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  • LI Biz Blog has moved … and it’s better

    Number of comments: 1
    The best business blog on Long Island, LI Biz Blog, has a new home as part of the brand new Web site for Long Island Business News. Click here to visit the new address, or click on the image to be redirected as well. And make sure to bookmark the new [...]
    Posted: November 02, 2008, 4:18pm EST
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Text a tip

    Number of comments: 1
    Suffolk County, welcome to the 21st century. For the second time this year, the county Legislature has forayed into the wide world of text messaging, this time using the fine art of thumb-tapping for good. With speedy thumbs come great responsibility. Or something like that. Legis. Wayne Horsley, the first legislator to have [...]
    Posted: October 31, 2008, 3:01pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • I got the horse right here

    Need action but tired of paying off that counterman at the deli who has a small horse book on the side? Want to take a step up after you discover you’ve become just another clown on the rail yelling your head off for the nag to finish in the money? Forget [...]
    Posted: October 31, 2008, 1:36pm EDT
    by Ambrose Clancy
  • Workers to rally for Foley

    The Suffolk Association of Municipal Employees will hold a rally next week to praise Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer Bill Lindsay and Suffolk Comptroller Joe Sawicki for trying to save the John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility from closing. County Executive Steve Levy wants to close or sell the Yaphank nursing [...]
    Posted: October 31, 2008, 10:17am EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Making waves with wages

    Recent audits by Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman’s office have found that seven companies who have home health care workers on Long Island violated the county’s Living Wage law. The audits found a variety of violations by the companies, the most egregious being Louisiana-based Tender Loving Care Health Care owing employees [...]
    Posted: October 30, 2008, 3:27pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Levy takes on the Legislature

    Number of comments: 1
    Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy pulled out his veto stamp this morning in an attempt to put an end to overspending by the Suffolk County Legislature. Levy vetoed a $5,000 appropriation, approved by the Legislature, to the Smithtown Alumni Association, because it is not part of a core function to county government. The [...]
    Posted: October 30, 2008, 2:24pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Help rewrite the map

    Get out your colored pencils and brush up on your longitude and latitude, it’s time to re-draw some Suffolk County maps. The county Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, state Department of Environmental Conservation and Federal Emergency Management Agency are hosting three meetings next month seeking input about updating flood [...]
    Posted: October 30, 2008, 9:50am EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • One lucky local scores VC funding

    Venture capital investments dropped on Long Island in the third quarter, along with the rest of the nation, but investment activity on the Island is still ahead of last year’s pace. Only one local company, Westhampton-based Demdex Inc., which operates an online demographic data exchange, received venture dollars in the quarter, [...]
    Posted: October 29, 2008, 3:45pm EDT
    by Laura Glasser
  • The suburbs are Obama country

    Number of comments: 2
    The latest poll by Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies has revealed that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has taken the lead among suburban residents. Obama and vice presidential nominee Joe Biden now lead the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin 47 percent to 39 percent in the suburbs. Last month, [...]
    Posted: October 29, 2008, 2:25pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Suffolk shaken, not stirred

    Suffolk County successfully did what few New York municipalities were able to do as of late. The county yesterday was able to complete the sale of $85 million in short-term notes and $88 million in long-term bonds. The county received a satisfactory interest rate of 4.95 percent from Prager Sealy & Co. [...]
    Posted: October 29, 2008, 10:07am EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • You’re in good hands

    The Allstate Foundation will be hosting a training session to give domestic violence counselors and social service agency workers advice on how to assist domestic violence victims in gaining control over their finances. The training session, “Moving Ahead Through Financial Management” was developed by the Allstate Foundation and the National Network [...]
    Posted: October 28, 2008, 2:32pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • A new jersey, same results

    Number of comments: 2
    Bet you wish you were a member of the Islanders Business Club. At last night’s big event at the Nassau Coliseum, the New York Islanders unveiled their new jersey, which the team will wear at 15 games this season. The new uniform looks a lot like the one worn by the [...]
    Posted: October 28, 2008, 6:06am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Bye bye unrated, uncut American Pie

    It’s definitely belt tightening time, which means more and more people are going to cut back on the little luxuries they’ve been enjoying. That includes premium cable television channels. According to a Bloomberg report, cable company analysts expect the amount customers are willing to pay for their cable/internet/telephone service to drop, [...]
    Posted: October 27, 2008, 3:27pm EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Angel investors find safety in numbers

