Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

June 14, 2025

A new book by photographer John Bulmer explores darkness and our relationship to it. John Bulmer

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and all who serve lovingly as dads.

Regular readers of Facing Out are familiar with the photography of our friend John Bulmer, who works all hours to capture vivid and imaginative imagery around New York’s Capital Region.

He particularly loves the night sky and its hidden mysteries, which led him to an exploration of darkness in his newly published Restoration Obscura’s Field Guide to the Night, written, in his words, to “explore what we’ve lost in our relationship with darkness and what we still have the chance to understand and protect.”

“As a photographer, I’ve spent decades documenting the night sky and watching it change. Even within the last 20 years, the stars have faded dramatically,” he adds. “Today, more than 80 percent of Americans live under light-polluted skies, and a child born in a major city may never see the Milky Way.”

As Bulmer describes it, Restoration Obscura’s Field Guide to the Night traces how darkness has shaped our history. It is both a personal record and a historical investigation, divided into four thematic sections. Darkness and Defense explores wartime blackouts, surveillance, and our efforts to control the night. Sky and Spectacle looks at how celestial events like comets, auroras, and eclipses have shaped beliefs across cultures, including Indigenous sky traditions and cosmologies. Silence and Survival covers how people have used the night for movement, work, and safety. Light, Lost and Found examines how artificial illumination is affecting us, from disrupted sleep and mental health concerns to disoriented wildlife, collapsing insect populations, and broken migratory patterns.

Restoration Obscura’s Field Guide to the Night is a companion to Bulmer’s Substack publication Restoration Obscura and his podcast The Restoration Obscura Field Guide. Together, they explore the hidden histories, overlooked places, and quiet truths shaped by darkness.

Congratulations, John. And to all a good, dark night.

NO HONOR: Henry Johnson of Albany, N.Y., was a genuine war hero — recipient of the Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor, and the first American to receive France’s highest award for valor. President Theodore Roosevelt called him one of the “five bravest Americans” to serve in World War I. Johnson enlisted in the New York National Guard’s segregated regiment in 1917 but served under French command because of the policies then in place in the U.S. military. In the early morning of May 15, 1918, the 130-pound soldier singlehandedly held off a large German raiding party in hand-to-hand combat, killing multiple German soldiers. Despite suffering 21 wounds, he kept fighting to help rescue a fellow soldier from capture. After the war, he came home to a hero’s welcome in Albany. In a revealing story about Johnson’s life, the Times Union wrote: “The governor and mayor met his train, where he was swept away to a big reception at the state armory. President Woodrow Wilson sent regards. Newspapers wrote that he drew crowds wherever he went. A bullet-torn flag carried by his regiment was unfurled in the state Capitol’s executive chamber.” This week came news that Johnson’s name will be stripped from the U.S. Army fort that was named for him, part of the Trump administration’s decision to revert to names that honor military leaders of the Confederate States of America who waged war against the United States.

RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT: New York Gov. Hochul has nominated a research scientist, physics professor, and former chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to serve on the 11-member Adirondack Park Agency board of commissioners. On its face, few could argue with bringing that kind of experience to the APA. But Rush Holt Jr., a former New Jersey congressman, would fill a seat reserved by law for individuals who reside full time in the Adirondacks. Holt owns a camp in Clinton County. The law gives the governor three APA seats for non-park residents, and she could have chosen Holt for one of these. This at a time when the population in New York’s North Country is in decline. The region is dotted with prisons whose presence for years kept official local populations higher than they otherwise would have been because the Census counts incarcerated people as residents of wherever the detention facility is located. But since the state repealed its draconian drug laws in 2011, prison populations have declined significantly, making it appear as if there’s been an exodus of residents and feeding a narrative of a region in decline.

