RALEIGH — During the first few months of America’s war for independence, the British redcoats occupying the rebellious city of Boston won one major battle (for Bunker Hill and nearby Breed’s Hill, on June 17, 1775) as well as several minor skirmishes. But the Continental Army, under its new commander George Washington, kept the occupiers bottled up in the city. If the Americans ever managed to place cannons onto the heights overlooking the harbor, the British authorities realized, their position in Boston would become untenable.

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s economy just posted a sizzling 5.6% growth rate. Since 2020, average income per North Carolinian rose faster than the national and regional averages. And our headline unemployment rate in December was 3.9% — quite low by historical standards.

RALEIGH — You may not be interested in federal deficits, but federal deficits are very interested in you.

RALEIGH — With the 2026 primaries rapidly approaching, you may well live in a jurisdiction where Democrats or Republicans are actively contesting nominations for Congress, state legislature, or local office. All voters can, of course, play a role in setting the table for this year’s U.S. Senate contest.

RALEIGH — I’m an early riser. I have been since early adulthood — long, long before any hungry children, or a certain German Shepherd, came along to command my early-morning attention.

RALEIGH — According to folklore, extraordinary beings resent being confined within ordinary spaces. In “The Fisherman and the Jinni,” one of the stories Sheherazade tells her misguided husband in One Thousand and One Nights, the being in question is so angry at being imprisoned for centuries in a bottle that he has to be tricked into granting wishes rather than killing his lowly liberator outright. In Disney’s Aladdin, the genie isn’t so vengeful but still describes his confinement as “phenomenal cosmic powers” uncomfortably crammed into an “itty bitty living space.”