Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

March 9, 2024

Robert Nemer was honored with the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce’s highest award for community service, the J. Walter Juckett award. (Photo: Franny Nemer)

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Robert Nemer was teaching elementary school in Philadelphia in 1970 when Upstate New York called. His father needed help running his Volkswagen dealership in Albany. Robert came home and, over the last 50 years, he and his brother Peter established and grew the Nemer Motor group to include four dealership locations.

Robert also found time to become immersed in a wide range of efforts to improve the community, with a special focus on children. He started the Kids with Packs Program, in partnership with The Post-Star newspaper and the Tri-County United Way, that provides 500 backpacks fully stocked with school supplies to local children each new school year. He started a scholarship through Kelly’s Angels to help a Lake George student in need attend SUNY Adirondack. Robert and his wife Franny are major supporters of The Hyde Collection’s youth education efforts.

He is a leader of the Adirondack Civic Center Coalition, Inc., the group that successfully assumed management responsibility for the Glens Falls Civic Center/Cool Insuring Arena from the City of Glens Falls. He serves on the boards of Hudson Headwaters Health Network and the SUNY Adirondack Foundation and contributes financial support to Glens Falls Hospital, Saratoga Hospital, St. Peter's Hospital, and Hudson Headwaters. He is a founding member of LG30, a select group of donors committed to the Lake George Association’s mission of protecting and safeguarding Lake George, and serves on the LGA’s Council of Business Advisors. On Friday night, a large group of friends from the community gathered to watch as he was honored with the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce’s highest award for community service, the J. Walter Juckett award.

STUDENTS OR EMPLOYEES? In “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire, members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team became the first college athletic team in the nation to form a union. The vote followed a decision by the National Labor Relations Board that the Dartmouth players were employees and thus entitled to unionize. The college stressed that the athletes are first and foremost students and that athletics are part of the educational experience. “Classifying these students as employees simply because they play basketball is as unprecedented as it is inaccurate,” Dartmouth said. The basketball players are not the first unionists at Dartmouth: Student workers, graduate student workers and library workers have also voted to join a union, and the dormitories’ resident advisers are in the process of forming a union. 

PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS: Presidential primaries have occasionally delivered unexpected setbacks to incumbents that were harbingers of bigger trouble ahead. Estes Kefauver’s victory in the 1952 New Hampshire Democratic primary prompted President Truman to abandon his re-election bid. A close win over Eugene McCarthy in New Hampshire pushed LBJ out of the race. Jimmy Carter was weakened by Ted Kennedy, and George H.W. Bush dealt with Pat Buchanan. It’s safe to say all those names will be remembered long after Jason Palmer, a venture capitalist who defeated President Biden in the Democratic primary in American Samoa, 51 votes to 40. Palmer is a native of New York’s Capital Region, having graduated in 1990 from Averill Park High School, where he was a star athlete and class valedictorian.

IF WE ONLY KNEW THE TRUTH: Is it possible that one of Hollywood’s most beloved melodies was not the original work of the composer and lyricist who were credited but the creation of a Nazi sympathizer? New questions are being raised about whether Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s  “Over the Rainbow” was really Signe Lund’s “Opus 38” written in the United States and copyrighted in Chicago 30 years before the “Wizard of Oz” debuted on screen. To all Wizard of Oz fans: Now we know we have a heart because it’s breaking.

BUSINESS VOTES: Business leaders in Upstate New York love the natural resources, the tourist attractions, and the quality of life, but they are decidedly unhappy with state government. A new Siena Research Institute poll shows 81% of business leaders think state government is a detriment. Two-thirds also say business conditions have worsened. They expect declines in revenue and profit. Three-quarters report they are having trouble recruiting employees.

EDITOR’S NOTE: There was a strange incident in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in January that drew attention and concern, including from the news media — a cat had disappeared, evidently removed from a neighborhood and dropped off, intentionally, at a closed animal shelter. Kane hasn’t been seen since. There was immediate sympathy for the cat and his owner. There were vigils, signs and T-shirts and a court case that was settled this week when a restaurant owner pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge. Here’s the surprising catch:  While covering the story from beginning to end, the Albany Times Union never identified  the guilty party. The paper said it doesn’t typically identify perpetrators of misdemeanors. Well, that was catnip for the chattering class:  If a “crime” is big enough to warrant news coverage, why not identify the participants? There’s speculation that the story got covered because animal abuse incidents typically unleash a wave of “rage clicks” on click-oriented media web sites. Other local media handled the matter differently, letting the cat out of the bag. 

