Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

March 16, 2024

Spring is already advancing on the Boreas Ponds in the Adirondacks, after a winter that saw much less ice cover than usual on northern ponds and lakes. Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and happy almost spring (Tuesday, 11:06 pm).

The sacrifice of military service hit home hard in the Capital Region of New York State last week. On a surveillance mission near the U.S.-Mexico border, a helicopter crash claimed three lives and left one National Guardsman grievously injured.

Two of the victims and the injured Guardsman were from the Capital Region, members of an Albany-based Air National Guard unit – neighbors in service to their country. John Grassia III was 30, a Schenectady County native who signed up for the National Guard before graduating from high school in 2012 and later became a New York State Trooper. He was a chief warrant officer and one day hoped to fly the governor’s helicopter. Casey Frankoski, 28, was a chief warrant officer, native of Rensselaer County and daughter of a former police chief. She was in training to be a UH-60 Black Hawk and UH-72 Lakota helicopter pilot. The third victim, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Chris Luna, 49, had served with the agency for 17 years.

The injured crew chief, Jacob Pratt, also grew up in Rensselaer County and works at GlobalFoundries. His mother reported  that he was awake and aware of the family members in his hospital room.

The New York Times quoted a local official as saying the helicopter was following people who were illegally crossing into the United States.

A TEACHER’S INFLUENCE: The engineering and science worlds admire GE’s Marshall Jones as the developer of laser beams powerful enough to cut steel, titanium, and nickel-based alloy. He is recognized as a pioneer in using lasers for industrial materials processing, the basis for 3D printing, among other breakthroughs. He’s now working in health care, seeking ways to repair X-ray machines more quickly and efficiently. Even as a child, he was a math and science whiz. But when his fourth-grade teacher insisted he repeat the class to improve his reading skills, young Marshall Jones protested strongly. Now, he says, it may have been the turning point in his life. The principal engineer at GE Global Research is the holder of 70 patents, a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame (along with Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers, among others), the National Academy of Engineering, and the subject of a new documentary, “Never Give Up.”

A HARROWING ESCAPE: Best-selling author and Detroit newspaper columnist Mitch Albom and nine others visiting an orphanage that Albom opened in Haiti shortly after the earthquakes there in 2010 are grateful to have been rescued this week from Port-au-Prince, where gangs have taken over and shut down its international airport. Albom, his wife and eight others were evacuated by helicopter in the middle of the night to the Dominican Republic, having spent days sheltering in place at Albom’s Have Faith Haiti Orphanage. The evacuation efforts were spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, who coordinated with a fellow Republican member of Congress, Cory Mills of Florida, an Army veteran who, the Detroit Free Press reported, served with the 82nd Airborne Command and who has played a role in getting Americans out of other countries in dangerous situations. “We tried to use the government channels. ... We tried to go through the proper channels,” McClain told the Free Press. “No one was calling us back. We couldn’t get any answers.”

EYES IN THE SKY: Retired New York State Police investigator Chad Tavernia has become something of an angel for stricken dog owners in the North Country. A drone hobbyist for close to a decade, Tavernia invested $15,000 last year in a thermal drone, realizing after the fact that he could use the device to locate dogs lost in the dense wilderness. He’s found seven to date through his business, North Country Drone Search and Recovery, which charges $300 plus expenses for a search. He told North Country Public Radio, “The reward (is) to see how happy a dog owner is to get their dog back … As a retired person, I can spend 11 hours of my time sitting at home, doing not much else, or I can spend that 11 hours traveling for the day, and trying to go find somebody's dog and having fun for several hours flying my drone. To me, it's a win-win situation.” Drones are also being put to good use across the country in searches for lost paddlers and others in rugged or remote backcountry terrain.

THE ROAD TO GLENS FALLS: Glens Falls, N,Y., “Hometown, USA,” has cherished its role as longtime host of the New York State Boys’ High School Basketball Championships. Teams from every tiny New York burgh dream of playing in front of big crowds at the Cool Insuring Arena. Their families warm to the enthusiastic hometown embrace and look forward to the restaurants they’ve come to know around the beautiful, safe, walkable downtown. But the state tournament is leaving Glens Falls for Binghamton for the next three years (a hiatus, we hope.) Feelings are hurt. After all, Glens Falls hosted the tournament for 35 years until 2016, then lost it to Binghamton, then won it back. Glens Falls is not just a gracious host; it’s also been a producer of extraordinary basketball talent like Jimmer Fredette and Joseph (JG3) Girard. How fitting it is then that in this final year (at least for now) of the state tournament, the Glens Falls Black Bears have shown up strong to defend their honor of their hometown, with a 25-0 record and a Number 1 state ranking. In the semifinals Friday, Glens Falls sent a message, with a big, 91-46 victory. The championship game will be played at 5:15 p.m. Saturday at the Cool Insuring Arena.

