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NCPR News Staff: Brian Mann
News Reporter and Adirondack Bureau
Chief
 Dr. John Rugge founded the Hudson Headwaters Health Network in 1974, with his first clinic in Chestertown. HHHN now operates fifteen clinics. Photo: Brian Mann
by Brian Mann, in Queensbury, NY
May 21, 2013 — These are the best of times and the worst of times for healthcare in the North Country. The region is at the center of a new wave of innovation, experimentation, and reform -- including the "medical home" pilot project, funded in part by New York state. But the North Country's health care industry also face an unprecedented level of uncertainty and risk. Go to full article
 Keene Central School, Keene Valley, NY
by Brian Mann, in Saranac Lake, NY
May 20, 2013 — Across the North Country voters go to the polls to decide the fate of their local school districts, electing new school board members and approving or rejecting school budgets. This isn't just another ho-hum year for school districts. For half a decade, many districts have faced a nightmare of declining, or flat state aid, skyrocketing costs, a property tax cap and in some parts of the region, sharply declining enrollment. Those pressures have pushed some districts to the brink. Go to full article
 Saranac Lake village mayor Clyde Rabideau dressed in "6er" swag. Rabideau says he still has one summit to bag before he's an official member. Photo: Brian Mann
by Brian Mann, in Saranac Lake, NY
May 17, 2013 — We've all heard of the Adirondack 46ers. They're the club of hikers and climbers who have summited all 46 of the Adirondack's highest peaks. People who compete that grueling task are given an official number and official bragging rights. Now the village of Saranac Lake is hoping to launch its own version of that challenge with its new "6er" program. The goal is to draw visitors to the ring of beautiful but less difficult mountains that surround the village. Go to full article
 Prisons for sale. As two more prisons close down, there a dozen corrections and juvenile justice facilities in NY will be mothballed or up for sale. Photo: Brian Mann
by Brian Mann, in Saranac Lake, NY
May 15, 2013 — State officials have set a price tag on the mothballed prison in Clinton County and it looks like a bargain. The Office of General Services says it will accept a minimum bid for the Lyon Mountain Correctional Facility of just $140,000. That includes more than 27 acres of land and 23 buildings. Go to full article
 On the inside looking out. An image from the documentary film "The House I Live In." Photo: "The House I Live In," used by permission
by Brian Mann, in Plattsburgh, NY
May 14, 2013 — Locking people up and keeping them behind bars is one of the North Country's biggest industries. There are more than twenty jails and prison facilities scattered across our rural region. Corrections and law enforcement agencies provide high-paying jobs from Ogdensburg to Glens Falls. But the prison industry isn't something we talk about very often. The North Country's Regional Economic Development plan talks about renewable energy and trains and farms and government. But it doesn't even mention prisons -- not once. Earlier this month, a student group at SUNY Plattsburgh invited community members, faculty and activists to meet and talk about mass incarceration and how it affects communities. Go to full article
 Helen Demong leads the Northern Lights choir in rehearsal. Photo: Bob Sweet, used by permission
by Brian Mann, in Saranac Lake, NY
May 10, 2013 — Today and tomorrow in the Adirondacks, activists and artists will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. That document, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, freed more than three million enslaved human beings. Lincoln's action during the Civil War followed decades of sacrifice by slaves, free blacks and whites who formed the abolitionist movement. One of the most powerful symbols of that movement was Timbuctoo, the colony of freed slaves near Lake Placid. This weekend, that history is being celebrated in a performance of traditional music from the 1800s and also in a brand new oratorio commissioned by the group John Brown Lives. Go to full article
 Ship discharging ballast water. Photo US Geological Survey
May 06, 2013 — A national environmental group is expanding its legal challenge to new state and Federal rules designed to keep invasive species out the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes. Neil Kagan, senior counsel with the National Wildlife Federation, says new standards aren't strict enough to keep dangerous organisms from reaching the US in the ballast water of ships, "Neither the EPA permit, nor the state's certification of that are sufficient to prevent new invasive species from coming into New York waters." The National Wildlife Federation is already suing New York, pushing the state to adopt tougher standards. Go to full article
 Once a public school, the Lyon Mountain Correctional Facility operated from 1984 until 2011. Now it's up for sale. Photo: New York state
by Brian Mann, in Lyon Mountain, NY
