LI Business News articles from November 2008

LI Business News archives from November 2008

Caithness Long Island preps pitch for second Yaphank power plant.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Construction on the Caithness Long Island power plant in Yaphank is still more than six months from completion, but officials have already started planning a second plant on the 96-acre greenfield property. ...

Erasing a hard drive, or recycling one, is not as easy as you think.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik In an era when computers go out of style faster than the latest fashion, firms are turning to companies that specialize in erasing data and recycling electronic equipment. Simply disposing of old computers, even if...

Customer relationship management software a must-have for businesses.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Customer relationship management software programs can empower salespeople by streamlining their efforts and putting useful customer information at their fingertips to help them close a deal. But in order for CRM...

Commentary: Why shopping at the new Tanger Outlet is not for me.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Eric Alexander I suppose in the absence of an approved and built large-scale, mixed-use project, the news of the opening of Tanger Outlet at the Arches will garner a great deal of fanfare in the months to come. We knew that there...

Circuit City to close four Long Island stores.
November 4, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg Troubled electronics retailer Circuit City announced Monday it will close four of its Long Island locations, part of its plan to shutter 155 stores nationwide. The retail chain will cut 17 percent of its...

Nervous creditors put squeeze on small businesses.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser As a growing number of consumers struggle to pay down debt, banks and credit card companies are slashing available credit limits to reduce the amount they would lose if customers can't pay up. American Express,...

Commentary: Economic forecast remains gloomy.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Raymond Keating I really don't like being a downer when it comes to the economy. But the numbers are the numbers. Interestingly, when news hit in late October that the U.S. economy shrank by 0.3 percent in the third quarter,...

Islandia ignores county protest, approves hotel, condo project.
November 5, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg The Village of Islandia has cleared the way for a mixed-use development on 12 vacant acres at the southwest corner of Motor Parkway and Veterans Highway, despite objections from the Suffolk County Planning...

More L.I. firms call on Internet-based phone.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Austin Travel recently bid farewell to traditional telecom. The travel agency tackled a very different type of travel issue: It reduced the time its workers spend traveling to work by harnessing an increasingly...

Hauppauge-based Madison National Bank makes money in third quarter.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Madison National Bank, which only launched at the beginning of last year, had its first profitable quarter during the period ended Sept. 30, earning about $78,000, compared to a $900,000 loss in the same quarter last...

Foley routs Trunzo, New York Senate balance of power shifts.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Brookhaven Town Supervisor Brian X. Foley's gamble paid off. Foley, the embattled Democratic Brookhaven supervisor, easily defeated longtime incumbent Caesar Trunzo on Tuesday night for Suffolk County's Third...

Calverton National Cemetary in Suffolk County expansion planned.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II One of the biggest national cemeteries for veterans, the Calverton National Cemetary in Suffolk County, is going to get larger. According to 27 East, the federal government will invest $29 million, by means...

First National Bank of Long Island income rises on increase in loans.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser The First National Bank of Long Island said Wednesday its third-quarter profit rose 20 percent over the year-ago quarter on an increase in loans. For the period ended Sept. 30, the Glen Head-based bank reported...

Suffolk Legislature passes budget.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy is expected to veto the $2.64 billion budget passed by the Legislature Wednesday afternoon. The Suffolk County Legislature passed a $2.64 billion operating budget Wednesday...

Oakdale-Bohemia teachers market manly aromas.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Call it the battle of the scents. In February, Ben Krakaur and Joseph Cappiello, teachers at Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School, went back to Krakaur's house after work and entered a space that smelled of orchards and...

Long Island companies embrace cheap and easy YouTube for videos.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Jack Chapman, a salary negotiation expert in Chicago, wanted to increase the amount of time people linger on his Web site. So he added video. In the past, that might have been complicated and costly, requiring...

Commentary: A lesson about the up-and-down life of Wall Street.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Jeff Miller If you're a young person who wants the thrill of a lifetime, you can go to rodeo school in Nevada and learn how to ride bucking broncos. Or you can stay right here and play the stock market game. This year, either...

Connecticut firm moves division to LI.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Fairfield, Conn.-based Foundation Source, a company that provides support services to private foundations, is relocating its tax and legal affairs division to Long Island. It's the company's first office on the...

