Facing Out: The Most Interesting News of the Week

April 5, 2025

Pond skimming, a colorful rite of spring at ski areas, will make a splash today at Gore Mountain in North Creek, N.Y. Whiteface, near Lake Placid, will host its annual event next weekend. Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Bats that look like bowling pins in a funhouse mirror were the talk of baseball in the first full week of the 2025 major league season, especially after several New York Yankees (but not Aaron Judge, who looks like he could uproot an oak) used them to bash nine home runs a week ago in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Torpedo bats, named for their shape, are all the rage, though it should be noted that all those home runs aren’t hitting themselves — it still takes extraordinary skill and athleticism to hit a baseball thrown by a big-league pitcher anywhere at all, let alone 400 feet.

A former MIT physicist named Aaron Leanhardt, who became a Yankees analyst and now works for the Miami Marlins, is credited with seeing the possibilities of the torpedo bat, which is slightly fatter toward the hands and more tapered at the top than the bats we’re all accustomed to seeing, though the design has been around for years. And yes, they’re legal.

In a sport where the average salary for the first time exceeds $5 million, you can understand hitters looking for an edge. Your move, pitchers.

GRATEFUL FOR LIFE: Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Pratt was aloft in an Army National Guard helicopter on a mission near the southern border of the U.S. a year ago when the world as he knew it changed in an instant. The helicopter crashed, killing the other three on board, who included Chief Warrant Officer 2 Casey N. Frankoski, his childhood friend in Rensselaer, N.Y.; Chief Warrant Officer 2 John M. Grassia III, a member of the New York State Police; and Chris Luna, a Border Patrol agent. As he continues his recovery in Texas, Pratt, who was severely injured and may never walk again, told the Albany Times Union he’s thankful to be alive and determined to live for his fallen comrades. “If I can’t walk, it is what it is,” Pratt said. “I’m just going to make the best of it. I’ve got to do it for John, Casey and Chris. I need to keep pushing for them. I can’t just give up and say, 'I’m done,' although it would be easy to do that. I need to honor them.”

FILLING GAPS: Warren County, N.Y. is using advanced mapping and development software to help its communities identify and plug gaps in affordable housing stock, a critical need throughout New York and especially within the bounds of the Adirondack Park, where building is notoriously difficult and bound in red tape. An initiative called Thriving Hamlets aims to help hamlets, which generally have fewer restrictions on growth than are imposed by the Adirondack Park Agency, identify space that is suitable for housing. “We’re not trying to promote some top-down vision,” Warren County Planner Ethan Gaddy told the Adirondack Explorer. “The community has to be on board with any changes.”

CLEANING SOLUTIONS: Note to teenagers: If your parents are bugging you about your room, tell them you’re just protecting your health. Researchers examining why astronauts aboard the International Space Station deal with rashes, unusual allergies and a variety of infections think it’s because the space station doesn’t have enough germs, creating a microbial imbalance that is absent on Earth. “Your immune system needs exposure to a wide range of beneficial microbes from places like soil, healthy animals and healthy plants,” Rob Knight, director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation at the University of California, San Diego, told The Wall Street Journal. “Understanding whether there is a way to bottle those healthy microbes or supply them in an ecosystem in space that astronauts can maintain is a very interesting topic of research at the moment.”

SCARY AIR: Reagan National Airport, where a midair collision between a commercial airliner and a military helicopter killed 67 people in January, saw an astonishing 15,214 “near miss events” between 2021 and 2024, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. A month after the fatal crash, another airliner was forced to abort its landing to avoid a potential collision, and testing of an anti-drone system by the U.S. Navy and Secret Service near the airport caused collision warnings in several jets that were landing at the beginning of March. Tensions in the control tower are high, as well, with an air traffic controller arrested for assault and battery this week after a workplace “incident,” according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

