Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

September 16, 2023

Photo of Leigh Hornbeck on a canoe.Our Leigh Hornbeck completed the Adirondack Canoe Classic for the second time as a solo paddler last weekend, joining 250 boats and 700 paddlers and rowers in a 90-mile journey along the Northern Forest Canoe Trail from Old Forge to Saranac Lake, N.Y.  Leigh finished in 19 hours, 47 minutes and 17 seconds, shaving more than an hour and a half off her 2021 time. Congratulations on your achievement, Leigh! Nancie Battaglia

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Pity the poor New York sports fan.

The Yankees, for whom every year is a World Series or bust, are in a slog to avoid a last-place finish in the loaded American League East Division. The Mets, who are the Mets, are trying to avoid a similar fate in the National League East despite a huge payroll and preseason championship aspirations of their own. The Giants, a playoff team last year, were embarrassed 40-0 on their home field in the season opener by the hated Dallas Cowboys (on the heels of a 38-7 playoff beatdown by another despised rival, the Philadelphia Eagles, no less, making the Giants on the wrong end of a 78-7 score differential in their past two meaningful games). And on the same Met Life Stadium field where the Giants were blown out the night before, the Jets, bless their hearts, watched their $75 million quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, play exactly four snaps before his season, and possibly his career, was ended by a torn Achilles, the Jets’ Super Bowl aspirations gone in a flash.

Thank goodness for the New York Liberty, a WNBA super team that opened the playoffs Friday night and, barring injuries, appear destined for a shot at the league championship.

COCOMOTION: There was another great New York sports moment last weekend: Coco Gauff’s championship performance at the U.S. Open wasn’t just a victory for the 19-year-old, it was a win for tennis. Forbes called it a ratings breakthrough moment for women’s sports because more people watched the women’s final than watched the men’s final, a record-setting win for the great Novak Djokovic. Gauff’s match set an ESPN record for most-watched women’s Grand Slam final. The outspoken Gauff is poised to become a household name, like the legends even the tennis agnostic know by first name: Serena, Steffi and Martina. Gauff, a professional since she was 14, was playing in her fifth U.S. Open and had earned more than $8 million in her career before her championship.

PUGH IS THROUGH: Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh wrapped up his marathon swim of the Hudson River on Wednesday, arriving at the southern tip of Manhattan to a gaggle of reporters, photographer and supporters. Pugh made the swim to raise awareness of water pollution and selected the Hudson as an example of a river that has recovered from its industrial past. He will address the United Nations next week about the importance of cleaning up pollution. Pugh said the support from people on the shore was encouraging. “I’ve done five river swims in my life,” he told reporters. “In three of them I got really sick, in two of them I didn’t get sick. Those two rivers were the Hudson and a river down in Antarctica. That says everything.”

COME ON GET HAPPY: Too often, those who have climbed the ladder of success report they have jettisoned important relationships and other personal fulfillment on the way up, leaving a void that material goods cannot fill. A new book by Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey aims to change that. “Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier” is a guide meant to help leaders be better at running their own lives. The book weaves together the best happiness how-tos from social psychology, behavioral economics and neuroscience research to create what Brooks calls “a textbook for the masses.” The timing is good: In the past decade, the percentage of Americans who say they are “not too happy” rose to 24 percent from 10 percent; “very happy” respondents dropped to 18 percent from 36 percent, the book reports, citing the University of Chicago’s General Social Surveys.

WISH YOU WERE HERE: Every once in a while, a downstate journalist discovers how nice it is in upstate New York. The latest is a story from the New York Times lauding Saratoga Springs. “I want to live here. It has everything we want: a small walkable city with a good social environment, and access to nature. Just an overall phenomenal quality of life,” said Loretta Smith, one of several New York City transplants quoted in the story. The newcomers might find some pushback. One follower of the Facebook group, “What’s Going On Saratoga?” responded: “Sshhhhh we’re full! All of our resources are being stretched to their limit because of our population boom. From police to healthcare — we’re full!” Folks in certain pockets of rural America can relate. As Bloomberg reports, booming growth in rural hotspots — an after-effect of the pandemic — is boosting local economies, but also sparking resentment by straining everything from schools to housing and roads.

SARATOGA REAL ESTATE: Speaking of Saratoga Springs, Palazzo Riggi is now Palazzo Gross. The three-story stone mansion on North Broadway formerly owned by Ron and Michele Riggi was listed for sale after Mr. Riggi’s death in 2022. Finding no buyers at $17.5 million, it was offered at auction last Friday. Joe Gross, who owns Gross Electric in Queensbury, N.Y., was the winning bidder, at $6.7 million ($7.1 million after buyer’s fees). Gross told the Albany Times Union that he hadn’t visited the property until the auction, but that his company installed a generator there about five years ago. “The Riggis just built an amazing home and I saw this as a one-time opportunity to ever be able to afford to be in such a tremendous home,” Gross said.

A crew glides across the surface of the Hudson River during a practice in Troy, N.Y. A crew glides across the surface of the Hudson River during a practice in Troy, N.Y. John Bulmer

WORKER SHORTAGE, UNLIMITED: We returned to normal after COVID-19 and outlasted the Great Recession, but we may not see the end of the worker shortage. Fewer people will be working by the end of the decade — and employers need to brace for a “forever” labor shortage, experts say. Fresh projections by the Bureau of Labor Statistics paint a stark picture, with the labor force participation rate expected to drop from 62.2% in 2022 to 60.4% in 2032. It was 63.3% before the pandemic and had generally been falling from a height of 67.4% in 2000. As Baby Boomers retire, they are not fully replaced by the smaller Gen Z. Slower population growth from fewer births and a drop in immigration over the past several decades have also contributed to the crunch.

