LI Business News articles from December 2003

LI Business News archives from December 2003

Custom Computer names McSweeney.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Ryan McCormick John McSweeney has been promoted to COO at Custom Computer Specialists. McSweeney, who was previously senior vice president, will now oversee Custom's day-to-day operations and strategic initiatives and will...

Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP Accountants and Consultants announces new partner.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP Accountants and Consultants are pleased to announce that Russell Shinsky has become a partner in the firm's audit and business consulting practice. Shinsky, a resident...

Marie Montchal elected chairman of the board of Relocation Directors Council for 2004.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Marie Montchal, Daniel Gale Vice President of Relocation and Corporate Services, has been elected chairman of the board of the Relocation Directors Council for 2004. Montchal formerly served as...

Dr. Kimberly Arias appointed Scholarship Coordinator at Project GRAD Roosevelt.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Dr. Kimberly Arias, a Huntington resident, has been appointed Scholarship Coordinator at Project GRAD Roosevelt, a not-for-profit organization that works with the Roosevelt community and the Roosevelt...

Long Island environment groups announce staffing changes: December 26, 2003.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Thomas J. McAteer Jr., president and CEO of Vytra Health Plans, has been appointed a member of the board of trustees of The Nature Conservancy's Long Island Chapter. As a trustee, he will be involved...

Long Island medical facilities announce staffing changes: December 26, 2003.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Dr. Mark Grossman, a Winthrop-University Hospital orthopedic surgeon, has been named the U.S. Army All-American Bowl head team physician. As a member of Winthrop's faculty, Grossman performs...

Summit Security Services Inc. hires Matthew P. Brady as special project manager.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Summit Security Services Inc. announced the hire of Matthew P. Brady as special project manager. Brady, a former detective lieutenant and commander of the Nassau County Police Department of Special...

Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind Inc. hires Devera Lynn as communications/ marketing manager.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff The Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind Inc. hired Devera Lynn as its new communications and marketing manager. Lynn's responsibilities will include coordinating all media events, overseeing and...

Rechler Equity, one of the largest landlords on Long Island, controls more than 100 properties.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Nick Anastasi Carpenters and architects are still busy redesigning the 10,000 square feet of office space on the first floor of 225 Broadhollow Road in Melville, the new home of Rechler Equity Partners. Just a month old, the...

Long Island pins hope on Bronx connection.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter The road to a federally funded Center of Excellence in Homeland Security leads through the Bronx. That's the hope of Long Island state legislators who see a first-in-the-nation port security center at SUNY...

Stack tapped as leader of Nassau Interim Finance Authority board.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Rosamaria Mancini Ronald Stack, managing director and head of the public finance department at Lehman Brothers, has been named chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, succeeding Frank Zarb. Stack, appointed in...

Hospitals want revamp of rehab rules.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik New regulations proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would cost Long Island hospitals with in-patient rehabilitation units as much as $40 million a year and prevent them from accepting many...

Nassau County committee to examine pay raises.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Rosamaria Mancini Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi wants a raise. Not just for himself but also for the county's tax assessor, clerk and comptroller, most of whom are paid far less than their counterparts in Suffolk and...

Topspin Partners buys stock in video-game tournament firm.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter Topspin Partners has joined a group of investors including Intel Capital and Silicon Alley Venture Partners to buy $5.5 million in stock in a company whose technology lets computer game players compete in fee-based...

Audiovox Corp. poll finds Cruise, Regis most 'tech-savvy' celebs.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Actor Tom Cruise and TV host Regis Philbin are the most "technologically savvy" celebrities, according to a nationwide poll conducted by Audiovox Electronics Corp., a subsidiary of Audiovox Corp. ...

Garden City-based developer Vince Polimeni acquires former law office site.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Nick Anastasi The soon-to-be-vacant law offices of Rains & Pogrebin have been gobbled up by Garden City-based developer Vince Polimeni. Even more important than the offices themselves at 210 Old Country Road is the parking area...

