Just two weeks after a former key aide to ex-Gov. Mike Easley pleaded not guilty to 57 counts of corruption, Ruffin Poole walked into a Raleigh courtroom and pleaded guilty to one count of income tax evasion. The guilty plea is just one element of a plea agreement. Carolina Journal Managing Editor Rick Henderson discusses the provisions of the document, including the polygraph examinations Poole must take when asked by prosecutors to do so. Henderson also explains the tax evasion plea, which is related to a financial benefit received by Poole related to an investment in the coastal development known as Cannonsgate. It is the same development where ex-Gov. Mike Easley bought a lot. Then we turn to the worldwide controversy known as “Climategate,” which surfaced in late 2009. Since then, evidence has surfaced regularly that questions the conventional wisdom about global warming. Paul Chesser, a special correspondent for The Heartland Institute and director of Climate Strategies Watch, discusses the impact of Climategate on both the state and national climate change debates. Next we look at the Tax Day Tea Parties attended by thousands of North Carolinians in cities and towns from the mountains to the coast. John Locke Foundation President John Hood addressed about 700 people in Winston-Salem. You’ll learn why Hood is saying no to future bailouts and stimulus packages. People also gathered for a tax day Tea Party in Goldsboro. You’ll hear from some of the participants, along with featured speaker Roy Cordato, JLF vice president for research and resident scholar. Cordato urged participants to fight all new taxes and increases in existing taxes. And finally, we delve into media coverage of the Tea Party Movement. Carolina Journal Publisher Jon Ham has been watching the coverage for nearly a year. He discusses the mainstream media’s initial reluctance to even cover the grassroots movement and how the coverage has morphed, for the most part, into a predictable portrayal of movement members as a volatile, potentially dangerous fringe group.