This week saw a few inches of wet snow before another warming into the 40s with rain and mixed precipitation. Currently rain and warm temperatures have created a mix of soft snow and some open, snowless areas at lower elevations, with icy trail conditions and deep snow at higher elevations and off trail, and several feet on and near summits. Rain and melting snow has resulted in some difficult stream crossings, and open drainages. Traction devices, and snowshoes or skis are recommended. [full story]

Before the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was best-known for his wealth. He’s a rich businessman with a sprawling empire, but he worked hard to flip the script. In countless speeches, Trump told regular people he was on their side. [full story]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget is not just facts and figures about what taxes to collect and how to spend them. Cuomo also has put unrelated changes into the spending plan - everything from allowing ride-hailing services to expand in the state to enacting ethics reforms. [full story]

The top administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency in New York state says she's worried about what will happen after Donald Trump takes office. [full story]

Our atmosphere is about 80 percent nitrogen. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager explore the ways this common element and necessary component of all life forms interacts with the biosphere. [full story]

Andre Lynch cast his vote for Hillary Clinton on Nov. 9 and stayed home to watch the returns roll in with his girlfriend. As the night wore on, Lynch said, things got emotional: "We cried." [full story]

Three years ago, Jen Hart moved back to Ontario after a dozen years in the U.K. She settled on a farm owned by her sister and brother-in-law and quickly took up the moniker "Farmer Jen." She helps manage the livestock on a CSA near Frankville, just north of Brockville. The 130-acre farm includes gardens, beef cattle, sheep, chickens, turkeys and ducks. "Organic protein," says Jen, is the farm's main product. [full story]

In author Louise Penny’s fictional Quebec village, Three Pines, mysteries and murders abound. In Penny’s twelfth novel a policeman is killed with a British revolver that was smuggled over the Vermont border. [full story]

A big thing Trump supporters loved about his campaign was the way he framed undocumented immigrants as criminals and law breakers. "They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists," Trump said during the campaign. But many other people heard racism and fear tactics in those words, including those he was speaking about.Hundreds of immigrants without legal papers milk the cows on North Country dairy farms. David Sommerstein talked about Trump with two Guatemalan brothers who have worked on one farm for years. [full story]

Some state lawmakers are rejecting Governor Cuomo’s proposal to extend a tax on millionaires. Cuomo spent Tuesday rolling out his spending plan to individual groups of lawmakers in private briefings, then at night, released details to the public.The governor fulfilled the state’s constitutional deadline to release his budget to the public, but just barely, opting for an evening unveiling of the $152-billion spending plan. [full story]