New state law to aid the expansion of homebrewing

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New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recently signed into law legislation to help expand “homebrew” beer, wine, and cider-making in New York. The bill (S.1227B/A1100B) allows for the creation and operation of custom beer, wine, and cider-production centers that will rent space and equipment to people looking to produce beer, wine, or cider for home […]

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ConMed reports Q3 profit dip, maintains earnings guidance

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Insurance & Financial Services, Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only

UTICA — ConMed Corporation (NASDAQ: CNMD) recently reported net earnings of $7.3 million, or 26 cents a share, in the third quarter, down from $8.9 million, or 32 cents, in the year-ago period. The earnings figure includes business acquisition and restructuring costs, along with a gain on the sale of the company’s facility in Centennial,

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UTICA — ConMed Corporation (NASDAQ: CNMD) recently reported net earnings of $7.3 million, or 26 cents a share, in the third quarter, down from $8.9 million, or 32 cents, in the year-ago period.

The earnings figure includes business acquisition and restructuring costs, along with a gain on the sale of the company’s facility in Centennial, Colorado, while the earnings figure during the same period in 2015 included restructuring costs, according to a ConMed news release.

ConMed’s domestic sales, which represented 53.7 percent of total revenue, increased 13 percent as “strong” growth in its general-surgery business was partially offset by declines in orthopedics and visualization, the company said.

The SurgiQuest acquisition contributed to 32.1 percent year-over-year growth in the U.S. general-surgery business.

ConMed closed on its acquisition of SurgiQuest, Inc., a Connecticut–based surgical-device maker, in early January 2016.

International sales, which represented 46.3 percent of total revenue, increased 5.1 percent in the third quarter compared to the third quarter of 2015 on a reported basis.

Foreign currency-exchange rates, including the effects of the FX hedging program, had a negative impact of $3.4 million on third-quarter sales.

In constant currency, international sales increased 9.2 percent versus the prior-year period.

“We are encouraged by the continued progress in our international markets, strong contribution from AirSeal, and solid organic growth within general surgery. While the rebuilding of our domestic orthopedics franchise is taking longer than expected, we feel confident that we are making the appropriate changes to return this business to growth. Overall, we are pleased with a return to positive organic growth on a constant currency basis,” Curt Hartman, president and CEO of ConMed, said in its release. “As we close out the year, we look to build upon the recent momentum across several of our businesses while continuing to focus on improving operating efficiencies and reaccelerating organic growth across all of our product categories.”

2016 outlook
ConMed didn’t make any changes to its previously issued financial guidance.

The firm continues to expect 2016 constant-currency, organic-sales growth in the range of -1 percent to 1 percent and sales related to the SurgiQuest acquisition between $62 million and $67 million.

Based on foreign currency-exchange rates as of Oct. 21, ConMed said it continues to anticipate the negative impact of foreign exchange for the year in the range of $17 million to $19 million.

ConMed continues to expect 2016 reported sales of $757 million to $767 million, which represents growth of 5.3 percent to 6.7 percent over reported 2015 revenue of $719 million.

The company expects adjusted net earnings per share between $1.83 and $1.93.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

Community Bank to sponsor Empire State Winter Games

Insurance & Financial Services, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

CANTON — Community Bank, N.A. on Oct. 26 announced that it would serve as the title sponsor for the 2017 Empire State Winter Games. Mark Tryniski, president and CEO of Community Bank, made the announcement during a press conference held at the bank’s branch in Canton in St. Lawrence County. “We feel it’s our obligation

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CANTON — Community Bank, N.A. on Oct. 26 announced that it would serve as the title sponsor for the 2017 Empire State Winter Games.

Mark Tryniski, president and CEO of Community Bank, made the announcement during a press conference held at the bank’s branch in Canton in St. Lawrence County.

“We feel it’s our obligation to support the well-being of the communities we serve and we have a strong presence and growing presence across the entirety of the North Country … we thought it was entirely befitting to support the Empire State Games and the tourism and the visibility,” says Tryniski. He spoke with CNYBJ on Nov. 16.

Community Bank System, parent company of Community Bank, N.A., was founded in Canton in St. Lawrence County 150 years ago, he noted. The banking company is currently headquartered in DeWitt.

When asked how much funding Community Bank is providing for the Winter Games, Tryniski says, “I will tell you it’s a six-figure number and we’re happy to do it.”

