Orange County, NY, Middletown | featured news

SLATE HILL — The Minisink Valley school board will begin discussing options and next steps at a meeting on May 30 after voters shot down the district’s proposed operating budget for 2019-20 on Tuesday.Voters also rejected a proposition to buy 10 school buses for $1,025,563."While we are disappointed at the election results, we appreciate all community members who considered the district’s budget proposal and came out to the polls to cast their [...]

WHITE PLAINS — A Newburgh man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Friday to a February 2017 murder at a social club on South William Street in the City of Newburgh.The U.S. Attorney’s office said Troy Young, 24, also known as “Hollywood,” also pleaded guilty to involvement in a racketeering conspiracy in connection with his membership in Southside, a violent street gang.According to the U.S. Attorney’s office and police accounts at [...]

PINE BUSH — Business is still business, no matter what galaxy it beams down from.That was the spirit on Main Street in Pine Bush on the eve of the town's annual UFO Fair. Known internationally as the UFO capital of the world, the hamlet has, since the '80s, had as many reported Unidentified Flying Object sightings as some towns may have bear sightings.Troves of tourists [...]

A local citizen activist is suing the New York Public Service Commission and Central Hudson Gas & Electric to allow for non-electric frequency emitting analog meters.Stop Smart Meters Woodstock NY co-founder Steve Romine, 68, of Woodstock, recently filed suit in state Supreme Court in Albany County, claiming Central Hudson’s “Encoder Receiver Transmitter” meters are actually just an older form of smart meters.Central Hudson contends the digital meters [...]

GREENWOOD LAKE — Jesse Ventura, professional wrestler, Navy SEAL, and former governor of Minnesota, also took a turn at acting. That’s how he came to be one of the stars at Friday‘s opening night of the Hoboken International Film Festival.Ventura, who starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987’s “Predator,” was at the festival to receive the HIFF’s first-ever Humanitarian Award.Waiting to start his turn on the red carpet, [...]

PORT JERVIS - Ruby Willis recently hatched a germinating hope at a gathering of people planning community activities at Empowering Port Jervis. Civil rights attorney Michael Sussman, who called the meeting, had founded the community center on the principle that everyone has something to learn and to teach, Willis recalled. She had come in knowing what she wanted to do, but her idea needed its match.“I sat up when a couple said, ‘We just love to cook,’” [...]

PINE BUSH - On Sunday, the family of Benjamin Howe will celebrate his first birthday with a community blood drive in Pine Bush. Benjamin was born prematurely and required many blood transfusions to save his life while he was in the neonatal intensive care unit. His parents are inviting the community to come celebrate his birthday and donate so that patients like Benjamin have access to the blood they need. The blood drive will be from noon to 6 p.m. in Crawford Town Park, 19 [...]

KINGSTON – The second annual “Step into History Scavenger Hunt” in Uptown Kingston’s Stockade National Historic District will take place from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. May 25.The “Step Into History Scavenger Hunt” is presented by the Senate House State Historic Site, Volunteer Firemen’s Hall and Museum of Kingston, Old Dutch Church, Friends of Historic Kingston and the Matthewis Persen House Museum. Participants can pick up a Scavenger [...]

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released statistics on average national long-term care costs. We are living longer, referred to as our “longevity risk,” meaning the longer we live the greater our chance of needing long-term care, which comes at a high cost.Following are the average national long-term care costs:• Semi-private room in a nursing home: $225 per day or $6,844 per month;• Private room in a nursing home: $253 per [...]

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney gave an impassioned speech from the floor and then presided over a House vote on Friday on a bill that would fully establish LGBT rights in federal law and prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.The House approved the Equality Act in a 236-173 vote, with eight Republicans breaking ranks to side with the Democratic majority. Before the vote, Maloney, a Cold Spring Democrat and co-chairman of the Congressional LGBT Equality [...]