Top Stories from NCPR

There is a chance of snow and rain showers throughout the weekend, so check the weather before heading out. Summit wind chill temperatures are expected to be mostly in the single digits to near zero.

After months of backroom negotiations, the Cuomo administration yesterday unveiled plans for managing the Boreas Ponds tract in Essex County. The plan, which will likely be approved next month by the Adirondack Park Agency, drew praise from local government leaders and environmental groups. It will mean more road and snowmobile access than some green groups wanted. But it also sets the stage for a massive new High Peaks wilderness complex.

In Plattsburgh, a small group of critics are starting to speak out about the city's revitalization plan. The city won a $10-million state grant for the downtown. The largest portion will go towards a mixed-use city center with green space. But according to the city's own report, that idea wasn't popular during the planning process. And now, some people are scrambling to stop it and suggest some alternatives.

The cleanup continues at a flooded mobile home community in Plattsburgh. Police and emergency crews are gone for the most part, and residents of Underwood Estates are salvaging what's left of their homes and belongings.Howard LaBombard has lived in the park for three years. He said a lot of his neighbors are helping each other.

You can make cheese from the milk of any mammal, but who wants to go out and milk the pigs? Curt Stager came back from a trip to Italy with some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. He shares a taste with Martha Foley while they run down different processes used to make a number of varieties of cheese from the same starting point, milk. Saturday was National Cheese Lovers Day, but isn't every day, really?

A classic children's musical, horror flicks and local student-made films are part of the fourth annual Snowtown Film Festival in Watertown this weekend. Lowville veterinarian Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," will talk about life as a child actor on Saturday morning. The festival will be held Friday and Saturday at the Dulles State Office Building. It includes more than 40 films, filmmaker panels, a short film competition and awards ceremony.Kylie Peck, one of the organizers of the film fest, says the event celebrates winter and the North Country through film.

Like many parts of the North Country, Malone in Franklin County has a flood problem. The Salmon River cuts right through the town and village. Local officials say there's one spot in the northern part of the village near a sewage treatment plant that floods almost every year.

Governor Cuomo's chief of staff was one of the first witnesses to testify at the corruption trial of Governor Cuomo's former top aide, Joe Percoco. Linda Lacewell described Percoco as a trusted loyal and very senior aide to the governor.

Last week, energy developers announced they're pulling out of one of the St. Lawrence County towns where they had intended to build a wind farm.

In "The Merchant and the Purse he Lost" from Leo Tolstoy's "Fables and Fairy Tales," a merchant tries and fails to trick a man of his due. In a tale from Martin Buber's "Tales of the Hassidim," a generous person unwittingly gives away a ring of real value, and doubles down on the act.Story Traveler is unscripted storytelling from everywhere in the world, stories for the heart to hear and the mind to imagine.