Facing Out: The Week’s Most Interesting News

September 21, 2024

Photo of an athlete participating at the Special OlympicsThe Special Olympics State Fall Games will kick off with its signature Special Olympics New York Opening Ceremonies in City Park on October 18. Competition will take place all day Saturday, October 19, in seven sports. (Special Olympics)

Photo of Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins with Special Olympians.Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins, with Special Olympians, devoted his career to working with people with disabilities, including 18 years at Special Olympics before becoming mayor.

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Sometimes communities and events just click. Think Vegas and bachelor parties. Nashville and bachelorette weekends.

And that’s the way it is with Glens Falls, N.Y., Hometown USA, and New York Special Olympics.

In the week when the Glens Falls-Queensbury area is celebrating another of its most cherished rites of fall – the Adirondack Balloon Festival – word came that New York Special Olympics will be returning to Glens Falls in October. Special Olympics President and Executive Director Stacey Hengsterman called Glens Falls a “Hallmark movie of a town.”

Special Olympics serves 45,000 people across New York State year-round. Hundreds of these athletes and their families and friends will compete October 18 and 19 in bocce, cycling, golf, cross-country, soccer, softball and equestrian activities. The Fall Games in Glens Falls and last summer’s Games in Ithaca are qualifying rounds for athletes hoping to compete at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in Minneapolis. Special Olympics is seeking people to help with the Games. There’s no pay unless you count the heartwarming feeling from helping a young person succeed — the feeling that keeps volunteers coming back year after year.

The competitions are held at venues throughout the northern Capital Region, but Glens Falls is the heart of it all. No surprise really: Before he became mayor of Glens Falls, Bill Collins devoted his career to working with people with disabilities, including 18 years at Special Olympics.

HELP WANTED: A few years back, a local pastor who liked using humor to warm up his congregants (if you’ve watched Joel Osteen, you know the model) told the story of three young boys bragging about how fast their dads were. The first could hit the light switch and be in bed before the room was dark. The second could catch his own 80-yard pass. “That’s nothing,” the third said, “my dad can leave his state job at 4:30 and be home by 3:15.” Jobs with the state were once coveted, people willingly exchanging income potential for generous other perks, including a healthy pension, predictable schedules and paid time off. But an aging workforce and the effects of covid have combined to leave the state with about 10,000 job openings, officials said this week, a gap they are working to close with the opening of new resource centers across New York and the cutting of red tape to speed the hiring process to fill critical shortages.

SILVER BAY BLUEGRASS: Last week there was no quiet to be found in typically blissful Silver Bay on Lake George. An international collection of bluegrass talent was in town, and the 115-year-old Silver Bay Auditorium on the YMCA’s 700-acre waterfront campus was clogging, bucking, flatfooting, and swinging. Grammy-nominated, all-female string band Della Mae was there, as was four-time International Bluegrass Music Association female vocalist of the year Brooke Aldridge and Country Gongbang, a South Korean bluegrass band. It was Silver Bay’s second Bluegrass in Heaven festival. A third is in the works. Keep your eye on Silver Bay’s website.

REBOUND IN BUFFALO: Like many old industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest, Buffalo, N.Y., which lies at the intersection of those two mighty regions, has limped along as  factories closed and populations eroded, struggling to maintain services as blight spread, draining vitality like a busted pipe. It may be time to rethink that image. A recent study that examined the fortunes of Rust Belt cities ranked Buffalo second to Madison, Wisc., for “most promising,” citing Buffalo’s region-leading growth in home value and population and reductions in poverty and joblessness, among other factors. “You’re so used to being on the negative side that it makes you feel good,” Michael Schmand, executive director of Buffalo Place, the nonprofit organization that runs the downtown business improvement district, told the Buffalo News. “I’m very happy to see this as a Buffalonian and someone who works to try to make the city better. It makes you feel good. It gives you an extra bounce in your step when you walk down Main Street.”

HISTORIC VALUE: An original signed, official ratification copy of the U.S. Constitution, discovered two years ago in a dusty filing cabinet in North Carolina, is expected to command tens of millions of dollars when it is auctioned Sept. 28 in Asheville. A copy of the Constitution sold in 2021 for $43.2 million, a record for a historic document. In 1983, a copy of the Declaration of Independence was found at the same North Carolina location as the 2022 discovery of the Constitution. The property was home of the state’s governor after the Revolutionary War. Williams College in Massachusetts paid $412,500 to acquire the document.

