Barack Obama is ahead of Hillary Clinton in North Carolina by 12 points. No, it's 5 points. Wait, now the lead is 14 points.

April 19 was a big day for N.C. State football fans. It was the day of the Red-White game to show off next season's team. But for many, the day got off to a bad start when they picked up their morning copy of The N&O.

The News & Observer's front page became an inbox last week for sensational stories about e-mail.

As newspapers strive to redefine themselves as multimedia information companies, one of the challenges is to find out what users of new media expect of us.

Business and economics headlines from The News & Observer last week: "Bernanke utters the 'R' word." "Jobless figures head upward." "Sales of Triangle homes off again." "Auto sales dip in March for all make

'Mahato, Carson cases marked by uneven responses," read the headline in the Duke student newspaper last week. "Race, sex may affect news."

The Barack Obama campaign arrived in North Carolina last week. Did the Obama Swoon arrive as well?

A reader wrote recently wondering whether The N&O might survey readers to find out how many actually "enjoy and profit from your extensive coverage of fashion 'news.'

The News & Observer has been sticking its chin out at the governor lately. What gives? In the past few weeks, the paper has been noticeably aggressive in its coverage of Gov. Mike Easley, in the context of reporting on the failures of the state's mental health reform program.

One purpose of The N&O's "Mental Disorder" series was to put a face on problems surrounding the failed effort to reform North Carolina's mental health system. Some readers said the paper was too successful in that respect.

Two weeks ago, Albert Harris was a respected professor at UNC-Chapel Hill who labored in obscurity teaching biology to pre-med students. By most accounts, he did a pretty good job.

The calls and e-mails started pouring in within hours of the DNA report last Monday. The words differed, but the message was the same: When is The News & Observer going to 'fess up that it got the Duke sexual assault story wrong?

Outrage" has been the operative word to describe community sentiment in Durham in the past week. And justifiably so, if the allegations against members of the Duke men's lacrosse team are even close to true.

Philip Meyer is a newspaperman who thinks he can measure anything.

Aaaarrrrgh! That was the sound you heard Tuesday from the editors' offices on the third floor of The News & Observer building. Maybe it echoed around some readers' kitchen tables that morning too, as folks read the seven corrections.

An ugly incident at the N.C. State-Wake Forest game prompted an even uglier public debate last week about journalism as practiced at The News & Observer. Let's talk about it.

Rare is the week that this public editor doesn't receive a complaint that The News & Observer has ignored an important news story.

The News & Observer's news columnists have been getting under readers' skins lately. That's good.

Got a call the other day from a reader wanting to know why The News & Observer had downplayed the resignation of CNN news chief Eason Jordan. Jordan, you'll recall, stirred controversy with his reported assertion that the U.S. military had deliberate