LI Business News articles from September 2008

LI Business News archives from September 2008

East Hills-based Pall buys French biotech company.
September 3, 2008... Byline: LIBN Staff East Hills-based filtration company Pall Corp. on Wednesday said it acquired GeneSystems, a privately held French biotechnology company. Monetary terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to Pall,...

Group says Merrick-based health care company prevents workers from unionizing.
September 3, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels The Long Island Workers Rights Board has ruled that Merrick-based Able Health Care Services used intimidation and other tactics to keep its workers from forming a union. The board released its findings...

New York-based Forest hits 7-year low on trial results.
September 3, 2008... Byline: LIBN Staff Shares of Forest Laboratories Inc. fell to a seven-year low Wednesday following disappointing results from two late-stage trials of Forest's drug candidate aclidinium bromide. In both trials, the drug met its primary...

Nonprofit group rebukes Nassau County comptroller's audit findings.
September 4, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels A nonprofit organization dealing with troubled adolescents is refuting an audit by Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman that claims it overcharged county taxpayers by more than $834,000. Weitzman's audit...

Long Island's Stony Brook completes first phase of $300M hospital expansion.
September 4, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Stony Brook University Medical Center on Thursday celebrated the completion of the first phase of its $300 million hospital revitalization project with a ribbon cutting ushering in what school and hospital officials...

Cablevision rolls out Wi-Fi service across Long Island.
September 4, 2008... Byline: David Reich-Hale Long Island Rail Road delayed again? No surprise and no problem, as Cablevision today announced that it is rolling out an aggressive Wi-Fi plan that includes LIRR stations, business districts in Nassau County...

The LEED creed.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Dustin Block Juli Kaufmann never did answer the question: Can a building be LEED certified without being green? The question arises because Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is the most popular of the green-building...

Commentary: Trying to make sense of the dollar's sudden surge.
September 5, 2008... Byline: John Kominicki The U.S. dollar is making a comeback against world currencies, reversing an eight-year decline. I know this firsthand because I've been trying to move some euros from an account in France, forgetting that no...

Suffolk County shellfish aquaculture program: Shell game.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy A plan to turn 110,000 underwater acres in Peconic and Gardiner bays into thousands of private shellfish farms is facing opposition from some baymen as well as a leading environmental group that is worried the bays...

Canadian insurer takes space in Bethpage.
September 5, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg The U.S. unit of Kingsway Financial Services, one of Canada's largest automobile insurers has leased 50,000 square feet of office space in a Bethpage building owned by Sterling Equities. The...

For Long Island oil companies, a big chill.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Last winter, after 32 years delivering fuel oil, Peter Vitale was ready to enter another profession. I felt like becoming a shrink with everyone complaining, said Vitale, owner of Old Country Fuel Oil in...

Two minutes with Stuart Rabinowitz, Hofstra University president.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Executive decision The presidential campaign season is in full swing, as are last-minute preparations at Hofstra University for the final debate on Oct. 15. University President Stuart Rabinowitz is...

Commentary: Coming up small.
September 5, 2008... Byline: LIBN Staff If small businesses are the engine driving our economy... we're hopelessly stalled. Last week, Long Island Business News wrote of a national poll that showed 86 percent of small businesses believe the federal...

Commentarry: The candidates and the economy.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Martin Cantor Barack Obama and John McCain's economic and tax policies will impact every American household. Presidential influence on economic policy has always been integral to American fiscal policy. Between 1791 and...

Commentary: Cracked foundation.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Gary D. Bixhorn Long Island education and business leaders have led efforts to change the foundation formula since it was proposed in January 2007. The formula is unresponsive to the needs of school districts in our region. This...

Commentary: Eight steps to improve our region's problems.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Nancy Rauch Douzinas I often hear people say that Long Island can't get anything done, that we can't get out of our own way. There may be some truth to that. Other regions have successfully addressed problems that all we do is...

Commentary: In an election this tight, every little bit counts.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Jerry Kremer Politics, like life, is full of surprises. Defying the odds and ignoring the need for a seasoned running mate, John McCain selected the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his party's candidate for vice president. ...

