The Catch Up

Ken Migliorelli has spent his entire life farming, and after 50 years he's ready to slow down. He's put his 210-acre orchard on Guski Road in Red Hook back on the market, the second time he's tried to sell it, hoping this time he finds a buyer who'll care for the land the way he has. Walter Mullin talks with Ken about what led to the decision, from the punishing hours of peak season to the liabili...

This week on The Catch Up, host Walter Mullen talks with Daily Catch reporters Claire Greenberger and Eloise Goldsmith about two stories shaping the future of hospitality in the region. First, Claire breaks down the latest twist in the proposed Six Senses wellness retreat: the developers have sued the Clinton Planning Board over its decision to require a full environmental impact statement, arguin...

Two days after winning the Democratic primary for Rhinebeck Town Supervisor with 76% of the vote, Debbie Hecht sits down with Emily Sachar to break down how she did it. She credits an old-fashioned ground game, what she calls an analog campaign, with campaign manager John Rossi at the wheel and nearly 2,000 voters reached one conversation at a time. Hecht talks about the stories she collected at t...

The Daily Catch's new arts and entertainment reporter Matt Moment joins Emily Sacker to preview Bard SummerScape 2026. He looks ahead to comedian James Austin Johnson at the Spiegeltent, a six-decade retrospective from dance pioneer Lucinda Childs, who turns 86 on opening night, and the world premiere of Suddenly Last Summer, a new opera by Courtney Bryan based on the Tennessee Williams play. Mome...

Three Red Hook High School juniors heard there'd be no Pride celebration in their village this year, so they built one themselves. Ada, Harper, and Violet join Emily Sachar to talk about Red Hook Youth Pride, the day they pulled together that drew hundreds of people for a parade, live music, food, and community booths in the Village municipal lot. They get into the parts nobody warns teenagers abo...

Daily Catch reporter Athan Yanos has been covering the growing controversy surrounding a proposed expansion at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, and he joins Walter Mullin this week to discuss. The aerodrome, a beloved Hudson Valley institution that has drawn aviation enthusiasts from around the world for nearly seven decades, is seeking approval from the Red Hook Planning Board to nearly double its bu...

The Daily Catch reviewed the latest campaign finance filings in the Rhinebeck Democratic primary for town supervisor, and reporter Claire Greenberger joins Emily Sacker to explain what the records show heading into the June 23rd primary. Amanda Miller reported a little over $15,000 in contributions to Debbie Hecht's roughly $8,700, but Miller is largely self-funding through herself, her husband, a...

The complete audio of the Rhinebeck Town Supervisor Democratic forum, recorded live Sunday, May 17 at Rhinebeck High School in partnership with the Rhinebeck High School Student Council. Editor Emily Sachar moderates a two-hour conversation with the two Democratic candidates, Debbie Hecht and Amanda Miller. Topics include housing and the proposed community housing fund, Rhinebeck schools, tourism...

Some 280 people packed Rhinebeck High School Sunday afternoon for the first forum between Debbie Hecht and Amanda Miller, the two Democrats running for Rhinebeck Town Supervisor. Emily Sachar, who moderated, joins Walter Mullin in the studio for a recap: tourism and hospitality growth, the Six Senses lawsuit, the future of Linwood, two very different housing proposals, the Starr Library funding sh...

Walter Mullin and Emily Sachar cover three stories. The Daily Catch hosts its first candidates forum Sunday, May 17, at Rhinebeck High School, with Debbie Hecht and Amanda Miller facing questions ahead of the June 23 Democratic primary for town supervisor. The historic Rhinecliff Hotel signs a 10-year lease with Michaela Carpenter and Barry Dobesh, who plan to open this summer and reopen the renov...

Leon Botstein is leaving Bard. After almost 51 years as president, he announced his retirement one day after the board got WilmerHale's review of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Walter Mullin and Daily Catch editor Emily Sachar talk through what the report says, what Botstein had told the public before, and why those two stories no longer match. The report includes a line Botstein gave inve...

This week, editor Emily Sachar takes you inside Monday night's Rhinebeck Town Board meeting, where a discussion about Starr Library's budget turned into a shouting match between Town Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia, library leaders, and a packed room of more than 40 residents. Beat reporter Eloise Goldsmith joins Emily to explain how voters approved an $82,000 tax increase for the library on Election...

