The shutdown beat, and other things that matter

Here’s a smattering of quick updates.

On Day 8 of the shutdown – as the deadline for raising the debt ceiling rapidly approaches – President Obama held a special press conference at the White House.

“We’re not going to be paying a ransom for America paying its bills,” the President said.  He repeated that the ball is in the House’s court, so to speak.

U.S. adults are falling behind in literacy and basic math.

But the news isn’t so bad for everyone – like British scientist Peter Higgs. He won a Nobel Prize for proposing that his Higgs boson particle explains how things in the universe came to have mass.

BitTorrent took credit for the shadowy billboards that have been cropping up with messages about internet privacy.

Here in the North Country, 21 teachers will receive $15K per year for four years to act as NYS Master teachers.

The official word on the cause of the Gunnison Memorial Chapel fire in Canton: it was a problem with electrical wiring. There was no foul play.

Cuomo announced that job training grants are still available for businesses that hire long-term unemployed New Yorkers.

Coming tomorrow on The Eight O’clock Hour:

We have the first of a two-part look at the NYCO minerals land swap in Essex County, which will be on the statewide ballot next month.  Brian Mann tours the mining operation that hopes to expand onto a chunk of Adirondack Park land.

In part three of our series on climate change and the Great Lakes, David Sommerstein investigates a mystery at the very bottom of the food web of the lakes.

St. Lawrence County has a new budget. This year, the sales tax will go up, allowing property taxes to come down.

We’ll hear the story of a century-old barn in Warren county that’s been restored.  Nettle Meadow farm’s 1903 barn nearly crumbled during Hurricane Irene two years ago.  We talk with the current owners and others who worked to save it.

Also, our book reviewer, Betsy Kepes, traveled to Kingston, Ontario recently for the Kingston Writersfest.   While she was there she talked with Will Schwalbe, author of the best-selling memoir “The End of your Life Book Club.”  It’s the story of Schwalbe and his mother’s two person book club. They had almost two years together to talk about books, and life, before Mary Ann Schwalbe died of pancreatic cancer.