Business Beat

On a week where there hasn't been any real news about the reported potential sale of Newsday by Tribune and billionaire owner Sam Zell, there still has been lots of talk about it.

The latest is a column by Jon Fine online in Business Week. Eons ago, Fine was a freelance columnist for Newsday (in the late 1990s). Now he laments the opportunity that Times Mirror let go by when it pulled the plug on New York Newsday in 1995. This is more in the school of Newsday could-have-been-a-contenda.

As the wheel has turned, says Fine, one of the competitive targets of New York Newsday--Rupert Murdoch and the New York Post--could now swallow Newsday. His column has a memorable, and intelligent, line about Murdoch: "The best place to be in America with a newspaper is to have one that Rupert Murdoch wants," an industry executive tells him. What this means is that Murdoch's presence in any bidding war raises up the price, and this will help Zell with his debt headache. Stay tuned.

--Noel Rubinton

The discussion was pretty genteel at an education-business breakfast meeting of the Long Island chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals Tuesday at the Milleridge Cottage in Jericho. But the talk heated up among the educators and business executives when the topic veered to deficient communication skills among today’s young workers.

It’s relatively easy to find skilled workers, some execs said, but harder to find candidates with decent communication skills.

“What’s comparatively harder is to find people with the soft skills,” said Warren Lepkowski, the Long Island Rail Road’s director of IT application, architecture and quality assurance.

Chief among soft skills is communication, he said.
“Too many technical skills have taken us way from the soft skills,” he said.

Ebbe Reker, a native of Denmark and the vice president and chief financial officer of Applied Visions, a Northport software-development company, said he was appalled at young workers’ lack of communications skills.

“I find it odd that an ex-foreigner has to teach Americans English,” he said. “I find it odd that they can get through college with that level of English.

--Carrie Mason-Draffen

Boeing is definitely not going down quietly on its loss of a lucrative Air Force contract to build aerial refueling tanker planes. It blasted out its message in expensive full-page color ads in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and other newspapers around the country Wednesday.

The government awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman in late February. Boeing, which has built similar planes for the government for many years and many billions of dollars, filed a formal protest--an unusual step--on March 11. The ads may not have cost billions, but they certainly did ring up a bill in the many tens of thousands.

In the ads, Boeing said, "Let's look at the facts," and proceeded to got through its case. Boeing has claimed an edge of cost, performance and relative risk. "It doesn't add up," Boeing said at the end of each point. The ad also included Boeing's web site aimed at debunking the contract.

While Boeing has been on the offensive since the award went against them, Northrop Grumman has been vocal too. It has defended its contract vigorously, with its own web site and including by issuing many news releases to counter Boeing claims.

The Government Accountability Office says it hopes to rule in the case by mid-June.

--Noel Rubinton

The future of Newsday and who will own it has become a major subject in media circles. Papers with the circulation and resources of Newsday don't go on the market too often. Tribune owner Sam Zell hasn't officially said Newsday is for sale, but he's passed up lots of chances to deny it.

Today's entry in the Newsday fact/rumor mill comes from the New York Observer. Headlined "Hey Mort, Chuck, Rupe! Welcome to Hellville, Long Island!", it's a lengthy look at the paper's recent history and possible future. The writer, John Koblin, describes why the paper could be more attractive to New York owners than a Chicago billionaire. And why the reporters and editors of the paper are uncomfortable living in limbo.

For the full story, click here.

--Noel Rubinton

New York's first in the nation air passengers bill of rights got its traction out of a huge mess: the Valentine's Day ice story at Kennedy Airport. As planes stacked up on the runways, with passengers trapped for hours, tempers boiled over. In the aftermath, cries for action quickly came out.

Here are two of the Newsday stories at the time, describing the scene at Kennedy.