Political Grapevine.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter For Anthony Manetta, the epiphany came while he was working on bank ledgers. An accounting major at Dowling College, he also worked at WSD Tax & Accounting in Lindenhurst and planned on eventually becoming a...

Audiovox Corp. sues rivals over auto DVD patent.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter Electronics maker Audiovox Corp. has filed a lawsuit against three competitors charging that they infringed its patent on the flip-down DVD players popular in late-model minivans and SUVs. The lawsuit, filed...

Symbol Technologies retools its alliance with IBM.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter Symbol Technologies' red logo is getting a touch of blue. The maker of barcode and wireless network systems is retooling its alliance with IBM Corp. as it seeks to make the jump out of the factory floors and...

Long Island nets $5.6M from New York Business Development Corp.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Ben Abelson New York Business Development Corp., a privately owned, Albany-based financial organization, proffered $5.6 million in loans to 24 Long Island companies in 2003. The amount represents a slight decrease from the $5.9...

HSBC throws in fringe benefit for business banking.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik Banks routinely compete for customers on a number of items, including deposit rates, token gifts handed out at branches and requirements for opening checking accounts. But here's a new one: free advertising. HSBC...

Community banks move to attract high rollers.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Ben Abelson Community banks losing major depositors to bigger financial institutions have just added a weapon to their arsenal. The new initiative, called the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Services, was developed by...

Commentary: Start pouring.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Editorial Just days away from taking over as the next Suffolk County Executive, Steve Levy says he feels like a kid in a candy store, now that he has the chance to make good on all the promises he's been...

Commentary: Now Gulotta can't be blamed for everything.
December 26, 2003... Byline: John Kiernan The real challenge of any government administration, whether on a local, state or federal level, is how it handles and deals with its first scandal. Unfortunately, for all elected government executives, there always...

Commentary: In politics, what's in your name is up to fate.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Jerry Kremer Shakespeare once asked, "What's in a name?" If you are an elected official in Washington or in Albany, your name is quite important if you can attach it to a piece of landmark legislation. New York State has a...

In 2004, resolve to treat yourself better.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Adina Genn New Year's resolutions. Many people vow to fit exercise into their routines and eat right. So why not take the opportunity to improve their business acumen too? While setting revenue targets is often par for the...

Long Island's health care industry averts perfect storm.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik It wasn't exactly a perfect financial storm for Long Island's health care industry in 2003, but hospital officials say it came pretty close. Health care providers on Long Island faced new federal regulations,...

Long Island's education sector brews with activity.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Rosamaria Mancini This year, Long Island-based educational institutions made bold moves to support a growing number of students, adding new programs and faculty and expanding their campuses and reach. Look at Suffolk County...

Hosftra University to offer course on owning a racehorse as a potential investment.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Hofstra University's College for Continuing Education announced it will begin a course in the spring that looks at owning a racehorse as a potential investment. The three-hour course,...

At the YMCA: 150 years and counting.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff From 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., the facilities at the Huntington YMCA are used to their fullest potential. "Every room we have has been designed to be multifunctional," said Eileen Knauer, associate...

Long Island Non-Profit Briefs: December 26, 2003.
December 26, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff The Community Development Corp. of Long Island was recently honored by the Small Business Administration with the Bronze Award for Excellence in providing capital to small businesses. CDC...

Long Island Financial Briefs: December 19, 2003.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Ben Abelson Howard Weiner, audit partner at Melville-based accounting firm Holtz Rubenstein & Co., recently ended his one-year term as president of DFK/USA, the American arm of DFK International, a worldwide association of...

Long Island Technology Briefs: December 19, 2003.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter They may be sitting elbow to elbow at LISTnet. The board of the Long Island Software and Technology Network, already numbering well north of 20 members, is bringing two more to the table. David Nussbaum,...

Long Island Real Estate Briefs: December 19, 2003.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Nick Anastasi M. Robert Goldman & Co. Inc. has arranged an $18 million refinancing for the 310,000-square-foot office building located at 200 Jericho Quadrangle, located along Route 25 in, where else, Jericho. MRG Executive...

