A milestone has been reached in North Carolina’s budget battle, with the House version passed and the Senate now looking at its version before the two are reconciled, passed, and sent to the governor for her signature or veto. Joe Coletti, John Locke Foundation Director of Health and Fiscal Policy Studies, explains the details of the House version, compares it with Gov. Perdue’s priorities, and offers improvements. Then we turn to efforts to prohibit so-called predatory lending. Some state legislators want to change North Carolina’s rules for the consumer loan industry. They’re speaking out against the industry’s so-called “predatory lending,” but Harold Black, professor of financial institutions at the University of Tennessee, offers a different perspective. He says rules designed to restrict so-called “predatory” lending end up hurting the consumers they’re designed to protect. Next is a look at a key responsibility of the new Republican-led General Assembly. As Republican legislative leaders move forward with their plans to redraw state congressional and legislative election maps, advocates are speaking out for reform of the way those maps are drawn. Reps. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, and William Current, R-Gaston, discuss a bill designed to create an independent redistricting commission with rules designed to limit the amount of politics involved in the map-drawing process. That’s followed by a look at the influence of the environmental movement. One analyst says the movement appears to have waned in recent years. Steven Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute and Pacific Research Institute explains why he believes the radical environmental lobby has little impact on public policy these days. And finally, Michael Sanera, Local Government Analyst for the John Locke Foundation, discusses the cash reserves held by local governments and the pressure from some state legislators on cities and counties to tap those reserves to fill any holes that may come from reduced state funding.