Newsday, February 16
By Matthew Nestel
It was supposed to be a getaway to paradise.
The Caso family from the South Shore traveled light for their Cancun vacation, packing swimsuits, shorts and T-shirts, and leaving the thermals, down jackets and scarves at home.
Their trip went south, just not as they had planned.
The Casos spent nine hours Wednesday on a JetBlue plane on Kennedy Airport's tarmac.
"We're emotionally drained," said Lynn Caso, explaining that it wasn't an easy go for her, her husband, Jeffrey, and the family's three boys, ages 13, 9 and 5.
Last night, the family, among dozens of others, was back on a JetBlue flight that, this time, got off the ground.
"The Casos are off to Cancun! " Lynn, 42, said from a cell phone on the plane just before the 7:48 p.m. takeoff.
None of the dozens of passengers on Wednesday's Flight 751 will soon forget their ordeal.
"This has been one of the worst experiences of our lives," said Patricia Fabricant, 43, of Manhattan, who was back at the airport yesterday with her husband, Robert, 37, and young children to board last night's Flight 4001.
JetBlue apologized for the inconvenience.
"This was not acceptable," said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin. "We pride ourselves on being a customer service company and we failed to meet the needs of our customers. ... We are going to go back and analyze what happened and make sure it never happens again. "
Essentially, ice from the storm caused gridlock for JetBlue flights, Baldwin said. Ten flights were affected - six waiting to take off and four that landed, but couldn't get to the gate because of equipment problems. In addition, there wasn't enough deicing equipment to go around, he said.
JetBlue waited until 3 p.m. to contact the Port Authority to get buses for the passengers to get them off the plane, Baldwin said. "We should have made the decision earlier to stop operations and make sure to get customers back to the gate," he said.
JetBlue canceled nearly 200 flights yesterday to avoid a repeat. But last night, the chaos hit a peak as more than a thousand people crowded the JetBlue terminal. Just after 9 p.m, a JetBlueofficial announced through a bullhorn that the airline was no longer accepting check-ins for departing flights, explaining that passengers risked becoming stranded on planes that might not leave the airport.
"We are closing operations," the official said before offering stranded customers a free round-trip ticket.
About a dozen New York City Police officers then fanned out to stand guard behind JetBlue ticket counters.
Passengers who endured the Valentine's Day tarmac nightmare recalled killing time by reading, watching television, sleeping and eating - until the food ran out.
Jeffrey Caso, 43, said he felt helpless. "As a father, I couldn't provide for my kids," he said.
After a few hours, the power went on and off.
"For a while at least you had the TVs," said Chris Delogue, 31, of Monroe, Conn., who was headed to Cancun with his wife, Jennifer, also 31, for their best friend's wedding. "The TVs were a saving grace. "
Last night, the Delogues were smiling before finally heading off to Cancun.
Shawna Vanness contributed to this story.

