Big time home sales and coffee everywhere...

Also, attorneys making political moves.

Jul 09, 2025

ANNOUNCEMENT: We go behind the paywall Monday July 21.

Thank you to all our readers who have made the launch of the Dispatch a wonderful success. We began June 16, and already we can boast thousands of pageviews a day. Thank you!

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We are a subscriber-based news outlet by and for the Saratoga Springs community and we are asking you in the community to support the work we do with a paid annual subscription. This is the only way the Dispatch will survive in the long term.

Readers who buy an annual subscription by Sunday July 20 get a 13th MONTH added to 12-month membership! Take advantage of this offer now because it will not return any time soon!

So, join now and get 13 months for the price of 12. (We will add the month to the people who have already paid for an annual subscription, too!)

If you remain a free subscriber, you will get some of our great coverage and learn some of what is going on around Saratoga Springs, but you won’t get all of it.

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—Steve Thurston and Abby Tegnelia, co-owners, Saratoga Dispatch

The “Morning Call” wakes you up with the top stories from the Dispatch and other news outlets that affect Saratoga.

Homes sell in the millions, Spa City, Lake George

A home on Lake George’s east shore near Plum Point sold for $6 million this year while North Broadway mansion across the street from the Skidmore College campus went for $5.45 million, says a story in the Albany Business Review. They have a listing of the top sales and the Spa City and Lake George shoreline make the list twice each.

Two coffee shops looking to enter the local market

The Daily Gazette has two stories about news outlets opening, or potentially opening, in the region. 7 Brew coffee is close to opening a Schenectady location as soon as July 28, one story says, but it cautions that official statements from the company have not been made. Look for it in Crosstown Plaza. And Starbucks sees a street with no Starbucks, so they are making their move, according to another story in the Gazette. Residents are pushing back over traffic concerns.

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U.S. attorney can’t take the heat of the press

Interim U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III directed his staff to remove the Times Union from his office’s media distribution list because the paper pointed out that he might not live in the state Northern District, as required by law. He had been threatened with a knife, and when he gave police his address, he listed a boarded up house in Albany, the T-U story last month said. Now, he just won’t talk to that paper, today’s story says. The story said he double checked via email that his assistants are not speaking or distributing information to the T-U. The man who weilded the knife pleaded guilty.

Looking for more Saratoga Springs headlines?

Head over to our friends at SARATOGA REPORT!

Assistant DA gets demoted as DA Heggen prepares to step down

Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen, a Republican who has announced her retirement, has moved her First Assistant DA Al Poremba to a bureau chief position, the Times Union is reporting. Jennifer Buckley will become the new 1st ADA. Poremba, a longtime ADA, had not garnered support from the GOP in a short-lived bid to replace Heggen.

At this hour: Traffic, weather and the markets

Weather

Mostly sunny day (or partly cloudy, depending on if you are a “glass half full” or “glass half empty” person) with a slight breeze and high temperature in the mid-80s, the National Weather Service’s Albany office says.

Traffic

Watch for horses on Union Avenue, says Google Maps. Also, U.S. Route 9 near Exit 17 of the Interstate-87 Adirondack Northway is unusually slow at this hour (about 7:35 a.m.).

Premarket trading

Stock indices are up in premarket trading, but by tiny bits, according to numbers from Marketwatch.

Woerner welcomes new Americans

Assemblymember Carrie Woerner, D-NY 113, spent July 4 welcoming two dozen new Americans at the apt location of Saratoga National Historical Park, the Post-Star is reporting. She is quoted: “Today it is my great pleasure to welcome you not just as citizens, but as new stewards of liberty.”

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Hearing on Medicaid-funded homecare delayed

The state Department of Health is not ready to testify about New York’s $9 billion Medicaid-funded home care program today, so a public hearing is delayed until Aug. 21, WNYT is reporting. The state has left the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program in favor of Public Partnerships LLC, but the roll-out has been rocky. Lawmakers from both parties are expected to question the DOH, which “has drawn complaints about missed paychecks, inadequate communication, and limited access to care,” the story says.

Earlier stories by Dispatch editors and staff…In Case You Missed Them…

NYS Troopers: Results of July 4 crackdown

By Steve Thurston, Dispatch news editor

Dispatch covers the News

July 7, 2025: Over the July 4 holiday weekend, New York State Troopers statewide issued 10,497 tickets targeting DWI and other driver impairments, and in Saratoga Springs the numbers…Read more here.

Slam dunk racing call

By Abby Tegnelia, Dispatch lifestyles editor

Dispatch at the Track

July 7, 2025: Saratoga announcer Frank Mirahmadi got to flex his trivia muscles early this year, making a home run — rather…Read more here.

New Leaders, new agenda