Episodios

  • Beacon Resident Wins Guggenheim

    Beacon Resident Wins Guggenheim
    Apr 14 2026
    Third straight year for local recognitions
    For the third year in a row, a local resident has won a Guggenheim Fellowship.
    Reid Davenport, who lives in Beacon, was among 223 recipients of the annual award, which provides scholars, artists, writers, historians and scientists with grants ranging from about $30,000 to $45,000 to provide "blocks of time in which fellows can work with as much creative freedom as possible," according to the Guggenheim Foundation. The honors were announced on Tuesday (April 14).

    Davenport is a documentary filmmaker who premiered Life After (2025) and I Didn't See You There (2022) at the Sundance Film Festival. Davenport, who has cerebral palsy, describes himself online as a "disabled filmmaker telling disabled stories through a political lens."
    Jessica Pisano, a Philipstown resident who is a professor at The New School for Social Research in New York City, was named a fellow in 2024, and Gwen Laster, a violinist who lives in Beacon, was among the honorees in 2025.
    Adam James Smith, a documentary filmmaker who has a home in Lake Peekskill in Putnam County, was also honored this year. His upcoming films include Nighthawk, set in Shenzhen's vast art factory and In the Valley of Solace, about a woman living alone and off the land in a remote Yunnan valley.
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  • PCNR Stops Publishing

    PCNR Stops Publishing
    Apr 12 2026
    Cold Spring newspaper closes after 160 years
    The Putnam County News & Recorder, which was published weekly in Cold Spring for 160 years, has closed.
    The PCNR published its last print edition on Jan. 28 due to what the editor, Rick Pezzullo, at the time called "unforeseen circumstances." It continued to publish a digital edition, but that did not appear on April 8, and the paper's website has not been updated since April 2.
    The weekly had been published since April 2024 by a Carmel-based company called Putnam Media Inc. Its owners were described as "a group of Putnam County citizens" but never identified. The company purchased The PCNR and The Putnam County Courier, based in Brewster, from Douglas Cunningham, their former editor.
    A source said the investment group voted, 14-2, to dissolve Putnam Media Inc. as of March 31. On April 6, Eric Gross, the senior reporter for The PCNR and Courier, joined Mid Hudson News as its Putnam County bureau chief.
    Kathy Kahng, a Kent resident who was identified after the 2024 sale as the papers' general manager, did not return a phone call or email seeking comment.
    The loss of the two papers reflects a national trend. According to the State of Local News, a report compiled by Northwestern University, nearly 40 percent of local newspapers have vanished in the past 20 years. That represents at least 3,400 titles, including 130 in 2025. Newspapers have been hit hard by competition from Facebook and Google for local advertisers.
    The PCNR dated to March 1866, when Charles Blanchard founded The Cold Spring Recorder, promising readers "a family journal devoted to the dissemination of general and local news, and the impartial discussion of questions of public interest."
    He sold the paper in 1867 to a group of residents who appointed the village postmaster, Sylvester Beers Allis, as editor. Nearly 20 years later, in 1886, a county history reported that The Recorder, now owned by Allis, was "independent in politics, fearless in expression of opinion and has an extensive circulation."
    After Allis died in 1891, his heirs sold the paper to Irving McCoy, who ran it for 15 years before handing the operation to Otis Montrose, the principal of the Cold Spring school. Montrose ran The Recorder for 29 years; after his death, it passed to W. Osborn Webb, owner of the upstart Putnam County News, who merged the two publications and sold The PCNR in 1939 to pursue a graduate degree in journalism. (According to his obituary, in 1946 Webb was among the founders of the Central Intelligence Agency.)
    Jack Ladue, the next owner, ran The PCNR for 44 years until his retirement in 1983. In 1965, ahead of its centennial, he added the motto to the front page — "We are 100 Years Old — But New Every Wednesday." Ladue sold the paper to Robert Ingram, who ran it for 13 years before Brian O'Donnell took over in 1996.
    In 2008, Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News, and his wife, Elizabeth, who owned a home in Philipstown, purchased The PCNR. Soon after, they added The Courier, which began in the 1840s but had gone bankrupt six weeks earlier. In 2016, after Ailes was accused of sexual misconduct and forced out at Fox, the couple sold both titles to Cunningham.
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  • Philipstown Updates Immigration Policy

