Latest news with #StewartInternationalAirport
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PLAY airlines stopping Stewart airport service. When last Iceland flights will take off
Stewart International Airport may lose its only direct flight to Europe this fall. PLAY airlines, an Icelandic operator, has provided a low-cost, direct route from Stewart airport to Reykjavik since 2022. This route also serves as a connecting link to several major cities in Europe. The announcement by PLAY said it planned on 'discontinuing the less successful parts of the business—namely, U.S. flights and connecting services' as part of a takeover bid by the two largest shareholders. 'It's a loss for the area,' said Paul Quartararo, who is chairman of the Stewart Airport Advisory Commission. 'Stewart Airport is being underutilized.' PLAY's announcement indicated flights would end by October 2025. As of June 18, no flights are available from Stewart on PLAY's website after Sept. 1. More: Five golf courses worth booking a tee time in the mid-Hudson Valley Last year — recorded as the busiest year — there were 145.9 million passengers at the four Port Authority airports: John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, Stewart and Newark. Stewart accounted for 277,000 passengers, a 9% increase over the prior year, but Quartararo said the Port Authority, Federal Aviation Administration and the state were not doing enough to route traffic to Stewart, especially amid congestion and a personnel shortage. Stewart had recently become more accessible due to its New York State Thruway access. "New York Stewart remains an attractive option with great potential for new and existing carriers to add or expand domestic and international service," Port Authority Aviation Director Sarah McKeon said in a statement. "The Port Authority is fully committed to growing air service at SWF and continues to actively engage with airline partners to pursue new opportunities and enhance regional connectivity.' PLAY's U.S. media office declined to confirm at what stage the takeover offer stood and whether there existed any provisions that could thwart or veto the bid. If the proposal goes through, all U.S. flights, including Stewart, Boston Logan, and Baltimore's Washington International, will end by October 2025. This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: PLAY to end direct Iceland flights from NY's 'underutilized' Stewart airport
New York Times
30-04-2025
- General
- New York Times
$625,000 Homes in New York, Massachusetts and Oregon
Newburgh, N.Y. | $625,000 This two-bedroom, two-bathroom house perched above the Hudson River has unobstructed water views and a large deck off each level. The Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, is a few blocks away and a waterfront park in the center of town is about a mile away. The city has coffee shops, art galleries and Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site, the base for the Continental Army near the end of the Revolutionary War. Stewart International Airport is a 20-minute drive and Albany takes 90 minutes. Driving into Manhattan takes around two hours. Size: 1,556 square feet Price per square foot: $402 Indoors: A short set of steps lead from the sidewalk to the home's front door, beneath a transom window. The house has its original hardwood floors, and stairs with the original wood banister run up to the second floor. The living room, at the front of the house, has tall windows that fill the space with light. A bench is built beneath the river-facing windows of one of the walls, and behind the living room is the formal dining room, where a recessed nook could hold a home bar. The kitchen has pressed metal ceilings and a gas range, plus a dishwasher and a built-in microwave. At the back of the house is a sunroom where windows face the river and a door opens to a deck. The primary en suite bedroom, upstairs, also faces the river and has its own deck. There's a closet and the bathroom has a double vanity with a black stone countertop. The second bedroom, also on the second floor, has four large windows. Next door is a bathroom with a combined tub and shower. Outdoor space: The deck on the main level functions as an outdoor living and dining room, with sweeping river views. Wood fences enclose both decks and the roof is equipped with solar panels. One off-street parking spot is included. Taxes: $16,111 (estimated) Contact: Allison Cannarsa-Barr, Voro LLC, 845-542-3991 Sandwich, Mass. | $629,000 This two-bedroom, one-bathroom house, originally the home of a local shipbuilder, is on Sandwich's Main Street, five minutes on foot from a coffee shop, a pizza parlor and a mini-golf course. The seller added a new roof, updated the kitchen and bathroom, and added an outdoor shower. Town Neck Beach, on the edge of Cape Cod Bay, is less than 10 minutes away by car, as is the Sandwich Boardwalk, a walkway that runs through a marsh. Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod, is an hour and 15 minutes away, as are Boston and Providence, R.I. Size: 1,307 square feet Price per square foot: $481 Indoors: The house is set back from the street, and the front door opens to a living room with green walls and ceilings trimmed with exposed wood. A tall brick fireplace with a rough-hewed wood mantel contains an electric stove. An arched doorway connects the living room and a kitchen with butcher block countertops and cabinets with goldtone hardware, an exposed-brick wall and a white porcelain farmhouse-style sink beneath a six-over-six window. On the other side of the kitchen is a family room with sliding-glass doors that face the backyard and a cast-iron stove, this one set atop a brick hearth. The primary bedroom, on this level, has original wide-plank floors, two street-facing windows, and another that faces the side yard. Adjacent to the bedroom is a walk-in closet and dressing room with built-ins. This space