Labor Day

Labor Day is a special kind of portal in the calendar year. Pools close and schools open. More than the first day of spring or even Memorial Day, Labor Day is the slamming of the door on one season and the beginning of another. A new school year is a fresh start in a way that New Year's Day cannot match. It is new shoes and a new teacher and a chance to begin again. Even if your children are grown and gone, the first day of school still has that hint of promise: remembering the scent of freshly sharpened pencils, seeing the school buses lumbering through your neighborhood.

Wedding date: March 23, 2013 Her story: Nessa Klein, 33, grew up in Arbutus. She is a human resources consultant for St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore. Her mother, Linda, works for Baltimore County public schools and her father, Charles, is retired. His story: John Mimm, 35, grew up in Columbia. He works in sales and estimating at Eastern Waterproofing and Restoration in Jessup. His mother, Helga, is a stay-at-home mom, and his father, John, works in sales for Durrett Sheppard Steel.

Labor Day is a national tribute to American workers who have contributed to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country. It is my belief that our GM Baltimore Transmission plant team members and partners of United Auto Workers Local 239 embody the character of Labor Day as much as any other workforce in American history. At this time last year, General Motors had just emerged from bankruptcy thanks to the American public, and we were all unsure about our future and our company.

Two Arabian camels who spend their summers in Baltimore are taking on passengers for short daytime trips past their penguin and elephant neighbors at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore for the next few months. The one-humped animals, also known as dromedaries, arrived at the zoo last week from another facility in Missouri, where they spent the winter, the zoo said. Rides on "Pam" and "Mocha" for zoo visitors began Saturday. The rides, available daily between 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. through Labor Day, cost $7, the zoo said.

HAMPSTEAD - The "What A Gem," car show will be held Labor Day Monday, Sept. 5, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Elite Auto Works, 1111 S. Main St., Hampstead. The show will include antiques, street rods, customs, trucks, imports, motorcycles and other vehicles. There will be music, door prizes, a moon bounce, face painting and food available. The event will be held rain or shine. Admission is free, but cars that wish to enter are asked to pay $10, with proceeds benefiting the Wounded Warriors Project through the Hampstead American Legion Post No. 200. For more details, call Tim, at 410-239-8765.

Laura Vozzella's valentine to the Baltimore Sun is in the form of a watermelon. There are still tons of them around, and they're still showing up on menus around town, and not just paired with feat neither. Woodberry Kitchen has a buttermilk-watermelon swirl sherbet, Pazo has a salad of yellow watermelon and nectarine with jalapeno-goat cheese sauce and wood-grilled pork belly and Gertrude's is still serving a watermelon cocktail called Summer Harvest. The National Watermelon Promotion Board has recipes here . Who else has watermelon on their menus?

For more than 100 years, the first Monday in September - Labor Day - has included parades, picnics and most importantly, a day off from work. Labor Day differs from every other holiday in that it does not honor a specific person, group, or event, but rather it recognizes the achievements and contributions of the American workforce for strengthening the prosperity and well-being of our nation. Now considered the harbinger of summer's last days, Labor Day tends to be family-focused.

In what could be a preview of a campaign theme in an expected 2014 run for governor, Comptroller Peter Franchot suggested the state should return to the days when public schools didn't reopen until after Labor Day. Using his seat on the Board of Public Works as a platform, the comptroller urged the state and its 24 jurisdictions to consider the advantages of pushing the current August start of the fall semester into September. "I'm not sure why all these things began to change and why," Franchot said.

Labor Day, like Memorial Day, began with a much more solemn purpose than as a bookend to summer. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed the hurriedly passed legislation after his iron-fisted response to a railroad strike led to violence and death. But the new holiday failed to win him the forgiveness of workers. Samuel L. Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, called it a day for workers not only to put down their tools but to "touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it. " The picnicking that now typifies Labor Day was how workers marked the end of a day of rousing union speeches in parks and town centers.

Howard County students who returned to school a week before the traditional post-Labor Day start will get a jump on the holiday as all schools and board of education offices close Friday and reopen Tuesday.All government offices and courts will be closed Monday. The post office, banks, the landfill and libraries will also be closed. Hours will resume Tuesday.There will be no trash or recycling collections on Labor Day. Households on the once-a-week Monday trash collection schedule will have next-day pick up on Tuesday.

