Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

March 29, 2025

The deep snows of winter continue their slow but steady retreat in the Adirondacks, revealing ever more signs of the warmth to come. Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Of all the frightening news of the world this week, this development unsettled us most:  Door Dash announced it has teamed up with a finance company to offer loans to hungry but cash-short customers who want to eat now, pay later. What could go wrong?

HELLO AGAIN: U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who conducted a farewell tour of her North Country district in February in anticipation of becoming U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will instead continue to serve in Congress after President Trump pulled her nomination, unwilling to risk a reliable vote for his agenda with such a thin majority in the House. New York Democrats were seeking to delay the special election to replace Stefanik until Trump’s unpopularity reached a level that a Democrat might actually win the overwhelmingly red district. New York Republicans were engaged in infighting over which of several potential candidates to field. Stefanik was the first selection Trump announced for his new cabinet. As recently as Wednesday she had posted a photo with the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Agriculture, referring to them as her “cabinet colleagues." But on Thursday evening she told Fox News, “I have been proud to be a team player. The president knows that. And he and I have had multiple conversations today, and we are committed to delivering results on behalf of the American people.”

WORKING FOR A LIVING: Have hobbies become the exclusive haven of the idle rich and retired, the people whose work and family obligations are behind them or can be delegated to others? Nearly a century ago, the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted 15-hour work weeks by 2030. Technology and automation would make that possible, he believed. The reality is people are working longer and harder than ever, putting in hours equal to their ancestors. Most workers report they have about four hours of leisure time daily, and most of it is spent watching television or online. Moreover, work is more important to many because “it has been supercharged with meaning and purpose and identity, a charge that it never had, at least for the majority of people,” according to Benjamin Hunnicutt, a professor of leisure studies at the University of Iowa. So, what does that mean for gardening, community choirs and golf?

CANCEL THE SPA APPOINTMENT: And maybe work is not so bad, after all. It gives our lives purpose, direction, and meaning and answers a human urge to evolve, to be better and stronger. “Humans were made to go on quests, and amid them more stress often leads to more satisfaction, at least until you get to the highest levels,” New York Times columnist David Brooks writes. He says life is “about slowly molding yourself into the strong person you want to be. It’s to expand yourself through challenge, steel yourself through discipline and grow in understanding, capacity and grace. The greatest achievement is the person you become via the ardor of the journey.”

TIME TO RE-TIRE YOUR CAR? There’s one of these folks in every work place: The witty wonder who keeps track of everybody else’s verbal flops. Mike O’Brien was that guy at Ford for 32 years. When he announced his retirement, he released for the first time his list of a few thousand malapropisms (and their authors) who kept his sales team howling over the years. “I don’t want to sound like a broken drum here,” somebody said in 2016. “Let’s not reinvent the ocean,” a co-worker said in 2019. And when one particular problem loomed large, a Ford exec declared with confidence: “It’s a huge task, but we’re trying to get our arms and legs around it.”  

ONE FINAL GIFT: Brendan Costello used to wear a blue Metropolitan Transportation Authority cap or a black T-shirt with the orange D train symbol. Odd choice, considering. If you mentioned it, he’d explain he wore the MTA stuff just to show there were no hard feelings from that night in 1996 when the D train struck him on the tracks and forever ended his ability to walk. Gallows humor kept the pain at bay. Despite his injury, Brendan drove a car, went skydiving, co-hosted a radio show, taught creative writing at the City College of New York, published pieces in Harper’s, The Village Voice and elsewhere, became president of the Irish American Writers and Artists organization, belonged to the St. Pat’s for All group that arranges an annual everybody-welcome parade in Queens, and talked about storytelling with elementary school students. Above all, he relished beating those overly smart Columbia University kids at trivia nights at the Dive 106 Bar on the Upper West Side. When death finally came calling, there was one more surprise.

You needn’t venture far from the state capital to enjoy the scenery of Cohoes Falls, the second-largest waterfall in New York State. We’re guessing you know which is first. John Bulmer

FAMILIAR PLACES: Much like in its first season, Hudson Valley fans of the popular Apple TV+ series Severance are seeing the place they call home have a starring role of its own. The Minnewaska State Park Preserve in Ulster County was the backdrop of an episode centered on a wintry wilderness work retreat, with scenic spots such as Sam’s Point, Peterskill and Awosting Falls all making appearances. The show has also filmed at the Mohonk Preserve, also in Ulster County, as well as in Kingston and outside the Hudson Valley in Utica. The show is directed by New York native Ben Stiller, and one of its stars, John Turturro, is a graduate of SUNY New Paltz.

CONFRONTING ABUSE: The NCAA, in an effort to curb spikes in abuse directed at athletes since sports gambling became legal in most of the U.S., has launched a campaign it is calling “Draw the Line,” featuring a video targeting degenerates with the title Don’t be a Loser. A 2024 study found that more than 5,000 verified social media posts contained “abusive, discriminatory or threatening content” toward student-athletes, and a third of student-athletes have reported experiencing betting-related harassment. The vast majority of the harassment, not surprisingly, is done online.

