Top Stories from NCPR

The Norwood Village Green Concert Series opens its 44th annual season on Thursday afternoon with the St. Lawrence County Pop Choral/Stage Band Festival beginning at 3 pm. The popular summer music series in downtown Norwood has introduced North Country audiences to a wide variety of world class musicians and dancers, including drumming groups, puppets, brass bands and chamber orchestras. The series has presented performers from every continent, and has included 17 Grammy award winners, but founder and director Joe Liotta told Todd Moe that he always makes sure to showcase local talent.

It's been a tough spring for hikers. But on the other side of all that mud and all those bugs you find crowd-free summits and Wagnerian views.

There are new state grants available to help some of the North Country’s neediest students and school districts.As part of a statewide anti-poverty initiative, certain districts can apply for funding to expand their after-school programs. Education officials say those are key for keeping kids in school.

The cheery storefronts of college towns often mask the darker realities that locals face. Jennifer McMahon focuses on the underworld of a post-industrial Vermont town in her latest thriller.

Governor Cuomo was in the Rochester yesterday to take a look at the damage from recent flooding along Lake Ontario. It was his second visit this month.He stopped by a home in the Town of Greece, where some of the worst flooding has been concentrated.Cuomo has previously pledged $10 million in state aid for eligible municipalities and up to $5 million in grants for small businesses. Now, he said, the state will make $7 million available to help homeowners impacted by flooding along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

People along the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario aren’t the only ones suffering from a rainy spring. This year's soggy weather has farmers in scrambling, too. Many farms are weeks behind in their planting schedules.

How the Republican health care bill would play out looks different from state to state. Some states would pursue waivers, meaning they wouldn’t need to cover certain health services. Others, like New York, are not expected to pursue the option to drop coverage programs, but the proposed federal budget cuts may still force some difficult decisions.

Imagine if you could hike across much of the Adirondack Park while sleeping in a soft, warm bed every night with someone to cook your meals. The Cuomo administration is quietly developing a plan that would bring "hut-to-hut" style luxury camping to the North Country. Green groups like the idea, but only if the lodging and luxury "glamping" takes place on private land and not on the forever wild forest preserve. That's become a major sticking point, one that threatens to complicate the already fierce debate over how to classify the new Boreas Ponds tract in Essex County.

Turtles, fish and frogs rule at the new Nicandri Nature Center at Robert Moses State Park in Massena. The 9,500 square-foot facility will provide science and nature education in indoor and outdoor settings for the public, including school and community groups. It will also serve as a send-out station for hiking the nearly five miles of marked trails in the park.

Adirondack conservationist Clarence Petty lived to the age of 104. By any measure, he packed a lot of living into those years. He was a pioneering aviator, a teacher, and a woodsman. But Clarence Petty’s most enduring accomplishment was his role in setting aside vast tracts of the Adirondack Park as wilderness.