Getting there (is half the fun?): Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we hurdle the last hump of Spring 2026.
Summer officially begins this weekend in our lovely Northern Hemisphere – 4:24 a.m. EDT on June 21, for those keeping score – but we still have half a busy workweek to navigate en route. Here’s a fun (and fact-filled) midweek innovation review to help get you where you want to go.
Smells like a winner: Hug a sanitation worker today … or perhaps just a polite wave.
Trash talk: Not having an especially fun time here on June 17 – but doing their duty, as always – are the world’s sanitation workers, who are smelling like roses on Global Garbage Man Day. (And yes, despite the dated name, garbage women are equally honored today.)
It’s also the UN’s World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, an annual spotlight on soil deterioration and persistent dry-weather patterns that damage crops and threaten potable water supplies. This year’s focus: uncultivated expanses dominated by native vegetation – no good for crops, but essential for wild animals and domesticated herds – known as rangelands.
Veggie tales: Speaking of crops, it’s National Eat Your Vegetables Day, so stop complaining and clean your plate.
If it makes you feel better, you can wash them down with some soda pop (it’s also National Root Beer Day) and chase them with one of your favorite desserts: National Apple Strudel Day is baked fresh every June 17.
What, no Ultimate Fighting? Having trouble reconciling green beans and broccoli with soda pop and pastry? Well, your brain’s gonna pop when you review the talking points from the first Republican National Convention, held in Philadelphia on this date in 1856: free speech, free press, the abolishment of slavery and equality for all Americans.
Going up: Lady Liberty was actually constructed in Paris, before making her way to New York.
Statue (of limitations): Also reminding us of America’s once and future exceptionalism is the glorious Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from France that arrived in New York Harbor on June 17, 1885.
This is only a test: It was this date in 1901 when the College Board administered its first standardized college-entrance examinations, forebearer of today’s SATs. (Along with questions about physics and chemistry, test-takers – who were timed – were required to translate this into Latin: “I see,” said Cicero, “that the faces and eyes of all of you are turned toward me. Your good will toward me is truly pleasing to me. But I can see what is to my advantage much more clearly than you can what is to the advantage of the state. I shall encounter a storm of wholly undeserved odium: but it is worth my while to be called a tyrant if only this be driven from the city and the danger of this war be averted from you. But, since I must live with those whom I have conquered, it is your duty to see to it that my deeds may never harm me or mine. I have made it possible that those who are fighting for our country in foreign lands may have a place to which they may return as victors.” Clock starts now.)
No static at all: Clearing things up a bit was FM radio, which was demonstrated for the Federal Communications Commission by inventor Edwin Armstrong 90 years ago today. (To help us celebrate this momentous occasion … ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Steely Dan!)
The old switcheroo: And it was June 17, 1950, when ambitious Chicago-based surgeon Richard Lawler performed the first human kidney transplant.
The odds were pretty good for 49-year-old patient Ruth Tucker – after all, Lawler had practiced with several experimental organ transplantations in dogs.
The champion of breakfasts: American miller George Cormack (1870-1953) – the head miller for Minnesota-based Washburn Crosby (one of several companies that later coalesced into General Mills), who was credited with turning an accidental discovery into the classic breakfast cereal Wheaties (originally branded as “Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes”) – would be 156 years old today.
Venus, if you will: In singles and doubles competition, Williams is one of the greatest to every play the game.
Also born on June 17 were Russian composer, pianist and conductor Igor Stravinsky (born Feodorovitch Igor Stravinsky, 1882-1971), a major influencer of modernist music; Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis “M.C.” Escher (1898-1972), a mind-bending master of space and perception; American chef Ruth Wakefield (1903-1977), who invented the chocolate chip cookie; American singer and songwriter Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus, 1943), a multiple Emmy and Grammy award-winner currently recovering from lung cancer surgery; and American tennis pro Venus Williams (born 1980), an 11-time Wimbledon champion (including singles and doubles titles), four-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time U.S. Open champ still competing on her sport’s biggest stages.
DAMN: And take a bow, Kendrick Lamar! The American rapper and songwriter (born Kendrick Lamar Duckworth) – the first and only hip-hop artist (and the first musician outside of the classical and jazz genres) to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music – turns 39 today.
Send birthday wishes for the introspective lyricist, conscientious social commentator and fearless political critic to editor@innovateli.com, where we’re always happy to rap about your news tips and calendar events.
About our sponsor: Sahn Ward Braff Coschignano PLLC is one of the region’s most highly regarded and recognized law firms. Our attorneys are thought leaders, dedicated to achieving success through excellence. With our broad experience in land use, development, litigation, real estate, corporate and environmental law, we have the vision and knowledge to serve our clients and our communities. Please visit sahnward.com.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Go team: Zelory Gregler (left) and Jeffrey Reynolds accept the Folio Award for Best Commentary on behalf of the entire Voices team.
