School testing issues made headlines in recent weeks, as a Wake County judge critiqued legislative efforts to scrap four high school end-of-course tests. Both the Mooresville Tribune and Jefferson Post published a column on the topic from Terry Stoops, John Locke Foundation Director of Education Studies. A Winston-Salem Journal article this week mentioned Stoops’ participation in an upcoming budget workshop sponsored by the Civitas Institute. A website devoted to standardized testing issues featured a video clip of Stoops discussing the issue. Roy Cordato, Vice President for Research and Resident Scholar, recently spent more than an hour with Chad Adams and WLTT radio listeners discussing the economics of high gasoline and oil prices. Daren Bakst, Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies, helped a Federalist Society audience this week review recent actions from the North Carolina Supreme Court. Spiegel Online International quoted Michael Sanera, Director of Research and Local Government Studies, in article about the federal government’s promotion of high-speed rail. A recent Business North Carolina report did not mention Joseph Coletti, Director of Health and Fiscal Policy Studies, but it did highlight Coletti’s concerns about a planned joint venture involving UNC Health Care and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. (The partnership … is not without critics such as the conservative Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation. It frets about increasing concentration of health-care delivery systems, worrying that insurers might limit patient choices, which could lead to higher costs from lack of competition.)