The partnership will support the “community-driven,” multi-day sporting event, which is expected to have a nearly $3 million economic impact on the region, according to a news release announcing Community Bank as the Games’ title sponsor.

The 37th edition of the Empire State Winter Games (ESWG) are set for Feb. 2-5, 2017, at various venues in the North Country and Adirondack regions.

The Winter Games will bring together more than 1,900 athletes from across New York state and beyond to compete in 19 winter sports, including marathon skating and mogul skiing, which were added for the upcoming edition.

“Coming on the heels of a successful re-launch of the ESWGs in 2016, this partnership with [Community Bank N.A.], as well as an overwhelming level of support from the entire North Country community, ensures that 2017 will be the most exciting and successful year ever,” Tait Wardlaw, executive director of the ESWG, boasted in the Community Bank news release. “The games are truly a reflection of the enthusiasm and true sense of cooperation that everyone has for our regional winter sports.”

The Empire State Winter Games is the result of a partnership between the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST), the towns of North Elba, Wilmington, Tupper Lake, Harrietstown, Malone, and Brighton; the villages of Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, Paul Smiths, Malone, Wilmington, and Saranac Lake; the counties of Essex and Franklin; the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority, and New York State Senator Betty Little (R–Glens Falls), according to the event’s website.

Support for the Empire State Winter Games is provided by a Market NY grant through the “I Love NY” program and the New York State Division of Tourism as a part of the regional economic-development council awards, the website says. The nonprofit LPECQD, Inc., a subsidiary of ROOST, is “fiscally responsible for the Empire State Winter Games.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

Health Care, Opinion, Subscriber Only

We have many teachers telling kids the country’s gone to Hades. Because voters chose Donald Trump. We have professors and college administrators coddling upset students, with safe zones, grief counselors, and sympathy. Please pardon me for my stupidity. But it seems to me that this election is a gold mine for good teachers. By good

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We have many teachers telling kids the country’s gone to Hades. Because voters chose Donald Trump.

We have professors and college administrators coddling upset students, with safe zones, grief counselors, and sympathy.

Please pardon me for my stupidity. But it seems to me that this election is a gold mine for good teachers. By good teachers I mean those who leave their political biases at home. And those who use today’s events to urge students to think.

Here are some good questions for a lesson plan: What just happened in our election? Why did something similar happen with voters in the UK?

Why does something similar brew in various countries of the EU? In France and the Netherlands in particular.

Why has the Democrat Party in the U.S. lost so many governorships in the last eight years? As well as control of state legislatures? As well as both houses of Congress? They hold as few elected offices as they have for almost 100 years. What is going on with them? Or with the voters they no longer have? This is a huge development.

How did Trump get to be President-elect? How did he vanquish two massive political machines named Clinton and Bush? How did he hog-tie 16 Republican opponents? He did this despite the war big media waged against him. In fact, he spat in their faces. He did this despite the education profession. Teacher unions spent millions to defeat Trump. Academia roared its disapproval of him.

Most Hollywood and TV stars openly despised Trump. Many prominent Republicans worked openly against him. Many others did so quietly. Conservative magazines and websites viciously undercut him.

Ohio’s popular Republican governor spurned him. He refused to help Trump through his network of political workers. Yet Trump still won the Buckeye State handily.

Meanwhile, he spent a fraction of the money those who opposed him spent.

So how did Trump pull this off? This guy who had never held an office? He had never run a campaign.

Students, let’s define extraordinary. Now, whether he is your hero or your Hitler, can you see how this man is extraordinary? He achieved what most politicians and political “experts” claimed was utterly impossible.

So how did he do this? How did he out-think these people? What did he see they did not? And why do you suppose he saw it and they missed it? Did his opponents have biases that blinded them, to the realities that Trump saw?

Does Trump represent a major movement in American attitudes? Will this election re-align the political parties?

To guide them a teacher might chalk a straight line across the blackboard or draw one across a whiteboard. The line represents the spectrum of political positions in America.

On the center-left we place Democrats. On the far left, Bernie Sanders and his Socialists. Beyond them, Communists. On the center-right, the Republicans. Further right, the Conservatives. The further left or right we go, the more the people cling to ideologies. Closer to the center, we find less ideology.

