Ithaca Roller Derby on the move
The League of Women Rollers needs a new home after rent increases at the Ithaca Mall.
By Caroline Grass
May 8, 2025
ITHACA, N.Y. — The Ithaca Roller Derby is on the hunt to find a new permanent skating location after the rent payments for their space in the Shops at Ithaca Mall were slated to quintuple this year.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
Gorge rescues routine in Ithaca, safety and prevention education continues
By Caroline Grass
September 20, 2024
ITHACA, N.Y — The over 150 waterfalls in and around Ithaca are a draw for locals, students and tourists alike to visit and explore. But despite long-running education efforts, people continue to hike and swim in prohibited areas making gorge rescues a common occurrence — particularly as new students arrive in the fall, unfamiliar with the risks of the local water attractions.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
Third contender adds hat to ring for First Ward Common Council seat
By Caroline Grass
March 13, 2025
ITHACA, N.Y. — Yet another candidate has announced a bid to represent Ithaca’s First Ward on the Common Council. Local business owner and longtime resident Alejandro Santana said he hopes to increase the council’s transparency and give a voice to his community
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
Three more cannabis dispensaries opening in Tompkins County, with others likely on the way
By Caroline Grass and Kate Sanders
August 2, 2024
ITHACA, N.Y. — Three new dispensaries are set to open soon in and around Ithaca, including Collegetown’s first dispensary. The impending openings will bring the total number of dispensaries in the county to six, all of which opened in the last 18 months.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
Local athletes to watch compete at the Olympics
By Caroline Grass
July 26, 2024
ITHACA, N.Y. — The Summer Olympics are here with over 10,000 athletes from across the world gearing up to compete in Paris for the Olympic Games July 26-Aug. 11 and the Paralympics Aug. 28-Sept. 8.
Photo Credit: USA Today’s Mandi Wright
Ithaca College, Tompkins County partner to establish pilot brain injury clinic
By Caroline Grass
July 18, 2024
ITHACA, N.Y. — A new program to help Tompkins County Whole Health (TCWH) clients who experience symptoms of a traumatic or acquired brain injury is cleared to start a Brain Injury Pilot Program this fall.
Photo Credit: Tompkins County Whole Health
Hammerstone Carpentry for Women expands reach with new West End workspace
By Caroline Grass
July 16, 2024
ITHACA, N.Y. — After 11 years of teaching at their Trumansburg location, Hammerstone: Carpentry for Women is opening a second teaching space in Ithaca’s West End with plans to start holding classes downtown by the end of the summer.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
ICSD passes climate resolution, climate action plan to be developed this year
By Caroline Grass
July 12, 2024
ITHACA, N.Y — The Ithaca City School District (ICSD) Board of Education passed a motion in June to approve a climate resolution, paving the way for the creation of a climate action plan.
Photo Credit: Armin Heurich
City starting process for another swing at $10M Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant
By Caroline Grass
July 11, 2024
ITHACA, N.Y. — The City of Ithaca is starting the application process for Round 8 of the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant, which awards $10 million in funding to one lucky community in each of the state’s 10 economic development regions.
Photo Provided by Tompkins County
New businesses to add dining options in downtown Ithaca
By Caroline Grass
July 8, 2024
A new restaurant and a deli opening soon are expanding the food options available in downtown Ithaca.
