Highlands Current Audio Stories

A searchable database of the most consequential decisions This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for its newsletter here. It's two months late, but it's finally here: New York state's $269 billion budget. The big story of this year's budget was the face-off between Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran...

Beacon considers five years of capital outlays The Beacon City Council will continue its review on Monday (June 1) of the city's five-year capital plan. Spending for 2027 purchases and projects must be approved before July 31. The city updates its five-year schedule annually; expenditures for the following year are approved, and estimates are calculated for future projects. A public hearing on the...

Philipstown filmmaker profiles Trump accuser Ivy Meeropol, who lives in Philipstown, directed her first documentary, Heir to an Execution, about her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 as Communist spies. In the 22 years since, Meeropol has made films about Red-baiting lawyer Roy Cohn, the Indian Point nuclear power plant and a surge of seals and great white sharks...

Eclectic jazz performer coming to Cold Spring Modest but accomplished actor and musician Nellie McKay is reticent when asked to discuss her work and style. She's more animated on political passions, like feminism and animal rights, and more talkative onstage. McKay (pronounced "McKye"), who will perform a sold-out show on June 6 at the Chapel Restoration in Cold Spring for its Jazz at the Chapel s...

Putnam Republicans seize party line Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne failed to get the support of the Putnam & Westchester Libertarian Party but succeeded in becoming its candidate. On Tuesday (May 26), Byrne and three other Republican incumbents — Clerk Michael Bartolotti and coroners John Bourges and Michael Nesheiwat — submitted petitions to the county Board of Elections with about 2,500 sig...

For 11 years, she navigated village forestry Jennifer Zwarich has had a thing for trees for a long time. "I've always been a tree person, although I'm not a tree hugger, exactly," she said. "I was a tree climber as a kid and trees always made me feel small in a good way." On Arbor Day (April 25), Zwarich stepped down as chair of the Cold Spring Tree Advisory Board, a role she took on before the pa...

Latest Beacon venue hosts its first shows Around 25 years ago, as gentrification creeped in, stickers and graffiti emerged in Texas urging people to "Keep Austin Weird." Going for a punk aesthetic, an early version of the poster promoting the triple bill on Saturday (May 30) at The Cafeteria, a new venue in Beacon, shows a singer with a mohawk wearing a Dead Boys shirt. Two slogans adorn the botto...

Changes cover debris, snow removal, vegetation The Nelsonville Board of Trustees, which is rewriting the Village Code, on May 20 reviewed rules governing how residents must maintain their properties. At the monthly meeting, Trustees Alan Potts and Maria Zhynovitch summarized proposed revisions that combine sections on exterior maintenance; litter, snow and ice removal; and vegetation upkeep into a...

1866 painting depicts forging of Parrott rifle In 1866, John Ferguson Weir painted "The Gun Foundry," depicting workers pouring molten iron into a casting pit at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring to create a Parrott gun. The painting, which lives at the Putnam History Museum, was last cleaned 50 years ago. Kara Mattsen, the director of curation, said the staff noticed "it had gotten a little f...

County called on to spend more of savings Putnam County has a good problem: how to best return $6.5 million from a swollen surplus to residents. Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, and other legislators weighed legality and logistics at the May 12 meeting of the Rules Committee as they volleyed ideas. Among the proposals: $200 rebate checks to homeowners; replic...