Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

March 22, 2025

The sprouting of crocuses, early harbingers of spring, bring a splash of color and a surge of delight after a long, hard winter. Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

American astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who left Earth in June on what was supposed to be an eight-day space mission, returned home this week after nine months in the International Space Station, splashing down off the Gulf coast of Florida along with fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

The two will spend about six weeks reacclimating to Earth’s gravity, including daily two-hour workouts with personal trainers. One astronaut who has spent more than 565 hours in space told NPR while he was readjusting, he forgot he could no longer float and rolled off his bed. That and the ordeal Williams and Wilmore endured are reminders that space flight is not all glamour and glory, and that the men and women who do it take a lot of risks and accept a great deal of hardship for our benefit.

SECRETS REVEALED: Thousands of previously classified documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were made public after President Trump ordered their release, and while it’s unclear how much new information can be gleaned, what is clear is that the documents contained personal information, including Social Security numbers, for several living people, including one of Trump’s former campaign lawyers. The lawyer, Joseph diGenova, told The Associated Press he plans to sue the National Archives and Records Administration for violating privacy laws.

LASTING CHANGE: Five years after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic upended the world as we knew it, NPR reflected on five of the many ways daily life has changed, from routine use of video conferencing — you forget how exotic and unusual those were before 2020 — to what one school counselor termed “a lack of resilience, a lack of grit” that distinguishes post-pandemic students from their predecessors. We also learned about inequities in health care; on the bright side, all those pandemic puppies helped a lot of people make new friends.

The last of the season’s ice gives an otherworldly dimension to sunset on the Tomhannock Reservoir in Pittstown N.Y. John Bulmer

TAKE ME TO CHURCH: For years, religious leaders have worried about the secularization of Europe, the decline in the social and political influence of religion, particularly Christianity, most clearly seen in the smaller numbers who regularly attend religious services and profess religious affiliations. In France, where Catholicism once was the state religion, the number of adherents has long been in retreat. But something’s changing. Young people are coming back to church in large numbers. French parishes in big cities and rural areas reported an unprecedented surge in attendance for Ash Wednesday Masses. A cathedral in Fréjus in southern France was filled beyond capacity for the first time ever on an Ash Wednesday, while midday Masses near Paris drew overflowing crowds. It mirrors a trend that’s also being observed in the U.S.

GIVE ME LIBERTY: A French politician is demanding the United States return the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France in 1886, because “apparently you despise her.” The White House said no, pointing out that France should be “very grateful” for the U.S. previously giving France liberty during World War II. Reminds us of the time in the 1980s when France denied the U.S. the right to use its air space on the way to bomb Libya, prompting Johnny Carson to observe that the French didn’t seem to mind the violation of their air space when Americans liberated Paris.

REVERE’S FINEST: Paul Revere is best known for his 1775 ride to warn the Massachusetts Colonists that the British were coming. But he was also a fine silversmith whose many pieces include an exquisite coffee pot made from 40 ounces of silver, a foot tall with a pine cone-style finial on the lid, a curved spout with a seashell motif, and, near the top, the maker’s mark: “Revere.” Now as the country marks the 250th anniversary of his ride and the start of the Revolutionary War, this rare silver pot has gone up for sale. Price: $1.2 million.

BASEBALL DREAMS: Dodgers star Mookie Betts teed up a softball: What do you want to be when you grow up? The elementary school kids had a ready answer: They want to play in the major leagues, just like he does. No surprise, really, except Betts posed his question in a classroom Tokyo. Until recently, the MLB had always played second-fiddle in Japan to Nippon Professional Baseball. But the surge of interest in the American game is the hard-earned result of three decades of ramped-up efforts by MLB to grow an audience in the Pacific Rim and the stateside stardom of players like Shohei Ohtani and, before him, Ichiro Suzuki. When the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs played at the Tokyo Dome this week, MLB said it would be “the most successful international event we’ve ever had.” And for a while, people could stop laughing about the sport’s infamous hat snafu.

COURTING VICTORY: The Glens Falls, N.Y., Black Bears high school basketball team hasn’t lost in 52 outings. They are the No. 1-ranked squad among Class A high school basketball teams in New York State.  Last year, coming off a season of 27 wins, the Bears won a New York State basketball championship. This weekend, having piled up 25 more wins, they are headed again into the final rounds of the New York State Boys’ Basketball Tournament. You can watch the games Saturday here.

WATCH IT: The village of Lincoln Heights, Ohio, near Cincinnati, is proud of its heritage as the first African American self-governing community north of the Mason-Dixon Line. It’s also where, last month, about a dozen neo-Nazis, many armed, gathered on a highway overpass, waving flags with swastikas and a sign that read, “America is for the White Man.” They took off after police and members of the community arrived, but residents of Lincoln Heights aren’t taking any chances: They have formed an armed neighborhood watch group to protect their community. Asked by a reporter whether he was concerned about the potential for escalation, a spokesman for the group said, “I’ll answer that by saying I’ve never felt safer as a Black man in my community than I have right now.”

