A dry heat: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as Long Island – despite severe flooding in Wisconsin, epic hailstorms in Wyoming and the emergence of the year’s first Atlantic hurricane – enjoys its sunniest and dryest stretch of Summer 2025.
Yes, it’s been a serene spell for Nassau and Suffolk – at least, weather-wise. There’s no Summer break for the innovation economy, it seems, as regional socioeconomics rollick on. Check this out.
Hi-diddly-ho, lefterinos: Ned Flanders is not the only famous lefty.
Left, no choice: Today is Aug. 13 and we’re opening up on the Jersey side with International Lefthanders Day, honoring southpaws like Marie Curie, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Keanu Reeves – and many others forced to write in spiral-bound notebooks and use scissors in a world built for righties.
Dot them I’s: Lefties and righties alike can appreciate – and partake in – World Calligraphy Day, a second-Wednesday-of-August write-in focused on artistic penmanship.
And however you hold your knife and fork, you’ll want to dig in on National Filet Mignon Day, serving the finest cut of beef – rare, if you know what you’re doing – every Aug. 13.
Do you know me?: Yes, kids, they worked with actual metal money!
It’s your dime: If you’re going to be late for our filet mignon dinner, please call – fortunately, the coin-operated payphone was patented on this date in 1889 by Connecticut-based inventor William Gray.
Hair raising: It only cost 3 cents to read the Baltimore Afro-American – informally The Afro, the longest-running African American family-owned U.S. newspaper – when it launched on Aug. 13, 1892.
High beam: Not sure if The Afro also covered it, but radioactive decay became a thing 122 years ago today, when the science journal Nature shared how to make helium from radium.
Uber idea: Sans radiation, pay-to-play hit the road on this date 1907, when the first metered taxicabs rolled out in New York City.
Equilibrium strikes out: And it was Aug. 13, 1910, when the Brooklyn Superbas (later the Dodgers) and the Pittsburgh Pirates played the most oddly even baseball game in recorded history.
Due to darkness, it ended in an 8-8 tie with each team accumulating an identical 38 at-bats, 13 hits, one double, five runs batted in, five strikeouts, three walks, 27 put-outs, 13 assists, two errors, one hit batter and one passed ball.
Central unit: Swedish physicist Anders Jonas Ångström (1814-1874) – a master of astrophysics, heat-transfer principles, terrestrial magnetism and the aurora borealis, remembered best for kickstarting the science of spectroscopy – would be 211 years old today.
Elders stateswoman: The 15th surgeon general was appointed by President Bill Clinton.
Also born on Aug. 13 were American sharpshooter Annie Oakley (born Phoebe Ann Moses, 1860-1926), a remarkably skilled shot who amused presidents and foreign dignitaries alongside Buffalo Bill; American scientist, educator and administrator Detlev Bronk (1897-1975), the National Academy of Sciences president credited with establishing the science of biophysics; British film director and producer Sir Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), the unparalleled “Master of Suspense”; British biochemist Frederick Sanger (1918-2013), a two-time Nobel Prize chemistry laureate; and American economist Janet Yellen (born 1946), the former chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, the 78th U.S. treasury secretary and the first woman to fill either post.
Respect your Elders: And take a bow, Minnie Joycelyn Elders! The American pediatrician and public health administrator – the 15th Surgeon General of the United States and first African American woman to head the U.S. Public Health Service – turns 92 today.
Send regards for the retired doctor-in-chief to editor@innovateli.com, where we always show healthy respect for 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
Storage wars: Marking a significant post on the road to an environmentally cleaner, economically cheaper energy future, New York State has announced its first-ever bulk energy-storage solicitation.
The competitive solicitation, administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s Bulk Energy Storage Program, aims to procure one gigawatt of bulk energy storage as part of New York’s 6 GW Energy Storage Roadmap – an ambitious step toward reinforcing the state’s energy grid infrastructure, lowering consumer costs and optimizing generation and transmission operations, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office. All storage projects must conform to new energy storage safety codes adopted last week by the state’s Fire Prevention and Building Code Council, based on recommendations from the NYS Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group.
The 1 GW first step is “another example of New York’s ongoing commitment to strengthening our grid,” Hochul said in a statement. “[It ensures that] the state continues to have a more affordable and reliable electricity system now and well into the future,” the governor added. “Safe and strategic deployment of energy storage will help drive economic development and reduce costs for New Yorkers.”
