Ryan Delaney, WRVO

Transportation planners have narrowed the future of Interstate 81’s path through downtown Syracuse down to two likely options: rebuild, or re-route. 

They hosted another in a series of public forums Tuesday, known as The I-81 Challenge, to display the ideas. But a final decision is still years away.

The 1.4 mile elevated portion of 81 through the heart of the city, known as the viaduct, is nearing the end its lifespan. It's in need of near constant repair.

An energy company is looking into building a natural gas pipeline from near Binghamton to the Syracuse area.

Millennium Pipeline Company is currently soliciting feedback from natural gas suppliers about their proposal to connect three supply lines running east-west across upstate New York, with a north-south line.

The Upstate Pipeline would connect the company's Millennium Pipeline - which runs from Corning to Rockland County, near New York City - with the Tennessee Pipeline in the Town on Onondaga, crossing the Dominion Pipeline in between.

The steaks stacked in the coolers of butcher shops in New York may be marketed as local, but just what that label means varies widely.

The state actually has no definition for classifying whether beef sold under that label is locally produced; the duty of deciding what's local falls to the store selling the meat.

Cattle raising in New York state is pretty modest by Texan standards (which had more than 4 million at the start of the year). There are about 6,000 New York farmers raising 90,000 cattle, according to the Department of Agriculture census. That averages out to about two dozen cattle per farmer.

The Oneida Indian Nation will for the first time share a sizeable chunk of gaming revenue from its casino operation in order to keep competition from the state out its backyard.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Oneida Nation announced the deal in Albany Thursday. It comes as Cuomo is trying to get a referendum on the ballot by November that could legalize casino gambling in New York. The governor sees it as a major job creator and economic booster for upstate.

A small cylinder armed with research equipment is bobbing through Lake Ontario this week. It’s collecting data from a seasonal temperature barrier known as a thermal bar.

Researchers this morning launched the yellow torpedo-like vehicle into the lake this morning off the shore in Oswego. It's already navigated around Sodus Bay. It will also travel out from Rochester and Oak Orchard shorelines.