Thousands of employees at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem will be affected by several cost-cutting measures. The hospital is planning to freeze some hiring, reduce retirement contributions and ask employees to voluntarily take furloughs.

  The North Carolina Renewables Program, instated in 2007, requires utility companies to produce a percentage of sales from efficiency efforts or renewable sources. The program has since pushed North Carolina up in solar farm research and also created jobs during a recession. Efforts to repeal the program have recently been introduced to the House and Senate, claiming that the programs will have a negative impact on the economy.

Last Friday, Carlos Warner called one of his 11 clients in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and offered to help negotiate the end of a hunger strike that detainees are holding. But the client, Fayiz al Kandari, declined his offer, and asked why the U.S. Army will not talk directly to them.

Elizabeth Spencer’s most famous book is called “The Light in the Piazza.”  It’s the story of an American girl who falls in love with a man in Italy.  And it’s been adapted to a movie and a stage musical.  But Elizabeth has created a large body of work, though none is quite so famous. There’s a new documentary based on Elizabeth Spencer’s life called “Landscapes of the Heart: The Elizabeth Spencer Story.”

President Barack Obama has tapped a North Carolina elected official for a federal post for the second time this week.   On Wednesday, he nominated Charlotte congressman Mel Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency. 

Eleven new members are set to join the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.  Thursday night's induction ceremony and banquet marks the museum's 50th anniversary. 

Hall of Fame executive director Don Fish says the class of 2013 includes hockey legend Ron Francis, who retired a year before the Carolina Hurricanes won their first and only championship.

"It changed the face of sports in North Carolina," Fish says.

Leaders in Greensboro are accepting submissions for a federal grant that will award one million dollars for an innovative plan.  The winning idea is supposed to help the city’s economy by designing a way to improve long-term job prospects.  Organizers admit they’re being purposely vague to see what kind of submissions they get to develop the city.  A panel of about 20 people that will ultimately chose the winning entry, met for the first time on Wednesday.

From 1976 to 1986, a violent criminal terrorized communities across California. He became known as the Golden State Killer, and was linked to at least 50 rapes and 10 murders. For years, his whereabouts were hazy.

Then, the writer Michelle McNamara started the blog True Crime Diary, where she and a community of fellow obsessives started piecing together clues that had long been passed over by authorities.

Duke University has dropped out of a consortium of schools that will offer for-credit online courses. Duke faculty made the decision last week in a close vote.

In ending Duke’s participation in the Semester Online program, faculty on the Arts and Sciences Council said the decision to offer for-credit online courses had not been fully vetted by them. Some faculty members also expressed concern over the partner universities not being as highly-ranked as Duke.