LI Business News articles from March 2009

LI Business News archives from March 2009

Commentary: Paterson should leave in 2010.
March 2, 2009... Byline: George J. Marlin Shortly after assuming office following Eliot Spitzer's resignation in March 2008, Gov. David Paterson began warning of the severity of the economic downturn and became the first senior elected official to publicly...

Too many neglect long term care insurance.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Remaining healthy in the later years is something we'd like to take for granted. However, one of two people eventually needs some kind of long-term health care, whether at home, in an assisted living facility or...

Developer: Roslyn officials tried to extort millions.
March 2, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg Farmingdale-based developer BITI is accusing the Village of Roslyn of trying to extort at least $6 million in exchange for approvals to build condominiums there. BITI was planning to build the condos on a...

New insurer ready to cover Long Island.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Laura Glasser While large insurers continue to unload Long Island homeowners policies, one company is actually entering the market. PURE, or Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange, a White Plains-based mutual insurance...

Commentary: Obama caused a scary week for the economy.
March 3, 2009... Byline: Raymond Keating Leading up to and after the November 2008 presidential election, various political, economic and policy experts essentially refused to take Barack Obama at his word. They wrote off the idea that President Obama...

Avalon Bay Communities gives up plan to build apartments in Oyster Bay.
March 3, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg After a six-year struggle, Avalon Bay Communities is giving up on its embattled plan to build 150 apartments on five acres in Oyster Bay. Avalon Bay vice president Matthew Whalen confirmed Tuesday that...

Be careful what you tell your tax preparer.
March 3, 2009... Byline: Claude Solnik Few principles are so well enshrined in our nation's legal system as attorney-client privilege. Defendants can confess to attorneys, confident that the information will never see the light of day in court. But do...

Racketeering suit filed against Hauppauge-based Agape World.
March 3, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg A Plainview businessman caught in the alleged Agape World fraud has filed a $31 million lawsuit against the company and its owner Nicholas Cosmo. Richard Mittasch, a licensed securities dealer, claimed he...

National Association of Realtors riled by Obama's proposed budget.
March 3, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg The National Association of Realtors is opposing a provision in President Barack Obama's proposed budget that would reduce the mortgage interest deduction for families earning over $250,000. In a letter to...

Study gives failing grade to Long Island on racial equity in real estate.
March 3, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg A new study from a fair housing advocacy group reports that Long Island gets a failing grade when it comes to racial equity in real estate. Nearly 40 percent of Long Island blacks say that they or someone...

Caithness Long Island Energy Center clears final legal obstacle.
March 3, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels The Caithness Long Island Energy Center has cleared its final obstacle in the courts thanks to the New York Court of Appeals denying a motion to appeal three earlier appellate court decisions regarding the...

Commentary: Advisory panel will play big role in LIPA's future.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Kevin Law As I enter my second year as president and chief executive of the Long Island Power Authority I find myself asking more and more frequently, what does LIPA want to be when it grows up? LIPA is the second-largest...

Commentary: We're looking at a new Hamptons.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Jeff Miller A study at Miami University of Ohio in 2005 discovered something interesting about really smart people. They tend to crack under pressure, burdened by the very notion of failing. Does that explain why the biggest...

Commentary: For Paterson, Gillibrand, 2009 is a do-or-die year.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Jerry Kremer A lot can happen in a year. If you don't believe me then ask David Paterson and Kirsten Gillibrand. Both can attest to the fact that 2008 was the most topsy-turvy year that any politician could expect to experience in...

Suffolk bans toxic bottles.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II Long Island's Eastern county says it is the first municipality in the nation to ban the sale of baby bottles and infant cups that contain Bisphenol-A, know as BPA. BPA is used in the creation of some...

South Fork-based Hamptons Telephone hangs up.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II South Fork phone firm Hamptons Telephone is shutting down. The company, which provided telephone and Internet service to the region, blamed increased federal regulations on telecommunications companies and...

With Madoff, there were red flags: Harry Markopolos seems to be the first to have found them.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Claude Solnik There was, in retrospect, a forest of red flags. But Harry Markopolos seems to be the first to have found them - almost by accident. A decade ago, the financial expert was asked by Rampart Investment Management...

SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar: SEC was spread too thin.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Claude Solnik Sure, the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to catch on to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. But before you trash the federal organization, listen to the SEC's side. Alan Weiner, partner emeritus at Holtz...

Nassau and Suffolk counties to get $173M in stimulus money.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Nassau and Suffolk counties will be sharing about $173 million in federal stimulus funds through increased Federal Medical Assistance Percentage payments for Medicaid over the next 27 months, the state announced...

Middle class housing help in Babylon.
March 4, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg The Town of Babylon and the Long Island Housing Partnership have teamed up to offer $15,000 to middle-income homebuyers. Under the new housing assistance program, a family of one can make up to $81,550 and a...

Pernas pound the pavement for Melville firm.
March 4, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg The father/son team of Ralph and Richard Perna of Melville-based Newmark Knight Frank has inked a bunch of deals in the last few weeks. Poppa Ralph represented Towne Bus in its purchase of a 3.5 acre site on...

U.S. Senators call for Ponzi help.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Three U.S. Senators, including New York Sen. Charles Schumer, have requested that the Senate Finance Committee hold hearings to discuss ways the federal government can help victims of Ponzi schemes. Ponzi...

Long Island exterminator rediscovers an old pest -- bedbugs.
March 5, 2009... Byline: Ambrose Clancy What Steve Free originally thought were withdrawal symptoms turned out to be the first signs of an epidemic. Owner of The Bug Stops Here, a Bohemia-based pest control businesses, Free was on a call five years ago...

Ones to Watch: Long Island Accounting Professionals.
March 5, 2009... Byline: Claude Solnik Shawn D. Anderson Assurance Manager, Melville office PricewaterhouseCoopers As a manager, Anderson is responsible for providing client service, leadership and career development for staff at this firm. He has...

Commentary: Regional thinking is needed.
March 5, 2009... Byline: Stuart Rabinwitz LIBN has asked all 10 members of its Influentials list to weigh in on Long Island's most pressing problems. Over the next few weeks we will publish their stories. First up, Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz, who...

Melville movie studio comes into focus.
March 5, 2009... Byline: Claude Solnik How is this for a second act: Former Fala Direct Marketing chief Jeffrey Jurick is looking to convert the company's former two-building headquarters in Melville into a 128,000-square-foot movie studio. When...

Long Island unemployment hits 6.9 percent.
March 5, 2009... Byline: Laura Glasser Long Island's job market deteriorated rapidly in January, pushing job losses and the unemployment rate to their highest levels in more than 15 years. The region's unemployment rate skyrocketed to 6.9 percent in...

Nassau County sales tax revenue continues to fall.
March 5, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels More bad news coming from the offices of Howard Weitzman, Nassau County Comptroller. Weitzman is reporting that the county received an 8.9 percent drop off in sales tax monies for the time period of Jan. 1 to...

Gov. Paterson's a funny guy, but Dems wonder if the joke's on them.
March 6, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels For the first time in his 23-year career, Gov. David Paterson doesn't want to talk politics. He has an oath to the people, he says, a gaping budget hole to fill, must account to the citizens, fix the deficit,...

Commentary: Column writing should be its own reward.(Column)
March 6, 2009... Byline: John Kominicki It's newspaper awards season, boys and girls, that time of year when journalists all across our great land dig deep into the archives to find something that might merit attention and - dare we think it! - financial...

Commentary: Rep. King's tough climb ahead.
March 6, 2009... Byline: LIBN Staff On one hand, Rep. Peter King is beloved by many of his constituents on the South Shore of Long Island. Firefighters and cops have stayed true to King, a staunch supporter of the police and an advocate of having a strong...

Long Island Government Briefs: March 6, 2009.
March 6, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Suit against Westhampton Beach dismissed A federal district court judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming past and present Westhampton Beach Village trustees and planning board members committed constitutional...

Commentary: How to prepare for a cyber breach.
March 6, 2009... Byline: Jeff Jurick Cyber breaches, breaches of security in which proprietary data is stolen, are occurring with increasing frequency and increasing damage. The Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego reported that in 2008, there were...

Q&A with Theodore M. Bier, president of T.M. Bier & Associates.
March 6, 2009... Byline: David Reich-Hale Theodore M. Bier listens to the talk about going green and thinks it's about time. The president of T.M. Bier & Associates has spent 30 years working on reducing energy costs and consumption. He started one of the...

