LI Business News articles from November 2004

LI Business News archives from November 2004

Suit: SBA slow to push deals for women.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Adina Genn Despite federal legislation passed in 2000 to reserve contracts in industries historically underrepresented by women-owned small businesses, the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce insists that access to government...

Long Island seafood importers oppose planned shrimp tariff.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter Washington's plans to slap tariffs on imported shrimp have prompted a jumbo outcry from seafood importers on Long Island and elsewhere. In July, the U.S. Commerce Department made a preliminary finding that...

Jobco Inc. to sell Long Island real estate portfolio to Westchester-based investment firm.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Nick Anastasi Jobco Inc. has entered into contract to sell a nine-property Long Island office real estate portfolio to Westchester-based investment firm Greenspan Houlihan Parnes for an estimated $40 million. The portfolio...

Brookhaven Town planners to consider scaled-back mixed-use development plans.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Nick Anastasi Real estate giant Trammel Crow Residential, rebuffed earlier this year in an effort to build apartments with supporting retail along Miller Place-Yaphank Road, is back with a significantly scaled-back plan that...

Long Island-based Computer Associates acquiring Netegrity Inc.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter Computer Associates' stalked Netegrity Inc. since last spring before pouncing when the identity management software firm hit choppy financial waters, insiders say. Last month CA announced it was acquiring...

LI-based Banfi Vintners' Gold Coast crop sustains too much damage.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Claude Solnik For the third time in six years, Banfi Vintners said a poor harvest will keep it from producing wine from its Old Brookville vineyard, the only commercial winery in Nassau County. While Long Island's wine industry...

Marcum & Kliegman expands Manhattan, Long Island operations.
November 5, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff ***** CORRECTION: Clarification: A recent article ("Newsday plans major overhaul," LIBN, Oct. 24, 2003) correctly reported that the Audit Bureau of Circulations listed Newsday as the 15th largest U.S. newspaper...

LI-based Symbol Technologies' bottom line benefits from settling issues with former execs.
November 5, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff Sometimes former executives can have an impact on the bottom line. When Symbol Technologies reported its third-quarter results last month, money not paid to one fugitive executive and funds contributed by the...

Hamptons film festival assists East End hotels.
November 5, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale The 12th annual Hamptons International Film Festival pumped $200,000 into the East End hotel industry, according to the event's executive director. "Easily that much went there, we spent quite a bit of our own...

Why precious metals appeal to the masses.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Greg LaRose Finding a fortune in gold brings to mind images of high-risk ventures and speculative undertakings, but purveyors of this precious commodity consider it as accessible and stable as any other form of investing. For the...

NY State comptroller to audit Miller Place schools.
November 5, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff New York State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi plans to audit the Miller Place Union Free School District in Suffolk County for administrative expenses, such as credit card usage, meals and travel. Miller Place is the...

Stony Brook Univ. to take over Southampton program.
November 5, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff In a deal that has been in the works for months, Stony Brook University has agreed to take over Southampton's undergraduate marine sciences program starting next fall, the institutions announced. The agreement...

Michael Hollander resigns from Long Island Hotels.
November 5, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff Michael Hollander, the beleaguered former chief of the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, has resigned his executive post at Long Island Hotels. Hollander, who faces felony charges for allegedly filing...

Two former executives of LI-based Computer Associates fined.
November 5, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff Two former vice presidents of finance at Computer Associates International have agreed to pay a total of $387,470 in penalties and forfeit ill-gotten gains under judgments entered in the U.S District Court for the...

Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting changes name.
November 5, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff The Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting has changed its name and is expanding its mission as a media watchdog. Executive Director Jaci Clement said the newly renamed Fair Media Council is embracing all forms...

Commentary: LI's private companies have positive outlook on economy.
November 5, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff With the daily headlines of accounting scandals, executive greed and stock market turbulence grabbing most of the attention, it's easy to forget about the Island's vast array of private companies, even though they employ...

Commentary: Drug costs, lack of high-paying jobs loom large.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Martin Cantor With the elections behind us, it's time to get back to business and begin addressing two of the most immediate concerns in the United States: the cost and availability of prescription drugs and the need for more...