LAS MUJERES: Women are at the political forefront in Mexico, which is all but guaranteed to elect its first female president in June 2024. The country's two major political parties have both selected women as their presidential nominees. Former Mexico City mayor and environmental scientist Claudia Sheinbaum was selected as the incumbent party's candidate to face the opposition party's nominee, tech entrepreneur and current Senator Xóchitl Gálvez

A SIGN FROM ABOVE: Scientifically speaking, a rainbow is caused by the refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets, resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky, a collision between light, air and water. Spiritually speaking, it’s much more — a sign of calm after a storm, and a symbol of various interpretations for the religions of the world. So it was in New York City this week on the 22nd anniversary of 9/11. Late in the day, two rainbows formed between One World Trade and the Empire State Building, stopping busy, jaded New Yorkers in their tracks. “Rest In Peace to all the loved ones lost,” wrote one user on X, the former Twitter. “And Love & Light to all those reliving this trauma annually.”

CORPORATESPEAK: We were fascinated to learn this week that “feedback” is on the way out, replaced by the hilariously ridiculous “feedforward.” The Wall Street Journal, great at spotting trends like this, informs us that “companies are also banishing another negatively charged term: ‘review,’ which they are replacing with ‘connect’ sessions, coaching, self-reflection and opportunity discussions.” Feedback, evidently, is “anxiety-inducing.” Watch out, “continuous improvement” — you’re next. Wouldn’t want anyone thinking they’re not already fully optimized as is.

BATTERY SOURCE MATERIAL: Lithium is a critical element for the production of rechargeable batteries, including those used in electric vehicles, and securing sources of it and other key components is viewed as essential to the economic and national security of the United States. A recent discovery in a 16-milion-year-old volcanic crater along the Nevada-Oregon border has raised hopes for domestic supply. Geologists estimate the crater holds up to 40 million tons of lithium, which would make it the largest deposit in the world to date. “If you believe their back-of-the-envelope estimation, this is a very, very significant deposit of lithium,” one geologist told Chemistry World. “It could change the dynamics of lithium globally, in terms of price, security of supply and geopolitics.”

WRONG DIRECTION: An alarming report from the U.S. Census Bureau finds that the childhood poverty rate in the U.S. more than doubled in the year after special pandemic-related benefits expired, and that the poverty rate overall spiked as well. A year after falling to a record low 5.2 percent, NPR reported, childhood poverty bounced to 12.4 percent, the same as the overall rate in the U.S. Many parents reported using the extra benefits for essentials like rent and food. Median household income also fell by 2.3% last year, a time when inflation was surging.

FASHIONABLY FELONIUS: Federal prosecutors in Miami are alleging that the designer behind fancy handbags that were favored by celebrities and sold by high-end retailers made them using the skins of protected species and used couriers to carry hundreds of the handbags without proper permits or declarations through international airports in Miami and New York. Nancy Teresa Gonzalez de Barberi, who operated in Colombia and was arrested there last year on a warrant from the U.S., has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial next month.

Sylvia Callen MildebrathSOME PERSONAL NEWS: The world became a brighter place on Thursday with the birth of Sylvia Callen Mildebrath, daughter of Emily Callen and Nick Mildebrath and granddaughter of our Bill Callen, who was fortunate enough to be with his family in Seattle for the arrival. Mom and baby are healthy. Poppy is floating back to the Capital Region this weekend.

Nuggets.jpgA COUNTRY CLUB in Syracuse, N.Y., saw five golfers record a hole-in-one on Labor Day. Considering the odds of the average duffer scoring a hole-in-one are about 12,500-1, “It’s really next-to-miraculous,” club professional Dan Steinsdoerfer told Syracuse.com.

NASA ASTRONAUT Frank Rubio surpassed the U.S. space endurance record of 355 days on Monday at the International Space Station, The Associated Press reports. He arrived at the outpost last September with two Russians for a routine six months, but their stay was doubled after their Soyuz capsule developed a coolant leak while parked at the space station.

A DOG LOST for three weeks at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport was found healthy and soon reunited with her very relieved owner. Paula Rodriguez, who was separated from the dog when she arrived in the U.S. with the wrong visa and sent back to the Dominican Republic, previously told CNN the ordeal was “living a nightmare.”

LIFE SAVERS: A U.S. citizen trapped deep underground in a Turkish cave and suffering from a stomach ailment was rescued this week in a complex operation that involved more than 150 people. Mark Dickey had been co-leading a team to map a new passage in the cave when he began to suffer from gastrointestinal bleeding. Half a world away, a hiker lost on a remote mountaintop in Alaska’s vast Katmai National Park peered into a camera set up to livestream bear activity and mouthed “help me.” Viewers alerted park authorities, who mobilized a search-and-rescue team that found him three hours later.  

03_Almost Final Words.jpg“It has nothing to do with race. I’m not a Republican. I don’t have one red tie in my closet. I don’t say the Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t have an American flag hanging at my house. But I realized there was money to be made. It’s all about the money.”
— Kevin Adell, owner of a Detroit radio station, explaining his decision to switch the station’s format from Black talk radio to a lineup of nationally syndicated conservative hosts.

signoff.jpgRED RIVER: Two tanks containing more than a half-million gallons of red wine — enough to nearly fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool — ruptured in Portugal this week, sending a river of wine through the streets of a small village. The makers were about to bottle the wine when the tanks burst.

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

Principal Authors: Leigh Hornbeck and Bill Callen.

Sincere thanks to our contributors: Ryan Moore, John Brodt, Troy Burns, Tina Suhocki, 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 conversationmark.behan@behancom.com

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