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Farmers aren't the only ones worrying about Congress' failure to come to an agreement on the Farm Bill. Syracuse-area Rep. Dan Maffei says partisan politics have gotten in the way, and are hurting Congress' ability to move legislation forward.

Maffei says the Farm Bill, and the legislation connected to it, which includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, should be passed, though both Republicans and Democrats need to compromise on their positions.

Maintenance workers at Syracuse University today were going around campus trying to clean up a spree of vandalism.

Eight messages were spray-painted on five buildings at the school, according a spokesperson in Syracuse University's Department of Public Safety.

A tag on the side of the school’s communications complex read “#1 in communication. LAST in free speech.” Another message read: “liars live here. Are you one?” On Maxwell Hall, the Latin words "cui bono?" and "war" were sprayed, which translates to "for whose benefit."

Researchers from Clarkson University are gearing up to study the impacts of water pollution on property values across 26 counties in upstate New York.

Funded by a two year NYSERDA grant, researchers will study water quality data and correlate that with property sales over the past decade. And there’s already evidence of a relationship between the two.

In a recent study, economics professor Martin Heintzelman - who’ll be working on the new study – found that high water acidity lowered property prices in the Adirondacks by up to 24 percent.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s commission to study tax cuts has missed its December 6 deadline to report it’s findings, after facing controversy over former Gov. George Pataki’s desire to cut income taxes for all wage earners, including the wealthy.  

Although the tax commission has now bogged down over co-chairman George Pataki’s push to lower income tax rates, its original charge was to look at ways to lower New York’s highest in the nation property taxes, as well as find ways to reduce business taxes.

A proposed wind farm in Cape Vincent, in Jefferson County, has been in limbo since energy company BP said earlier this year that it's planning to sell off its entire wind power division.

Town officials have been anxious for news about the wind farm's fate since then. The review process that produced one tense public meeting after another came to an abrupt halt earlier this year.

Depending on how much we get, sleep can either be our best friend or our worst enemy. A good night’s sleep can make us feel refreshed and rejuvenated, while a bad night’s sleep can leave us feeling moody and groggy. So exactly how much rest is needed to call it a good night’s sleep?

This week on Take Care, Dr. Orfeu Buxton discusses sleep deprivation. Buxton is assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, associate neuroscientist in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and associate professor at Pennsylvania State University. He participated in a recent Q&A on sleep featured in the New York Times.

Click 'Read More' to hear our interview with Dr. Buxton.

Emerging research reveals that good digestion and a healthy digestive tract are dependent on beneficial bacteria, also known as probiotics. But you don't have to buy special yogurt to add probiotics to your diet. Fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi also aid in digestion and improve your immune system. Once you learn the basics of fermenting, it can be a fun and inexpensive way to preserve food at home and add essential nutrients.

This week on Take Care, Amy Jeanroy explains the benefits of eating fermented foods. Jeanroy is a newspaper editor, food writer and co-author of the book, "Fermenting for Dummies," published earlier this year. She's been making and eating fermented foods for 20 years and shares her love of preparing food at home on her website, TheFarmingWife.com.

Click 'Read More' to hear our interview with Amy Jeanroy.

  The Syracuse University Men's Basketball Team is off to a good start this season, in its first season in the ACC.  The team is 9-0 and ranked 4th in the nation after defeating Binghamton University on Saturday.  On this week's edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with Mike Hopkins, SU associate head coach.  Hopkins discusses how athletics and academics mix in big-time college sports, the recipes for success as a player and a coach, and how some aspects of the system might be improved. 

Think of a large Thermos, large enough to put a family in. That’s a passive house. Passive houses are buildings that rely on their construction, insulation, and the environment to heat them in winter and cool them in summer.

They’re popular in Europe, but there are only a handful of them in the U.S. and one of them belongs to a family in upstate New York, who are getting ready to take on their first winter in their passive home.

The state attorney general is investigating disciplinary action policies within the Syracuse school district, and the school system says it's cooperating with his office.

On Friday, the school district's top administrator admitted there likely have been violations.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s civil rights office issued a subpoena to the Syracuse City School District on Oct. 16.

Roman Catholics all over the world are being asked to answer a questionnaire in order to help the church deal with what it calls a social and spiritual crisis that exists, especially in regard to marriage and the family. While some parts of the country are asking clergy to answer questions, the Syracuse Diocese wants the opinion of every day parishioners.  

Cities across the country saw strikes Thursday as part of a campaign by fast food workers to raise the federal minimum wage. The movement faces strong opposition both within and outside the fast food industry.

Walkouts were planned in at least 100 cities in support raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, roughly $15,000 per year for a full-time job.

The fast food industry claims that raising wages would be difficult without bumping up the prices on their menus too.

Getting a good night's sleep is easier for some people than others. But research has shown it's essential for everyone. Lorraine Rapp and Linda Lowen, hosts of WRVO's health and wellness show Take Care, recently spoke with Dr. Orfeu Buxton, a neuroscientist and sleep researcher from Harvard, about the health issues a lack of sleep can cause.

Lorraine Rapp: Can you tell us what role does sleep play in our overall health?

A new dairy processing facility under construction in Cayuga County plans to make most of its money on the export market and its owners are hoping trade rule changes don’t hinder that.