Business Development Group Inc. promotes Jayne Ferrante to Director of Operations.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff The Business Development Group Inc. promoted Jayne Ferrante to Director of Operations. "To succeed, I feel you have to be a go-getter and have a total commitment to the job," said Ferrante. "A...

Long Island financial firms announce staffing changes: December 19, 2003.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Mayer & Co. CPAs announced that Stuart H. Mayer has been named as a partner in the firm. Prior to joining Mayer & Co. in 2001, Mayer was an associate at Pricewater-houseCoopers in New York City....

Long Island education institutions announce staffing changes: December 19, 2003.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Thomas F. Goldrick and May Newburger were honored for their support and dedication to the Hagedorn Little Village School Jack Joel Center for Special Children. Goldrick, who's chairman and chief...

Nassau County Clerk Karen Murphy reappointed to Local Government Records Advisory Council.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Nassau County Clerk Karen Murphy was reappointed to serve as a member of the Local Government Records Advisory Council for the third consecutive time. Murphy will continue to be responsible for...

Long Island health care facilities announce staffing changes: December 19, 2003.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff The Long Island Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has elected David Weiss of Woodbury as its board president. Weiss, who is president and CEO of Castle Repair & Maintenance,...

Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services attracts Bear Stearns infusion.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services, a private firm that makes labels for drugs used in clinical trials, has reeled in more than $10 million from a new Bear Stearns private equity fund. Clintrak, founded in 1995 by...

Drugs unapproved by FDA are still in use in America.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik Dr. Stephen Bosniak, a plastic surgeon in Great Neck, has used Restylane for the past seven years to fill in wrinkles and give his patients a more youthful look. He says it's an effective, simple treatment he prefers...

Developers eye mega addition to Commack mall.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Nick Anastasi Despite objections from the Suffolk County Planning Commission, the Town of Smithtown is expected to give the green light to a proposed 370,000-square-foot retail power center along Crooked Hill Road. The price...

Nassau County invests $1M in brownfields fund.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Rosamaria Mancini Nassau County has joined New York City and Yonkers County in creating a multi-million dollar fund to help finance the redevelopment of contaminated properties in the metropolitan region. The fund will provide...

Long Island-based Farrell Fritz shops for new headquarters.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Rosamaria Mancini Farrell Fritz has hired Lake Success-based Sutton & Edwards to shop for a new headquarters, suggesting a possible exit of Long Island's third-largest law firm from EAB Plaza, the region's premier class A office...

Symbol jumping aboard RFID train.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter Casting aside any doubt about their plans, executives of Symbol Technologies say they will embrace a new tag technology with a vengeance and become "the primary provider of RFID solutions." RFID - radio...

Long Island Marketing Briefs: December 19, 2003.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Massapequabased Cole Communications said it expanded Headliner, the program and magazine distributed at Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden, by adding fashion and beauty and celebrity...

Long Island Medical Briefs: December 19, 2003.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik It's been a banner year for health maintenance organizations. The nation's HMOs reported that profits soared 81 percent to $5.5 billion in 2002, according to Weiss Ratings Inc. in Jupiter, Fla. "Profitability...

Long Island Legal Briefs: December 19, 2003.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Rosamaria Mancini Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company, will pay a $2 million penalty for illegally advertising safety claims about its pesticide products in New York between 1995 and 2003. The ruling,...

Dr. Stock: CEO of Great Neck-based Appel Asset Management Corp.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Ben Abelson While some people say their financial advisors lead them to doze off, Marvin Appel, the 41-year-old CEO of Great Neck-based Appel Asset Management Corp., is actually trained to do just that. Not that he's boring, or...

Israeloff Trattner partners leave, start new firm.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Ben Abelson Two former partners in well-known area accounting firm Israeloff, Trattner & Co. have parted ways to develop their own independent practice. Incoming New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants President...

Chyron re-inks, Rechlers tip-toe back into office.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Nick Anastasi Chyron Corp., the pioneering maker of graphics equipment for the television and video industries, has re-upped for its 47,000-square-foot space at 5 Hub Drive, ending concerns that the firm would seek other climes....