Won’t you be my neighbor?: The First Baptist Church of Riverhead hopes so.
Commons cause: An affordable-apartments plan proposed for church-owned Riverhead land has received a seven-digit state boost.
Northville Commons, which would create up to 80 units of affordable rental housing on a 13-acre site owned by the adjacent First Baptist Church of Riverhead, was included in the latest round of funding through Albany’s County Infrastructure Grant Program. Launched in 2024, the Empire State Development effort awards grants to support small- and medium-sized county-led infrastructure improvements – including 48 statewide projects earning $36 million this round, with $1 million earmarked for an on-site sewage-treatment plant, new sidewalks and landscaping at Northville Commons.
The Riverhead Town Board is still debating zoning changes required by the proposed development, but the plan – pitched by the Family Community Life Center, a First Baptist Church-affiliated 501(c)3 nonprofit, and Jericho-based residential developer Georgica Green Ventures – fits the bill, according to Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight. “Investing in local infrastructure projects generates new opportunities to increase housing and support sustainable economic development,” Knight noted. “The grants … will enable counties across the state to address critical community needs that would not otherwise happen.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 55: Murphy’s law.
Among Long Island’s many amazing industrial development agencies, none is busier or bolder than the Suffolk County IDA, under the steady guiding hand of CEO and Executive Director Kelly Murphy.
The economic-development ace joins “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” to discuss her red-hot agency’s latest initiatives, dispel faulty myths about tax-abatement packages and reveal her New York City baseball-royalty lineage – just one ingredient in her incredible public-service career.
TOP OF THE SITE
Putting the “art” in “smart”: The Innovate Long Island Debrief returns with Erika Floreska, director of the Long Island Children’s Museum, where new exhibits and old ideals blur lines between creativity and education.
Need for speed: Things sure do happen fast in the innovation economy! Pace the progress with an always easy, always free subscription to Innovate Long Island’s quick-witted newsletters – and make sure your high-speed innovation team does the same.
VOICES
Dramatic funding cuts, budget-shrinking competition from rapidly increasing charter schools and expensive new education and safety mandates from Albany have Long Island public schools in fiscal and legal binds – but Voices Law Anchor Michael Sahn, managing member of Uniondale law firm Sahn Ward Braff Coschignano, has some innovative ideas on how they might forge ahead.
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
Calculated: American Consumer Price Indexes are rising, triggering new concerns about Trump’s tariffs. Axios prices it out.
Comedic: They’re rare these days, but can comedy movies make a comeback? Morning brew laughs it up.
Convergent: Nature keeps evolving crabs – but why? Salon explains the evolution.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Celera Semiconductor, a California-based analog automation designer, raised $20 million in Series A equity funding led by Maverick Silicon.
+ WiseBee, a New York City-based artificial intelligence-powered cybersecurity platform, raised $2.5 million in Pre-Seed funding led by Frontline Ventures and BrightCap Ventures.
+ FORT Robotics, a Pennsylvania-based robotics-control innovator, raised an additional $18.9 million in Series B funding led by Tiger Global.
+ Strand Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based biotech developing mRNA-based therapeutics, raised $153 million in Series B funding led by Kinnevik.
+ DISA Technologies, a Wyoming-based mineral-recovery and uranium-remediation pioneer, raised $30 million in Series A2 financing led by Evok Innovations.
+ Positive Development, a Virginia-based developmental therapy provider for autistic children and their families, raised $51.5 million in funding led by aMoon, B Capital and Flare Capital Partners.
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 Sahn Ward). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Mysteries in Spaaaaace Edition)
Final destination: This space rock — possibly older than the Earth itself — crashed through a roof in Georgia.
Final mission: How a dying NASA probe could intercept the Solar System’s latest interstellar visitor.
Deep thoughts: What the 4.65-billion-year-old McDonough Meteorite reveals about deep space.
Hidden truths: The Moon is slowly revealing billions of years’ worth of secrets.
Mystery solved: Please continue supporting the fantastic firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Sahn Ward Braff Coschignano, where they reach stellar heights by taking the guesswork out of the equation. Check them out.
