![\"Rare](\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/files\/2017\/12\/toppotd17.jpg\")
<\/a>Rare Great Gray Owl surveils vole-laden fields at the Barkeater Lodge near Keene, NY. Photo of the Day, March 3, 2107: Larry Master<\/p><\/div>\n
Top Photo of the Day for 2017<\/h3>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Five top news stories of 2017<\/h3>\n
My neighbor in Plattsburgh put a Confederate flag in his window. So I knocked on his door<\/a>. <\/strong>Zach Hirsch, 9\/5\/17 Muslim community in the Catskills faces right-wing fear, threats<\/strong><\/a>, Brian Mann, 7\/17\/17 Tuesday’s election is a big deal for the Adirondack Park<\/a><\/strong>, Brian Mann and Martha Foley 11\/1\/17 If Trump builds a wall, will there be anybody to milk the North Country’s cows?<\/a><\/strong>, David Sommerstein, 1\/17\/17
\nHere in our region, the Confederate battle flag has become a complicated and fiercely debated symbol.\u00a0Why 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.<\/p>\n
\nIslamberg 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.<\/p>\n
\nOff-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.<\/p>\n
\nPerhaps no campaign promise was more iconic and drew more cheers during Donald Trump\u2019s campaign for President than his call to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.\u00a0He said he would order the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants.\u00a0That strident language sent a shudder through New York\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n