Top Stories from NCPR

Soon, Lifetime will release not one, but two films about Joyce Mitchell. She’s the former civilian prison employee at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, who helped two inmates escape in 2015. [full story]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo headed west yesterday to celebrate new state laws that make college more affordable and permit the upstate expansion of Uber and Lyft.The Democratic governor took a victory lap in Buffalo and Rochester. Tuesday to tout provisions in the state's new $153-billion state budget, which lawmakers passed over the weekend. [full story]

St. Lawrence County is considering a big change to the way tobacco products are bought and sold.Republican lawmaker John Burke wants to raise the age limit for buying cigarettes in St. Lawrence County from 18 to 21. Similar laws have been passed around the state, but mostly in urban areas. [full story]

An environmental group that transformed the Adirondack Park over the last twenty years, while redefining the politics of land conservation, is undergoing a sweeping reorganization. The Adirondack chapter of the Nature Conservancy, TNC, headquartered in Keene Valley, is spinning off a subsidiary called the Adirondack Land Trust. TNC has already parted company with its longtime executive director, Mike Carr. [full story]

The local food movement has been chugging away now for more than a decade, and there’s been tons of growth and excitement, with more farmers markets, CSAs, and festivals than ever before, and pretty much artisanal everything. Largely left out of this fun and ambitious scene are regular North Country dairy farmers, even though they account for far more in agricultural sales. [full story]

These days one doesn’t associate a newsroom with toxic chemicals. But a few decades ago newspapers often printed papers in-house, and the Adirondack Daily Enterprise was one of them. Their old building at 76 Main Street had three floors - the bottom two floors were devoted to printing. [full story]

A new musical that reveals the lives and feelings of North Country workers will be staged later this month at historic Pickens Hall in Heuvelton. "Working in the North Country" will highlight unsung heroes in the workforce and those who keep the North Country functioning, such as dairy farmhands, food service workers, cleaners and others. It is being presented by Grasse River Players and the Occupational Health Clinical Center of the North Country. The show will feature monologues and songs based on real people in our region who are too often underpaid and overworked, but carry on with courage, devotion, and humor. Three performances will be presented at Pickens Hall April 28-30.Producer Relani Prudhomme says the performances are part of this year's Workers’ Memorial Theatre Project. Workers’ Memorial Day is April 28th. Prudhomme says it's a time to remember those who have died on the job, and to honor them by continuing to fight for improved worker safety. Todd Moe spoke with Relani Prudhomme and writer/director Karen Wells, who says "Working in the North Country" was inspired by Studs Terkel’s best-known book, "Working" - a look at jobs and the people who do them. Wells says her script is based on interviews with nearly two dozen different North Country workers in various types of jobs. [full story]

Environmental groups are trumpeting a new poll that shows big support across New York state for expanding wilderness in the Adirondack Park around the Boreas Ponds. But the survey conducted by Siena College Research found that most New Yorkers don’t know much about the Adirondacks or pay much attention to the Park's issues. [full story]

For the past few years, a tiny community in St. Lawrence County has been playing host to a major fishing tournament. The Bass Masters Elite is expected to draw thousands of sportsmen to the village of Waddington this July. [full story]

Two tales about the age-old question: Is there heaven and hell?Story Traveler is unscripted storytelling from everywhere in the world, stories for the heart to hear and the mind to imagine. [full story]