Commentary: Presidential campaign of 2004 lasted too long.
November 5, 2004... Byline: John Kiernan I'm writing this column before we know the results of the presidential election. I've spoken to dozens of people about the election and there's one thing I've consistently heard. People believe that presidential...

Commentary: As 2004 election season ends, new campaigns commence.
November 5, 2004... Byline: John Kiernan Has this year's election wiped you out emotionally? Are you tired of all the rantings and ravings of the candidates and their surrogates? Are you ready for a little reprieve from politics? Forget about it! Before...

LI's Teachers Federal Credit Union targets small businesses.
November 5, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale Credit unions have generally been known as the financial services companies of choice for middle-income individuals who want to avoid fees and obtain a higher rate of return on savings accounts. Credit unions also...

East Meadow-based accounting firm adds new partner.
November 5, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale East Meadow-based accounting firm Raich Ende Malter & Co. now has the ability to assist clients that are concerned about complying with Securities and Exchange Commission rules and regulations. To offer the SEC...

IRS revises offer in compromise application.
November 5, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale The Internal Revenue Service announced that its revised taxpayer application for an offer in compromise, the Form 656 package, is now available. An offer in compromise is an agreement between a taxpayer and the...

Cablevision Systems bulks up on subscription games.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter Cablevision Systems seems to be in the news every day. Plans are afoot to spin off several cable channels and the Voom satellite TV business. The Bethpage-based cable provider is involved in well-chronicled spats with...

Wi-Fi service arrives just in time for Stony Brook's Center of Excellence in Wireless and Info. Tech.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter Bring your wireless card to this year's CEWIT conference on Nov. 9. As in its 2003 inaugural, Stony Brook's Center of Excellence In Wireless and Information Technology will be holding its major conference at the...

Hearing aids go wireless with Bluetooth.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter Those whose hearing has taken a turn for the worse after years of listening to rock 'n' roll or lingering at construction sites have some new alternatives thanks to wireless technology. A new generation of hearing...

Customers give Verizon, T-Mobile top marks.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter Like the Rolling Stone's Mick Jagger, a lot of wireless customers just can't get no satisfaction. Based on a new report by researcher In-State/MDR wireless, subscribers increasingly are willing to leave their...

Real estate exec. LI must compete regionally for future growth.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Nick Anastasi Scott Rechler, president of Melville-based Reckson Associates, said Long Island has to start thinking more regionally if it expects to remain economically competitive in the tri-state market. Rechler addressed a...

NY State Supreme Court overturns Long Beach landlords' $6M award.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Nick Anastasi The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court has overturned a ruling that awarded two Long Beach landlords $6 million. Whereas the Supreme Court ruled that the City of Long Beach had violated the...

NYC street ranks at top for rent.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Nick Anastasi New York's Fifth Avenue is the world's most expensive shopping street, according to Main Streets Across the World, an annual report published by Cushman & Wakefield. Shops located on Fifth Avenue, between 50th and...

First hire can be learning experience for entrepreneurs.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Adina Genn Andrew Kolikoff spent a lot of time building Kolikoff & Co. to the point where the work demanded a second set of hands. In July, Kolikoff brought on his first employee, Ross Jacobs, confident that Jacobs was a...

Commentary: Is your mindset clear on the kind of growth you need?
November 5, 2004... Byline: Vikram Rajan Long Island is chock-full of business seminars, peer support groups and business best-sellers. And many of them have good ideas. But this can lead to information- and idea-overload. Most entrepreneurs become...

Unhappy in the working for public company, Apple specialists return to LI.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Adina Genn Businesses succeed when they fulfill an unmet need or do it better than the competition. Vinny DiSpigno and his business partner David Salav, have been there, done that, with a company they founded in the 1990s and...

Nassau Community College: 'Where success starts and continues'.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Ken Cerini I like to think of Nassau Community College as a value-added school," said President Sean Fanelli. "Not everyone attending the school is looking to get a degree; some are brushing up on skills, some are getting credits...

Huntington restaurant hosting auction, cocktail party, fundraiser for heart foundation.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Harrison Tull was only 14 months old when congenital heart disease took his life. In his honor, Harrison's Heart Foundation was created to fight the disease. On Nov. 15, Blue Honu, a restaurant in Huntington,...

