Yesterday was a long day for state education commissioner John King. He and board of regents chair Merryl Tisch faced a barrage of criticism when they traveled to Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks to meet with parents and educators. And in Albany, King faced a bi-partisan grilling at a hearing on growing concerns over student privacy...Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the state will partner with Trudeau Institute and Clarkson University to create a "world-class" biotechnology research and development enterprise. Cuomo also announced that New York will spend 12-million dollars refurbishing Whiteface Memorial Highway in Wilmington... Two of the North Country's most prominent villages have begun studying the possibility of merging their school districts. And the United Way of Northern NY is launching a campaign to distribute prescription discount cards to help those who are either uninsured or underinsured...In Natural Selections: why do pigeons do so well in urban environments? And from our Book Reviewer Betsy Kepes, Alice Wolf Gilborn explores the idea of "a literature of the Adirondacks" in Out of the Blue.