TIMES THAT BIND: There’s been more than a little hand-wringing in recent years over a general sense of lost social connections, with one 2021 survey reporting a five-fold jump over 30 years in the percentage of men who reported having no close friendships. If you’re among the many people yearning for a greater sense of belonging and friendship, you might want to consider getting outdoors as a part of a group activity, even if you’ve never met any of the other participants. “When we go outside with someone, whether that means joining a meetup or organizing a trip with friends, we’re committing to spending time together in bulk,” Blair Braverman, a longtime advice columnist, writes for Outside. “A two-night camping trip with a buddy means logging as many waking hours together as two years’ worth of monthly coffee dates.”

THE INHUMAN TOUCH: Hundreds of hospitals are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to monitor patients’ vital signs, flag emergency situations and trigger step-by-step action plans for care — jobs that were all previously handled by nurses and other health professionals, The Associated Press reports. Hospitals say AI is helping their nurses work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing. But nursing unions argue that the technology is overriding nurses’ expertise and degrading the quality of care patients receive.

MORE ADK LOVE: A couple weeks ago, we shared National Geographic’s ode to the Adirondacks as the birthplace of the American vacation. The magazine apparently can’t get enough of the place, inviting readers to explore the 34-mile Adirondack Rail Trail, “providing access to breathtaking trails, numerous campsites, and waterways.”

LOST AND FOUND: A 61-year-old Peruvian fisherman was rescued after more than three months lost at sea, where he survived by drinking rainwater and eating insects, birds and a turtle.

JUST, MS. TINA: Gilligan’s Island is the rare TV franchise that has retained a goofy charm and appeal for more than 60 years — just this week, Sundance TV aired a 48-hour marathon — but its only surviving cast (castaway?) member would rather discuss just about anything else.

TREASURE IS TRASHED: A paleontologist is suing his employer, William Paterson University in New Jersey, after it allegedly cause his collection of 380-million-year-old fossils to be thrown away because it failed to pay UPS shipping invoices. The 200 items in the collection, accumulated over 18 years, represented his life’s work.

MONEY TO BURN: A delivery driver in California won $50 million in a lawsuit this week against Starbucks after a hot tea drink spilled in his lap at a drive-through, causing burns that required skin grafts and other medical procedures and left him suffering, according to his attorneys, permanent and life-changing disfigurement.

DON’T KNOCK (KNOCK) ’EM: Dad Jokes are, let’s just say, not the dry upper-crust witticisms you may associate with Brits. But British researchers have found the jokes are actually good for kids, helping to build children's resilience and teaching them withstand minor attacks and bouts of negative emotion.

NO BULL: Mexico City lawmakers this week voted 61-1 to prohibit bullfighting that results in death or injury to bulls, sparking celebration from animal rights advocates but angry protests from bullfighting aficionados and matadors.

NITA LOWEY represented a suburban New York City congressional district for 32 years, becoming the first woman to chair the powerful, budget-setting House Appropriations Committee, on which she served for most of her congressional tenure. A native of the Bronx, she got her start in politics by leading a PTA in Queens before going to work for Mario Cuomo when he was secretary of state. She challenged and defeated two-term Republican incumbent Joseph DioGuardi for the congressional seat in 1988. She retired in 2021. While in Congress, she was known for her willingness to work with Republican colleagues to pass legislation while also pushing for federal funding for AIDS research, economic aid to developing nations, education and women’s health. “A public servant in the truest sense, she was guided by the Jewish core value of ‘Tikkun Olam,’ repairing the world,” her family said in a statement announcing her death. “She was an indefatigable fighter and worked across the aisle to deliver results for her constituents and all Americans.” She was 87.

“The Canadians are not as nice as we thought. They've even taken our whiskey off of their shelves, but to ease the loss to the Kentucky distilleries, don't you worry — Sen. (Mitch) McConnell slipped a line into the recent CR that allows bourbon to be part of the school lunch program.”
— U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, the House GOP conference chair, at last week’s annual Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington. 

HIGH CRIMES: A 4-year-old boy in Wisconsin called 911 to demand that police “come and get my mommy” and “put her in jail” for the offense of eating his ice cream. Just to be safe, the police checked it out. “When Officers arrived, he said his mom ate his ice cream and needed to go to jail for it. He told them he no longer wanted her to go to jail and just wanted some ice cream.” They surprised him the next day with ice cream.

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Principal Author: Bill Callen.

Contributors: Mark Behan, Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Kristy Miller, Jim Murphy, Amanda Metzger, Claire P. Tuttle, 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