Episodios

  • Philipstown, Beacon Dig Out

    Philipstown, Beacon Dig Out
    Jan 27 2026
    East Coast could get hit again this weekend
    Many people in the U.S. faced another night of below-freezing temperatures and no electricity after a colossal winter storm heaped more snow Monday (Jan. 26) on the Northeast and kept parts of the South coated in ice. At least 29 deaths were reported in states afflicted with severe cold.
    In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office said at least eight people were found dead outside as temperatures plunged between Saturday and Monday morning, though the cause of their deaths remained under investigation.
    Deep snow — over a foot extending in a 1,300-mile swath from Arkansas to New England — halted traffic, canceled flights and triggered school closures. According to spotters for the National Weather Service, 13 inches fell in Nelsonville as of 7 a.m. on Monday and 15.5 to 17 inches in Beacon as of 11 a.m.

    Beacon lifted its parking restrictions as of noon on Monday, while Cold Spring extended theirs to 7 a.m. Wednesday as plows work to clear streets. Vehicles must be removed from Beacon municipal parking lots by 9 a.m. Thursday. Nelsonville said crews would remove snow from Division and Pearl streets on Tuesday.
    The National Weather Service said Monday that a fresh influx of arctic air is expected to sustain freezing temperatures in places already covered in snow and ice. And forecasters said it's possible another winter storm could hit parts of the East Coast this weekend, according to AccuWeather.
    New York City saw its snowiest day in years, with neighborhoods recording 8 to 15 inches. Though public schools shut down, roughly 500,000 students were told to log in for online lessons on Monday. (Haldane will be remote on Tuesday, with after-school activities canceled; Beacon will have a two-hour delay.) Snow days off from school melted away in New York, the nation's largest public school system, after remote learning gained traction during the pandemic.

    Elsewhere in the country, the death toll included two people run over by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, fatal sledding accidents in Arkansas and Texas, and a woman whose body was found covered in snow by police with bloodhounds after she was last seen leaving a Kansas bar.
    Most power outages were in the South, where weekend blasts of freezing rain caused tree limbs and power lines to snap, especially in northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee. It was Mississippi's worst ice storm since 1994.
    The U.S. had more than 11,000 flight delays and cancellations nationwide Monday, according to flightaware.com. On Sunday, 45 percent of U.S. flights were canceled, the worst day since the pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
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    3 m
  • Former Beacon Couple's Conviction Upheld

    Former Beacon Couple's Conviction Upheld
    Jan 26 2026
    Each faces life in ex-husband's disappearance
    A federal judge upheld the convictions of a former Beacon couple found guilty in September of killing the wife's ex-husband, who disappeared in April 2020 after dropping off his two teenage daughters following a custody visit.
    In an opinion released on Friday (Jan. 23), Judge Philip Halpern rejected motions for acquittal or a new trial by Jamie Orsini and Nicholas Orsini, who a jury found guilty of carjacking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit carjacking in the disappearance of Steven Kraft.
    Prosecutors say they were the last ones to see Kraft before he disappeared on April 28, 2020, after returning his daughters to the West Church Street apartment his ex-wife shared with Nicholas Orsini. His disappearance came six weeks before a court hearing as Kraft sought either sole custody of his daughters or greater visitation.

    Both Orsinis, who were initially charged in June 2023, claim that prosecutors failed to prove that Kraft was killed. According to Jamie Orsini, surveillance video capturing Nicholas Orsini driving Kraft's car in the City of Newburgh showed evidence of a passenger, suggesting her ex-husband was still alive after he returned their daughters to Beacon.
    They also claimed that supplies bought from the Home Depot and Walmart in Fishkill before and after Kraft's disappearance — including a tarp, duct tape, painters coveralls and galvanized trash cans — should not have been used as evidence because they were "everyday household items" used in barbecuing and painting, not tools for disposing of Kraft's body as alleged by prosecutors.
    In addition to rejecting those claims, Halpern ruled against the Orsinis' arguments that the carjacking statute is "unconstitutionally vague" and that the trial court erred by allowing the testimony of two neighbors — one who reported a "foul" smell wafting through her window and another who described an "acrid, awful" smell from two large containers "being attended to by Nicholas Orsini" in the couple's backyard.
    Each faces a maximum penalty of life in prison on the carjacking resulting in death charge and five years on the conspiracy charge. In scheduling Jamie Orsini's sentencing for June 16 and Nicholas Orsini's for June 18, Halpern said the evidence "cannot be said to have been insufficient to support the jury's guilty verdict."

