Trump's immigration policy, disastrous across the US and requiring Maryland folks to fight off detention centers and ICE offices across the state, is cutting into Hispanic student enrollment in the state's K-12 schools as well -- when enrollment numbers were already declining as school-agers lose ground to retirees.

The mortal scuffle over whether or not to redistrict in Maryland stays in court as more combatants lawyer up. Late spring frost (past tense) keeps tourists away even as a leetle tornado (present tense) doesn't help either. The ambivalence of the local residents in Greenbelt about having the new FBI headquarters placed there is suddenly back on the agenda, thanks to a judge; only the thought that Kash Patel will hopefully be a distant memory before the first shovelful is turned over makes the idea even halfway attractive. But Prince George's County has been shorted for decades on federal installations and, who knows, may be shorted again by the odious Supreme Court majority. Meanwhile, neighboring states feel the pinch as the effect of wholesale federal workforce sacking and federal budget cuts continue to whipsaw us too. Trump takes credit for falling drug prices that are actually traceable to a Biden initiative, and more and more little wars (according to several scholars) are starting to add up to one bigger one in ways we haven't got our heads around yet. Alas, it's News You Can Use.

HERE IN MARYLAND

Hispanic Student Enrollment Declines as Fear of ICE Grows: Hispanic enrollment in Maryland public schools began to decline during the last school year after growing at an average rate of 4.7% a year since pandemic-era lows. As classes resume this fall, parents, teachers and other community members reflected on how immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump has cast a shadow over immigrant and Latino families and their public school students. Fewer a Latino students are showing up in class. Maryland Matters.

Late Spring Frost Killed Fruit, Now It Harms Agri-tourism: With the fall season just a month away, Maryland farmers would ordinarily be preparing to welcome peak crowds at pick-your-own apple orchards. The loss of business, for many agritourism farmers across the region, is just another blow from the late spring frost. Harrison Palmer, chief of staff for the Maryland Department of Agriculture, estimated the April freeze caused a $45 million loss in crop value and value-added processing statewide with the biggest loss in the grape and wine industry, at more than $25 million. Baltimore Sun.

Labor Leader Patrick Moran Elected President Of Public Employee Union AFSCME: Patrick Moran, longtime Maryland labor leader, was elected president of AFSCME International, one of the largest labor unions in the country, Thursday. Baltimore Banner. 

Greenbelt Hails FBI Ruling, Despite New Fed Challenge: The city of Greenbelt is celebrating a victory in a fight to keep a plan to move the FBI headquarters to the city on track, even as Trump administration officials are filing notice of their expected appeal. Maryland Matters

The High Cost Of Not Moving The FBI Headquarters: Fifteen years after the federal government set out to replace the FBI’s aging Washington headquarters – including building a new HQ in Maryland – taxpayers are still paying to maintain the deteriorating building as construction costs rise and work on a relocation site has yet to begin. Federal officials warned Congress years ago that delays would come with a price.  Baltimore Sun. 

Court-Ordered Mental Health Care In Offing In B’more, Some Counties: Maryland health officials are rolling out a new and controversial program to help those with severe mental health challenges stay on top of their treatment — by using a court order to mandate that those patients comply with their medical plans. Maryland Matters.

Tornado Likely Touched Down On Eastern Shore Last Thursday Evening: A tornado is believed to have touched down in Queen Anne’s County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore on Thursday evening, while the Baltimore-Washington area was apparently spared serious damage from storms that passed through the region. Baltimore Banner.

Court Upholds Eminent Domain For New Transmission Line: The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling earlier this month that gave the Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) access to hundreds of private properties along the route of the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP). WYPR. 

WMAR’S Anchors Bid Farewell As Station Moves To Anchorless Streaming: The last anchors for Maryland’s oldest news station said goodbye this week after WMAR-2 rolled out an anchorless broadcast, a move that prompted criticism as the station shifts to a streaming model that leans more heavily on artificial intelligence and automation. Baltimore Banner.

 Second Lawsuit Targets Redistricting Amendment: A second lawsuit challenging Maryland’s proposed congressional redistricting constitutional amendment is moving forward in Dorchester County, with Republican State Senator Chris West arguing the measure could have long-term consequences for the state’s congressional representation and that the language voters would see on the ballot is misleading. Fox 45  >> A Dorchester County judge rejected a request to move a lawsuit challenging the state’s proposed new redistricting regulations to Anne Arundel County, meaning two challenges to the planned constitutional amendment will move forward on two tracks on an extremely tight timeline. Maryland Matters.

