Last week, roughly 200 people turned out in Lake Placid to talk about the future of short-term rentals in the village and the surrounding town of North Elba. The public hearing turned into a passionate debate about the community’s future.

Summer's traditional all-star combination of flavors is that of tomato and basil. Chef Curtiss Hemm says this is the best time of the year to enjoy tomatoes - right off the vine.

Chef Curtiss loves to teach and get people passionate about food any time of the year. He’s the former Dean of Culinary Arts at the New England Culinary Institute in Burlington, and has also taught at Paul Smiths College.

These days he and his family live in Peru, NY where he runs the Carriage House Cooking School. Many of his recipes are found in Northern Home, Garden and Leisure Magazine.

Speaking at the lobby of the Lewis County General Hospital, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, said hospitals in the North Country will be in great financial risk if Congress does not act.

Alex Bay was supposed to be a pit stop for Judy Keeler. In her early twenties, she was drafted to come up to the St. Lawrence River and serve as a school speech therapist. She says she had a clear plan: stay for three years, earn enough money to go back to school and become a clinical speech therapist, and "live in some city that had culture."

Five decades later, Judy is still in Alexandria Bay. She says "I met a River Rat... and it turns out there's culture here."

Summer is winding down, kids are heading back to school, but there’s still time to hit the trails while the weather is warm. Emily Russell and Doyle Dean met up in southern St. Lawrence County to hike Cat Mountain in the Five Ponds Wilderness.

SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson is calling the Excelsior Scholarship a success despite statistics that show it was used by only 3.2% of SUNY students to help pay tuition costs in its first year.

Another of New York state’s new gun laws has gone into effect. The “red flag” law now allows family members or others to petition a court to remove guns from a person’s possession if there appears to be a clear risk of harm.

Last year, an investigation by Spectrum News found families based at Fort Drum were dealing with mold in their Army-owned houses.

It turns out they weren’t alone. Town halls were held earlier this year at military installations across the country following widespread reports of mold, lead paint, and rodents in military housing.

When mold was found last month in nearly 2,500 dorm rooms at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Air Force members at the base took to social media to publicize the situation, leading to a unusually massive response from the Air Force that continued into late August.

A new study suggests that children growing up in “disadvantaged” neighborhoods are nearly one-third more likely to face obesity as adults.

Even after more than 45 years as a potter, Cheri Cross admits that she's still learning and experimenting with turning a lump of mud into a work of art.