The Catch-Up host Walter Mullin sits down with Daily Catch reporter Athan Yanos to unpack his in-depth feature on a quiet but striking reversal: Catholic churches in Red Hook and Rhinebeck are filling up. Yanos spent weeks embedded in the parish community at St. Christopher's and Good Shepherd, interviewing seven congregants whose returns to faith trace back not to headlines or trends, but to grie...

For more than 40 years, Joan Osofsky built something rare: a store that felt like a home. Hammertown, which began in a Pine Plains barn in 1985, grew into one of the Hudson Valley's most beloved design institutions, defining a regional aesthetic that became known as "modern country." Now, after six years of searching for a buyer, Joan has made the bittersweet decision to close. In this conversatio...

Daily Catch Publisher Walter Mullen sits down with producer Carolyn Marks Blackwood and director Jon Bowermaster to talk about The Keeper, a documentary that follows John Lipscomb, the longtime patrol captain for Riverkeeper, and his deep, complicated bond with the Hudson River. Walter asks about the Riverkeeper's mission, what drew Blackwood to Lipscomb's story, and the challenge of convincing a...

Walter Mullen and reporter Claire Greenberg break down what Red Hook Central School District voters will decide on May 21, including the operating budget, two open school board seats, and multiple propositions. Voters will consider $1.1 million to upgrade the high school welding facility to launch an in-house career and technical education pathway, a $14.7 million renovation and expansion of the a...

Red Hook beat reporter Athan Yanos joins Emily Sachar to break down a closely watched village board election that brought two political newcomers to power. Perry Allen and Craig Rothstein unseated incumbent Anthony Maccarini, with Rothstein winning by just 17 votes after a recount. Yanos walks through what drove the results, from a meticulously run grassroots campaign to the outsized role of trust...

Walter Mullen and reporter Claire Greenberger take up a proposal from Clinton Vineyards owner Barry Milea to convert a former tasting-room barn on Schultzville Road into an 80-seat fine-dining restaurant with a limited events component. The plan has landed before the Clinton Planning Board, where traffic concerns have taken center stage: a new study projects peak hourly vehicle counts could jump f...

Emily welcomes Betty Olson, 82, who shares what it means to become the sole caregiver for her husband of decades. Peter Olson, 84, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's — symptoms that came into sharp focus following a kidney transplant in July 2023. Betty traces the arc of their life together: meeting in a scuba class, their complementary strengths, building a home in Clinton. She describes the early si...

Emily Sachar of The Daily Catch hosts The Catchup, sponsored by Hudson Solar and Battery Solutions, and sits down with Bard Observer co-editors Luc Redgate and Mica Rajakumar, who have been leading student coverage of Bard College President Leon Botstein since DOJ documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein named him. The editors walk through their exclusive interview with Botstein and a Feb. 12 open house...

Host Emily Sachar and Rhinebeck beat reporter Eloise Goldsmith dig into a brewing Democratic primary for town supervisor, one that got interesting fast after Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia announced she won't seek reelection and threw her support behind Deputy Supervisor Debbie Hecht. Hecht, a relative newcomer to the area and co-founder of Beck Hook Pride, says she came up through the work: attendi...

Host Walter Mullen speaks with Rhinebeck reporter Eloise Goldsmith about Linwood, a 51-acre historic compound overlooking the Hudson River. Established as an estate in 1774 and later given to the Sisters of St. Ursula, the property is now for sale via a formal RFP process developed with the Town of Rhinebeck. The discussion covers the site's restrictive HP-20 zoning, the town's openness to varianc...

Walter and Emily examine the recently released Jeffrey Epstein files and what they reveal about Bard College president Leon Botstein's connections to the disgraced financier. They look at Botstein's decades-long leadership of Bard, the achievements, the institution-building, the outsized reputation, and then at the uncomfortable details now coming to light, from fundraising ties to campus visits....

In this episode of The Catch Up , Emily talks with reporter Maggie Baribault to examine the quiet transformation that occurs when memory loss enters a marriage. Through conversations with three couples navigating different stages of dementia and Alzheimer's, we witness how love adapts when the architecture of shared history begins to crumble. These intimate portraits reveal both the weight of care...

Walter Mullen, publisher of The Daily Catch, delves into the growing tension between the town and village of Rhinebeck over the cost and transparency of firefighting and EMS services. Town Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia raises concerns about the village's budget transparency and the town's annual contribution, totaling nearly $280,000. Village Mayor Gary Bassett argues that the town is getting excel...