President Donald Trump announced last week that he plans to commit more troops to the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan to help train and assist Afghan soldiers. The Tenth Mountain Division was one of the first units sent to Afghanistan in 2001, and one of the last combat groups to leave.

What can take on the big agressive poisonous fire ants that invaded the U.S. decades ago? The tawny crazy ant, also an import from South America. This new "superorganism" is immune to fire ant poison, and they are displacing the previous invaders.Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss a new addition to the invasive species list.

Sometimes it's not the subject, but the moment that captures an artist's attention. And St. Lawrence County artist Bill Parmer loves to spend time in his pickup in a favorite habitat: along a back road looking for just the right rural landscape in just the right light. You'll find many of Parmer's original oil "plein air" paintings on the walls at Canton Potsdam Hospital, TAUNY in Canton and other regional galleries. He lives in Buckton, just east of Potsdam, and while most of his paintings depict rural life, some feature other aspects of North Country culture, such as the iron bridge in Brasher Falls and a laker on the St. Lawrence River.

Head shops in Watertown are coming under scrutiny this week, as the New York Attorney General's office announced charges against two stores.

Canadian immigration officials are processing the thousands of Haitians who crossed the border illegally this month seeking asylum. That means a temporary shelter set up for some of them in Cornwall, Ontario, just across the St. Lawrence River from Massena, is starting to empty out.

A former EPA administrator and a former New York state health department official have teamed up with a Vermont college to conduct a health survey of people potentially affected by polluted water in the villages of Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, and in Bennington, Vermont.

The Nature Conservancy's Adirondack Chapter has a new director. Peg Olsen, who did much of her early conservation work around Lake George works for the National Audubon Society, has been tapped to take over leadership of the Conservancy's organization in Keene Valley.

Life in a small Vermont town can be idyllic, or claustrophobic. In Jeffrey Lent's new novel three generations of a Vermont family must find their way in a world changed by World War II.

The US Department of Agriculture is asking residents along the Great Lakes corridor and beyond to watch out for an invader- the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB).The bug is definitely creepy. It has long antennas with white stripes. And a black glossy exterior with asymmetrical white spots. It can fly, but it doesn't like to, said Andrea Locke the coordinator for WNY Prism, the organization was hosting the invasive clean up.

This week, filming begins for "Escape at Dannemora," a mini-series on Showtime about the 2015 prison break at Clinton Correctional Facility.It's directed by the Hollywood star Ben Stiller who, after keeping a low profile for more than a year, has been speaking with some local media about the series.