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Memorial Day weekend may be a break for most, but an e-mail solicitation Friday revealed it will be a working holiday for supporters of an effort to petition Maryland’s congressional redistricting map to the November ballot.

After successfully gathering enough signatures to put Maryland’s Dream Act before voters, and partnering with anti-gay-marriage groups to put that issue on a glide path to referendum, MDPetitions.com founder Del. Neil Parrott (R-Washington) warned supporters Friday that the group is in danger of failing to meet next week’s deadline to produce over 18,000 signatures for the redistricting ballot measure.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) during a 2011 appearance in Annapolis.(Photo by Mark Gail/The Washington Post) The past stretch has not been the most chummy for Democratic leaders in Annapolis. But they have found a cause they can rally around next month: Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D).

The “honorary hosts” at a June 20 fundraiser for Baker include Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and three Democrats angling to succeed the governor: Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler.

Both of the presiding officers of the legislature, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) are also listed on the invitation.

The event, for which tickets start at $250 per person, is being held at Grace’s Mandarin, a restaurant at National Harbor.

Depending on how the next few weeks go, Baker may have an additional reason to celebrate at that location. By June 20, a work group on expanded gambling, launched by O’Malley, should be winding up its work. Baker is a leading proponents of one of the ideas on the work group’s study list: allowing a new casino at National Harbor.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) is booked to square off Sunday against former GOP presidential contender and former Speaker of he House Newt Gingrich on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (Spencer Platt — Getty Images)NBC is billing the conversation as one between “two influential members of their parties about what’s fair game when it comes to campaign attacks and where the race between President Obama and [Mitt] Romney stands now.”

The scheduled appearance of O’Malley, the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, comes just two weeks after he was bumped from another booked segment on “Meet the Press.”

O’Malley has become a regular on the Sunday talk circuit since his ascension in 2010 to DGA chairman, a perch that has prompted speculation about national ambitions in 2016.

Gingrich, who visited the State House in Annapolis in March shortly before suspending his presidential campaign, will be among the higher-profile adversaries O’Malley has faced on the talk show circuit.

(Robert F. Bukatay/AP)Maryland House Republicans announced their opposition Thursday to holding a special session on a gambling expansion, saying the issue needs to be considered in a “more deliberative and thoughtful fashion.”

The move could complicate efforts to craft a bill that has a chance of passing the House of Delegates in a session Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) has advertised for the week of July 9.

A Senate bill died in the House on the final night of the regular session that called for a statewide vote on allowing a full-fledged casino in Prince George’s County and Las Vegas-style table games at Maryland’s five existing slots locations.

The issue remains divisive among Democrats, and House leaders have suggested that a bill could be difficult to pass in the chamber without some Republican support. Similar bills have passed by lopsided margins in the Senate with bipartisan backing.

Montgomery County officials on Wednesday butted heads with school officials over school employee raises, which the county says is excessive and could ultimately undermine student learning.

School officials announced on Monday that their workers would receive the first raise in three years. The raises — which cost about $25 million, according to the officials — are part of a $4.6 billion operating budget that the Montgomery County Council is expected to approve on Thursday.

The size of the raise depends on a number of factors, including current salary and length of employment. The increase, which will be permanently added to the employees’ salaries, is about 5 percent on average, according to county and school officials.

County officials, on the other hand, approved a $2,000 one-time lump-sum bonus for their employees. They said they should not spend more until the county’s economic situation improves.

Though county unions agreed to the one-time bonus, they still weren’t happy about it. In a letter to the Montgomery County Council this month, Gino Renne, one of the county union presidents, decried the “ever-widening gap” in compensation between school employees and other government workers.