Carolina Journal Radio No. 755: N.C. attorney general latches onto anti-Trump cause

State Attorney General Josh Stein has latched onto national campaigns designed to resist Trump administration policies. Jon Guze, John Locke Foundation director of legal studies, analyzes Stein’s actions. Guze assesses whether North Carolinians stand to benefit from Stein’s anti-Trump stances. Most of us rely on experts to help guide at least some of our decisions. But expertise can be misused, especially in the political process. Andrew Taylor, professor of political science at N.C. State University, wrote a recent Carolina Journal column outlining cases of an overreliance on expert opinion, rather than input from affected voters and property owners, in important local government decisions. Taylor shares themes from that column. The N.C. Child Fatality Task Force has been focusing attention on the impact of the state’s opioid epidemic for North Carolina’s youngest residents. Task force executive director Kella Hatcher shares information about the group’s findings. The United States faces a host of national security challenges. During a recent speech at Duke University, former Obama administration homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco detailed some of those threats and the Trump administration’s response to them. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not move forward with the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. While some environmental activists decry the EPA’s reversal on the power plan, Jon Sanders believes the decision represents good news. The John Locke Foundation’s director of regulatory studies explains why the plan would have generated far more costs than benefits for North Carolinians.