    Number of comments: 1
    Angel investors are responding to the economic downturn by banding together on deals to limit risk, according to an industry report. In the first half of the year the number of investors increased by 2 percent to 143,000, though the number of investment deals dropped 3.8 percent over the year-ago period [...]
    Posted: October 27, 2008, 10:35am EDT
    by Laura Glasser
  • Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, Steve Bellone

    Number of comments: 1
    There is the Ted Williams tunnel in Boston. We also have the Jackie Robinson Parkway in New York City, which is really an insult to one of America’s greatest heroes. But I digress. Now there is  Piazza Bellone, an honorary street name at the Tanger Outlets at the Arches in Deer [...]
    Posted: October 24, 2008, 12:59pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • All the fun stuff at Tanger

    Long Islanders can’t shop enough - or at least that is what real estate developers and retailers have led us to believe. So this question goes out to all of you, the Islanders, the clothes-obsessed, movie going residents of the region: Are you impressed with the new Tanger Outlets in Deer [...]
    Posted: October 23, 2008, 4:30pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Georgi boy wants Mr. Palin for rum spokesman

    Number of comments: 1
    Martin Silver, whose Syosset-based company Star Industries owns liquor brands like Georgi Vodka, wants to give the Republican vice presidential candidate’s husband a chance to step into the spotlight. Silver, who famously offered former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s call girl of choice, Ashley Alexandre Dupre, a chance to be the [...]
    Posted: October 23, 2008, 4:15pm EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Long Island’s newest parking lot

    Number of comments: 1
    Remember all those pesky Deer Park residents who said the new Tanger mall on Grand Boulevard would turn that part of town into a parking lot? Yeah, perhaps they were right. Today is the mall’s opening day and already customers have had enough, complaining about impassable roads, a lack of parking and [...]
    Posted: October 23, 2008, 4:04pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Nassau’s 14-page questionairre

    Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman is requiring all social service agencies and nonprofits that do business in the county to fill out a 14-page questionnaire before being awarded contracts. The questionnaire was previously voluntarily. It will be mandatory in 2009, Weitzman said. It asks all agencies contracting with the county to disclose [...]
    Posted: October 23, 2008, 3:16pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • How split is LI on presidential race?

    Number of comments: 1
    According to a Long Island Business News sampling  of business leaders, there is no clear winner between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain in their fight for the White House, though recent polls show McCain losing ground. In fact, our panel of business leaders was split down the middle. Check [...]
    Posted: October 23, 2008, 1:38pm EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Local lender sued by feds for fraud

    A Carle Place mortgage lender is being sued by Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn for allegedly manipulating application forms for $4 million worth of mortgage loans. The lawsuit says Madison Home Equities and its president, Nadine Malone, intentionally provided false information on applications for 12 Federal Housing Administration loans to make unqualified [...]
    Posted: October 23, 2008, 12:54pm EDT
    by Laura Glasser
  • Obama, Cooper, Crosby and Nash

    Number of comments: 2

    Derek D. Donnelly, president of Clear Vision Technologies in Uniondale sent us the following video of David Crosby and Graham Nash at the pro-Barack Obama rally put together by Suffolk Legis. Jon Cooper at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow on Aug. 15, the day Hofstra hosted the final presidential [...]

    Posted: October 23, 2008, 9:09am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • It pays to be efficient

    Call it a nice end to a stellar month for Hofstra University. After its highly successful hosting of the third presidential debate, the Hempstead university today scored a $300,000 rebate from the Long Island Power Authority during its ribbon cutting for the new Graduate Residence Hall, located on the North Campus. Hofstra [...]
    Posted: October 22, 2008, 3:08pm EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Home is where the heat is

    Just in time for the cooler weather that’s rolled in, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy signed off on a program that will provide home heating assistance for “middle income” Long Islanders. The Middle Income Home Energy Assistance Program, nicknamed MI-HEAP, will provide residents who are at 35 percent above the federal [...]
    Posted: October 22, 2008, 2:59pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Welcome to Deer Park, ignore the fliers

    Number of comments: 1
    If you’re coming to the new Tanger Outlets via the Long Island Rail Road, ignore the paper left on car windshields: It might be nothing more than your garden-variety flier asking you to join the Ku Klux Klan. The MTA and Suffolk cops were cleaning up the litter and it seems [...]
    Posted: October 22, 2008, 10:24am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Cracking down on the LIRR