Ticonderoga, N.Y., last week unveiled six new murals in its downtown at an event called Walls Between Waters, an effort to spruce up blighted properties. Nancie Battaglia

DISHING ON DAIRY: Mike McMahon is a fifth-generation dairy farmer in Central New York who, at 73, is nearing the end of his farming days, which gives him a bit more freedom than most to speak candidly about just how reliant his business, and his industry, is on illegal immigration. The guy who bought out McMahon didn’t dispute that — nor, for that matter, did President Trump, who acknowledged “our farmers are being hurt badly.” “The system has been broken. It is broken,” Joel Reihlman told Syracuse.com. “It’s gotten pretty disgusting. Unfortunately, it’s the world we live in.” McMahon said there is no work visa available for foreign workers who milk New York’s 630,000 cows, birth their calves, take their temperatures and administer their shots — difficult, dirty work most Americans do not want to do. So instead dairy owners build their workforce however they can, and that sometimes means knowing that their workers were caught up in human trafficking. “It’s crazy,” he said. Another upstate dairy farmer who’s also a member of a local town board is facing an ethics investigation for selling two acres of his land, even though the state paid him $762,968 to conserve the land for agriculture in perpetuity.

CRACKDOWN CONSEQUENCES: Across America — and particularly in Southern states with large Hispanic populations — consumer goods companies, food and beverage makers, restaurants and retailers are reporting noticeably lower sales as many Latinos pull back from day-to-day activities, fearful of being swept up in immigration enforcement regardless of legal status, The Wall Street Journal reports. Coca-Cola’s sales volume in North America fell 3% in the first quarter of the year, partly because of the pullback by Hispanic shoppers, company executives said. Colgate-Palmolive, Modelo brewer Constellation Brands and restaurant chains including Wingstop and El Pollo Loco over the past few months have told investors that a decrease in Hispanic spending is hurting their sales. Constellation’s beer sales to retailers slid 1% in the latest quarter, the first time they have fallen since the company in 2013 acquired U.S. rights to the Modelo, Corona and Pacifico brands.

GAME CHANGER: It’s hard to think of a song other than “Happy Birthday” that has been sung by more Americans than “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” But that short, simple little ditty, written in 1908, has a legacy far beyond the 7^th inning stretch. Since 1975, a nonprofit founded with the song’s royalties has supported young musicians, many of whom went on to become thriving professional artists. The ASCAP Foundation, the charitable arm for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, was established with a bequest from the estate of the song’s composer, Jack Norworth, to provide money, lessons and mentorship. And though “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is now in the public domain and no longer generating royalites, the foundation is still going strong with donations, philanthropic support and sponsorships. Tax filings show the foundation gave away more than $325,000 in grants for scholarships, fellowships and cash awards in 2023.

NO. NO, IT DOES NOT: Credit to The Associated Press for understanding human nature. Reporting on the work of researchers who specialize in sleep health, and who say it’s really not great to have pets share a bed with us, the AP ran a headline that asked, parenthetically, does it even matter what the experts say? Let’s just say dogs aren’t treated with quite the same affection in Iran, where prosecutors are citing public health risks and threats to public safety in announcing the heightened enforcement of nationwide bans on both dog walking and driving with dogs. Iran’s government has also long seen pet dogs as a sign of Western cultural influence, The New York Times reports.

WHAT A RIDE: More than half a century has passed since the invitation that would change Jane Dotchin’s life. A friend in Bristol, England, more than 300 miles south of Dotchin’s home in Hexham, invited her to visit. She accepted as long as she could bring her stallion, which she rode all the way there. “After that I got the bug,” she told The Wall Street Journal. Ever since, she has taken an annual trip on horseback from her home in Northern England to the Scottish Highlands and back, a round trip of more than 600 miles. Now 84, she has battled storms, reckless drivers and unforgiving terrain, subsisting on minimal food and the companionship of a dog she carries in her saddle bag, but this year’s trip may be her last. Some want her to keep going, but she needs two new knees and others worry she’s pushing herself beyond her physical limits. “She can hardly walk. I don’t know how she keeps doing it,” said one Scottish woman who has hosted Dotchin on her journey for nearly a decade. “I would never say she should give up. Absolutely no way. Never.”