Raising our Voices: From the Department of Self Congratulations comes Innovate Long Island’s first-ever publishing award, courtesy of the journalism-savvy Fair Media Council.
Actually, the kudos go directly to Real Estate Anchor Scott Burman, Technology Anchor Brad Carlson, Government and Media Anchor David Chauvin, Healthcare Anchor Terry Lynam, Innovation History Anchor Tom Mariner, Environmental Sciences Anchor Frank Piccininni, Human Services/Nonprofits Anchor Jeffrey Reynolds, Law Anchor Michael Sahn and Food and Beverage Anchor Zelory Gregler – the current powerpack lineup making the Innovate Long Island Voices Column a weekly must-read for anyone doing business, on any level, anywhere on Long Island.
Voices captured Best Commentary honors at the 2026 Folio Awards, the FMC’s annual print, radio, television and digital media love-in, held June 11 at the Garden City Hotel. Our Murderer’s Row of industry experts shared the stage with all-time-great real estate reporter David Winzelberg of Long Island Business News, legendary weatherman Sam Champion of WABC-TV and beloved beat reporter Jennifer McLogan of CBS News-New York, plus a virtual army of Newsday writers and editors and dozens of other newshounds, broadcasters, bloggers and podcasters, all honored for upholding the profession’s highest standards – more important than ever in this dark age of “alternate facts” and click-first, truth-be-damned yellow journalism.
By monitoring the frontline regional and national socioeconomic issues essential to our readers’ personal and professional success, localizing them to Long Island and offering expert-level best-practice solutions, our amazing Voices team personifies the ultimate expression of Innovate Long Island’s “toolbox” motif. We couldn’t be prouder of their outstanding work – and we’re absolutely thrilled to see them venerated alongside so many great journalists. Thank you, FMC, for this wonderful honor.
TOP OF THE SITE
Summit health: Accelerate Long Island’s mission to promote Long Island as a single, investment-rich region took a major forward step at the inaugural Long Island Tech & Innovation Summit.
Finders, keepers: Entertaining podcasts, informative op-eds, inspirational news features, intimate Q&As … innovation and inspiration come in many forms on the awesome Innovate Long Island website. Go find yours.
VOICES
Wastewater infrastructure is a huge (and hugely important) community investment, notes Long Island Conservancy Co-founder, Spadefoot Ecosystems Solutions President and Voices Environmental Sciences Anchor Frank Piccininni, who dives deep into the biology happening inside those steel pipes and concrete tanks.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Misdiagnosed: The U.S. Senate’s bipartisan medication bill won’t make healthcare more affordable – just the opposite, warns one expert. Forbes pounds the proposal.
Balancing act: As artificial intelligence proliferates, the battle between innovation and personal privacy rages. Financier Worldwide serves two masters.
Bucket list: New menu items, redesigned restaurants and more as KFC updates its finger-licking brand. Restaurant Business goes extra crispy.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Human Continuum, a New York City-based biotech focused on platelet-derived and plant-based exosome therapeutics and diagnostics, raised $5.13 million in Seed funding from undisclosed backers.
+ Artis, a Texas-based, AI-powered brand-services company designed specifically for high-end residential design and construction professionals, raised $7.3 million in Seed funding led by LiveOak Ventures, with participation from mark vc and Capital Factory.
+ Podium Automation, a NYC-based control-panel manufacturer, raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Construct Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Transition Ventures, Sunflower Capital and Banter Capital.
+ Sandstone, a NYC-based automated intake, routing and workflow platform for in-house legal teams, raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Capital.
+ Radical Numerics, a California-based AI research laboratory focused on general biological intelligence, raised $50 million in Seed funding led by Emergence Capital, with participation from Obvious Ventures, Triatomic Capital, Factory and First Spark Ventures.
+ Genspark.AI, a California-based agentic AI company, raised $485 million in Series B funding led by Sozo Ventures, Korea Mirae Asset and UpHonest Capital.
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 – on Long Island, and soon, across New York State (just ask Sahn Ward). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Who Wants To Be a Trillionaire Edition)
Filthy rich: Musk’s personal estimated net worth is greater than 88 percent of all nations on Earth.
The rich get richer: Behold, the world’s first trillionaire.
Buy low: If Musk spent $1 million a day, it would take him 2,740 years to spend his fortune.
Monopolistic money: Musk milestone sparks outrage, disgust and aggressive calls for new wealth taxes.
Wealth of knowledge: Please continue supporting the fantastic firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Sahn Ward Braff Coschignano, which doesn’t boast a 13-digit valuation – but does offer decades of unrivaled expertise, peer respect and well-earned success. Check them out.
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