    The federal Railroad Retirement Board voted to toughen its oversight of disability payments awarded to former Long Island Rail Road employees, which has a staggering percentage of its retirees end up on disability. From the New York Times: The board said it would implement five changes, including more independent medical evaluations, periodic [...]
    Posted: October 21, 2008, 3:06pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Suozzi gives up on “Wall of Shame”

    Number of comments: 2
    Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi has taken down his “Wall of Shame,” which was designed to cut down on the number of drunk drivers by humiliating those who were caught committing the crime. Suozzi made the move after a judge ruled that the “Wall of Shame” violated the rights of a [...]
    Posted: October 21, 2008, 2:58pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Meet Steve Bellone

    Strike up the Deer Park High School Marching Band. The high school band in the town that once was the home of John Quincy Adams will play the national anthem before the grand opening of the Tanger Outlets at the Arches, the upscale outlet shopping, dining and entertainment center that will [...]
    Posted: October 21, 2008, 11:49am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • We found a poll with Mac ahead

    Number of comments: 2
    We’re two weeks away from Election Day and here is a comprehensive list of all the groups that favor John McCain for president: 1) Sarah Palin’s immediate family 2) People who live in McCain’s home state of Arizona 3) People who responded to the Albrecht, Viggiano, Zureck & Co. 2008-2009 Long Island Economic [...]
    Posted: October 21, 2008, 10:14am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Help for vets

    Suffolk County will be holding a job fair for U.S. veterans on Friday to provide them with help as the try to enter the workforce after serving their country. Over 40 area public and private companies will be at the first-ever Veterans Employment Fair, specifically targeting veterans recently returning from active [...]
    Posted: October 20, 2008, 3:41pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Commerce Bank wants your vote

    Looks like Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Commerce Bank is putting the financial calamity of recent weeks on the back burner. Commerce, which was bought by Toronto-Dominion Bank in March, is busy tackling a major dilemma that’s arisen from its pending rebranding as TD Bank slated for November. The bank can’t decide what [...]
    Posted: October 20, 2008, 3:04pm EDT
    by Laura Glasser
  • Hofstra revisited


    We weren’t one of the lucky few who got tickets into the presidential debate at Hofstra last week, but we were on campus and in the media filing center, which was good enough for us.

    And, just to prove to you we were there, schmoozing with the likes of Abe [...]

    Posted: October 20, 2008, 10:32am EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Oysters, entertainment and most of Long Island

    We’re not sure if there were more people or oysters at this weekend’s Oyster Bay Oyster Festival, but both were incalculable. Standout’s on the food side were The Pickle People, who stunk up Audrey Avenue with garlic, vinegar and dill, Wild Bill’s Old Fashioned soda booth, whose super syrupy suds attracted [...]
    Posted: October 20, 2008, 9:21am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Get on the cart in Brookhaven

    Number of comments: 1
    The Town of Brookhaven is holding a three-day charrette, which is basically a planning workshop on steroids, this weekend. It’s also the French word for cart, so something must’ve gotten lost in translation there. The town is holding the workshops at Town Hall starting tonight at 7. The purpose is to [...]
    Posted: October 17, 2008, 12:55pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • The world comes to Oyster Bay

    Shellfish fanciers, it’s time for your close up. Be among the expected 200,000 people  at the 25th Annual Long Island Oyster Festival this Saturday and Sunday and you might end up on the Travel Channel, the Food Network and the Japanese Today Show. All of those programs, plus local and New [...]
    Posted: October 17, 2008, 10:36am EDT
    by Ambrose Clancy
  • The Hall of Fame loves cool James

    LL Cool J may represent Queens, but he is being honored on Long Island this month, joining Public Enemy as the newest members of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. The group and rapper will be inducted as the hall’s second class on Oct. 30, joining Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, Twisted Sister, [...]
    Posted: October 16, 2008, 1:35pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Getcha cold beer heah

    Eight thousand years ago some Egyptians figured out how to make a foamy drink with  pleasurable buzz potential and found it was best enjoyed at home or in crowds watching rhythmic gymnastics or javelin throwing The celebration of beer has never stopped, with the latest homage set to take place the [...]
    Posted: October 16, 2008, 1:25pm EDT
    by Ambrose Clancy
  • Getting dizzy