Free financial seminar in offered at Claremont Hotel in Roslyn.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Adriane Berg, attorney, author and financial gerontologist, will host "The Seven Challenges of Longevity," a free financial seminar on Nov. 12 at the Claremont Hotel in Roslyn. She will cover a variety of topics,...

Child Abuse Prevention Services of Roslyn seeks volunteers.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Child Abuse Prevention Services of Roslyn is searching for volunteers to aid in the mission to prevent child abuse and neglect. The organization needs people to do presentations in school workshops on bullying,...

SUNY Old Westbury receives $345,000 grant.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman The SUNY College at Old Westbury Chemistry and Physics department received a $345,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The money will be used to purchase a new 400MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance...

Canine Companions raises $60K at Farmingdale State Univ. campus.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman With the support of Snoopy himself, Canine Companions raised more than $60,000 at its annual Dog Walk-A-Thon and Canine Education Fair held on Oct. 16 at the Farmingdale State University campus. The event raised...

Nassau County parent assn. holding Chanukah gift boutique.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman The Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County Parent Association is holding a Chanukah gift boutique Nov. 14. The event is being sponsored by the Jewish DJ service and will offer items such as jewelry, skincare...

Hauppauge-based IVCi sets sights on Inc. 500 Hall of Fame.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Adina Genn What beats making the Inc. 500 four years straight? Going for the Inc. 500 Hall of Fame. That's the intention of IVCi, a Hauppauge-based integrator of AV and teleconferencing equipment, according to Robert Swing, the...

East Moriches-based The United Coaching Associates publishes with iUniverse.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Adina Genn Amy Fisher isn't the only Long Islander to publish with iUniverse, the Nebraska-based self-publishing house. Now East Moriches-based The United Coaching Associates, which trains and develops coaches and helps individuals...

Long Island educational facilities announce staffing changes: Nov. 5, 2004.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Henry Sikorski was appointed vice president of institutional advancement at Farmingdale State University of New York. He will be responsible for contract training, continuing education, alumni affairs, fund-raising...

Suffolk County National Bank names new VP, branch manager.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Lynn Burnett has joined Suffolk County National Bank as vice president and branch manager of the Hauppauge office. She will assist the company in achieving financial goals through planning and assessment. ...

IRS appoints field director of accounts management in Brookhaven.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman The Internal Revenue Service has appointed Alana M. Casey field director of accounts management for the Wage & Investment Operating Division in Brookhaven. She has been employed by the IRS since 1973 and has held...

Long Island medical facilities announces staffing changes: Nov. 5, 2004.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Richard Bagdonas, attending physician in the Nassau University Medical Center department of emergency medicine and physician coordinator for Nassau County Medical Control, was honored with the 2004 Nassau Regional...

Garden City law firm, Quadrino & Schwartz, adds to staff.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Harold Levy has joined the Garden City law firm of Quadrino & Schwartz. He will concentrate on commercial litigation, insurance coverage litigation and class action law suits. Previously, he was a partner at the...

Long Island media companies announce staffing changes: Nov. 5, 2004.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Joseph J. Lhota and John Adamovich Jr. were named co-chief financial officers at Rainbow Media Enterprises. Lhota will be responsible for the company's finance, treasury and investor relations. Adamovich will be...

Long Island nonprofit organizations announce staffing changes: Nov. 1, 2004.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman The Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind of Smithtown has appointed Douglas A. Gensel, a Long Island veterinarian, to its board of directors. Gensel is the associate veterinarian at Countryside Animal Clinic in...

Virginia A. O'Dwyer Real Estate in Stony Brook appoints sales associate.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Briget McCormick was appointed licensed sales associate at Virginia A. O'Dwyer Real Estate in Stony Brook. She will be responsible for selling and listing houses throughout eastern Long Island. She also works as...

Various Long Island, Manhattan firms merge.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Claude Solnik Melville-based Holtz Rubenstein & Co., already a big fish in the sea of Long Island accounting firms, had long wanted to expand into New York City. The company had already picked up a number of clients there without a...

Digital records bring CPAs into new era.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Claude Solnik Accountants today have more to worry about than paper trails. They have to be competent at sniffing out electronic ones too. "The whole world is going to a paperless environment," said Jeffrey Weiner, managing...