    According to that evidence, said prosecutors, the couple began plotting Kraft's murder before he disappeared, buying items that could be used to dismember and burn a body. Police recreated their movements using GPS and cellphone data, along with surveillance video from public and private cameras.
    Security footage and a store receipt from April 8, 2020, from the Home Depot on Route 9 in Fishkill showed that Jamie Orsini bought a 10-foot-by-100-foot tarp, duct tape and a Tyvek suit and boots, according to prosecutors. Video from the parking lot captured Nicholas Orsini helping load the supplies into the couple's GMC Envoy.
    That same day, according to the complaint, the pair drove to Newburgh to determine how to dispose of Kraft's car. Data from their phones and video footage tracked the couple driving from West Church Street over the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge to the City of Newburgh.

    Prosecutors said that Kraft, a former U.S. Marine who was 34 when he disappeared, had custody of his daughters from 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and noon to 3 p.m. every other Saturday. On the Tuesday he disappeared, Kraft picked up the girls and drove to a Sonic restaurant in the Town of Newburgh and then to his apartment in Marlboro, before returning to Beacon at 7 p.m. Police said cellphone data confirmed that Jamie and Nicholas Orsini followed him to the restaurant.
    The next day, Kraft failed to show up to his deli job in Marlboro, and on May 4, investigators found his 1999 Camry abandoned at Third Street and Carpenter Avenue in the City of Newburgh.
    One of the earliest pieces of evidence was surveillance footage showing Kraft's ...
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    5 m
  • Looking Back in Beacon

    Looking Back in Beacon
    Jan 24 2026
    Editor's note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing.
    150 Years Ago (January 1876)
    A resident reported that the new year in Matteawan was greeted with the ringing of bells, firing of shotguns, crowing of roosters, burning of bonfires of stolen beer barrels and fence rails and "yelling and hooting of the factory hoodlums."
    A burglar stole hams and whiskey from William Murray's grocery store in Fishkill Landing.
    A resident in Fishkill Landing reported finding a grasshopper on New Year's Day, when the temperature reached 48 degrees.
    One of the Methodist pastor's children was sitting at his father's writing desk in the parsonage at Fishkill Landing, reading by the light of a lamp, when he tried to refill the oil by lifting the reservoir cap. A fire burst startled him, and the lamp fell to the floor. Passersby extinguished the flames.
    Pat Murphy, the proprietor of a saloon on the Matteawan road, fell down a set of stone steps at his home and broke his collarbone.
    A Kingston firm had constructed 30 dwellings for A.T. Stewart in Glenham, with the men laying 50,000 bricks per day.
    The Hudson River Railroad Co. drew stone for the foundation of a brick depot at Fishkill Landing, a short distance north of the old depot.
    William Ager of Fishkill Landing had surgery at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, during which half of his upper jaw was replaced with a silver plate.
    William Ott, a brakeman on the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad, lost a finger while uncoupling cars at Dutchess Junction.
    The railroad's new bridge at Glenham passed a quality-control test when three locomotives weighing 50 tons each passed over and it didn't collapse.
    Congregants at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Matteawan presented their pastor, the Rev. C.W. Millard, with a gold watch and chain and $100 [about $3,000 today].
    A farmer's wife in Glenham, Mrs. Walter Cromwell, 35, hanged herself, apparently because of depression following a decision against her in a lawsuit involving her mother's estate. She had suffered a bout of melancholy about a year earlier, but her husband thought she had recovered.
    100 Years Ago (January 1926)
    The Public Service Commission authorized Central Hudson Gas and Electric Co. to buy the Citizens Railroad, Light and Power Co., the Fishkill Electric Railway Co. of Beacon and the Southern Dutchess Gas and Electric Co.
    The Mase Five quit the Hudson River League to play basketball as an independent. Eugene Cadmus, the manager, said the quintet had not been able to secure a consistent home court, had to travel too far and believed they could draw more paying spectators on their own.
    Philip VanBuren died. Many years earlier, he opened the Cozy Lunch on Main Street after leaving his job as a foreman at a local silk company.
    Philip Hoyt, 37, a Beacon native, was appointed as a deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department. The Princeton graduate spent 10 years as a reporter for The New York Times before joining the city finance department.
    Beatrice McClintock Ward of Beacon served her husband, George Ward, with divorce papers. After reaching George Ward by "long-distance telephone" at his office in New York City, the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News said he provided this statement: "For practically the last year, Mrs. Ward has been seeking to gain her freedom from the contract in which she entered in August 1923. She has consistently refused to move to Boston or New York, where I have been employed [by the Hearst Corp.] since last summer, and she has exhibited a constant desire to return to her artwork, which in my opinion precludes any chance of maintaining home life." Mrs. Ward sought custody of their infant son.
    James Murray, 63, died after falling down a flight of stairs at his residence on Willow Street. "He suffered a broken hip and, because of his advanced age, little hope had been held for his recovery," the Eagle-News reported. Dr. George Jennings, who responded, suffered a hemorrhage while he struggled to lif...
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    12 m
  • State Finalizes Fjord Trail Review