Commentary: Gotta keep them separated: Tom Suozzi and Steve Levy.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels The Long Island Housing Partnership's Chairman's Symposium touted the appearance of county executives Tom Suozzi and Steve Levy on Thursday, and it didn't disappoint. Both were there, and both performed as...

Commentary: Bodices ripped at Cold Spring Harbor Lab.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Call it "Passion Among the Test Tubes." Or "You Light Up My Bunsen Burner." No, call it by its actual title, "Experimental Heart," a romantic thriller published this month by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press....

Commentary: Up Front: As our nation unites, get ready for the great divide.
November 6, 2008... Byline: John Kominicki If you have household income of less than $250,000, please turn the page. This week's column is devoted exclusively to readers who are about to get their wealth redistributed. I'll wait. Are all those pesky...

Nassau County Executive Suozzi calls for 90-day foreclosure moratorium on LI.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi on Thursday called for mortgage lenders on Long Island to implement a moratorium on foreclosures. Suozzi, speaking at the Long Island Housing Partnership's Chairman's Symposium,...

Ones to Watch: Long Island Technology Firms.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II Jason Aptekar President and Chief Technology Officer Mithril Technology Aptekar is the founder of this Westbury-based firm that provides technology services and infrastructure to businesses of every size....

In search of the perfect office chair in Long Island.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Ask most people the question and be prepared for silence and a blank stare. But when we asked some Long Islanders to talk about their office chairs they responded with the enthusiasm, even passion, usually...

Q&A with Mel Springer, asst. district director of Service Corps of Retired Executives Long Island.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II Mel Springer, assistant district director at Service Corps of Retired Executives Long Island, knows how tough it is to start a business even in the best of times. The former banking executive is helping...

Free golf mulligan for Long Island Rail Road retirees.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II When the New York Times broke the story about how almost all retirees from the Long Island Rail Road were collecting disability, the outrage was intense. Idea of able-bodied retired people playing golf all day...

Melville-based Bovie Medical Corp. profit falls.(Financial report)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Melville-based Bovie Medical Corp. said Monday third-quarter profit dropped 22.4 percent year-over-year on a decline in sales. For the three months ended Sept. 30, the medical instruments maker posted profit of...

Commentary: Obama's economic beliefs could be damaging.
November 10, 2008... Byline: Raymond Keating Politics and elections do not repeal the laws of economics. This fact of life tends to irritate many politicians. On the campaign trail, they pander for votes, and put forth the idea that government can do just...

For Commerce Bancorp, 100 Long Island branches and a brand new name.
November 11, 2008... Byline: David Reich-Hale It's TD Bank, eh? Six years after Commerce Bancorp entered Long Island with a flourish, the bank's name quickly vanished from the regional landscape, replaced by Toronto-based TD Bank's logo. Gone are Mr....

Dowling Report: Long Island taxpayers gave New York state $11 billion more than they received.(Report)
November 11, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Long Island has billions of reasons for wanting to become its own state. According to a new report, from 2002 to 2006 Long Island taxpayers gave New York state $11.6 billion more than they received back,...

Commentary: For Long Island, a bum deal on Election Day.
November 11, 2008... Byline: Martin Cantor The adage about being careful what you wish for because you just might get it is no more appropriate than now, since the results of last week's elections. The Brookhaven and Islip voters wanted Brian Foley to...

How to choose a direct mail firm.
November 11, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee A good direct mail firm will efficiently handle your mailing, getting it to its targeted recipients on time, at a good price. Throughout the process, the firm will act as a partner, brainstorming solutions to...

N.Y. Governor Paterson pitches deep education cuts.
November 12, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels The $5.2 billion in budget cuts proposed by Gov. David Paterson for the next two years will result in up to 10 percent cuts in already-budgeted state funding to Long Island school districts. Paterson, who...

Now in control of Albany, Dems promise to protect Long Island.
November 12, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels While area Republicans decry the state Senate's balance of power shift as a losing proposition for the region, those now in the majority, including Long Island's two Democratic senators, argue that Long Island...