The Lotus opened in May on North Aurora Street adjacent to the Commons. The restaurant fills the space that used to be Viva Taqueria which had been vacant since Viva moved across the street in the spring of last year. The Ithaca Deli will open in the old Starbucks location on East Seneca Street.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
Fireworks, festivities and more: A guide to Fourth of July celebrations in the area
By Caroline Grass
July 3, 2024
ITHACA N.Y. — Fireworks shows and celebrations with food, live music and more are planned for the week and weekend to celebrate the Fourth of July. Here’s a snapshot of what’s happening in and around Tompkins County.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
Black Diamond Trail Bridge completed, moving expansion forward
By Caroline Grass
June 28, 2024
A pedestrian bridge connecting the Black Diamond Trail (BDT) and the City of Ithaca’s Cherry Street Industrial Park area is complete, pushing the plan to connect the trail from Taughannock Falls to Buttermilk Falls one step closer to completion.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
“Ask Amy” columnist opening library in Freeville as she leaves her position this month
By Caroline Grass
June 28, 2024
Amy Dickinson is leaving behind “Ask Amy,” the nationally syndicated advice column she has written for the last 21 years. She’s now opening a lending library in Freeville, her hometown, to promote literacy and provide a family-friendly community space and wants to write children’s books for early readers.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
Ithaca College Health Center now billing for sexual and mental health services
By Caroline Grass
September 21, 2024
The Cayuga Health Center at Ithaca College will now bill students’ insurance for mental health and sexual health clinical office visits, college leadership announced this month, a change from the school’s previous policy.
Photo Credit: Matt Butler
County mulls future of airport’s U.S. Customs facility amid continued losses
By Caroline Grass
June 24, 2024
The federal United States Customs facility at the Ithaca-Tompkins International Airport (ITH) that opened as part of a celebrated airport expansion has operated at a deficit every year of its existence, leaving Tompkins County officials grappling with how to handle its future.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
County committee approves X-ray machine to “enhance security” at Human Services Building
By Caroline Grass
June 18, 2024
The county’s Human Services Building will likely soon have an X-ray machine to help improve safety in the building by screening individual’s belongings.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
New cookbook celebrates 50 years of the Ithaca Farmers Market
By Caroline Grass
June 17, 2024
A new Ithaca Farmers Market (IFM) Cookbook commemorates the market’s 50th anniversary and highlights seasonal cooking using local ingredients.
Photo Credit: Casey Martin
Monkey Run Natural Area reopens after week-long search for “potentially rabid” coyote
By Caroline Grass
June 14, 2024
The trails at the Monkey Run Natural Area of the Cornell Botanical Gardens reopened to the public on June 12, after a week-long search for a “potentially rabid” coyote that attacked multiple people and dogs was unsuccessful.
Photo Credit: Megan Zerez
Information of student loan borrowers exposed in data breach
By Caroline Grass
September 21, 2022
Personal information of about 2.5 million student loan borrowers across the United States was exposed in a data breach of Nelnet Servicing LLC (Nelnet) during Summer 2022. Now, because of the severity of the breach and time it took for the company to notify customers, Nelnet faces a class action lawsuit alleging wrongdoing.
Photo Credit: Malik Clement
Campus improvement projects slowed by supply chain issues
By Caroline Grass
August 24, 2022
Many campus construction and landscaping projects were started over the summer at Ithaca College, but with national supply chain issues leading to delays of materials like granite, stone, concrete and paint, some projects remain unfinished and will be completed in the fall semester.
Photo Credit: Malik Clement
Riverkeeper network seeks to lift a 50-year-old ban on swimming in D.C waterways
By Caroline Grass
September 20, 2022
Every Thursday evening and Sunday morning in the spring and summer, between 40 and 80 swimmers plunge into the Potomac River to practice open water swimming. But just a few miles away, swimming in the Potomac and Anacostia rivers in Washington, D.C. has been banned for the last 50 years.
Photo Credit: Caroline Grass
Moving one step closer to reducing flooding in D.C.’s Tidal Basin
By Caroline Grass
August 16, 2022
In Washington, D.C., the Tidal Basin, a historic site known for its many monuments and over 3,000 cherry trees, floods twice a day every day during high tide, due to increased water levels and deteriorating seawalls.
Photo Credit: Caroline Grass
How the pink lady’s slipper forms relationships in the woods to survive
By Caroline Grass
August 1, 2022
The pink lady’s slipper is one of the largest native orchids in the United States and grows in forested areas in the eastern half of the U.S. and throughout most of Canada. They do well in shady areas with acidic soil, but need a fungus present in the soil before they can grow.
