The iconic heart of the violence and charged racial upheaval in Charlottesville is the memorial statue of Robert E. Lee. Well, the statue has a couple North Country connections.

Carl Paladino has been removed from the Buffalo Board of Education in a ruling by the state education commissioner issued Thursday.Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia upheld the school board's application to remove Paladino as a member of the board.

Kraft-Heinz has been a good news story in Lowville for a long time: it's where Philadelphia cream cheese is made, and it's Lewis County's largest private employer. Last year the company launched a major expansion that brought new jobs to the region. But this summer the expansion has brought unintended consequences. The village of Lowville is requiring its residents to conserve water or face fines. That's because the Kraft-Heinz plant is using water faster than the village can filter it.

North Country leaders are watching closely as officials from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. The talks began on Wednesday after years of heated rhetoric about NAFTA from American politicians.

We've got two more weekends after this, to deal with higher than usual number of visitors - even for the summer season - in the Adirondack backcountry. Popular parking areas, boat launches, and campsites fill early; consider visiting less popular areas of the Adirondack Park.

New Yorkers who sign up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act exchanges for individuals will see their premiums rise by an average of 14 percent, now that the Cuomo administration has approved rate increases for insurers in the exchanges.

If you suffer a serious health emergency here in the North Country, there's a good chance you won't be treated here. Things like heart attacks or strokes usually require a trip to a bigger hospital in Syracuse or Burlington - and that can mean a flight on an air ambulance.

A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls 2016 the warmest year on record around the globe. The surface temperature of the Great Lakes was also above average.

There's growing pressure on a group of breakaway Democrats in the state Senate to reunite with the mainstream Democrats and form a majority to rule the Senate.At a rally in Harlem, many of the state's top African-American politicians, chanting "Andrea, Andrea," voiced their support for the current leader of Senate Democrats, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, to become the majority leader of the Senate.

Artists in the Adirondacks and Champlain Valley are preparing for the first Essex County Arts and Crafts Festival at the fairgrounds in Westport. The free event will be August 30 and 31, 10 am-4 pm.Todd Moe talks with Charles Russell, one of the organizers, about the importance of the arts in the local economy.