Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has proposed spending more than $800 million over the next two years to raise public school teacher pay. Republican legislative leaders have their own ideas about boosting teacher salaries. Terry Stoops, the John Locke Foundation’s director of research and education studies, analyzes the competing priorities and explains what they could mean for the future of teacher compensation in North Carolina. Craft brewers are trying to raise awareness about state laws that limit their ability to grow their businesses. Ryan Self, director of sales at the Olde Mecklenburg Brewery in Charlotte, explains why it makes little sense for the state to mandate that brewers must work with an outside distribution company once they start producing more than 25,000 barrels of beer each year. A movement dubbed Craft Freedom is working to change the law. Now that a Democrat is back in the governor’s mansion, the top Democrat in the N.C. House tried to change House rules to prevent Republican House leaders from creating a new “veto garage.” You’ll learn what that means and why House Republicans rejected his proposal. It’s no secret that countries in the Middle East have not developed the same liberal societies as their counterparts in the West. During a recent forum at Dartmouth College, professor Timur Kuran of Duke University helped answer the question “What Killed Middle East Liberalism?” Kuran explains that historical factors, rather than Islam itself, explain why Middle Eastern societies have not developed the pillars of Western liberalism. Progressives who decry payday lending should learn some lessons from the University of Pennsylvania professor who worked for four months at a check-cashing store. The professor discovered that most customers who used the store relied on its cost, transparency, and service. Jon Sanders, the John Locke Foundation’s director of regulatory studies, recounts the professor’s findings and analyzed the implications for North Carolina.