Customized mail program takes shape.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik If you think the direct mail business has already, pushed the envelope, guess again. A new U.S. Postal Service program now allows mass mailers to ship flat items in the shape of products, opening the door for a...

Restaurants, real estate on Long Island feel brunt of bankruptcies.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik Businesses are going bankrupt on Long Island at the same rate as a year ago, and the roll call has narrowed primarily to restaurants and real estate holding companies after a shakeout among high-tech firms. The...

Glen Cove-based London Jewelers strings high-end pearls.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik In a bold move designed to capitalize on the cachet of high-end fashion houses, Glen Cove-based London Jewelers is expanding via new stores bearing the names of some of the world's best-known fashion brands. The...

New Hyde Park tries uptown look for its downtown.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Nick Anastasi The Village of New Hyde Park has tapped EDAW Inc., a planning, environmental and landscape architectural firm, as the landscape architect for its downtown revitalization program. The $370,000 project will include the...

Commentary: Brownfields bonanza.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Editorial Congratulations are in order for Nassau County and local nonprofit Sustainable Long Island for helping a new fund to finance local brownfields redevelopment projects get off the ground. At...

Commentary: Bush on the right track to re-election.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Martin Cantor President Bush shouldn't ever let go of whatever lucky charm he carries around with him. Recent events suggest that he may not succumb to his father's fate in his bid for re-election. Bush 41 thought he could ride...

Commentary: East Side Access tab needs tight scrutiny.
December 19, 2003... Byline: John Kiernan The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's recent report acknowledging that the Long Island Rail Road East Side Access Project is projected to cost about $1 billion more than it thought just over a year ago is...

Commentary: Sending New Year's wishes to 2003 VIPs.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Jerry Kremer Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? It's that time of year when we send gifts and greetings to people in the news. So here are our holiday wishes for those VIPs. Former U.S. Sen. Al D'Amato: A large free catering...

PR veteran Alers makes the small business leap.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Adina Genn When a business leader suggests you open a company, wanting to sign on as a client, it's an option worth considering. That was the case for Cecilia Alers, a marketing consultant who until very recently served as the...

Washington calls for defense, Long Island steps up.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter As Washington opened the spigots of defense and homeland security spending in 2003, Long Island Industry drank deeply. In Perhaps the most dramatic announcement of the year, Philip Teel, Northrop Gumman's senior...

Charitable giving rebounds on Long Island, prospects bright for 2004.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Ben Abelson After shaking off one of the weakest years in recent memory, Long Island not-for-profits saw donation levels begin to grow once again in 2003 as an improved economy in the second half of the year led local donors to...

Security changes inspire optimism at Plum Island lab.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff It's still a bumpy ferry ride to the nation's only diagnostic facility for dangerous animal diseases. But the wave of security concerns at the Plum Island lab appears to have ebbed in recent days...

Operation: Last-minute holiday shopping.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Adina Genn Is your holiday shopping a wrap? If not, you'll find yourself in good company when hitting the stores in search of gift for clients and colleagues to show you care. But time's a' ticking. So before you hit the pavement,...

Life Lessons from Cornell Cooperative.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Malcolm Forbes once said, "Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." This is a principle that the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County has embraced for nearly 90...

Dowling wins $147K grant from U.S. National Science Foundation.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded Dowling College a three-year grant of $147,000 to fund molecular research. The grant is part of the NSF Information Technology Research Program. ...

Fundraiser benefits Interfaith Nutrition Network.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Martin Viette Nurseries in East Norwich held a benefit reception that raised over $8,000 for the Interfaith Nutrition Network. INN operates 19 soup kitchens, four emergency shelters as well as...

Grant awarded to Adults and Children with Learning and Developmental Disabilities.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff State Bank of Long Island presented Adults and Children with Learning and Developmental Disabilities a $4,000 grant. The funds will go directly to a new dental services center on ACLD's Bethpage...

