Top Stories from NCPR

Governor Andrew Cuomo might have to face some star power in his bid for a third term next year.Actress Cynthia Nixon, in an appearance on NBC's Today Show yesterday, acknowledged that "a lot of people" would like her to run for governor. She would likely challenge Cuomo in a Democratic primary.

Potsdam-born singer/songwriter Phil Hurley, who lives in Texas, is coming home to the North Country to share his particular style of folk, rock and Americana at the Edwards Opera House on Saturday night.Hurley's career has taken him to Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Amsterdam. Today, Austin, Texas is where he hangs his hat. He plays guitar with the South Austin Moonlighters. Hurley told Todd Moe that his life-long love for performing music began as a child in Potsdam.

Military families move a lot and that makes it hard for service members' spouses to hold steady jobs. About half of military spouses are either unemployed or underemployed and that can take a toll on their families, their earning power, and the economy. When Anne Schons describes her career, she uses the word "imagine" a lot. In college, Schons studied music education.

The big event on the astronomy calendar this month is the solar eclipse on August 21. But the night and morning skies are busy this season; Jupiter and Saturn are bright spots after dusk, and Venus is the morning star. St. Lawrence University astronomer Aileen O'Donoghue stopped by this morning to talk about some of the highlights this month, including a spectacular meteor shower and the eclipse.

The Trump administration wants to slash roughly $175 million from federal subsidies for passenger service to rural airports. If that part of the White House budget is approved this fall, it would hit five airports here in northern New York, including Watertown, Massena, Ogdensburg, Lake Clear and Plattsburgh.Supporters of the cuts say the subsidies are an outdated taxpayer boondoggle. But Republican and Democratic politicians are fighting to keep the Essential Air Service program for at least another year.

Lake Ontario is down a foot since hitting its highest level in a hundred years of record keeping last May. The water is still really high, though. It's causing damage from Buffalo to Cape Vincent, especially on windy days like over the weekend.But now the regulators that manage water levels on the lake and the St. Lawrence River face a different problem - the water is going down too fast in some places. Just after midnight early Tuesday morning, they began easing back on the amount of water they push downstream.

After 16 years, journalist Chris Knight is moving his byline into the college communications world. Knight's been a "voice" in Saranac Lake for 16 years, first as news director at local radio station WNBZ, then as senior staff writer at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise newspaper - and regularly through those years as a contributing reporter here at NCPR. But by the end of the summer, he'll be starting his next career, as communications director at North Country Community College.Martha Foley first worked with Chris back in his local radio days. He told her he moved to the local newspaper looking for a new challenge.

The heavy rainfall this summer has caused a wide range of effects on North Country agriculture. Some crops are growing like crazy. Others have been damaged by heavy rains.

(Aug 7, 2017) Matt Horner is a sculptor who works in Keene, and he carves a rather unusual material. If you've ever climbed a mountain in the Adirondacks, you have probably stepped all over his favorite medium - Adirondack anorthosite. It comes in all colors, but the majority is grey or blue; it looks a bit like granite.