    State Finalizes Fjord Trail Review
    Jan 23 2026
    Report included responses to comments
    New York State finalized its environmental review on Tuesday (Jan. 20) of the proposed Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, summarizing the findings of a report released two weeks earlier.
    The findings statement concludes that the trail "will achieve a balance between the protection of the environment and the need to accommodate social and economic considerations" and that "the project is consistent with the coastal policies identified in the City of Beacon's approved Local Waterfront Revitalization Program to the maximum extent practicable."
    Notably, it does not mention Cold Spring's Local Waterfront Revitalization Strategy. The environmental group Riverkeeper, which serves on the HHFT's ecological working group, believes the project conflicts with both Beacon's and Cold Spring's strategies.
    That conclusion is unlikely to placate residents who believe that instead of mitigating overtourism, the 7.5-mile linear park between Cold Spring and Beacon will make the problem worse. Cold Spring has requested a public hearing to discuss the final environmental report.
    The parks department received over 650 public comments on the draft environmental review. The 12th and final appendix of the review issued two weeks ago, at 957 pages, includes agency replies to nearly every comment, some of which were hundreds of pages long and not reproduced in full.

    If a commentator praised the trail, the state typically replied, "comment noted." For those who raised concerns, the parks department often cross-referenced responses because many grievances were common. Here's a look at some of the common concerns and responses:
    More specifics
    Some commenters argued that a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) was not right for the project, which needed a more-specific Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). "Unlike an EIS, a GEIS may be broader, analyze impacts generally and include assessment of site-specific impacts only if they are available, and be based on conceptual information," wrote the law firm Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna, representing Protect the Highlands, which opposes the project.
    The Philipstown Town Board wrote that "the proposal as presented is conceptual in nature and certain thresholds must be met when the final design of the project is complete. … However, the document is vague at best about the particulars. … It is not possible to fully evaluate the extent of potential impacts or assess whether proposed mitigation measures will be effective."
    State response: The parks department replied that, even with a conceptual design, a GEIS was "appropriate to evaluate this action." HHFT must continue to check in with the state during the process, it said, and the agency "will determine whether any design modifications would warrant supplemental environmental review."
    Avoiding Cold Spring
    Many Philipstown commenters said the trail should end at Little Stony Point or Breakneck rather than connecting to Cold Spring. "We believe that the HHFT could be successful if its limits were from the City of Beacon to the Breakneck Ridge train station, where pedestrians could use the train to return to Beacon or points south," wrote the Town of Philipstown Conservation Board. "Allowing the HHFT into Philipstown would only exacerbate vehicular and pedestrian traffic."
    State response: The parks department replied that a Beacon-to-Breakneck trail would defeat the project's purpose, which is to "address increasing visitation to [Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve] and the surrounding communities and related public safety, quality of life and maintenance concerns arising from such increased visitation" as well as "reduce pedestrian crowding in Cold Spring by offering a more direct route" from the Metro-North station to the trailhead at Dockside Park.
    With the trail starting at Dockside, visitors arriving by train would be encouraged to walk through the lower village instead of Main Street, the state said. Otherwise, they w...
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    11 m
  • Former Texaco Property Cleanup Taking Shape

