As Twitchy has reported, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is taking a leave of absence while her “Healthy Holly” book scam blows up. It seems the University of Maryland Medical System snatched up 100,000 copies of the mayor’s self-published book series at a cost of $500,000 … while she sat on the UMMS board of directors.

Since then, a lot of the books have been traced to schools, where they were delivered unsolicited and left unopened. ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis has been doing some digging and found out that the books had some other buyers. They must have been really good books.

Another day, another buyer of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh's Healthy Holly books is exposed: the quasi-public Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, which made the $7,500 purchase shortly before Pugh successfully sponsored legislation sought by the company. https://t.co/J5y79H8Fgh — Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) April 2, 2019

Maybe they were just anxious to learn that vegetables are not just green, and exercising is fun.

In case you're keeping score at home, this comes on top of:

1. A $500K purchase by the medical system on whose board Pugh sat.

2. A >$100,000 purchase by Kaiser Permanente, which was seeking a city contract.

3. An $87K purchase by a local nonprofit that won a big city contract. — Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) April 2, 2019

We had lost track: we didn’t know about the $100,000 purchase by Kaiser Permanente and the $87,000 purchase by a local nonprofit. Healthy Holly LLC was doing some big business on the side for the mayor.

Actually, to be precise, this $7,500 wasn't even for a purchase of books. It was a "donation" to Pugh's book-publishing entity, Healthy Holly LLC. — Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) April 2, 2019

A donation to a for-profit. That's a new one. — Matt McDermott (@MMMcDermott) April 3, 2019

Exactly. Amazing. — Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) April 3, 2019

This may be the greatest quote of all in Healthy Holly coverage: "The big mystery is 'A Healthy Start for Herbie.' We have no recollection from staff of moving them to the warehouse." pic.twitter.com/4FdV0Wp9xD — Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) April 3, 2019

Boy this smells bad even from a distance — it's just me (@tkcrockett) April 3, 2019

was it delivered in a canvas bag with a dollar sign on it — Skipjack (@Skipjack0079) April 3, 2019

Who knew children’s book publishing was so lucrative and risk-free? And has anyone ever read a “Healthy Holly” book or do they just pile up in warehouses?

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