    Philipstown Updates Immigration Policy
    Apr 12 2026
    Requires feds to provide judicial warrant
    A policy passed in 2017 to forbid Philipstown employees from participating in immigration enforcement has been revised to specify that access to personal data and town facilities is banned without a judicial warrant or court order.
    An ad hoc committee's changes to the town's "equal protection" policy were unanimously approved by the Town Board on Thursday (April 9). The policy bans town employees and contractors from collecting information about immigration status or disclosing personal information such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers, without an order or warrant from a federal judge.
    It also bars officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies from nonpublic areas without a warrant or court order. If an employee is served with a judicial or an administrative warrant — documents issued by the agencies without a judge's signature — they are not to allow access to data or nonpublic areas. Instead, they must give the warrant to the town clerk, who will notify the supervisor and town attorney.
    Judy Farrell, a member of the Town Board, suggested the revision in February. At that time, she said the new language was designed to protect personal data, not immigration status, which the town does not collect. "It's about requiring judicial process, which residents are entitled to under the Constitution, and to make sure our town staff aren't sharing residents' information," she said.
    Following Supervisor John Van Tassel's recommendation, the policy will take effect in June to allow training for town employees. "I don't think it's fair to put an employee in a position that they're going to implement a policy without prior training to the actual policy," he said.
    Philipstown's original equal-protection policy passed, by a 3-2 vote, in April 2017, with "no" votes from Van Tassel, then a councilor, and Bob Flaherty, who voted on Thursday for the revised guidance. It similarly barred town employees from aiding immigration investigations or arrests unless required by state or federal law or a judge's order.
    That same month, the Beacon City Council approved a policy limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities, and declaring the city to be "welcoming, safe and inclusive." Both policies were enacted amid heightened immigration enforcement during President Donald Trump's first term. Philipstown's revision comes as Trump expands deportations in his second term.
    In January 2025, the state attorney general, Letitia James, issued guidance that noted federal law does not require a local government to communicate with immigration authorities, but that a federal statute says municipalities cannot prevent employees "from sending to, or receiving from" them information regarding someone's citizenship or immigration status. Nothing prevents governments from withholding other information, said James.
    Federal officials say restrictions imposed by state and local governments, which they designate as "sanctuary" jurisdictions, hinder the capture and deportation of dangerous criminals.
    Immigration arrests have more than quadrupled, and deportations have risen fivefold, during the first year of Trump's second term, according to a report this month from the Deportation Data Project, a team of academics and lawyers who obtain and analyze immigration data.
    While the Trump administration says it is focused on criminals (entering the country without legal authorization is a civil offense), the arrests of people without criminal convictions increased eightfold, according to the report.
    Food-scrap recycling
    Jeff Mikkelson, advocacy chair for the Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce and a member of the town's Climate Smart Task Force, asked if Philipstown would be the fiscal sponsor if an application for a grant to expand the residential food scraps recycling program to businesses is successful.
    A $6,000 grant from Williams College has enabled a startup commercial pr...
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  • Looking Back in Philipstown

    Looking Back in Philipstown
    Apr 11 2026

    250 Years Ago (April 1776)
    On April 2, George Washington wrote from his headquarters near Boston to Brig. Benedict Arnold: "The chief part of the troops are marched from hence towards New York. I will set off tomorrow." The general was concerned that the British, who had evacuated Boston, were headed to New York City.
    On April 13, after traveling nine days by horseback, Washington and three aides arrived in New York. He made his headquarters at Richmond Hill, a 26-acre estate located in what is now Greenwich Village.

    It was during his stay that the New York governor and the New York City mayor, both loyalists, plotted to capture and/or kill Washington with assistance from his bodyguards. The plotters had loose lips, however, and the alleged ringleader, Thomas Hickey, was hanged. "The discovery of this plot, and the effort to investigate it, led colonial authorities to devise new systems" that today would be called counterintelligence, wrote Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch in The First Conspiracy.
    On April 19, Washington wrote to Congress reporting that four regiments ordered to march from Boston to defend New York had not left because their colonels had not arranged for them to be paid. He lamented the lack of trained officers.
    On April 22, Washington left for Philadelphia to consult with Congress about the defense of New York.
    On April 29, the Iroquois complained that there were not enough traders to meet their needs for blankets, clothing and ammunition and called for a meeting with the Americans at Albany. Most sachems remained neutral about the war, but this lack of trade goods would push some to side with the British.
    150 Years Ago (April 1876)
    William Jaycox reported that, after a 9-inch snowfall on April 5, sleighing was good on the old post road. In the village, the snow melted by evening.
    Stephen Davenport, "among the few of our old men who retained a good memory of the past half century," according to The Cold Spring Recorder, died at age 76 after complaining of a headache at breakfast.
    After a hoghead of molasses being unloaded at J.Y. Dykeman's store in Nelsonville broke open, "most of the sweet stuff was wasted on the ungrateful soil," according to The Recorder.
    A prisoner escaped from the county jail in Carmel by taking the place of the boy who usually delivered the coal to heat the jail overnight. The jailer discovered the escape when he woke up in the cold.
    John Brady broke his leg when he was thrown from his wagon near Garden Street. His horse was spooked by a boy rolling a barrel.
    The Recorder noted that "a fine goat which has grown fat and kept itself in fine condition by stealing all about the village was shot, somewhere downtown, on Tuesday afternoon. … We could not avoid sorrow at the creature's dying moans, but could not say that its death was unjust."
    A one-armed traveling cornet player performed on Main Street for tips.
    After a Saturday night stop at Fishkill Landing, the Van Amburgh & Co. circus paraded into Cold Spring with an elephant, camel and a lion in a cage on Monday morning for a performance later in the day.