Commentary: The Pickens Plan: Seems like a whole lot of hot air.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Raymond Keating T. Boone Pickens, longtime oil man, seems ubiquitous these days. He's running television commercials. CNBC has him on regularly as a guest. And he has met with both presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John...

Commentary: Out East: September 5, 2008.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Jeff Miller And that's a wrap on this summer of our discontent Labor Day has come and gone and now it's time to pick the word that best sums up the summer of '08 on the East End. Here are the options: 1. Strange. 2. Bizarre. 3....

Long Island Financial Briefs: September 5, 2008.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Comforce buys back its outstanding public debt Woodbury-based Comforce Corp. has bought back all of its public debt, a project it started in 2000 when the company had $138.8 million in outstanding debt notes. ...

Long Island Real Estate Briefs: September 5, 2008.
September 5, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg For Symbol, Great River center is in, Bohemia is out Symbol Technologies, a division of Motorola, has picked up some space at the Sunrise Business Center in Great River. The move follows Motorola's sale of...

Commentary: How To...Plan a holiday party.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee If your business is planning to have a holiday party this year, you likely will have good company. According to a survey conducted late last year by Hewitt Associates, a global human resources firm, 70 percent of...

Long Island Legal Briefs: September 5, 2008.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels It's OK to call a timeout Special education teachers did not violate a student's Fourth Amendment rights by using the timeout method for dealing with his behavioral problems in class, the 10th Circuit has...

Competitive intelligence: Benchmarking reveals industry best practices.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Cluade Solnik When companies want to know how they're doing financially, the answer's right there on the balance sheet. But how do they know how they're doing in terms of benefits, compensation and other human resource measures...

Roth 401(k): A new way to nurture the nest egg.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik While the Roth IRA is a common vehicle for retirement savings, more companies are offering a newer, lesser-known way to save money - the Roth 401(k). Carlos Tariche, a senior benefits consultant at Garden...

Be careful what you call them: IRS cracks down on employee misclassification.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Businesses who use independent contractors beware: How a worker is classified is a hot-button issue for the IRS and other agencies. To crack down on companies misclassifying employees as ICs, New York last year...

Transparency comes to 401(k) plans.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik New regulations and technology are bringing transparency to 401(k) plans, providing benefits and the risk that workers may begin to move money around based on momentary market forces. Funds as of 2009 must...

Ones to Watch: Long Island Human Resources Professionals.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Tony Borelli Investment Advisor MML Investors Services Borelli is a chartered financial consultant and investment advisor at the Woodbury office of this portion of MassMutual Financial Group. He works with...

Long Island's workers get new rep.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee NAME: Mark J. Grossman POSITION: New York State Labor Commissioner's Long Island Regional Representative ORGANIZATION: Department of Labor FAVORITE PASTIME: Collecting Yankees baseball cards from 1965 to 1975,...

Long Islanders On the Move: September 5, 2008.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Accounting Holtz Rubenstein Reminick announced that James Wienclaw has been admitted to the partnership. Wienclaw works in the tax practice at the firm's Melville office. Construction Bob Posillico,...

Commentary: Horses help disabled humans.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Kenneth R. Cerini To some Long Islanders, a horse is a pet; to others, a sport; and to many, simply one of the most majestic members of our animal kingdom. To a small population, however, a horse is much more - it's a tool for...

Long Island Nonprofit Briefs: September 5, 2008.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee St. Charles named a primary stroke center St. Charles Hospital, a 231-bed facility in Port Jefferson, recently became only the third hospital in Long Island and the 11th in the state to earn the Gold Seal of...

Garden City developer says after construction, LEED certification pays for itself.
September 5, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Russell Albanese loves LEED. I do believe it works on many different levels, said Albanese, president of Garden City-based developer Albanese Organization. It's not only good for the environment, it's also good...

Tribune exec joins LI-based Newsday staff.
September 9, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Newsday Media Group said Tuesday it hired a former Tribune Company executive to head its sales, circulation and marketing departments. Kenneth DePaola will begin Sept. 22 as Newsday's executive vice president of...