Photo Credit: Will Parson
Restoring oyster reefs in the Chesapeake Bay takes four steps
By Caroline Grass
July 27, 2022
Oysters are an important species in the Chesapeake as they help improve water quality and support one of the most valuable commercial fisheries in the Bay, but populations are only at 1-2% of historic levels due to pollution and unsustainable harvesting.
Photo Credit: Will Parson
Nonprofit thinks big to tackle agricultural pollution along the Susquehanna River
By Caroline Grass
July 19, 2022
With pollution from agriculture as one of the main causes of the Chesapeake Bay’s poor health, farmers in Pennsylvania often find themselves taking the blame. Lancaster County alone is home to over 5,000 farms and is the number one producer of poultry, eggs, milk and swine in the Commonwealth.
Photo Credit: Caroline Grass
West Virginia landowner collaborated with nonprofit to restore brook trout habitat
By Caroline Grass
July 14, 2022
Cold, clear water flows from a hillside in Baker, West Virginia, feeding a creek that has been running through Greg Hulver’s property for generations. The land lies in a hollow of a forested area that eventually drains into the Potomac River—a main tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.
Photo Credit: Will Parson
Exploring the unique “triple life” of an eastern newt
By Caroline Grass
July 5, 2022
Eastern newts, like most amphibians, start as aquatic larvae and move to living on land. But what makes this critter unique is that after a few years living among leaf litter on the forest floor, it will become aquatic once again. Looking at the size, color and habitat of where you spot an eastern newt can help you determine what stage it’s in.
Photo Credit: Will Parson
Slight improvements in Bay health and new economic data added in 2021 Chesapeake Bay Report Card
By Caroline Grass
June 7, 2022
On June 6, 2022, the annual report card measuring the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed was released from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) It reported an overall slight positive trend in Bay health and incorporated new economic indicators for the full Chesapeake watershed.
Photo Credit: Carlin Stiehl
With only a week to live, luna moths are a rare sight
By Caroline Grass
June 1, 2022
In the northern United States, the luna moth, a pale green, giant silkworm moth, will emerge from its cocoon during the spring and early summer. The moth will only live for one week while it searches for a mate, so keep an eye out while in the woods and check any well-lit areas at night for this eye-catching creature.
Photo Credit: Mike Keeling
Q&A: IC professor publishes essay in the Friends Journal
By Caroline Grass
April 13, 2022
Carlos Figueroa, associate professor in the Department of Politics, published an essay called “The Duty To Resist: Bayard T. Rustin’s Pragmatic Quaker Faith” in the Friends Journal. Figueroa’s teaching and work centers around U.S. politics and explores faith and race in relation to politics. He wrote this essay based on Bayard Rustin’s 1948 William Penn lecture. Rustin was a Quaker and African American leader in social movements for civil rights and a promoter of non-violence.
Photo Credit: Malik Clement
ICC changed for incoming and current IC students
By Caroline Grass
April 5, 2022
After five years of reviewing Ithaca College’s Integrative Core Curriculum (ICC), the college has decided to implement changes to address student and faculty concerns and streamline the ICC.
Photo Credit: Chloe Gibson
School of Music initiative brings music to Cayuga Hospital
By Caroline Grass
March 24, 2022
In an effort to bring live music and a brief reprieve from an often stressful hospital environment, the Ithaca College School of Music is starting a Music as Medicine initiative, where students will perform at Cayuga Medical Center.
Photo Credit: Abby Brandy
Day of learning held in response to antisemitism on campus
By Caroline Grass
March 2, 2022
In between classes, members of the Ithaca College community gathered while organizers handed out blue wristbands printed with the words “Humans against antisemitism, bigotry and hate.” Throughout the day, the campus community engaged in an open dialogue about antisemitism in response to multiple symbols of hate found on campus.
Photo Credit: Leila Marcillo-Gomez
Ithaca College partners with mindfulness app for students
By Caroline Grass
February 16, 2022
In an effort to respond to students’ concerns and needs regarding mental health support and services, Ithaca College has partnered with the mindfulness app Sanvello and is offering a free premium-level version of the app to everyone at the college.
