Day: April 30, 2026

Experts Predict NY’s Tick Season to be ‘Early and Heavy’

Experts at SUNY’s Center for Vector-Borne Diseases are expecting a tough tick season. They say they’ve already seen a lot of early-season tick activity, despite the cold winter and spring. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tick bite tracker shows that emergency room visits for tick bites in April are the highest they’ve been this time of […]

After Frost Crop Loss, NY’s Apple Farmers Say Agriculture is a Growing ‘Gamble’

Brett Budde looks out into a vast field of apple trees in Mountaindale, New York. His farm, Majestic Farm, grows all sorts of apple varieties: Crimson Crisps, Pristines, and his favorite, the Ashmead’s Kernel. “The intensity is like an apple jolly rancher. [The Ashmead’s Kernel] has high acid notes and then it’s also sweet as […]

Sullivan County Man Sentenced to 40 Years to Life for Attempted Murder of Deputy

A Sullivan County man has been sentenced to 40 years to life in state prison after being convicted of attempting to kill a police officer during a 2025 shooting, prosecutors said Thursday. Sullivan County District Attorney Brian P. Conaty announced that Markell Jarrette, 30, of Monticello, was sentenced by James R. Farrell in Sullivan County […]

Sullivan County

Local Resident Seeks Ballot Line For NY’s 100th Assembly District

Japheth Fitzpatrick says he wants to run as an independent candidate for New York’s 100th Assembly District, which includes much of Sullivan County and the Middletown area in Orange County. But first, he has to get on the ballot. Fitzpatrick, a local business owner and former co-owner and operator of Forthright Cyder & Mead in […]

‘A Space for Everyone I Love’: This Summer Brings the Hudson Valley’s First Black Trans-Owned Bookstore

Born and raised in the Hudson Valley, Awa-Moon Barnett is a community organizer and educator who is opening the region’s first Black trans-owned bookstore this summer. Over the past year, Barnett has been fundraising for “home home,” a mobile bookshop and political education center grounded in Black and trans liberation while serving communities throughout the […]

NY FOCUS: Watchdog Calls on State to Address Youth Prison Crisis, Citing New York Focus Reporting

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here. A federally mandated child welfare oversight body has called on the Office of Children and Family Services to curtail facilities’ use of isolation and increase transparency. By Chris Gelardi , New York […]

New York Nears Prohibition on Renting Jail Space to ICE

New York Public News Network | By Jimmy Vielkind Local jails across New York state would be barred from holding people for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under an immigration package taking shape as part of state budget talks, three people familiar with the negotiations said. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democrats who lead the state Legislature […]

New York

Former Fallsburg Teacher Behind V.C. Andrews And The Devil’s Advocate Turns The Page

Andrew Neiderman has spent much of his life writing stories. Long before he became known as the longtime writer behind the V.C. Andrews novels, before The Devil’s Advocate became a major Hollywood film, and before his books helped carry one of the most recognizable franchises in American publishing, Neiderman was teaching English at Fallsburg High […]