President of Hauppauge-based GSE Dynamics named 2009 Enterprising Woman of the Year.
March 6, 2009... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Anne D. Shybunko-Moore, president of GSE Dynamics Inc. in Hauppauge, was named a 2009 Enterprising Woman of the Year by Enterprising Women, a national magazine for female entrepreneurs. Shybunko-Moore was a...

Long Islanders on the Move: March 6, 2009.
March 6, 2009... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Accounting Cerini & Associates in Bohemia announced several promotions. Matthew Armandi has been named a partner in the audit and consulting practice. Armandi was previously an audit and consulting manager....

Business.com expert recommends Agape World, despite alleged Ponzi scheme.
March 6, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg While touting the virtues of mezzanine financing, a real estate and construction expert on business.com is still recommending Agape World as a good place to borrow money from, even though the company is alleged to...

Suffolk County putting up ads throughout parks and recreation system.
March 6, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg This hiking trail is brought to you by... Suffolk County is looking to raise cash by putting up ads throughout its parks and recreation system. A naming rights committee will sort through responses by...

A.J. Carter is new public information officer for Town of Huntington.
March 6, 2009... Byline: David Reich-Hale Former Newsday columnist A.J. Carter has joined the Town of Huntington as its new public information officer. Carter spent the past two years as senior vice president for communications at the Empire State...

Commentary: A new look at housing.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Martin Cantor Long Islanders are getting older, and with that comes a change in the region's societal fabric and subsequent demand for different types of housing. However recent housing statistics suggest that this new housing and...

Lake Success-based DealerTrack Holding needs no CFO.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Laura Glasser DealerTrack Holding's chief financial officer, Robert Cox, left the company last week, after his job was cut as part of general staff reductions. Cox will receive a parting gift of almost $450,000. ...

Long Island bank shares battered.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Laura Glasser The stock market fell hard last week, to say the least, pushing some local banks' shares to their lowest levels in more than a decade. Shares of Astoria Financial in Lake Success were beaten down to $6.18 Friday....

Suffolk County sales tax revenue drops 9 percent.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels When it comes to sales tax revenue on Long Island, Nassau County doesn't have the monopoly on bad news. Suffolk County is reporting that its sales tax receipts for January and February show a more than 9...

Suffolk County employers find verifying green cards not so easy.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Claude Solnik North Star Concrete ended up in hot water when Suffolk County determined two of its employees didn't have the right to work in the United States. The company argued it had obtained documents and paid employees a...

Under American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, whistleblowers are now protected.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, not only hopes to put more people to work and turn around the economy, but it also adds protections for employees of...

Visiting Nurses Assn. of Long Island signs long-term lease renewal.
March 9, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg Visiting Nurses Association of Long Island has signed a long-term renewal for their 15,000-square-foot offices at 100 Garden City Plaza in Garden City. The Treeline Companies, which owns and manages the...

Islip's Long Island MacArthur Airport receives federal funds.
March 9, 2009... Byline: David Reich-Hale Islip's Long Island MacArthur Airport has received $100,000 in federal funds for a long-term visioning study. The study will help determine what the best flight routes are around Long Island MacArthur and how...

Commentary: Wall Street's goons don't deserve our money.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Alfonse D'Amato There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that many of our nation's financial institutions are in great peril. The administration and Congress have been rolling out bailout plan after bailout plan, with no end in...

New York man learns it's only a misdemeanor to pretend to be a lawyer.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Claude Solnik Actors portray attorneys on television. But Brian T. Valery went one step further: He played the role in real life. His cases and billing rates (as much as $300 an hour) were real, as were the courts he used. The...

Ones to Watch: Long Island Lawyers.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Claude Solnik Alexander G. Bateman Jr. Partner Ruskin Moscou Faltischek In addition to being co-chair of this Uniondale-based firm's health law department and white collar crime and investigations practice, Bateman last year...

Commentary: A one-shot chance to stimulate the economy.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Jerry Kremer It's hard to visualize the amount of money that will be flowing from Washington to the states in the next few months. At the very least, there will be $750 billion in fresh dollars, and there is the possibility that...

