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PODCAST

Highlands Current Audio Stories

Highlands Current

The Highlands Current is a nonprofit weekly newspaper and daily website that covers Beacon, Cold Spring, Garrison, Nelsonville and Philipstown, New York, in the Hudson Highlands. This podcast includes select stories read aloud.

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All Episodes

03:35

Stanza Debuts First Book

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/30

Bookstore publishes anthology of Beacon writersThings are humming at Stanza Books in Beacon, which has built a cohesive community of readers and writers since opening in 2023. On a chilly Tuesday evening last month, a dozen people huddled inside the shop to discuss John Irving's latest novel, Queen Esther. At first, co-owners Mark Harris and Andrea Talarico lived above the store. But they cemented their local roots by buying a house. And this spring, they plan to move social and retail

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04:11

Winning Team, Lousy Courts

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/30

Haldane tennis lobbies for better facilities For the Haldane girls' tennis team, which won a league title this past fall, the biggest challenge may not be its competition but its home courts. The Blue Devils are spending the winter lobbying the district to rebuild its two courts and add a third. The hope is that they will no longer have to play most matches away, and players won't have to practice on the soccer field. The courts have cracks and sagging nets. On one, a dip near a baseline

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05:03

Notes from the Cold Spring Village Board

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/30

New traffic routes coming to Haldane campus Buses and cars will be required to use separate routes for entering and leaving the Haldane campus as part of a pilot program being implemented in April. Superintendent Gail Duffy and School Board President Peggy Clements explained the changes to the Cold Spring Village Board at its Wednesday (Jan. 28) meeting. The traffic changes will coincide with a voter-approved, $28 million capital project set to begin this year. A multi-purpose student

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03:44

Byrne Vetoes Putnam Counsel Change

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/30

Legislation allowed attorney for Democratic rep A power struggle between Putnam Executive Kevin Byrne and county legislators continued last week when he vetoed a measure granting both political parties in the Legislature the power to hire their own attorneys. Approved 6-0 on Dec. 31, with Legislators Erin Crowley, Bill Gouldman and Laura Russo absent, the charter amendment created the positions of counsel to the majority and counsel to the minority. Nancy Montgomery, who represents

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04:01

Buster Levi Gallery to Close

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/30

Ends 16-year run in Cold Spring The title of the Buster Levi Gallery exhibit that begins Feb. 7, Open Ending, hints at the end of an era in Cold Spring. When the show concludes six weeks later, the art space at 121 Main St. will close its doors after a 16-year run. The last exhibit will include works by artists who have exhibited at Buster Levi in the past, reflecting a broad range of styles and mediums, including ceramics, drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, steel and

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06:09

Beacon Schools Begin E-Transition

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/30

District adds two zero-emission buses to fleet Students in the Beacon City School District have gotten their first taste of battery-powered transportation this month. Two International electric school buses, their purchase approved by voters in 2024, were added to the district's fleet on Jan. 5. Beacon is the first of the Highlands' three public school districts to purchase zero-emissions vehicles. "We're excited just to get started and get them into action," said Superintendent Matt

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02:04

'Arctic Misery' Could Worsen

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/28

Forecasters expect another storm over weekendThree Texas siblings who perished in an icy pond were among several dozen deaths in U.S. states gripped by frigid cold as crews scrambled Tuesday (Jan. 27) to repair hundreds of thousands of power outages in the South and forecasters warned the winter weather is expected to get worse. Brutal cold lingered in the wake of a massive storm that dumped deep snow across more than 1,300 miles from Arkansas to New England and left parts of the South

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02:55

Philipstown, Beacon Dig Out

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/27

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 10 people were found dead outside as temperatures plunged between Saturday and Monday morning,

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05:10

Former Beacon Couple's Conviction Upheld

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/26

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

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11:33

Looking Back in Beacon

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/24

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

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11:06

State Finalizes Fjord Trail Review

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/23

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

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04:25

Former Texaco Property Cleanup Taking Shape

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/23

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

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02:13

Schoolhouse Gets State Funds

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/23

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

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03:48

Sheet-Music Sets

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/23

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

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03:27

Music for the Soul

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/23

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

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04:37

Telephone Building in Limbo

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/23

Planning Board has change of heart about project A vote on a proposal to construct a three-story addition onto the historic Telephone Building at 291 Main St. in Beacon will not come for at least another month. The attorney for the applicant requested an adjournment during the Planning Board's Jan. 13 meeting after a straw poll showed, once again, that the project lacked sufficient support for approval. Three of five members (with two absent) said in November that they would not approve the

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06:40

Huge Storm Approaches Highlands

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/23

Expected to bring up to 13 inches of snow Bread was flying off the shelves, salt was being loaded into trucks and utility workers nervously watched forecasts on Thursday (Jan. 22) as a huge winter storm that could bring catastrophic damage, widespread power outages and bitterly cold weather barreled toward the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. The massive storm system is expected to bring a crippling ice storm from Texas through parts of the South, potentially around a foot of snow from

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01:44

Parking Restricted Overnight

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/17

Cold Spring, Beacon respond to snowCold Spring, Nelsonville and Beacon have issued parking restrictions because of today's snowfall. In Cold Spring, no parking will be allowed on village streets between 8 p.m. today and 7 a.m. overnight on Saturday to enable plow access. For updates, call 845-747-7669. Parking is available at the American Legion lot on Cedar Street (south end only; do not use the Ambulance Corps spaces); the Haldane ballfields lot on Route 9D (no permit is required during

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06:04

Marathon Project 'Gearing Up'

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/17

Also: Cold Spring wants Fjord Trail hearing Mayor Kathleen Foley reported at the Wednesday (Jan. 14) meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board that the redevelopment project at the former Marathon Battery Co. site on Kemble Avenue "is gearing up to go." The 12-acre parcel — zoned as a mixed-use, planned-unit development — is the largest undeveloped tract in the village. The Kearney Group owns the property but has not yet applied to develop it. The mayor said the Kearney Group is "sensitive

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06:24

Immigration Lawyers Face New Reality

Highlands Current Audio Stories ·

2026/01/16

Clients apprehensive as detentions rise A different reality existed in late November when Joe Lavetsky helped a Hudson Valley man from Turkmenistan apply to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. In that reality, Lavetsky, a Beacon-based immigration lawyer, represented a model candidate for naturalization: a taxpaying green-card holder with letters of support from the correctional facility where he works and the fire department for which he volunteers. Then there is reality since Dec. 2, when

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