    Number of comments: 1
    They call it “Spin Alley” for a reason. Immediately following the 90 minute debate, and in the case of New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, during the closing arguments of the debate, political bigwigs by the names of Romney, Lieberman and Daschle made their case for their respective candidates. As each politician entered [...]
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 11:34pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Night descends upon Hofstra

    The sun has set, the moon is rising and it’s getting a bit more exciting in what has been a quiet media filing center until now. Rep. Peter King has been seen milling about the live stands set up for the television stations. Students and those lucky enough to snag tickets [...]
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 7:22pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Viva democracia

    It hasn’t been all fun and games here at Hofstra in the hours leading up to the debate. Despite the festival-like atmosphere outside the student center, behind the scenes have been campaign operatives wheeling and dealing, media foreign and domestic all trying to get the story no one else thought [...]
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 4:13pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Park and vote

    The parking lot outside the student center has been transformed into a voting festival, with mobile buses from CNN, C-SPAN, Rock the Vote and Project Vote Smart all fighting for students’ attention. Vote Smart had an inflated balloon set up outside its bus decorated in red, white and blue in which [...]
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 3:36pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Hofstra hearts MSNBC

    MSNBC might not have the ratings, but it does have a huge following on the Hofstra campus. MSNBC’s live tent just outside the student center has become a rallying point for McCain and Obama supporters, who pressed up to the barricade to get a good spot on tv during Andrea Mitchell [...]
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 3:10pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Good morning, Mr. Presidents

    Turns out not only the next president of the United States but also a few former presidents are on campus today. Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Abe Lincoln made an appearance outside the student center as part of a re-enactment troupe. The former commanders in chief made quite a sight and impression, [...]
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 12:53pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Hofstra’s heating up

    We’ve been here at Hofstra since before 9 a.m. and even though the debate is still more than eight hours away, the campus is coming alive. If students have classes today, they are not attending. Instead they are milling about the student center, holding signs for the candidate or cause [...]
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 12:49pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Amie Street’s new site

    Amie Street, the digital music service for independent artists created by two Long Island natives and former Brown University students, has had a good year … thanks to Eliot Spitzer. If the former governor of New York hadn’t paid big bucks to sleep with Ashley Alexandre Dupre, and if the hooker [...]
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 10:15am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Cablevision doubles its Wi-Fi network

    Cablevision customers have more places to check their e-mail now. The Bethpage-based media and telecommunications company today said it doubled the service area of its Wi-Fi network. The service, which covers Long Island, Westchester County, Dutchess County and Connecticut, has also been activated on various Long Island Rail Road and [...]
    Posted: October 15, 2008, 9:43am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Lindsay Lohan’s father in another brawl

    Are you interested in seeing two middle-aged men beat each others brains out? OK, how about if one of the men is Michael Lohan, father to Lindsay? That does make it a bit more interesting, doesn’t it? The ex-con padrone of the Lohan brood has thrown a number of punches outside the [...]
    Posted: October 14, 2008, 11:05am EDT
    by Ambrose Clancy
  • Party all the time

    Here we go with more debate-related festivities. If you don’t have tickets to the actual event, and chances are, you don’t, why not attend the next best thing: A debate pep rally and concert hosted by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and Suffolk County Majority Leader Jon Cooper. The rally, entitled “YES WE [...]
    Posted: October 14, 2008, 10:02am EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • And away we go

    We told you below to expect the temperature to rise around here in preparation for Wednesday’s debate, and we weren’t wrong. First up: No, not the economy, not property taxes, not the war, but immigration. Long Island Wins and the New York Immigrant Coalition are holding a press conference at 12:30 p.m. [...]
    Posted: October 13, 2008, 2:27pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • The circus is coming to town

    Number of comments: 1
    Today’s Monday. The third presidential debate is Wednesday. With an estimated 3,000 journalists scheduled to cover the debate, it’s only going to get busier and crazier in Hempstead. Long Island’s Hofstra University is hosting the debate, but the festivities have already begun. For the past year, Hofstra has been hosting a series of [...]
    Posted: October 13, 2008, 11:09am EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • For the love of wingtips

