The Eight O'Clock Hour
with Martha Foley and Todd Moe

(02/10/12) Crews from ten fire departments were at SUNY Canton today, after a reported explosion and fire. A spokesman for the school says it happened in a chemistry lab, on the north end of the Cook Science Center.

No injuries had been reported.

NCPR was on the scene at around 12:30 this afternoon, and ran into John Stafford of Canton Fire and Rescue...

"Cooke, there's a fire in Cook Hall. There's toxic fumes. So they need to stay out of there... we've got fire departments from all over, rescue squads, everything going here."

Stafford was wearing a yellow mask over his head and mouth to protect him from the chemical smoke. The campus center was closed, and officials were stationed along campus roadways, preventing people getting too close.

Surrounding buildings were evacuated. Student Jeremy Coleman was walking around campus looking a little dazed. A few minutes earlier, he'd been asleep in his dorm...

"They came banging on the door, saying everyone has to leave, the building is being evacuated."

Fire officials said all firefighters will have to go through a decontamination process.
It is not known whether anyone was in the lab when the fire began. Arson investigators are reportedly looking into the matter.

(02/10/12) New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says mortgage-holders in the state could end up owing more than $700 million less, under the terms of a new $25 billion settlement between states and five of the nation's biggest lenders. Nora Flaherty has more: more

(02/10/12) How some North Country teenagers think about politics and how they relate to their own lives. The chemical explosion at SUNY Canton. How the mortgage settlement will affect us here in New York. And Utica's Burmese refugee community:

(02/10/12) NCPR kicked off election coverage with a series of stories this week. See below for more on the 23rd district race for the House of Representatives.

Politics are everywhere these days, from the bitter Republican primary fight that's playing out on our TV screens to the redistricting battle in Albany that could shake up politics right here in our own backyard. As 2012 goes on, the news and conversation will only get louder and more intense.

Most high school students can't vote, but politics plays a big role in their lives, too. And they're paying attention, at least the teens are who gathered recently in Peru to talk about government and politics. Our correspondent Sarah Harris sends this report. more

(02/10/12) With just six weeks left in the state's fiscal year, the Cuomo Administration has still not settled labor contracts with some significant public worker's unions. These include the state's corrections officers, and professors and other staff in the State University System. Karen DeWitt has this report. more

(02/10/12) For half a century, one of the most repressive nations in the world has been Burma, or Myanmar, as its military government renamed it several years ago. But recently surprising political changes in that Southeast Asian country have led to a possible opening to the West.

Some of the people watching most closely are the Burmese Karen refugees. They're an ethnic minority, many of them Christian, who live right here in upstate New York. Our story comes from David Chanatry with the New York Reporting Project at Utica College. more

(02/10/12) This is John Warren from the Adirondack Almanack with your look at outdoor recreation conditions around the Adirondacks for this weekend. more

(02/10/12) Crane School of Music tenor Donald George tells Todd Moe why he chose to record a second volume of music by Boston composer Margaret Lang, who was the first woman to have had her music performed by a major American orchestra. She wrote more than 130 songs during the early 20th century. Though much of her music was popular during her lifetime, Lang was her own toughest critic, sometimes destroying pieces she didn't like.

Donald George and pianist Lucy Mauro have spent the last few years researching Lang's life. They produced a first volume of Lang's music last winter. With this second recording, New Love Must Rise, released this month, the two musicians continue to revive an interest in her nearly forgotten music.

(02/09/12) A profile of 23rd district congressional candidate, conservative Kellie Greene: The Cuomo administration and a portion of NYSCOPBA, a union representing prison guards and police, say they've got a tentative deal on a long-delayed new contract. New York State plays host to a national conference on dealing with the effects of climate change. And Fort Drum's 3rd Brigade Combat Team is slowly starting to come back home...Joanna Richards spoke to their brigade commander from Afghanistan.

(02/09/12) Governor Andrew Cuomo is taking some heat this week. That's after a series of actions that have been criticized as consolidating more power for the executive branch, at the expense of the legislature and even some other statewide office holders. In Albany, Karen DeWitt reports. more