Wells Fargo prepares LI commercial entrance.
September 9, 2008... Byline: David Reich-Hale California-based Wells Fargo & Co., one of the five largest banks in the United States by assets, said late Monday it plans to open a commercial banking office on Long Island. The company entered the tri-state...

Suozzi calls for Nassau's first tax hike in 5 years.
September 9, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels With his county in a slew of economic trouble, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi said he will propose a 3.9 percent property tax increase next year. It will be the first time in five years that the county will...

Movie studio planned for Gabreski.
September 9, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg Rechler Equity Partners will build film studios as part of its winning bid to redevelop and manage the 53-acre Hampton Business and Technology Park at Suffolk County's Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach. ...

Hauppauge-based Globecomm launches IT company.
September 9, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Hauppauge-based Globecomm Systems said Monday it launched Cachendo, an information technology service company that it said would offer complex information technology services. Cachendo will operate as a wholly...

New York Islanders radio heads to FM dial.
September 11, 2008... Byline: David Reich-Hale The New York Islanders on Thursday said it has created a radio partnership with Long Island Radio Group, including putting all night games on WMJC- 94.3FM of Smithtown. All day games will be broadcast on WHLI-...

State grants bolster Long Island organizations giving foreclosure help.
September 11, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Two Long Island organizations are slated to receive a total of more than $650,000 from New York State to help deal with the statewide subprime mortgage crisis. The state, through its Division of Housing and...

Melville-based Comtech Telecommunications scores tracking system orders.
September 11, 2008... Byline: LIBN Staff Melville-based Comtech Telecommunications on Thursday said it has received $6.4 million in orders for its tracking systems from the U.S. Army. The deal, which was conduced by Comtech's Maryland subsidiary, Comtech Mobile...

Irish Elegance gift shop moves to Stony Brook.
September 11, 2008... Byline: Henry E. Powderly II Where are you going to go if you need a Guinness brand pint glass? The answer is Stony Brook Village. Gift shop Irish Elegance has moved from the Smithtown location it occupied for 20 years to Stony Brook....

Fit to lead: Jessica Swanson, Jericho-based Personal Training Institute.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee NAME: Jessica Swanson POSITION: National Director of Training and Development ORGANIZATION: Personal Training Institute FAVORITE PASTIME: Training for Triathlons Jessica Swanson has been promoted to...

Long Island Legal Briefs: September 12, 2008.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Daddies have rights too A man who mistakenly believed he was the father of a woman's child for several years cannot be denied parental rights despite DNA tests showing he wasn't the child's biological father,...

Long Islanders on the Move: September 12, 2008.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Accounting The accounting firm Nussbaum Yates Berg Klein & Wolpow welcomed two new certified public accountants to its Melville office. Michael Corkery, an accounting and audit specialist, brings nearly eight...

Long Island Environmental Briefs: September 12, 2008.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee LI firm puts 131 buses through the shredder Gershow Recycling Corp., which each year recycles enough cars to fill all eight lanes of the Long Island Expressway from the Midtown Tunnel to Riverhead, recently...

Commentary: Melville-based Hospice Care Network: Helping with the last goodbye.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Kenneth R. Cerini When a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness, endless questions arise: How could this happen? What do I do? When do I call hospice? Answers to these questions lie with the Hospice Care Network, which has...

Long Island Nonprofit Briefs: September 12, 2008.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Recognition for volunteers The deadline for this year's nominations for the Long Island Volunteer Hall of Fame is Monday. Nomination forms can be downloaded from the organization's newly relaunched Web site,...

Obama or McCain?
September 12, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser From a business point of view, Obama would be a negative with his taxing situation and McCain would be better. In terms of leadership, I really don't know. You want my honest answer? I don't like either one of them....

Green industry fertile ground for construction suits.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Dick Dahl As LEED projects proliferate, lawyers foresee an era of green-construction lawsuits. Eight years ago, the U.S. Green Building Council launched a voluntary program called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design...

Long Island's first families.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Commercial real estate on Long Island has long been the domain of several prominent families that, over the generations, have witnessed numerous economic cycles. LIBN checked in on a few of them to get some...

