Much of the John Locke Foundation staff traveled across the country this week to participate in the State Policy Network’s annual convention in Seattle. Among those featured on the SPN agenda was N.C. History Project Director Troy Kickler, a featured speaker on the “Fundamentals of Federalism.” The Tenth Amendment Center and Richmond County Daily Journal recently published Kickler’s column on the importance of state and local government and elections. TalkingPointsMemo.com quoted JLF President John Hood in an article about the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. Hood’s column on the same topic attracted attention from N.C. Senate Republicans in their daily press email. The Senate GOP also promoted Hood’s column on the “tyranny of crackpot ideas” such as Keynesian economics. A Forest City Daily Courier letter writer recently praised Hood. (The John Hood column in the Saturday Courier should be a wake-up call for all of us. I could only wish that it could be reprinted weekly to remind Americans that our finances are in disarray.) Though vacationing at the beach, Vice President for Outreach Becki Gray continues her twice-weekly state government updates for WTSB Radio listeners. Director of Communications Mitch Kokai offered a recap of the week’s top state government stories during his latest appearance with Curtis Wright on WAAV/WFNC Radio. Hurricane-permitting, Kokai will discuss media relations Saturday with a group of Wake County Republican candidates.