A reminder of why New York is the Empire State: An illuminated sculpture on the stairs of the New York State Education Building in Albany, with the State Capitol in the background. John Bulmer

ABUSE ALLEGATIONS: A documentary investigating abuse claims at a shuttered Northern New York private school — the most-watched show on Netflix in recent days — has a New York State Assembly member calling for an investigation by the state’s attorney general. Former students at the Academy at Ivy Ridge, in the border town of Ogdensburg, allege in the documentary, “The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping,” that they were subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse. Scott Gray, who represents the community in the Assembly, issued a statement that read, in part, “To ascertain the full extent of the situation, I call upon the attorney general to conduct a comprehensive investigation. All individuals involved have the right to a fair and unbiased examination of the allegations against them. Our focus should be on holding those responsible accountable and ensuring the well-being of all individuals affected by the events at the Academy.” The St. Lawrence County district attorney has opened his own investigation.

BREAK TIME: As adults, we know how hard it can be to do the right thing when it comes to our wellbeing. If that weren’t the case, there would be no market for alcohol, tobacco, processed foods and any number of vices. So it makes perfect sense that children whose minds are not fully developed would say that, while they feel happy and peaceful without their phones, they’re not limiting their phone or social medial use. About 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. The Associated Press reports the survey comes as policymakers and children’s advocates are growing increasingly concerned with teens’ relationships with their phones and social media. Just this week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called on schools in his state to consider limiting or banning cellphone use by students during school hours.

JET FUEL: If you thought the strangest news this week involving Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering him to be his vice presidential running mate, think again. It seems Rodgers, who always considers himself the smartest guy in the room, has vigorously shared his opinion that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 was a hoax perpetrated by the government and that the media are in on it. We know this because, according to CNN, Rodgers approached a CNN reporter at a Kentucky Derby afterparty in 2013 and berated her, sharing many of the same conspiracy theories that resulted in a $1 billion-plus judgement against wacko Alex Jones. Rodgers late in the week posted on X: “As I’m on the record saying in the past, what happened in Sandy Hook was an absolute tragedy. I am not and have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place.” Not exactly a denial. Here’s a question for CNN: Aaron Rodgers was an NFL star and very much a public figure 11 years ago; why are we just hearing about this now?

TRAUMATIC IMPACT: Michael Rucker was headed home from his overnight shift at Ford plant when he rounded a curve and saw headlights barreling toward him and other southbound drivers on the interstate. Several swerved to miss the onrushing car, which ended up smashing head-on into a Jeep, killing both drivers before his eyes. A regular guy thrown into a scene of extraordinary chaos and violence, he spoke with the Oakland Press about his efforts to untangle and rescue the wrong-way driver, what he saw when he ran to the Jeep and how he’s dealing with it all. “I’ve never experienced people dying in a car crash before and being the sole person seeing the victims and trying to help,” he said. “I’ve never had PTSD before, but I was a mess in my head and body over what I had just gone through. I was praying and asking God why was this girl driving so fast down the wrong side of a freeway? Why on earth was she traveling at maybe 90-100 (mph) down the middle of the freeway?” As far as returning to work: “I’m not looking forward to driving down 75 tonight. I think I’m going to drive a different way home for a while until I feel OK inside.”

EVERY BIT HELPS: If you’re like most people, you insert or tap a credit card at a terminal to complete an in-store purchase. Lately, more and more of those transactions have added a step before completing the transaction: a question that asks if the buyer would like to “round up” to the nearest dollar, with the “change” going to a charitable cause the merchant is supporting. Turns out, a lot of us say yes. In 2022 alone, NPR reports, charities raised $749 million nationwide through so-called point-of-sale donations, a 24% jump from 2020. The donations feel easy and inexpensive, give the donor a good feeling and — not to be overlooked — Americans love round numbers.

CRAVER OF IMMUNITY: A 62-year-old German received 217 COVID-19 vaccinations over 2½ years, and in addition to apparently never having contracted the disease, reported no adverse health effects. Researchers who studied his case were quick to say they do not endorse hypervaccination as a strategy to enhance immunity.

KOBE BEEF: Information carved into the base of a new 19-foot statue of the late Kobe Bryant outside the Lakers’ home arena in Los Angeles is riddled with errors, including the names of two of the players who were on the court for his historic 81-point performance against the Toronto Raptors. It’s not the first time mistakes were written in stone.

