Northern Light

(Mar 12, 2024) Senate democrats are making a push to try to solve the state's affordable housing crisis; go for a ski to Great Camp Santanoni in Newcomb, which hosts Winter Weekends in January, February and March; and check in with astronomer Aileen O'Donoghue about the longer days, and Jupiter, Uranus and Leo in the evening skies.

(Mar 11, 2024) Every Monday night, folks gather in Saranac Lake to write letters to politicians calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza; as Congress flirts with more government shutdowns, people in the military have to deal with the stress of missing paychecks and losing access to federal programs; we’ll talk with one of the organizers of the Support Women Artists Now events in Malone this month, including a gallery exhibit, drumming circle and print workshop.

(Mar 8, 2024) Towns and villages across the North Country are revving up their preparations for the total solar eclipse on April 8th; people with disabilities and elderly New Yorkers who use a self-managed home care program known as consumer directed services are fighting proposed budget cuts by Governor Kathy Hochul; Adirondack folk singer Dan Berggren sent us a new song to celebrate the start of a new season!

(Mar 7, 2024) State lawmakers plan to restore school aid reductions proposed by Governor Kathy Hochul in their budget proposals next week; Clarkson is transferring 16 graduate programs from its Schenectady campus to Siena College; Dr. Matthew Vaughan with the Lake Champlain Basin Program will give a talk Thursday night about the impacts of last summer's rainstorms on the lake's water quality; the current exhibit at the Hyde examines ideas of colonialism, displacement and home.

(Mar 6, 2024) St. Lawrence County's only assisted living facility is closing. The closure will strain the country's overburdened elder care system; forest rangers in the Adirondacks spent Saturday night on two separate rescues; Gov. Hochul's budget director left open the possibility that an extra $1 billion in tax collections could help reduce cuts to school budgets; Champlain Valley chef Curtiss Hemm shares one of his favorite recipes as we head into maple syrup season - maple teriyaki salmon!

(Mar 5, 2024) A statewide effort to raise awareness among students athletes and their parents about proper treatment of concussions comes to Potsdam Tuesday night at 6pm; Each winter, volunteer snowmobile clubs groom hundreds of miles of trails in Lewis County, and they do it for free; Gov. Hochul, in a congressional election year where crime remains a concern, touted her achievements that she says has helped bring down the crime rate; St. Lawrence County weaver Susan Riley shares the story of her love for textiles. An exhibit of some of her fiber art continues this month at the Lake St. Lawrence Art Gallery in Waddington.

(Mar 4, 2024) Snowmobiling is a big part of life and business in Lewis County, home to about 25,000 people. In a two part series starting today, we're diving into snowmobiling economics, weird weather, and the people who support the $80 million industry on the Tug Hill; a new report from the state outlines how climate change will affect agriculture and what farmers can do to adapt; Rob Schwimmer, former co-director of the New York Theremin Society, is bringing his theremin and haken continuum for a solo music show in Saranac, and the Saratoga Springs folk duo, Drank the Gold, is performing Irish music at TAUNY on Friday.

(Mar 1, 2024) Check out a story the NCPR newsroom is raving about. Lucy Grindon introduces us the reenactors of the Battle of Ogdensburg; a historic tent-only campground in Lewis County is getting major upgrades ahead of this summer; John Warren checks the trail conditions for us on this first weekend of March.

(Feb 29, 2024) The New York state legislature finalized new congressional lines for the 2024 races. That clears the way for petitioning for the June primaries that started this week; two political newcomers plan to challenge the mayoral and council candidates endorsed by Plattsburgh's Democratic committee; crazy for crepes at the TAUNY cafe; a celebration of listeners' Leap Day birthdays!

(Feb 28, 2024) Democrats in the New York State legislature say they hope to vote on the latest version of new Congressional district maps as early as today; many environmental leaders in the Adirondacks say DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos' leadership will be missed; the latest report from the USDA shows that maple production continues to grow in New York State. We'll talk with a maple researcher in the Adirondacks who says the North Country is a big part of the state's maple syrup industry.