Lyon Mountain, NY, May 02, 2013 — What happens to prisons and correctional facilities when there aren't enough inmates to fill the jail cells? That's the dilemma facing nearly a dozen communities in upstate New York. After a massive prison construction boom that continued for nearly four decades, the state has seen its inmate population decline steadily in recent years. The change follows a sharp decline in crime rates and changes to sentencing guidelines that mean fewer nonviolent drug offenders spending years behind bars. Now a state agency called Empire State Development is struggling to auction off eleven former prisons and juvenile justice centers, including two facilities now for sale here in the North Country. But many rural communities fear that another economic engine is dying with nothing to replace it. Go to full article
 Bicknell's Thrush. Photo: Larry Master
by Brian Mann, in Ray Brook, NY
Apr 25, 2013 — A plan to build and upgrade emergency communications towers on four summits in the Adirondack Park is sparking new controversy because of the possible impact on a rare songbird called the Bicknell's thrush. The thrush is a "species of concern" in New York, because of its dwindling population and its small, alpine breeding area. Last winter, the Adirondack Park Agency set strict rules for the construction project, designed to limit any impacts on the songbird. But facing pressure from local leaders, the APA decided earlier this month to scrap those restrictions. The last-minute change is drawing criticism from scientists and conservation groups that study Bicknell's thrush. Go to full article
 OK Slip Falls, considered one of the prizes of the Finch, Pruyn deal Photo: C. Heilman, courtesy Adirondack Nature Conservancy
by Brian Mann, in Saranac Lake, NY
Apr 24, 2013 — State officials are moving forward with two land purchases in the Adirondacks totaling nearly 10,000 acres. State Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens will be on Prospect Mountain near Lake George later this morning unveiling one of the deals. Go to full article
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Brian Mann. Nancie Battaglia photo
Brian Mann grew up in Alaska, where he fell in love with public radio.
In 1999, Brian moved to the Adirondacks and helped launch NCPR's
news bureau at Paul Smiths College. "I love the chemistry
of water and mountains," Brian says. "But I'm also
pretty crazy about village life in the north country. It's the
kind of place where you know your neighbors." Brian lives
in Saranac Lake with wife Susan and son Nicholas. He's a frequent
contributor to NPR and also writes regularly for regional magazines, including
Adirondack Life and the Adirondack Explorer. Recent Brian Mann stories carried by NPR:
April 16, 2013 | NCPR · After decades of increasing inmate populations in the U.S., researchers are seeing a slow but steady decline in the number of men and women behind bars. Big states like California, New York and Texas are leading the way in developing alternatives to incarceration — in an effort to trim prison budgets.
February 28, 2013 | NPR · Corrections officers in the federal prison system are bracing for possible staffing cuts and furloughs triggered by the sequester. The cuts come at a time when studies show that inmate crowding and staff shortages in federal prisons are already posing challenges for guards trying to maintain order behind bars.
February 14, 2013 | NCPR · Forty years ago, New York enacted tough laws in response to a wave of drug-related crime. They became known as the Rockefeller drug laws, and they set the standard for states looking to get tough on crime. But a new debate is under way over the effectiveness of such strict sentencing laws.
February 14, 2013 | NCPR · George Prendes was 23 when he was sentenced under New York's Rockefeller drug laws — tough mandatory sentencing guidelines for nonviolent drug crimes. The 15 years Prendes served for a drug transaction still reverberate for him and his family.
January 30, 2013 | NCPR · New York has adopted the toughest gun control laws in the country — banning assault rifles and large clips. But now state officials have to figure out how to make the new rules work — and they have to convince gun owners to comply.
January 16, 2013 | NCPR · The state legislature in New York has voted to approve a sweeping gun control measure. It bans assault weapons and makes it harder for seriously mentally ill people to legally obtain firearms.
November 4, 2012 | NPR · As New York City's first responders begin to show fatigue, and in many cases deal with losses of their own homes, replacement crews of firefighters are getting ready to roll into Manhattan and Long Island. Among them are a group of firefighters from a small rural fire station in the mountains of upstate New York.
August 29, 2012 | NCPR · New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to decide soon whether to allow natural gas companies to use the controversial drilling technique known as hydro-fracking. New Yorkers are sharply divided on the issue. Industry groups and activists are campaigning hard to shape how the decision will be received.
April 30, 2012 | NPR · The Obama administration backed off a proposal to restrict kids under 16 from working on farms after a major push by conservatives and farm state Democrats. But farmers themselves weren't too happy about the restrictions, either.
April 24, 2012 | NPR · Tuesday is primary day in five states. But with the nomination all but sewn up for Mitt Romney, finding people actually interested in voting can be tough.
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