Orange County, NY, Middletown | featured news

PORT JERVIS — Unity amid diversity will be the focus of the third annual women’s march on Saturday, organizer Patty Baughman said.“We’re encouraging people to come together and counterbalance the partisan split at the national level,” said Baughman, community outreach coordinator for St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.A co-founder of the national Women’s March, Tamika Mallory, was accused of supporting Louis Farrakhan, known for [...]

NEW YORK — Conflicts over control, inclusivity and alleged anti-Semitism will mean that women protesting on the second anniversary of the Women's March on Washington are faced with competing demonstrations this weekend in New York City.One procession, around the edge of Central Park and down Sixth Avenue, is being organized by the Women's March Alliance, a nonprofit group whose leaders are putting on their version of the demonstration for the third straight year.Another [...]

NEW YORK — Stocks in the U.S. and Europe jumped Friday as renewed hopes for progress in trade talks between the U.S. and China helped the markets finish the week with another strong gain.Indexes jumped after Bloomberg News reported that China's government offered to buy more goods and services from the U.S., potentially eliminating its trade deficit by 2024. For investors, the encouraging news on trade builds on recent positive signs for the U.S. economy and indications from [...]

ALBANY — One of the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria this week was a Navy sailor and married mother of two from Dutchess County.The Pentagon identified three of the four Americans killed in Wednesday's attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij.They are Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M. Kent, 35, of Pine Plains, who was based at Fort Meade, Md.; Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Fla., [...]

Seventy-five towns and villages in Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties would lose a longstanding subsidy from Albany this year under a state budget proposal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that would eliminate that annual aid for most towns and villages but preserve it for cities.The funding stream, known as Aid and Incentives for Municipalities, or AIM, is fairly modest, but still would amount to tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue that towns and villages must absorb if the [...]

CORNWALL — The Cornwall school board is hiring an architectural firm to develop a five-year program for addressing building needs in the district.Board President Larry Berger said they’ll begin with a survey of the five school buildings and the district offices.The board action comes in the wake of defeats of two bond issues for major capital improvements, $44.4 million in December 2017 and $24.85 million in September last year.CSArch, an architectural, [...]

CITY OF NEWBURGH — The Newburgh City Council will revisit its ongoing discussion of a potential municipal ID program in the coming weeks.Corporation Counsel Michelle Kelson said at the council's meeting Monday night she has obtained legislation from other nearby cities that recently began similar ID programs, as well as legislation from New York City.Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, a local grassroots immigration advocacy group, has organized public support of ID programs [...]

State officials have proposed two changes in the STAR tax-relief program that are meant to prod homeowners into trading the usual savings on their school-tax bills for checks from Albany for an equivalent amount.The program began more than two decades ago as a property-tax exemption that shaves several hundred dollars off homeowners' bills before school districts send them out, with the state paying districts for those savings. But a couple of years ago, the state required new [...]

HIGHLAND – Highland High School recently welcomed local author John Panzella, who spoke with Economics and Financial Math students – 20 percent of the student body – on the importance of credit.Panzella, a Marlboro resident, spent his career working in the banking industry and wrote "Give Yourself Some Credit!: A Graduate's Guide to Understanding and Establishing Good Credit." In addition to donating his time to come speak, he contributed signed copies of his book [...]

CORNWALL – The Board of Trustees of the Cornwall Public Library has named Charlotte Dunaief as the new library director, following her appointment in September as interim director. Dunaief permanently replaces Mary Lou Carolan, who accepted a position with the Newburgh Free Library.Dunaief began as a children’s librarian before joining the Cornwall Public Library in 2010 as the head of Adult Services. She received her master’s degree from the Palmer School of [...]