also holds a stacked washer and dryer. A door at the far end opens to the bathroom, which has black hexagonal tile floors and a combined tub and shower. A second bedroom, brightened by skylights, is on the attic level. An adjacent open space could be used as a home office. Outdoor space: The backyard is grassy and surrounded by trees, with a paved patio and a storage shed. An outdoor shower is on the side of the house, and a driveway is fits several cars. Taxes: $4,128 (estimated) Contact: Tori Harrison, Sotheby's International Realty — Sandwich Brokerage, 508-455-7288 Portland, Ore. | $624,500 This three-bedroom, two-bathroom house is in Portland's Clinton neighborhood, five minutes on foot from a city park, a grocery co-op, a number of bars and restaurants, a bagel shop and a beer garden. The Clinton Street Theater, a movie theater and event space that first opened in the 1910s, is also within a five-minute walk, as is a public high school. Mt. Tabor Park, where tennis courts and open lawns sit atop an extinct volcano, is a 10-minute drive. Downtown Portland takes 15 minutes by car or 30 minutes by public transit. Size: 1,984 square feet Price per square foot: $315 Indoors: A picket fence separates this home from the street, with steps leading to the top of the front porch. Inside, the foyer has refinished hardwood floors that continue into a living room with high ceilings and a side-facing window. Original pocket doors, painted white, are between the living room and the dining room, where there are green walls and an early-20th-century ceiling fixture. A breakfast bar faces the kitchen, where the floors are cork and the cabinetry includes built-in refrigerated drawers. The range has a gas cooktop, and the backsplash is gray tile. The two bedrooms on this level are equal in size, each fitting a queen-size bed and a desk. One has a window that faces the rear deck, and the other, off the foyer, has direct access to a bathroom with penny tile floors, green tile and a combined tub and shower. The bathroom is also accessible from the kitchen. The basement is an open space that could be used as a bedroom or as a family room. Its bathroom was recently updated. Outdoor space: A deck off the kitchen is big enough for a table and chairs, and a small paved patio at its base holds several raised garden boxes. The detached garage is divided into two halves, with one side a parking spot and the other used for storage. Taxes: $4,416 (estimated) Contact: Sarah Fennell, Urban Nest Realty, 503-740-8924
CBS News
22-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Patel once called for ending FBI director's government jet use. Now he won't reveal if he's a frequent flyer.
Two years ago, Kash Patel emerged as a vocal critic of then-FBI Director Christopher Wray for his use of the government's fleet of private aircraft for personal travel. The FBI should "ground Chris Wray's private jet that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country," Patel said during his "Kash's Corner" podcast in 2023. Now, Patel himself is the director, and questions have begun circulating inside the FBI about the degree to which Patel is using governmental airplanes for his personal travels. The FBI declined to share Patel's flight schedule and would not confirm his presence on a number of flights to destinations where he later appeared. During the first weekend in April, for instance, a Boeing 757 owned by the Department of Justice made two round trip flights from Washington to New York. On Saturday, April 5, the narrow-body jet took a 57-minute flight to Stewart International Airport, a short drive from West Point, where Patel made an appearance at a charity hockey event hosted by the FBI. The next day, the jet was back in the air to JFK Airport, landing just hours before Patel resurfaced in box seats next to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and watched Capitals star Alex Ovechkin break the NHL scoring record . The New York Times first reported on Patel's use of FBI aircraft on Sunday. It's unclear if Patel was on these flights — and if he was, whether they were purely personal, work related, or both. But on Monday, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee told CBS News in a statement that he wants the answer to those questions. "The Judiciary Committee must investigate Director Patel's apparent misuse of taxpayer dollars," said U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois. "The American people expect an FBI Director who focuses on the security and safety of the nation, not someone wrapped up in the trappings of the spotlight." FBI directors are required by executive branch policy to use government aircraft for air travel, whether official or personal. That enables them to maintain access to secure communications wherever they travel. And it gives the director the ability to move quickly in an emergency. If the travel is personal, the director must reimburse the government the cost of a commercial coach airfare. When traveling for personal reasons, the director may bring family or friends, but guest travel must be reimbursed to the government as well. Friends or family members are never allowed to fly on FBI aircraft unaccompanied by the director. It is unclear whether Patel has brought friends or family aboard government jets. But Durbin said the use of the plane still has limits and questioned whether the use of the aircraft cut against the Trump administration's professed commitment to rooting out government waste. Patel's use of Gulfstream jets operated by the FBI appears to extend to his frequent trips to Las Vegas, where he has a home, and to Nashville, where Patel's girlfriend, who is a country singer, lives. Sources familiar with Patel's travel confirmed to CBS News that the director was on the plane for several trips captured by FlightRadar24, including a weekend dash to Las Vegas on March 7 and a weekend in Nashville on March 