Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

May 25, 2024

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” Elmer Davis. (John Bulmer)

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

This weekend, we honor the sacrifice of men and women who gave their lives in military service to America, heroes and patriots all.  And we remember, too, the families at home, who have made their own sacrifices more quietly and less visibly, waiting for the return of Mom, Dad or children, worrying all the while and making do.  A wounded soldier who returned home to heal only to be called back to fight again is the subject of Robert Frost’s poem “Not to Keep.”

They sent him back to her. The letter came
Saying... and she could have him. And before
She could be sure there was no hidden ill
Under the formal writing, he was in her sight—
Living. — They gave him back to her alive—
How else? They are not known to send the dead—
And not disfigured visibly. His face?—
His hands? She had to look—to ask,
“What was it, dear?” And she had given all
And still she had all—they had—they the lucky!
Wasn’t she glad now? Everything seemed won,
And all the rest for them permissible ease.
She had to ask, "What was it, dear?"

 “Enough,
Yet not enough. A bullet through and through,
High in the breast. Nothing but what good care
And medicine and rest—and you a week,
Can cure me of to go again.” The same
Grim giving to do over for them both.
She dared no more than ask him with her eyes
How was it with him for a second trial.
And with his eyes he asked her not to ask.
They had given him back to her, but not to keep. 

Thank you to all who serve and served, to all who love them, to all who were lost, and to all who still wait at home.

PFAS IN LAKE GEORGE? A pesticide that New York State is proposing to use in Lake George may contain PFAS, according to the Minnesota state agricultural agency. The Lake George Association has asked Gov. Hochul to stop the plan until a full scientific inquiry can be completed. PFAS are a class of man-made chemicals that do not break down in the environment for thousands of years, so they are called “forever chemicals” and are believed to be potential health threats. New York State has already banned PFAS in food packaging, firefighting foam, and apparel.

HEAVENS! At 11:46 p.m. on Saturday in Portugal, a fireball streaked across the sky, turning  night to day with blazing shades of white, green and arctic blue. Rocky asteroids cause sky-high streaks as they self-destruct in Earth’s atmosphere, but the projectile plunging toward Earth at around 100,000 miles per hour had a strange trajectory, not matching the sort normally taken by space rocks. It was not an asteroid but a fragment of a comet — an icy object that may have formed at the dawn of the solar system — that lost its battle with our planet’s atmosphere 37 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.

EVERYBODY MUST GET… For the first time, the number of Americans who use marijuana just about every day has surpassed the number who drink that often, a shift some 40 years in the making as recreational pot use became more mainstream and is now legal in nearly half of U.S. states. In 2022, an estimated 17.7 million people reported using marijuana daily or near-daily compared to 14.7 million daily or near-daily drinkers, according to a new Carnegie Mellon study. Meanwhile, a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that after Canada legalized marijuana, the number of emergency room visits for cannabis poisoning rose sharply among people ages 65 and older.

SOBERING PICTURE OF NEW YORK: One in five kids in New York State lives in poverty, and almost half of those living in poverty live in deep poverty. Tragically, New York State’s child poverty rate is one of the worst in America.  Generally, an individual or household is considered to be in poverty when they lack the financial resources to meet basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter, or access to a minimum standard of living. Deep poverty usually indicates a household income 50% below the federal poverty line. For children in poverty, the numbers are highest in The Bronx, but nearly half of all children in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo also were living in poverty in 2022.  Meanwhile, the money and opportunity that might be used to address some of the state’s social problems continues to move out of New York. New Census data shows 80 percent of the state’s towns and cities have lost residents since 2020.

FEARLESS ADVOCATE: Kate Breslin has been a leading champion of public policies to reduce child poverty in New York State. This week, she was named to City and State’s list of New York’s Non-Profit Trailblazers. The daughter of Albany’s Sen. Neil Breslin leads the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, an organization devoted to increasing government accountability and advancing public policy to help communities experiencing systemic inequalities and poverty. Kate Breslin’s work helped lead to New York state’s statutory commitment to cutting child poverty in half.

THE PRICE OF DISSENT:  Columbia University, like many others, has spent months under siege, bombarded by public demands from protesters, faculty members, alumni, members of Congress and religious groups since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Now the price is becoming clearer: The Russell Berrie Foundation, which has given Columbia $86 million over the years, advised the university recently that future giving would require “evidence that you and leaders across the university are taking appropriate steps to create a tolerant and secure environment for Jewish members of the Columbia community.” The Foundation has suspended its giving.

WEST ON THE ASCENT: West Mountain in Queensbury is moving ahead with an ambitious plan to transform the 60-year-old family ski center into a year-round resort, with the Woods at West Mountain, a $170-million project that would include an alpine village with homes, condos, performance space, conference center, spa, athletic club, coffee shops, grocery stores, retailers, a new lodge, and a new high-speed ski lift. The goal is to draw downstate skiers who customarily go to Vermont for the East Coast skiing experience. The owners of West Mountain, Spencer and Sara Montgomery, have teamed up with Peter Luizzi Jr., president and CEO of Luizzi Cos., developers of the Starbuck Island development in Green Island across the Hudson River from Troy.

Photo by Leigh Hornbeck.

SELLING SARATOGA: Home prices are high everywhere, but in the Saratoga Springs, N.Y., area, the sticker shock is especially shocking. Consider this modest brick home: it’s 1,640 square feet, has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and sits on less than a half an acre. The list price? $1.4 million. The home is located on North Broadway, among the most desirable addresses in a desirable city. Real estate in the Spa City is interesting to talk about, and that’s just what Emmy-winning journalist Noël McLaren and Realtor Helen Mastrion are doing on their new podcast, Selling Saratoga. The first episode drops next week.