    Former Texaco Property Cleanup Taking Shape
    Jan 23 2026
    Feedback sought on first parcel of land
    The state Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting public comments through Jan. 31 on a proposal to remediate a small portion of the abandoned Texaco Research Center site just outside of Beacon.
    The DEC has broken the 153-acre property, now called Glenham Mills, into nine pieces, or "operable units," that correspond with Town of Fishkill tax parcels. Each will have its own remediation strategy. The first parcel under consideration is also the smallest — a 0.67-acre wooded patch north of Washington Avenue.
    The Glenham Mills property was the home of a textile mill in the early 1800s. After Texaco purchased the land in 1931, it built a complex where more than 1,000 employees researched and developed aviation gasolines and other petroleum products. By the time the center closed in 2003, Fishkill Creek, which divides the property, had been heavily polluted with petroleum, coal products and solvents.

    The state has assessed the impact of that pollution on fish and wildlife, the soil and human health. Remedial measures have included decommissioning storage tanks, excavating soil, repairing dams and sparging, in which pressurized air is injected below the water table, forcing gasoline or solvents into the soil, where they are extracted. The groundwater has been tested annually since 2009.
    "It may look like nothing has been going on, but work has been performed for decades now," said Greta Kowalski, a DEC geologist.
    Once remediation of Glenham Mills is complete, years from now, DEC will retain oversight through a site-management plan and environmental easements. "It's like the Hotel California," Kowalski said. "You can check out, but you can never leave."
    Chevron, which merged with Texaco in 2003, has sent proposals to the DEC to remediate most of the operable units. Once a plan is set for the first unit, known as OU-3, Kowalski said the next candidates could be OU-1B, a 15-acre parcel that once had a church, or OU-1E, a 93-acre segment south of Washington Avenue and Fishkill Creek known as the Back 93, which Texaco used for worker recreation.

    The Back 93 is probably the most attractive parcel for development; a 2021 Chevron report identified two sludge lagoons, three chemical burial sites, a disposal pit and a container disposal site as "areas of interest." More than 26,000 tons of material were removed from the Back 93 in the 1980s.
    Chevron's proposal for the 0.67-acre OU-3 is to excavate a 225-square-foot area where soil samples revealed semi-volatile organic compounds 6 inches below ground. Volatile chemicals can move from below ground into buildings, but nearby residences on Washington Avenue and Belvedere Road have not been contaminated, the company said.
    How to Comment
    Email Greta Kowalski at greta.kowalski@dec.ny.gov.
    For more information, see Chevron's site at glenhammills.com.
    Chevron has been trying to sell Glenham Mills since 2020, and there has been a renewed effort recently to market the site to "brownfield" developers, said Alex Cheramie, a company representative. An online flyer does not list a sale price but notes that the property offers an "excellent redevelopment opportunity" due to its proximity to Interstate 84 and Route 52. It is zoned for offices, laboratories and industrial or manufacturing uses.
    Chevron would like to restore the land to "restricted residential" status, a classification that the DEC says would be appropriate for a public park. During a Jan. 13 public meeting at Fishkill Town Hall, an audience member asked Kristin Kulow, a representative from the state Department of Health, whether she would feel safe living in a house in OU-3 once it is remediated. "Yes, I would, absolutely," she said.
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    4 m
  • Schoolhouse Gets State Funds

