NCPR’s top stories and features of 2017

This is the time when everyone is taking stock of the year that runs out the clock at midnight tomorrow. Top songs, top albums, best movies, top stories, must-read books. Perhaps it’s a natural inclination to skip over the low points in favor of the high in order to build up a head of hope for the New Year to come. We’re no different at NCPR, so I have been poking through the analytics to find some of NCPR’s high points this year as measured by audience attention at ncpr.org.

Top Photo of the Day for 2017

Larry Master is a Photo of the Day regular contributor and there was something about this feathered sentinel on a fencepost looking out from a severe March landscape that collected shares and clicks from everywhere.

Five top news stories of 2017

My neighbor in Plattsburgh put a Confederate flag in his window. So I knocked on his door. Zach Hirsch, 9/5/17
Here in our region, the Confederate battle flag has become a complicated and fiercely debated symbol. Why do people fly Confederate flags so far north, or put Confederate decals on their trucks or T-shirts? Zach Hirsch talked with one Plattsburgh family about why they embrace the controversial symbol.

Muslim community in the Catskills faces right-wing fear, threats, Brian Mann, 7/17/17
Islamberg has existed since the 1980s without any history of violence or criminal activity, but the community has become a fixation for hate groups and the right-wing media, who say it’s being used as a terrorist training camp. That’s a claim that law enforcement and Islamberg’s neighbors reject. Brian Mann visited the community as right wing anti-Muslim groups demonstrated outside.

Tuesday’s election is a big deal for the Adirondack Park, Brian Mann and Martha Foley 11/1/17
Off-off-year elections like the one in 2017 rarely get much attention, but two ballot measures up for a vote this year had a big potential impact on the Adirondack Park. One would make it easier for local governments to swap small pieces of wild lands in order to accommodate necessary infrastructure work, and the other, for a constitutional convention, could have reopened the whole “forever wild” debate that shapes the Adirondack economy and identity. Martha Foley and Brian discuss.

If Trump builds a wall, will there be anybody to milk the North Country’s cows?, David Sommerstein, 1/17/17
Perhaps no campaign promise was more iconic and drew more cheers during Donald Trump’s campaign for President than his call to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He said he would order the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. That strident language sent a shudder through New York’s dairy industry. Cornell University estimates at least 3,000 Mexican and Central American immigrants work on dairy farms in the state. The vast majority do not have legal papers to be here. Davis Sommerstein talked with farm labor experts, farmers and farmworker advocates about the future of dairy and the workers who do the work.

Hikers coming to the Adirondacks often unprepared, unsafe, Brian Mann and Martha Foley, 10/11/17
New York state forest rangers face a growing pace of searches and rescues in the Adirondack Park. Brian Mann and Martha Foley discuss one of the big factors contributing to the spike of emergencies in the back country. State officials and outdoor experts say too many hikers and campers are coming to the North Country unprepared for the weather and the harsh wilderness terrain, and unequipped to deal with backcountry emergencies.

Top All In post of 2017

Farewell to Click and Clack, Jackie Sauter, 9/15/17
2017 saw the end of a public radio phenomenon, the more than 30-year run of Car Talk, featuring Click and Clack (a.k.a. Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the Tappet Brothers). In her appreciation for the long-running automotive advice show and its quirky hosts, Jackie Sauter writes, “If you’re like me, you have so many memories of great conversations, jokes, puzzlers, silly moments. Moments that made me laugh out loud, and still bring a smile to my face when I remember them.”

Here’s hoping that all your stories of 2018 are top stories. Happy New Year to you and yours from all of us at NCPR

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