“We’re giving parents a well-deserved break–from the kitchen.  We’ll do all the work this Labor Day by serving up lunch or dinner for families as they sit back, relax and enjoy one more family night out before the kids go back to school,” said Kurt Pahlitzsch, Director of Operations for Applebee’s Long Island.   “Our 2 for $20 menu, which includes one appetizer and two entrees, will really stretch parents’ hard-earned dollars and is available not just on Labor Day but all year round for lunch and dinner.”        

While the kids enjoy lunch or dinner from the Kids’ Menu, adults may want to try one of Applebee’s new Sizzling Entrees.  Hot bubbling cheeses, caramelizing sauce, fresh steamed vegetables and choice of shrimp, steak and chicken on sizzling skillets give neighborhood guests what they’re craving, at a price they can swallow. All of Applebee’s new Sizzling Skillets start at $8.99.

To locate the Applebee’s restaurant nearest you or for more information, visit www.applebees.com.  The “free meals for kids” Labor Day offer is valid on Monday September 6, and is only available at participating Applebee’s restaurants in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Applebee’s Serves Up Labor Day Bonus for Parents…Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar restaurants in Nassau and Suffolk counties will pay tribute to working parents this Labor Day by ‘paying’ for kids’ meals. All day, Monday, September 6, up to two kids, ages 12 and under, will receive free Kids’ Meals with every adult entrée purchased. It’s one more chance for families to enjoy a night out before the kids go back to school.

About Applebee’s
Applebee’s (www.applebees.com) is the world’s largest casual dining chain, with more than 2,000 locations in 49 states, 16 countries and one U.S. territory. Based in Lenexa, Kan., Applebee’s takes pride in providing a welcoming, neighborhood environment where everyone can enjoy the dining experience.  Applebee’s Services, Inc., and its affiliates franchise and operate restaurants under Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill and are a DineEquity, Inc. (NYSE: DIN) brand.

About Doherty Enterprises, Inc.
Doherty Enterprises, Inc. was established in 1985 and is the 12th largest franchisee in the United States, operating six restaurant concepts including: Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar, Panera Bread, Chevys Fresh Mex, El Pollo Loco, Carino’s Italian Grill, and their own concept, The Shannon Rose Irish Pub. To date, Doherty Enterprises owns and operates 92 restaurants in northern and central New Jersey, Long Island, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens. The Doherty vision is to be the “Best Food Service Company in the Tri-State Area” and its mission is to “Wow Every Guest Every Time, Wow Our People, Wow Our Communities and Wow Our Suppliers.” (www.DohertyInc.com) 

The Center for Pediatric Specialty Care has the largest number of pediatric subspecialists in Suffolk County.  These pediatricians are trained in cardiology, pulmonology, neurology, infectious disease, endocrinology, gastroenterology, cystic fibrosis, sleep disorders and fetal echocardiography.  Since opening in 1997, the center’s primary goal has been to provide quality health care for children so they can continue to lead normal lives, requiring fewer hospital admissions and emergency department visits.  Good Samaritan Hospital is dedicated to the availability of pediatric specialty care services for the community. 

“The Center for Pediatric Specialty Care affords the residents of western Suffolk and eastern Nassau County the opportunity to receive the finest in pediatric specialty care in an easily accessible, state-of-the-art facility close to home.  I am extremely fortunate to be able to practice in what I consider the finest pediatric diagnostic and treatment center in the area,” said Barry Goldberg, MD, director of Good Samaritan’s Center for Pediatric Specialty Care.

For every medical need, from emergencies and critical care to specialized outpatient treatment, the pediatric services at Good Samaritan use the medical center’s extensive resources and staff to provide optimal medical care for children.  “With so many children with special needs, it is most important to ensure that pediatric subspecialists are available to care for them in a timely manner and support each child’s needs as well as those of the family,” stated Catherine Caronia, MD, Good Samaritan Hospital’s medical director of pediatric critical care services, chairperson of pediatrics and graduate medical education, and associate dean of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

For more information on Good Samaritan’s Center for Pediatric Specialty Care, please call (631) 376-4444.

Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center is a 537-bed (including 100 nursing home beds), voluntary, not-for-profit hospital located in West Islip.  The medical center, which has more than 4,500 employees and almost 900 physicians on staff, had more than 30,000 patient admissions and more than 100,000 emergency room visits in 2009.  Good Samaritan is a member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island. Visit the website at www.good-samaritan-hospital.org.

Good Samaritan provides more than $54 million in community service and charity care each year.  The medical center supplies residents with the tools necessary to maintain good health.  This includes community lectures, screenings, health fairs and other community programs and services

“I walked in the gym and said, wow, there are real companies here!” said Joanne Tow of Hicksville. “I was able to give my resume for a software engineering position with a company that I didn’t even realize was hiring before coming to the Job Fair. That alone was worth going,” Tow continued.

Senator Hannon’s Job Fair included over 70 employers looking to hire for open positions and 10 career resource services. “In these tough economic times, many Long Islanders are struggling to pay their monthly phone bill and their upcoming mortgage payment,” said Senator Hannon. “It is my hope that people walked away last night with an opportunity to obtain an income and at the very least, real networking connections to land a job,” Hannon continued.

For a full list of Senator Hannon’s upcoming community events and important New York State legislation information, visit www.kemphannon.com.

Photo: Senator Kemp Hannon speaks with community members waiting in line for the start of the 2010 Job Fair at East Meadow High School.

“Hannon helped double state spending, passed hundred of tax increases onto working families and drained billions of dollars from Nassau County,” said Dave Mejias, who is running for State Senate in District Six. “Kemp Hannon has either forgotten his own record or he’s hoping the voters will.”

From 1990 to 2009, Hannon voted to approve at least 203 separate statewide tax and fee increases. From 1989 to 2010, Hannon also voted in favor of local tax increases on 450 separate occasions. The grand total of the new taxes was $33.7 billion. Hannon also voted seventeen separate times to raise or extend over $2 billion in taxes on his own constituents in Nassau County.

“Kemp Hannon being on the Tax Revolt line is like BP asking to be named Environmentalist of the Year,” said Mejias. “No matter what lines Hannon runs on, he can’t run away from his record of costing Nassau County families billions.”

A full account of Hannon’s decades of tax-and-spend policies can be found at www.changealbanynow.com/hannon. Dave Mejias is running in the 6th Senatorial District, which encompasses parts of Nassau County on Long Island, including North Massapequa, Old Bethpage, Hempstead, Plainview and Farmingdale. To learn more about his campaign, please visit www.davefornewyork.com.

Volunteers, some of them prostate cancer survivors, are finalizing plans for the show to raise public awareness of prostate cancer, emphasize the need for its early detection and to raise funds for testing. 

South Nassau Communities Hospital provided free onsite PSA blood-screening tests and will do so again at the 2010 show.  Of the 225 men tested at the car show in 2009, five were found to have elevated PSA’s, the first possible indication of prostate cancer, and were referred to their physicians.

“I’m a prostate cancer survivor and I built Long Island Cruizin’ around the screening program offered at the show.  It has proven to be worthwhile; after all, early detection can save a life, as it saved mine.  I’m looking forward to our 5th show in September and working with the sponsors to make it an even more successful event then in 2009.  I’m pleased we raised substantial funds for testing last year and am especially pleased that to date, at our shows, over 700 men have been screened and 16 with elevated PSA levels who were referred to their medical doctors,” said Sandy Kane, event chair.

The September car show will again offer a fun-filled family outing featuring classic and antique cars, new hot rods, a vendor pavilion, food and entertainment including two a capella groups and young singing sensation Kayla Star.  The entry fee to exhibit a car is $20 if pre-registered by September 1st; $25 on the day of the event.  For more details about participating in the 2010 Long Island Cruizin’ for a Cure Car Show, visit www.licruizinforacure.com or call 1-888-LICRUIZ.
 