LI-based Comverse exec. says Financial Accounting Standards Board changes are meaningless.
November 5, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale The decision to give public companies until June 2005 to implement proposed standards for expensing employee stock options made national news earlier this month. But a top official at one of Long Island's top...

NY State atty. general calls on not-for-profits to register.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Claude Solnik The New York State Attorney General's office said that it has collected more than $500,000 in fees owed to the state this year by nonprofits that had failed to register with the office. A spokesman for Attorney...

LI's top 50 private firms report mix of optimism and caution.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Carl Corry It's been 80 years since violinist Sam Ash and his wife, Rose, opened their first music store in front of their three-bedroom apartment in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Since that time, Hicksville-based Sam Ash Music Corp....

Women still bump heads against the glass ceiling.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman In 1964, the United States passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color or origin. But today, 40 years after women were guaranteed equal opportunity under the...

Many of LI's successful ventures are family businesses.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter At some of Long Island's largest companies, business and family are two sides of the same coin. For clans like the Ashs (of music retailer Sam Ash Music Corp.), the Roses (of beverage distributor Clare Rose Inc.),...

Global conglomerates snap up Long Island giants.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Claude Solnik Few companies can point to as long and varied a history on Long Island as Yellow Book USA. The firm, founded by Bettye Gorindar in 1930, for decades claimed a place on the honor roll of private companies here. But...

Cool summer spells not-so-hot beer, AC sales on Long Island.
November 5, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale Very little affects Long Islanders' summertime plans like the weather. And no one is more keenly aware of that than Clare Rose Inc., the Patchogue-based beer wholesaler. When it rains, or the mercury sinks...

Barry and Florence Friedberg JCC in Oceanside names new president.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Fred Richman was named president of the Barry and Florence Friedberg JCC in Oceanside. He is a partner at the Lake Success law firm of Solomon Richman Greenberg. Since joining the JCC in 1996, Richman has held...

LI-based Chernoff Diamond & Co. appoints two new employees.
November 5, 2004... Byline: Wendy Friedman Chernoff Diamond & Co. has announced the appointment of two new employees. Kevin Day joined the firm's Garden City office as an associate benefits consultant. He will provide health and welfare consulting...

Cablevision Systems Corp. posts strong third-quarter earnings.
November 12, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff Cablevision Systems Corp. posted strong third-quarter revenue growth and raised its 2004 forecast. Revenue rose 20 percent to $1.2 billion, compared with $976 million in the year-ago quarter. Helping to drive...

Selection of stores and affluent population drives Long Island's retail economy.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter Around the end of July, the impulse struck. Laura Santora, a 23-year-old legal assistant, had been peppered with marketing messages about the iPod Mini and she was ready to make her move. "They would talk about it...

Stony Brook University to offer course in managing outsourced software development.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter The practice of shipping software development offshore may be hotly debated in some economic circles, but at Stony Brook University it's entering the curriculum. Advanced Software Engineering, to be offered in the...

Port Washington-based Koch Entertainment bilked out of $244K by former exec assistant.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter Koch Entertainment, the indie record company whose labels include Metal Munching Maniacs, Crazy Boy and Death Row, has been bilked out of nearly a quarter million dollars, according to police. Janel Bannister, a...

Interest growing in Brownfields redevelopment for homes on Long Island.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Nirmalya Sen A year after the passage of a bill that streamlined the process of redeveloping brownfields sites in the state, local developers are moving to create new housing at those locations, local experts say. When the...

Long Island residents approve four open space bond referenda.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Nick Anastasi To Lee Koppelman, the overwhelming approval of four open space bond referenda on the ballot across Long Island Nov. 2 means one thing: "that the public wants to stop development." Koppelman, executive director of...

Queens electronics firm making move to Long Island.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Nick Anastasi The squeeze on available industrial property in Queens is tightening, pushing yet another business toward greener pastures on Long Island. This time it's jWin Electronics, a maker of stereos, video cameras,...

Galluccio Family Winery in Cutchogue sells wines from vineyards all over NY.
November 12, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale It was the late 1950s, early 1960s, and Vince Galluccio's father operated one of the four restaurants he would own in his lifetime. It was an Italian eatery - and yes, there was a bottle of red and a bottle of...

