The John Locke Foundation recently came under attack from a group of Democratic U.S. senators because of the organization’s work countering alarmist arguments about climate change. Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse specifically targeted JLF for criticism during a five-minute Senate floor speech. JLF President and CEO Kory Swanson responds. Swanson says the senators’ campaign represents an attack on free-speech rights. FBI Director James Comey generated a recent controversy when he labeled former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “extremely careless” in her handling of confidential information on her private email server, then declared that no “reasonable prosecutor” would charge Clinton with a crime. Zachary Bolitho, assistant law professor at Campbell University and a former federal prosecutor, labeled Comey’s public remarks unusual. Bolitho says he would have been upset if the FBI had made similar comments about potential prosecution of one of his cases. One of the last items N.C. legislators addressed this year involved “private-letter rulings.” These rulings from the N.C. Department of Revenue help taxpayers determine how they should comply with complicated tax-code provisions. Those rulings have remained secret in the past, but lawmakers voted to require the Revenue Department to post the rulings for public scrutiny. Much of the work of the N.C. Department of Commerce has been transferred over the past two years to a nonprofit Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. CEO Christopher Chung says the partnership is working to promote the state’s economy with more flexibility than a government agency can expect to have. Chung recaps the group’s first 18 months of work and discusses its priorities moving forward. From teacher pay increases to increased funding for opportunity scholarships to a new Achievement School District, the N.C. General Assembly took a number of steps in 2016 designed to improve public education in the state. Terry Stoops, JLF’s director of research and education studies, analyzes this year’s education legislation and looks ahead to the next round of reforms.