“Reading to our children is an important part of their healthy development. Reach Out and Read plays a vital role in promoting reading to our children and its benefit to their well being and growth,” said freshman Assemblyman Dean Murray. Reading aloud to young children is one of the best ways to prepare them for school. Yet in New York State 35% of children enter Kindergarten without the basic language skills they need to start school ready to learn. Doctors at health centers with Reach Out and Read give free age-appropriate books to children 6 months through 5 years old during check-ups, and give parents advice about language development and reading aloud to their kids.

“The Reach Out and Read program has been instrumental in encouraging our Pediatric population to start their children’s education before they enter school. Being able to read to our patients and then giving their parents age appropriate books encourages them to develop a love of books at an early age,” said Dr. Jose Concepcion, Medical Director, Family Health Sites and ROR Medical Consultant.

John Gupta, CEO of St. John’s Episcopal Hospital Pediatrics Clinic agreed: “Reading to children is vital to their education and learning. The Reach Out and Read program provides an excellent stimulus for our young patients.”

Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based, national nonprofit organization that prepares America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. Reach Out and Read currently serves one-third of the most impoverished children in the U.S. The Reach Out and Read model is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the program has one of the strongest records of research support of any primary care intervention. This year, Reach Out and Read’s 26,500 volunteer doctors and nurse practitioners will provide 6.2 million new books to 3.9 million children at 4,535 healthcare locations in all 50 states. For further information, please visit Reach Out and Read’s
website at www.reachoutandread.org.

“We’ve chosen to focus on these three because they are so commonplace in the school environment,” says Grassroots Executive Director Patti Wood. “Parents are understandably attracted to anti-bacterial products, but the fact is, chemicals used in those products have been associated with interference with the thyroid gland and endocrine disruption. Plastic water bottles often contain bisphenol- A (BPA), phthalates and other suspect chemicals that can leach under normal conditions.  And kids bring food to school in plastic wraps, plastic containers and plastic lunch boxes, all of which can pose problems. These are things parents absolutely need to know about.”

“It’s not the dose that makes the poison anymore,” says Dr. Leo Trasande, Assistant Director for the Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “It’s the exposure to a wide array of environmental chemicals, even at the lowest levels of exposure, that can harm children’s health.”

• Anti-Bacterial Products with Triclosan - Triclosan (also marketed as “Microban” and “Biofresh”) is a chemical found in thousands of consumer products, from personal care items to ball-point pens. It is advertised as being both safe and effective, but the latest research on triclosan indicates that its use may cause allergic reactions, interference with thyroid function and disruption of the endocrine system. The estrogenic effects of triclosan may induce early puberty, which in turn increases the risk of breast cancer. There is no scientific evidence that the use of these anti-bacterial products is superior to washing hands with soap and warm water.
• Bottled Water - Many parents send their kids off to school with one or more plastic bottles of water, probably thinking that the water in the bottle is safer than what their kids might get at the school fountain.  But the plastic bottles may contain harmful chemicals, including phthalates and bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA mimics estrogen in the body and may contribute to breast and other reproductive cancers. Studies show that phthalates can also disrupt the endocrine system, among other health problems. Re-useable bottles made from stainless steel are completely safe, widely available and can pay for themselves in only a few weeks.
• Food Packaging - Plastic lunch boxes, plastic food containers and plastic wrap may be convenient for packing school lunches, but they can also pack a powerful dose of potentially harmful chemicals. Some major brands of children’s lunch boxes are made from PVC and have been found to contain high levels of lead (some tested at 90 times the legal limit). Plastic containers (especially those bearing the recycling codes #1, #3, #6 and #7) and clear plastic wrap may leach chemicals into the food, especially when not refrigerated. Alternatives to plastic food packaging include non-PVC lunch boxes, unbleached paper and wax paper bags, re-useable cloth bags and wraps.

