Labor Day

An American Le Mans Series (ALMS) race will join the IndyCar Series for races on downtown Baltimore streets during Labor Day weekend 2011, organizers and city officials announced today. Officials with Baltimore Racing Development and Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said during a noon news conference that the Oklahoma-based racing organization will be bringing its 34 teams to Baltimore for a Saturday race. The Baltimore Grand Prix weekend will begin Friday morning with IndyCar practice and ALMS time trials and end Sunday with the IZOD IndyCar Series race.

Maryland State Comptroller Peter Franchot says for the sake of tourism and family memories, schools should open after Labor Day. Most public schools in the state begin school about a week before Labor Day each year, depending on the calendar. This year, many school systems started on Monday, Aug. 27 and Labor Day was on Sept. 5.   “The chance for families to spend precious time together and to build those lifelong memories during that final, end-of-summer vacation has been lost by the decision to begin school a week, or even ten days, before Labor Day,” said Franchot.

Say "Labor Day," and one thinks of a mouth-waterin barbecue, a last dip in the pool, the final mass exodus from Ocean City . . . and homework?Next fall, Baltimore City and most counties in Maryland will open, or are considering opening, schools the Monday before Labor Day, Sept. 6. Most school systems did so last fall as well, when Labor Day also fell relatively late (Sept. 7).Call us traditionalists, but we still think that summer ends on Labor Day. Some administrators reason that classes get too hot in late June, so they'd rather end school early, but one would think that school buildings, baked throughout a Maryland summer, would be just as hot in late August and early September.

WESTMINSTER -- The Carroll County Government offices will be closed Monday in observance of Labor Day and will re-open at 8 a.m. Tuesday.Northern and Hoods Mill landfills will be closed Monday and will ++ re-open at 7 a.m. Tuesday.The recycling center on Route 97 north of Westminster also will be closed Monday and re-open on Tuesday.Information: 857-2973.All town government offices around the county will be closed Monday in observance of Labor Day. City and town halls will re-open their regular times Tuesday morning.

THE FATHER of Labor Day was Peter J. McGuire, who is not well-known, even among historians.McGuire grew up in the East just after the Civil War. The son of Irish immigrants, he was forced to go to work at the age of ll. By his own admission, he held almost every kind of a job during his formative years -- except a sword swallower.McGuire finally found his niche as a carpenter and became the leading force behind the trade's unionization. It was a modest beginning on Aug. 8, l88l, when 36 delegates representing carpenters in ll states formed the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.

Labor Day 1991 finds organized labor marching on the Capitol in an attempt to resuscitate the weakened liberal coalition of unions, minorities and other wellsprings of traditional Democratic Party power. The aim of these marchers, like that of those in the first Solidarity Day a decade ago, is to mobilize attention and support for a crazy-quilt of labor and liberal causes ranging from strike issues to health care and civil rights.Now, as then, the labor movement finds itself mounting an uphill offensive.

Most workers say they have little to celebrate this Labor Day. Several recent surveys depict a general malaise among workers and depression about the job market and the economy. A survey of 1,000 Americans released yesterday concluded worker confidence about the economy is lower than during the recession of 2001 - even though the unemployment rate now is below 2001 levels. The nation's unemployment rate is 5.7 percent, higher than Maryland's 4.4 percent. The researchers also point out concern over declining home values and rising gas prices.

On Labor Day weekend, Maryland divides into two camps: those who jump into their cars and join the teeming, sweltering masses headed down to the ocean and those who think fighting all that traffic is insane. Guess which camp I'm in. Does the translucent Irish skin give it away? Oh, go ahead, beach people, have your fun down there in Ocean City or Rehoboth or wherever you are.