SOMETHING TO SAY: The last time anyone in the U.S. Senate talked as long was in 1957 when South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond inveighed against the Civil Rights Act, on his feet for 24 hours, 18 minutes. This week, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey held the floor for more than 25 hours in a remarkable feat of stamina to speak against President Trump’s sweeping executive actions and their impact on the country. “These are not normal times in our nation,” Booker said as he began the speech Monday evening. “And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”

The thick winter coats that protected these horses all winter will soon be gone, their internal clocks triggered by the lengthening days. John Bulmer

THAT BRIGHT GOOD MORNING VOICE: Dan Miner has been hosting a morning radio show in Glens Falls, N.Y., for 35 years. He’s also served as the public address announcer for every professional hockey team that has played at the Glens Falls Civic Center and Cool Insuring Arena. But the legion of fans who depend on Miner to be sunny even when the weather is not never knew how much of a challenge the work was for him. “Nobody knew,” he said, except his wife. Miner successfully hid his depression for 35 years before he tried to end his life. He’s sharing his story to give others hope and encourage them to reach out for the help that may transform their lives.  

A BETTER MOOD: In July 2014, New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli warned darkly that the City of Glens Falls, N.Y. — like many other municipalities in the state — was in financial trouble. “The city’s financial struggles are making it harder to maintain needed services, avoid tax increases and keep the budget in balance,” DiNapoli said. This week, Moody’s announced it was elevating Glens Falls’ credit rating to A1. “The upgrade to A1 reflects sustained improvements to the city’s financial reserves driven by strong fiscal management and improved sales tax income,” Moody’s said. “The upgrade also reflects gradual improvement to the local economy demonstrated by ongoing commercial development and improving median household income.”

TIME TO REST: Yoko Ono, now 92, is spending her final days on a farm she and her late husband John Lennon purchased in the Catskills in 1978. They bought the 600-acre estate for $178,000 but continued to spend most of their time in New York City at The Dakota, the apartment building where Lennon was killed in December 1980. Ono moved to the farm in Delaware County permanently during COVID. Her daughter, Kyoko Ono Cox, told The Mirror her mother “is in a happy place.” Ono rarely ventures out and has no need to, she said. “She believed she could change the world, and she did ... now she is able to be quiet — listen to the wind and watch the sky,” Cox said. “She is very happy.”   

PHOTOBAMA-IN-CHIEF: Former President Barack Obama was taking in the cherry blossoms in Washington this week when he strolled into the background of a family photo, creating a viral sensation and giving the family one very cool shot for their 2025 Christmas cards.

ICONS COLLIDE: An underwater camera set up 55 years ago in hopes of capturing an image of the Loch Ness monster was accidentally uncovered by an unmanned submarine that was given the glorious name Boaty McBoatface as part of a viral online poll in 2016.

FRIEND OR FOE? A major Upstate New York health insurer, Capital District Physicians Health Plan was started in 1977 by physicians who were concerned that the rapid rise in health maintenance organizations would limit patients’ choices and take business away from doctors in private practice. Now, CDPHP finds itself at war with local hospitals and physicians.

EXAMINING PROCEDURES: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which came under fire when it seized and euthanized an internet-famous squirrel and its raccoon companion last fall, said it would be taking steps “to protect New Yorkers and this agency from similar incidents in the future.”

FAREWELL CHAIN GANGS: Chain crews, summoned onto the field to measure whether a ballcarrier had advanced the ball far enough for a first down — creating little bits of drama as players, coaches and viewers alike waited — are a thing of the past in the NFL, which announced this week that it would be using camera-based technology to determine the distance automatically.

FEEDING FRENZY: Fans of Coastal Carolina University football are in for a treat — several of them, in fact. The school confirmed to CNN Sports this week that it would offer free hot dogs, nachos, popcorn and fountain drinks to fans at home games to “elevate their game day experience,” as well as their cholesterol.

RARE TREASURES: A toddler walking with her family in southern Israel picked up a small, rounded stone that turned out to be a 3,800-year-old amulet from the Middle Bronze Age, a period spanning from about 2100 to 1600 B.C.E. The piece originated in ancient Egypt. As cool as that is, it’s hard to top the news that a vast coin collection buried for more than 50 years will be sold at auction, where it is expected to fetch $100 million or more.

