Robeson County voters approved this week a quarter-cent increase in the local sales tax, despite warnings from John Locke Foundation experts. The Fayetteville Observer quoted Joseph Coletti, Director of Health and Fiscal Policy Studies, in an article outlining arguments against the tax hike. Meanwhile, Terry Stoops, Director of Education Studies, discussed with WBT Radio’s Tara Servatius concerns about Wake County public schools’ test score growth lagging behind the growth in other large urban North Carolina districts. Speaking of test scores, the News & Observer interviewed Stoops about the official release of North Carolina’s latest ABCs of Public Education data. The Asheville Citizen-Times interviewed Roy Cordato for an article about North Carolina’s efforts to secure more money from the taxpayer-supported Appalachian Regional Commission. The News & Observer interviewed Michael Sanera, Director of Research and Local Government Studies, for a yet-to-be-published article on the Raleigh Convention Center’s financial picture. The Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association cited a recent interview with Daren Bakst, Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies, on the problems associated with taxpayer-financed election campaigns. If you read Italian, you can benefit from Bakst’s contribution to an Il Foglio Quotidiano column (pdf link) with the translated headline “Really sure that solar energy costs less than nuclear?” Bakst, Coletti, Stoops, and Jon Sanders, Associate Director of Research, traveled this week to the American Legislative Exchange Council’s annual meeting. Bakst offered a presentation to ALEC’s Energy Subcommittee on lessons states can learn from the federal government’s failure to control the overly powerful Environmental Protection Agency.