News

The city of Syracuse has been a recent magnet for refugees. More than 10,000 have settles there in the last 12 years. But this year, at least one refugee will be the first in Syracuse to win public office. This week, Grant Reeher speaks with Chol Majok, the Democratic nominee for Syracuse 3rd District Common Council seat.

Onondaga County’s top Democrat is firing back at the Republican County Comptroller over an investigation into the Democratic elections commissioner's outside income.

It was a year ago Onondaga County’s School Safety Task Force issued a set of recommendations meant to help schools stay safe, and the group is still working.

The Syracuse City School District is one district that’s taken the recommendations to heart. Porter Elementary School Principal Jennifer King-Reese said staff and students have embraced the safety training they’ve undergone in the past year.

The New York State Department of Transportation is going to study how the Interstate-81 project will impact Syracuse’s northern suburbs economically. This comes after elected officials and business owners voiced their concern that tax revenue and hundreds of jobs would be lost in their area, if the state goes through with its current plan.   

The first hearing of a state commission to implement a public campaign finance system for New York's elections was overshadowed by the issue of whether to end fusion voting, which allows candidates to run on multiple ballot lines.

Critics of the proposal say Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to strike against a left-leaning party that he's been feuding with, something the governor denies.

Communities across central and northern New York took some time Wednesday to remember the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, and the city of Syracuse used silence to take note of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

The approach that the Watertown City Court uses to address some cases involving opioids has changed. It is one of 10 courts in New York to receive a $150,000 grant for a new opioid court.

Watertown currently has a specific drug court to handle cases involving illicit substances, but the administrative judge who oversees the Watertown City Court, James Murphy, says the problems posed by opioids are unique.

Advocates are pushing state legislation that would end the suspension of driver’s licenses for people with unpaid traffic tickets.

Calling it an "industrywide conspiracy," Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his intention to file a lawsuit for the overprescription of opioids that he said has defrauded New Yorkers out of billions of dollars. 

Cuomo said his Department of Financial Services is gathering evidence for a lawsuit that he said extends beyond the drugmakers to the drug distributors and pharmacies for what the governor said is systemwide "fraud" that went on for decades.

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh’s administration wants to change the city’s code to no longer pick up garbage for properties with more than four residential units. The city currently draws the limit at more than ten units. But the proposal was withdrawn after some city councilors rejected it. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state health department are continuing to urge New Yorkers to refrain from using any vaping products while an investigation continues into the cause of a mysterious vaping-related lung ailment that has now sickened 41 New Yorkers. 

The governor is making the recommendation after reports of about 500 cases of the disease nationwide and five deaths. It appears to be related to vaping black-market cannabis products with THC that also contain vitamin E oil, which is harmful when inhaled.

The Onondaga County Comptroller, a Republican who is running for election this year, is accusing the county’s Democratic Elections Commissioner of driving for Uber or Lyft when he should have been in the office.

Syracuse University is honoring a member of the Central Park Five, a group of African American and Hispanic men who in 1989 were wrongfully convicted of a rape and later exonerated in 2002. 

The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency is reviewing a proposal that could bring 1,000 jobs to central New York.

The Skaneateles Lake Association is continuing a program meant to keep invasive species out of the lake, but they could use some help.

Anyone who launches a watercraft from one of the lake’s three boat launches, could run into Marty Minet or Roy Truswell, volunteer stewards for the Skaneateles Lake Association.

Flooding along Lake Ontario has pummeled shoreline residents and businesses this summer. As a result, international body charged with overseeing the lake has come under scrutiny to let more water out of the lake.

The International Joint Commission (IJC) controls water levels on Lake Ontario. Members of Congress have been putting pressure on the IJC to mitigate flooding and reconsider its long term water management plan, Plan 2014.

A message of forgiveness is coming from two victims of the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. The two men want to propose an alternative to the anger and bitterness the scandal has wrought.

Onondaga County’s latest salvo in the war against lead poisoning is a series of town hall events, with at least one meeting geared toward landlords or contractors who deal with older homes.

School districts in New York have a new tool to catch drivers who pass school buses that are stopped to drop off or pick up kids.

Now that the New York State Fair is over, what happens to the 800-pound butter sculpture that was on display?

It isn't one, gigantic, solid slab of butter. It was sculpted around a hollow, wood frame. 

"So, when it's all said and done," said Chris Noble, watching the deconstruction of the sculpture Tuesday morning at the State Fairgrounds, "it looks like a bit of a butter zombie, because all you have left is the frame and the plywood behind it."

An Onondaga county-wide shared services panel, made up of town and village leaders, convened recently to discuss new ways to save money. It’s an opportunity for Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon to push one large consolidation effort that’s on his agenda.

The New York State Fair in Syracuse continues breaking attendance records. More than 1.3 million people poured into the 13-day fair this year, the most ever.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo made his second stop at the fair this year to announce the news, punctuated by popping balloons and confetti.

Cuomo lauded a fair that’s broken the all-time attendance records four years in a row.

"This year New York became the number three most attended state fair in the United States. We’re not gonna stop until we are number one," Cuomo said.