THE STORIES OF HER LIFE:  She’s won an O’Henry. And an Irish Times International Fiction Prize. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. And chosen to deliver Oxford University’s Esmond Harmsworth Lecture in American Arts and Letters. She’s been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and for the Story Prize. And she’s been on the short list for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Now, Glens Falls native Lorrie Moore has received one of the most prestigious literary prizes in America, the National Book Critics Circle Award for her novel “I am Homeless if This is Not My Home.” Another former Glens Falls writer, journalist David Nathan, reminisces with her about her hometown.

The Empire Mill, "The Bag Works," at Rock City Falls was purchased by George West in 1862. It was the first of many mills owned by West, who became the largest manufacturer of paper bags in the world. The mills also provided more work for the local people than Ballston has ever known. Today, the stone office building still remains under the Cottrell ownership. (The Saratoga County History Center)

 THE BAGS OF BALLSTON: Saratoga Springs gets most of the attention these days, but at one time another Saratoga County community had prosperity in the bag. Ballston Spa is the home of an entrepreneur whose mills manufactured more paper bags than any other in the world. Meet the Paper Bag King.

1787: The Constitutional Convention opened in Philadelphia, where 55 state delegates, initially charged with amending the Articles of Confederation, later drafted the Constitution of the United States.

1961: In a speech before Congress, U.S. President John F. Kennedy committed the United States to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade; the goal was achieved with Apollo 11 in 1969. 

1969: Midnight Cowboy was released in theatres, and the drama, which starred Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, went on to become the only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for best picture.

1977: George Lucas's space opera film Star Wars (later known as Star Wars: Episode IV—New Hope) was released, launching one of the most successful and influential franchises in motion picture history.

2020: George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, setting off massive protests around the country and generating greater support for the Black Lives Matter movement; police officer Derek Chauvin was later convicted of his murder.

NEW ELECTIONS: Conservative British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Parliament would be dissolved May 30 and a general election held on July 4. Rampant unrest about the economy and the quality of health care are said to be among the reasons.  Meanwhile, King Charles’ neighbors are up in arms because he plans to charge them a fee to stroll around Windsor Castle for the first time in 200 years.

WHAT AI READS: At the heart of the old mayonnaise factory in San Francisco where Open AI has its modern headquarters, there is a decidedly non high-tech monument: A library filled with all the books that should be read, the ultimate acknowledgement from whence artificial intelligence originated: human creativity.

HIMS, HERS AND HIPS: Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical startup Hims & Hers Health announced it is now selling injectable GLP-1 weight loss drugs for about 85 percent less than the cost of brand-name competitors such as Wegovy and Ozempic. Hims & Hers is well known for the drugs it sells for ED, hair loss and birth control.

SIPPING FOR A CAUSE: The Troy Rehabilitation & Improvement Program, better known as TRIP, has a decades-long history of putting people in safe, stable homes and giving them hope. TRIP manages more than 310 apartments and works to find affordable homes for first-time, low-income buyers. In 2023, they celebrated 42 closings. Their popular annual event “Take a Sip for TRIP” is set for June 6^th at Ryan’s Wake.

LOOK CLOSELY: The appeal of a short-term rental is clear: a whole space to yourself, often at a lower price for a large group and better location than a hotel room in your destination of choice. Just don’t get fooled by cleverly manipulated or staged photographs. In her column about mistakes to avoid when booking an Airbnb, seasoned traveler Natalie B. Compton shares her experiences.

FRAN SCHRONTZ came up from Boise, where his dad ran the Schwinn bicycle shop. He studied law at the University of Idaho, spent two years in the Army, and went to Harvard to get an MBA. He joined Boeing in 1958. He saw the benefit of bringing together design teams with diverse talents and when computer-assisted design came along, he jumped on it. The first major result was the Boeing 777. Designed from the ground up, it went from conception to production in just five years, astonishing the industry. And it cost just $4 billion to develop, a figure dwarfed by the hundreds of billions the company has earned from it. “Mr. Shrontz was known as a calm hand at the company tiller, with an everymanager’s feeling for the rank and file,” The New York Times said. “He walked the floors at the factories around Boeing’s headquarters in Seattle, and he regularly met with groups of employees to hear their views and gather ideas.” He was 92.

“Albany is not a place. Albany is a feeling. It’s friends, it’s family, it’s colleagues, it’s camaraderie. Albany is all of us.”
—  NYS Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, in a must-see rebuttal video that brought the house down at the 122^nd Annual Legislative Correspondents Association Show.

THE OCEAN CALLED…  As hungry observers had feared, Red Lobster began its anticipated bankruptcy process this past week. The mega-chain’s filings detailed the many factors that led to its financial troubles. One was management’s decision to turn the popular “Ultimate Endless Shrimp” promotion into a permanent $20 menu item. While a winner for customers with something to prove, taking to TikTok to show the world how many shrimp they could scarf down in one sitting, the idea was a loser for the company, causing an $11 million loss in just one quarter.

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Principal Author: Mark Behan.

Sincere thanks to our contributors: Ryan Moore, Leigh Hornbeck, Troy Burns, John Brodt, Kristy Miller, Tara Hutchins, Claire P. Tuttle, Pete Lanahan 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