Wegmans Food Markets has set its sights on the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This fall, the chain aspires to open its first big-city location, in the long-ignored tract of the former military base called Admiral’s Row. As reported by Bloomberg Business News, Wegmans has plans to open a 74,000-square-foot facility, with broad windows looking into the produce aisles. Known as the nation’s top supermarket chain, it expects about 10,000 visitors daily at the Brooklyn Navy Yard market. It will be hiring 500 employees, for which it has already received 4,000 applications.

The name of this privately held, family-run chain may not ring a bell to many New Yorkers. Based in Rochester, the chain has only 98 stores strewn across six states in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Its sales of about $9.2 billion, don’t seem like much to brag about in comparison to some of the giants like Krogers or Walmart. Still, Wegmans seems to have something special, especially for its loyal shoppers, known as Wegmaniacs.

For the past three years it has been ranked as the nation’s top grocery store, as per a survey of shoppers by researcher Market Force Information. Sales per square foot at Wegmans are higher than those of any other supermarket chain, except for Whole Foods, according to Creditintell, a retail credit consulting firm. At a time, when most brick and mortar supermarkets are struggling against online delivery grocers like Amazon.com, Wegmans is doing more than just surviving. “The entire U.S. grocery sector is hurtling towards a day of reckoning,” said Neil Saunders, an analyst at GlobalData Retail. “There is simply no avoiding this pain, and ultimately the battle will be about surviving rather than thriving.” Wegmans, though, he said is “head-and-shoulders above most U.S. grocers.”

Wegman’s new facility at the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be a big test of whether Wegmans can duplicate its phenomenal small town success in New York City’s hustle and bustle market. On the one hand, there are 2.8 million people who live within 5 miles of the Navy Yard, with an average household income well above $100,000. On the other hand, Wegmans will need to adapt to a drastically different environment and plenty of experienced competitors. “There are all different types of customers there, so we will offer the best of what we have,” says Chief Executive Officer Colleen Wegman.

The grocer also has ambitious plans to open five stores in North Carolina, its seventh state, in 2019. The company hopes to succeed by giving shoppers a compelling reason to visit its stores. Wegmans “instills a corporate culture that’s almost like a cult”, says Doug Steiner, who in 2015 was handed the Admiral’s Row development contract on which the Brooklyn Navy Yard sits.

“We have no idea what’s going to happen,” says Chairman Danny Wegman. “But if you like people and you like food, that’s what our business is. It’s no more complicated than that.”

Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons’ Division of Cardiology has received a $32.5 million gift from the Louis and Gloria Flanzer Philanthropic Trust of Sarasota, Florida. The gift will fund an endowment that will support the division’s programs in patient care, research, and education.

The gift is the first in the history of the 251-year-old medical school to fund an endowment that will provide broad financial support for an entire department or division, in perpetuity, the school said in a press release. In recognition of the gift the school has renamed the cardiology division the Seymour, Paul and Gloria Milstein Division of Cardiology. Gloria Milstein Flanzer is the sister of Seymour and Paul Milstein.

“Columbia’s cardiology program is one of the best in the world, and the enormous generosity of the Milsteins will help to ensure its pre-eminence for many years to come,” said Lee Goldman, MD, dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine and chief executive of Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

“This remarkable gift will ensure that we continue to attract the nation’s most talented cardiologists and researchers to Columbia, and it will enable new discoveries that improve outcomes for patients with heart disease,” said Allan Schwartz, MD, the Harold Ames Hatch Professor of Medicine and Seymour Milstein Professor of Cardiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and chief of cardiology. “It will also help us provide the best possible educational experience for physicians who choose Columbia for their specialty training in cardiology.”

The Milstein gift also includes $2.5 million that will fund an endowed professorship to be held by a faculty member in the division in honor of Dr. Schwartz’s leadership.

Columbia University has long been a leader in the development of groundbreaking therapies for patients with heart disease, the school noted. Recently, the division established a new cardiometabolic precision medicine program to uncover the genetic basis of cardiovascular diseases and develop targeted therapies to treat and prevent heart disease. This work is a critical component of Columbia’s University-wide precision medicine initiative.