An $80 million dairy facility going up in Auburn plans to sell powdered milk to countries in Asia and North Africa, but current trade rules with some of those countries could make exporting their products difficult.

Work has begun to revive a long-vacant eyesore at the center of downtown Watertown.

Syracuse-area Congressman Dan Maffei is introducing legislation to crack down on people tampering with electronic probation devices and to hold federal probation offices more accountable.

Maffei is introducing the Federal Probation System Reform Act, which he says will make it a federal crime to tamper with an electronic monitoring device, and establish a nationwide standard for responding to bracelet alerts.

John Weeks talks about bellwethers. In previous episodes he used the term, but never actually defined it. He reveals that term refers to a sheep, usually a gelded male. He wears a bell around his neck and is a leader for a flock of sheep and an indicator for the whereabouts of the flock in extremely foggy weather conditions. This was all he could find about the term and it was not even in the encyclopedia or other resources he looked in for the term. He had to “wing it” from there and elaborated on the definition based on his own experiences.

New York's U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer wants the investigation into the crash of an Air National Guard unmanned drone to be made public.

The Air Force is investigation the crash of an MQ-9 Reaper into Lake Ontario last month while on a training flight with the 174th Air Guard Wing, based out of Syracuse. Training flights resumed two weeks after the incident.

Schumer, a Democrat, says that's alright since most drones are safe.

Farmers across New York state converged in central New York for the State Farm Bureau’s annual meeting this week.  According to those at the meeting, the biggest problem these farmers face is too much paperwork.

One of the most controversial recommendations in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s anti-corruption commission report released this week is to enact public financing of campaigns for statewide elections.

The majority of the 25 Moreland Act commissioners say a public campaign finance system modeled on New York City’s matching donor system is the only way to curb the undue influence of big money donors in state government.

Water authorities are in danger of having to scrap thousands of brand new fire hydrants if a new federal environmental requirement is allowed to go through as written.

The Onondaga County Water Authority keeps a stockpile of 200 fire hydrants on hand to replace broken or damaged ones. They cost $1,200 each.

The EPA is lowering the amount of lead that can be in things that touch drinking water, like sink faucets, but it could also render local water authority's stockpile of hydrants useless.

This archived broadcast was from September 11, 1987. John Weeks talks about the journey across the seasons. He talks about the weather and the different animals and plants that are around during the different seasons.

Although Oswego's residents are facing a nearly 82 percent increase in their property taxes, the city's lawmakers say there isn't much fat left to cut from the proposed budget. They say the changing economic atmosphere in the city is weighing heavily on this year's budget.

This is an archived broadcast from October 28, 1988. John Weeks talks about where insects go in the winter and he talks about how he use to teach a class in CNY and every year he would explain to the students where the insects go in the winter. He talks a lot about butterflies and some other insects hibernating.

Advocates and lawmakers at the New York Capitol are reacting to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s anti-corruption commission report. It offers scathing criticism of what the commission says is a corrupt culture in Albany, and recommends numerous reforms.

The Moreland Act Commissioners offer withering criticism of what they say is a pervasive culture of illegal corruption and what they call legalized bribery ingrained in a campaign finance system where large donors hold sway over which legislation gets approved, and which bills are suppressed.

Almost three dozen speakers fired questions at state Education Commissioner John King and other state officials in Fayetteville Tuesday, during the latest central New York forum on the new Common Core curriculum. Most of the complaints about the more rigorous curriculum have been heard before, but the bigger question now is if anything can be changed.

The debate over common core ranges from timing...

"Why were the assessments not phased in, in a more deliberate manner?"

To the impact of poverty on education...

Dr. Quentin Wheeler will return to central New York in January to be SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry's first new president in more than a decade.

He comes back to New York from teaching at Arizona State University. Before that he cut his teeth as a professor at Cornell University where he stayed for a quarter century.

For a scientist, Wheeler said in an interview with WRVO, the forests of upstate New York are a good place to be.

An Inspector General's report finds that Clayton's town supervisor is among dozens of current and former state prison officials who misused their work-issued vehicles at taxpayer expense. 

The report says 80 members of the Corrections Department leadership used their state vehicles mostly to commute to and from work for years. They did so with the blessing of former department Commissioner Brian Fischer. He continued to approve the practice long after a 2009 state policy shift meant to rein in such excesses.

The city of Oswego is trying to regain what years of population decline and lost manufacturing jobs have taken away. According to Mayor Thomas Gillen, part of that reclamation means revitalizing the city's neighborhoods.

Gillen said the Oswego Renaissance Association is speaking with local banks to secure funding for small loans, grants or matching funds to assist homeowners in making needed repairs.

The money would also be tied to neighborhood development, encouraging neighborhoods to take on projects together.

John Weeks talks about his knowledge of the opossum. During an early morning road trip he saw an opossum about to cross the road where cars were steadily driving and quickly turned around to avoid getting hit. Anybody that drives and has seen a possum on the road knows that there slow pace makes them vulnerable which increases their rate of road kill. At one point they were so rare that people did not believe he actually saw them, but that has changed now.

This episode of Nature of Things was originally aired December 12th, 1991.