Krispy Kreme sponsors Dress for Success on Long Island.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Krispy Kreme said it will donate a portion of its sales from Dec. 15-16 and Dec. 22-23 to Dress for Success, an organization dedicated to helping low-income women on Long Island find jobs. From...

Spreading the word about breast cancer screenings.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Walsh Messenger Service and KJOY will present the sixth annual "Radio For A Cure" campaign to raise awareness of breast cancer on Long Island. Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and U.S. Rep...

Long Island's Children's Museum spearheads after-school program.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Long Island Children's Museum teamed up with the New York Jets, Computer Associates and Yellow Book USA to provide underprivileged students from P.S. 309 in Brooklyn with an after-school enrichment...

Advantage Payroll Services Long Island creates Hofstra scholarship.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Rob Basso, president of Advantage Payroll Services Long Island, announced the creation of a $2,500 scholarship for one man and one woman attending Hofstra University who possess strong entrepreneurial...

Make-A-Wish Foundation of Metro New York kicks off campaign.
December 19, 2003... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Metro New York kicked off its first annual "Stories of Light" campaign in conjunction with i.park's inaugural tree-lighting ceremony Dec. 1 in the penthouse of the...

Lights out at historic LI law firm.
December 12, 2003... Byline: Rosmaria Mancini Rains & Pogrebin, one of Long Island's first labor law firms and a leader in workplace and employment issues, is being dissolved. The boutique firm is calling it quits after 56 years due to divergent interests...

Henry Schein almost out of flu vaccine.
December 12, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik Henry Schein Inc., the nation's biggest distributor of influenza vaccine, is suffering a little itself. After an aggressive marketing campaign this fall designed to pump up early demand - and following a surge in...

Dot-com icon TechSmart closes shop.
December 12, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter It sounds like a story from 2001. After being showered with tens of millions of venture capital dollars, being celebrated as a new-economy darling on television and nearly tripling its space on Long Island, TechSmart...

Hofstra Law School to launch part-time, evening program.
December 12, 2003... Byline: Rosmaria Mancini Hofstra University School of Law has received final approval from the American Bar Association to launch a part-time, evening juris doctorate program designed for business professionals. David Yellen, the...

Emile's Candies continues to be Oceanside staple.
December 12, 2003... Byline: Adina Genn A chocolate scent floats through the air upon entering the storefront of Emile's Candies in Oceanside. Yet the aroma from the chocolates, pre-packed in gleaming blue and red tinfoil or in gift boxes, is diluted compared...

VC funding continues to rebound on Long Island.
December 12, 2003... Byline: Ben Abelson Three Long Island companies received more than $4.7 million in venture capital financing in the third quarter, according to the newest PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association...

NY Power Authority helps shed light on schools and government.
December 12, 2003... Byline: Claude Solnik When Village Clerk Vincent Ang walks through Valley Stream's government buildings, he sees the light. Ang looks at lights in the village-owned buildings where two bulb fixtures have been reduced to one that he...

New commercial real estate broker closes on two transactions.
December 12, 2003... Byline: LIBN Staff Irwin Krasnow's two-month-old career as a commercial real estate broker is gaining some steam. The CEO of Stratem Computer Group, who linked up with Buck Realty of Long Island, has closed on two transactions. In...

Nasdaq gives BioSpecifics more time to comply with rules.
December 12, 2003... Byline: LIBN Staff Nasdaq has given BioSpecifics Technologies Corp. some more time to find a third independent director on its board and audit committee to comply with its rules. The Lynbrook company has until Feb. 26 to round up a...

Deloitte & Touche appoints new head of LI office.
December 12, 2003... Byline: Ben Abelson Deloitte & Touche has appointed 20-year veteran Ellen Auster to run its Long Island office, the first woman to head local operations of a Big Four firm. She succeeds Adam Weisman, who has been named managing partner of...

NY Senate IT bill raises red flags.
December 12, 2003... Byline: Ken Schachter A state Senate bill that would require information-technology security companies to conduct background checks on their employees has raised red flags in the industry and prompted a giant trade group to throw its...