St. James-based Gyrodyne gets day in court against state.
March 10, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg The state's Court of Claims has set an Aug. 3 court date for Gyrodyne Company of America's suit against the state for just compensation on land taken for development. St. James-based Gyrodyne was paid $26.3...

Wells Fargo partners with Northport-based Coach Realtors.
March 10, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg Northport-based Coach Realtors and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage will partner to form a company called Residential Mortgage Division. The joint venture will provide mortgage originations, review applications and...

Town of Brookhaven may revoke Wal-Mart zoning.
March 10, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg A plan to build a 120,000-square-foot Wal-Mart will be challenged by the Brookhaven Town Board Tuesday night. Councilwoman Connie Kepert will present a resolution to reverse a zoning change from 1996 that...

Town of Islip keeps cutting overtime.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II The Town of Islip says it has slashed the amount it spends on overtime by 35 percent in the past two years. Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan said the town paid out $3.67 million in overtime in 2006. That fell to...

One year later, former New York Governor Spitzer keeps low profile.
March 10, 2009... Byline: David Reich-Hale Happy anniversary, Eliot. One year ago today the New York Times took down the steamroller, Gov. Eliot Spitzer. The former attorney general was apparently hooked on prostitutes and after barricading himself for...

Commentary: Castello di Borghese's pinot jewel.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II Long Island wines sometimes have it rough. A fair amount of locals don't even know what they taste like, they struggle for respect in the world arena, and they are often decried as being overpriced. But there...

Commentary: Water management too important.
March 11, 2009... Byline: Stephen M. Jones In our innovative, technology-driven world, where progress and achievements seem commonplace, it is unimaginable that the basic tool of firefighters, water and plenty of it, can become unavailable at the most...

Conventions in L.I. are about more than setting up a booth.
March 11, 2009... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Everything changes, and if you're not quick enough to realize that, change will run over you and keep right on going. That's the guiding principle behind Mike Benti's Dynamic Display, a four-decades-old...

Commentary: The East End's tangled Web can grow online.
March 11, 2009... Byline: Jeff Miller What do places like Chattanooga, Newport and Baltimore have that the East End doesn't? Well, for one thing they have socko Web sites devoted to spreading the word about their many attractions. Soon they'll have some...

Commentary: For Long Island to improve, racism must fall by the wayside.
March 11, 2009... Byline: Allan B. Ramirez The only growth for Long Island has come from newcomers, and they are immigrants. Long Island has been changing from a white suburban community to an ethnically diverse region that mirrors the great gateway to...

L.I. attorney Lawrence Feldman dies at 51.(Obituary)
March 11, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Lawrence Feldman, the lead attorney for the Hempstead Lighthouse Project, died Wednesday morning of a heart attack. He was 51 years old. As a partner in Farrell Fritz's real estate, land use, and...

Farkas goes co-op in Oakdale.
March 11, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg Garden City-based Metropolitan Realty Associates, best known for its office properties, is dipping its toe into the residential arena. Metropolitan is offering 51 newly renovated co-op apartments for sale in...

Hauppauge-based Ashlind Properties inks industrial deals.
March 11, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg Hauppauge-based Ashlind Properties has subleased 40,000 square feet to Able Rigging Contractors in Deer Park. Ashlind principal Rich Cohen and Michael Landsman represented Able. Cohen also represented Island...

Hauppauge-based Bank of Smithtown in the Big Apple.
March 11, 2009... Byline: Laura Glasser Bank of Smithtown has opened its first New York City branch, located in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. The Hauppauge-based bank has been working on a move to the Big Apple for quite some time, and already has...

Hauppauge-based Groovecar helps sell American cars.
March 11, 2009... Byline: Laura Glasser Hauppauge-based Groovecar has partnered with a national program built to resurrect business at U.S. auto manufacturers. Groovecar signed a marketing agreement with CUcorp, the founders of Invest in America, which...

N.Y. Islanders owner Charles Wang wants taxpayer dollars.
March 11, 2009... Byline: David Reich-Hale Though federal stimulus money is supposed to go to shovel-ready projects, the the Lighthouse project -still in its planning stage - is big enough, and regionally significant enough, to win the attention of Albany,...

Commentary: Smells like peaches, tastes like peaches.
March 11, 2009... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II Sure, maybe LI Living's wine expert is a bit of a geek, even a snob when it comes to his favorite fermented grape juice product... but not as much as you may think. For example, I have a few good things to...

