Not long ago, a crowd in the hundreds — large by the standards of your usual Raleigh political protest — showed up at the Legislative Building.

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.

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.

Last year, The Motley Fool investor website posted a piece entitled “Why Does North Carolina Hate Amazon?”

The awarding of Pulitzer Prizes tends to be, by design, a low-key affair.

Shaking, she poked a shotgun in my face. They called her “The Witch of Micro,” a stooped old woman in a flour-sack dress, living in a shack with several rheumy-eyed dogs and some chickens.

With the hyperventilation over health care having abated a bit — which is to say, now that we all understand civilization has neither been saved nor destroyed, that angels didn’t sing nor did evil triumph — let’s ponder how North Carolina’s capitalist pie might get resliced as a result.

The General Assembly may get the chance this year to perform that rarest of legislative feats — shrink government and promote free enterprise.

Scars fleck my flesh. Many were inflicted by folly, like the now nearly invisible one at the corner of my right eye, etched when I toppled into a toy box as a toddler.

It is an article of faith in Wake County, where I live, that the Triangle’s economic vitality is due in no small measure to its progressive, nationally lauded school system.

For several years, John Davis has been saying that the General Assembly is becoming less friendly to business.

I got a news release the other day from SBR Consulting, a Charlotte human-resources company, touting its study of how the recession has changed the views of young workers — “millennials,” specifically those in the workforce born after 1977.

Ponder this: Mike Easley might be a victim of the housing bubble.

There are certain words and phrases which, when spoken out loud, tend to provoke expressions of regret as bad memories cascade.

Elsewhere in this issue you’ll find an article I wrote about Ken Lewis, the beleaguered (and now former) chief executive officer of Bank of America Corp.

This marks the 23rd time Business North Carolina has named a Mover and Shaker of the Year, and like our current pick, more than a third have been bankers.

As 2009 came to a close, Gov. Beverly Perdue made sure North Carolinians knew presents were on the way just in time for Christmas.

Few places in the U.S. suffered as much as Charlotte during the near meltdown of the nation’s financial sector in late 2008.

Eastern North Carolina has long been a political colossus and an economic runt.

The ’00s weren’t kind to the Triad. Employment in the region slipped about 5% during the decade as manufacturing jobs left.

The recession wasn’t as brutal to the Triangle as it was to other parts of the state, but the blows it dealt weren’t all love taps.

Just when the western part of the state had nearly recovered from the recession of 2001, along came the second downturn of the decade.

It hasn’t been a good year for research and development. In and around Research Triangle Park, which is old enough (51 this month) to be admired for its longevity and to feel the occasional ache in its bones, there were a couple of significant twinges in November.

As 2009 ends, economists forecast a mostly jobless recovery. That’s bad news for people out of work. It’s also not so good for anyone who pays taxes, drives on roads or sends their kids to public schools.

Commenting on one of his photos that appeared in this magazine, Will Mitchell joked that he picks stocks better than he picks barbers.

Arriving via vintage firetruck, Santa has boarded the train, now crawling along one of the tracks that once lined this place like the wrinkles the sun etches on a farmer’s face.

Watching Pete Verna hobble from his office to his sport utility vehicle, Senior Editor Frank Maley wondered whether he should try to keep him from getting behind the wheel. “Walking seemed such a struggle for him.

Cree Inc., the Durham company that has spent most of the 22 years since its founding trying to get the world to appreciate the potential of its light-emitting-diode technology, had an enviable October.

Things could be worse for Janet Cowell. Instead of entering office during the Great Recession, she could have been elected in the Great Depression.

Talk about leading with your chin: On this page last month, I lamented the loss of craftsmanship and commitment to getting it right in much of what passes for journalism these days.

Without meaning to, two North Carolina banks this year turned themselves into unwitting participants in a business-school case study that MBA candidates will chew on for years to come.

In 2002, supporters of what was deemed model clean-air legislation saw new requirements on the state’s power companies as something unimaginable a few years earlier.

Without a doubt Charlotte-Mecklenburg elected leaders, past and present, contributed to the demise of Eastland Mall.

On Sept. 17, 2007, a for-sale sign was jammed into the front yard of my home, which I had bought just 2 1/2 years prior (which is to say, near the peak of the housing market). Thus began my education in real estate.

So much for government not negotiating with terrorists. A decade ago, Bruce Marks billed himself a “bank terrorist,” and he hasn’t backed away from the label.

Here goes, another refrain from The Old Fart’s Lament: It was different back then, 41 years ago when I started in this business.

Whenever some big-name company takes the bait — the big money the state uses to lure them — it seems to happen. The governor and secretary of commerce grin widely as they announce how North Carolina landed the trophy with tax breaks, grants and other financial incentives.

You never know how many friends you have until tragedy strikes. Well, tragedy might be a bit strong. “Some woman backed into me,” my wife whimpers over the phone.

Recession has hit North Carolina’s job market harder than most. The gap between the state’s unemployment rate and the nation’s widened late last year, and Matthew Martin says the U.S. economy will recover quicker than North Carolina’s

The Business North Carolina magazine staff pays attention to business and the people important to the state’s stories,” the judges — members of the University of Missouri journalism faculty — said.

I’m not a smoker, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Back in the ’90s — you remember, when the dot-com bubble pushed your stock portfolio so high that early retirement seemed right around the corner — Congress and Bill Clinton decided the time had come to overhaul the nation’s telecommunications laws.

Let’s do this Jeopardy!-style: I’ll give you the answer, and you craft your response in the form of a question. Ready? The category is “Things in Common,” and the answer is, “They recently offered a vivid demonstration of the difference between what’s legal and what’s right.”

More than a decade ago, a writer for a national publication reported that businesses and governments were becoming “disillusioned with incentives.”

On April 27, Dan Gearino announced on his Web site that he was putting his two-year-old blog on hold “to concentrate on other, income-producing pursuits.” Among them: the cover story in this month’s issue (read here).

Anyone who has lived in North Carolina longer than, oh, 15 minutes or so knows of the intense sibling rivalry between Charlotte and Raleigh.

Every so often, I’m reminded that journalists enjoy only about as much popularity among the general public as lawyers.

We once had an editor who believed the magazine put too much emphasis on banking, an accusation to which I, as the guy guiding BNC’s coverage the last 22 years, can only plead guilty.

North Carolina should eliminate most of its tax credits for job creation and investment, according to a study done for the General Assembly.