Orange County, NY | featured news

A new bill sponsored by Assemblyman Karl Brabenec would zero in on a deadly piece of the ongoing opioid epidemic by creating a new criminal charge specifically for fentanyl – the powerful drug that has played a part in many overdose deaths – and for fentanyl spinoffs known as analogues that are manufactured to try [...]

SALAMANCA — A long-missing peace pipe tomahawk President George Washington gave to a Seneca leader in the late 18th century has been returned to the tribe in western New York.Washington gave the combination tobacco-smoking pipe and weapon to Cornplanter as the United States negotiated a peace treaty with the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.The artifact eventually wound up at the State Museum in Albany, where it remained until being stolen in the late 1940s. [...]

Freshman Rep. Antonio Delgado has signed on as a co-sponsor of a Democratic bill introduced in the last three Congresses that would eliminate a ban on the use of Medicaid funds for abortions that was set by the so-called Hyde Amendment in 1976 and has remained in place ever since. Delgado, a Rhinebeck Democrat whose [...]

NEW WINDSOR — The evening a drunk driver struck and killed her son on Route 300, Sonia Borrero heard the sirens from her home.“Those sirens were for my son, who was left to die on the side of the road,” she said Friday. “How do you leave somebody like that? How do you leave a human being to die on the side of the road?”Borrero spoke at her home, on her birthday, to help state police with a simple message: Don’t drink and drive. [...]

For St. Patrick's Day weekend, state police will add patrols, conduct sobriety checkpoints and run details on underage drinking and sales of alcohol to minors. They'll also ticket distracted drivers who use handheld electronic devices while on the road.The details will run through Monday.In 2018, the state police St. Patrick's weekend enforcement blitz led to 243 DWI arrests statewide, and troopers issued almost 13,000 tickets.State police said St. Patrick's Day, this [...]

THOMPSON — Empire Resorts, the parent company of Resorts World Catskills casino, recorded a 2018 loss of $138.7 million on revenue of $194.8 million and operating expenses of $283.9 million, according to an earnings report filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.Interest on Empire Resorts’ $495.7 million of debt accounted for $49.83 million, or 36 percent of its 2018 losses. Empire Resorts didn't break out how much the Monticello Casino and Raceway, a [...]

THOMPSON – The opening for the $180 million-plus Kartrite Resort & Indoor Waterpark has been delayed by two weeks, a spokeswoman for the park’s management team confirmed on Friday.A March 28 soft opening has been canceled, and an April 4 grand opening ceremony has been moved to April 19, said Michelle Kelly, a spokeswoman for Benchmark Resorts & Hotels.April 19 also is the first date on which guests can book hotel rooms at the park, which is located [...]

If you had a chance to speak directly to state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, what would you want to know?We put the question to local school officials.Their responses covered a gamut of issues.Monticello Superintendent Tammy Mangus would like to know about the key to student success.“I would ask her where does she believe we can get the greatest return on investment to ensure our graduating students’ success?” Mangus said.She [...]

PORT JERVIS — One of the people forced to jump from a second-story window to escape Thursday's fast-moving house fire said that by late Friday afternoon all but one of the victims had been released from hospitals.“I have the (2-year-old girl) with me now,” said Chad McKane, as he waited for a locksmith to make a new key for his car, currently sitting in the driveway of his burned-out residence at 18 Erie St.His key was lost in the blaze, along with all [...]