By Adam Pagnucco.
Below are the top ten stories on Montgomery Perspective in January 2025, ranked by page views.
1. Trump to Feds: Resign or You Might Get Fired
2. Early Signs Point to Rent Control Debacle
4. Two Familiar Names File Campaign Committees for County Council
5. Trump Henchman Threatens MoCo Over Immigration
6. Taylor Takes on the Central Office
7. Leisure World Joins Business Groups in Suing State Over Energy Standards
8. Inspector General Finds “Lax Oversight” of County Speed Camera Program
9. Mink Joins Jawando in Opposing Attainable Housing
10. Jawando Calls for “Pause” on Attainable Housing
Finally, someone else claimed MCPS’s page view crown and it’s none other than President Donald Trump. Last month’s top post ranks among the top ten posts to ever appear on Montgomery Perspective, and it was driven by a deluge of Google clicks. Those weren’t happy clicks because federal employees have never seen a boss anything like the current occupant of the Oval Office.
This won’t be the last time Trump appears on this site even though our focus is on state and local issues. State and county officials are not wrong when they fear Trump’s impact on our economy – check out how exposed we are to federal employment and spending. But I see a developing trend of local leaders blaming Trump for mounting economic problems when the truth is that our economy has been non-competitive for many years. Let’s not use Trump, however horrific as he might be for us, as an excuse to gloss over what we have been doing to ourselves.
One purely local thing that stands out from January is the now open split among county council members over housing. When Council Members Will Jawando and Kristin Mink came out against the Planning Board’s Attainable Housing initiative, they rebooted MoCo’s ancient land use debates just in time for the next round of elections. That story is sure to come up over and over in coming months.
On to February!