(Feb 27, 2024) Democrats will draw their own maps for the 2024 New York Congressional races; NCPR interns ask folks at universities in Canton and Potsdam their thoughts on mild winter weather; Historians are trying to tell a truer story of the United States by including the vital role of Black people. Anne Hampton was a free Black woman from Hudson Falls in the 1800s when he husband was kidnapped and enslaved, the subject of 'Twelve Years a Slave'; how are farm animals faring in February? Kitty O’Neil of Cornell Cooperative Extension joins us for a new segment to get the latest on agriculture in our region.

(Feb 26, 2024) We hear what it's like to work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at a North Country college; a few skaters recently caught the perfect day out on Cascade lakes, between Lake Placid and Keene; in April, almost all of the North Country will go dark and cold for three minutes in the path of a total solar eclipse. A retired science teacher in Clinton County uses original audio to share about his road trip to totality as a high schooler in 1970.

(Feb 23, 2024) New York lawmakers need to enact new congressional district lines by next Tuesday, and control of the House of Representatives could lie in the balance; the Adirondack Experience in Blue Mountain Lake partnered with a Black artist last summer on a landscape painting where a Black man was killed nearly a century ago; John Warren checks the trail conditions before the warm-up next week; Flags, photos and foods from dozens of countries were on display last night in the Saranac Lake Middle School gymnasium, as part of Multicultural Night. We talk with some of youngsters eager to share their worldly knowledge.

(Feb 22, 2024) A public library in the Southern Adirondacks is set to reopen next week, after almost half a year of being closed. The local area erupted with controversy last spring after the library invited a drag queen to come read books to kids. In September, the librarian resigned. Now, the library has finally hired a new manager; during Black History Month, we're re-airing stories from the past year about Black history and life in the North Country. This past fall, a North Country historian released a new book that details the lives of Black people in the region from before the Revolutionary War to the 1930s; we listen back to a story on how the Woodruff Motel became a family affair.

(Feb 21, 2024) A new poll finds Governor Kathy Hochul’s popularity is slipping among New York voters. It also shows decided lack of enthusiasm for the likely Democratic and Republican candidates in the 2024 presidential race; February is Black History month, and we’re re-airing stories from the last year about Black history and life in the North Country. Today, we hear from Alice Green, a Black woman who grew up in the 1950s and 60s in a small mining town on Lake Champlain; the Grasse River Players is one of upstate New York’s oldest community theater groups and it's celebrating its 50th anniversary.

(Feb 20, 2024) Clarkson University recently started a 9-month paramedic training program. Officials say they hope to double the number of paramedics in the county in the next year; in the 1920s and 30s, the Ku Klux Klan terrorized people in St. Lawrence County, driving out most of the area's Black population over a decade; the Adirondack Center for Writing has expanded its annual Poetry Village Project to reach writers and the public in Saranac Lake, St. Lawrence County and Malone.

(Feb 19, 2024) We’re going to be diving into Black history in the North Country all this week. Today, how some scholars and local leaders have been digging deeper into that history and working to make the region a more welcoming and diverse place; a new proposal from the state's redistricting commission includes few changes to the North Country's congressional districts; our book reviewer Betsy Kepes and Todd Moe share their thoughts of the novel, "Gather", a 2023 National Book Award finalist.

(Feb 16, 2024) A new report says the number of farms, both across the country and in New York State, is continuing to shrink. It’s also highlighting continued struggles for the dairy industry; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wants congress to give bigger tax breaks to families raising children, the way it did during the pandemic. She's supporting a bill that would once again expand the child tax credit, making it more like it was at the height of COVID; an exhibition on display at SUNY Plattsburgh focuses on the humans behind mass migration; John Warren checks the impact of this long-awaited snowfall on the trail conditions in the Adirondacks

(Feb 15, 2024) Officials in Saranac Lake are calling an emergency meeting today over a monster truck with an image of the Confederate flag that drove in the winter carnival parade; how Plattsburgh police, hospital staff and family members foiled a potential mass shooting at CVPH earlier this week; conversation with artist Virginia Burnett on her beads, dyed fiber and bent metal at TAUNY.

(Feb 14, 2024) Tom Suozzi clinches key seat for House Democrats; Plattsburgh police stop armed suspect en route to CVPH; Adirondack transplants find love at Heart Lake; conversation with Canton Free Library’s director, Emily Hastings, about the joy of serving her community.