North Carolina’s Medicaid program is on track to remain under budget for the fourth straight year. Federal regulators are also giving high marks to the state’s plans for shifting Medicaid to managed care. Carolina Journal Associate Editor Dan Way offers an update on major N.C. Medicaid developments. The Trump administration has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement and dumped the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. That doesn’t mean the world is on its way to overheating. Patrick Michaels, director of the Center for the Study of Science at the libertarian Cato Institute, explains why neither change will have any noticeable impact on the climate. Michaels says we’re heading toward a period of what he calls “lukewarming.” The Democratic minority lodges multiple complaints about the way Republicans run the N.C. General Assembly. Some of those complaints are valid. House Democratic Leader Darren Jackson of Wake County recently protested that Republican leaders are misusing a legislative tool called a conference report to pass legislation with input from only a handful of lawmakers. Many people believe the idea of “safe spaces” on college campuses conflicts with the notion of protecting free speech. Professor James Otteson of Wake Forest University’s Eudaimonia Center offered a different take during a recent public program. Otteson says he believes universities should serve as safe spaces for free speech. He explained how those two concepts can coexist. Incumbent Republican N.C. Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jackson will face at least one opponent in her 2018 re-election bid. Democrat Anita Earls of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice has announced plans to run for Jackson’s job. Rick Henderson, Carolina Journal editor-in-chief, discusses Jackson and Earls and their potential election battle.