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The beleaguered mayor of Baltimore announced Monday that he would be away for an indefinite period, just as a political scandal described by critics as a book-selling arrangement "at the bookstore" stepping up dramatic way and threatening his political career.
In a brief statement, Mayor Catherine Pugh's office announced that she felt unable to fulfill her duties as mayor due to the deterioration of her condition caused by a recent episode of pneumonia.
The chairman of the municipal council will assume the daily responsibilities of Pugh.
The mayor's decision to go on leave came the same day the Republican governor of Maryland had asked the prosecutor to investigate allegations of Pugh's self-treatment offense and the state controller, a Democrat, had urged the latter to withdraw immediately.
Governor Larry Hogan said Monday in a letter to the Attorney General that the recent charges against Pugh and his dubious arrangements for the sale of his "Healthy Holly" illustrated books are "deeply troubling". Hogan said he was particularly concerned about a $ 500,000 sale to a university-based health system "because he has significant links with the state and receives very much public funding. important".
A few hours after Kaiser Permanente announced that it had paid $ 114,000 between 2015 and 2018 for about 20,000 copies of Pugh's "Healthy Holly" illustrated and self-published pocket books for children. Two weeks after the news announcement, Pugh received $ 500,000 in sales of illustrated books sold to the University of Maryland's medical system, a $ 4 billion hospital network, one of the largest private employers of the state.
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