Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
February 1, 2025
Fort William Henry guides, demonstrating a degree of bravery befitting the soldiers they portray, pose on the ice of Lake George, N.Y., where the community is preparing for the 63rd Annual Lake George Winter Carnival, which begins this weekend. Ashley Orzech
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Upbeat and optimistic is what we strive for in Facing Out, and while there’s much good news to share, the week of growing pains, confusion and tragedy in our nation’s capital is hard to overlook.
First, the Trump Administration’s quick clampdown on federal spending unintentionally spiraled into a quasi-government shutdown. They were targeting continued payments to the World Health Organization and funding for diversity initiatives, but by the time the White House rescinded the freeze on Wednesday, Medicaid payments, senior meals, special education and housing stipends had also been disrupted. The Administration’s order to freeze nearly all U.S. foreign aid also reportedly intensified humanitarian crises in the Sudan, Thailand, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hurried to reinstate training material highlighting the celebrated Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots after the material was pulled for revision purportedly related to the rollback of DEI policies, causing immediate backlash from both sides of the political aisle.
Then, on a clear and very cold Wednesday evening, the capital was struck by tragedy. An unexplained mid-air collision over the Potomac between a passenger jet and a military helicopter killed more than 60 people, including world-class ice skaters and coaches who had been attending the U.S. Figure Skating national championships in Wichita, Kan. Several were members of the Skating Club of Boston, prompting tributes from their city’s professional sports teams.
THE REPORT CARD: American school kids have continued to struggle in the years since the pandemic shut down schools and pushed learning online, with reading skills showing a continuing decline and little improvement in math, according to the most recent version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a biennial look at school performance known as the nation’s report card. One-third of eighth grade students scored below “basic” in reading, more than ever in the history of the assessment. It also shows growing inequality, with high-performing students regaining lost ground and lower-performing students falling further behind. New York hasn’t improved much since the last round of data was released. Probably not a convenient time for the Albany Times Union to break the news that the commissioner of the New York State Department of Education received $155,000 in pay raises over the past six months, in the process increasing her annual salary to $489,000, nearly 50% higher than it was in 2021.
ROLE MODELS: But there’s good news: Exposure to entrepreneurial adults as teenagers seemed to improve girls’ educational and career trajectories, according to new research published by the renowned Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, which found that such girls were more likely to continue their education and had a lower risk of holding low-wage jobs throughout their working years. They also found that girls who had early exposure to entrepreneurs and then pursued their own entrepreneurial ambitions went on to create more successful and more women-friendly companies than the average entrepreneur. There is similar good news for kids mentored through Big Bothers Big Sisters of America — they earn more money in their early 20s compared to others in their cohort and also had better college attendance and healthier social bonds.
OPEN GATES: The Times of London scored a wide-ranging interview with Bill Gates in which the multibillionaire co-founder of Microsoft talked about his happy childhood in Seattle, his neurodiversity (he would be diagnosed “on the autism spectrum” if he were growing up today, he said), his marriage, his philanthropic pursuits and what it’s like to be a target of conspiracy theorists, among other topics. But it’s his comments about fellow tech magnate Elon Musk that were heard round the world. “It’s really insane that he can destabilize the political situations in countries,” Gates said. “I think in the U.S. foreigners aren’t allowed to give money; other countries maybe should adopt safeguards to make sure super-rich foreigners aren’t distorting their elections. ... If someone is super-smart, and he is, they should think how they can help out. But this is populist stirring.”
The forested trails at the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center are a winter wonderland for the area’s many Nordic skiers. Nancie Battaglia
STILL POWERING THE WORLD: Over the next two years, GE Vernova plans to invest $600 million in American factories and research facilities and create 1,500 new jobs as it meets surging customer demand for electricity equipment at home and abroad. At its Advanced Research Center in Niskayuna, N.Y., GE Vernova plans to invest almost $100 million in 2025 to strengthen the center’s electrification and carbon efforts, enable continued recruitment of top-tier talent, and push forward innovative technologies including direct air capture, alternative fuels for power generation, the grid of the future, critical infrastructure security and more. The company will invest $90 million its historic Schenectady manufacturing operation, more than 1 million square feet in size and still one of the largest manufacturing facilities in the United States.
SCENT SENSIBILITY: Visitors to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden were treated to a rare, um, treat in recent days — the blooming of a plant whose scent can best be compared to rotting flesh. Or, as one visitor put it to The Associated Press: “It smells like feet, cheese and rotten meat. It just smelled like the worst possible combination of smells. That was disgusting.” The rare plant — Amorphophallus gigas, a relative of the Amorphophallus titanum, commonly known as the corpse flower — has bloomed for the first time since arriving in Brooklyn in 2018.