Strength in numbers: Joint ventures.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik The $40 million renovation of the more-than-a-century old Nassau County courthouse in Garden City was a plum project. It involved history, was high profile and had a high price tag. But chances are the individual...

The new economy: Crawling back from this non-recession may be tougher than the real thing.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Looking for a brighter economy? Don't hold your breath; unless you can do without oxygen until 2010. And it may be even longer. A growing chorus of financial and business experts believes it will take years for the...

Commentary: Arctic oil, prom dates and other stuff from my in-box.
September 12, 2008... Byline: John Kominicki Proponents of expanding offshore oil exploration in American waters have some new allies in their argument that drilling solely in the hurricane-swept Gulf is flawed thinking. Their names are Gustav and Ike....

A double life: Telecommuting.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Ambrose Clancy Ah, the joys of telecommuting. Your time is your own. There's money in your pocket from slashing the weekly gas bill to the bone. No more greeting the day to the faces of road-enraged fellow commuters. You're not...

Sod farmers sue for golf course land in Shoreham.
September 12, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg The developers of the Tall Grass mixed-use project have defaulted on more than $12 million in mortgage payments and face foreclosure on the 150 acre Tall Grass Golf Course in Shoreham, according to a lawsuit filed...

Small Long Island accounting firms target big talent.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Sick of commuting? Cerini & Associates has a job for you and they're going to make sure everyone knows it. The Bohemia accounting firm is placing ads at the Ronkonkoma and Huntington Long Island Rail Road...

Haunted Bohemia inn ready to rise from the dead.
September 12, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg This is the latest in LIBN's occasional series, Abandoned LI - about those Island commercial properties that linger without the right buyer or tenant. Vacant and boarded up since 2004, Bohemia's Normandie Inn...

Two Minutes with Ted Weiss, T. Weiss Realty in Melville.
September 12, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg A former high school gym teacher in Patchogue, Ted Weiss learned about commercial real estate from the ground up. After leaving education, his flooring company helped lay the foundation, or the carpet, for dozens...

Commentary: Suffolk off line.
September 12, 2008... Byline: LIBN Staff Two years ago, Long Island officials slapped themselves on the back at a press conference in Woodbury, smiling into news cameras and offering comments to the local reporters. They were going to build the largest free...

Commentary: A political race for the ages.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Richard Kessel Wow! If you're a political junkie like me, you've had a great couple of weeks observing the political conventions. The Democrats started it all in Denver, followed by the Republican conclave in Minnesota the...

Commentary: Saving Foley.
September 12, 2008... Byline: William J. Lindsay This is a response to John Kominicki's Aug. 15 column, Meet the $12 Million Man. Why are the deficits growing at John J. Foley? It's poor management that goes beyond the facility to the County Health...

Commentary: Palin pounding proof the press has a liberal bias.
September 12, 2008... Byline: John Kiernan If you ever had any doubt about whether the majority of the press wants the Democrats to win in November, you should compare how the major weekly news magazines treated the announcements regarding the vice presidential...

Commentary: Here's some news: Long Island does have a plan.
September 12, 2008... Byline: John D. Cameron, Jr. It never ceases to amaze me how people are willing to criticize something without taking the time to learn the facts. A most recent illustrative example of this is Marty Cantor's piece in Long Island Business...

Commentary: The best path to a productive and educated workforce.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Raymond Keating September, of course, is back to school month. This usually generates whining among kids not pleased to see summer fun replaced by homework. But business owners should complain at this time of year as well. ...

Commentary: Out East: September 12, 2008.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Jeff Miller With a little ingenuity, America's Chevy will roar again I grew up in a Chevrolet family. When Dinah Shore urged us to see the USA in our Chevrolet, we did. When she crooned that life was sweeter and completer in a...

Long Island Financial Briefs: September 12, 2008.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Foreclosures up from last year, down from last month Long Island foreclosures jumped 32 percent in August on a year-over-year basis, with almost half of the activity in the Town of Hempstead, according to an...

Long Island Real Estate Briefs: September 12, 2008.
September 12, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg LI Realtors get political by hosting voter registration Long Island's 2,700 real estate offices are now voter registration stations. Prospective voters can walk into just about any real estate office in...

