Westchester Now

Amid the hubbub last week about Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s dispute with the Department of Housing and Urban Development over affordable housing, it was easy to miss the other news in his State of the County address.

In the Tuesday speech in the county courthouse, Astorino pledged to submit a 2014 budget later this year that won’t contain tax increases.

The Republican...

Talk about a big catch.

About 200 anglers – possibly more – will be competing this weekend in the Hudson River Striped Bass Derby in hopes of a $100,000 payoff. Those who compete for the grand prize will need to haul in a winner that weighs at least 50 pounds and measures more than 48 inches.

There’s also a regular contest with a top pot of $1,000 for the heaviest fish of the weekend,...

The Peekskill signs at the city's made-over Metro-North station look like something ripped from the cover of a Grateful Dead album.

Flowering vines creep around railings and columns to spell "Peekskill" beneath the station platform's eaves and above elevator banks.

Artist Jan Taylor says it wasn't Jerry Garcia or his band mates that she had in mind when she designed the carbon...

Months before filing for candidacy is even permitted, the seventh Spring Valley mayoral hopeful is set to announce his run this Saturday.

Miguelino Joseph, 24, a property manager who works for a not-for-profit organization in Brooklyn, is the latest Rocklander to step forward. He intends to make a formal announcement Saturday afternoon outside his childhood apartment on Eckerson Road.

The...

Amy Seiden was outbid online Wednesday by a 13-year-old in Ossining who really wants to win that shoe-shopping trip with teachers Sarah Arbitrio and Linda Whitney.

And with just three days to go, the leading bid to be assistant princpal for a day at Roosevelt Elementary School is up to $50.

The Ossining MATTERS fundraiser, which antes up cash for extracurricular programs and equipment,...

First a Styrofoam head looking like something out of ancient Greece or Rome is found bobbing in the Hudson by some Marist College crew team members.

Now comes word of a tree whose ancestors date back to the dinosaur era living in North White Plains.

What's next? Prehistoric fish living under the Tappan Zee Bridge? Oops, already have those.

Metro-North officials say they recently...

Not one to let an opportunity pass, state Sen. Greg Ball (R-Patterson) is trying to parlay an on-air skirmish with CNN's Piers Morgan into some campaign dollars.

On Tuesday, the Republican lawmaker, known for his conservative views, sent an email blast to supporters patting himself on the back for putting "Piers in his place" and banging on his tin cup for contributions.

"Just...

An icon of the Democratic Party in the Hudson Valley, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., endorsed Board of Legislators chairman Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers) for Westchester County executive on Tuesday.

“Ken has the moral fiber, administrative talent, idealism and beef jerky toughness to stand up to the big shots, end the corruption and restore Westchester as the Empire State’s paradigm of good government,”...

Few agencies live by the numbers more than the MTA.

After all, the perpetually cash-strapped transportation agency has a $12.6 billion budget with a $450 million hole in it. Gaps that big can drive a bean counter crazy. Not to mention reporters with limited math skills.

Or Metro-North riders. Last month, they started kicking in an extra 8.2 to 9.3 percent per ticket for a ride on...

Did Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino act morally when he chose a local nonprofit organization to refurbish and manage Rye Playland, the county-owned amusement park?

Philosophers John Rawls and Immanuel Kant don’t think so.

Or, at least not according to Kelly Morque, who is the son of Kim Morque, the president of the nonprofit organization Sustainable Playland Inc.

In a...