    In 1978, Stanford graduate student Theodore Steleski bludgeoned his faculty adviser to death with a two-pound ball-peen hammer. Mr. Steleski obviously had some issues, not the least of which was that he’d been working on his doctorate in mathematics for 19 years and wasn’t even close to his dissertation. But what sent [...]
    Posted: October 13, 2008, 10:44am EDT
    by John Kominicki
  • Feel the heat

    Gov. David Paterson doesn’t want YOU to be out in the cold this winter. And, well, with the stock market losing another 292 points (at the moment I’m typing this), that looks like a real possibility for more and more New Yorkers. You see, the stock market losing money doesn’t just do [...]
    Posted: October 10, 2008, 3:40pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Nassau sued over Wall of Shame

    Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi’s Wall of Shame was supposed to lower the number of drunk drivers in Long Island’s western county. But each week’s press release seems to have at least 60 alleged drunks, complete with head shots. It’s fun for voyeurs, we guess, and Newsday chooses to post the [...]
    Posted: October 10, 2008, 6:49am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Decisions are made by those who show up

    As if anyone who reads this blog really needs this reminder, but here we go anyway. If you haven’t registered to vote yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? Register now! Literally, now! Any New Yorkers who have moved between counties, moved to the state or are first-time voters have to register by [...]
    Posted: October 09, 2008, 2:19pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • TV news is bad news

    Television newsrooms in the United States suffered a net loss of 360 positions this year, according to a new study authored by Bob Papper, professor of journalism at Hofstra University. Papper’s study was published in the RTNDA Communicator. The complete picture, however, is this: There’s hope for television stations. Or, at least, [...]
    Posted: October 08, 2008, 5:03pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Credit crackdown

    In the wake of the current financial crisis, subprime mortgage meltdown and credit crunch, Suffolk County Legislator Wayne Horsley wants to help out everyday citizens figure out what it all means. Horsley announced today he is introducing an “Enhance CREDIT Act,” which will require banks conducting business in Suffolk to offer [...]
    Posted: October 08, 2008, 1:43pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Nassau County, Democrat country

    Perhaps it’s because George W. Bush has an approval rating of two - as in only Laura and Barbara Bush still think he’s fit to be president. Maybe it’s that more Long Islanders are feeling a financial squeeze and thus are willing to change parties. Or, yes, it could just [...]
    Posted: October 07, 2008, 7:43pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Crane criminal

    A grand jury has indicted Michael Sackaris of St. James for bribing a top city buildings official for years to get city exams and fake inspections of cranes. The Manhattan jury said the owner of Nu-Way Crane was running the scheme for 12 years. Sackaris was also charged with using a baton [...]
    Posted: October 07, 2008, 4:59pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Manhattan can’t hide

    Last week, Long Island Business News reported that the commercial real estate market here could head lower as a result of the Wall Street selloff. From the LIBN story: But there already is concern that the Wall Street tumble will lead to more Long Island vacancies. There has also been a slowdown [...]
    Posted: October 07, 2008, 4:48pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Catch a fish flick at the LI film fest

    The Long Island Film Festival has added a special date and location to its calendar this year, showcasing a series of independent films and documentaries about fishing in the fishing industry. The one-day event will take place at 2:15 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Montauk Movie Theater, 3 Edgemere St., Montauk. It [...]
    Posted: October 07, 2008, 1:44pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Paterson wants this job

    The stock market continues to slide and New York’s budget deficit is escalating, but Gov. David Paterson’s having fun nonetheless. The governor said he wants a second term. “I’d like to run for reelection and serve as governor as a full term, have an actual transition period and a real inauguration,” he [...]
    Posted: October 07, 2008, 6:27am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Long live Fudgie the Whale

    It’s not really a Long Island story, though thousands of area residents did grow up on soft serve ice cream from New York’s Carvel. The first Carvel, based in Hartsdale, has closed after more than 70 years. From the Associated Press: Customers flocked to the 1950s-style store in Hartsdale, about 25 miles north [...]
    Posted: October 06, 2008, 3:41pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Boxing with Lohan

    Lindsay Lohan’s dad will participate in this year’s Long Island Fight for Charity. The not for profit event will include a battle between Michael Lohan and whoever makes the highest bid to fight him. The bidding starts at $5,000. The Fight For Charity is being held on Nov. 24 at the Hilton [...]
    Posted: October 06, 2008, 3:19pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • LI’s congressional delegation defends its bailout vote