Long Island investigation firm focuses on freeing the wrongfully convicted.
November 12, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Jay Salpeter, the former homicide detective whose work helped free Martin Tankleff last year got a phone call about a prisoner whose case felt strangely familiar. It was Patrick Schoendorf, convicted of murder based...

Gyrodyne says New York owes more than $98M for Flowerfield.
November 12, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg Gyrodyne Co. of America says the state owes it $98 million for property seized by Stony Brook University, according to appraisals filed with the Court of Claims on Wednesday. The St. James development company...

Melville-based Arrow Electronics acquires two companies.
November 12, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Melville-based Arrow Electronics said Wednesday it was acquiring two Asian companies for an undisclosed amount. The electronics distributor agreed to purchase Korea-based Excel Tech and Singapore-based Eteq...

Smithtown funeral home lets fans of pop culture can take their obsessions to the grave.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy John Vigliante is an advocate of people expressing themselves. Even when they're dead. If your passion is to live and uh, die with the Mets or Yankees, Vigliante will put you in a custom-made casket authorized by...

Ones to Watch: Long Island Lawyers.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Alexander G. Bateman Jr. Partner, Ruskin Moscou Faltischek Bateman is co-chair of this Uniondale-based firm's health law department and white collar crime and investigations practice. He this fall was appointed...

Anthony M. Figliola joins lobbying arm of Uniondale law firm.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Anthony M. Figliola, a government relations professional, has joined Island Strategies, the lobbying arm of the Uniondale law firm Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, as vice president. Figliola brings almost a decade...

Long Islanders On the Move: November 14, 2008.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Accounting J. Wilson Mitchell has joined Weiser as an audit partner in the financial services practice. Mitchell, who will split his time between the firm's New York and Lake Success offices, was most...

Bad weather, higher costs wilt the '08 harvest for Long Island farmers.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Phil Schmidt stood in a high-roofed shed staring out at a yard turning to mud under a cold autumn rain. Beyond the yard, gray sheets of rain flowed across the tabletop fields of his 150-acre Riverhead farm. Just a...

Commentary: Help for the homeless.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Kenneth Cerini The sofa of a friend, an abandoned building, a blanket in the woods - these places are called home by many Long Islanders. The Nassau Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless has spent over two decades finding homes for...

Commentary: Banks need to lend.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Commentary The banks are hoarding the money and not lending to homeowners, which continues to cause housing prices to decline further, which causes more foreclosures, which causes the trillions of dollars in mortgage-backed...

Commentary: Out East: November 14, 2008.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Jeff Miller This much is known: After a couple of decades in the works, New York has passed the country's first law making it illegal to engage in gasoline zone-pricing. The law goes into effect Nov. 24. Transgressors will be hit...

Commentary: Racism in Suffolk County.
November 14, 2008... Byline: LIBN Staff For Steve Levy, the last week has been nothing short of disastrous. An immigrant from Ecuador was murdered by seven marauding teens riding through Patchogue looking for a Hispanic-looking person to kill. The county...

Bad weather leaves Long Island's farmers all wet.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Phil Schmidt stood in a high-roofed shed staring out at a yard turning to mud under a cold autumn rain. Beyond the yard, gray sheets of rain flowed across the tabletop fields of his 150-acre Riverhead farm. Just a...

Commentary: Like Kennedy in 1960, Obama's election is one for the ages.
November 14, 2008... Byline: John Kiernan Like Kennedy in 1960, Obama's election is one for the ages There are few elections in a lifetime that you actually remember as clearly historic. When I was a freshman at Chaminade in 1960, President John F. Kennedy...

Economic Developments.
November 14, 2008... Byline: LIBN Staff NAME: ANTHONY M. FIGLIOLA TITLE: VICE PRESIDENT ORGANIZATION: ISLAND STRATEGIES FAVORITE PASTIMES: RUNNING, PLAYING FLAG FOOTBALL AND WATCHING THE JETS Anthony M. Figliola, a government relations professional, has joined...

Newsmakers.
November 14, 2008... Byline: LIBN Staff Accounting J. Wilson Mitchell has joined Weiser as an audit partner in the financial services practice. Mitchell, who will split his time between the firm's New York and Lake Success offices, was most recently working in...