THE SHOE STORE: After Suzanne Cohen’s mother and father died, she began sorting out old family photos and memories, and one in particular stood out. It was a photo of the shoe store in Witten, Germany, that her ancestors had owned — a shoe store that opened in 1864 and sold fancy footwear until the Holocaust when, the family believed, it was lost, as were most of their extended Jewish family. Imagine her shock to discover the shore store is still open and some of her family members are still running it. “It was just amazing. I had no idea that they had survived the Holocaust,” Cohen, a retired English teacher from Greenwich, N.Y., told The Washington Post.
THE PATH TO DESTRUCTION: David French is not what you expect in a New York Times columnist. He’s a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a former constitutional litigator and an evangelical Christian who has written about the pain of witnessing widespread cruelty and being ostracized by longtime friends and fellow believers over political disagreements. He often draws from history to explain his view of current events, and this week, he shines a light on the “friend-enemy distinction” to frame much of modern American politics. Harkening to the virtues espoused by Benjamin Franklin and other founders of our nation as “universal moral obligations that apply to our treatment of everyone,” he writes, “Dive too deeply into the friend-enemy distinction, by contrast, and it can become immoral to treat your enemies with kindness if kindness weakens the community in its struggle against a mortal foe. In the world of the friend-enemy distinction, your ultimate virtue is found in your willingness to fight. Your ultimate vice is betraying your side by refusing the call to political war. ... Because our civics depends on our ethics, we should be teaching ethics right alongside civics. Sadly, we’re failing at both tasks, and our baser nature is telling millions of Americans that cruelty is good, if it helps us win, and kindness is evil, if it weakens our cause. That is the path of destruction.”
MODERN LIFE: “Were you dropped on your head as a child?” one outraged parent asks. “The only poison is what’s coming out of your trash mouth,” spews another. No, this was not a recent public meeting. It’s a Broadway play, Eureka Day, that tells the story of a community that “professes perfect consideration of differing opinions [but] turns out to be a hotbed of intolerance,” says Jesse Green, chief theater critic for The New York Times.
KEEPING SCORE: In the week since President Trump pardoned all the rioters who sacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, one was arrested on a pending federal gun charge, another was shot dead by an Indiana sheriff’s deputy after allegedly resisting arrest, and another is wanted on a 2016 charge of soliciting a minor online. FBI Director nominee Kash Patel, meanwhile, said he disagrees with some of the pardons.
GREAT OUTDOORS: The New York State parks system logged a record 88.3 million visitors in 2024, marking the 12th consecutive annual increase. The April 8 total eclipse was among the driving factors.
TO YOUR HEALTH: A top UK nutritionist has created the healthiest three-course meal you’ll ever eat. To our great delight, it starts with a generous helping of cheese and ends with a chocolate mousse.
ANOTHER MASTERPIECE? A former curator of ancient art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has teamed with a group of conservators, scientists and historians who believe they’ve discovered a previously unknown Van Gogh portrait of a fisherman plucked from a Minnesota garage sale a few years ago by an unsuspecting antiques collector for less than $50, The Wall Street Journal reports.
DICK BUTTON burst onto the world figure skating stage at 16, just after World War II, when he won the U.S. figure skating championship. Two years later, he won the first of his two Olympic Gold medals and began a run of five consecutive world figure skating championships before surrendering his amateur status to perform in skating shows. An innovator on the ice and widely regarded as one of the greatest figure skaters of all time, he went to become a popular Emmy Award-winning TV analyst, his blunt delivery helping viewers learn not only the basics but also the nuances of a sport unfamiliar to most casual fans. “No other figure skater embodies the sport as much as Dick Button,” Tara Lipinski, the 1998 Olympic women's figure skating champion, said in 2015. “He is, and always will be, the godfather of this sport.” He died the day after the tragic midair collision in Washington that took the lives of 14 members of the tight-knit skating community, six of them from the Skating Club of Boston, where Button also skated and where the trophy room is named in his honor. He was 95.
“This city is my home, and I won’t be intimidated. What happened to me was extremely traumatic. But I will eventually make my way back to the train.”
— Joseph Lynskey, who survived being pushed from a subway platform directly into the path of an oncoming train on New Year’s Eve, one of many recent high-profile crimes in the New York City subway system.
BAD BET: More than 100 former spies and intelligence officers are urging Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the State Assembly to reject a new casino in the suburbs less than 20 miles from Washington, an area that is home to the CIA, the Pentagon and various defense contractors, arguing that foreign nationals could use the casino to penetrate national security by bribing intelligence officers and other military personnel.
Some of the linked material in Facing Out requires a subscription to read.
Principal Authors: Bill Callen and Mark Behan.
Contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Kristy Miller, Jim Murphy, Amanda Metzger, Claire P. Tuttle, Ashley Orzech, and Nancie Battaglia.
