Orange County, NY, Middletown | featured news

WARWICK – Schervier Pavilion residents recently enjoyed an actual testing of friendly dogs and their owners for certification as therapy dogs that work in nursing homes, hospitals, schools and many other facilities.As residents looked on, evaluators and their assistants from The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs, Inc. put the dogs through the paces to make sure they always give a wide birth to crutches, walkers and plates of food. They were tested on how they showed obedience [...]

GRAHAMSVILLE - The Time and the Valleys Museum opened a new exhibit, "WOW! Water on Water," for a special museum member and artist reception last Sunday.“Rivals anything seen in New York City,” said Shaune Bornholdt, of New York City and part-time Sullivan County resident.Showcasing watercolor paintings of the Delaware and Catskill watershed areas, the exhibition opens to the public this weekend, May 26-27, from noon to 4 p.m. at the museum at 332 Main St. on [...]

ALBANY — Making, selling, transporting or possessing 3D-printed guns and other undetectable firearms would be banned in New York under legislation approved by the Democrat-controlled state Legislature.The Assembly passed the bill Monday, five days after the legislation was approved by the Senate.The measure would ban all firearms whose components can't be detected by security screening technology such as X-rays and metal detectors typically used at airports. [...]

NEW YORK (AP) — Two dozen states and municipalities sued the federal government Tuesday to stop a new rule that lets health care clinicians decline to provide abortions and other services that conflict with their moral or religious beliefs.A Manhattan federal court lawsuit asked a judge to declare the rule unconstitutional and say it was passed in an arbitrary and capricious manner. In a separate lawsuit in San Francisco federal court, California sued as well, saying there [...]

LIBERTY - Liberty police arrested a Queens man they said was found sleeping inside a home he broke in to.Police responded to a residence on Thursday after receiving a call from the homeowner who returned to the home and found a side door had been damaged and forced open, according to a news release from the Village of Liberty Police Department.Officers arrived and checked inside, where they found Martin Delacruz-Almonte, 59, sleeping in a bed, the news release says. [...]

ALBANY — Lawmakers in the New York state Assembly's Republican minority want to extend the time between parole hearings for prison inmates doing time for certain violent felony convictions.Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, of Canandaigua, was joined at the state Capitol Tuesday by other GOP lawmakers and Romona Bantle-Fahy to call for the passage of legislation known as "Ramona's Law."The bill would extend the time between parole reconsiderations from the [...]

If spiders — in particular super-sized tarantulas — freak you out, prepare to be freaked out even more.Turns out tarantulas can swim.Yes, that means you've now got to watch for them on land AND in the water. [...]

MIDDLETOWN - Barry Lewis, executive editor of the Times Herald-Record, announced his resignation Wednesday morning to a stunned newsroom staff.Lewis, 59, has been with the newspaper for 20 years, beginning as the Sullivan County editor and later becoming the Sunday editor. He was appointed executive editor in 2014, a job he said he has loved every minute."Truly this has been the greatest job I would have ever wanted. Not a day goes by that I don’t walk into the [...]

Mother Nature this week delivered the first storm of the Atlantic hurricane season that was powerful enough to earn a name: Subtropical Storm Andrea.It wasn't long though before Andrea began to weaken and was downgraded.The storm wasn't expected to pose a hazard to anyone on land, according to the National Hurricane Center.But that got us thinking — now that we can scratch Andrea off the official roster of Atlantic tropical cyclone names for 2019 — who else [...]

Get ready to rock out to Woodstock alumni The Family Stone at 8 p.m. Friday in the Event Gallery at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. The show features Jerry Martini, original founding member of Sly & The Family Stone, along with Phunne Stone, the multi-talented daughter of Sly Stone and the late Cynthia Robinson. Tickets also available for a pre-show multi-course dinner served promptly at 6 p.m. Bethelwoodscenter.org.The Zerbini Family Circus returns to Museum [...]