A resource for alternative funding blooms on LI.
November 17, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser A new program at asset-based lender Resource Management Partners is helping former financial employees stay in the lending business. The Bohemia-based firm is offering training for factoring, a funding alternative for...

Wal-Mart gives up in Rocky Point, Target takes aim.
November 17, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg New Jersey developer Lerner-Heidenberg Properties won't be building a Wal-Mart store in Rocky Point after all. The developer had enticed Wal-Mart to build a 105,000-square-foot store on the site of a former golf...

Suffolk County Community College wins suit over budget authority.
November 17, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Suffolk County Community College has won its lawsuit against Suffolk County regarding how much oversight the county gets with the college's budget. The law states that the county, which funds one-third of the...

Construction slow-down hammers equipment values in New York.
November 17, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Patchogue-based DHS Contracting - which does excavation and land clearing - owns a lot of what you might call heavy metal. Caterpillar payloaders, Kobelco excavators and Takeuchi loaders - small bulldozers - are...

J. Kings Food Service Professionals opens food processing facility in Islip.
November 18, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik J. Kings Food Service Professionals, based in Holtsville, decided to open a new food processing facility to cut steaks and prepare salads for clients such as the Waldorf Astoria, Lessing's, Teller's and Ben's Kosher...

Commentary: Immigrants play a valuable role in our economy.
November 18, 2008... Byline: Raymond Keating When it comes to public policy and the economy, there's at least one area where President-elect Barack Obama seems to get it. That is, immigration. Make no mistake; immigrants have been the lifeblood of the U.S....

Tradewinds Environmental owner Michael O'Reilly dies.
November 18, 2008... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II Michael O'Reilly, president and cheif executive of disaster recovery firm Tradewinds Environmental, died over the weekend. He was 58. A Tradewinds spokeswoman said he succumbed to an illness. ...

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy vetoes county budget.
November 18, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy put his veto pen to work on Monday, rejecting the bulk of county Legislature's $2.6 billion 2009 budget because it was packed with unsustainable spending in a time of an...

Suffolk Community College wins suit over budget authority.
November 18, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Suffolk County Community College has won its lawsuit against Suffolk County regarding how much oversight the county gets with the college's budget. The law states that the county, which funds one-third of the...

Falling home prices may hurt sales in life care communities in Long Island.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Two new life care communities are set to come on line in Long Island within the next couple of years. Most of the units have been reserved, but as many seniors plan to use the sale of their home to pay the...

Islip cooks up a food manufacturing cluster.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik J. Kings Food Service Professionals, based in Holtsville, decided to open a new food processing facility to cut steaks and prepare salads for clients such as the Waldorf Astoria, Lessing's, Teller's and Ben's Kosher...

N.Y. Department of Transportation projects scrapped.
November 19, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg More than $100 million in Long Island road improvements have been canceled due to state budget cuts. Scrapped projects include the widening of Route 110 between the Long Island Expressway and the Northern State...

Runoff from large banks lifts community institutions in Long Island.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Bank of Smithtown While the nation's largest financial institutions struggle to stay afloat in the economic squall, a number of local community banks are actually raising money to fund growth. For example, Great...

Commentary: Patchogue's abhorrent murder wasn't about policy.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Steve Levy In the aftermath of a despicable beating and racially motivated killing of a Patchogue man, we are left wondering how seven youths could allegedly commit such a brutal act and what actions people of goodwill can take to...

Long Island foreclosures drop in October.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Foreclosures on Long Island jumped 41 percent in October on a year-over-year basis, though they actually decreased 8 percent compared to September, according to an industry report. There were 311 homes that went...

Commentary: For the New York GOP, it's time for some soul-searching.
November 20, 2008... Byline: Joseph Mondello, Chair of N.Y Republican Committee You know those new young voters who came out to the polls for the first time to find the name Barack Obama and then voted Democratic? They are Republican voters. They don't know...

Two minutes with Long Island-based Stop & Shop's Hempson.(Interview)
November 20, 2008... Byline: David Reich-Hale As the United States slips into a recession and as unemployment continues to rise, supermarket executives are seeing more of their customers counting their dimes before heading to the checkout line. LIBN spoke to...