    Here is the statement from the Long Island members of the House of Representatives on why they voted to pass the $700 billion financial bailout. U.S Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens/L.I.), Steve Israel (D-Nassau/Suffolk), Peter King (R-Nassau/Suffolk), Tim Bishop (D-Suffolk) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-Nassau) released the following statement: It is rare, perhaps even [...]
    Posted: October 06, 2008, 9:58am EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • A Belmont bet

    The nation’s economic crisis has state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, pushing for a new casino, according to racing site, BloodHorse.com. From their article: Skelos earlier this year advocated for a casino at Belmont. That push was rebuffed, chiefly by the Democratic-led Assembly, whose leaders argued they did not want [...]
    Posted: October 05, 2008, 5:04pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Wachovia tug of war

    Gov. David Paterson is lamenting Wachovia’s decision to accept Wells Fargo’s buyout offer, saying New York will take a “financial hit” if Citigroup falls short in its attempt to acquire the North Carolina-based banking giant. Citi had reached a deal to buy Wachovia, but the deal fell apart after Wells Fargo [...]
    Posted: October 05, 2008, 10:36am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Close to shopping time

    Opening day at Tanger Outlet’s 800,000-square-foot shopping center in Deer Park is fast approaching, so here is some traffic advice: Stay away from Commack Road in Deer Park. New entrances are being put in at the outlet center, as well as the shopping plaza that houses Stop & Shop, Kohl’s and [...]
    Posted: October 05, 2008, 8:22am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Just ducky

    Baseball season may be over in New York, but that doesn’t mean Citibank Park in Islip is closed for the winter. The Long Island Ducks said they would host QuackerJack’s Halloween Extravaganza on Halloween. On Oct. 30 and Nov. 1, fans who dare will have a chance to pass through a [...]
    Posted: October 05, 2008, 8:15am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Is this what you wanted?

    Number of comments: 1
    After failing first in the House, and then being sent to the Senate for improvements - and a healthy helping of earmarks, too - to be later passed there, the new-and-improved bailout bill became law today. Wall Street now has $700 million to look forward to, which hopefully will stop [...]
    Posted: October 03, 2008, 3:03pm EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Up Front: Can we all get a golden parachute?

    If you doubt the visionary prowess of Steve Jobs, consider this: The calculator on the new Apple iPhone, turned lengthwise, can figure numbers up to the trillions. That may not have been important a month ago, but it now allows all of us to noodle away at our nation’s monetary meltdown. In [...]
    Posted: October 03, 2008, 2:33pm EDT
    by John Kominicki
  • Blame the Jews

    Number of comments: 1
    The financial market is in tatters and there’s a healthy debate about whether the fault lies with the banks, who tossed money around like drunken sailors, the Democrats, who pushed them to lend to people who were in no shape to buy a house or Republicans, who never met a [...]
    Posted: October 03, 2008, 9:42am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Prepare to be scared

    Dreams do come true, even if they are a bit morbid. Mike Liegey, owner of Southold’s Ye Olde Party Shoppe, has been trying to open up a haunted house at his location on Route 48 for nearly 10 years, only to have his hopes quashed by the town’s zoning board of [...]
    Posted: October 02, 2008, 9:12am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Meet Obama’s Greenport people

    Presidential candidate Barack Obama has a following in the North Fork village of Greenport. Check out the festivities that accompanied the opening of Obama’s campaign headquarters there, courtesy of a Suffolk Times video. And if you’re wondering, of course there was a jazz band there. You don’t open an Obama headquarters [...]
    Posted: October 02, 2008, 8:42am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Islip’s runway project almost complete

    The first phase of repairs to the apron of the MacArthur Airport runway have been completed, the Town of Islip has announced. Southwest Airlines paid for the repairs, which will be completed by the end of the year, Supervisor Phil Nolan said. Cracks to the apron began appearing in 2005, a [...]
    Posted: October 01, 2008, 2:57pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Billy Joel donates for clammer’s funeral

    Billy Joel, long an advocate for Long Island fishermen, is donating an unspecified amount to help with the funeral expenses for Edwin Flores, a clam-digger whose body was found not far from the singer’s home. The body was found floating off a Sound beach in Lattingtown, six days after he was [...]
    Posted: September 30, 2008, 8:26pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Ronkonkoma contractor cited for safety hazards