CAREER KILLER: As a longtime correspondent and co-anchor of “Nightline,” Terry Moran was among the most recognizable names at ABC News, where he reported on the Supreme Court and national politics and just last month landed a contentious interview with President Trump. He’s out of a job now, days after tweeting of Trump advisor Stephen Miller, “his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”

LIFE AND DEATH DECISIONS: New York State this week became the 12th state (plus the District of Columbia) to pass a bill granting people who meet certain criteria the right to choose medically assisted death. The legislation was sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who hasn’t said whether she will sign it. “It isn’t about ending a person’s life, but shortening their death,” State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Manhattan Democrat and one of the sponsors of the bill, told The New York Times.

CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE:  A retired couple that has achieved minor celebrity status for their quest to eat at all 681 Texas Roadhouse restaurants is scheduled to dine this weekend at their 510^th, in the suburbs of Albany, N.Y.

CRUISE NEWS: Guessing actor Tom Cruise didn’t expect to find himself owning a Guinness World Record, but that’s what can happen when you complete 16 jumps out of a helicopter with your parachute on fire, as he did in the latest installment of the Mission: Impossible series.

LOOKING SHARP: A Minneapolis couple has turned the demise of an iconic neighborhood oak into a buzzy piece of public art, commissioning the creation of a 20-foot replica of a No. 2 pencil that draws hundreds to an annual sharpening.

PRIME DELIVERY: A portion of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was closed to traffic last week so work crews, including a crane operator, could raise a massive piece of furniture to Jeff Bezos’ living space at the top of 212 Fifth Ave.

THANKS FOR THE FUN FUN FUN: The man who sent the world a little California sunshine has died. Brian Douglas Wilson, co-founder of The Beach Boys, would have turned 83 on June 20. Wilson was a once-in-a-generation producer, composer, songwriter, vocalist and musician who, though he wasn’t a surfer and didn’t like the beach, helped define the sound of an endless summer. Deaf in his right ear, Wilson seemed to hear music from another world. His meticulous production yielded Pet Sounds (1966), an album that initially flopped in the U.S. but became one of the most influential records of all time. Paul McCartney called it “unbeatable.” Pet Sounds marked a shift from surf-pop themes to a deeper and orchestrally complex sound. Despite creating light-filled harmonies, Wilson struggled with mental health, but he never lost the gentleness and childlike wonder that defined his music. “For me, it means I have a reason to live. Knowing that, I can get someone out of a hole — here’s some music for you,” Wilson said. His music lives on and there is more on the horizon. Keep an ear out for Cows in the Pasture, a country and western album produced by Wilson, slated for release soon.

SLY STONE was a boundary-breaking musician who used the power of music to bring people and genres together. Sly and the Family Stone featured both black and white members in an era of deep racial division and fused funk, rock and soul like never before. Funky guitar riffs cut through tension with the kind of power found only in the universal language of music. Their legendary Woodstock performance of “I Want to Take You Higher” remains a goosebump-inducing cultural moment. Hits like “Everyday People” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” echoed the social themes of the day with lyrical and musical complexity but were accessible to all. Though the Family Stone disbanded in the 1970s and Sly struggled with drug addiction and erratic behavior, his revolutionary sound influenced generations of artists across genres. He largely remained reclusive in his later years, though his family recently revealed he had completed a screenplay about his life story. He died at 82 after a prolonged battle with COPD and underlying health issues.

“You plod along and you find the humor and you say thank you for the trees, thank you for life. Life is a miracle."
— 102-year-old Beatrice Stieber, whose simple life advice has turned her into a social media sensation

ARTIFICIAL INDEED: Builder.ai, a tech startup once valued at $1.5 billion and publicly backed by Microsoft, filed for bankruptcy after it was discovered that the company’s “AI” service was really a team of 700 employees masquerading as chatbots.

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

Principal Authors: Bill Callen and Amanda Metzger.

Contributors: Mark Behan, Ryan Moore, Kristy Miller, Jim Murphy, Lisa Fenwick, John Bulmer and Nancie Battaglia.

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