Faye Dunawaywith and Warren Batty, the leaders of an infamous Hollywood cult, will die at the Oscars. Was it murder? Every star in Hollywood has a motive. But who had the opportunity? Figuring that out — in between cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and dessert — will be your pleasurable assignment when you attend Mayhem at the Oscars, a benefit for this year’s High School Scholarship Fund awards from the New Paltz United Teachers on Saturday, March 9, 7 p.m., at the New Paltz Jewish Congregation Community Center.

Traditionalists won out in a recent vote that pitted the current policy against one that would give individual churches more autonomy. Local churchgoers say the church has been a “big tent” and fear it’s moving in the opposite direction.

New Paltz Women in Black and various campus groups will march along Main Street on Saturday, March 9 to celebrate International Women’s Day. The action will celebrate the many advances women have won through struggle and signal the hard work needed to eliminate the remaining obstacles to full equality.

The 2019 Mohonk Consultations spring forum, “Supporting Farmers and Farm Workers in the Hudson Valley,” will take place on Sunday, April 7 from 3 to 6 p.m. in the parlor at Mohonk Mountain House. This interactive forum will invite participants to collaborate in seeking ways to support sustainable and just farming in the Hudson Valley.

The majority of students take lessons in the “comprehensive group class.” Five students of varying ages – from second graders up through high school seniors – work at one of five keyboards (with headphones) in the same room but at their own pace, on their own level.

Joining family members from across the map, hundreds of Rosendalers and other residents of Ulster County turned out at the SUNY Ulster gymnasium on a recent Saturday to pay tribute to the memory of Anita Williams Peck, who operated Williams Lake Hotel from 1987 until it was demolished.

Whether fireworks go off at the Ulster County Fairgrounds in New Paltz this year is entirely up to New Paltzians themselves. Organizing those festivities was a volunteer effort until only a few years ago, and town officials plan on returning to that tradition. All that’s needed is for locals to pick up the ball.