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News April 23, 2019

Hempstead LDC approves $28M in Adelphi bonds

By GREGORY ZELLER // The Town of Hempstead Local Development Corp. is once again backing a regional school’s expansion efforts with a nod for tax-exempt bonds. The LDC, which in 2018 approved the sale of $15 million in tax-exempt bonds for Molloy College’s dorm-construction project in Rockville Centre, has done the same for up to $28 million in tax-exempt bonds on behalf of Adelphi University. The Garden City university will put $6 million toward the…

Environment April 23, 2019

Albany bags plastics, as single-use sacks get the sack

By GREGORY ZELLER // It tolls for thee, plastic bags. Governor Andrew Cuomo rang the death knell Monday for single-use plastic bags in New York State – outlawed as of next March, even for holdouts content to spend a nickel per bag at the supermarket checkout. No more, as of March 2020, when the single-use sacks – which “do not degrade and often wind up as litter on lands and in waters,” according to the…

Calendar April 23, 2019

Stuff we’re thinking about going to

  April 24 Cocktails & Chromosomes 7-8 p.m., Six Harbors Brewing Co., Huntington Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory presents its latest science social, this time featuring  a quantitative biology discussion with Assistant Professor Ullas Pedmale, an expert in how plants see, sense their neighbors, taste and even smell. Free admission, BYOB, limited seating, registration required. Registration and more information. April 25 Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency Regular Meeting 12:30 p.m., H. Lee Dennison Building, Hauppauge  The Suffolk County IDA holds its…

Invention April 22, 2019

At ICE laboratory, diversity fuels the fire within

By GREGORY ZELLER // Diversity is behind the wheel at Stony Brook University, where an unexpected team of mechanical engineers is fueling a new future for an old technology. Electric vehicles are an enormous part of an energy-efficient future – and they’re increasingly prevalent in the present, with hybrids quickly filling our HOV lanes. But that doesn’t mean internal combustion engines are dead. Instead, the drive for energy efficiency has researchers like SBU Department of…

Voices April 19, 2019

For LI entrepreneurs, a bevy of biz-building resources

By PHIL RUGILE // I’ve talked a lot about how startups can utilize physical spaces and how, as region, we need more centers for innovation. But meanwhile, we already have dozens of startups popping up every month – and they won’t necessarily wait around for the right space or support. If there’s no easy way to find what they need, they’ll go somewhere they think can assist them. In our case, that typically means a…

Health April 18, 2019

Northwell Telepsychiatry Hub provides online lifeline

By GREGORY ZELLER // Remote, around-the-clock consultations for mental-health patients in crisis are now beaming around Greater New York, thanks to Northwell Health. Trumpeting an “innovative, secure online videoconferencing platform” built to connect psychiatrists to patients “when they need them most,” the health system this week debuted its new Emergency Telepsychiatry Hub inside its Lenox Health Greenwich Village facility. From that Manhattan location, the 770-square-foot center – featuring nine video workstations and a staff that…

Opinion April 18, 2019

In Houston’s JLABS, a blueprint for Long Island

By GREG MONTALBANO // I’ve been developing clients’ med-tech devices, in all possible applications, for 28 years, and my company has been doing it for 47. No, I didn’t invent a time machine (yet). As the second-generation owner of MIDI Medical Product Development, I’m helping to carry on Long Island’s long tradition of medical-product development. Our clients and their corresponding R&D mindsets have certainly shifted over the years, with more focus on supporting independent, entrepreneurial,…

Biotech April 17, 2019

Feinstein stimulates talk of an arthritis breakthrough

By GREGORY ZELLER // An encouraging new study out of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research says noninvasive bioelectronic stimulation – administered through the outer ear – can effectively reduce symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. The potentially quantum leap for the treatment of RA and other inflammatory diseases was reported Tuesday in Bioelectronic Medicine, an open-access journal aggregating articles and data from across a dozen-plus basic and clinical disciplines, including biochemistry, neuroscience, bioengineering, artificial intelligence and…

Education April 16, 2019

Stony Brook grad students soar in NSF nominations

By GREGORY ZELLER // Stony Brook University dominated the field Tuesday as 18 SUNY graduate students were named candidates for prestigious National Science Foundation fellowships. All told, five State University of New York campuses were represented in this year’s NSF Graduate Research Fellowship nominees. The University at Albany, Binghamton University and the University at Buffalo each posted two nominees, and the SUNY Polytechnic Institute in upstate Oneida County added one. But SBU ruled the SUNY…

Genetics April 15, 2019

Honey, I shrunk the shrew (and maybe your kidney)

By GREGORY ZELLER // Cutting-edge evolutionary science meets a Rick Moranis movie in an innovative international study of a surprisingly shrinkable furball. Freshly supported by a three-year grant from the international Human Frontier Science Program, Liliana Dávalos, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution in Stony Brook University’s College of Arts and Sciences, will dive even deeper into the world of the shrew – a remarkable, mole-like mammal known to shrink its mass, including…

Voices April 12, 2019

Vehicle of change: licensing undocumented residents

By JEFF GUILLOT // The face of our region is changing, both politically and socioeconomically, and it’s time we had some tough conversations. So, let’s get right to it: Long Island lawmakers and stakeholders should embrace state legislation that allows undocumented people to obtains driver’s licenses. Let’s throw the morality and racial politics out of the conversation – our region has dealt with enough of that. I could wax poetic about fundamental fairness and social…

Health April 11, 2019

‘Core’ facility adds depth, Roche tech to lab network

By GREGORY ZELLER // Two decades of steady laboratory-science advances has resulted in 101,000 square feet of unprecedented diagnostic innovation. Northwell Health and New York City Health + Hospitals this week cut the ribbon on their new $59 million Core Lab, a fully automated diagnostic-testing facility located inside Northwell’s Center for Advanced Medicine in Lake Success. Stocked with cutting-edge tech by Roche Diagnostics, the diagnostics division of global healthcare innovator Hoffmann-La Roche, the Core Lab…

News April 11, 2019

‘Quintessential’ leader McCall retires from SUNY board

By GREGORY ZELLER // With some 50 appointed university and college presidents and two appointed chancellors under his belt, H. Carl McCall is taking a victory lap. The chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees announced his retirement this week, after 12 years on the board and eight as its chair. The 83-year-old icon – a former New York state comptroller under Gov. Mario Cuomo, New York State Senator from Manhattan…

Earnings April 10, 2019

Sales soar, but MSC can’t manufacture a winning 2Q

  MSC INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY CO. Headquarters: Melville Industry: Capital goods NYSE: MSM Reporting Date: April 10, 2019 Reporting Quarter: 2Q FY2019 Quarter Ended: March 31, 2019 Numbers: Net second-quarter sales were reported as $823 million, a 7 percent increase over the $769 million reported for the same quarter last fiscal year. However, quarterly net income declined sharply year-over-year, down 41.8 percent to $68.4 million, and diluted earnings per share followed, dropping 39.8 percent to $1.24….

Education April 9, 2019

Old Westbury, Downstate Medical mark a SUNY first

By GREGORY ZELLER // Long Island hasn’t gained a new medical school, technically, though it has picked up a slew of new med students. Billed as a first-of-its-kind agreement, SUNY College at Old Westbury and the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn have partnered on a slate of programs allowing students to “pursue graduate and accelerated degrees,” according to the state university system – essentially, providing Old Westbury students with Downstate Medical degrees. The collaboration,…