When tickets to the third Grand Prix of Baltimore went on sale in December, race promoter Race On announced a drastic drop in the price for junior tickets. Now, some kids can watch for free. Race On announced Tuesday a revised ticket plan -- one already in place at other popular road races, officials said -- that will allow each adult with a general admissions ticket to bring one child 12-years-old or younger to the Labor Day event. “We know that Labor Day weekend is a time to spend with family, and we're excited to make it easier for families to attend one of the largest and most exciting sporting events on the East Coast,” said Grand Prix of Baltimore General Manager Tim Mayer in a news release.

When former IndyCar circuit champion Tony Kanaan heard that his new teammate would be the promising young driver Simona De Silvestro, he immediately thought they would get along fine. "Both of us have caught fire before," he said Wednesday. "So we have a lot to talk about. " A YouTube search turns up a video of Kanaan on fire while his car is in pit row and another in which members of his pit crew are burned by nearly invisible flames (because the fuel used at the time was methanol and burned clear)

I cannot believe retailers are now taking away another holiday by opening on Thanksgiving! It started years ago when they opened on Sundays and took away our family time. Then you took away New Years Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July , and Labor Day. Do they not make enough on Black Friday that they want to drag more people away from their families? Please stop opening on Thanksgiving and don't plan on ruining our Christmas and Easter. They should all be ashamed of themselves for taking family time away from their employees and those stupid shoppers.

Labor Day has come and gone, but there's no need to pack away all that white. Not only can you still wear it, you can use the color to give your decor a lift. Fashion designers from Derek Lam to J. Mendel stocked their fall 2012 collections with crisp winter whites. And interior designers agree: All year round, white is hot. Patrick Sutton, a Baltimore interior designer and owner of Patrick Sutton Home in Harbor East, has long extolled the virtues of decorating with white. "It's been one of my favorite colors for my whole career," he says.

Eyeing the Royal Farms sign advertising a gallon of premium gas for $3.99, Taryn Gross-Ojekwe's jaw fell open. "When it is going to cease?" she said of the price, which has climbed steadily over the past few weeks. "Just within the last few days, it was $3.79. " As a freelance upholsterer, the Baltimore resident doesn't have a big enough income to brush off a quarter increase per gallon. The Nissan Sentra she parked at the pump on Russell Street on Monday afternoon now consumes about $60 at each fill-up.

Sixteen people were shot in Baltimore City over the Labor Day weekend, six of them fatally, including a young mother killed Sunday evening by a stray bullet as she tidied up after a holiday gathering of family and friends. All the victims of the weekend's violence deserve swift justice, but none more that Larelle Amos, a 22-year-old former honors student at Kenwood High who leaves behind a 1-year-old son. Now is the time for incoming city police commissioner Anthony Batts to show the leadership Baltimore expects of the city's top cop. His first assignment should be to make sure Larelle Amos' killer is brought to justice.

St. Joseph Medical Center held a news conference - not coincidentally on Labor Day - to announce the hospital's support for vaginal births whenever possible, even if a previous delivery was a Cesarean birth. Doctors said that, sometimes, a Cesarean delivery has to be planned or becomes unavoidable. But a vaginal birth not only helps mothers avoid major surgery, it also offers them an easier recovery, helps bond with babies and avoids or decreases the possible side effects associated with Cesarean sections, such as infection and blood loss.

A Labor Day game at M&T Bank Stadium against Navy, a road trip to rival West Virginia and home games against conference foes Duke, Wake Forest, Florida State and North Carolina State highlight Maryland's 2010 football schedule, which was announced Thursday. The Terps open their 2010 campaign against the Midshipmen in an ESPN-televised game. Maryland's nonconference schedule is rounded out with a home game against Morgan State, the West Virginia trip and a home date against Florida International.

Sixteen people were shot and six killed over Labor Day Weekend, a bloody stretch that claimed the life of a young mother cleaning up after a family party and prompted police to increase patrols as the violence extended into Tuesday morning. Larelle Amos, a 22-year-old former honor student at Kenwood High School, was gunned down by a stray bullet Sunday, police said. "She is gone and I want whoever did this gone, too, behind bars," said Amos' mother, Alisa Grinage, who has been caring for her grandson, Geron Mills II. "I won't rest until somebody is made responsible.

For more than 100 years, the first Monday in September - Labor Day - has included parades, picnics and most importantly, a day off from work. Labor Day differs from every other holiday in that it does not honor a specific person, group, or event, but rather it recognizes the achievements and contributions of the American workforce for strengthening the prosperity and well-being of our nation. Now considered the harbinger of summer's last days, Labor Day tends to be family-focused.