Newsday, Feb. 18, 2007
By Andrew Strickler and Juliet Chung
The scene at JFK's JetBlue terminal was "organized chaos" in the words of one frustrated passenger as the airline yesterday continued to struggle in the aftermath of the Valentine's Day storm.
"We're staring at thousands of bags. We're in a sea of luggage, and it cannot be found," said Gary Long, 53, of Cutchogue, whose Friday night flight to Houston was delayed six hours, then canceled.
"It's been a nightmare," said Long, who, with his wife and in-laws, had booked a flight on another airline yesterday in the hopes of eventually making it to a Caribbean cruise.
Even with blue skies, JetBlueofficials canceled 305 of its estimated 1,200 weekend flights yesterday in an attempt to re-establish regular service. The airline's problems began Wednesday as an icy winter storm descended on New York and JetBlue's main East Coast hub at Kennedy Airport.
The airline experienced near-total gridlock, with hundreds of passengers trapped on runway-bound planes for as long as nine hours.
JetBlue canceled 270 flights on Wednesday, causing many flight crews to be in the wrong cities to start the next day's operations. That caused more delays and cancellations on Thursday and Friday, further exacerbating the problem, officials said.
"Basically what's been happening is almost a snowball effect as we've tried to catch up," JetBlue spokeswoman Tracy Sandford said.
The company is constrained by a Federal Aviation Administration rule requiring crews have at least eight hours of rest between shifts. JetBlue officials said further cancellations on Monday were possible, Sandford said.
JetBlue officials would not estimate the number of customers affected by the weekend cancellations.
Company officials said most of the hundreds of pieces of luggage piled up at JFK yesterday belonged to customers who checked in for Friday flights that never left the ground. "We are looking at a bunch of options, including FedEx . . . and local couriers to get that luggage back to people," said JetBlue spokesman Mitch Nadler.
The words may offer scant comfort to the hundreds of passengers yesterday who dug through piles of bags, cases, and duffels that lined walls and crowded spaces between carousels. Passengers who weren't searching among the clutter waited in line to report their luggage missing or to be shuttled elsewhere in the airport to search for their belongings.
"I just want my bags," said Los Angeles native Becky Rosenberg, 33, as she slouched on Carousel 1. Rosenberg, a fashion house sales representative, flew into JFK from Las Vegas on standby yesterday morning after JetBlue canceled her original flight. "Our work samples are in there and we have a trade show starting tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock," Rosenberg said. "It's the loss of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars."
JetBlue's problems did not stop at the airport. The customer service number was overwhelmed and callers were greeted with a message saying they would need to call back. JETBLUE's JAM-UP AT KENNEDY WEDNESDAY
During storm, passengers are held on planes for as many as nine hours. JetBlue officials acknowledge it was a mistake to wait until 3 p.m. to ask Port Authority for buses to shuttle passengers back to terminal.
Flights canceled: 270 of 503
It was like - what's the name of that prison in Vietnam where they held [Sen. John] McCain? The Hanoi Hilton," Sean Corrinet, of Salem, Mass., tells The Associated Press. Corrinet spent almost nine hours aboard a flight for Mexico that never got off the ground.
THURSDAY
The logjam shifts inside the terminal. As more than 1,000 passengers crowd the JetBlue counter at 9 p.m., an airline employee, under police guard, announces that no one else will be checked in for departing flights that evening.
Flights canceled: 217 of 562
This has been one of the worst experiences of our lives," says Patricia Fabricant, 43, of Manhattan, back at the airport with her husband, Robert, and kids to board Thursday night flight after sitting on tarmac for hours Wednesday.
FRIDAY
Chaos continues inside the terminal, though JetBlue insists it's getting a handle on the backlog.
Flights canceled: 150 of 570
We got here this morning, and it was chaos at the check-in," Amy Mintz of Dix Hills told AP after her 8:55 a.m. flight to San Diego was canceled. She, her husband and two children, ages 4 and 6, were on a standby list for a 6 p.m. flight but weren't guaranteed a seat. "I could see the other day with all the ice ... but it hasn't snowed or rained since Wednesday. "
SATURDAY
Unclaimed baggage piles up as the delays, and the disgust continues.
Flights canceled: 170 of 600
Our goal is to have Monday be as close to normal as possible," JetBlue spokeswoman Tracy Sandford says.

Longevity affects everything. When people lived only into their 30s, it made for a vastly different world from ours when people routinely live into their 80s, 90s and even 100s. It affects the workforce, the whole idea of retirement, lifestyles, heath care budgets and much more.

Robert Butler, a physician who has devoted most of his professional life to the study and care of older people (he doesn't like the term "seniors," or "juniors" either), has now summed up his work in a big new book, "The Longevity Revolution." Saul Freedman, Newsday's "Gray Matters" columnists, interviewed Butler on a wide variety of subjects and you can read the conversation, and see photos of people experience that longevity revolution, by clicking here.

--Noel Rubinton

When a media company goes on the sales block, people have plenty to say about it--especially other media outlets. And if that company reportedly for sale is in the media capital of New York, it compounds the effect further.

With Tribune experiencing the choppy waters of the overall economy and the shift of advertising from newspapers to other places, owner Sam Zell is reportedly looking at selling off some of his new-found assets to pay off his company's huge debt. Newsday, long seen as a prime property and the third largest paper within Tribune, could fit with that sales strategy.

So far, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Crain's New York (which started this tizzy of talk Thursday), the New York Post, Chicago Tribune the Los Angeles Times and Jimmy Breslin in Portfolio are among those weighing in. Their takes are variations on a theme: the lead contender is seen as Rupert Murdoch and News Corp., followed in no particular order by Long Island-based Cablevision and the New York Daily News' owner, Mort Zuckerman.

--Noel Rubinton

The group that wants to revitalize manufacturing on Long Island will hold its second meeting on Wednesday. That gathering will continue the discussion on the various governmental economic development programs that local manufacturers can access for capital.

The group consists of the Hauppauge Industrial Association and local members of the state group the Aerospace and Defense Diversification Alliance in Peacetime Transition. The group held its first meeting on Feb. 27. As with the first meeting, the next meeting takes place at Suffolk Community College’s Sally Ann Slacke Center. It starts at 8 a.m.