ADOPTION OUTRAGE: Journalists from The Associated Press and Frontline, the long-form documentary news specialists at PBS, reported the shocking details of a longtime scheme to kidnap South Korean infants and place them for adoption abroad. Grieving parents were told their babies had died. Documents were fabricated. “The agencies and governments each played a part in keeping the baby pipeline pumping,” The AP wrote. “Adoption agencies created a competitive market for children and paid hospitals to supply them, documents show. The South Korean government not only knew of fraudulent practices but designed laws to speed up the exportation of children it deemed undesirable. Western governments turned a blind eye, sometimes even pressuring South Korea for children, while promoting the narrative that they were saving orphans with no other options.” Expect the fallout from this mess to be intense.

MORE JOBS. MORE OPPORTUNITIES. MORCON: Morcon Tissue isn’t just growing its economic impact in Washington County, N.Y., it’s changing lives. The family-owned supplier of commercial tissue, napkin and towel products is partnering with New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID) and Community, Work & Independence, Inc. (CWI) of Queensbury, N.Y., to provide job opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Morcon, NYSID and CWI recently hosted a reception for government and community leaders to celebrate their new partnership. Speaking poignantly and — as he proudly pointed out — without a script, CWI client Alexei Studenka told the crowd how the Morcon opportunity has helped him become more self-reliant and bring home his own paycheck. Alexei’s remarks also reflected the entrepreneurial spirit that flows deep within Morcon Owner, President & CEO Joe Raccuia and his family as they’ve grown their enterprise from a $20 million business 11 years ago to $100 million today.

Photo of members of Morcon Tissue, New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID), and Community, Work & Independence, Inc. (CWI).Celebrating the new partnership between Morcon Tissue, New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID), and Community, Work & Independence, Inc. (CWI) are (from left): Morcon VP of Revenue Management Phil Hart; CWI Division Director Sally Hawley; NYS Assemblyman Scott Bendett; CWI/Morcon employee Alexei Studenka; Morcon Owner, President & CEO Joe Raccuia; NYSID President & CEO Maureen O’Brien; and NYS Senator Jake Ashby. (Morcon Tissue)

MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE: The federal government gives the New York City Department of Education a $300,000 grant to provide enrichment activities and incentives meant to keep students experiencing homelessness engaged academically. But according to the New York Post, six department employees used the program to take their own kids to Disney World and other out-of-town excursions. Whistleblowers allege educators used the names of homeless students to fabricate permission slips and forged signatures in official reports. “Few of the homeless students listed on the paperwork actually attended the trips,” a whistleblower told the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI) for city schools. The SCI has reportedly failed to refer the cases for criminal prosecution.

A STUDY IN LEADERSHIP: If you want to get better at steering decision-making that is more collaborative and probing and less personality-driven, you have a pretty good example to emulate, leadership expert Susan Lucia Annunzio says: Juror No. 8 in the classic film “12 Angry Men.” Henry Fonda’s character (spoiler alert) is the lone holdout on a jury whose other 11 members are ready to convict a young man of murder, and soon start acting like they wouldn’t mind making Juror No. 8 the next homicide. But rather than argue, he asks questions and points out flaws in logic. She showed the movie to a quarrelsome corporate board whose members were fond of talking over each other and taking potshots. “After watching the movie,” she writes in The Wall Street Journal, “the board members became more willing to explore possibilities instead of insisting they were right and anyone who disagreed was wrong.” Of course, it helps if you’re well-rested, too.

RULING THEIR ROOST: They’ve been poisoned, harassed and battled with brass spikes. Nothing works. The pigeons have been roosting in the courtyard of the State Capitol in Albany for more than a century, stubbornly defying every attempt to drive them away while layering the limestone with their waste. The state recently completed a $9 million renovation, but whether the public ever gets to enjoy it remains, literally, up in the air. “The pigeons have become more emboldened over time,” Gothamist reports. “About six months ago, the Office of General Services put up signs prohibiting people from opening most courtyard windows — because the birds had started letting themselves inside.”

THE EYES HAVE IT: There’s a reason that impossibly cute, how could you not love me look is called puppy dog eyes. It’s an evolutionary trick that makes eating that loaf of bread instantly forgiven. It turns out both dogs and people derive measurable benefits from looking into each other’s eyes, with dogs becoming more attentive and, new research suggests, even in sync with the person’s thinking. People can help develop the relationship, experts suggest, with a simple daily game that is designed to see how the dog responds to a task it cannot achieve without help.

