(05/23/12) Gov. Cuomo's proposal to expand gambling in New York gave one rural St. Lawrence County leader an idea.
"I was thinking when I read the governor's proposal to put seven casinos in New York State, I thought, why not put one in the northern tier? Maybe we could get one up here." Brasher Town Supervisor James Dawson told town board members last week a casino would be a great way to attract visitors to the region...and to pump up St. Lawrence County's flagging economy.
The 900 acres Dawson has in mind has already been considered for a racetrack and entertainment complex. That development failed, and the land ended up in bankruptcy court. Dawson told Nora Flaherty a casino there could anchor a host of spin-off development. more
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NCPR News: Nora Flaherty, Reporter/producer
Maybe we should turn our eye toward diversification, and that would certainly be in the area of tourism...
It'll [help] create an economic climate where we can begin to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.
(05/22/12) A troubled parcel of more than 900 acres of land in Brasher and Norfolk may one day be a casino. At least, that's what Brasher Town Supervisor James Dawson is proposing. Dawson told town board members last week a casino would be a great way to attract visitors to the region...and to pump up St. Lawrence County's flagging economy.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed a constitutional amendment to create seven commercial casinos across the state. Brasher is only a few miles from the Akwesasne Mohawk casino near Massena, and Dawson says two casinos in the area could make it a destination for Canadian tourists. more
Photo: Luc Viato via Wikimedia Commons
(05/10/12) Over the last several days, much of the North Country has been virtually blanketed with small orangey-red butterflies.
They look like monarchs, but they're not. They're a species called Red Admirals, or Vanessa Atalanta. Red Admirals are native to this area, and some will settle here for the summer. Their caterpillars eat nettles so they're not a danger to crops. But we don't usually see this many, and they don't usually pass through this early in the year. more
President Obama set out a "to do" list for members of Congress. Image: Whitehouse.gov
(05/08/12) President Barack Obama was warmly welcomed Tuesday at the University of Albany's nanotechnology center...and he used the occasion to praise the private-public partnership that funds the school.
Mr. Obama said the private sector is the quote-"true engine" of job creation in the US, not government--but that government can help, by making it easier for companies to hire new workers. And he said Congress isn't doing all it can. more
(05/03/12) Village and state police, investigators from the county sheriff's department and sniffer dogs didn't find evidence of a bomb at Canton Central School. The school was evacuated this morning after a high school student reported the word "bomb" written on a girls' bathroom stall. more
Photo: rulfsorchard.com
(05/03/12) Record-breaking warm temperatures this March sped up the growing season in North Country orchards--with many fruit trees now in blossom well ahead of schedule. This weekend, low temperatures below freezing put those blossoms in danger, and raised questions about this year's yields.
Many orchardists spent much of the weekend trying to protect their crops--using bonfires, wind machines and water to keep frost from settling into fruit blossoms. more
Jeremy Morrow works at his shop in Canton.
(04/27/12) Continuing our occasional series on North Country entrepreneurs, we talk with Jeremy Morrow. Morrow owns the Harvest House framing shop on Main Street in Canton.
He's had a couple locations in the last few years: his shop was in a restaurant that closed down, and now he's on the second floor of a building that doesn't get much walk-by traffic. Although he says he's tried advertising, he gets most of his business from word-of-mouth. more
Well it’s sort of a reality check, or mother nature’s way of paying us back for such a nice spring.
(04/24/12) A spring nor'easter covered much of the state with a snowy and slushy mix Sunday night and Monday morning. About 5,000 utility customers remain without power in parts of central and western New York this morning.
The National Weather Service says the storm dropped 10 inches of snow on Newfield, near Ithaca, and 9 inches on Colden, south of Buffalo. Most of the North Country saw between 2 and 4 inches. A late-spring snow isn't that unusual. But it was definitely a contrast to the rest of the unseasonably warm and dry spring. Nora Flaherty put in a call yesterday to National Weather Service meteorologist Brooke Taber to find out what happened and what else we can expect this week.
Monday morning snow left some residents unimpressed. Photo: John Stanford
(04/23/12) The snow has mostly turned to rain Monday afternoon, but a spring nor'easter covered much of the North Country with a snowy and slushy mix Sunday night and Monday morning. Schools were closed or delayed across the area, and slippery roads led to a number of minor accidents. People across the area also lost power, although there weren't any major outages in the North Country. Meanwhile, thousands lost power in in Western New York and the Southern Tier. more
(04/20/12) There's been a lot of talk about campaign finance reform in New York State...now advocates are pushing the legislature to get it done. And Brian Mann looks at the trade in Black bear parts out of the North Country...and efforts to control bear poaching in the state. Also, Lucy Martin checks in at the Ottawa Valley Farm Show.
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Nora became a reporter and on-air host at Michigan Radio, where she did stories on environmental issues, housing, the arts, among other things. Nora moved to New York City in 2005, and became a producer at WFUV. At WFUV, Nora hosted a weekly interview program and reported on the long-term issues faced by September 11th survivors, education, and less serious topics like fairy tales, freak shows and pop music. A serious dog person, Nora loves hanging out with her "pack" (her husband and their dog), cooking, and driving in foreign countries. |
Nora Flaherty got into public radio kind of by mistake--the local public radio station was in the same building as the office of the Anthropology department at the University of Michigan, where Nora was studying to be a professor. But after a few weeks as an intern, she was convinced she'd stumbled into the right place.