With the current gift, the Milsteins have donated more than $100 million to Columbia University. These gifts have supported Columbia’s clinical and educational programs in the medical school, including the Gloria and Louis Flanzer Vision Care Center, the Irma and Paul Milstein Laboratory in the Department of Surgery, the Vagelos Education Center, and five endowed professorships throughout the medical school (in medicine and surgery), as well as educational programs on the main campus.

The Milsteins also have contributed generously to Columbia’s hospital partner, NewYork-Presbyterian, including a $25 million gift in 1988 to build the Milstein Hospital and a $50 million gift in 2006 to create the Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center on the Columbia University Irving Medical Center campus.

In a highly controversial move, the NYU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was selected to receive the President’s Service Award, the group announced on Facebook on April 4, according to a report on the NYU news web site.

“We are thrilled to announce that we have been selected to receive a presidential service award at NYU,” SJP wrote in a Facebook post. “Despite the pushback we have received from our institution.”

The President’s Service Award is will be presented on Wednesday, April 17th. This particular award is conferred upon students and student organizations that have positively impacted the NYU community through significant contributions to either community service and civic engagement or student leadership and campus programming.

The annual service award goes to more than 50 extra-curricular clubs and 100 individuals selected by a group of student affairs staffers from across the university and a student representative, according to university spokesperson John Beckman.

The NYU news web site also reported that SJP’s most recent efforts have been in the context of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which seeks for countries, institutions and individuals to isolate Israel economically, politically, academically and culturally. Recently, SJP declared a victory in December, when the Student Government Assembly voted in support of a resolution that referenced the BDS movement.

The Washington Free Beacon reported on Tuesday that Judea Pearl, the father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, has raised his voice in staunch opposition to the decision of NYU to give this award to the SJP chapter.

Pearl, a winner of the Turing award, denounced his alma mater New York University and jettisoned his status as distinguished alumnus after the school honored Students for Justice in Palestine for its “extraordinary and positive impact on the University community.”

Pearl graduated from NYU in 1965 and was given a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013. He is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also runs an organization named after his son Daniel Pearl, a journalist who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002.

Pearl spoke out against NYU’s decision in a letter to college president Andrew Hamilton, as was reported by the Algemeiner.

“In the past five years, SJP has resorted to intimidation tactics that have made me, my colleagues and my students unwelcome and unsafe on our own campus,” Pearl wrote. “The decision to confer an award on SJP, renders other NYU awards empty of content, and suspect of reckless selection process.”

Pearl went on to say that his past concerns voiced to university officials “have been met with platitudes about ‘free speech’ despite the fact that the US State Department now includes, in its definition of discrimination, intimidation based on race, religion and ethnicity.”

“I know the difference between free speech and campus norms,” he wrote. “Entrusted with the mandate of maintaining a climate of learning and mutual respect, your office should distance itself from the SJP selection and explained to the campus why such distancing is necessary. In the absence of a corrective action by your office the academic standing of this university is begging for other voices to call out the Orwellian character of (SJP’s) award.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said that NYU’s decision to honor SJP is “a slap in the face to the Jewish community, including Jewish graduates and significant donors.”

“It is devoid of any ethical basis, rewarding professional propagandists who legitimize terrorism and demonize the Jewish State of Israel,” he said, adding that other NYU affiliates should follow Pearl’s example, according to the Algemeiner.

NYU Realize Israel, a pro-Israel group on campus, publicly denounced the university granting SJP the award and claimed that SJP has contributed to a negative environment for some students. The group sees support of the BDS movement as anti-Semitic.

“By presenting the NYU President’s Award to SJP, not only is our university condoning violence and discrimination against members of the NYU community, but it is declaring that this type of behavior represents the ethos of our university,” the group wrote on Facebook.

Bodega operators throughout New York City are removing the NY Post from their newsstands because they object to a cover the newspaper ran last week.

In fact, the Yemeni American Merchants Association went so far as to laughably suggest that it could lead to violence against Muslims.