LGBTQ+ NUMBERS RISING: A Gallup survey of more than 12,000 adult Americans found 7.6% identify as LGBTQ+, more than double the percentage in a 12-year span and up 2% since 2019. Members of successive generations are about twice as likely as the previous generation to report that they identify as LGBTQ+, and more than one in five Gen Z adults — age 18 to 23 during the data collection period — identify as LGBTQ+, NPR reported.

QUITE THE SACRIFICE: We’d like to think most people don’t mean it literally when they say they would give an appendage to see their sports team win. Regardless, that’s what happened to several frost-bitten fans who had attended the Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game in sub-zero temperatures in Kansas City. A Missouri hospital reported 12 people had undergone amputations, mostly of fingers and toes, in the wake of the brutal cold snap, including some who attended the playoff game.

PAUL ALEXANDER contracted polio as a 6-year-old, a few years before Dr. Salk’s breakthrough vaccine, and it quickly overtook him. An emergency tracheotomy saved his life, and he was placed, paralyzed, in an iron lung, a long metal tube that uses negative pressure and bellows to draw air into the lungs. That he survived for 70 years is remarkable enough; a world record, in fact. But it’s what he did with his life that made the Dallas native a worldwide marvel, graduating from law school, working for years as an attorney, and painting and writing a book by holding a rod in his mouth. He learned a breathing technique that allowed him to live hours at a time outside his iron lung. “I'm crippled in most people's minds, except mine,” he once told an interviewer, adding later, “I'm Paul Alexander, human being.” He was 78.

ERIC CARMEN started what became a decades-long career in music as a college student in Ohio, his home state, recording four albums with The Raspberries, whose “Go All the Way” reached No. 5 on the 1972 solo charts. He had not just three top five hits on the Billboard Hot 100, but three hits that continue to resonate with audiences long after their splashy beginnings — “All by Myself,” which reached No. 2 in 1976; “Hungry Eyes,” part of the smash “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack in 1988, and “Make Me Lose Control,” which peaked at No. 3, also in 1988. Carmen also co-wrote “Almost Paradise… Love Theme from Footloose,” which earned him his lone Grammy nomination. He was 74.

WALLACE W. ALLDERDICE JR. was self-made and humble, the kind of guy who kept at things until he figured them out, quietly built a life and thought it only natural to support his community.  Allerdice worked a state job as a young man, but he was happiest when he was working with his hands. The Allerdice string of hardware stores started with a handshake deal in 1982 to buy a failing lumber yard on the west side of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he launched Allerdice Building Supply Inc. Two more hardware stores followed, as well as a commercial door division and a glass and mirror shop. He said his staff made it all possible because of their genuine love, loyalty, and hard work.  Despite a busy work schedule, Wally was civic-minded. He sat on the City Planning Board for more 20 years and served as a trustee on many local boards including the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation, Brookside Museum (now Saratoga County History Center at Brookside), The Bolster Collection, The Walworth Collection, Greenridge Cemetery, Universal Preservation Hall and most recently the Saratoga Automobile Museum. Wally and his wife of nearly 55  years, Sue, were also known for being generous and gracious at their favorite local restaurants where they were frequent visitors. The best way to honor Wally’s memory is to live by his example: don’t be afraid to get dirty. Jump in to help whenever you can, and be  true to your word. Wally Allerdice was 81.

MALACHY McCOURT was 20 when he left Ireland in 1952 on a ticket paid for by his older brother Frank, a public school teacher in New York. Malachi found work washing dishes, working on the docks, and selling Bibles before becoming a professional Irishman with a career as an actor in soap operas, films and commercials, a memoirist and successful barkeep. He made a living writing and telling outrageous stories of barroom antics. Frank went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for “Angela’s Ashes.” Malachy ran for governor of New York for the Green Party (where else?) and once said: “The great psychobabble today is the dysfunctional family. Well, I’ve never met one that was functional. In Limerick, a family that was dysfunctional was one who could afford to drink but didn’t.” He was 92.

“May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you, and all your heart might desire. … May joy and peace surround you, contentment latch your door. And happiness be with you now and bless you evermore.”
— An Irish blessing for St. Patrick’s Day

HIGH TIMES: New Orleans’ police chief told the city council that conditions at police headquarters had become so poor that rats were chewing their way through confiscated marijuana stored in drafty evidence rooms, becoming stoned in the process. A pest control expert told The Associated Press that, as omnivores, it’s no surprise rats would have a taste for weed, and that biological similarities with humans make it reasonable to expect the psychological effects would be similar as well.

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Principal Author: Bill Callen.

Sincere thanks to our contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Leigh Hornbeck, Mike Cybulski, Kristy Miller, Tara Hutchins, Claire P. Tuttle, John Bulmer, 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