Snowpe: Welcome to Friday, intrepid innovators, and if you were excited by that suggestion of coming snow in Tuesday’s newsletter – yeah, never mind.
Instead, Long Island’s balmy Winter That Winter Forgot rolls on, with just one more warmer-than-usual workday between you and another springlike weekend. Let’s finish strong.
Heads up: The leafy superfood is a close cousin to broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts.
If you can’t say anything nice: It’s Feb. 17 out there – National Random Act of Kindness Day, encouraging us to do something nice, and National Caregivers Day, reminding us to remember those who do nice things every day.
It’s also National Cabbage Day, if that’s your thing, and if you need to wash that or any other foul taste out of your mouth, National Café au Lait Day, milking your coffee breaks every Feb. 17.
Super Cooper: It didn’t used to cost any cabbage to attend The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, the private New York City college chartered on this date in 1857 and tuition-free until 2012. (For those keeping score, school officials are working hard to restore that legendary free-education credo.)
Setting a low bar: Most Parent-Teacher Associations do a better job of it than the dysfunctional “Harper Valley PTA.”
Maternal instincts: Speaking of educational innovations, the National Parent Teacher Association – known initially as the National Congress of Mothers – gathered for the first time in Washington on Feb. 17, 1897 (mostly mothers, but fathers and teachers and legislators, too).
Minimum velocity: Oregon became the second state to pass a statewide minimum-wage law (Massachusetts was first) on this date in 1913, declaring that 50-hour workweeks – comprised of nine-hour workdays with 45-minute lunch breaks – should earn a minimum of $8.64 per week ($8.25 for women).
Weekly reader: Slightly more balanced is Newsweek, the (now digital) American periodical that’s carved a centrist legacy (though it has trended right in recent years) since it published its first edition 90 years ago today.
Who was that masked man? And superheroes became a thing on Feb. 17, 1936, when The Phantom – considered the world’s first costumed crusader – sprang into comic-strip action.
For the record, The Phantom – a mythical protagonist in Kipling-esque jungle adventures – beat Superman to the punch by two full years.
Wood, and he could: French physician and musician René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781-1826) – whose skill at carving wood flutes helped him invent the stethoscope and revolutionize chest-related medicine – would be 242 years old today.
Code Red: Barber changed the lexicon of the game.
Also born on Feb. 17 were German astronomer Johann Tobias Mayer (1723-1762), who helped 18th Century oceanic navigators steer by the stars; American biologist, educator and writer Margaret Morley (1858-1923), who authored many scientific works for children; American businessman Thomas Watson (1874-1956), who turned computing into a global industry as longtime IBM chairman; legendary American broadcaster Walter “Red” Barber (1908-1992), who coined “Can of corn!” and other baseball catchphrases you know; and American basketball icon Michael Jordan (born 1963), GOAT on the court, and not too shabby at brand-building.
Bad boy: And take a bow, Michael Benjamin Bay! The American film director – whose bombastic spin on everything from classic horror to modern action has earned him upwards of $400 million – turns 58 today.
Give the Transformer your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips are The Rock and we avoid Armageddon with 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 multi-generational 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
Limited time only: Breeze CEO David Neeleman anticipates a peak in summer travel demand.
Summer skies: Add two more direct destinations to Breeze Airways’ Long Island MacArthur Airport portfolio, at least temporarily.
The low-cost airline, founded in 2021 by JetBlue cofounder David Neeleman, announced this week that seasonal direct flights to and from Pittsburgh, Pa., and Richmond, Va., will begin in May at LIMA, where Breeze officially landed in 2022. The flights – scheduled to run through September at bargain-basement rates starting around $39 each way – add several summer airlifts to Breeze’s current LIMA schedule, which already includes direct connections to Florida (Tampa and Jacksonville) and Virginia (Norfolk), as well as nonstops to New Orleans, La., and Charleston, SC.
The new routes also add to the fledgling airline’s slowly growing itinerary, which on Tuesday grew by a total of 22 new routes – including an all-new stop in Portland, Maine – and now includes service to 35 cities in 21 states. “Here we grow again,” CEO Neeleman said in a statement. “We’re always looking for new routes that people are traveling today but can’t get there nonstop.”