    Schoolhouse Gets State Funds
    Jan 23 2026
    Philipstown landmark was built in 1874
    A 19th-century schoolhouse that has sat empty for 90 years is on its way to a new life as a state park visitor center.
    The state parks department announced on Jan. 16 that Friends of Fahnestock and Hudson Highlands State Park (FOFHH) will receive $77,950 for the first phase of $600,000 in restoration work on the Philipstown landmark near the intersection of Routes 9 and 301.

    FOFHH has already raised the $22,550 in matching funds required for the Park and Trail Partnership Grant, according to President Katharine Spector. She said work should begin in the spring or summer, once permits have been secured.
    The grant is part of $2.25 million in funding distributed to 27 nonprofit organizations, including $27,450 to the Bannerman Castle Trust to connect trails on the island to improve accessibility for visitors, and $62,350 to the Walkway Over the Hudson to replace outdated and deteriorating wayfinding signs.

    In Phase 1 of the schoolhouse project, FOFHH will restore the exterior brick and stone foundation, replace the roof and install historically accurate windows and doors. The interior will be restored during Phase 2, which is expected to cost $200,000. A picnic area, outdoor public restroom and a trail connecting the site to nearby Hubbard Lodge and trailheads will be completed during Phase 3, for $300,000.

    Built in 1874, the one-room schoolhouse was part of a hamlet known as Griffin's Corners, and later Mekeels Corners, that included houses, the Griffin Hotel, a tavern, a blacksmith shop and the Philipstown Methodist Episcopal Union Chapel (1867), which still stands and is the site of a non-denominational service each year on Independence Day.
    The school operated until 1936, when it was sold to Helen Fahnestock Hubbard at public auction. The state parks department bought the property in the late 1980s.
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    2 m
  • Sheet-Music Sets

    Sheet-Music Sets
    Jan 23 2026
    Daria Grace revives century-old pop
    In the early 2000s, many Brooklyn bands explored offbeat styles. A Village Voice cover story in 2008 chronicled the borough's talented country scene and mentioned Kings County Queens, one of many music projects juggled by Daria Grace, who by 2013 had become a fixture in the Beacon music scene.
    Another of Grace's bands, Daria Grace & The Pre-War Ponies, performed obscure pop tunes from the 1920s through the 1940s culled from her sheet-music collection. The group last appeared in Beacon a decade ago at Quinn's, but the drought ends Friday (Jan. 30) at Lucky Dog, a new venue located at Beacon Music Factory.
    Grace doesn't read notes or play the piano, but arrangements from the period often included ukulele chords as Americans became enamored with Hawaiian sounds, so she learned to strum the four-stringed instrument and recorded the album Introducing The Pre-War Ponies in 2007. The band still plays in Brooklyn once a month.