    Ronkonkoma-based Painting and Decorating Inc. has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 20 alleged violations of safety hazards. The citations come with $147,200 in proposed fines. Among the willful, serious and repeat violations cited were failures to provide guardrails or fall protection while working [...]
    Posted: September 30, 2008, 1:51pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Bloomberg sends war party to Poospatuck

    Bootleggers have allegedly flocked to our local Poospatuck Indian Reservation, and everybody saw them coming. Last April, when New York state lawmakers raised the cigarette tax to $2.75 per pack, concerns started to surface about the types of shady characters who would rush to buy tax-free butts on the reservation: bootleggers. In [...]
    Posted: September 30, 2008, 8:21am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Don’t bet with Bernanke

    As lawmakers fight over a bailout plan and Wall Street watches in horror, CBS posted an interesting timeline that tries to show us how we got into this mess in the first place. The timeline goes back to May 17, 2007, when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the growing number of [...]
    Posted: September 30, 2008, 6:36am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • New York, LI supported the bailout

    As details are emerging about the House of Representatives vote to not approve the federal government’s bailout plan, we at least know New York’s reps were not to blame for the tanking stock market, which is currently down 600 points as I’m typing these letters. According to Crain’s, here’s the rundown [...]
    Posted: September 29, 2008, 3:57pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Learning from Long Island

    Farmers in upstate Monroe County have launched “Grow Monroe,” a campaign meant to help consumers identify food in farm markets that’s grown in their own back yard. The program is being launched at the height of the harvest season, according to this report in the Democrat and Chronicle. “This is one time [...]
    Posted: September 29, 2008, 3:17pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Video: Hillary speaks about bailout

    Sen. Hillary Rodham-Clinton had a few things to say about the $700 billion bailout of the troubled financial companies currently being voted on in Washington. Despite a few objections, Clinton said the plan is necessary to keep the economy from collapsing and to curb mounting foreclosures. We’ve got a selection from [...]
    Posted: September 29, 2008, 12:22pm EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • The Citi never sleeps

    Number of comments: 1
    All it took was a complete collapse of the financial industry to bring the power back to New York. First, JPMorgan Chase acquired the failed Washington Mutual, giving the Manhattan giant a much stronger national presense. Already a big player in the Midwest thanks to its merger with Bank One earlier [...]
    Posted: September 29, 2008, 11:14am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Smithtown title firm expands into Nassau

    Smithtown-based title insurance company Select Service Abstract is expanding into Nassau County with an office in Merrick. Select Service said its business has doubled every year since 2004 and is continuing to do so, even in what it called a faltering industry, hence the new office. The title insurance industry has been [...]
    Posted: September 26, 2008, 3:54pm EDT
    by Laura Glasser
  • Investors say green tech’s not the next bubble

    Number of comments: 1
    While green technology is looking like the next investment bubble, a new survey shows venture capitalists think otherwise. While 91 percent of the 301 investors surveyed said VC investments in the green tech sector, which includes products like solar panels, windmills and biodiesel engines, will increase in the next year, 67 [...]
    Posted: September 26, 2008, 1:22pm EDT
    by Laura Glasser
  • Civil disobedience, or plain vandalism?

    Number of comments: 1
    You be the judge. I took this photo last night at the entrance to the Hamlet Estates at St. James, off of Moriches Road.        [...]
    Posted: September 26, 2008, 9:49am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Bloomberg pitches commuter tax again

    Number of comments: 1
    Here we go again. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city’s finances are so dire that he needs help from the suburbs. That’s right, he wants to bring back the commuter tax. It’s not the first time Gotham’s mayor has tried to bring back the tax, which would hit everyone who [...]
    Posted: September 26, 2008, 8:32am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • LIRR mocked from afar

    Former Long Island Rail Road President Thomas Prendergast said he wasn’t surprised by the major investigation launched into the legitimacy of disability claims being paid to thousands of former LIRR employees. Speaking to the Vancouver Sun, Prendergast, who ran the LIRR from 1994 to 2000, said the scandal stems from a [...]
    Posted: September 26, 2008, 6:38am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Woo hoo, they’re gone

    Six years after Washington Mutual broke into the Long Island banking scene with its high-profile acquisition of Dime Savings, the Seattle-based savings and loan has gone under, bailed out by the government. Its branches and deposits have been acquired by JPMorgan Chase, which has a shot at quickly building itself up [...]
    Posted: September 26, 2008, 6:20am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • We’ll all be famous for 140 characters