    Standing a few rods from the West Point Foundry, a group of 12 men, including Robert Parrott, Capt. Ottinger and Colin Tolmie Jr., a clerk, observed test firings of projectiles designed for the Coast Life Saving service. After a successful first shot, Tolmie was instructed to add 4 more ounces of gunpowder. During its flight, the second projectile exploded, sending a 60-pound fragment into the men, who were standing 40 feet away. Tolmie, 46, was struck in the head and killed instantly. Tolmie had worked at the foundry for nearly 30 years; he came to Cold Spring at age 9 when his father was hired to supervise the forging department, and he was apprenticed at age 17.
    Peter Louis, a Frenchman who lived on Bank Street and had fought as a sharpshooter in the Civil War, worked at the foundry pattern shop until a leg disease forced him to become a peddler. He and Charles Hines were returning ...
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  • Dems Eye End to Dry Spell

    Dems Eye End to Dry Spell
    Apr 10 2026
    Party bullish on Putnam executive race
    When David Bruen defeated three other candidates in 1978 to become Putnam's first-ever county executive, he also became the only Democrat to ever occupy the office.
    In nearly five decades, a succession of Democratic candidates failed to surmount the Republican advantage in party registration and their candidates' traditional support from the Conservative Party. But Democrats are hoping the dry spell will end this year as Brett Yarris challenges incumbent Republican Kevin Byrne.
    Their hopes are bolstered by Democrats performance in last year's election, when the party gained control of legislatures in Dutchess and Orange counties and defeated Republicans in other state and local races in New York and nationally amid flagging support for President Donald Trump and his policies.
    Opposition to Trump and fervor over winning the congressional seat held by Rep. Mike Lawler, whose district includes Philipstown, are expected to drive high local turnout for Democratic voters.
    Byrne could also be harmed by the Putnam Conservative Party's endorsement of its chair, attorney William Spain, for county executive. If Spain, a former county attorney and the brother of county attorney Compton Spain, stays in the race, it could deprive Byrne of Conservative votes that have usually aided Republicans.

    As of February, Republicans still held an advantage over Democrats in active-voter registration: 24,723 versus 22,080. Another 21,235 active voters are unaffiliated; 2,777 are designated as "other"; 1,689 are Conservative Party members; and 292 belong to the left-leaning Working Families Party.
    "Democrats are rightfully ticked off; frankly, a lot of independents are also rightfully ticked off, and even some Republicans," said Jennifer Colamonico, chair of the Putnam Democratic Committee. "Of all the years to bank on a Democratic overperformance, it's this one."
    "We've seen this kind of talk before, but elections in Putnam County aren't decided by press releases or predictions," said Joe Nickischer, Byrne's campaign spokesperson. "Others can talk about confidence. We'll keep focusing on results."
    Asked about Spain's endorsement as the Conservative candidate, Nickischer said Byrne has "a broad coalition of support from Republicans, Conservatives, independents and common-sense Democrats" and has amassed endorsements from "organizations representing families, taxpayers, first responders and labor."
    Byrne "has outperformed every candidate on the ballot in every election he has run," said Nickischer. "The Conservative Party has time to finalize its own internal process and figure out what it needs to do to accurately represent Conservative voters. Those voters already know and support Kevin Byrne."
    Yarris, a former special education teacher who now provides services to people with special needs, said he also has a base of support that goes beyond his party. He said that, while he lost by 5 percentage points to Republican Jake D'Angelo in last year's contest for the District 5 seat on the Legislature, he drew votes from Republicans and Conservatives.
    "What I've learned over the last year is that nobody is satisfied with where Putnam County is right now — not Republicans, not Democrats, not independents, not Conservatives," said Yarris. "Don't vote for me because I'm a Democrat; vote for me because I have the vision and I have the plan and the leadership to bring people together to move us forward."
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  • Have You Met Daddy Long Legs?

