Since I have a job and don’t have time right now to do the research I’d like to, I had this fantasy today about stories I’d assign reporters at the Winston-Salem Journal if I was their editor.  Here’s my short list:

• Look at how many companies have gotten incentives to locate their companies in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County over the last four or five years, figure out how much those incentives totaled, how many jobs they created and the direct benefit to the city/county’s coffers.  I know there are indirect benefits tied to it, but I’d tell them to focus on the hard numbers (there are after all some indirect costs associated with businesses too).  Maybe come up with a nice cost-per-job number and an annual-revenue-per-job number.  Avoid drawing an "incentives are evil" conclusion, just pull together as much quantifiable data as possible and provide some perspective, then let people draw their own conclusion. 
• Figure out how many companies in the city/county have dropped or decreased employee health coverage.  Look into what that means for city/county agencies and institutions that deal with health issues.
• In the most recent issue of Wired magazine they do a story on the rising "megalopolis’" in the US, and identify 10 regions where these things will grow.  The I-85 corridor between Raleigh and Atlanta is identified as one of these, and the rising bio-tech industry is projected to be the main economic engine for the region.  What does this mean for W-S and its nascent bio-tech industry?  What’s the impact of the recent announcement about the Kannapolis development?

I figure that could keep them busy for a while.  I just wish I had the time to do it myself.