Today in your Trail Mix: more water.
The river has fallen in the Binghamton area, but not before it beat records set during the 2006 flooding.
The president has declared much of the Southern Tier a disaster area.
The capital region has all the right moves for job creation - but black unemployment is outpacing white unemployment everywhere.
Flooding
The river is now falling in the Binghamton area, having crested yesterday afternoon (Press & Sun-Bulletin).
It's official: the flooding in the Binghamton area was worse than the 2006 floods with the Susquehanna beating previous crest records (Press & Sun-Bulletin).
Now 15 counties - including Broome and Chemung - are federal disaster areas, thanks to rain from Lee (Jimmy Vielkind, Capitol Confidential).
Early this morning, power was still out for thousands, following flooding (Press & Sun-Bulletin).
Schools are closed in Broome County - and boil your water (Press & Sun-Bulletin).
The Press & Sun-Bulletin has several photo galleries of flood pictures.
Capital Tonight talked to Broome's county executive about the flooding (Maureen McManus, State of Politics/Capital Tonight).
An Oneida resident says of the flooding's extent there: "if they weren't fake, I would have chewed off my fingernails" (Alaina Potrikus, Post-Standard).
The head of the Assembly's energy committee wants to see the public comment period for the fracking review extended because of the distractions from flooding (Nick Reisman, State of Politics).
Areas flooded by Irene around Albany had a repeat performance with this week's rain (Bryan Fitzgerald, Times Union).
A task force that studied flooding after the last great disaster - in 2006 - might get a reboot thanks to the flooding of the past two weeks (Brian Nearing, Times Union).
Albany's flooding will not play centrally into the plans of the economic development council, which said at a Thursday meeting that it's more focused on the long term (Jimmy Vielkind, Times Union).
Trains were canceled for the second time in two weeks, as tracks were flooded out (Eric Anderson, Times Union).
Business and government
The capital region has some of the best conditions for low unemployment, according to a new Brookings Institution report (Yi-Ke Peng, Time Union).
Rochester's city council has put its stamp of approval on filling in part of the loop that runs around the city (David Andreatta, Democrat and Chronicle).
Black unemployment is at 16.7 percent, and rising (Jay Rey, Buffalo News).
Senator Schumer wants federal regulators to make PAETEC building a downtown headquarters a condition of approval for its merger with Windstream (Will Astor, Rochester Business Journal).
The president's jobs proposal won't do enough, according to Rochester-area economists (Tom Tobin, Democrat and Chronicle).
Energy
Despite all of our gadgets, electricity use in America is leveling off as consumers become more aware of their usage (Jonathan Fahey, AP).
The Marcellus Shale is one of the few plays in the nation where gas is still profitable for investors (Susan Phillips, State Impact PA).
Jolt Cola is rolling out a new vitamin-enhanced water - jitters not included (Mary Stone, Rochester Business Journal).
Want Trail Mix delivered fresh to your reader, every day? Subscribe to the feed.