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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Hard to port! No, don’t make a quick left turn – but if you’re a waterfront-based enterprise focused on port operations and related markets, you’ll want to turn your attention to Albany’s latest Request for Qualifications. With the offshore-wind industry really starting to howl, marine-support and other waterfront operations will become critical components of the statewide economy – particularly on Long Island, where offshore-wind infrastructure figures to rise fast. To that…
Warm greetings: You wouldn’t know it from the weather, but it’s the first Wednesday of autumn, dear readers, as we hustle over the hump of this latest busy workweek. Pull up a chair: A special hello on this Sept. 25 to new newsletter subscribers Katie, Rob, Marcos, Craig, Mark, Daniel, Eugene, Seth, Anthony, Brad, Marianne, Manny, Adele, Tina, Armando, Larry and Diane. If any of you had American farmer, businessman, philosopher, writer, theologian, politician…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Good news for research-rich, offshore-open Long Island: New York’s clean-energy economy is growing at more than double the rate of the overall state economy. So says the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which on Tuesday announced an 8.9 percent growth in statewide clean energy-related employment since 2016 – exceeding 158,000 employees in 2019, according to NYSERDA, and still climbing. These and other impressive numbers await in the state’s…
Almost there: Hang on, dear readers … you’re halfway through this unofficial last workweek of the Summer of 2019, with a well-earned holiday weekend in sight. Tie one on: It’s Wednesday, Aug. 28, and we’re not saying things are dragging or people have mentally checked out as summer winds down, but the best we can do today is National Bow Tie Day. On that note, a gentle reminder that Innovate LI will be sticking…
By GREGORY ZELLER // New York State’s artificial-reef program has migrated north, with a fresh deployment of inorganic materials creating a new “marine habitat” in the Long Island Sound. One year after dumping hundreds of tons of recycled materials three miles off the South Shore – including chunks of the blowed-up-real-good Tappan Zee Bridge – Albany’s Artificial Reef Initiative is looking to increase fishing and recreational opportunities off Nassau County’s North Shore with a similar…