Japanese retailing. Genetic chestnuts.

Yaddo gardens. AI goes to college.

Jul 17, 2025

ANNOUNCEMENT: We go mostly behind the paywall Monday July 21.

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

(If only pageviews were enough…)

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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.

Yaddo Gardens re-open today

The Yaddo Gardens will reopen today, Thursday July 17. The gardens are the main way non-artists can see the Yaddo grounds of the famed artists retreat, the Times Union says.

See the Dispatch coverage of the closure, here.

Wolf Road in Albany gets new, Japanese retailer

The Albany Business Review says a new Japanese retail store, Ebisu, is coming to Wolf Road in Albany. The 13,000 square foot store will carry Japanese snacks, games, toys and more, the story says.

Attorneys General fight for federal disaster funding

Attorneys General across the country, including New York's and the Pennsylvania governor have opened a legal battle to stop the President Donald Trump administration from cutting $4.5 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency aimed at pre-approved projects, projects that aim to protect people and property from natural disasters, the Times Union is reporting. The AG’s are claiming that shutting down the 30-year-old bipartisan Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, is illegal.

Post-Star publisher settles class action claim, and you may qualify

If you have a Facebook account and a subscription to The Post-Star in Glens Falls, you may be owed some money, but you must act TODAY (July 17, 2025). Read more here.

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Harris Beach Murtha gets new Capital Region Director

Harris Beach Murtha attorney Mathew P. Barry will manage its Albany and Saratoga Springs offices, the law firm announced. The Albany Business Review says that Barry is a Union College and Albany Law School graduate. He previously served as president of the Albany County Bar Association.

Dan DeFederici’s on the news of Spa City

The editor of Saratoga Report, Dan De Federicis, talks about all things Saratoga in his latest column. He talk about Siro’s and Treehouse, the Daily Gazette and us at the Dispatch (Thanks, Dan!), but his list of currently closed, small hotels is surprising.

Looking for more Saratoga Springs headlines?

Head over to our friends at SARATOGA REPORT!

Saving the chestnut trees

The American chestnut tree was once ubiquitous in the North Country, and scientists are trying to bring it back via genetic modification, a story in the Adirondack Journal says. The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry submitted an application in 2024 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and is currently subject to a public comment period that ends July 21. Essentially, the federal government will look to see if the new tree will become an invasive plant, the story says.

AI in the college classroom

AI is forcing college educators to change how they approach their work, a story in the Times Union says. The questions remain about AI’s affects on memory and cognition and whether AI is doing everyone’s homework and if it will take all the new graduates’ jobs, but the other side of the coin is discussion in the classroom and courses on the uses of AI, the story says.

At this hour: Traffic, weather and the markets
Weather
Hot and humid, again. High temperatures in the mid-90s with the heat index making it feel like 95-100 degrees today, the National Weather Service’s Albany office says. The weather alert begins at noon and runs through 7 p.m.
Traffic
Google Maps shows some slow-downs on the northbound lanes of Interstate-87 ending just south of Exit 12.
Premarket trading
As has been the case recently, the stock indices are mixed but by the slightest of margins, according to numbers from Marketwatch.