Michael Bell
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Marilyn Balcombe puts a soft touch on zoning reform
Read more: Marilyn Balcombe puts a soft touch on zoning reformWe often hear about the struggle between progressives and centrists in the Democratic Party. Among MoCo’s Democrats, the progressives demoralize the police force and reward cover-ups of sexual harassment with severance pay. The centrists focus on policies that get resources to those who need it, such as bus service. That’s not a hard and consistent…
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Rent Control: The Data Collection Begins
Read more: Rent Control: The Data Collection BeginsIt’s hard to believe that a full year has passed since rent control was passed by the County Council at the behest of Will Jawando and Kristin Mink. On July 18, 2023 I published the first snapshot of the county’s rental market. On October 7, 2023, I published a second snapshot. Since then I’ve been…
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Why is college tuition so expensive? Because of Monifa McKnight’s contribution to administrative bloat
Read more: Why is college tuition so expensive? Because of Monifa McKnight’s contribution to administrative bloatThe outrage over Monifa McKnight’s appointment to a cush job at the University of Maryland centers on qualification: does she really deserve that job after her horrific behavior at MCPS? There’s another aspect of her appointment that needs to be discussed: necessity. Study after study has identified the causes of an American university’s outrageous tuition.…
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MCPS Juniors and Seniors: Ditch the SAT, the colleges need you more than you need them.
Read more: MCPS Juniors and Seniors: Ditch the SAT, the colleges need you more than you need them.I was talking with a general contractor a few weeks ago. He was dismayed at the bills he gets from plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, and disaster remediation specialists. “It costs me $250 just to get a plumber to walk through the door,” he wailed. “In 10 years they’ll be asking for a whole lot more.”…
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Jawando, Mink, and Sayles throw cannabis prisoners under the CASA bus
Read more: Jawando, Mink, and Sayles throw cannabis prisoners under the CASA busUnder the Revenue Act of 1862, the Union seized land from Southern landowners, and eventually auctioned those lands to freed slaves. In 1865, General Sherman issued Special Field Orders 15, allowing the confiscation of 400,000 acres of land in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, dividing it into parcels of 40 acres to be settled by…
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Positive News on Licensing
Read more: Positive News on LicensingYou probably know the maxim “even a broken clock is right twice a day.” The earliest instance we have of that maxim is from London’s The Spectator, a daily publication during the years 1711–1712. Just as today’s coffee shops provide free WiFi to bring in customers, so London’s coffee shops shared copies of The Spectator…
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Forcing MoCo’s Poor to Pay for Our Renewable Sensibilities
Read more: Forcing MoCo’s Poor to Pay for Our Renewable SensibilitiesHere at Clean Slate MoCo we are very cautious about discussing issues at the national level. I’m begging an exception for this post, because we have a confluence of policies at the national and local level that can only be considered a war against the poor. In May 2024 President Biden increased the tariff on…
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Child Investment Fund: bigotry now, prosperity never
Read more: Child Investment Fund: bigotry now, prosperity neverOne of the most amazing books I ever read is Poverty and Prosperity by the economist Deepak Lal. In that book, Professor Lal outlines how freeing the economic markets in India and China raised fully one-fourth of the entire world’s population out of crushing poverty and wealth inequality within 40 years. This book is so…
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GWCF’s Reparations: Too Little and Too Late
Read more: GWCF’s Reparations: Too Little and Too LateRarely do I get cranky when writing a post for Clean Slate MoCo. Folks, there is a limit to how emotionally invested you can get about zoning and the liquor monopoly. Reading White Oak School First to Pilot Brilliant Futures Savings Program for Kindergartners, though, made me extremely upset. The article describes the inauguration of…
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Are Our Teachers as Emotionally Stunted as Their Union Reps?
Read more: Are Our Teachers as Emotionally Stunted as Their Union Reps?My wife recently overheard another woman talking into a cell phone in a restroom. “If your mother gives us $50, and if we don’t put our little Cyrus in day care this week, then we’ll be able to pay the phone and electric bills.” This is heartbreaking. While some DC power couples grossing $500,000/year also…