Hot topic: Welcome to another muggy Wednesday, roasted readers, as the sweltering Summer of 2025’s latest Northeast heat wave flame-broils Long Island.
This, too, shall pass – Thursday’s forecast includes cold fronts and thunderstorms, with a nice, comfy weekend to follow. But with temperatures and humidity soaring today, we’re sweating it out as we hurdle the workweek hump.
Sweet embraceable you: Share a loving clinch today. (It’s good for the soul.)
Warm tidings: Today is July 30 – the last Wednesday of July, obviously – and we’re keeping our cool with the International Day of Friendship, the UN’s annual reminder that wars, injustice and the endlessly destructive us-vs.-them cycle, while politically advantageous for the small-minded, is always trumped by amity and compassion.
Not completely unrelated: National Share a Hug Day, when you don’t have to reach across oceans or international borders to make a friend – the good person sitting next to you will do just fine.
Say cheese: If you or your buddy are hungry, dive into National Cheesecake Day, celebrating a dessert that isn’t a pie, isn’t really a cake, but dates back 4,000 years and – whichever of its numerous forms strikes your fancy – is always creamy and delicious, especially on July 30.
Monumental: Perhaps some birthday cake instead, in honor of the City of Baltimore? Maryland’s largest city – known alternately as Charm City and/or Monumental City – became a thing on this date in 1729, when the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill establishing a town on the Patapsco River. (Flesh-and-blood birthdays below.)
Flakey: Whatever kind of cake you scoff down today, you’ll need a healthy breakfast first – good thing Michigan sanitarium superintendents John Harvey Kellogg and William Kellogg accidentally invented corn flakes on July 30, 1898.
Anti-flakey: Less interested in healthy breakfasts than healthy scalps was French chemist and entrepreneur Eugène Schueller, who founded the Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux – or the “French Safe Hair Dye Co.” – on this date in 1909. (You know it better as cosmetics cornerstone L’Oréal.)
Start at the top: Penguin Books remade several well-known classics when it introduced paperbacks on this date in 1935.
Literature, redone: Penguin Books waddled into existence in Middlesex, England, 90 years ago today, introducing a star-studded selection of paperback books that included classic titles by Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie and other literary greats.
Oversight, undone: And it was July 30, 2002, when President George W. Bush – in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals, which wiped out billions of dollars in market value and retirement savings – signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act into law.
The bipartisan SOX has been the federal bedrock of financial transparency and corporate accountability for the last quarter-century – oversights being rapidly dismantled by the current presidential administration.
Model (T) citizen: American business magnate Henry Ford (1863-1947) – a technological genius/folk hero who revolutionized manufacturing, marketing and machismo on unprecedented industrial scales and came to symbolize the U.S. transition from an agricultural nation to an industrial nation – would be 162 years old today.
Casey at the mic: Stengel had his own way of speaking, but he knew baseball inside and out.
Also born on July 30 were English author Emily Brontë (1818-1848), who outlived her short life by achieving “Wuthering Heights”; Russian American physicist Vladimir Zworykin (1889-1982), the electronics engineer remembered as the “Father of Television”; American baseball player and manager Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel (1890-1975), the Hall of Famer remembered as much for speaking “Stengelese” as his on-field accomplishments; American businessman and philanthropist Henry Bloch (1922-2019), who cofounded tax-preparation company H&R Block with his brother, Richard; and Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, politician and activist Arnold Schwarzenegger (born 1947), who thinks people should muscle up on climate change.
Krofft supershow: And take a bow, Sid Krofft! The Canadian puppeteer and prolific television producer – who along with his kid brother, Marty, fueled Gen X childhood imaginations with low budgets, supersized puppets and audacious storytelling (belying a surprisingly risqué upbringing) – turns 96 today.
Give your best to the diverse creator – the “Banana Splits Adventure Hour,” “Kaptain Kool and the Kongs,” “Electra Woman and Dyna Girl,” the “Donnie & Marie Show” (!) and so much more – at editor@innovateli.com, where we love it when our inbox is H.R. Pufnstuffed with news tips and we’re stuck in the Land of the Lost without your calendar events.
About our sponsor: Presberg Law, P.C., is Long Island’s premier “IDA” and business-law firm for businesses locating, relocating and expanding on Long Island. Founded in 1984, this multigenerational practice focuses on the purchase, sale, leasing and financing of commercial and industrial real estate, SBA and other loan transactions, construction projects and business sales and acquisitions.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Fit for a Kings: The centerpiece of the ambitious Kings Park downtown-revitalization effort has received another big boost.
The Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency has approved a 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes plan benefitting Farmingdale-based Terwilliger & Bartone Properties, which is pitching Cornerstone Kings Park, a three-story, 46-unit multifamily residential development that would replace a long-shuttered restaurant on Meadow Road. Already approved by the Town of Smithtown Zoning Board of Appeals, the $22.5 million transit-oriented development – located within walking distance of the Long Island Rail Road’s Kings Park station – is slated to include two studio apartments, 35 one-bedroom apartments (including 10 with offices) and nine two-bedroom units, with five total units designated as affordable workforce housing.