Ed Pruitt, a co-chair of the initiative, has stressed that local manufacturing still offers plenty of well-paying jobs but too few people know it. His goal is to make manufacturing “cool” again.

The best way to close a skills gap is to devise a plan that reaches across the great divide. The Long Island chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals hopes to do that by taking its case to school.

The group will sponsor a breakfast forum Tuesday in Jericho at which IT executives will discuss their present and future hiring needs with some university officials. The event starts 8 a.m. in the Milleridge Cottage.

“The Long Island technology brain drain is well documented, but we shouldn’t assume that the battle is lost,” said Barbara Viola, the chapter’s president.

Advance registration is required.

The Great Depression, one of the most difficult periods in the history of the United States, is generally considered to have lasted from 1929 (with its stock crash) to the early 1940s.

President Franklin Roosevelt took over from Herbert Hoover in 1933, but the effects of his "New Deal" didn't take hold for several years. The period was heavily documented by moving photography and much history.

--Noel Rubinton

The timing couldn’t have been better. Months ago the Hauppauge Industrial Association scheduled an executive breakfast for March 19 to look at the financial industry’s impact on Long Island.

Well, just two day before the meeting, the Federal Reserve engineered the highly unusual rescue of a securities firm, Bear Stearns. And the Fed carried out other efforts to shore up the financial markets on a scale not seen since the Great Depression, some experts have said.

That gave the panel a lot more to talk about and talk they did.

The rescue, “really brought the credit market problem into sharp focus,” said moderator Pearl Kamer, chief economist for the Long Island Association.

And the credit market crisis has shown that “much of the nation’s recent prosperity is based on a sea of debt.”

But the bubble of easy money in the credit market has clearly burst. And Kamer said the nation’s economy could be in for “a prolonged period of unusual retreat.”

Some signs of changed lending habits are already being played out on a local level.

Michael Campites, a branch manager for New Jersey-based American Mortgage, which has a branch in Bohemia, said the creditworthiness of prospective borrowers is a prime concern among all lenders now.

He said that popular loans based on what borrowers said their income and assets were are no longer available. Banks will do more checking now. “Today if your credit is low, there is chance there is no funding out there.”

While the meltdown of Bear Stearns caught a lot of executives off guard, it shouldn’t have said, Ann H. Tucker, the director of Ivy Asset Management Corp., a hedge fund of the Bank of New York Mellon in Jericho.

She said that first clues the securities firm was in serious trouble came when two hedge funds connected to it failed last year.

Douglas C. Manditch, the chief executive of brand-new Empire National Bank and the contrarian of the panel, advises his staff to follow a simple rule on lending. He asks them, “Would you make this loan with your own money? If you wouldn’t, then you shouldn’t be doing it.”

One of the panelist saw a silver lining of more affordable housing on Long Island amid all the negative economic developments.

Said Nicholas M. Lacetera, the chief executive of People’s Alliance Federal Credit Union in Hauppauge, “The housing drop will provide opportunities for young people.”

--Carrie Mason-Draffen

But there slowdown could be a silver lining for affordable housing.

American Mortgage in Bohemia is working extra hard to clear up some name confusion these days. That was evident when a branch manager of the New Jersey-based mortgage bank served as a panelist at a Hauppuage Industrial Association executive breakfast Wednesday.

“Please don’t confuse it with American Home Mortgage or I wouldn’t be here today,” Michael Campites told the early morning audience at the Sheraton Long Island Hotel in Hauppauge.

American Home Mortgage, which was based in Melville, was one of the early victims of the current credit crunch and mortgage crisis, which began last summer.

When customers contact American Mortgage, Campites said, one of the first questions they ask is “Are you the American Home Mortgage that just went out of business?”

The lender will have to either keep explaining until enough customers get it or consider changing its name.

--Carrie Mason-Draffen

Sitting here in 2008, the 40th anniversary year of the office cubicle, we might just say that we have been exposed to more than enough of cubicle life.

But along comes a new twist -- Dilbert Cubicle Chaos, a game that can be downloaded to mobile devices, assuming you’re an AT&T, Boost Mobile or Sprint PCS customer.

The object of the game – to take on the role of the pointy-haired boss and try to win the Manager of the Month award, with Dogbert (!) as your coach.

If your boss isn’t looking, you can check it out here.