SUBWAY WAR ZONE: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to send 750 National Guard troops and 250 state troopers to New York’s subway system drew political fire from every angle this week. On the left, the decision was decried as a “ham-fisted and authoritarian response” that “validates GOP propaganda about urban lawlessness in an election year.” On the right, it was derided as counter-productive militarization of subway security that scares New Yorkers and drives tourists away. Particularly notable was the response from the New York City Police Department: “Our transit system is not a ‘war’ zone!” wrote John Chell, the Chief of Patrol. He said state leaders should instead repeal or overhaul criminal justice laws that make it harder to require that bail be set for repeat offenders. “It terrifies me that these men have these automatic gun machines,” one rider told Gothamist. “No, I don't feel safe. No one does.”

Sunrises like this one over the Helderberg escarpment in Albany County, N.Y., will arrive an hour later starting Sunday, when daylight saving time returns. John Bulmer

SHOUT OUT FROM SPACE: Shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday, NASA's Crew 8 mission left Earth's atmosphere en route to the International Space Station, where its crew will take over for Crew-7 during a six-month stay on the ISS. Syracuse native and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps gave a shout-out to her hometown moments after liftoff. “I also want to give a nod to Syracuse who supported me through everything, and I am in a New York State of Mind right now. It is amazing. Thank you for everything.” Epps graduated from Thomas J. Corcoran High School in Syracuse in 1988 before earning a bachelor’s degree from Le Moyne College and a master’s and doctorate from the University of Maryland. Epps worked for Ford Motor Co., then joined the CIA for seven years working as a Technical Intelligence Officer before becoming an astronaut.

YELLOWSTONE FEVER: If you’re among the millions who enjoy the rugged world of the fictional Daltons of “Yellowstone,” you no doubt are aware of the consumer goods the show has spun off, from T-shirts to Western wear, calendars to keychains. The Eater’s Amy McCarthy found a website, eatyellowstone.com, that sells a variety of “Yellowstone”-branded foods, as well as a branded skillet, spatula and oven mitt with which to handle them all, and dishes to serve them on. “It costs a lot of money to run a cattle ranch, and requires even more hard work, which is why most people don’t get into ranching,” she writes. “But opening a can of chili that makes you feel a little bit like a cowboy while wearing your Yellowstone-branded cowboy hat and Yellowstone Wranglers? Nothing could be easier.”

PHENOMENAL PHILANTHROPY: David Gottesman was a close-enough-to-vacation-together friend and confidant of Warren Buffett and a significant shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway. When he died in 2022 at 96, he left his shares to his wife Ruth and told her to do whatever she thought was right. And she did: She donated $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she once taught, to cover the tuition of every student in perpetuity. The college is located in the unhealthiest county in New York, the Bronx. Instantly, Ruth Gottesman became one of America’s greatest philanthropists and a particularly reluctant public figure.

DEVELOPMENT DILEMMA: New York is infamous for erecting hurdles to new private-sector developments, and now it appears the state itself is the party facing the hurdle. State and local leaders want to refurbish the historic Frontier Town tourist attraction in the Adirondacks and turn it into a campground and day use area, but the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which wants to put a conservation easement on the property, can’t because of a bankruptcy and foreclosure with roots in the 1800s. The attorney general’s office requires a clean title and will not purchase title insurance. The Town of North Hudson, where the project is located, hired a private investigator who found 19 heirs to the original property owner, any of whom could seek compensation in return for releasing their claims, meaning the development is on hold indefinitely.

SERIOUSLY, DON’T LOOK: Every time a solar eclipse comes around, you hear the same advice — do not look directly at the sun. And every time a solar eclipse comes around, people ignore (or forget) the warnings and look. A reporter who accidentally glanced at the sun during a 2017 eclipse writes about her experience with solar retinopathy, and how fortunate she is to have recovered. It’s nothing you want to mess with.