Commentary: Up Front: The economy really just needs room to grow.
November 20, 2008... Byline: John Kominicki More bad news for the economy: I've just finished cleaning out the garage and realize we already own four of everything. Well, except lawn sprinklers. We have 11 of those, mostly because my wife buys a new one...

Long Island continues to lose jobs.
November 20, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Long Island lost private sector jobs in October for the first time in three years, a key indicator that the region has fallen into a recession. The Island dropped 2,800 private sector jobs during the 12 months...

Commentary: A fresh start for America and Long Island.
November 20, 2008... Byline: John R. Durso In an unlikely quest that began 20 months ago in Iowa, Sen. Barack Obama's transforming election as our 44th president offers America a fresh start. Despite a deteriorating economy and two wars, on Long Island and...

Sluggish economy shifts Long Island office rents into reverse.
November 20, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg Long Island's office market is starting to show the strain of the economic downturn as landlords are scrambling to hold onto their tenants and more businesses look to shed space. Leasing activity in the office...

Commentary: Perhaps there's hope for Long Island's bays.
November 20, 2008... Byline: Jeff Miller Three hundred sixty-eight years after Europeans stepped ashore on the East End, we're still coming to terms with it. In Southold there's the nagging question of who rules the bays. You'd think we might have figured...

Long Island bagel baker has small bank to thank for expansion.
November 20, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Anthony Pariti hasn't been sleeping well lately. But sitting in a conference room last week at his family-owned Always Bagels, he said he'd received news that might smooth the way to dreamland. A loan from...

N.Y. Senator Schumer seeks EPA funds for Babylon.
November 20, 2008... Byline: David Reich-Hale Sen. Charles E. Schumer said he has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to award a grant that would help assess the cost of cleaning up brownfield sites in Babylon. A cleanup of sites in the East...

Long Island Legal Briefs: November 20, 2008.
November 20, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Weber lets the light in The new office of the Weber Law Group has been recognized by the Long Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for its outstanding design. The office, which at...

Long Island 'Green' Briefs: November 20, 2008.
November 20, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Supermarkets give cold shoulder to emissions Emissions from all the refrigerators in all the supermarkets add up. King Kullen Grocery Co. in Bethpage, along with its subsidiary Wild by Nature, recently...

Commentary: NYC tax soaks commuters.
November 25, 2008... Byline: Long Island Business News Staff Editorial Here we go again. Nine years after the commuter tax was rightfully put to death, New York City pols have their collective hat in hand, demanding that the regressive tax is reinstituted...

Commentary: The small business vote differed from the nation's.
November 25, 2008... Byline: Raymond Keating We've heard lots about how various groups voted in the November 4 election. That includes voting by race, religion, party affiliation, gender, marital status, and political philosophy. But how did small-business...

Darryl Strawberry goes to bat for nonprofits.
November 25, 2008... Byline: David Reich-Hale In 1983, Darryl Strawberry was called up and given his big shot with the New York Mets. The 21-year-old didn't disappoint. Three years later, he was a key member of the 1986 World Series championship team, the last...

Long Island gun shops reap record sales since Obama win.
November 25, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Want to make a killing in an economy hurrying south? Sell guns. Starting in October and accelerating with the election of Barack Obama, firearm retailers across the Island followed a national trend by reaping...

Commentary: We're waiting for real change.
November 25, 2008... Byline: Jerry Kremer Decisions, decisions. Whether you are a Washington politician or a New York legislator, the moment of truth has arrived. There is no way to avoid the necessity of cleaning up the national recession or the state's...

Long Islanders on the Move: November 25, 2008.
November 25, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Education Suffolk County Community College in Selden announced the appointment of William F. Connors Jr. as associate vice president for academic affairs and college dean of faculty. In his 42-year career...

Eli Weiss joins Garden City intellectual property law firm.
November 25, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Eli Weiss has joined Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser, a Garden City intellectual property law firm, as an associate. Prior to joining the firm, Weiss worked as a patent attorney for Bell Telephone Laboratories in...

Huntington-based Toys of Hope gets award from Garden City-based The Business Development Group.
November 25, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Although this may be a tough time for many nonprofits, at least one group recently got a holiday present that will last all year. Huntington-based Toys of Hope was chosen by Garden City-based The Business...