Looking back, what made BB&T Corp.’s highly publicized stand against eminent domain unusual was that the Winston-Salem-based bank took a stand at all. Banks usually don’t. A Wachovia spokesman says that bank doesn’t comment on loan policy. A Bank of America flack says it doesn’t have a policy on eminent domain.

The number of Tar Heels with employer-provided health insurance dropped by more than half a million between 1999-2000 and 2003-04, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Joe Sinsheimer has long been a master at crafting political messages. His latest one is concise: Jim Black must go. Black, a Democrat from Matthews, is a 10-term state representative in his fourth term as House speaker. He’s also a key figure in the scandal involving the state lottery

Charles Sanders knows a doc can't always pick his patients.

Federal regulators might like the 1,300 school buses bought by the state from High Point-based Thomas Built Buses two years ago. They produce fewer emissions. Students who have to ride in them, though, are more likely to gripe — once their teeth stop chattering.

A 1995 Inc. magazine article questioned whether Mike Moylan, CEO of Hillsborough-based soccer-equipment retailer Sports Endeavors Inc., had put his passion for the game above his stewardship of the business.

Houston Peanuts, the salted-in-the-shell goobers bagged by Dublin-based Peanut Processors Inc., have been sold in nearly every Major League ballpark sometime or another the past 30 years. But in the middle of the 2001 season, they were dropped from the most famous of all — Yankee Stadium.

When a company offers to create 900 well-paying jobs, it’s usually a no-brainer for the state Commerce Department. Officials craft an incentive package to cinch the deal and rush to get it signed before another state ups the ante.

Call Bruce Thomas a driving force behind buses, tractor- trailers and other heavy-equipment vehicles. He has marketed them or technology for them more than 25 years. His latest product — a bypass-filtration system that he says will allow tractor-trailers to go 360,000 miles between oil changes — could put him in the fast lane.