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Clean Energy January 16, 2020

Island schools to run $20M institute for wind-farmers

By GREGORY ZELLER // The winds of workforce development are blowing again through Long Island’s leading academic institutions, two of which will anchor a new state-sanctioned project targeting the offshore wind industry. Farmingdale State College and Stony Brook University will leverage a $20 million New York State Energy Research and Development Authority grant to create the Offshore Wind Training Institute, a worker-readiness effort focused on the burgeoning clean-gen industry, which looms large over future regional…

Newsletters January 8, 2020

No. 464: Charging into the 20s, with Hawking, Cousteau, surgery bots and a new Penn Station

  Off we go: The holidays are over and reality returns, dear readers, as a fresh month, year and decade of socioeconomic innovation begins. It’s Wednesday, Jan. 8 – Babinden in Belarus, celebrating midwives, and World Typing Day, promoting speed and accuracy. Sweets: It’s also National English Toffee Day and National Man Watchers Day, which attempts to balance societal scales by encouraging women to gawk at men for a change (not sure about the thinking…

Transportation January 6, 2020

New LIRR tracks mark ambitious ‘Empire Station’ plan

By GREGORY ZELLER // Governor Andrew Cuomo’s annual “budget proposal” tour rolled on Monday, with a whopper of a plan for Long Island commuters. Billed as “the 30th proposal” of the governor’s annual State of the State multibillion-dollar masterplan, the Empire Station Complex – unveiled by Cuomo during a speech before the nonprofit Association for a Better New York – would create a modern transit hub on Manhattan’s West Side. The plan centers on the…

Newsletters December 11, 2019

No. 460: On diversity, robotics and Hoosiers – plus, how to warm your whiskey

  Moving right along: It’s Wednesday already, dear readers, as we speed through this latest busy workweek and plow straight toward the big year-end holidays. The hills are alive: It’s Dec. 11 out there, a.k.a. International Mountain Day, when the U.N. would like you to consider the overexploitation of mountainous regions, home to 15 percent of the human population and one-quarter of Earth’s non-marine lifeforms. Level headed: There aren’t many mountains in Indiana, where Hoosier…

Economics December 5, 2019

Pay up, LI employers: Minimum wage is rising again

By GREGORY ZELLER // Going up? You bet – minimum wages on Long Island and around New York State are set to rise again. As part of a Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s phased-in master plan, which ultimately targets a statewide $15 minimum wage, Westchester-, Nassau- and Suffolk-based employers are required to pay a $13 hourly minimum as of Dec. 31, with the $15 minimum scheduled to arrive in 2021. In New York City, where the minimum…

Newsletters November 20, 2019

No. 456: A closeup look at Hubble, Feinstein’s finest and the Moon men of Garden City

  Tipping point: Over the hump we go, dear readers, as we speed into the second half of this autumnal week of innovation and economic development. It’s Nov. 20 out there – National Name Your PC Day, and yes, that’s absurd. But what do you expect on National Absurdity Day? Also absurd: Today is also National Pay Back Your Parents Day, as if. Episodic: Before we catch you up on the innovation economy, in honor…

Education November 14, 2019

Same old story for SUNY Empire, in new Suffolk digs

By GREGORY ZELLER // Long Island’s newest college is really nothing new. Empire State College, stepchild of the State University of New York system, is all grown up, thank you: The school has been helping students, particularly working professionals, earn accredited degrees since 1971, both in-person – at 30 statewide locations and seven international sites – and, increasingly, through distance-learning opportunities. But its 6.6-acre, $14 million Empire State College at Selden – that’s new, even…

Newsletters November 13, 2019

No. 454: Making Whoopi, seating Parks and (kinda) quoting Franklin – plus, the winds of cyberwar blow

  Half full: You’ve made it this far, dear reader – it’s Wednesday, Nov. 13, and you’re already halfway through this busy workweek. Well done! Tell everyone how you did it – it’s National Start a Rumor Day. You don’t Sadie: Empowering to some, infuriating to others, life imitates art this and every Nov. 13 – Sadie Hawkins Day, as first celebrated in the satirical “Li’l Abner” comic strips of the 1930s. Here’s one we…

Cybersecurity November 12, 2019

Hofstra flips switch on next-level cybersecurity center

By GREGORY ZELLER // With cybercrime on the rise, Hofstra University students will join the fight – and the future cybersecurity workforce. On Tuesday, smack-dab in the middle of National Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week, inside its C.V. Starr Hall, the Hempstead-based university cut the ribbon on its state-of-the-art Cybersecurity Innovation and Research Center, an interdisciplinary mecca of cutting-edge digital tools designed to simulate “hyper-realistic cyberattack scenarios” and train students to detect and defeat them. It’s…

Newsletters November 8, 2019

No. 453: In which the tide rips, the puns fly and Adelphi students phone out

  Cap it off: You’ve done it again, dear reader – another five-day gauntlet completed, another well-earned weekend in sight. It’s Friday, Nov. 8, out there, and we’re ending the workweek in style – National Cappuccino Day, as if you need an excuse to enjoy a creamy cuppa. About town: It’s also World Urbanism Day, a.k.a. World Town Planning Day, when eyes turn to the orderly spread of humanity in livable communities. Brain matters: And…

Government November 5, 2019

New York set to raise statewide tobacco, vaping age

By GREGORY ZELLER // Tobacco use may be in decline, but statistics show a sharp rise in “e-cigarette” use – and both remain a catastrophic public-health threat, particularly among younger generations. To that end, New York State is about to become the 18th state to raise its minimum age for the purchase of tobacco products to 21. The age hike, which also includes e-cigs and vaping products, is set to take effect Nov. 13. Governor…

News October 31, 2019

Whole body, whole world in CSHL’s new Demerec lab

By GREGORY ZELLER // A world-class scientific institution has gotten worldlier, and classier, with a $75 million upgrade focused squarely on cancer research. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory this week cut the ribbon on its Center for Therapeutics Research, located inside a significantly renovated Demerec Laboratory Building, which is ready to rock following a two-year retuning. The transformation of the Demerec building, opened in 1953 and named for Croatian-American geneticist Milislav Demerec, into a state-of-the-art therapeutics-research…

Newsletters October 30, 2019

No. 450: Worlds war, bombs blast and Delta delivers – plus, an all-time LI great calls it a career (kinda)

  Wicked Wednesday: Boo! Didn’t mean to scare you, dear reader, though today is the day before Halloween – and, of course, the midpoint of this ghoulish week of socioeconomic innovation. Slim pickings: Perhaps in anticipation of tomorrow’s candied costumery, there are very few “holidays” to highlight this (and every) Oct. 30. Today is National Checklist Day, which is as exciting as it sounds (though it started with a bang), and National Text Your Ex…

Education October 10, 2019

LI instructors shine as NY’s newest Master Teachers

By GREGORY ZELLER // More than two dozen Long Island educators have been welcomed into the ranks of the New York State Master Teacher Program. The professional-development and networking community, which promotes and celebrates the work of high-performing STEM teachers (for science, technology, engineering and math), added some 228 new members in September, including 27 teachers from Long Island-based school districts. Through participation in the Master Teacher Program, each competitively selected teacher receives a $60,000…