STARVING FOOD BANKS: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has halted $500 million in deliveries to food banks nationwide, multiple food banks told CNN. The funds had been approved last year to come from the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation, which at times provides additional resources to purchase food from American farmers and ranchers and send it to emergency food providers. The USDA recently announced it is ending two Covid-19 era programs that provided money for food banks and schools to purchase food from local and regional farmers and ranchers, halting some $1 billion in funding. In the Washington, D.C., metro area alone, $1.3 million in food deliveries have been canceled, according to the CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank, which served 64 million meals through more than 400 partner agencies last year. 

POPULATION EROSION: New data from the U.S. Census bureau points to the continuation of an alarming trend in New York’s North Country, an already sparsely populated region that is losing residents at an even more accelerated rate than the state as a whole. The North County’s population shrank by 2.1% between 2020 and 2024, or 9,000 people, a combination of people moving away and a more deaths than births in the region. The number of state residents declined by 1.7% over four years, though the population ticked up again by 0.7% in the past year.

BRIDGE BUILDER: When Warren Roebling, chief engineer for the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, became disabled, his wife Emily Warren Roebling took over the project and completed what was considered the most ambitious building project of its time. “She did everything from managing construction, managing the workers, facilitating conversations with politicians …,” said Natiba Guy-Clement, director of special collections at the Brooklyn Public Library's Center for Brooklyn History. When the bridge was completed in 1883, Emily was the first to cross by carriage and was honored in a speech by Abram Stevens Hewitt, who said that the bridge was “an everlasting monument to the sacrificing devotion of a woman and of her capacity for that higher education from which she has been too long disbarred.” Roebling later published an influential essay, “A Wife's Disabilities” in the Albany Law Journal, which argued for greater women's rights. She signed the essay with her husband's initials, W.A.R.

HOUSE OF FUN: Dick’s Sporting Goods, which began in Binghamton, N.Y., is taking big box up a notch. It’s creating new stores that average 120,000 to 140,000 square feet that offer rock-climbing walls, golf simulators, and outdoor running tracks among other amenities. Dick's plans to open dozens House of Sport locations over the next 10 years, with the goal of having them comprise more than a quarter of the company's total sneaker print.

BALLS BUSTER: Boston’s got ultimate game, right? Those Beantown hipsters know professional sports. They know marketing. They know how to launch a team. The group of experienced business leaders launching Boston’s new women’s pro soccer team somehow decided to call it BOS Nation and make jokes about testicles. Bostonians called them nuts, Now, they’ve embraced a new name, Boston Legacy FC.

MIND OF A CAT: Scientists at MIT, Harvard and the University of Massachusetts have launched a project called Darwin’s Cats. Their goal is to create the world’s largest data base of cat DNA. Cat owners are being asked to share their pet’s quirky traits so researchers can try to figure out how their behavior is influenced by their genetics. The project follows of Darwin’s Dogs, which has shed light on aspects of canine behavior, disease and the genetic origins of modern breeds.

GEORGE FOREMAN first became a national figure at 19, pounding the Soviet Union's Jonas Cepulis to win the heavyweight boxing gold medal. His reputation as a brutal, intimidating force in the ring was cemented five years later when he dominated then-undefeated Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight title, but in the summer of 1974, Muhammad Ali pierced the veil with a stunning eighth-round knockout in the fight known as the “Rumble in the Jungle,” arguably the most famous boxing match of all time. At 28, he shocked the sports world again, this time by announcing he was retiring to begin a career as an ordained minister in his native Texas. He returned to the ring 10 years later and in 1994, at 45, knocked out Michael Moorer to reclaim the heavyweight championship. That was also the year he launched and became the face of the George Foreman Grill, a simple countertop cooking machine that would sell more than 100 million units. He was 76.

EARLA TAYLOR WOODWORTH was born in China, grew up and went to college in Montreal, and spent her adult life making South Glens Falls, N.Y., a better place for young and old. She helped start a nursery school and taught there for years, worked as a substitute teacher, and served as activities director at a nursing home. She was predeceased by a daughter Sue. She is survived by two sons, journalist Gordon Woodworth and Gregory Woodworth, and her husband of nearly 71 years, Donald. She was 93.

MIA LOVE reminded Americans of what it’s like for immigrants to build a life out of nothing but hope and opportunity. Her parents came from Haiti with $10 in their pockets. “The America I grew up knowing was centered in self-reliance and filled with the possibilities of living the American dream,” she told the Republican National Convention in 2012. At the time she was the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, having moved there from New York and having joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She eventually became the first and so far only Black woman to be elected to Congress as a Republican. She was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2022 and had most recently been receiving treatment as part of a clinical trial. Her family said earlier this month she was no longer responding to the treatment. “I hope you will see the America I know in the years ahead, that you will hear my words in the whisper of the wind of freedom and feel my presence in the flame of the enduring principles of liberty,” she wrote recently. She was 49.

“We made a decision. Alex is going to play third, Raffy's going to DH. We all are in the winning business, and (Devers) understands that.”
— Red Sox manager Alex Cora, explaining that newly acquired Alex Bregman would replace Rafael Devers as the team’s everyday third baseman, a move Devers balked at when the team announced it had signed Bregman.

DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT: A United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to China had to turn around two hours into its journey because the pilot forgot his passport.

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Principal Authors: Mark Behan and Bill Callen.

Contributors: Ryan Moore, Kristy Miller, Jim Murphy, Amanda Metzger, Troy Burns, 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