Supporters have called the proposed North Carolina International Terminal “America’s Next Great Port.”

Even in good times, downtown theaters and sports arenas can run in the red their first few years, and the Durham Performing Arts Center had no warm economic wind at its back.

For a decade, western North Carolina has tried to brand itself as a magnet for creative, digital-age businesses.

Gradually, it seemed, prosperity was taking hold.

A high-school dropout who once sold encyclopedias door-to-door in his native Canada, John Kent Cooke Jr.’s grandfather was a millionaire by the time he was 31.

By now, alert readers may have noticed an amazing consistency in the retail-sales numbers we run in our NC Trend section.

It’s necessary in these modern times, when discussing the issue of diversity, to tiptoe toward it carefully — if not step around it entirely.

To paraphrase Dr. John, he was in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time.

Perhaps they did the victory lap too soon.

While fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico use their boats to scoop up oil from a rig that exploded off the coast of Louisiana in April, Tar Heel fishermen are gearing up for what could be a big year — thanks indirectly to a spreading slick that has crippled one of the nation’s most bountiful sources of seafood.

Renegade Holdings Inc. wanted to emerge from Chapter 11.

Two years ago, many American universities and business schools began looking abroad for ways to expand their enrollment, broaden their contacts, build their brand and attract top talent.

Democrats in the legislature and governor’s mansion have been stumbling over themselves to scrape together enough money to give a modest tax break to small-business owners.

In April, an organization called the Triangle Gaming Initiative held its second annual conference in Raleigh.

That Oscar P. Wong isn’t cool might well be among the most salient assets he brings to Highland Brewing Co.

Behind the scenes, a high-stakes game of chicken unfolded for nearly three years.

When the oil rig that exploded in April off the coast of Louisiana poured millions of gallons of black gold into the Gulf of Mexico, it also muddied the water for those aching to drill for oil and gas in the Atlantic Ocean.