Losing tax credit could mean curtains for Long Island movie industry.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Claude Solnik Late last year, Emmy award-winning director Barry Sonnenfeld turned his back on Hollywood to film an HBO pilot Suburban Shootout in the Hamptons. He was lured to Long Island by the scenery, proximity to his East...

Long Island Financial Briefs: March 12, 2009.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Laura Glasser Herald recruits two Two top-level New York bankers are joining startup Herald National Bank, which opened its doors in November. Henry Auffarth and Roger Bedore, formerly of Citibank and Signature Bank...

Long Island Government Briefs: March 12, 2009.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Nassau needs you to go shopping to fill its coffers More bad news coming from the offices of Howard Weitzman, Nassau County comptroller. Weitzman is reporting that the county received 8.9 percent less in...

For Long Island banks, more tough tests to come.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Laura Glasser Long Island's banks have so far dodged the worst recession-related losses, but bad news is on the way. Bank analysts said loan defaults could spike as job losses mount. Laid off workers will struggle to stretch...

Foreclosures up in Nassau, down in Suffolk.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Laura Glasser Foreclosures continued to increase on Long Island in February. Though in Suffolk County, there was a sign of hope. Foreclosures in the eastern county decreased on a year-over-year basis for the second consecutive...

Commentary: William J. Cunningham cries the blues.
March 12, 2009... Byline: David Reich-Hale Oh how difficult it must be to be William J. Cunningham. Apparently, the multiple raises and $170,000 salary wasn't quite enough to soothe his hurt feelings. In an op-ed he penned in Newsday today, Cunningham...

Bethpage-based Cablevision to be all-digital by 2010.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II The analog age is ending, especially when it comes to television. Verizon already broadcasts entirely in digital, as does DirecTV. And pretty soon we can add Cablevision to that list. The Bethpage-based...

Commentary: Recession wines that support Long Island.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II People are cutting back in this economy as credit tightens, wages are frozen and the stock market seems incapable of providing any returns on their investments. But instead of crying over that bottle of Amarone...

Blues duo to perform at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II It's just what a high-energy lab needs to balance it out, a down and dirty blues group. On April 10 at 8 p.m., blues duo Paul Rishell and Annie Raines will perform at the U.S. Department of Energy's...

Taking on Sen. Gillibrand in 2010 election.
March 12, 2009... Byline: David Reich-Hale Will Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand face a serious primary fight in 2010? Many downstate Democrats remain skeptical of Gov. David Paterson's appointee, but only one party member, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, has said she...

Why Riverhead Resorts thinks it can save the East End economy.
March 13, 2009... Byline: David Winzelberg It made perfect sense to Bugsy Siegel to transform a barren stretch of Nevada desert into a tourist destination. And Walt Disney saw a Disney World in Florida orange groves. So why can't an old Navy yard in...

Commentary: Good move by Citibank.
March 13, 2009... Byline: LIBN Staff For nearly a year, Citigroup Inc. has been the symbol for all that has gone wrong in the financial services industry. Loans gone bad, excess spending and large sums of government money to stay afloat have sacked Citi's...

Commentary: Two ideas that just might save the newspaper industry.
March 13, 2009... Byline: John Kominicki Internet sales gurus have come up with a new theory about online commerce: You can't market directly on the Web; you have to use your site as a side door to sell visitors other stuff. This is disheartening news...

Long Island Environmental Briefs: March 13, 2009.
March 13, 2009... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Events that impact attendees, not the earth The U.S. Green Building Council-Long Island Chapter is hosting its second annual gala on Wednesday at the Marriott Long Island in Uniondale. The organization's goal...

Q&A with Ernie Canadeo, president of Long Island's EGC Group.
March 13, 2009... Byline: David Reich-Hale Ernie Canadeo has lived through good times and bad and here is his message: A bad economy does not give you an excuse to stop marketing. LIBN spoke to the EGC Group president about his company, the recession and...

Long Island Nonprofit Briefs: March 13, 2009.
March 13, 2009... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Community heroes recognized during NAACP centennial The Long Island Coalition of NAACP Branches recently honored 10 Long Islanders for making a difference in their communities. More than 1,000 people attended...