--Patricia Kitchen

Women on the Job, the non-profit started 26 years ago to advocate for and educate women on workplace rights, has moved from being a stand-alone organization to become a project under the umbrella of the Long Island Fund for Women & Girls.

Women on the Job’s mission remains the same, says recently-retired Lillian McCormick, co-founder and former executive director: to educate women as to their rights, advocate for pay equity, increase awareness of nontraditional career opportunities for women, and to pave the way for more women to assume seats on corporate boards. McCormick, who will be a consultant to the group, says she’s glad that it will “live and go on to help women in the workplace.”

This is a good fit because “women’s workplace rights have been part of our vision from the beginning. It’s a good home for them and it’s good for us,” says Diane Cohen, executive director of the Long Island Fund, formed 17 years ago with a complementary mission – to empower women and girls in many areas of their lives.

--Patricia Kitchen

According to Beate Moore, who listed and sold the $65 million Gin Lane mansion that closed last week, golfer Tiger Woods is not involved either as the buyer or seller of the property, despite a report in today's New York Post.

Moore continued to cite a strict confidentiality agreement in not revealing the parties involved, but says she is "stunned" at the rumor that Woods was the purchaser of the property. "It is hilarious...I don't know where this comes from," she said."

As REAL LI reported yesterday, the deal closed a week ago on the home once owned by film producer Marty Richards and wife Mary Lea Johnson, grandaughter of the founder of Johnson & Johnson.

Predicting the stock market is either an enterprise of high art or a fool's errand, depending on your point of view and the particular situation. Jim Cramer has attracted a lot of attention in recent years on the web and on tv for his predictions, analysis and overall antics. So if you want to see what Cramer said 10 days ago about Bear Stearns, the company just taken over by JP Morgan Chase after a dizzying crash for a small fraction of its recent value.

--Noel Rubinton

In recent years, the shortage of nurses, particularly registered nurses, has been one of the thorniest and most visibile problems in the American health care system.

While there's been lots of talk, and some progress, obstacles remain. Locally on Long Island, the efforts of South Nassau Communities Hospital are the latest efforts to fix the situation--as well as the clearest sign that problems continue. Developing new sources of nurses, both in the United States and abroad, are seen as key solutions, but not ones likely to happen overnight.

--Noel Rubinton

It's not easy making money.

Few know that better than Edmund Moy, director of the United States Mint. He asked congressional lawmakers this week to strike down a provision in the proposed Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008, which focuses on manufacturing coins more cost effectively. The provision would require the Mint to start making steel-coated pennies within 180 days of the bill's enactment.

But Moy estimated it would take three to five months to determine the specifications of a cost-effective, copper-plated steel blank to make pennies. Otherwise, he said, it makes little sense to use steel, a cheaper metal than copper nowadays, if the manufacturing process is too costly.

In addition, it could take more than a year and a half for vendors that supply penny blanks to procure steel and invest in machinery needed to make the new pennies, the director said.

That timeline doesn't even count the public comment period and the bidding process.

"If the change is required in 180 days, production of the pennies will be limited to the capacity level of the blanks supplier at that time," Moy wrote in testimony submitted to a House Financial Services Committee panel during Tuesday's hearing on the bill. "This reduced production capacity will potentially result in a coin shortage."

Last year, it took 1.7 cents to make a penny and almost 10 cents for a quarter, resulting in a total loss of $100 million, according to the U.S. Mint.

Read Newsday to see what else Moy says about the proposed bill and test your coin smarts with the quiz below.

Hearing that Suffolk Community College had won a $1.7 million U.S. Labor Department grant to help workers acquire high-tech manufacturing skills made Ed Pruitt a happy man.

Pruitt, who is part of a local initiative to revitalize manufacturing on Long Island, said the group that is leading that effort -- the Hauppauge Industrial Association and local members of the state group, the Aerospace and Defense Diversification Alliance in Peacetime Transition -- wrote letters to the department in support of the college.

“It’s right down our alley,” said Pruitt, who is a general partner at Cooperating Executives
Organization, a Melville consulting firm. “This grant is much needed to close the skilled-labor gaps we have that are currently affecting many of our companies,” he said.

He said the groups also lent their support to the college in 2005, when it was competing for a $2.4 million Labor Department training grant, which it also won.

The people at one training company call it "recession rumination" when employees get fixated on real or potential job and financial troubles – and it’s on the rise.