    Have You Met Daddy Long Legs?
    Apr 10 2026
    Off-Broadway musical, based on 1912 novel, adapted for Beacon
    The plot of Daddy-Long-Legs, a 1912 novel by Jean Webster, presents a literary playground, especially when the female protagonist turns annual farm visits into a writer's retreat.
    Daddy Long Legs In Concert, based on the book and a 2015 off-Broadway musical, will be performed on April 18 and 19 at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon by special permission of the musical's authors.
    Beacon resident Will Reynolds, who directs and provides piano accompaniment, premiered the 90-minute production at Beacon Bonfire in November. The cultural center, a former library built in 1872, is such an apt setting that Howland board member Craig Wolf requested an encore.
    Reynolds, cellist Aaron Stier and guitarist Andy Stack are happy to oblige, along with the actors, married couple Erin Mendez Stapleton and Andrew Oppman.

    "It's rare for a wife and husband to be in a show together, even more so to take over a two-person musical," says Reynolds, who, as the standby during the off-Broadway run, played the male lead for about a month.
    The story echoes Pygmalion (the 1913 play) and My Fair Lady, although the characters in Daddy Long Legs communicate from afar, meet under contrived circumstances and resolve their secrets together.
    Q&A: Will Reynolds
    By Joey Asher
    How did you start in show business?
    I always loved singing and theater. I stuttered growing up, and theater helped me break free. Anytime I did something pretend or memorized, the stutter disappeared. In the fourth grade, I went to see the musical Five Guys Named Moe in Chicago. I met the actors afterward, and one said, "They're doing Oliver! this summer. You should audition." I was like, "Wait, I can do that?" I was Oliver's understudy. I also did commercials, including for Cap'n Crunch bars. My line was "Chewy!"
    When did you learn to play piano?
    Singing came first. I took voice lessons. My two older sisters took piano lessons and hated it. But I became obsessed. Pippin has a song I loved called "Corner of the Sky." It was too advanced for me, but I figured it out. I was mostly self-taught.
    You accompany singers at the open mic, Broadway in Beacon. Do you ever get stumped?
    I'm classically trained with a BFA in musical theater from Carnegie Mellon, and I have done so much work off and on Broadway that I'm familiar with about 70 percent of the material. But because there's no rehearsal, at times I'm sightreading to save my life, praying my fingers know where to go.
    How do you help singers who are nervous?
    I know what's going through a singer's mind at every moment. I'm listening to their breathing and phrasing. I adjust the tempo. It's about micro-adjustments that are not noticeable to the audience. Less-experienced singers have usually practiced, but they haven't performed for a large group. Broadway in Beacon is a communal trust fall. We're there to help. Mistakes are part of the art.
    What's next?
    I'm working with Eric Price on a musical version of Richard Greenberg's Broadway play The Violet Hour, about what happens when a publisher can see the future. It's set in Jazz Age New York City. I loved getting to play in that vocabulary. These characters have such big wants and dreams and unique points of view. We recorded a studio album that has over 2 million streams on Spotify.
    For years, benefactor Jervis Pendleton (Oppman) has sent promising but needy young men to college. Due to such "exceptional talent in her original and amusing essays," Jerusha Abbott (Mendez Stapleton) will be the first woman he sponsors. He expects she will become an "author of world renown."
    The 18-year-old, who spent most of her childhood in an orphanage, becomes a fish out of water on campus. Strings attached ratchet up the tension: She must write a letter each month to her anonymous benefactor, although he will never reply. Jerusha catches a glimpse of his silhouette, noticing spindly legs, and believes him to be far older than he is.
    "How can I be ...
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  • Cold Spring to Sue Fjord Trail