Amenities abound, including a private fitness center, an in-house club room, quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances and more, making the plan – also endorsed by national community-housing nonprofit lender Grow America – key to Smithtown’s big plans for a walkable, revenue-generating Kings Park downtown. “This development will bring much-needed housing to the community and generate almost $2 million in public benefits over 15 years,” noted Suffolk County IDA Executive Director and CEO Kelly Murphy. “It is a responsible investment that balances growth with fiscal benefit and community needs.”
The river’s edge: The Connetquot River has a glorious history — and the Long Island Regional Planning Council wants to ensure it enjoys an even brighter future.
A river runs through it: An in-depth analysis will help determine the fate of one of Long Island’s most expansive ecosystems.
The Long Island Regional Planning Council has issued a Request for Proposals for a comprehensive study of the Connetquot River, an important step in the development of the Connetquot River Watershed Action Plan, a multifaceted attempt to improve water quality while enhancing ecological footing and recreational opportunities along the six-mile, spring-fed waterway. The study will review everything from land use and habitat restoration to wastewater systems and stormwater management; the RFP also calls for the establishment of a Watershed Advisory Committee to solicit community input and promote educational programming.
The Connetquot River watershed – which covers 18 square miles as the river runs south from the Connetquot River State Park Preserve to the Great South Bay – is the largest contiguous area of undeveloped land in Suffolk County, placing special significance on the Watershed Advisory Committee’s work. “The [action plan] is an investment in both the environmental and economic health of the waterway,” noted LIRPC John Cameron. “We are excited to work with Suffolk County on developing a plan for this unique and historic part of the South Shore.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Sensory and sensibility: Farmingdale State College and all-world medical manufacturer Henry Schein have teamed up on a new “sensory unit” geared toward dental patients with sensory-processing disorders.
Great guests: Real estate royalty, small-business brainiacs, local-delivery luminaries, economic-development exemplars, journalism juggernauts, acclaimed attorneys, credit union catalysts … it’s already been a stellar season on “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast,” and more amazing conversations are on the way. Catch up fast!
VOICES
“Going to Gemba” is a winning practice embraced by efficiency- and quality-minded Toyota engineers – and according to Voices Technology Anchor Brad Carlson, the vice president of technology and business development at Intelligent Product Solutions, an integral journey for anyone hoping to understand their customer’s mindset and needs.
Something to say? Welcome to The Entrepreneur’s Edge, Innovate Long Island’s new promoted-content news feature platform – a direct link from you to our innovation-focused audience. Progressive product to promote? Singular service to sell? Sociopolitical position to push? Shine a bright light on the big picture, the little details and everything in between with The Entrepreneur’s Edge. Living on the edge.
STUFF WE’RE READING
No such thing as a free 747: Taxpayers will pay $1 billion to retrofit the “free” Qatari jet (which stays with Trump when he leaves office). Forbes speaks plane language.
Space invaders: A Harvard astrophysicist thinks comet 3I/ATLAS might be a hostile alien vessel preparing to attack Earth. Live Science sounds the alarm.
For the birds: Welcome to the punk “quasi-pagan” hobby you never saw coming. Salon spreads its wings.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ MapLight Therapeutics, a California-based clinical-stage biopharma focused on brain disorders, raised $372.5 million in Series D financing led by Forbion and Life Sciences at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
+ Farmers Business Network, a California-based collaborative peer-to-peer farmer network, raised $50 million in funding. Backers included Google Ventures, Temasek, Arteqin, Colle Capital and T Rowe Price.
+ Overwatch Imaging, an Oregon-based airborne imaging systems and intelligence-automation innovator, raised $6 million in funding led by Squadra Ventures.
+ Root Evidence, an Idaho-based cybersecurity startup, raised $12.5 million in Seed funding led by Ballistic Ventures.
+ Baxter Aerospace, a Utah-base aerospace systems manufacturer, raised $6 million in Series A funding. DoD Accelerator fund made the investment.
+ Unlock Technologies, an Arizona-based Fintech focused on home-equity agreements, received a $250 million capital commitment from D2 Asset Management.
Like this newsletter? Innovate Long Island newsletter, website and podcast sponsorships are a prime opportunity to reach the inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and executives you need to know (just ask Presberg Law). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Time Trip Edition)
A great place to visit…: And hey, maybe you WOULD like to live in Antigua.
Past perfect: How DNA is rewriting ancient Aztec history.
Future home: These Caribbean islands will give you a passport if you move there.
Futures past: The National Air and Space Museum travels back in time – and forward.
Present and accounted for: Please continue supporting the fantastic firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Presberg Law, where decades of experience and up-to-date legal knowledge inform every important transaction. Check them out.
