By WHITNEY WOODWARD By Whitney Woodward The Associated Press RALEIGH North Carolina public school teachers will see their annual performance bonuses sliced by almost 30 percent under a plan approved by the State Board of Education on Thursday.

By Donna Swicegood, Statesville Record & Landmark, N.C. Jul. 9--Three local landlords asked two members of the N.C. Utilities Commission to nix a request by Public Service of North Carolina to hike natural gas rates by 3 percent.

Stion (www.stion.com), a next-generation solar photovoltaic company developing high-efficiency thin-film modules using proprietary materials and device structures, announced that it has hired Robert Wieting, who has 28 years of product development experience in photovoltaics, as Vice President of Research and Development.

Howard Lee, chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Education, is being awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE).

By T. Keung Hui, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Oct. 5--A group of North Raleigh teachers and parents beat out a well-financed and well-organized private company for one of the state's last charter school openings.