    Cold Spring to Sue Fjord Trail
    Apr 9 2026
    Says environmental concerns not addressed
    The Cold Spring Village Board on Wednesday (April 8) unanimously voted to sue Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail Inc. and state parks, saying the environmental review of the 7.5-mile trail to Beacon was inadequate.
    The village alleges that the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement, released in January, failed to comply with the requirements of the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act. It states that the FGEIS didn't address significant concerns identified by the Village Board, including "analysis of environmental impacts, infrastructure demands, traffic, parking, public safety and consistency with local land use controls."
    HHFT is the sponsor of the project and state parks is the lead agency. The resolution, which passed 5-0, authorized village attorney John Furst to begin legal action.
    Mayor Kathleen Foley said the board has until May 7 to contest the FGEIS. "If we don't do this, we are remiss in our fiduciary responsibilities to the village, given the long-term costs," she said. "We are up against a very well-funded organization and a state agency, but we need to have sovereignty and to have say over our own waterfront."
    Dockside Park in Cold Spring, which is owned by the state but managed by the village, is HHFT's preferred southern gateway for the trail.
    The resolution states that if the Town of Philipstown initiates a similar legal challenge, the municipalities will file a joint lawsuit, with Philipstown taking the lead. The agenda for the Thursday (April 9) meeting of the Town Board included "discussion regarding a response from the town to the Fjord Trail FEIS."
    The lawsuit will be filed in state court in Carmel under Article 78 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules, which enables municipalities and others to challenge the actions or inactions of the state, local government agencies and public bodies.
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  • Lawsuit Against Putnam Deputies Dismissed

    Lawsuit Against Putnam Deputies Dismissed
    Apr 9 2026
    Family said they caused Brewster man's death
    After a Putnam County sheriff's deputy tackled George Taranto and his colleagues helped handcuff the Brewster resident outside his home on July 8, 2019, Sgt. William Quick and Investigator Daniel Hunsberger spoke to his wife, Karen.
    While paramedics treated George Taranto, 75, Quick said, "Do you know that I almost killed your husband tonight?" according to Karen Taranto.
    Karen Taranto and her son and daughter believe head trauma caused by George Taranto being driven to the ground led to his death two years later. But a federal judge disagreed on March 31, dismissing their $75 million wrongful-death lawsuit over an incident that began with a report of a transformer fire and ended in a standoff with George Taranto, who suffered from early dementia and had gone outside with a loaded handgun to investigate noises.

    Judge Victoria Reznik of the U.S. District Court in White Plains dismissed all claims filed by Taranto's family against Hunsberger, Quick and three other deputies: Vincent Dalo, Ryan Diskin and Ronald Yeager. Claims against Putnam County and then-Sheriff Robert Langley Jr. were also dismissed.
    Reznik found that Dalo did not use excessive force in tackling Taranto after deputies said they saw the gun in his right hand and mistook a holster in his left hand for a second weapon. Without a case for excessive force, the family's other claims, including for assault and battery and wrongful death, also had to be dismissed, said Reznik.
    An investigation completed by the Sheriff's Office in July 2020 found that the officers "acted within the scope of their duties" and had not violated any state laws or agency regulations. "No reasonable jury could find that Deputy Sheriff Dalo's split-second decision to subdue Taranto by tackling him to the ground" was unreasonable, Reznik concluded.
    The confrontation began shortly after Diskin responded to a report of a transformer explosion. He called for backup after spotting a vehicle with two males inside that was acting "suspiciously." Both males jumped from the car when Diskin followed it; one obeyed his order to drop to the ground and the other ran into the woods.
    Yeager, who responded with Dalo, Hunsberger and Quick, testified that during the search for the second male, he saw Taranto standing at his back patio door and told him to stay inside. Hunsberger said he then saw Taranto standing behind a garage and also told him to return indoors.
    Hunsberger said he began walking away but turned when he heard Taranto ask, "Who the fuck is out there?" Seeing a loaded Colt Mustang .380 pistol in Taranto's right hand, Hunsberger said he drew his weapon and alerted the other deputies. They took cover while Taranto shielded himself behind a parked car, according to court documents.
    The family, whose lawyer did not respond to a request for comment, said Taranto's gun was pointed at the ground. They say he complied when deputies, with their weapons drawn, began screaming at him to drop the gun, raise his hands and walk toward them.
    But the officers said Taranto, who they initially thought was drunk, initially did not obey their commands and continued to hide. When he put down his gun and walked toward the officers, Dalo feared that a holster in Taranto's left hand could be another weapon, according to court documents. He tackled the Brewster man from behind, causing his head to hit the ground.
    At Putnam Hospital, Taranto suffered cardiac arrest and respiratory failure, as well as a pulmonary edema, according to his family, and was moved to Danbury Hospital in Connecticut. Deputies issued tickets for second-degree menacing, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, resisting arrest and second-degree obstructing governmental administration, all misdemeanors.
    Taranto was released but hospitalized again on Sept. 2, according to the lawsuit. A scan revealed bleeding in his brain, requiring surgery. His injuries led the family to sue for $50 million in ...
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