01_Nuggets.jpgA CLUB OF ONE: Shohei Ohtani, the transcendent star of the Los Angeles Dodgers, became the first player in major league history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season, and he did it with possibly the greatest single-game statistical performance in baseball history — six hits in six plate appearances, with three home runs, 10 runs driven in and two stolen bases in a 20-4 victory over the Miami Marlins.

HONORING AN ICON: A tribute celebrating the life and work of civil rights leader Dr. Alice Green, who died in August at 84, will be held beginning at 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29, at the Palace Theatre in Albany, N.Y. The event is free and open to the public. The tribute is organized by the Center for Law and Justice, which Green founded in 1985, and the New York State Writers Institute.  

COLD CASE CRACKED: The discovery of a dead newborn in a city park in Albany, N.Y., shocked and moved the Capital Region in 1997. This week, authorities, after piecing together DNA evidence, arrested a 52-year-old believed to be his mother and charged her with murder.

PARTY’S ALMOST OVER: The Queen kept her corn flakes in Tupperware, so ubiquitous were its products. But that was then and this is now: The company that revolutionized food storage after World War II and for decades had a virtual corner on the market has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reporting more than $1.2 billion in total debts and $679.5 million in total assets.

GET LOST: By the conservative calculations of a CEO whose company recovers and resells millions of lost balls across the U.S. and Canada each year, American golfers have lost an estimated 1.5 billion balls a year since 2020, many of which end up at the bottom of ponds or in the woods. We’re guessing relatively few of those were struck by Scott Berliner, an assistant pro at Glens Falls Country Club who just recorded his 37th major tournament victory in regional PGA play.

TAKEN TO THE GRAVE: The longtime county clerk in Ontario County, N.Y., embezzled more than $450,000 over a decade, according to a report by the county. He died a week after the board of supervisors issued a vote of no confidence and the day an internal audit was scheduled to begin.

SUMMER 2024: It was a good one. We’ll miss her when she departs us Sunday morning at 8:43. No need to rush the exit, though we must say, the transition will be made a little easier by the return of Saturday Night Live for its 50th season.

02_Lives.jpgTOM BIRDSEY loved working with his hands and took his passion from his Indiana birthplace to Troy, N.Y., to study architecture at RPI. When he graduated, he began designing beautiful homes and his skills went beyond drawing to include carpentry, electrical and masonry work. At Albany’s EYP architecture firm, he led the rehabilitation of historic Union Station. The project won national acclaim. As CEO, he led EYP’s growth from $20 million in revenue to more than $100 million, with 13 offices around the country and clients in higher education, government, health care, science and technology. EYP made its local home in the six-story ZEN building on the SUNY Polytechnic Institute campus, a building it designed. And yet he still got a kick out of brush-hogging trails on his John Deere. He was 74.

JD SOUTHER was part of a group of musicians around Los Angeles who pioneered the peaceful, easy, country-inflected rock sound in the 1960s. They played at the same venues and lived and partied in the same canyons in the Hollywood Hills. He was instrumental in the formation of the Eagles, encouraging Linda Ronstadt, his girlfriend at the time, to hire his friend Glenn Frey as part of her backup band. Souther was “almost the fifth Eagle: He joined the quartet for an afternoon tryout at the Troubadour, but he decided that the band was already perfect, and that he’d rather write for them,” The New York Times wrote. He went on to write for and play with James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, too. He was 78.

03_Almost Final Words.jpg“Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing and job creation. Some of that is thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city over the past three years to fill jobs. They are there legally. They are there to work. It is disappointing to me that Springfield has become the epicenter of vitriol over America’s immigration policy.”
— Republican Gov. Mike DeWine (Ohio), a Trump-Vance supporter, in a column published yesterday responding to their false campaign narrative about Springfield, Ohio.

“These jobs are difficult in good times, but when you’re facing absolutely no-win situations constantly, in this era of hyperbole about failing to do X, Y, and Z … none of us signed up for that. Just like I didn’t sign up to have a police detail with me everywhere I go.”
— Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway, citing a toxic campus environment in resigning from a job that paid him more than $1 million a year.

04_signoff.jpgSPECIAL DELIVERY: Pizza Hut this week announced a contest in New York City in which winners can have their resumes printed on a pizza box and delivered to the entrants’ desired employers. They’re calling them“ResZAme” boxes.

05_Bottom.jpgCREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE: Last week’s Facing Out included a beautiful Adirondack Balloon Festival photo that we should have credited to the Warren County Tourism Department. Check out their website, www.visitlakegeorge.com, the only official guide to the Lake George region.

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

Authors and Contributors: Bill Callen, Mark Behan, Ryan Moore, Kristy Miller, John Brodt and Claire P. Tuttle.

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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