    Number of comments: 1
    I dipped a toe in the fast-flowing waters of social networking last week. Make that most of one foot. In an hour or two of digital gold-digging, I joined the online communities of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, exposing my profile to millions of others who IM, tweet and post on each [...]
    Posted: September 26, 2008, 12:51am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Spitzer speaks on…

    Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer gave his first interview since resigning earlier this year. You might remember, he got caught with a hooker. Anyway, enough about the hooker. The ex-governor and attorney general answered a few questions from Time Out New York via e-mail. He said his favorite New Yorker is Teddy Roosevelt and [...]
    Posted: September 25, 2008, 4:43pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Adelphi’s a steal of a deal

    For the third year in a row, Long Island’s Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” by the Fiske Guide to Colleges for 2009. Adelphi also made the list in 2007 and 2008. The Fiske Guide was established more than 20 years ago by former New York Times education editor [...]
    Posted: September 25, 2008, 3:23pm EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • The wind’s picking up

    Number of comments: 1
    Talk, like hot air, is rising along Long Island again about creating potential wind farms off coast. There are at least two new initiatives sailing throughout the air, one proposed by LIPA and ConEdison, which includes creating a working group to study the potential of an offshore wind project a least [...]
    Posted: September 25, 2008, 11:03am EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Transit talk

    The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council is hosting a series of community workshops on Long Island next month to discuss improving the region’s transportation system over the next 25 years. NYMTC is in the process of creating a 2010-2035 Regional Transportation Plan that will provide a framework for future road, bridge, [...]
    Posted: September 25, 2008, 10:32am EDT
    by Michael H. Samuels
  • Upstate, concern over Kessel

    Number of comments: 1
    Richard Kessel is known around these parts as the affable former chief of the Long Island Power Authority. So when he was named head of the New York Power Authority earlier this week, the reaction was fairly positive, and no one was all that surprised - it was, after all, one [...]
    Posted: September 24, 2008, 3:30pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Capital One prepares for more bad loans

    Capital One is grappling with rising loan delinquencies, so the company said it’s reserving another $200 million to cover loan losses and offering 14 million new shares to the public. Mclean, Va.-based Capital One is trying to shore up cash for an expected increase in bad loans in the coming quarters. [...]
    Posted: September 24, 2008, 1:56pm EDT
    by Laura Glasser
  • Mortgage help on the Web

    The Mortgage Recovery Group, a group of local lawyers that counsel troubled homeowners, has a new Web site. The group, which is based in Amityville and Farmingdale, said the new site is supposed to make it easier for borrowers having trouble paying their mortgages to find and contact participating lawyers. With four [...]
    Posted: September 24, 2008, 10:32am EDT
    by Laura Glasser
  • Snapple co-founder dead

    Hyman Golden, who co-founded Snapple Beverage Corp. and was its chairman when Snapple rolled out flavored teas and other fruit-flavored drinks, died in Great Neck on Sept. 14. Golden was 85. From the New York Times: With a small investment in 1972, Mr. Golden and two partners started a business that would [...]
    Posted: September 24, 2008, 9:31am EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Escaping Dallas

    Citigroup Inc. is expected to sell off some of its branch network in an attempt to help strengthen a weakened balance sheet. According to a report in the Dallas Business Journal, Citi is accepting offers for its entire 133-branch Texas operations. Selling off the Texas branches would signal that Citi is [...]
    Posted: September 23, 2008, 3:53pm EDT
    by David Reich-Hale
  • Lighthouse goes Web 2.0

    Charles Wang and RexCorp’s plan to redevelop the Nassau Coliseum into a mixed-use paradise, dubbed The Lighthouse, has gone digital. Project reps have created a blog, called The Light Post, filled with posts keeping the public up to date on the state of the project and the many benefits they say [...]
    Posted: September 23, 2008, 10:46am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II
  • Executives ponder, lunch or work?

    Nutrition is good, but it won’t pay the bills, will it? According to Robert Half International, more and more American executives are shorting their lunch breaks or eschewing the afternoon meal altogether. A survey polling 150 randomly selected senior executives, found the average lunch break is now 35 minutes, down from 42 [...]
    Posted: September 23, 2008, 10:21am EDT
    by Henry E. Powderly II

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