That’s according to the annual slacking-on-the-job report -- http://www.leadershipiq.com/recession.html -- from Washington, D.C.-based Leadership IQ, which conducted the research last month, as well as in February 2007.

According to the more than 6400 respondents, the top office time wasters this time last year were surfing the net for shopping and entertainment. But it would seem that the fun times are over, as this year’s main time wasters are surfing for career and personal finance resources.

So, just how much time do people admit wasting these days? That would be an average of 2.3 hours out of a 9.2 hour workday, up 44 percent from the year before.

-- Patricia Kitchen

Women entering the workforce today have a group of pioneering women to thank for the progress that’s been made in regards to career advancement and workplace flexibility – though there’s clearly still much to be done.

To recognize the contribution of women in the 1960s and 1970s, The Women Now Summit is being planned for March 16 in Huntington by The Cinema Arts Centre and the Women’s Leadership Development Center.

The day will include a screening of a documentary film, "Women Now" -- as well as an address by consultant and filmmaker Ellen Cooperperson called "A Retrospective on the Women’s Movement: How Today’s Women Have Much to Be Thankful For."

There’ll also be video interviews with prominent Long Island women, among them:

Linda Lisi Juergens, executive director of the National Association of Mothers’ Centers;

Carolyn Mazzenga, tax partner, Marcum & Kliegman, LLP;

Margaret Krumholz, president, Disc Grapics, Inc.

For more information see the Cinema Arts Center's website.

--Patricia Kitchen

It may seem as though some of the bloopers that job candidates pull on interviews would qualify them for a cameo role on NBC’s television show "The Office." But all they likely reaped was a rejection.

Following are samples from the annual survey of most outrageous interview mistakes from CareerBuilder.com, based on input from more than 3000 managers and human resources types:

--Candidate answered cell phone and asked the interviewer to leave her own office because it was a "private" conversation.

--During a telephone interview, the candidate flushed the toilet, obviously heard by the interviewer.

--The candidate told the interviewer he was fired from his previous job because he beat up his boss.

For more, click here.

--Patricia Kitchen

If Gov. Eliot Spitzer does resign over his involvement in a prostitution ring, he’ll be joining at least 14 chief executive officers who were ousted from their positions last year over some illegal or unethical behavior. That’s according to John Challenger, an outplacement executive in Chicago, who monitors the comings and going of such high-level executives.

He points to Chris Albrecht of HBO, who resigned in the wake of his being arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend. Also the chief executive of a Michigan bank, arrested for arranging to have sex with a minor.

"It is further evidence that personal behavior, which at one time might have been swept under the carpet, is now grounds for immediate departure," said Challenger in a media release.

At least eight of the 31 chief executives who were fired in 2006 left over improper behavior, he says, such as inflicting physical abuse or soliciting a prostitute.

--Patricia Kitchen

Economic optimism among the chief executives at the country’s fastest-growing private companies has nosedived to its lowest point in 16 years, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey.

In the fourth quarter of last year, only 29 percent of the executives polled for the the professional-service company’s Trendsetter Barometer Survey were optimistic about the economy, compared with about 70 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006. But the execs were more optimistic about the global economy--55 percent versus, 73 percent the year before.

For more on the survey go to:

http://www.barometersurveys.com/production/barsurv.nsf/vwAllNewsByDocID/F71D5123970F9CB1852573FA0070C5FC

--Carrie Mason-Draffen

How much is a penny? Apparently, it’s 1.7 cents. And the value of a nickel? A dime.

Those are the U.S. Treasury costs of minting coins as metal prices rise in the global market, according to congressional lawmakers who will hold a hearing today on the lopsided ledger of making money.

Since 2003, copper and nickel prices have shot up 300 percent, while zinc prices have jumped 450 percent, according to a subcommittee on the House Financial Services Committee. The penny is composed of copper and zinc, and the nickel is made of – what else? – nickel.

But soon, the makeup of these coins could change. The subcomittee on domestic and international monetary policy, trade and technology will hear testimony today on lower costs metals to mint the coins. It’s one proposal under the Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008.

Changing the metals could save Treasury about $100 million a year without compromising the utility of these coins, estimated to have a 30-year life, according to a report by the U.S. Mint.

In his relatively brief but meteoric public career, Eliot Spitzer has made a lot of enemies. His prosecutions, and the his public zeal and delight in them, have caused many to cringe, and worse.

