Residents of the Port Towns communities in Prince George's County are fighting the siting of a concrete batching plant in Bladensburg near Peace Cross, threatening the Anacostia River and the health of residents in the viciinity. Today, Tuesday August 22, they go before the Zoning Hearing Examiner at 9 a.m. to fight for the right of communities to control development in their own backyards.

Welcome to the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for August 21-29. Lots going on, including the health care fight, leadership development opportunities, letting Larry Hogan know he has to listen to more than big donors – he should speak out on protecting Maryland’s health care and pushing back against the white supremacist elements that Trump appears to condone -- plus community struggles like the concrete plant being foisted on the Port Towns of Prince George’s, and much more at chapters around the state. Dip in…

The skyrocketing costs of runnng for office in Maryland make a good argument for public financing to level the playing field and get big money out of state and local politics. We cross-post here Ana Faguy's excellent account of a new study by Common Cause Maryland coupled with her interview with longtime public financing advocate Sen. Paul Pinsky of Prince George's. The account first appeared on the blog site Maryland Matters.

The consultant study that MoCo executive Ike Leggett commissioned on a $15 minimum wage – and that served his purpose with a maxi-alarmist conclusion about huge job losses (according to the employers who were surveyed) – is looking flimsier and flimsier. The $149,000 taxpayer-funded study – derided by the respected Economic Policy Institute as “absurd junk science” – looks headed to the junkyard as Leggett is backing away from the study’s conclusion that over 8 percent of all county jobs and huge amounts of income would be lost if the minimum wage were raised to $15 per hour.

There's much we can do -- as truly advanced nations are doing now -- to clear our dangerous air by aiming for all zero-emission vehicles on the road as soon as possible, environmental activist Susan Nerlinger details here. A lot of this can be accomplished on the ground in Maryland, if we can get the attention of our public officials.

 Healthcare is front and center as usual these days, but we are sobered and saddened by the violence and deaths in Charlottesville over this weekend. We are gearing up for deep canvassing on more general issues, priming our communities for thinking about what’s at stake in the 2018 elections -- as well as tomorrow and the next week…

Port Towns residents in Prince George's County and their organizations have been fighting a proposed industrial use, a concrete batching plant in Bladensburg, at the county level. Here are details on the proposal and its drawbacks and how to support local control of development at the Aug. 22 hearing.

Allowing tax deductions for home mortgage interest payments is a popular loophole in the US tax code but its history in other countries, and analysis of whether it actually creates home ownership and connectedness to the community, makes its supposed benefits seem hollow. Regular policy blogger Mathew Goldstein argues that the MID's lopsided benefits for the already-rich make it regressive and a candidate for reduction or capping -- and ultimately, removal from the tax code.

Few communities have been as consciously designed for democratic equality as Columbia. But Howard County's development has not promoted affordability in housing for all income levels, and to restore the dream action must come bottom-up from the community, local activist Dave Bazell reports.

The weekly memo -- events around Maryland focusing on our growing list of active chapters; allies' events, and links to the blogs from the last week.