse The disclosure still leaves largely intact the mystery surrounding Mayor Pugh’s book transactions MARCH 28, 2019

Mayor purchased new house during the time she received Healthy Holly payments EXCLUSIVE: New house in Ashburton, apparently purchased with cash, has been extensively renovated MARCH 25, 2019

Healthy Holly books a 2011 Pugh mayoral campaign give-away? Tens of thousands of Mayor Pugh’s children’s books are unaccounted for – here’s the story of a few that people recall getting – MAR 25, 2019

“I understand how it may look to some” – a press release from Pugh on Healthy Holly MARCH 21, 2019

Pugh denies ethical breach but returns $100,000 for latest Healthy Holly order “The publisher and illustrator had a medical emergency and the order had to be canceled,” her spokesman explained MARCH 20, 2019

Warehouse with Healthy Holly books: Off-limits to a reporter A trove of Mayor Pugh’s self-published children’s books is said to be in this gritty location in East Baltimore MAR 19, 2019

Catherine Pugh’s connections to UMMS – long and lucrative The University of Maryland Medical System’s payments for Pugh’s “Healthy Holly” books fit a pattern of financial support that helped put her in the mayor’s office in the first place MARCH 18, 2019

UMMS payments to Pugh were funneled through an LLC registered to her campaign treasurer How Baltimore’s mayor used a hard-to-trace LLC to accept money-for-books from UMMS. Her payments called out by Sen. Jill Carter. MARCH 15, 2019