Top Stories from NCPR

President Trump, hoping to overcome legal hurdles, is expected to issue a new executive order on travel and immigration any day. It will temporarily ban refugees and travelers from certain Muslim-majority countries. Trump says the order will improve security. But critics call it a Muslim ban, or at least a step in that direction. That’s because on the campaign trail, Trump did talk about banning Muslim people from this country. “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” the president said in a video posted by the Associated Press in December 2015. In an interview only about a month ago, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani told Fox News the president asked him how to legally implement a Muslim ban. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been checking in with Muslims who live in the North Country. We wanted to hear what they have to say about this moment we’re in, and what it’s like to be a Muslim in the United States right now. Those who agreed to be interviewed said they feel vulnerable, insulted, and uncertain. [full story]

We heard the stories of two Alcoa towns this week, the smelter in Wenatchee, Washington which shut down, putting hundreds out of work, and one here in the North Country, where politicians have kept Alcoa's smelter in Massena open, saving 600 jobs until March 2019.Mitchell Hartman, senior reporter for Marketplace's Entrepreneurship Desk, recently traveled to both places to compare how they're doing today.Martha Foley called him for a debrief. He told her the difference he saw between the two towns was surprising. [full story]

The North Country's Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik issued a neutral statement about President Trump's address last night. In a press-release, Stefanik — who was in the chamber for Trump's speech - simply said that she looks forward to working with the White House on issues ranging from the economy to healthcare. She added that she hopes to find bipartisan solutions to the nation's problems. [full story]

Farm lobbyists from New York State are in Washington, DC this week. Their top priority is to press Congress for immigration reform. Many farm workers fear getting swept up in President Trump’s crackdown on people in the country illegally. [full story]

Just one month before the state budget is due, numerous interest groups are converging on the State Capitol, asking that they be included in the budget.Among the more impassioned efforts is one from developmentally disabled people and their caregivers. They are seeking $45 million in state subsidies to pay workers more money to comply with the rising minimum wage in New York. [full story]

If everything goes according to plan, youngsters will have a new place to play and learn in Potsdam in early 2018. That's when the North Country Children's Museum is slated to open in the historic red barn on Raymond Street.North Country Children's Museum executive director Sharon Vegh Williams said recent renovations of the 3,500 square foot open-floor space, and room for expansion, contributed to the decision to purchase the building for a permanent home. She describes the museum as “hands-on and minds-on." It will feature a variety of exhibits that will focus on North Country culture, art, music, science, nature and technology; and will be open to preschoolers, home school students, and the community. [full story]

Aileen O'Donoghue stopped in the NCPR studio this morning to talk about planets coming and going in the night and morning skies. (Venus, Mars and Jupiter).She also explained that the calendar, while loaded with religion-related dates this week (Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, and Easter to follow in 40 days), is really all about the Spring Equinox and the full moon. Aileen teaches physics, including astronomy, at St. Lawrence University. [full story]

Saturday's World Snowshoe Championships brought hundreds of athletes from across the country and around the world to Saranac Lake. But two athletes from India got a particularly warm reception from the people of the village. Abid Khan and Tanveer Hussain, from India's mountainous Kashmir region, overcame visa issues to arrive in Saranac Lake two days before the races. Two men enjoyed a kind of "rock star" status around the village this weekend. [full story]

A new poll finds that in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s numbers are rising while President Donald Trump’s are sinking.For the first time in two-and-a-half years, Cuomo’s job approval rating is at 50 percent, after stagnating in the mid-40s since summer 2014. Steve Greenberg, spokesman for Siena College polling, said 60 percent of New Yorkers now say they have a favorable view of Cuomo, the largest number in two years. [full story]

Organizers of the World Snowshoe Championships in Saranac Lake overcame a lack of snow and warm temperatures Saturday to host athletes from around the world. A massive snow-moving effort involving village crews and volunteers helped preserve the course for the races, held at Dewey Mountain Recreation Center. The conditions were far from ideal, but competitors and spectators still had fun. [full story]