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Facing a growing scandal over payments made to her for a series of children’s books that she wrote, Mayor Catherine E. Pugh of Baltimore announced on Monday that she would take an indefinite leave of absence for health reasons. The announcement came shortly after Gov. Larry Hogan asked Maryland state prosecutors to investigate a $500,000 payment that Ms. Pugh had received from a nonprofit health care company with ties to the state and city governments. (Williams, 4/1)

Ms. Pugh, a Democrat elected in 2016, made the announcement hours after Republican Gov. Larry Hogan called for the state prosecutor to investigate the medical system’s purchase of 100,000 “Healthy Holly” books for $500,000 since 2011. Ms. Pugh previously said she returned $100,000 to the system, one of the state’s largest private employers. “These are deeply disturbing allegations,” Mr. Hogan wrote in the letter to State Prosecutor Emmet Davitt. “I am particularly concerned about the UMMS sale because it has significant continuing ties with the State and receives very substantial public funding.” (Calvert, 4/1)

The University of Maryland Medical System wasn’t the only major buyer of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh’s “Healthy Holly” children’s books. Health provider Kaiser Permanente paid Pugh more than $100,000 to buy about 20,000 copies of her books during a period when the company was seeking a lucrative contract to provide health benefits to city employees. (Rector, Richman, Bowie and Cohn, 4/1)

While she received hundreds of thousands of dollars though a no-bid book deal with the University of Maryland Medical System, then state senator Catherine Pugh sponsored dozens of bills affecting hospitals in Maryland — including several that would have benefited UMMS. From 2011 to 2016, Pugh — who is now on indefinite leave as Baltimore’s mayor — sponsored or co-sponsored more than 40 bills affecting hospitals, doctors and insurance companies, according to General Assembly records. The Baltimore Democrat did this while serving on the medical system’s Board of Directors, which is now under fire over accusations of self-dealing in part because of Pugh’s $500,000 book deal. (Broadwater, 4/2)