Up Front: We could use a bit more honesty when assessing work performance.

Free & Clear: Politicians and activists tend to see other yards as green or brown depending on which color would be most convenient for their arguments.

Capital Goods: Relaxing certificate-of-need requirements is just one way GOP legislators seem intent on creating something resembling a free market for health care.

Up Front: Donald Trump woos to make a favorable impression of his new Mooresville course.

Capital Goods: Even if North Carolina's natural gas reserves far exceed current estimates, the larger issue of supply could affect the state’s energy future in the short term.

Free & Clear: Higher rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births raise the cost of government and, thus, act as a drag on economic growth.

Capital Goods: To change the direction campaign money is flowing, Democrats must do more than just hope the GOP loses its way by tacking too far to the right. 

Free & Clear: Neither Art Pope nor any of the John Locke Foundation’s donors has any editorial control over what I write or say. The same  goes for the governor.

Up Front: North Carolina is still a leader in manufacturing.

Up Front: North Carolina is increasingly becoming a state of shopkeepers as retail surges.

Capital Goods: “The existing system isn’t going to work now or in the future,” says Sen. Bob Rucho, who wants to sub a broader state sales tax for those levied on income.

Free & Clear: Investing wisely in transportation would boost economic growth in North Carolina, but all transportation programs are not created equal.

Free & Clear: Unwieldy and expensive, the public university's role as all things to all people relies on a combination of guild monopoly, political power and public awe.

Capital Goods: Pat McCrory supports charter schools, but he has been hesitant to embrace controversial parts of the right's education agenda, such as vouchers for private schools.

Up Front: Global learning helps our children succeed.

Up Front: Golf, for most of us, is hardly ever about the golf.

Fine Print: What I learned from my Week of Living Large as a one-percenter.

Capital Goods: North Carolina has borrowed $2.7 billion from the federal government for unemployment benefits. Now, the money has to be repaid.

Capital Goods: Republican Pat McCrory breaks the so-called Charlotte curse by winning the governor's race.

Up Front: Time is money when it comes to medical care.