    Grace mines old ditties that are easy on the ears but never made it into The Great American Songbook. The Ponies retrieve lesser-known gems from hitmakers Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter, along with tunes by unsung writers who cranked them out on Tin Pan Alley.
    During the years between the world wars, lyricists often disguised explicit blues references, but the title of "Pettin' in the Park," which appeared in the film Gold Diggers of 1933, states the obvious.
    On the surface, "The Gentleman Just Wouldn't Say Goodnight" seems similar to the now-controversial song "Baby, It's Cold Outside," about a guy cajoling a woman to stick around and pitch some woo.
    In the gentleman tune, however, written by Don Reid and Dave Terry, a couple wakes up at the crack of dawn and, it turns out, "the lady didn't want to say goodnight" either.
    The band's recording of the song on their more elaborate second disc, Get Out Under the Moon (2015), features a languid trombone solo by Grace's chief collaborator, J. Walter Hawkes, who also sings and plays soprano ukulele.
    The touch of brass enhances the vibe, since these songs date to the horn-dominated Big Band era. Also appearing at Lucky Dog will be Willie Martinez on drums and Andrew Hall on standup bass.
    Grace, whose bread-and-butter instrument is the electric bass, has toured and recorded with many bands as a gun for hire. In the Ponies, "I'm the singer, so it is my baby, although Walter has been along for the ride from the beginning and is integral to the sound."
    Delivering live shows with professional polish, she sings with pitch-perfect flow and phrasing. Because smaller ukuleles can't achieve much heft, Grace plays a baritone version, which resembles a guitar and adds depth to the sound.
    In 2008, she and then-husband Jack Grace left Brooklyn for Woodstock and ended up in Beacon five years later when they moved into the backyard cottage of George Mansfield, then co-owner of Dogwood (now Cooper's).
    As a member of The Wynottes, Grace's taste is impeccable: One favorite is the hipster pearl, "Give Me the Moon Over Brooklyn," written by Terry Shand and Jason Matthews. Guy Lombardo released a recording in 1946.
    "While touring, I was always on the lookout for old sheet music in junk shops," she says. "But someone from Texas gave that to me."
    Lucky Dog is located at 333 Fishkill Ave. in Beacon; the performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $20. See dub.sh/BMF–tickets
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    4 m
  • Music for the Soul

    Music for the Soul
    Jan 23 2026
    Slam Allen wants a smile on your face
    Slam Allen has got it figured out. He spoke with The Current while driving up I-95 from Miami after a monthlong gig on the Brilliant Lady, a new mega cruise ship that plies the Caribbean and anchors in Aruba and Jamaica. For half the year, he plays guitar for two hours a night and relaxes the rest of the time.
    "Those gigs are a beautiful situation, man," he says. "They give guest artists a nice cabin with a balcony and free food."
    His parents moved to the Monticello area from Alabama, and Allen retains that drawl, which he brings to the Towne Crier in Beacon on Saturday (Jan. 24). He still lives in the Hudson Valley and has played at the 54-year-old club since its early days in Pawling.
    Born into a musical family, Allen earned the cruise ship gigs by developing a gritty, down-home sound rooted in the blues and soul, paying his dues in dive bars.
    After 9/11, he moved to Chicago, birthplace of the electric blues, to see if he had the chops to hang with the masters and ended up touring with harmonica giant James Cotton for a decade before taking his guitar on the road as a solo performer.
    Allen explored working with major labels but says he disliked what he discovered. "I didn't want anything to do with that system," he says. "They control you and try to change you."

    He has performed in all 50 states and 10 countries, a career that derives in part from his nasty guitar tone and infectious onstage exuberance. Having a flashy Art Deco-style six-string also helps.
    His playing balances feel and technique with felicity and sets of tasteful tunes are paced with extended endings, call-and-response with the audience and a stroll through the crowd to flirt, joke and pose for selfies.
    "Back in the 1990s, when wireless equipment was getting started, I was the first guitarist in the blues community to do that," he says. "People called me crazy but, now, they're all doing it."
    Blues is an obvious influence, but Allen says he also plays soul, R&B, funk and reggae "that makes people feel good." Other influences are apparent, but when he plays a B.B. King song, he channels the master's style.
    "I studied the man and how he related to the audience, but my first major guitar influence was George Benson," Allen says. "And I learned from the entertainers in the Borscht Belt during the 1980s when I worked in the hotels."
    For Allen, there is something deeper than the music. He preaches about the power of positivity and calls himself the SoulWorking Man: "I'm on a mission to work people's souls and put smiles on their faces," he says. Reminded that the blues are equated with sadness, he responds: "It depends on who's playing it."
    Allen doesn't use set lists. "I channel the energy in the room, and the guitar is my delivery system," he says. "I'm not pulling from church or the Bible, but from that spiritual energy we all have. I believe in it and manifest it."
    The Towne Crier Cafe is located at 379 Main St. in Beacon. Slam Allen will perform at 8 p.m. with guitarist Elly Wininger; tickets are $25 at townecrier.com or $30 at the door.
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