Morning read: healthcare’s big picture, Glens Falls behind on jobs, and what the governor told the sheriffs

This morning, be sure to check out Brian Mann’s conversation with Hudson Headwaters’ Dr. John Rugge about the present and future of the region’s healthcare industry. Change is good, or is it? And how fast? And are we managing that change well enough? With hospitals struggling to adapt to Obamacare, nursing homes being privatized, a chronic shortage of doctors, what does the big picture look like?

New York’s farmers, from apple-growers to milk producers, depend on migrant labor. Lots of those workers are in the country without proper documentation … the so-called “illegals.”  Farmers are hoping immigration reform legislation taking form in Washington will help fix  guest worker programs they say just don’t work.

Is an apology enough for Sheldon Silver? One of his fellow Democrats says no. And will CSX prove the key to a new future at the old General Motors site in Massena?

Ft. Drum Commander Maj. Gen. Stephen Townsend led a contingent from the post to the state Senate yesterday. The Watertown Daily Times reports he delivered a warning that with budget cuts looming for the Department of Defense, the Senators shouldn’t take Ft. Drum’s future in New York for granted. The post’s 19,000 soldiers are still the most-deployed in the Army,  and they and their  20,000 or so family members keep the Jefferson County economy cooking.

From the Glens Falls Post Star: New York Comptroller Tom DiNapoli says Glens Falls isn’t keeping up the pace of job recovery as rest of the state as New York, generally, recovers from the Great Recession. he told a group of business and community leaders: “you’re lagging.” He also had some good news: said municipalities and schools face another year of rising pension costs, but things should level off after that.

And in Albany, The Times Union reports Gov. Cuomo called the state’s sheriffs to the capitol last month and asked them to tone down criticism of the gun control law he pushed through the legislature in January.