Is it possible, students, that Donald Trump plopped his campaign square in the middle of this line? In doing so, did he suck the oxygen from the right? Did he lure many from the left who did not share the ideology Democrats promoted? Did he win with Democrats near the middle who don’t lay awake worrying about trans-gendered bathrooms? Or political correctness. Or safe rooms. Or extreme green beliefs.

And why did Democrat voters move toward Trump? Why did they back off from Hillary Clinton? Why did Republicans flip the bird to many of their leaders to vote for Trump?

Pose questions like this to American students. Identify propaganda in their responses. Force them to think about this election. Get them beyond the blurbs from party spinmeisters.

This may turn out to be one of the most significant elections in our history. We should alert our young people to this possibility.

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home near Oneonta. Several upstate radio stations carry his daily commentary, Tom Morgan’s Money Talk. Contact him at tomasinmorgan.com

Dear President-Elect Trump: Let’s Get Back to Business

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Dear President-elect Trump, On behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, congratulations on your election as the 45th president of the United States. As the nation’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses, chambers, and associations of all sizes, sectors, and regions, we stand ready to help you unite our

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Dear President-elect Trump,

On behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, congratulations on your election as the 45th president of the United States. As the nation’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses, chambers, and associations of all sizes, sectors, and regions, we stand ready to help you unite our country around a mission all Americans can support: To grow our economy, create jobs, and expand opportunities for all citizens.

We applaud the strong emphasis you have placed on accelerating economic growth. During his excellent presentation to the Chamber’s board of directors [recently], Vice President-elect Mike Pence underscored your commitment to new economic policies and reforms that will unleash growth and the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people.

The business community has been particularly encouraged by your comments concerning our country’s need to rebuild infrastructure, develop all forms of U.S. energy, reduce and reform taxes, and remove unnecessary regulations and modernize the federal rulemaking system. In addition, we have been pleased to hear that you plan to bring significant change to America’s health care and public education systems.

The Chamber looks forward to working with your administration and the incoming Congress on these priorities, and we will mobilize our grassroots federation of Main Street businesses and local chambers in support of them.

We also believe that to achieve the level of growth our country needs, we must increase international trade. We should avoid any course of action that constricts, rather than expands, trade. Indeed, throughout the campaign you spoke of your desire to boost U.S. exports around the world and to negotiate new trade deals that would be good for the country. Upon taking office, you will inherit presidential Trade Promotion Authority, which the Chamber helped persuade Congress to pass in 2015 — a critical tool that will help you achieve those goals. The Chamber is prepared to work with you here, as well.

Meanwhile, on immigration — a challenge that has roiled the country for years — we hope you and Congress will chart a balanced course that increases security and enforcement while also improving America’s legal immigration and visa systems. As you know from your business career, the ability of companies to attract talent at all skill levels is a strong factor in keeping and expanding operations and jobs in the United States.

Mr. President-elect, our country needs a strong president to help ensure peace, security, and prosperity at home and abroad. In the days ahead, we will agree on many issues and we may disagree on a few — but we share your commitment to this country and we stand ready to work with you and the new Congress to unleash a new era of growth and opportunity. Together, we can put Americans back to work, we can get our economy back on track, and we can get our country back to business.

Sincerely,
U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Editor’s note: This opinion piece/letter was drawn from a news release the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued on Nov. 21.

Tioga Downs Casino opens after final approval from New York

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Regional News, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

NICHOLS, N.Y. — Tioga Downs Casino opened for business on Friday afternoon after the New York State Gaming Commission gave the facility final approval earlier in the

Kraze Burgers opens in Destiny USA’s food court

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Kraze Burgers, a quick-service gourmet burger chain, has opened an eatery in Destiny USA’s food court. Kraze Burgers, which got its start

Cornell extends contract of athletics director through 2022

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, Nonprofits, Regional News, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

ITHACA, N.Y. — J. Andrew (Andy) Noel, Cornell University’s director of athletics and physical education, will lead the Big Red sports program for at least

Carrols completes acquisition of 7 Burger King restaurants in Ohio

Insurance & Financial Services, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TAST) announced it has completed the acquisition of seven Burger King restaurants located north of Columbus,

Miner: Symphony Tower to become extended-stay hotel, called Hyatt House

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner on Wednesday announced an agreement that’ll have Symphony Tower redeveloped into a new, extended-stay hotel called Hyatt House.

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