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.

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.

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.

Running a hospital is a balancing act: Doctors and other medical professionals try to keep patients healthy, while administrators must monitor the hospital’s vital signs.

Steve Zelnak, 65, became president of Martin Marietta Corp.’s aggregates division 27 years ago and led it through its spinoff and initial public offering as Martin Marietta Materials Inc. in 1994.

As much as High Point leaders love it each spring and fall when more than 70,000 furniture makers, exhibitors and buyers descend on the city for the High Point Market, they know their downtown needs more than the showrooms that dominate it.

Coharie Hog Farm Inc. of Clinton isn’t the largest pork producer in the state, but its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in November may be the clearest example of hard times facing Eastern North Carolina’s pork industry.

As quickly as it came, Charlotte’s claim to being the real headquarters of the nation’s 14th-largest bank holding company vanished.

2010 Legal Elite winner: Young Gun - Steven K. McCallister, Shanahan Law Group PLLC, Raleigh

2010 Legal Elite winner: Tax/Estate Planning - Michael H. Godwin, Schell Bray Aycock Abel & Livingston PLLC, Greensboro

2010 Legal Elite winner: Real Estate - Timothy G. Sellers, Sellers, Hinshaw, Ayers, Dortch & Lyons PA, Charlotte

2010 Legal Elite winner: Litigation - G. Gray Wilson, Wilson, Helms and Cartledge, Winston-Salem

2010 Legal Elite winner: Intellectual Property - David M. Krasnow, Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP,, Raleigh

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

As the autumn sun warms the woods, Michael Duke settles in for another day. On assignments like this, he sometimes dons a ghillie suit, the tattered camouflage that snipers wear to blend into underbrush.