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Education June 18, 2019

Sachem scores in LI-friendly ‘Smart Schools’ round

By GREGORY ZELLER // More than $12.5 million in school-technology upgrades are coming to Long Island schools through the latest funding round of Albany’s Smart Schools investment plan. The Smart Schools Review Board on Monday approved nearly 100 projects designed to improve school security and “reimagine teaching and learning for the 21st century,” according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office – a chunky 13th funding round for the circa-2015, $2 billion Smart Schools Bond Act. The…

Opinion June 18, 2019

‘Ignored’ nonprofits rich with internship opportunities

By BERNADINE WALLER and THOMAS WARD JR. // A fine arts major creates a wall-sized mural for a seriously ill child through nonprofit organization Splashes of Hope. A political science major works at a New York City nonprofit helping low-wage restaurant workers understand their legal rights. A nursing major disseminates information for the medical community through the nonprofit National Organization for Rare Disorders. These are just three of the nearly 70 internships that our students…

Biotech June 17, 2019

With synthetic opioids lurking, DNA detector scores

By GREGORY ZELLER // With synthetic opioids increasingly implicated in the alarming number of drug-overdose deaths plaguing the nation, a stalwart Long Island biotech’s DNA-based tracking technology has received a major endorsement. The peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE has published a paper by Stony Brook-based Applied DNA Sciences on the molecular tagging of pharmaceuticals – a next-gen supply-chain authenticator that Applied DNA considers unforgeable, inescapable and particularly useful in a world where counterfeit drugs are…

Voices June 14, 2019

Focused ‘placemaking’ would fill LI’s work/life needs

By PHIL RUGILE // Anyone who follows initiatives like downtown revitalization has likely come across the term “placemaking.” This refers to spaces created for specific purposes, usually capitalizing on a local community’s assets and potential. In practical terms, it means we can create places that attract millennials, spaces that address work/life issues, options that are compelling to transit-oriented commuters, whatever we might need. The concept absolutely applies to business incubators and co-working spaces. Urban areas…

IT June 13, 2019

New home, new partners for ambitious STEAM startup

By GREGORY ZELLER // It’s all coming together for slightly nomadic nonprofit We Connect the Dots, which may have found a permanent home – and has definitely identified some promising partners on its STEAM-powered mission. The registered 501(c)3, intent on leveling the technological playing field for underprivileged students via extracurricular science, mathematics, engineering, art and math activities, is now occupying 2,500 square feet in Syosset, carved out of a larger commercial space swimming with children’s…

Calendar June 13, 2019

Stuff we’re thinking about going to

  June 21 LIMBA 2019 Breakfast Series: Roberta Reardon  8 a.m., Courtyard by Marriott, Ronkonkoma Long Island Metro Business Action presents New York State Commissioner of Labor Roberta Reardon in an interactive discussion with LIMBA’s Bill Miller and Ernie Fazio on regional employment and related issues. The 2019 Breakfast Series is supported by premiere sponsors Lewis Johs Avallone Aviles LLP and Bradley & Parker. Registration and more information. June 26 Hamptons Box Open House  6-8…

Opinion June 12, 2019

To spark innovation, the master becomes the servant

By MITCH MAIMAN // “Servant management” leadership techniques are not new. This leadership concept, founded in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf, is broadly based on a philosophy that says the manager’s role is to serve the staff. The manager becomes an enabler for the staff, maximizing their operational performance and developing higher skills and capabilities. Skip Prichard, president and CEO of the global Online Computer Library Center, does a wonderful job succinctly defining the qualities of…

Earnings June 12, 2019

Enzo Biochem still searching for right fiscal formula

  ENZO BIOCHEM Headquarters: Farmingdale Industry: Healthcare NYSE: ENZ Reporting Date: June 10, 2019 Reporting Quarter: 3Q FY2019 Quarter Ended: April 30, 2019 Numbers: Total third-quarter revenues were reported as $19.7 million, down 21.8 percent from the $25.2 million reported for the same quarter last fiscal year. Operating expenses were down year-over-year – from $13.5 million to $11.9 million for the same three-month period – and quarterly GAAP net income was $22.3 million (47 cents…

Voices June 11, 2019

In apple cider, a hard life with sweet rewards

By AMBROSE CLANCY // You know cider, right? That’s the stuff in plastic jugs you buy at a supermarket or a roadside stand out east when the leaves begin turning in October. When you’re home, you take a taste and begin wondering how to spell “hyperglycemia” so you can immediately Google it. It goes in the refrigerator, and before Thanksgiving has turned cloudy and vile. Right? No, you don’t know anything about cider. Americans are…

Economic Development June 11, 2019

Stakeholders unite to support pharma/nutra’s future

By GREGORY ZELLER // With more than 150 companies and 9,800-plus employees, the pharmaceutical/nutraceutical industry is already a Long Island cornerstone – and some major regional stakeholders want to see it grow. On Tuesday, the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency and the Workforce Development Institute officially introduced “Driving Suffolk County’s Innovation Economy: The Pharmaceutical/Nutraceutical Growth Factor,” a 48-page report detailing pharma/nutra’s impressive growth over the last decade and the unique obstacles the industry faces on…

Economic Development June 10, 2019

For downtown Hicksville, the circle is now ‘Complete’

By GREGORY ZELLER // Nassau County has started the ball rolling on an ambitious effort to bring safer, more convenient thoroughfares to one of Long Island’s most densely populated downtowns. County officials have officially committed to the Downtown Hicksville Complete Streets Project, which aims to improve accessibility and safety for motorists, pedestrians, mass-transit passengers, cyclists and others traversing the downtown area of the busy Town of Oyster Bay hamlet. Starting with an outreach effort designed…

Awards and Events June 6, 2019

SBU commercialization shines at Incubator Showcase

By GREGORY ZELLER // Innovation is always on display at the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology, but it truly shined this week, when the stars of Stony Brook University’s economic-development universe soaked up some spotlight. The university’s fourth-annual Incubator Showcase, a one-day ingenuity bazaar highlighting Stony Brook’s complex commercialization ecosystem, filled CEWIT with imagination Wednesday, as residents and clients of SBU’s myriad incubators and business-development programs shared their progress with potential investors,…

Health June 5, 2019

All’s wellness as Northwell, Canyon Ranch saddle up

By GREGORY ZELLER // Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a new strategic alliance is set to educate Northwell Health clinicians on how to care for themselves – the makings of a wellness-outreach effort that could benefit the entire health system, patients included. Northwell Health this week announced a collaboration with “premier integrative wellness brand” Canyon Ranch designed to fulfill a “common goal” shared by the two “mission-based organizations,” according to the health system: the creation…

Health June 4, 2019

At Manhasset hospital, they’re a liver to their people

By GREGORY ZELLER // Long Island’s first adult liver-transplant program has been green-stamped by state health officials. The Sandra Atlas Bass Center for Liver Diseases, housed inside North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, will begin prioritizing surgical candidates later this month, now that the New York State Department of Health has approved Northwell Health’s new liver-transplant program. The program “opens access to critically ill patients in an underserved area that stretches from Suffolk and Nassau…

Awards and Events June 4, 2019

Science meets fiction at inspirational Cradle-Con 2019

By GREGORY ZELLER // The Cradle of Aviation became the Cradle of Creation this weekend, as one of Long Island’s brightest museums hosted one of the region’s hottest cultural conventions. Cradle-Con 2019 lit up Garden City’s Cradle of Aviation Museum Saturday and Sunday, splashing an interdimensional spotlight on classic comics, cult cinema and the coolest innovations in modern pop art. The museum, of course, is knee-deep in its 50th anniversary observances of the Apollo 11…