Grassroots, which has won numerous awards from the EPA for its pioneering programs to educate consumers and protect children’s health, has created a new web page for parents concerned about these kinds of exposures. Called simply, “Exposures at School” (http://www.grassrootsinfo.org/exposuresschool.html) the page has links to safe products parents can trust. Elsewhere on the site parents can also find scientific information and links to studies on environmental toxins and human health.

About Grassroots
Founded in 2000, Grassroots Environmental Education is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization with a mission to educate the public about the links between common environmental exposures and human health. More information about the organization and its programs can be found on the Grassroots web site,  GrassrootsInfo.org.

We support the property tax cap bill, the Power for Jobs extension, the elimination of the State sales tax on low-sulfur heating fuel and the Governor’s proposed budget contingency plan dealing with federal FMAP assistance.  Those bills are before us again today and we should take them up without further delay.

While the federal FMAP bill that was introduced early this morning differs with legislation that the Governor sent us last week, I am confident that we can resolve any problems so we can pass a bill today.  In fact, my staff has been negotiating changes with the Governor’s staff this morning.

We will not vote for any increases in taxes or fees, and any bill that includes those will not receive any Republican support.  However, other measures can be acted on and we should do so.  The failure by the Senate Majority Leader to attend today’s session, just like Temporary President Malcolm Smith’s decision to skip last week’s session, should not prevent us from doing our jobs and the people’s work.

“People need to know that there are valuable resources available to them,” said Senator Hannon. “No one should have to suffer through domestic violence or go through the aftermath alone,” Hannon continued.

Children from violent families, even if not physically abused themselves, are severely affected by their experiences.  These children are more likely to imitate the violence they see, feel embarrassed about their family, think they are responsible and feel badly about themselves.  Additionally, children who witness domestic violence at home are more likely to exhibit aggressive and anti-social behavior, depression, anxiety, low self esteem and low cognitive, verbal and motor skills. 

The Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence has a free and confidential hotline that can be reached 24 hours a day at (516) 542-0404.  The Coalition also provides services including counseling (group and individual), legal services, family court and systems advocacy, safe emergency housing, transitional housing, youth and community education programs and training for professionals. 

Don’t sit around and wait. The safety and wellness of you and your loved ones is too important. More information can be found by visiting the Nassau County Coalition against Domestic Violence’s website www.cadvnc.org.

The Hyman Family, Iris and Charles, were recognized for their support of (FREE), on June 28, 2010, with a ribbon cutting ceremony and a plaque presentation at the center. Their daughter, Allison cut the ribbon. She lives in a Westbury residence operated by FREE and works as a receptionist at the Family Wellness Center. Her parents reside in New York City. The fully modernized and expanded center has provided a wide variety of medical and therapeutic services to facilitate a coordinated and holistic approach to meeting patients’ healthcare needs. It opened in 2001 with only a few services: Primary Care, Mental Health, and Rehabilitation. Since then, the Family Wellness Center has grown exponentially. This healthcare facility now is home to over 15 different specialties, including Dental, Neurology, Dermatology, and Endocrinology. The Family Wellness Center continues its efforts to satisfy the needs of its diverse patient population. In 2009 the center was certified to provide off-site therapeutic services to patients when clinically indicated as well as a host of other services.

Photo: left to right, Jake Ryan; Dr. Christopher Long, Chief Operations Officer, FREE; Robert S. Budd, Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Barry Donowitz, Divisional Director, FREE; Diana Clendaniel, Associate Divisional Director, Family Wellness Center; Allison Hyman, receptionist, Family Wellness Center; Charles Hyman (back); Iris Hyman, Melissa, John and Kayla Ryan.

About Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, Inc. (FREE)
FREE, founded in 1977 and headquartered in Old Bethpage, benefits more than 3,000 individuals with developmental disabilities and/or mental illness or traumatic brain injury and their families each year on Long Island. Its mission is to help individuals of all abilities to realize their full potential and prevail over life’s challenges. FREE’s broad spectrum of services encourages individuals to share their gifts and talents as contributing members of the community. For more information, please call 516-870-1622 or visit www.familyres.org