Insurance cushions the blow from contamination.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Environmental insurance - protecting companies against costs related to contaminated property - is becoming a major weapon in the battle to clean up brownfields and build on polluted land. Environmental insurance...

Ones to Watch: Long Island Construction and Realty Professionals.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik Ralph Benzakein Vice President and Partner CresaPartners Benzakein works at this international firm's Melville office exclusively as a tenant representative, specializing in Long Island. He is also a committee...

Commercial buildings go prefab on Long Island.
September 12, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik At a time when the economy is weak and firms are looking for more efficient and lasting structures, pre-engineered buildings provide a way to save money and time, experts said. In other states, especially in the...

Troubled banks sign of deeper economic woes?
September 12, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Tonn Economists are in two camps. The majority are predicting an economic turnaround during the second half of 2009, but some believe U.S. economic woes are onlybeginning - and they point to the latest Federal Deposit...

Nassau County Executive Suozzi's budget includes tax hike, cost-cutting measures.
September 16, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi's proposed 2009 budget includes a 3.9 percent take hike, the first in five years, and a four-point plan to reduce costs to offset an expected $100 million budget deficit. ...

Spirit Airlines flies from Long Island MacArthur, blames fuel costs.
September 16, 2008... Byline: David Winzelberg Spirit Airlines has quietly closed its operations at Long Island MacArthur Airport - only three months after Islip officials partied its arrival with grass skirts and fruity drinks - because of skyrocketing fuel...

Marketing firm preps one-day NFP blitz in LI.
September 17, 2008... Byline: David Reich-Hale A decade old national campaign designed to pump $1 million per year into struggling nonprofit organizations is expanding to Long Island for the first time. CreateAthon, as it's called, got its start in 1998...

Ronkonkoma-based NBTY acquires U.K. natural foods retailer for $25 million.
September 17, 2008... Byline: Laura Glasser Nutritional-supplement maker and retailer NBTY Inc. on Wednesday said it acquired Julian Graves, a U.K. natural food and ingredients retailer, for about $25 million. The acquisition will help grow NBTY's European...

Bill to protect Long Island National Grid jobs delivered to Gov. Paterson.
September 18, 2008... Byline: David Reich-Hale Gov. David Paterson has until Sept. 26 to either pass or veto a bill that would make it illegal for public utilities to move call center jobs from the area it serves. The bill, originally passed by the state...

Suffolk County budget includes tax freeze, sale of nursing home.
September 19, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy on Friday proposed his 2009 budget, which freezes all county taxes and includes the sale of the John J. Foley Nursing Home in Yaphank. Despite economic uncertainty...

Long Island Legal Briefs: September 19, 2008.
September 19, 2008... Byline: Michael H. Samuels Shame on who? One woman ridiculed as part of the Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi's Wall of Shame tactic wasn't drunk. Nassau County has admitted it made a mistake with Andrea Sangermano when they...

Long Island accounting firms add services in effort to boost revenue.
September 19, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik When one of Weiser's clients decided to sell a building, they asked the accounting firm for help finding an appraiser. Weiser didn't simply advise the company whom to hire: The firm did the appraisal itself. I...

Selling skills high on the list of must-haves for accounting firms.
September 19, 2008... Byline: Bernadette Starzee It's difficult to think of two more different stereotypical personality types than accountant and salesperson. Accountants often choose their field because they like numbers and balancing books, and not...

Accountants want businesses to make the most of losses by using them to obtain tax benefits.
September 19, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik If the only thing a company gains from losses is lessons learned, it isn't using tax strategies to obtain refunds and wipe away future taxes, accountants said. There are numerous ways of preparing for and handling...

Trusts prove tricky for transferring wealth.
September 19, 2008... Byline: Claude Solnik What's the trouble with trusts? There's nothing wrong with them when they're used appropriately, but they often aren't being used to reach the desired goal, according to accountants and attorneys. Trusts can be...

Ones to Watch: Long Island Accountants.
September 19, 2008... Byline: ClaudeSolnik Frank Albarella Partner KPMG Albarella is an audit partner in the firm's metro New York information, communications and entertainment practice, primarily focused on the cable, broadcasting, entertainment and...