Emergency broadcast: Suffolk County’s Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services has earned stripes from a groundbreaking state authority.
New York State’s Local Emergency Management Accreditation Program, the nation’s first state-level accreditation program for local emergency-management agencies, has graduated the Suffolk agency, the Monroe County Office of Emergency Management and the Steuben County Office of Emergency Services. The three agencies join 15 statewide departments already certified by the Local Emergency Management Accreditation Program, including the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management.
Administered by the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, the accreditation program reinforces best practices for integrated, coordinated emergency responses, covering dozens of related subjects and “requir[ing] all of our plans to have been updated within the last five years,” noted Suffolk County Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services Commissioner Pat Beckley. “Achieving state accreditation for our Office of Emergency Management has been one of our top priorities … I’m very proud of the efforts all of our FRES staff have put into this.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Problems solved: Why Long Island’s commercial real-estate king built townhouses in Hampton Bays – and how it sparked innovation in hospitality workforce development.
Bee-plus effort: With the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County riding herd, hundreds of Long Island gardeners have joined a national save-the-pollinators crusade.
That’s entertainment: Featuring three-dozen how’d-you-do-it? chats with the creative thinkers and progressive leaders powering the regional innovation economy, Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast educates while it entertains.
ICYMI
New funding for advanced DNA manufacturing; new ideas in autism spectrum disorder.
BEST OF THE WEST (AND SOMETIMES NORTH/SOUTH)
Innovate LI’s inbox overrunneth with inspirational innovations from all North American corners. This week’s brightest out-of-towners:
From Florida: Coral Gables-based spirits spearhead Stillhouse conjures “campfire spirit” with Peanut Butter S’Mores Whiskey.
From New Jersey: Princeton-based document-processing pioneer AYR advances training and documentation with AI-powered Intelligent Document Simulator 3.0.
From Canada, eh: Calgary-based nonwoven-materials master Roswell Textiles aims to replace plastics with sustainable, low-carbon, plant-based materials.
ON THE MOVE
William Gartland
+ William Gartland has been named deputy chairman of the Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group in the Melville office of Syracuse-based Bond, Schoeneck & King.
+ Desmond Mullins has been hired as a senior director at Jericho-based Premier Commercial Real Estate. He was a sales associate at Melville-based Industry One Realty Corp.
+ Jessica Dubowski has joined Riverhead-based Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo as an associate. She was an associate at Manhattan-based Stroock & Stroock & Levan.
+ Andrew Singer has been named dean of Stony Brook University’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, effective July 3. He is currently associate dean for innovation and entrepreneurship and professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Grainger College of Engineering.
+ South Setauket-based not-for-profit retirement community Jefferson’s Ferry has elected three new Board of Trustees members: Recently retired Mather Hospital President Kenneth Roberts; Davidow, Davidow, Siegel & Stern Managing Partner Lawrence Davidow; and Suburban Hospital Alliance of New York State President and CEO Wendy Darwell.
+ Richard McCord has been promoted to co-chairman of the Bankruptcy and Creditor/Debtor Rights Group at East Meadow-based Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman. He is a partner at the firm.
+ The Long Island Association has elected two new members to its Board of Directors: Citizens Bank Executive Vice President Rebecca O’Connell, head of corporate banking for the New York City Metro Region, and Discover Long Island President and CEO Kristen Reynolds.
+ Timothy Coners has been promoted to partner at Jericho-based Grassi Advisors & Accountants. He was a principal at the firm.
+ Diana Lattanzio has been promoted to partner at Garden City-based Russo Law Group. She was an associate.
+ Leo Barnes has been appointed to the Hauppauge-based Judicial Screening Committee of the Suffolk County Bar Association. He is a partner at Melville-based Barnes & Barnes.
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). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Commercial Break Edition)
Don’t get it: The message was missed by many.
Commercial success: How America got hooked on fish sticks.
Commercial in spaaaaace: NASA’s far-out plans for commercial space stations.
Commercial controversial: Jesus “gets us,” but maybe He doesn’t get mass media.
Commercial/business law: Nobody does it better than Presberg Law, a standout of regional industrial real estate transactions and one of the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island. Check them out.
