Pushing away overhanging vines, David Phillips muscles aside a rusty metal plate taller than he is and nearly as wide as his outstretched arms.

Business in North Carolina doesn’t get any bigger than in downtown Charlotte.

As the magnitude of the Republicans’ victory became apparent Nov. 2, Marc Basnight looked neither surprised nor angry.

In business since 1916, Thomas Built Buses has a well-known brand but faces significant challenges.

Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill, rivals on the field and off, are once again chasing the same goal: the next Gatorade

Everyone has a fuse, and when lit that fuse can ignite an extended rant on whichever subject an individual holds dear in his or her lockbox of rage.

In 2008, Wendy Banks won the Small Business Administration’s N.C. Small Business Person of the Year. With her younger brother, David Van Zee, she owns and operates Carolina Management Team, which specializes in painting and repairing water- and sewage-treatment plants.

Charlotte rose to prominence as the nation’s second-largest financial center, thanks largely to state laws that favored intrastate branching and fostered greater competition than in other states, well-timed changes in national laws and an intense rivalry between two banks that pushed them to one-up each other often.

In the five fall days that dying Tropical Storm Nicole dumped 22 inches of rain on parts of Eastern North Carolina, reporters grilled economists about damage to tourism and beaches.

With credit so tight and the economy still weak, many would-be homeowners find themselves renting instead, and Bell Partners Inc. of Greensboro is narrowing its focus on apartment complexes.

Carolina North is expected to showcase the UNC Chapel Hill’s research, entrepreneurship and academic capabilities, but officials have struggled to get the 228-acre campus off the drawing board and under construction.

Asheville has long depended on the beauty of its nearby mountains and forests to lure visitors, provide jobs and occasionally help recruit a business.

While other builders struggled in 2009, H&H Homes’ sales grew faster than any other homebuilder in the United States. That, according to Builder magazine.