8 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • OCTOBER 2019
IN THE NEWS
WEB BRIEFS LI AT A GLANCE
ISLES BREAK GROUND ON ARENA
Officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 23
to celebrate construction starting on the Islanders’
new arena at Belmont Park in Elmont — the project
that’s bringing the NHL team back home to Long
Island.
Fans cheered the development, which includes a
new Long Island Rail Road station that will make it
easier for the public to take mass transit to games
and concerts at the $1.3 billion arena. But the project
is not without its critics. The ceremony came
days after opponents filed a second lawsuit that
aims to block the project.
“This is going to be a transformative
project that I think is
gonna energize all of
Long Island,” Gov. Andrew
Cuomo said.
Of the economic
benefits, new
LIRR station, and
Isles’ homecoming,
the governor
said: “The technical economic development
term for that is a hat trick, my friends.”
The new 19,000-seat arena being built on 43 acres
of vacant land next to the racetrack that’s home to
the Belmont Stakes is slated to open in time for the
team’s 2021-2022 season. Officials say it will bring
10,000 construction jobs, 3,200 permanent jobs,
shops, restaurants, a hotel and billions of dollars
in economic activity to the area.
The long-awaited project comes after several attempts
to rebuild the Isles’ original home at Nassau
Coliseum failed, prompting the team to move to the
Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
CSHL BIOLOGIST WINS GENIUS GRANT
A Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory-affiliated plant
biologist who’s investigating ways to breed higher
yielding crops with the goal of safeguarding
food security was named on Sept. 25 one of 26
MacArthur Fellowship so-called genius grant
recipients.
Zachary Lippman, 41, who received his Ph.D. from
the Watson School of Biological Sciences at Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory in 2004, leads a team
that’s studying how best to edit the genes of plants
so they flower more, increasing fruit production,
to mitigate the growing threat of climate change
on the food supply.
“There’s a big challenge facing agriculture in
the 21st century,” Lippman said of his work. “The
population is growing, we have less usable land
for agriculture, the climate is shifting in ways
that are still very unpredictable, and crops are at
the front line of having to deal with this climate
change. Gene editing will allow us to hopefully
adapt crops to these new climate conditions to
increase productivity.”
The MacArthur Foundation issues the $625,000
grants to fellows from a broad array of professions
from scientists to artists who
demonstrate
exceptional
creativity and
need support to make their
game-changing ideas reality. Lippman is one
of seven New Yorkers to earn the honor this year.
DAILY SHOW MOCKS SHINNECOCK
MONUMENT CRITICS
The Shinnecock Indian Nation’s recent controversial
construction of an electronic monument
in Hampton Bays got the Comedy Central treatment
in a satirical segment that aired in September on
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
Comic correspondent Michael Kosta braved
Hamptons traffic in August to interview Shinnecock
Chairman Bryan Polite, who couldn’t contain
his laughter when told that Hamptonites find the
ad-revenue-generating bilboard on the side of Sunrise
Highway to be an attack on their way of life.
“How much of this monument is economic development
and how much of it is kind of a f*** you to
the people of Southampton?” Kosta asked. Polite
replied, “I think it’s a little bit of both.”
The segment isn’t the first time Long Island has
become fodder for Comedy Central jokesters. It’s
also not the first time Daily Show cameras have
turned their attention to the Shinnecock.
SUFFOLK BIKE SHARING EXPANDS
The Suffolk County bike-sharing program that
recently launched in Babylon, Patchogue, and
Southampton will soon debut in Riverhead,
officials announced Sept. 18.
The program operated by bike share company Zagster
through a partnership with Suffolk County
and sponsored by Bethpage Federal Credit Union
is designed to link public transportation with
downtown areas and parks while reducing traffic.
“Bike-share programs are a popular
and easy form of transportation
that I am
excited to bring
to Riverhead,”
said Riverhead
Town Supervisor
Laura Jens-Smith.
Users will be able to rent, locate, and
unlock bikes using an app called Pace on
their smartphones, then pay a fee based on their
use of the bike, or they can sign up for a monthly
membership. Riders can pause their trip to stop at
a local business, park, or other location.
BILLY JOEL “ARC-THOLOGY”' TV SERIES
IN DEVELOPMENT
In a sign that Hollywood has finally run out of old
TV shows and movies to reboot, they’re reportedly
planning a TV series based on the lengthy music
catalog of Billy Joel.
The idea being shopped around to networks is
billed as the first time that a musician’s entire discography
may be turned into a TV show, according
to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported
the story.
The working title? Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,
one of the Piano Man’s most popular songs,
of course.
“This series is going to focus less on Billy’s life and
more on the stories inside his catalog of classic
songs,” Steve Stark, MGM Television president
of development and production, told THR, which
reported that the series is termed an “arc-thology.”
Actors will bring to the small screen episodes
based on Joel’s rearranged lyrics and song characters.
Writers will have plenty of material to
work with from the sixth-best-selling musician of
all time, who released more than a dozen albums
between 1971 and 2001.
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