There are about 300,000 fewer jobs in North Carolina today than there were in February, before the start of the COVID-19 recession. That’s a 7.5% drop in total employment — the biggest decline in the southern United States.

The person who manages most of state government’s financial assets — the $107 billion pension fund for state and local employees, for starters — is not an appointee of the governor. The voters of North Carolina elect a state treasurer every four years.

For 16 years, former state Rep. Cherie Berry has served as North Carolina’s labor commissioner. Now she’s retiring, and another Republican state representative, Josh Dobson of McDowell County, is running to replace her.

North Carolina, like most of the country, has become increasingly polarized in our political thinking and behavior. But what does that really mean?

 In this seemingly endless year of disease, destruction, dissension, and despair, what’s an optimist to do?

When Democrat Jen Mangrum and Republican Catherine Truitt first filed to run for state superintendent of public instruction, neither could have expected that the central issue of the 2020 race would be whether to allow public schools to provide in-person instruction to North Carolina children.

North Carolina’s economy, battered by COVID-19 itself as well as government’s costly attempts to contain its spread, is still struggling to recover. There were about 350,000 fewer jobs in August than in February. That’s a 7.6% decline in total employment — the worst in the Southeast.

The post of lieutenant governor is a constitutional office in North Carolina, and the only one empowered to exercise both legislative and executive powers. Those powers are rather limited, however — casting a vote in the state senate when there is a tie, “presiding” over that chamber in a titular (but rarely practical) sense, and serving on several boards.

North Carolina is already the homeschooling capital of the United States. Now the attraction of this education option is soaring higher than ever — thanks not to the actions of its proponents but to the antics of its opponents.

 According to the latest jobs report, North Carolina’s headline unemployment rate fell to 6.5% in August, down from 8.5% in July. Good news worth celebrating, right?