Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

February 22, 2025

The mild winters of years past are an increasingly distant memory for those living in Upstate New York, where the relentless snow, ice and freezing temperatures make for some gorgeous scenery but are causing widespread misery as well as shortages and delivery delays for road salt. Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

First, it was the covid pandemic and a closed border that hit U.S. businesses accustomed to welcoming Canadian tourists. Now, it’s rising bad blood.

Operators of tourism-reliant businesses in the northern U.S. are bracing for the effects of a threatened Canadian boycott, the result of anger toward President Trump’s threatened imposition of tariffs on Canadian exports. The CEO of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST), based in Lake Placid, N.Y., told the Adirondack Explorer the agency is “receiving feedback that many Canadian travelers have opted to change or cancel their U.S. travel plans.”  ROOST estimates that about 5% of visitors to the Northern Adirondacks are from Canada, and that a 20% drop in Canadian visitors would extract a $12 million toll on the Adirondack economy.

A Canadian hiking group that has long visited the Adirondacks each summer already has canceled its planned trip for 2025, citing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s call for Canadians to not spend their tourist dollars in the U.S., the Explorer reports.

Businesses in Michigan, another key travel destination for Canadians, are worried, too, as are those in popular warm-weather destinations like Texas and Florida. According to Travel and Tour World, the U.S. Travel Association estimates that a 10% reduction in Canadian tourism could lead to $2.1 billion in lost revenue and result in the loss of 14,000 jobs across the U.S.

Of course, fewer visitors to U.S. national parks might not be entirely bad, considering that there are now about 1,000 fewer National Park Service employees available to maintain and clean them or provide educational programming.

Canadians did get a welcomed bit of good news late in the week, when their hockey team defeated the U.S. in overtime to win the 4 Nations Face-Off in Boston, an occasion Trudeau celebrated by posting, “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game."

WHO'S IN CHARGE? Meanwhile, it’s been a bad week for the beleaguered governor of the Empire State, where chaos reigned as both inmates and prison workers revolted, the potential demise of congestion pricing inspired a theatrical response, and the mayor of its largest city will remain in office despite multiple indictments for public corruption that have made it impossible for him to receive briefings on terroristic threats to the city and its people. Wildcat strikes by corrections officers — actions that are prohibited by law and not authorized by their union — spread to more than 30 of New York’s 42 penitentiaries this week, with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who called the actions “illegal and unlawful,” activating 3,500 members of the National Guard to keep order at the facilities. The Albany Times Union reports that a corrections department sergeant is under investigation for his actions that triggered what may have been an unwarranted lockdown at Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County, an incident that set the strikes in motion. Striking corrections officers are alleging unsafe working conditions at the exact moment six of their own have been charged with second degree murder because they beat a handcuffed inmate to death at a medium-security prison near Utica.

PARKS AND WRECK: The Adirondack Park Agency, the governmental body charged with protecting the natural resources of the Adirondacks, is itself polluted by leaders who have cultivated a “culture of fear,” say nearly half the non-executive employees who work there and the union that represents them. The Adirondack Explorer broke the news late in the week the employees signed on to a letter accusing the executive director and her management team of instilling a “culture of fear” and engaging in “bullying, hurtful conflicts, and general abusive behavior.” Rather than comment on the substance of the allegations, the chairman of the state agency expressed concern that the letter, dated February 12, had been leaked to the press. These allegations should come as no surprise to private property owners in the Adirondacks, who have been bullied by the agency for decades.

LONG-TERM PLANNING: It’s likely that, by now, many of you reading this know someone who has lived to 100, a rarity in the not-too-distant past. The Census Bureau estimates there were 101,000 centenarians living in the U.S. in 2024, a figure that has been growing steadily since 1950 and is expected to quadruple in the next three decades. Writing for Kiplinger, financial advisor Dennis McNamara notes that advances in medicine and technology are redefining what’s possible for human health and longevity, making it possible to live not just longer but in better health. That raises some practical questions about how we should be thinking about our later years, not just in terms of savings and investments but whether it makes sense to prepare for longer careers with more transitions. “These are serious considerations to explore now,” he writes, “long before longevity becomes our new reality.”

BAD BETS: Well, what are the odds? A study out this week found that the number of people seeking help for gambling addiction — as reflected by Googling phrases such as “Am I addicted to gambling?" and “Help me find help with gambling addiction” — has soared in the years since the Supreme Court in 2018 loosened restrictions on online sports betting. In 2017, when only Nevada permitted sports wagering, $4.9 billion was legally bet on sports, according to the study, by a professor of data and behavioral sciences at the University of California San Diego. In 2023, that figure was more than $121 billion. In individual states, the opening of sportsbooks consistently corresponded with search increases for gambling addiction help, the study showed, with the highest spikes seen in Ohio (67%), Pennsylvania (50%) and Massachusetts (47%).

The dancing people sculpture at the State Street entrance of the Legislative Office Building in Albany, N.Y., seems to be enjoying the gorgeous sunset, too. John Bulmer

BUYERS BEWARE: Used cars remain more expensive relative to new vehicles, The Wall Street Journal reports, remaining stubbornly high three years after pandemic-driven supply chain issues caused prices to rise on inventory shortages across both classifications. Used-car prices rose 2.2% from December to January, a time when new-car prices were flat, The Journal reports, citing Labor Department figures. “It is hard to find used cars,” an executive at one of nation’s biggest car dealer groups said at a Detroit conference this month. “It is gonna be like that for the next two years.”

