North Carolina’s outdated certificate-of-need law leads medical providers to fight for a government permission slip to add new medical facilities or major equipment. Becki Gray, the John Locke Foundation’s vice president for outreach, discusses a current CON dispute involving a new dental surgery center. North Carolina policymakers could get a better handle on how well government programs work by taking part in a project called Results First. John Turcotte, head of the General Assembly’s Program Evaluation Division, touted Results First during a recent presentation to lawmakers. The Pew and MacArthur Foundations sponsor the program. It uses data to determine how well government programs stack up against their promised goals. Thanks largely to a recommendation from the John Locke Foundation, lawmakers adopted a process to review more than 21,000 state rules. The review will determine which rules ought to be scrapped because they’re outdated or ineffective. So far, more than 600 rules have been dropped. Rules Review Commission chairman Garth Dunklin recently offered legislators a progress report. With increased scrutiny and changes in programming, including the end of “Downton Abbey” and the move of “Sesame Street,” leaders at UNC Television know they need to change the way they do business. Gail Zimmermann, interim director and general manager, assesses the future of public television in North Carolina. That includes new programs and the new North Carolina Channel. The State Board of Education continues to tackle weighty topics, such as the best way to teach math skills. Lindalyn Kakadelis, JLF’s director of education outreach, shares highlights from the SBOE’s latest monthly meeting.