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July 25, 2023

What Relationship Outsourcing Says About Our Culture

How many of our relationships can we outsource? Apparently, there’s no end. A recent article in The New York Times describes a new kind of professional, a “surrogate partner,” who helps people become more comfortable with intimate relationships.  As the article notes, “Unlike in more traditional forms of therapy, in which practitioners are usually careful…

July 25, 2023

Not Just Tulsa

Earlier this month, an Oklahoma judge ruled that the City of Tulsa cannot be held legally or financially responsible for the actions of the violent mob that burned down the city’s Greenwood section, known as the Black Wall Street, in 1921. Three survivors of that murderous riot will not, it appears, receive compensation. Despite their disappointment, the…

July 23, 2023

Lawlessness Is Spreading in Our Cities

Much of the criticism of the changes in the criminal-justice system has been focused on the decriminalizing of errant behaviors and the lack of serious responses to the gun violence that plagues many urban black neighborhoods. What is largely ignored is the breakdown in lawful behavior in other less life-threatening areas: car and traffic violations, fare-beaters…

July 21, 2023

Can Spain Defuse Its Depopulation Bomb?

Over the past 40 years, no party has dominated the Spanish political landscape like the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, or PSOE, now headed by Pedro Sánchez. Yet frustration over its handling of key issues — from the economy to immigration to regional separatist movements — has provided an opening for the centre-right People’s Party (PP)…

July 21, 2023

Why Freedom Conservatism Matters

On July 13, a group of journalists, policy wonks, and political activists opened a new front in the war for American conservatism. One-hundred-twenty-two signatories, led by Avik Roy of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity and John Hood of the John William Pope Foundation, affirmed 10 principles that define “Freedom Conservatism.” It’s a meaningful…

July 19, 2023

Adams’ Smart Migrant Move Could Help the City’s Overburdened Shelters—and Migrants Themselves

A hint of common sense has emerged in the Adams’ administration policy toward the wave of migrants crowding the hotels once occupied by the tourists the city’s economy needs. But the mayor’s just-announced 60-day limit for single adults in the city’s shelter system raises the obvious question: Where should they go next?  There’s a short…

July 19, 2023

Americans Aren’t Buying Bidenomics—Because They’ve Heard the Lies Before

President Joe Biden is desperately trying to sell Americans on Bidenomics, but they’re not buying it. Recent polls show only 39% of US adults approve of Biden’s economic leadership, and a majority of the country has disapproved of his overall job performance for almost two years. At this stage of a presidential administration, only Jimmy Carter had…

July 18, 2023

The Great Recession, COVID-19, Interest Hikes Left a 15-Year Mark on Housing

How have the Great Recession in 2007, the COVID-19 pandemic that hit in 2020, and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes that started in 2022 affected mortgages in the region? Here’s the short answer: Each year, researchers at George Washington University use the State of the Capital Region report to do a deep dive on a policy…

July 18, 2023

The Education Community’s Views on School Improvement Have Fundamentally Changed

A few months back, I reflected on the 40th anniversary of “A Nation at Risk,” the landmark 1983 report. But there’s one important point that I didn’t really address: that the report was characterized by confidence in the DNA of Horace Mann’s familiar schoolhouse, whereas the momentum today is moving in a decidedly different direction. This struck…

July 17, 2023

The Problem with Lived Experience

“The shift among nonprofits and funders towards valuing lived experience has been a journey,” Anna Verghese, executive director of the Audacious Group, told the Chronicle of Philanthropy earlier this spring. Verghese, whose group includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MacKenzie Scott, and the Skoll Foundation, says this shift has been “the result of generations…