A faster and cheaper way to become a lawyer is coming to the North Country. SUNY Canton is partnering with the University at Buffalo School of Law to create an accelerated program for students who want to become lawyers. The partnership will save students a full year of school.

A pay commission for New York's statewide elected officials recommends a hefty increase to the salaries of the governor, state senators and Assembly members, but there are some strings attached.

Northern Lights Choir hosts its Winter Concert tonight at 8 pm at St. Bernard's Church in Saranac Lake. Northern Lights Choir director Helen Demong says the theme for the concert is homecoming. The concert is considered by many in Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Keene Valley and Tupper Lake to be a traditional event that kicks off the holiday season.

A St. Lawrence County dairy farmer has been re-elected president of New York's largest farm lobbying group. Dave Fisher of Madrid will return for his second term as head of the New York Farm Bureau. Delegates re-elected Fisher unanimously at the group's annual meeting Wednesday.

Lake Effect snow has been falling in Southern St. Lawrence, Lewis, Herkimer, and Hamilton Counties. By Saturday there could be a foot in new snow Northern Herkimer County, and 4-8 inches throughout the Western Adirondacks. That will be good news snowmobilers in that area. Elsewhere snowmobile trails remain mostly closed, including in all of Warren and Eastern Essex Counties.

Democrats who will run the state Senate in January say a top priority will be to expand access to voting in New York. Advocates say there are several steps they can take.

The last time the climate warmed the Sahara was green and had a huge lake in the middle that left behind vast deposits of fine mineral-rich sediments. In these drier days the dust from that ancient lakebed now blows all the way across the Atlantic to nourish the Amazon with phosphorus and the ocean with iron.

It also shades the patch of the Atlantic where hurricanes form, lessening the strength and frequency of tropical storms that reach the North Country. The current trend back toward a warmer world might be good for the Sahara, but not so good for us. Curt Stager and Martha Foley explain.

Adirondack writer, actor, and nationally-known storyteller Fran Yardley visits TAUNY in Canton on Saturday afternoon for a book signing and talk about her recently released memoir, Finding True North - A History of One Small Corner of the Adirondacks. In 1968, she and her husband, Jay, moved to a remote corner of the Adirondacks to revive the long-abandoned but historic Bartlett Carry Club - a 1,000-acre summer resort.