A sad loss for the HIA

Ed Pruitt, past chairman of the Hauppauge Industrial Association, has died.
Here is the statement from the HIA:
Ed was a driving force on the HIA Board as both a leader and innovator.  He created and launched the HIA Manufacturing Revitalization Initiative.  He was passionate about manufacturing on Long Island, helping local companies obtain funds to operate [...]

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Globecomm’s founder dies

Kenneth A. Miller, founder of Hauppauge technology firm Globecomm Systems, died on July 20.
Here is the company’s official statement:
Kenneth Miller was one of the founders of Globecomm Systems as a satellite systems integration company in October 1994. From that time to [...]

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Modell’s chairman dead at 86

William Modell, chairman of Modell’s Sporting Goods, died Thursday at a Manhattan hospital. He was 86.
Modell, who lived in Nassau’s Hewlett Harbor, died of complications due to prostate cancer.
He was an avid philanthropist, and donated millions to medical research related to Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease that claimed his son’s life in 2001.
From the [...]

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Irv Hansen will be missed

Long Island should have more people like this.
Sadly, Irwin Hansen, a regular face at Long Island Association events and Long Island MidSuffolk Business Action meetings, died yesterday. He was 92. LI Biz Blog remembers how Hansen was always more than glad to tout to the ideas that would make this region a better place in [...]

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BofA names replacement for Perez

Bank of America named a new development manager for the Long Island market, a position once held by Elena Perez, who died of a sudden heart attack while she was giving a presentation in New York last July.
BofA said Lorraine Aycock, credit products senior underwriter in its health care and institutions group, will fill the [...]

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Farewell to a sweet man

The ranks are thinning for Long Island business innovators, the ones who made companies work, thrive and flourish here by fronting quality products. Vincent Gruppuso, founder of Hicksville’s Kozy Shack Enterprises, concocter of a rice pudding that brings smiles to the gloomiest here and abroad, died Dec. 29 at age 67 due [...]

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E-ZPass will sell out cheaters

Freeway tolls-on-credit provider E-ZPass won’t turn a blind eye to adultery, rather, the service will turn you in the first chance it gets.
According to an Associated Press story, which I was directed to by our sister blog in Virginia, E-ZPass will provide toll information on a client if a court case requests it. That includes [...]

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Elena Perez’s funeral arrangements

Sadly, Bank of America’s Elena Perez, the bank’s market manager for the Long Island region, died Tuesday while making a presentation in New York.
Below are the details for her funeral:
Wake Services will be held Friday, July 20, 2007 at Cecere-Pensa Funeral Home 2283 Grand Avenue, Baldwin, NY 11510(516) 223-4200.
Viewing : 2:00PM – 4:00 PM, [...]

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Overtime? Not for home aides

For home care workers, the dream of overtime pay is essentially dead.
The Supreme Court today ruled that these workers who provide in-home medical care by tending to the sick and elderly, are not entitled to overtime, siding with a 1975 act that exempts home care workers from the government’s Fair Labor Standards Act.
The initial case [...]

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Intelli-Check names an interim CEO

On Wednesday, Frank Mandelbaum, chairman and chief executive of Woodbury-based Intelli-Check, died unexpectedly and the board of directors held an emergency meeting yesterday to develop a succession plan.
Today, the maker of devices for authenticating driver licenses and other forms of identification said it named Jeffrey Levy chairman and chief executive on an interim basis. Levy [...]

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Mejias wants Schmitt to pay

The bad blood between Dave Mejias and Peter Schmitt boiled today.
Meijas, a Nassau County legislator, demanded that Minority Leader Peter Schmitt pay back taxpayers the $160,000 in legal fees that accrued when he was sued for defamation by a Glen Cove law firm.
In 2004, according to blog Peter Schmitt Watch, Schmitt accused the firm of [...]

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Nassau getting to work today

It looks like the Nassau County Legislature filled its plate today with a pile of juicy bills, bans and a even a bus accident.
The Legislature will hold nine committee meetings on the following:
First, they hope to make a bill that would require anyone wanting a body piercing in Nassau to sign a consent form that [...]

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I take it back, she’s sweet

So was it the public outcry that prompted Miss America to finally agree to testify in a case that wouldn’t exist without her participation in the first place?
Who cares. The beauty queen agreed to testify, so maybe there will be a few less Internet predators to worry about when this is all over.
From the Forbes [...]

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Give me a break, Miss America

Perhaps she should be Miss Switzerland.
The blond beauty queen said she may stay neutral in the case involving the gaggle of sex predators the modern-day monarch helped Suffolk County trap.
In case you missed it — which I doubt since every news organization in the country picked up the story — princess Lauren Nelson helped the [...]

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In-home aides in overtime battle

As it stands, in-home aides who take care of the sick and elderly are not protected by federal minimum wage and overtime laws. But that could change.
The Supreme Court will begin to hear a case today that will decide whether these workers, who often work more than 40 hours a week, should be allowed at [...]

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Rockville Centre Diocese trial starts Monday

Long Island’s Catholic juggernaut, the Diocese of Rockville Centre, goes to trial Monday as part of a lawsuit involving a rape charge against former East Meadow youth minister Matthew Maiello.
The suit, which asks for $150 million in damages, is unique because its outcome will be decided by a jury. Often, abuse cases involving the church [...]

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Goodnight Mr. Vonnegut

Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns.
-Kurt Vonnegut, from “Cat’s Cradle”

Author Kurt Vonnegut, a frequent visitor of Long Island, [...]

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Neighbor passes idle ban

Face it, environmental issues have entered the mainstream, and we’re going to see more and more moves related to clean air and alternative energy.
Suffolk County went green by converting a chunk of the county’s fleet to hybrid. And in Nassau, Tome Suozzi wants to boost the tax on cigarettes as well as ban smoking in [...]

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Insurer’s stance quaked by high court

At this point it’s cliche, an insurance company refusing to pay for a major medical procedure on the grounds of some loophole in the policy.
So here’s another act in this endless theater production.
The Supreme Court’s Appellate Division ruled yesterday that New York-based Group Health Inc. must pay for a teenage boy’s breast reduction surgery, something [...]

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These cops are busted

Long Island has grabbed some national attention today, though it’s nothing we should be proud of.
Four police officers from Fire Island’s Ocean Beach police department were asked to surrender today to face unspecified criminal charges. The event is tied to the firing of five officers last week who, after they were let go, claimed the [...]

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Cablevision loses DVR battle

Cablevision lost the first round in its fight to create a network digital-video-recorder service.
According to a Reuters story, the U.S District Court in Manhattan ruled on the side of the television networks and movie studios that alleged Cablevison’s planned service would constitute distribution and therefore break copyright rules.
Cablevision wanted to create a centralized server, housed [...]

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