Cities Turn To AI To Speed Housing Permitting: Baltimore is among cities that have turned to artificial intelligence tools to streamline application process. New housing projects can sometimes stall out as a developer applies to city or county planning boards and goes through cycles of inspections, reviews and approvals. Maryland Matters.

THE REGION AND THE OTHER 49

Next Door: Virginia: Head Start advocates say federal changes to the preschool program, which serves 11,000 children in the state, could end up destroying it altogether. Pluribus

Virginia considers calls for mandatory school nurses as healthcare gaps persist
As schools reopen across Virginia, just under 10% will operate without a nurse, leaving critical gaps in student healthcare, advocates say. School nurses are responsible for managing complex student medical conditions and helping to reduce absenteeism. Most school divisions in the commonwealth employ nurses, but current laws permit, rather than require, their presence. Virginia Mercury

Above the Line: Food banks across Pennsylvania are struggling to keep up in the face of SNAP cuts, economic pain News from the States

WATER: The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has issued a final plan to allocate water from the Colorado River that would impose cuts of 1.25 million acre-feet to Arizona, California and Nevada over the next two years. The Lower Basin states had feared steeper cuts. The final plan establishes a 10-year framework with reassessments every two years. Pluribus – Details at NYT

PJM Strategy Assumes Data Center Growth, but Policy Gaps Remain  

PJM Interconnection [which provides electric power in Maryland and a half-dozen adjacent states] envisions a power system in which data centers drive most new electricity demand, but its five-year strategy doesn’t answer a critical question: how much responsibility should the regional grid operator assume for turning uncertain load forecasts into generation, transmission and reliability commitments? PJM’s Board of Managers approved the strategy in July, and PJM released it August 19. The plan calls for a more dynamic approach to grid operations, faster planning and interconnection, stronger alignment with states and more efficient decision-making. But the document does not resolve the governance and capacity-market changes now under scrutiny at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Those decisions will come through separate proceedings and filings. Data Center Knowledge

AND more about data centers, power and how people should make the call – Progressive Maryland’s take to save our household budgets here.

No souls to the polls in North Carolina: The Republican majority on the state Board of Elections voted against including Sunday hours as part of early voting plans in most counties. Pluribus

GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

Drug prices have declined sharply, and Trump is taking credit. The reason behind the drop is [much more] complex

Trump has been taking credit for new federal data that shows U.S. prescription drug prices fell 0.8% in July and are down 3.1% from a year ago, the steepest year-over-year drop since 1963, the AP reports.  The plunging prices, the White House said, resulted from the Republican president’s “most favored nation” drug deals with pharmaceutical firms and the TrumpRx website. The real picture is more complicated, said drug pricing experts, who noted that other factors, including a law from Democratic President Joe Biden’s time in office that allowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, are potentially more significant contributors to the latest consumer price index figures. Also at play, they said, are generic and biosimilar products that have come onto the market, offering competition that drives down the price of expensive brand-name and biologic drugs.

But: Fentanyl seizures plummeted as Trump administration shifted focus to immigration News from the States

Postal Service rules trimming mail voting published, will wait for Supremes

The Postal Service on Friday published regulations that would restrict mail voting, its latest effort to comply with President Trump’s call to restrict the popular practice just months before the midterm elections. In a 95-page final rule, the Postal Service clarified how it would carry out an executive order Mr. Trump signed in March, which sought to restrict mail ballots and to create state-by-state lists of citizens to help determine voting eligibility. If the regulations are enacted, the Postal Service said that it would not deliver mail ballots in states that do not share voter data with the federal agency. The plan awaits a Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s ability to declare the policy. New York Times

HotMaxxing? Ocean records are falling: The ocean just broke a temperature record that may have stood for millennia 

Tensions rise in the occupied West Bank

Violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians continued to escalate in the occupied West Bank over the weekend, The Economist reported this morning. Settlers’ stated aim is to cause “friction” with adjacent Palestinian villages. That tends to lead to intervention by the Israel Defence Forces, often on the settlers’ side, followed by the expulsion of Palestinians and the expansion of Israeli settlements. The IDF has been slow to rein in the settlers, who have the government’s support.

Increasingly intertwined conflicts are raising the specter of a single, global war, analysts suggested. Semafor summarizes: ‘Recent reports have pointed to Russia ferrying materiel to Iran and North Korea deploying drone operators in support of Moscow, while China and Taiwan are both learning lessons from the conflict in Ukraine. “There’s going to be no gap between East Africa, North Africa, what we used to call the Middle East, and what used to be called AfPak, India, Pakistan, and all of that,” a leading historian said on a Financial Times podcast. A new “world war” may not be as violent as [the] 20th century’s conflicts, one expert wrote in World Politics Review, “but that doesn’t mean it lacks the potential to remake the world order.” ‘