Bethpage Federal Credit Union hits its target: $2 billion in assets.
November 12, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale When Kirk Kordeleski grabbed hold of the reins at Bethpage Federal Credit Union in 2000, he set out with one major goal: doubling the organization's assets. Less than five years later, that mission has been...

Florida hurricanes generate business for Long Island environmental cleanup firm.
November 12, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff While the hurricanes that swept through Florida over the past few months have become a part of history, they're still generating business for at least one Long Island firm that conducts environmental cleanups. Water...

Keynote speaker at Stony Brook conference comments on trip from New Jersey to Long Island.
November 12, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff Quoting Woody Allen, Robert Lucky, the keynote speaker at the CEWIT conference, noted that "80 percent of life is showing up." The journey to the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury may have crossed familiar...

F1 Boston gets approval to build indoor racing facility in Long Island.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Nick Anastasi F1 Boston, a developer of Formula One-style indoor go-kart racing and corporate conference centers, has won approvals from the Town of Huntington to build a 100,000-square-foot facility on Spagnoli Road near the...

Long Island-based Harrison Leifer DiMarco opens office in NYC.
November 12, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale In an attempt to break out of the image of being a suburban marketing and public relations company, Harrison Leifer DiMarco has opened a small office at 1 Penn Plaza in Manhattan. "Long Island is only so big,"...

Computer Associates International wins designation, Chinese financial benefits.
November 12, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff Computer Associates International Inc. has won designation by China as an official "software enterprise," which will give its Chinese operations and designated employees preferential tax and purchasing status. Under...

Petro parent, Star Gas Partners, gets waivers, additional financing.
November 12, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff The parent company of Petro, a major provider of home heating oil on Long Island, has obtained additional credit to keep it operating and buy additional gas to supply its customers. Star Gas Partners, which warned...

Bethpage Federal Credit Union acquires AIL Federal Credit Union for $12M.
November 12, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff Bethpage Federal Credit Union, which recently cracked $2 billion in assets, has acquired AIL Federal Credit Union for $12 million. AIL's North Babylon branch will be converted into a Bethpage branch over the weekend....

Energy company KeySpan Corp. grooms Robert J. Fani for CEO position.
November 12, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff Energy company KeySpan Corp. has extended the contract of Chief Executive Officer Robert Catell through July, 31, 2006, and positioned President and Chief Operating Officer Robert J. Fani to serve as his likely...

Commentary: For Newsday's Schneider, things turned out too big.
November 12, 2004... Byline: LIBN Staff Among other things, 35-year Newsday veteran Howie Schneider was known for emphasizing important stories to reporters and editors by announcing, "This is big." Think Baby Jane Doe in the early '80s, the 1996 TWA...

Commentary: In wake of probes, facts should prevail.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Robert A. Rusbuldt and David R. Bauer A recent lawsuit against Marsh & McLennan Cos. and a flurry of subpoenas to several insurance carriers have sent shock waves through the insurance industry and garnered widespread attention...

Commentary: Smaller states need Electoral College.
November 12, 2004... Byline: John Kiernan The classic love song by George and Ira Gershwin proclaims "Our Love is Here to Stay." Despite the deepest hopes of liberals across the nation, including the editorial board of the New York Times, the Electoral College...

Commentary: What the president needs: a consultation with Roget.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Jerry Kremer Are you a computer wizard? Can you make the computer hum at the touch of a key or two? I'm jealous of the people who sit at the computer and churn out charts, diagrams, PowerPoint presentations and other modern-day...

President Bush promises tax cuts: Will it help angel investing?
November 12, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale Perhaps the most amusing part of last week's presidential election came on Tuesday afternoon, when early exit polls released on the Internet gave Sen. John Kerry a slight lead in almost every single swing state....

Commerce Bank opens branch in Huntington Station.
November 12, 2004... Byline: David Reich-Hale Now that it's opened the doors to a branch in Huntington Station, Commerce Bank has 18 branches on Long Island. The latest location is Commerce's 300th branch overall. The bank, which made its Long Island...

Hauppauge-based Globecomm taps banker, expands credit line.
November 12, 2004... Byline: Ken Schachter To make money, you've got to spend it. That business axiom is being taken to heart by satellite communications provider Globecomm Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: GCOM). The Hauppauge-based company has increased its line of...