Orange County, NY | featured news

ALBANY — More than 2,000 volunteers are expected to help clean up the shores of the Hudson River next weekend.The eighth annual Riverkeeper Sweep will be held on Saturday, May 4 with volunteers cleaning up shorelines and fostering native plants up and down the river.There are more than 120 projects scheduled, including a cleanup of Iona Island off of Rockland County and cleanup by kayak near Glens Falls.Teams of volunteers are organized by local schools, [...]

ALBANY — In New York state government news, lawmakers are returning to Albany to begin the final two months of the legislative session, and bills to legalize recreational marijuana will top the agenda.Meanwhile, a Senate investigations committee is making it easier for the public to suggest topics for future scrutiny.A look at stories making news:___POT TOPS AGENDADemocratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on lawmakers to include a [...]

The Middletown school board adopted a proposed budget Thursday night with a 1 percent tax-levy increase.“It’s the lowest it’s been that we can remember," Superintendent Richard Del Moro said.If approved by voters on May 21, the budget would increase 2.72 percent (or $5.16 million) to a total of $195.13 million, according to Del Moro's presentation to the Board of Education. The proposed budget is for the 2019-2020 school year.The total tax levy [...]

NEW YORK (AP) — Measles continues to spread in the United States, with more 704 cases reported so far this year in 22 states.U.S. health officials on Monday updated the national tally. It has already eclipsed the total for any full year since 1994, when 963 cases were reported.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says this year's count includes 44 people who caught the disease while traveling in another country. Some of them triggered U.S. outbreaks, [...]

ALBANY — President Donald Trump says the National Rifle Association is "under siege" in New York after state Attorney General Letitia James announced an investigation into the organization.The Republican president tweeted Monday that James and her fellow Democrat, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are "illegally" trying to "destroy" the NRA.James' office announced the probe Saturday. Last year she vowed to investigate whether the organization, which has a New York office, [...]

WATKINS GLEN - Woodstock 50, the anniversary concert event planned for Watkins Glen International in August, has been canceled, according to Timothy O'Hearn, administrator for Schuyler County, where the three-day event was scheduled to be held."I received notification a little before noon today," said O'Hearn on Monday, expressing disappointment.He learned of the cancellation in a phone call from the festival's financial partner, Dentsu Aegis Network. "All I know is [...]

As Hurricane Florence’s winds decreased on its September approach to the Carolinas, the anxiety of meteorologists rose.When the long-lived storm was a fierce Category 4 cyclone with 140 mph winds, people took notice, preparing, evacuating, “freaking out,” as one North Carolina forecaster put it this month at the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans.Then Florence faltered, weakening to a Cat 2, then a Cat 1. National Hurricane Center forecasters [...]

Marilyn Dale is a potter, a painter, a Jewish educator, a parent, a grandparent. And if there’s one thing she’s learned from everything she’s undertaken it’s to forge ahead and do what you believe is right for you.Dale, 66, teaches pottery at her own studio in the Warwick Community Center and at The Art School at Old Church, Demerest, N.J. And she loves it. Her enthusiasm for pottery - throwing, building, sculpting, painting – is infectious. But had [...]

You’ve got to ask for it, says Johanna Sweikata of Montgomery. Every store you go into.Don’t be embarrassed to ask, says AnnMarie Maglione, director of the Orange County Office for the Aging.Get in the habit of asking for senior discounts.There‘s a wealth of them out there."It can’t hurt to ask," Maglione says. "What’s the worst that can happen? They say ‘No?’ Ask them if they have a senior discount. If [...]

GOSHEN - James Keating was stabbed eight times and suffered a broken arm, a prosecutor said Monday at the Orange County Court arraignment of the man charged with killing Keating in 2003.Keating, 55, a long-time employee of FedEx in Mahwah, N.J., was found slain in his bedroom at his Town of Warwick home on Union Corners Road in early February 2003.Sixteen years later, police made an arrest.On Monday, Felipe Campos, 40, was arraigned in front of Judge Craig [...]