News

The results of this year’s Common Core-related standardized tests show scores for New York’s schoolchildren inching up. About one-fifth of the children boycotted the tests altogether because of continued controversy over the Common Core learning standards.

The 2017 edition of the New York State Fair opens Wednesday near Syracuse. The fair has typically opened on a Thursday, but it's opening a day early this year, with officials calling it "Preview Day."

Sarah Harding has a police radio and a bullet proof vest. She checks in with 911 dispatch as she starts her day. 

But she's not a police officer. Harding is a clinical social worker with the Mental Health Association of the Southern Tier.

Meeting People In A Crisis

Harding goes on police calls when a person might be having a mental health crisis. Sometimes, people are a bit wary of speaking with her.

The New York State Fair opens its 2017 edition Wednesday. The fair has some new features, fixed some problems from last year and is getting ready for the second part of a major expansion.

Phase one of the fair’s revitalization included a new entryway and larger midway. Phase two will begin after this year’s fair with the creation of a new Expo Center which Acting Director Troy Waffner called the gem of the expansion.

More than 1,000 people came out to Syracuse’s Rosamond Gifford Zoo Monday to view the solar eclipse, one of many places holding events to celebrate the solar event.

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The Asian carp captured this summer near the southern tip of Lake Michigan -- triggering a big scare -- apparently slipped past electric barriers.

Officials announced Friday that an autopsy of the 4-year-old fish showed that it originated in the Illinois/Middle Mississippi watershed, spending about a year in the Des Plaines River area.

It spent no more than a few months in the Little Calumet River before being captured on June 22, about nine miles from Lake Michigan.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently allocated an additional $1.5 million in funding to improve roads in Syracuse. But it is money that state legislators are warning the city needs to spend now.

For today’s solar eclipse, people across central and northern New York can expect the moon’s shadow to partially block out the sun this afternoon, with the peak happening just past 2:30 p.m. 

Can local governments in New York better share the services they provide in order to improve quality and to save taxpayer dollars? A provision in this year's state budget calls for counties to develop proposals for greater sharing of services. This week, Grant Reeher talks with Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, about the process of sharing services across municipalities.

Not eating, deliberately, has been a way to make a political statement for centuries. And for even longer, it’s been a normal part of some religious practice. But far more recent uses of fasting are for weight loss and other health benefits -- scientifically proven benefits like lowered cholesterol and reducing systemic inflammation.

Dr. Valter Longo joins us on “Take Care” this week to discuss the benefits, challenges and problems associated with fasting. Longo is a professor of gerontology and biological science at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. He’s also director of the USC Longevity Institute.

Can’t sleep? It happens to the best of us. Lack of sleep can interfere with most aspects of life. Your mood, appetite and ability to concentrate are a few things that can suffer when you haven’t made it to a full eight hours of sleep.

But what if we told you there was over-the-counter relief? This week, Dr. Elizabeth Higdon joins us to discuss the basics of sleep aids sold at your local pharmacy. Higdon is a community pharmacist and instructor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences campus in Colchester, Vermont.

Fasting has been around for centuries, and has been utilized for everything from religious observance to political protest. But research in mice has found that intermittent fasting can have significant health benefits, like improved cardiovascular function and better memory.

Onondaga County recently held its annual “Share the Road Expo” at Destiny USA to teach kids traffic safety. This comes after three children in central New York were killed after being hit by cars earlier this month.

Joshua Cruz of Solvay signed up his two-year-old son and his one-year-old daughter with Safe Child identification. They got fingerprinted and their pictures taken.

“God forbid anything bad happens, somebody comes by and snatches them, they’re in the system and they can put an Amber Alert out very quickly,” Cruz said.

Carl Paladino has been removed from the Buffalo Board of Education in a ruling by the state education commissioner issued Thursday.

Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia upheld the school board’s application to remove Paladino as a member of the board. 

Thousands of people are planning to travel to the path of totality for Monday's eclipse. That's the roughly 70-mile wide path that the moon's shadow will cast on the U.S. when it passes between the Earth and the sun. 

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-New Hartford) visited Binghamton Wednesday, but refused to talk to reporters about President Trump’s comments on Charlottesville.

A plant in the North Country that produces the famous Philadelphia-brand cream cheese has triggered a mandatory water conservation order in the Village of Lowville, and the issue may have been a result of a misunderstanding between village leaders and the owner of the plant.

When Kraft-Heinz announced in 2015 that the company would make a $100 million expansion of its Lowville plant, the village's mayor Donna Smith says they were aware that it would require more water. But Smith says there was a discrepancy on how much they would choose to use in a given period of time.

New Yorkers who sign up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act exchanges for individuals will see their premiums rise by an average of 14 percent, now that the Cuomo administration has approved rate increases for insurers in the exchanges.

Part of the increase is due to worries and uncertainties over the future of the ACA, also known as Obamacare.

For the second year in a row, Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow is looking to reduce the city's payroll as a way to keep taxes down. His proposed budget would eliminate 7.5 positions, saving an estimated $500,000. That's a loss of about 1/5 of city hall staff, but Barlow says there are some efficiencies that can be realized.

There’s growing pressure on a group of breakaway Democrats in the state Senate to reunite with the mainstream Democrats and form a majority to rule the Senate.

At a rally in Harlem, many of the state’s top African-American politicians, chanting “Andrea, Andrea,” voiced their support for the current leader of Senate Democrats, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, to become the majority leader of the Senate.

Last week, Republican candidate for mayor Laura Lavine proposed mayoral control of Syracuse’s public schools. But Syracuse’s teachers union and some of Lavine’s opponents are calling that plan a mistake.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed into law a measure that would create new penalties for people who make bomb threats against community centers. The action stems from bomb threats made to Jewish community centers in New York and around the nation last winter.

Cuomo, in a statement, said anyone who falsely makes bomb threats to a community center can now be charged with a class A misdemeanor offense, punishable by up to a year in jail.