State government has approved an average 24.3 percent rate increase for the only insurer that will provide Obamacare coverage in all 100 N.C. counties. Katherine Restrepo, the John Locke Foundation’s director of health care policy, analyzes the rate hike and its implications for the Affordable Care Act’s long-term viability in North Carolina. The term “crowdfunding” is relatively new, but a similar phenomenon led by the private sector helped spur massive growth in the North Carolina economy more than a century ago. Brent Lane, director of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center for Competitive Economies, has studied the history. He shares insights about the long-term impact of previous crowdfunding efforts. Conservatives need to be prepared for tough battles, and they can arm themselves with facts and a willingness to listen to arguments on all sides of an issue. JLF Vice President for Outreach Becki Gray delivered that message recently to a group of college-aged women gathered in Raleigh. They were learning leadership lessons from women who have played key roles in North Carolina’s conservative movement. Conservatives are outnumbered on college campuses, and the number of vocal conservative college women is especially small. But the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute offered help to conservative college women during a recent summit in Raleigh. Among those offering advice to those women was author and political activist Kate Obenshain. She urged her audience to fight political correctness on campus, starting with correcting the record in class when liberal professors spout faulty political ideas. Some left-of-center politicians and pundits are advocating a $15 per hour government-mandated minimum wage. Academic studies suggest such a mandate could cost North Carolina more than 330,000 jobs. Jon Sanders, the John Locke Foundation’s director of regulatory studies, says teenagers, the poor, and the least-skilled workers would face the most harmful impacts. He shares the results of his research into the topic.