News

TOWN OF WALLKILL – Orange Regional Medical Center in the Town of Wallkill will lay off 80 full-time equivalent positions and Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris will lay off 60 full-time equivalent positions. In total, the hospitals must find cuts of $17 million.  Both hospitals fall under the umbrella of the Greater Hudson Valley Health System, which announced the cuts on Monday due to substantial reductions in reimbursement from the federal and state governments and decreases in revenue caused by healthcare reform.

POUGHKEEPSIE – College students in Dutchess County may now vote so long as they register and need not provide specific information about which dormitory they live.

Last fall, Republican Elections Commissioner Erik Haight refused to register students if they did not list their specific college address. Democrat Commissioner Frances Knapp challenged that in court and the judge ruled they could vote.

The initial case involved student registrations from Marist, The Culinary Institute of America and Bard College.

The world of sports is taking the backseat to another tragedy as a massive tornado ripped through a handful of Oklahoma suburbs on Monday. Kevin Durant is among a group of sports stars and coaches who are expressing concern for the victims, posting on his Twitter account that he was praying for everyone involved.

Newschannel 13 Meteorologist Paul Caiano gives the WAMC Morning Edition Forecast.

New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has issued an apology for his handling of a sexual harassment case that spanned years involving at least four women staffers before it was detected.

Silver specifically apologized for the $103,000 secret settlement he crafted last summer to end the first accusations against Assemblyman Vito Lopez and for failing to stop subsequent incidents claimed by more women staffers.

New York residents are voting on their school districts' proposed budgets for next year.

Authorities say the average proposed tax levy increase is 2.8 percent, with school spending rising about the same amount, driven by increases in contributions to employee retirement systems.

This is the second year school districts are working under New York's tax cap law, which generally limits tax levy increases to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. Budget proposals that exceed the cap need a 60 percent supermajority of votes to pass.

A federal court judge has scheduled a hearing on June 4 on a challenge by the owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Vermont’s Governor signed a bill Monday that will allow Vermont physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients that request it.

Monday’s ceremony marked the installation of the Born Learning Trail, a series of signs along a pathway through a playground at Springside Park in Pittsfield, aimed young children and their families to encourage outdoor activity and reading.

The Born Learning Trail comes from efforts by Pittsfield Promise, a city-wide coalition that is working through a variety of projects with a goal of boosting  reading proficiency levels among Pittsfield third-graders to 90 percent by 2020.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo held a cabinet meeting this afternoon at the state capitol.   Issues discussed included jobs, education reform, drunk driving laws, pistol permits, and perhaps inevitably on the same day Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez resigned his seat, ethics. Cuomo says corruption is rampant throughout government and society, and telegraphed the idea people are accustomed to it.