Now that Spitzer has taken such a huge tumble, it's probably not shocking to see some of his prime targets swing back. In today's Wall Street Journal, Ken Langone, a former New York Stock Exchange director who now heads a small investment-banking firm, said of Spitzer, "He actually believes he's above the law."

As prosecutor, Spitzer sued Langone for his role in doling out the large pay package of former New York Stock Exchange CEO Dick Grasso. Langone said now, "I have never had any doubt about his lack of character and integrity -- and he's proven me correct."

As for Grasso himself, one of the biggest fish brought down by Spitzer, the former head of the stock exchange was not speaking publically about Spitzer. But Andrew Sabin, a friend of Grasso's who lives near him on Long Island, told the Journal that he spoke briefly with Grasso's wife, Lori. "I said I'd buy Dick some champagne," said Mr. Sabin, owner of precious-metals firm Sabin Commodities. "I'm sure he's happy. I'm sure everybody on Wall Street is happy."

The classic formulation is "Living well is the best revenge." But with Spitzer, it may be the ability to lash out at him without the fear of prosecution.

--Noel Rubinton

It is dizzying to watch the fall of Gov. Eliot Spitzer today in a prostitution scandal. The man was the Eliot Ness of his generation, the man who cleaned up Wall Street--well, today he was the fallen man. Looking back at the profiles of the past, such as this one in Slate, shows how high up he once was held.

--Noel Rubinton

Who says Sweet Sixteens are just for people?

HJMT Communications in Westbury is celebrating its 16th year in business by throwing a Sweet Sixteen party on Thursday at the Bridgeview Yacht Club in Island Park.

Hilary Topper, who founded the public relations agency, started in a one-bedroom apartment in Long Beach with herself as the only employee.

Today she has 18 employees and locations in Westbury and Manhattan.
Those aren’t the only big changes. How the firm goes about business has also changed through the years.

In the early years, Topper would use snail mail to distribute pitch letters and announcements. Today, her firm e-mails those materials. And it has increasingly posted information on social networking sites like Facebook.

“I think it opens doors for our clients because it gives them more exposure,” she said Friday during a call from a social networking convention in Las Vegas.

The company recently targeted automotive and gadget blogs to publicize a client’s new
screwdriver with a light. The client received 30 orders in one day, she said.

“With traditional media you have to wait six months to get a mention,” she said.

--Carrie Mason-Draffen

Forbes is just out with its list of the richest in the world. For the full story and access to the list, click here.

The big news, says Forbes, is that Warren Buffett has pushed his friend Bill Gates out of the top spot after a run of 13 years. Buffett has a fortune of $62 billion and Gates has $58 billion. Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, whose fortune has doubled in just two years to $60 billion, squeezed in between the two, according to the magazine.

The top Long Islander on the list is James Simons, at #178 with a fortune of $5.5 billion. A mathematician, he's the founder of Renaissance Technologies, which is a hedge fund uses complicated computer models to analyze and trade securities.

--Noel Rubinton

A business adviser at Farmingdale State College has won a top award from a national group.

Adviser Walter Reid has earned the 2007 State Star Award from the Association of Small Business Development Centers, which is based in Virginia. The group names one adviser from each state. Reid, who works at the Farmingdale Small Business Development Center, was cited for his “high quality business counseling” and “distinguished, long-term service” in economic development.

He has counseled more than 1,300 clients since 2002, according to the Farmingdale SBDC. Those clients in turn have invested more than $32 million in New York State and created or saved 750 jobs.

The group announced the awards at its conference in Denver.

--Carrie Mason-Draffen

The economic psyche is a fragile yet incredibly powerful force. When things are going good, wow, bring 'em on, let's have a boom! But the reverse, sadly, is true too. And that's where we are right now, as the collective economic mood has crumbled. That, on top of all sorts of problems such as housing prices and mortgages, leads people to pull back. Which, in turn, makes things even worse. For a look at the latest measure of consumer confidence, click here.

--Noel Rubinton

Small businesses who want help navigating the federal contracting network now have a new Small Business Administration online course to turn to.

The SBA has launched “Business Opportunities: A Guide to Winning Federal Contracts” to help small businesses obtain contracts to do business with the federal government.
The course is especially designed for those businesses in u