FIGHT GAME: Mike Tyson, once among the most feared heavyweight boxers of all-time, and Jake Paul, a former social media “influencer,” will fight each other in July in Texas, a bout to be streamed live on Netflix. Paul started boxing a few years ago and is 9-1 in his career. Tyson, who at 57 is 30 years older than Paul, last boxed in an exhibition against fellow former champion Roy Jones Jr. in 2020.

ONE WORD SAYS A LOT: You have to credit the enterprise. The Buffalo Bills this week released a bunch of players, and Ryan Talbot of Syracuse.com took note that Bills cornerback Rasul Douglas posted a one-word response — “Sheesh” — on X. Using only that post and no other original reporting, he generated a 202-word article with a byline. Well played.

HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENT: Cole Brauer, a 29-year-old from Long Island, this week became the first woman ever to complete a solo sailing journey around the world. Competing in the Global Solo Challenge, she and 18 other sailors left northwestern Spain in October, documenting the 26,000-mile trip aboard the 40-foot “First Light” for her 459,000 Instagram followers.

MIGHTY DANCERS: The annual South High Marathon Dance, which we told you about last week, was a smashing success once again. Students at South Glens Falls High School raised a remarkable $746,887.25 during the 28-hour marathon. The money will go to local individuals and families in need and to local charitable organizations.

CHRIS MORTENSEN was synonymous with the NFL, his scoops, delivered with a mild drawl, a staple of ESPN’s coverage of the league for decades. A former newspaper reporter, he was nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes and had a reputation as both a sharp and trusted journalist and a kind and generous friend. Peyton Manning called him “a true legend,” revealing that he had picked Mort, as everyone called him, to break major news in his career. Several team owners issued statements of condolence, as did NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who said Mortensen “will be greatly missed by many of us in the league who were fortunate to know him well beyond the stories he broke each Sunday.” Mortensen, who had throat cancer, was 72.

JOHN C. “DOC” BAHNSEN JR. was a legend in the U.S. armed forces, a winner of five Silver Stars, four Legions of Merit, four Bronze Stars (three for valor), three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Purple Hearts and 51 Air Medals, earned over two tours in Vietnam. He led an air cavalry troop that saw heavy combat, coordinating air and ground forces while firing his rifle and dropping grenades from the window of his own helicopter. He was blunt and unapologetic about what he was in Vietnam to do — “The enemy of my country is my enemy, and our mission was to kill them,” General Bahnsen said in a 2013 interview with the American Veterans Center. He developed armor and air tactics that the Army would adopt as doctrine. He died of congestive heart failure at 89.

STEVE LAWRENCE, born Sidney Leibowitz, began singing in synagogue choirs before graduating to bars before graduating from high school. He was a son of Brooklyn, and when he met his future wife Eydie Gorme, a daughter of the Bronx, an American musical couple was born. Even as rock and roll blared, they took America on musical strolls down memory lane, reviving pop classics like “Our Love is Here to Stay” and “One More for My Baby.” They played Carnegie Hall, the Copacabana in New York, the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, the Eden Roc in Miami Beach and the Sands and Sahara hotels in Vegas. He was 88. 

“Do your job. Ukrainian soldiers are throwing stones at Russian tanks because we haven't sent ammunition and we still don't have a budget. Instead, they continue to play politics with COVID and weaponize people's pain and loss of loved ones. Congress is officially a circus and they are nothing but clowns.”
— Rich Azzopardi, spokesman for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after Cuomo was subpoenaed to testify before a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee on the state’s handling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CRISIS AVERTED: The word had come down through official channels — displays of the iconic “V-J Day in Times Square” photo would no longer be permitted in Veterans Affairs facilities because, as the poor flunky who authored the memo put it, the photo “depicts a non-consensual act” and was inconsistent with the department’s sexual harassment policy. VA Secretary Denis McDonough immediately rescinded the directive.

Some of the linked material in Facing Out requires a subscription to read.

Principal Author: Bill Callen.

Sincere thanks to our contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Troy Burns, Kristy Miller, Leigh Hornbeck, Tara Hutchins, Claire P. Tuttle, John Bulmer, and Franny Nemer.

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