14. It is unclear if he was aboard on Feb. 24, when one of the FBI's Gulfstream 5 jets flew from Manassas, Virginia, where the plane is based, to Nashville, stayed on the ground for an hour and 27 minutes before returning to Manassas. On some occasions, Patel may have traveled for both pleasure and business. An FBI jet flew on March 21 from Washington to Nashville. That day, Patel attended a roundtable meeting with state and local law enforcement officials in Tennessee, and also visited the FBI field office in Nashville. The plane returned to Washington later that afternoon. It is unclear whether he saw Alexis Wilkins, his girlfriend, while he was there. In a statement to CBS News, the FBI said it "does not comment on travel arrangements for security purposes. All ethical guidelines are followed rigorously." Some bureau veterans told CBS News they have been troubled by the frequent use of government aircraft by FBI executives, making the aircraft less available to support operations in line with the primary mission of investigating crimes, chasing spies and preventing terrorist attacks. "Those aircraft have been procured or leased specifically to support operational needs," said Christopher O'Leary, a former senior counterterrorism official at the FBI who has used the planes dozens of times for sensitive missions and critical response. "The concern is that the routine use of them by the director and deputy director for personal travel could take a critical resource offline when they are sometimes needed at a moment's notice." O'Leary and others said they also worry that the use of the planes sets the wrong tone. "It's a bad leadership example," he told CBS News. "All agents are provided an FBI vehicle, and they cannot be used for personal use. They can only be used for going to and from work, for official duties or to respond to a crisis and that is strictly enforced." In 2013, the Government Accountability Office probed the Justice Department's and the FBI's use of the FBI G5 jets for "non-mission purposes." The report that followed laid out how often and for what reasons the planes were used by the attorney general and the FBI director, the costs associated with the flights and the rules and regulations governing them. At the time, the GAO did not find any specific instances of wrongdoing, although it did emphasize the importance of officials being responsible stewards of taxpayer funds when using the planes. Diana Maurer, a director at GAO and author of the 2013 report, told CBS News that the same principles that were at play when the congressional watchdog agency did its review remain relevant today. "I don't know what the current FBI director did or didn't do, and we haven't updated our 2013 report," Mauer said in an interview. "But just because you're allowed to do something doesn't necessarily mean you should." Maurer noted that government officials should not abuse their privileges at the expense of the taxpayer. "Using government aircraft, as FBI Directors are required to do for security reasons, costs significantly more than commercial flights. I hope the FBI and the Department of Justice are considering the implications for taxpayers when the Director uses government aircraft for non-mission purposes." During the years that Wray ran the FBI, his personal use of the jet became a touchstone for conservative critics. Wray occasionally flew from Washington to his hometown of Atlanta, where his family maintained its residence. He drew criticism from Republicans in Congress and some former FBI agents for summoning the G5s to Reagan National Airport from Manassas, a 15-minute flight, rather than being driven 30 miles to the Virginia airport where it maintains a hangar. FBI whistleblower Steven Friend, a close ally of Patel's who was suspended by the bureau over concerns that his views on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol affected his work, criticized Wray in more than a dozen social media posts for his use of the jets. "Chris Wray abuses his @FBI jet privileges because he doesn't like to sit in traffic," Friend wrote in a Dec. 14, 2023, tweet. Wray was also raked over the coals by Republican lawmakers for cutting short a Senate oversight hearing in 2023 to fly on an FBI aircraft to a family vacation in the Adirondacks. (Wray at the time pointed out that he had negotiated the length of the hearing with committee staff.) The chairman of the committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, later questioned Wray's use of the FBI jets and whether it amounted to an abuse of taxpayer money, a suggestion that Wray rejected, noting that he was a "required use traveler," and that he reimbursed the government in every instance he used the planes for personal purposes. A spokesperson for Grassley said the senator is "still waiting on the FBI" for records regarding Wray's use of the jets and criticized Democrats and the media, claiming they never showed "any interest in scrutinizing FBI Directors' travel logs until Kash Patel came on the scene." Grassley's office did not respond to a question about whether the senator would continue his oversight of FBI directors' government jet travel while Patel is director. FBI directors have also at times been sensitive about the potential misuses of the FBI's fleet. In at least one case, a former FBI director went to extraordinary lengths to save the taxpayer money for his air travel. Soon after he became FBI director in 2013, James Comey traveled back and forth to Connecticut where his family was still living. At the time, Washington was in the midst of a heated budget battle with the possibility that government workers would be furloughed and have their paychecks withheld. So, according to two former law enforcement officials, Comey asked President Barack Obama for a special dispensation from the "required use" rule so that he could fly commercial at a much lower cost to the government.