ZONED OUT: If you want to know why there is a housing crunch in so much of the U.S., Yoni Appelbaum writes in a new book, look no further than exclusionary zoning laws that were written to make sure the haves were never bothered by the have-nots. In an essay adopted from Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity, he writes that “three generations of progressive reformers” have made it  “extraordinarily difficult to build new housing where it is needed most” — areas where economic opportunity flourishes. “In a properly functioning economy, workers relocate to find better-paying jobs in faster-growing industries,” he writes in the essay, published in The Wall Street Journal. “In the U.S. today, workers instead often remain stuck where they are. As recently as 1970, one in five Americans moved each year. But after a half-century of steady decline, the Census announced in December that we had set a dismal new record, with scarcely one in 13 people relocating to a new home.”

RESCUE DOGS: A shelter in Western Michigan melted hearts across the internet this week with the story of an adorable young pup who was abandoned in a grocery store parking lot with a note tied to her collar: “My name is Rukey. Please, help me. Take me home.” The shelter offered kindness to the person who left Rukey, along with a reminder that help is available to people who are struggling to feed themselves or their pets. “To the person who had to make the heartbreaking decision to let her go — please know that Rukey is safe and deeply loved by our staff,” the Kent County Animal Shelter wrote in a social media post. “We can only imagine how difficult this choice was for you, and we sincerely hope you find brighter days ahead.” In sadder news, Hurricane, a Belgian Malinois with the Secret Service who was famous for taking down an intruder on the White House lawn in 2014, has died at 16. An organization called Hurricane’s Heroes accepts donations to provide retired law enforcement and military dogs with subsidized veterinary care.

HISTORIC DISCOVERIES: London’s first “town hall,” a nearly 2,000-year-old basilica from the time of Roman rule, has been unearthed in the city’s financial district. Three stories high and built atop a hill, the basilica probably was the home of a tribunal where magistrates sat on a raised platform and made judgments on court cases and important government decisions. And Egyptian officials announced the discovery of the tomb of King Thutmose II, the last of the lost tombs of the kings of ancient Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty, which reigned for over two centuries between about 1550 BC and 1292 BC. It's the first royal Egyptian tomb to be discovered since King Tutankhamun's final resting place was found in 1922.

WASHINGTON’S WORDS: A letter written by George Washington shortly after British forces had ransacked a key Continental Army supply depot in Connecticut in 1777 is for sale and expected to fetch $150,000.

NAME DROPPING: Hamilton College in Upstate New York will host former President Barack Obama in April as part of a “Great Names” speaker series that has featured leaders from various fields, including Hillary Clinton, Tina Fey, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Condoleezza Rice.

YANKEE CLIPPERS: Welcome to the 21^st century, New York Yankees. The team, the last in Major League Baseball to enforce a stiff policy against players sporting beards, announced late in the week that “well-groomed beards” would now be acceptable.

RUNNERS’  WORLD: It’s hard to say which is the more impressive feat — smashing the world half-marathon record by 48 seconds (more than 3½  seconds per mile), or a 55-year-old cancer survivor attempting — and nearly completing — seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

TASTY INVADERS: The invasive European green crab is a resilient critter that causes all kinds of problems for marine fisheries in the Northeast. The good news, as more foodies are discovering, is they taste great.

HEAVY LOSSES: Thieves stick up a pharmacy in Brazil and what do they steal? Ozempic and other injectable weight-loss drugs that many Brazilians covet but that most can’t afford. While media reports show thieves are after Ozempic elsewhere in the world, Brazil has become a prime global hot spot for criminals seeking the popular weight-loss drugs.

MORE, PLEASE:  President Trump and Elon Musk have come under criticism for the way in which they are slashing spending. But USA Today columnist Nicole Russell loves it. “The process that Trump and Musk have undertaken is undeniably messy,” she writes. “I see it as liberating. ... I believe that in time all Americans will enjoy more freedom because of it.”

ANNE MARIE HOCHHALTER was left partially paralyzed in the mass shooting that terrorized Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999, resulting in the deaths of 12 of her fellow students and a teacher. Her pain and loss were compounded six months later when her mother committed suicide. The stepmother of one of the Columbine victims reached out to Hochhalter after her mother’s death, and they formed what would become a lifetime bond. In 2016, she wrote a letter to Sue Klebold, the mother of one of the shooters, to offer forgiveness, writing that “Bitterness is like swallowing a poison pill.”  Her brother,  Nathan Hochhalter, told The Associated Press that while she struggled with intense pain and post-traumatic stress, she was tireless in her drive to help others, from people with disabilities to rescue dogs and members of her family. “She was helpful to a great many people. She was really a good human being and sister.”  She was 43.

“(Elon) Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant. He wants to impose his freak experiments and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, values or traditions.”
— Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist, in an interview with British news site UnHerd. Bannon had previously called Musk a “truly evil person.”

GOING NOWHERE: Passengers who were expecting Allegiant Airlines to fly them from Albany International Airport to southwest Florida this week were instead trapped in the plane for more than six hours as it sat on the tarmac, then returned to the gate because the crew had reached the maximum number of hours they could work. The airline cited multiple excuses, none of which flew with airport spokesman Steve Smith, who told the Albany Times Union, “They used a ground crew that has very few staffing. They can’t manage multiple (flights) on the ground at one time. We’re talking about significant delays because of the airline. The airport shares in the frustration of passengers."

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Principal Author: Bill Callen.

Contributors: Ryan Moore, Mark Behan, Nancie Battaglia and John Bulmer.

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