business
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Feds, the progressives are your friends no longer
Read more: Feds, the progressives are your friends no longerIn Los Angeles there is an area between Westwood and Santa Monica that is home to several large federal installations (FBI, VA, various agency extension offices). If a fed gets laid off from one of those agencies, there is plenty of work available in LA’s entertainment, hospitality, manufacturing, and other industries. In New York there…
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Leaf Blowers, The Sequel: a Call for Cooperation, not Coercion
Read more: Leaf Blowers, The Sequel: a Call for Cooperation, not CoercionWe are back to the gas-powered leaf blowers. Recall Bill 18-22, signed into law on October 9, 2023, prohibits the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers by July 1, 2024, and use of such equipment by July 1, 2025. Council Member Gabe Albornoz was the only dissenting vote at the time. Here we are, two weeks…
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MoCo’s store owner with the most infectious smile—Interview with Nick Gardner of Choice Wine and Beer
Read more: MoCo’s store owner with the most infectious smile—Interview with Nick Gardner of Choice Wine and BeerChoice Wine and Beer is on the second floor of the Wheaton Mall, adjacent to Costco. Co-owner Nick Gardner arguably has the most enchanting smile in all of Montgomery County. He sat down with me for 40 minutes giving an extremely positive view of his store and the county’s wine and beer industry. What’s the…
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Unions, conference centers, and Michael Bell’s three steps of local policy grief
Read more: Unions, conference centers, and Michael Bell’s three steps of local policy griefIn On Death and Dying, Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross describes what has become a useful model for the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. While not universally accepted, this model quite remarkably describes my recovery from two difficult losses, one emotional, another financial. The best part of Dr. Ross’s model is…
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Finally, MoCo can diversify its economic base (and Marc Elrich is helping)
Read more: Finally, MoCo can diversify its economic base (and Marc Elrich is helping)Prior to Trump II, study after study recommended that Montgomery County dilute its reliance on the federal government as a primary employer. For example, in the Sage Policy Group’s 2018 report The Coming Storm: How Years of Economic Underperformance are Catching up with Montgomery County: Between 2006 and 2016, Montgomery County lost 12,511 private sector…
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Council Members’ residents’ KPIs showing alignment
Read more: Council Members’ residents’ KPIs showing alignmentA MoCo Show article from last December reported on the remarkable increase in the county’s bus ridership. “MCDOT’s Ride On system has provided more than 18.5 million rides during the current fiscal year [2024], compared with 15.4 million rides the previous fiscal year.” The article quoted County Executive Marc Elrich’s reaction: “I am pleased to…
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Petition to Change Gas Leaf Blower Law
Read more: Petition to Change Gas Leaf Blower LawA new petition has been created on Change.org to gather community support for an Amendment to the MoC0 Gas Leaf Blower Ban. In addition to reports from private businesses expressing the need to reduce the size of their workforce to accommodate the cost of this ban, there are also growing reports from HOAs and neighborhood…
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Council Member Really Wants You to Know: He was Named ‘2024 Legislator of the Year’
Read more: Council Member Really Wants You to Know: He was Named ‘2024 Legislator of the Year’MoCo Councilmember “At Large” Gabe Albornoz (Democrat) really really wants you to know he was named “Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Legislator of the Year”. So much so that he begins his e-mail to tax-paying constituents about his award… and then continues the whole communication to residents talking about… this award. Here is another excerpt…
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The Takoma Park City Machine – How Takoma Park Uses Tax Dollars to Press Forward an Ideological Agenda to MoCo, Maryland and Beyond
Read more: The Takoma Park City Machine – How Takoma Park Uses Tax Dollars to Press Forward an Ideological Agenda to MoCo, Maryland and BeyondAlways follow the money and the influencers. Oh, and the 501c3s, c4s, etc. The City of Takoma Park’s influence on MoCo government policy has been covered here before but a quick review of the 501c3 non-profit Old Takoma Business Association’s (OTBA) website provides more visual examples of what this tiny town (population 17,500) does with…
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Tale as Old as Time – Once Government (Taxpayer) Largesse Dries Up, Another Rockville Business Moves On
Read more: Tale as Old as Time – Once Government (Taxpayer) Largesse Dries Up, Another Rockville Business Moves OnDawson’s Market, a higher-priced grocer (actually the only grocery store) in Rockville Town Square is departing, after threatening the same action about six years ago because of quote “declining sales” back in 2019. Per Sebastien Kraft with MoCo360 Media: This isn’t surprising in the least. In fact, it goes to the heart of why government,…