A CHAMPION AT LIFE: Danielle Collins is the 22^nd-ranked women’s tennis player in the world, according to the WTA, but she’s No. 1 in the eyes of Crash, an injured dog that she stopped to assist on the way to a match in South Florida and has since adopted. “I’m just grateful I was able to be there and get him the care he needed,” she posted on Instagram.

VAL KILMER was born in 1959 in Los Angeles to a Texas-born father who was an industrialist and real estate developer and a mother who hailed from Sweden. As a boy, Kilmer performed in school plays and appeared in TV commercials. At 16, he was accepted to the Juilliard drama program. The night before he left for New York, his youngest brother had a seizure, fell in the family’s backyard pool and drowned. Kilmer went from his brother’s funeral straight to acting school. He said he never fully recovered from the loss. He first appeared off-Broadway and then on television and in movies. His breakthrough role was as Tom Cruise’s rival naval pilot in the 1986 hit “Top Gun.”  But true star status came when Kilmer portrayed Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic, “The Doors.”  In the film, he performed so convincingly the remaining members of The Doors said they couldn’t distinguish his vocals from Morrison’s. A Christian Scientist who eschewed traditional medical treatment, he died of cancer at 65.

RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN established himself as a star of the small screen in the 1960s, playing Dr. Kildare in a popular hourlong medical series of the same name. Handsome even by Hollywood standards, he released a few musical albums and performed on stage in England before returning to television in a BBC adaptation of “The Portrait of a Lady.” He also had a role alongside Julie Christie and George C. Scott in the film classic “Petulia,” but he was best known for starring roles in a pair of blockbuster TV miniseries when those were at the height of their popularity — “Shogun” and “The Thorn Birds.” He died at 90 of complications of a stroke.

G. THOMAS MOYNIHAN was a gentle and humble judge who served on the bench in the Town of Queensbury, N.Y., and in Warren County for 20 years before being elected to the state Supreme Court. A Glens Falls native, he was appointed to the New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics in 1993. In 1998, he became supervising judge of the Criminal Courts for the Fourth Judicial District. In retirement, he was associated with the FitzGerald, Morris, Baker, Firth law firm and served as chair of the Warren County Board of Ethics. A former Marine, he found immense joy in the several boats his family owned, hunting, fly fishing and skiing in the Adirondacks, hunting birds with his English Pointers, playing golf and in later life painting the beautiful scenes around him. He was 86.

JOE DePUGH grew in Freehold, N.J., a gifted baseball player who earned a tryout with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1973, he was at the Headliner bar in Neptune, N.J., when he ran into a former high school teammate, right fielder Bruce Springsteen. Their chance encounter led to a few drinks, old stories, and lots of talk about high school — all of which formed the basis for Springsteen’s “Glory Days.”  DePugh worked for years as a substitute teacher and eventually as a self-employed contractor. He was 75.

“Sometimes we may be tempted to view love as soft and a source of weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth. The sacrifices and strength that love enables are the foundation on which we build our lives. We are at our best not when we fear but when we love, not when we turn away but when we turn toward one another. This must be our compass as we set out to build community. ... A community grounded in love is a community that will stand.”
— Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General

INSPIRING MINDS: It’s a fair guess that members of the University of Maryland’s graduating class of 2025 will have no trouble in future years summoning the name of their commencement speaker: Kermit the Frog. “Nothing could make these feet happier than to speak at the University of Maryland. I just know the class of 2025 is going to leap into the world and make it a better place, so if a few encouraging words from a frog can help, then I’ll be there!” Kermit said in a statement shared by the university and The Muppets Studio. Kermit and the other Muppets were a creation of the late Jim Henson, a Maryland graduate.

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Principal Author: Bill Callen.

Contributors: Mark Behan, Ryan Moore, Kristy Miller, Jim Murphy, Amanda Metzger, Tara Hutchins, 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