* Gov. Beverly Perdue had a brief run in with a bear while taking her two dogs outside during a visit to the Western Residence in Asheville.

* News & Observer cutting 27 full-time reporters and editors as part of a companywide plan to pay down debt owed to Wall Street.

* Central Regional Hospital in Butner is again in danger of losing federal funding after a patient tried to commit suicide using a bedsheet.

* North Carolina ranks near the bottom on a per-capita basis of states receiving federal stimulus money for road and bridge projects.

Bears. Solar panels. Fingerprints. Rebates.

Those are just a few of the items that get some attention in a batch of new state laws that take effect today.

The legislature has made it illegal to for hunters to bait bears with processed foods, barred cities, counties and homeowners association from stopping residents from installing solar panels on their property, required anyone arrested for impaired driving to be fingerprinted, and required companies to mail rebates to consumers within 60 days.

The legislature also allowed victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking to legally change their names without having their new names made public. Also, starting today, it's illegal to smoke inside nursing homes and other assisted-living facilities.