Top Stories from NCPR

"We're a pair of hermits, really," is how MaryAnn Spavins Owen describes the way she and her husband, John Malcolm Owen, like to live and work. They're metalworkers, and they've been making metal pieces and sculptures for over forty years from their home studios outside Pierrepont. They call themselves Winged Camel Metalworks.

They might not look very pretty, but the extended spell of sunny, 80-something days this month has given garden tomatoes some extra ripening time. But it's given the diseases that attack tomato vines extra time, too.Cornell Cooperative Extension's Amy Ivy suggests picking fruit a little early, as it starts to ripen, to minimize damage.

Cuomo spoke just before taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in a fully loaded plane provided by JetBlue. Sixty members of New York's National Guard also will be going to offer assistance. And the governor is bringing several power system engineers with him to assess how best to repair the damaged electrical grid.

South Glens Falls Central School says there will be more training for staff after two students who identify as transgender were ordered off a school bus last week. The incident was captured by a student on video, which went viral over the weekend.

It's been a few weeks since the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe announced a landmark partnership with drug giant Allergan. Allergan, based in Ireland, makes Botox and other hugely popular medicines.

Last year New York State set an ambitious energy goal: to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. That means building more generation capacity, and right now there are eight proposed wind projects from northern St. Lawrence to northern Oswego counties. But Army officials and community leaders say building more wind turbines in Fort Drum's airspace will make its aircraft and weather radar systems unreliable - which could impact training and readiness.

We're getting near peak fall foliage season in the High Peaks, and the excellent weather forecast for the weekend means that boat launches, trailhead parking lots, and backcountry camping spots will fill to capacity early. The Marcy Field shuttle is still operating. You can avoid the crowds by visiting areas of the Adirondack Park outside of the High Peaks.

Governor Cuomo says $89 million dollars will be spent repurposing prison facilities to house young offenders. One of the prisons that will be rebuilt is Adirondack Correctional Facility in Ray Brook here in the North Country.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner is considering a possible challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a Democratic primary for the 2018 governor's race.Miner said if she does run for governor, it won't be a conventional campaign.

An energy developer with plans to build a big wind farm in rural St. Lawrence County recently got a surprise.