Progressive Prince George's Chapter meeting tonight eyes the Zoning Rewrite, with MNCPPC staff there to answer our skeptical questions, and considers with equal skepticism the Nov. 8 ballot question that proposes adding at-large members to the County Council.

Voter suppression -- voter ID laws and other measures to make it harder for the poor and minorities to vote -- are a nationwide strategy of the right, including even here in Maryland. Here's a map of how the struggle is playing out, including in our own and neighboring states.

Details on meetings of Progressive Prince George's, Progressive Montgomery and the Howard County "Citizens' Election Fund" project coming up in the next two weeks. The activist calendar at your fingertips.

Environmental racism in energy siting, worker justice in chicken industry hell (hello, Eastern Shore!), reaction to Gov. Hogan's imperial decree about school schedules, and good news about wind power -- good reads you may have missed, for your Labor Day weekend leisure moments...

Gov. Larry Hogan's apparently crowd-pleasing decree to start schools after Labor Day is part of a parlay of moves to build a base for his reelection bid at the cost of the state's social cohesiveness

Our take on Larry Hogan is the genial "I'm not Trump" face floating over an uber-Ehrlich refugee administration where every agency is busy rolling back progressive law and regulation. In a guest post by permission from our friends at MarylandReporter.org, veteran political analyst Barry Rascovar argues that Hogan's a lot more Trump-like than not, if you watch his words instead of his smile.

"...the next time we criticize the police for their actions let's not feel the need to hug them first and call them heroes, let's just talk about the policies that need to change and the culture that needs to change with it."

Don't get too relaxed... after Labor Day (and even before) there are important PM events in Prince George's, Montgomery and Howard counties -- plus musical opportunities to support our neighbors struggling after the Long Branch apartment explosion.

Our weekend roundup of interesting reads, including a report from the Maryland Association of Counties' annual get-together, black women's pay gap, health care policy choices and more...

Heading for Labor Day, life is quiet for many of us but quite hard for some of our neighbors.