FACING OUT is what we do. We help companies, organizations and individuals work effectively with their most important external audiences – their customers, their shareholders, their communities, the government and the news media. www.behancommunications.com
Facing Out features news and other nuggets that caught our eye, and that we thought might be of value to you, our friends and business associates. Some items are good news about our clients and friends, others are stories that we hope will leave you a bit more informed or entertained than you were five minutes ago. As always, we welcome your ideas and feedback.
Let’s make it a conversation: mark.behan@behancom.com
Recent Posts
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
February 8, 2025
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
February 1, 2025
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
January 25, 2025
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
January 18, 2025
He Saw It All: Meet Jack, the Well-Traveled Railroad Dog
January 17, 2025
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
January 11, 2025
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
December 21, 2024
Mike Mazzone: A Musical Prodigy at Home and on Stage
December 17, 2024
When Glens Falls Taught the World
December 17, 2024
Two Good Banks, Two Good Neighbors
December 17, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
December 14, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
December 7, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
November 23, 2024
Facing Out: The Most Interesting News of the Week
November 16, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
November 9, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
November 2, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
October 26, 2024
Facing Out: The Most Interesting News of the Week
October 19, 2024
Facing Out: The Most Interesting News of the Week
October 12, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
October 5, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
September 28, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
September 21, 2024
Facing Out: The Most Interesting News of the Week
September 14, 2024
Facing Out: The Most Interesting News of the Week
September 7, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
August 24, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
August 17, 2024
Drew FitzGerald Joins Behan as Sustainability Advisor
August 14, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
August 10, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
August 3, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
July 27, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
July 27, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
July 20, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
July 13, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
June 29, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
June 22, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
June 15, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
June 8, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
June 1, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
May 25, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
May 18, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
May 11, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
May 4, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
April 27, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
April 20, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
April 13, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
April 6, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
March 30, 2024
Facing Out: The Most Interesting News of the Week
March 23, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
March 16, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
March 9, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
March 2, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
February 24, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
February 17, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
February 10, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
February 3, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
January 27, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
January 20, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
January 13, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
January 6, 2024
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
December 16, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
December 9, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
December 2, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
November 18, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
November 11, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
November 4, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
October 28, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
October 21, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
October 14, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
October 7, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
September 30, 2023
The Week’s Most Interesting News
September 23, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
September 16, 2023
Facing Out: The week’s most interesting news
September 9, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
September 2, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
August 26, 2023
Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News
August 19, 2023
August 12, 2023
August 5, 2023
July 29, 2023
July 22, 2023
July 15, 2023
July 8, 2023
July 1, 2023
