Morning Edition

Flooding on Lake Ontario broke records this year. A lot of shoreline residents say they’ve never seen water levels anywhere near this year's, but in fact Lake Ontario has flooded many times before.

Records show a handful of years when water levels came within inches of where they are today.

Dwight Church went by the nickname Dippy. He was born in Canton in 1861 and worked as a photographer. Eventually Church bought his own plane and took pictures from the sky.

He flew all across the North Country.

Industries across the country are rapidly growing reliant on internet connectivity. As that expansion continues, getting rural areas connected to the internet is also growing as a pressing issue for the nation's lawmakers.

Last week, a House subcommittee held a hearing about success stories of rural areas that have been able to extend access to broadband internet. The panel included a doctor who uses the internet to provide emergency advice when he's not at the hospital and a farmer who is now able to use software to more efficiently fertilize crops.

Several bodies of water in central New York have reported harmful algal blooms in recent weeks. With temperatures heating up after a wet spring, conditions are ripe for the blooms. 

New York state will soon require large generators of food waste donate what they can to those in need and compost the rest. The mandate won't go into effect until 2022, but work is already underway in the Mohawk Valley to meet this new recycling challenge.

Bill Rabbia, executive director of the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority (OHSWA), says they do their best to make one last use of the trash that ends up in landfills by capturing the methane gas it emits to generate electricity. However, Rabbia says the system is imperfect.

If you see some turquoise bikes tooling around the streets of Syracuse, they’re part of the city’s new bike sharing program, the first of its kind in the state.

The big buzz about the bikes as the program kicked off, is the fact they aren't just any bike. They are e-bikes. Neil Burke, Syracuse's transportation planner said each bike has a pedal assist component.

“What this does is provide you a boost with an onboard battery, to really get you up to speed, and flatten those hills out," said Burke.

Residents had a chance to try out the bikes earlier this week.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced $9 million in grants from her office to address what’s called “zombie homes” or vacant, abandoned homes across the state. The “Zombies 2.0” program provides funding to municipalities, including Syracuse, Auburn and Utica. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the occasion of the ticker tape parade for the U.S. women’s soccer team in Manhattan to sign two bills Wednesday that will make it easier for women in New York to receive pay that is equal to men’s salaries.

The measure mandates equal pay for all employees In New York who do "substantially similar work"   regardless of their gender. It also extends the equal pay provision for workers who are in a protected class, including race, gender identity or disability.