Photo Credit: Ash Bailot
Q&A: Longtime IC Student Health Services employee promoted
By Caroline Grass
February 15 , 2022
Jennifer Metzgar has been appointed as the new director for Student Health Services at Ithaca College and is taking the place of Ellyn Selin-Sellers, former director for Student Health Services. Metzgar graduated from SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York in 1999 and has worked in primary care ever since. She came to Ithaca College 10 years ago and has been working with students as a nurse practitioner at the Hammond Health Center.
Photo Credit: Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson
Student returns to IC after opening axe throwing business
By Caroline Grass
February 1, 2022
After taking two leaves of absence, an Ithaca College student is coming back to Ithaca as the co-owner of Electric City Axe Throwing, a business that draws people of all ages to spend a few hours launching axes at targets in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Photo Courtesy Sam Williams
LGBT Center hosts “Fauci” documentary screening for students
By Caroline Grass
December 7, 2021
The Ithaca College Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services held a virtual screening, that could be watched at any point over the week, of the documentary movie “Fauci” from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4. The documentary was screened to give students and community members an opportunity to learn about Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Fauci held leading roles in the response to the AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo Courtesty Luca Mauer
Spotted lanternflies arrive in New York
By Caroline Grass
December 3, 2021
A Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) looks like any other insect and with no ability to bite or sting seem harmless, but their infestation in parts of Pennsylvania have devastated agriculture markets and their spread into neighboring states appears impossible to stop.
Photo Credit: Brian Eshenaur
Journalism Innovation course collaborates with IC alum
By Caroline Grass
December 1, 2021
Students in Ithaca College’s journalism innovation class study entrepreneurial, grassroots ways of delivering journalism outside of the traditional news formats like print, radio and TV. During the fall semester, students in the class collaborated with an alum working on a startup to report on local stories in Ithaca.
Photo Credit: Mikayla Elwell
City of Ithaca to become 100% decarbonized by 2030
By Caroline Grass
November 18, 2021
The City of Ithaca found itself on the national stage Nov. 4 as the city announced the approval of a plan to decarbonize all of its buildings by 2030, making it the first city in the United States working to become 100% decarbonized.
Photo Credit: Thomas Kerrigan
IC Toxicology Lab investigates microplastics in Cayuga Lake
By Caroline Grass
November 11, 2021
Cayuga Lake is the longest of the 11 Finger Lakes, stretching 40 miles from Ithaca to Seneca Falls, New York, and is home to thousands of plants and animals. However, the IC Toxicology Lab estimates that the lake has 100,000,000 microplastic particles in it, which can harm aquatic life and people.
Photo Credit: Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson
Program aims to educate students about violence prevention
By Caroline Grass
November 10, 2021
A new program at Ithaca College, IC Responsibility (ICR), aims to educate students about intervention to ensure that violence prevention education goes further than just the two months of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October and Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April.
Photo Credit: Nick Bahamonde
Student health organization seeks to make a return
By Caroline Grass
November 3, 2021
The Ithaca College Public and Community Health Student Association (PCHSA) is on its way to becoming a club again after its official status lapsed last year.
Photo Credit: Brooke Vogel
Q&A: IC professor gives keynote address on machine learning
By Caroline Grass
October 6, 2021
Doug Turnbull, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Ithaca College, gave a keynote address at the IndabaX Nigeria conference Sept. 24. Deep Learning IndabaX is an organization that works to support countries in Africa to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and machine learning research in the continent. Turnbull’s address “Why Research Music?” explored the capabilities of machine learning and music recommendation to help provide exposure for local artists.
Photo Credit: Malik Clement
College encourages students to receive flu vaccinations
By Caroline Grass
September 22, 2021
Ithaca College normally holds an annual flu vaccination Point of Dispensing (POD) exercise, where hundreds of students and faculty get vaccinated in one day, but the POD event for the 2021–22 academic year is not yet confirmed.
Photo Credit: Anna Brodhead
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