June 24, 2023
June 17, 2023
June 10, 2023
June 3, 2023
May 27, 2023
May 20, 2023
May 13, 2023
May 6, 2023
April 29, 2023
April 22, 2023
April 15, 2023
April 8, 2023
April 1, 2023
March 25, 2023
March 18, 2023
March 11, 2023
March 4, 2023
February 25, 2023
February 18, 2023
February 11, 2023
February 4, 2023
January 28, 2023
January 21, 2023
January 14, 2023
January 7, 2023
December 17, 2022
December 10, 2022
December 3, 2022
November 19, 2022
November 12, 2022
November 5, 2022
October 29, 2022
October 22, 2022
October 15, 2022
October 8, 2022
October 1, 2022
“The Week What Caught Our Eye”
September 24, 2022
September 17, 2022
September 10, 2022
September 3, 2022
August 27, 2022
August 23, 2022
August 20, 2022
August 13, 2022
August 6, 2022
July 30, 2022
July 23, 2022
Ryan Moore Named CEO of Behan Communications
July 20, 2022
July 16, 2022
July 9, 2022
July 2, 2022
June 25, 2022
June 18, 2022
June 11, 2022
June 4, 2022
May 28, 2022
May 21, 2022
May 13, 2022
May 7, 2022
April 30, 2022
April 23, 2022
April 16, 2022
April 8, 2022
April 2, 2022
March 26, 2022
March 19, 2022
March 12, 2022
March 5, 2022
The Week: What Caught Our Eye 2
February 26, 2022
February 26, 2022
February 19, 2022
February 12, 2022
February 5, 2022
January 29, 2022
January 22, 2022
January 15, 2022
January 8, 2022
December 18, 2021
December 11, 2021
December 4, 2021
November 19, 2021
November 13, 2021
November 6, 2021
October 30, 2021
October 23, 2021
October 16, 2021
October 9, 2021
October 2, 2021
September 25, 2021
September 18, 2021
September 11, 2021
September 4, 2021
August 28, 2021
August 21, 2021
August 14, 2021
“The Week What Caught Our Eye”
August 7, 2021
July 31, 2021
July 24, 2021
July 17, 2021
July 10, 2021
July 3, 2021
June 26, 2021
June 19, 2021
June 12, 2021
June 5, 2021
May 29, 2021
May 22, 2021
May 15, 2021
May 8, 2021
May 1, 2021
April 24, 2021
April 17, 2021
April 17, 2021
April 10, 2021
April 3, 2021
March 27, 2021
March 20, 2021
March 13, 2021
March 6, 2021
February 27, 2021
February 20, 2021
February 13, 2021
February 6, 2021
January 30, 2021
January 23, 2021
The Week: What Caught Our Eye 1/16/21
January 16, 2021
January 9, 2021
December 19, 2020
December 12, 2020
December 5, 2020
November 21, 2020
November 14, 2020
November 7, 2020
October 31, 2020
October 24, 2020
October 17, 2020
October 10, 2020
October 3, 2020
September 26, 2020
September 19, 2020
September 12, 2020
September 5, 2020
August 29, 2020
August 22, 2020
August 15, 2020
August 8, 2020
August 1, 2020
July 25, 2020
Saving the Day: Ed Bartholomew’s Game
July 24, 2020
July 18, 2020
July 11, 2020
July 4, 2020
June 27, 2020
June 20, 2020
June 13, 2020
The Week: What Caught Our Eye 6/6/20
June 6, 2020
June 6, 2020
May 30, 2020
Coronavirus: Talking To Employees About Risk
May 26, 2020
May 23, 2020
Lake George History of Resilience
May 21, 2020
May 16, 2020
May 9, 2020
The Year The Kennedys Came to North Creek
May 8, 2020
April 25, 2020
April 18, 2020
April 11, 2020
April 4, 2020
March 28, 2020
March 21, 2020
March 14, 2020
March 7, 2020
February 29, 2020
February 22, 2020
February 15, 2020
February 8, 2020
February 1, 2020
January 25, 2020
January 18, 2020
January 4, 2020
December 28, 2019
December 21, 2019
December 14, 2019
December 7, 2019
November 30, 2019
November 23, 2019
November 16, 2019
November 9, 2019
November 2, 2019
October 26, 2019
October 19, 2019
October 12, 2019
September 28, 2019
September 21, 2019
September 14, 2019
September 7, 2019
August 31, 2019
August 24, 2019
August 17, 2019
Different Name, Same Great Experience
August 15, 2019
August 10, 2019
Noah John Rondeau: The Famous Hermit of the Adirondacks
August 9, 2019
August 3, 2019
Johnny Podres: Witherbee’s Hometown Hero
August 1, 2019
July 27, 2019
July 20, 2019
July 19, 2019
July 13, 2019
July 6, 2019
June 29, 2019
Portrait of an Adirondack Poet
June 28, 2019
June 22, 2019
June 21, 2019
June 15, 2019
Thomas Edison and The Prospect House
June 14, 2019
June 8, 2019
June 1, 2019
May 25, 2019
May 18, 2019
May 11, 2019
May 4, 2019
April 27, 2019
April 20, 2019
April 13, 2019
April 6, 2019
A Century Ago: A City on the Rise
April 4, 2019
March 30, 2019
March 23, 2019
What caught our eye - Mar 16, 2019
March 16, 2019
What caught our eye - Mar 9, 2019
March 9, 2019
What caught our eye - Mar 2, 2019
March 2, 2019
What Killed the Amazon Deal ... and What Can Be Learned
March 1, 2019
What caught our eye - Feb. 23, 2019
February 23, 2019
What caught our eye - Feb. 16, 2019
February 16, 2019
What caught our eye - Feb. 9, 2019
February 9, 2019
What caught our eye - Feb. 2, 2019
February 2, 2019
Things that caught our eye - Jan. 26, 2019
January 26, 2019
Things that caught our eye - Jan. 19, 2019
January 18, 2019
November 20, 2018
Winning the war for talent: Helping you catch rising stars
November 19, 2018
Who’s to Blame for Political Attack Ads?
November 1, 2018
October 9, 2018
Is that my pizza in a pothole?
June 14, 2018
Preparing for the Unthinkable: Schools Now Lead in Crisis Management and Communications
April 2, 2018
Great Obituaries Will Save Newspapers
March 8, 2018
New Website for Albany Diocese Created by Behan
February 7, 2018
Behan Team Helps Propel Second Statewide Referendum Victory
November 8, 2017
A Graduation Letter to My Kids
May 9, 2017
Donald Trump Is the Media’s Best Friend
May 5, 2017
United Airlines Does Not Have a PR Problem
April 13, 2017
What Do I Need in My Next Communications Chief?
April 6, 2017
Mark Behan joins board of directors of financial holding company
December 5, 2016
Your Firm Will Get Hacked — How Do You Respond?
September 9, 2016
10 Questions Every CEO Should Ask About Crisis Management
October 25, 2014
15 Tips for Effective Employee Communications
March 15, 2012