The issue in question referred to Jew-baiting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s gaff in which she all but dismissed the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks.

“On the subject of Islamophobia and “the discomfort of being a second-class citizen,” Omar explained that “CAIR was founded after 9/11, because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” notes the Gothamist web site. “Which is to say, Muslim Americans en masse shouldered the blame—and, according to the FBI, the escalating incidence of violent bigotry—for actions perpetrated by a fringe terrorist group, simply by virtue of their faith.”

The Post used Omar’s quote over a photo of the exploding towers, with the headline: “Here’s Your Something.” This was exacerbated a day later when President Trump tweeted a video of the 9/11 attacks together with Omar’s insensitive quote.

Omar speciously responded by claiming she was seeing an increase in death threats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rushed to Omar’s defense, breathlessly telling reporters, “The President’s words weigh a ton, and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger.”

Of course, this is not the first time Yemeni merchants have yowled over what they claimed was unfairness. Less than a year ago, hundred owners of bodegas, grocery stores and other shops owned by Yemeni immigrants closed for eight hours to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order that limits entry for refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Days later, President Trump told local TV station KSTP during a visit to Minnesota that Omar was “extremely unpatriotic and disrespectful to our country. She is somebody that doesn’t really understand, I think, life, real life, what it’s all about. It’s unfortunate — she’s got a way about her that’s very, very bad, I think, for our country.”

When asked by KSTP if he had any second thoughts about tweeting the video, the president said, “No, not at all. Look — she’s been very disrespectful to this country. She’s been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel.”

Only a week ago, Omar condemned one of President Trump’s most trusted advisers, Stephen Miller – who is Jewish – of being “a white nationalist.” Her tweet continued, “The fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage.”

Citi Bike says it is taking its fleet of pedal-assist bikes off the streets of New York City after some riders experienced difficulties.

The company posted the announcement on its web site: “Since Citi Bike first deployed pedal-assist bikes last year, riders have taken hundreds of thousands of rides and shared with us incredibly helpful and overwhelmingly positive feedback.

“However, we recently received a small number of reports from riders who experienced stronger than expected braking force on the front wheel. Out of an abundance of caution, we are proactively removing the pedal-assist bikes from service for the time being. We know this is disappointing to the many people who love the current experience — but reliability and safety come first.

“We have been hard at work on a new pedal-assist bike, and are excited to bring that to you soon. The new bike model will be accessible just by scanning a QR code and overall will be more fun to ride. In the meantime, we will quickly replace the pedal-assist bikes with classic pedal bikes.”

Citi Bike is a privately owned public bicycle sharing system serving the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, as well as Jersey City, New Jersey. Named after lead sponsor Citigroup, it is operated by Motivate (formerly Alta Bicycle Share), with former Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Jay Walder as chief executive. The system’s bikes and stations use BIXI-branded technology from PBSC Urban Solutions.

First proposed in 2008 by the New York City Department of Transportation, Citi Bike’s scheduled 2011 opening was delayed by Hurricane Sandy and technological problems. It officially opened in May 2013 with 332 stations and 6,000 bikes. Annual expansions are planned to extend its service area across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, and increase the number of bikes to 40,000.

Citi Bike announced in November that it would expand its 12,000-bike fleet to 40,000 bikes over the next five years, according to nyc.streetsblog.org. “It is unclear how that expansion is going. No neighborhoods have been named as the lucky recipients of the new e-bikes or “classic” Citi Bikes. Currently, the system operates only in Manhattan below 130th Street, a thin strip of Western Queens and a crescent of Brooklyn from Greenpoint through Downtown to Park Slope.”

The city does not provide any subsidy to Citi Bike, the web site continues, “unlike any other form of public transportation. The system carries far more riders than the mayor’s ferry system, for example, which gets millions in city support. Each ride on an NYC Ferry costs riders $2.75, but costs taxpayers more than $10. On an average day, Citi Bike serves tens of thousands of riders.”

Uber Technologies Inc. “is aiming for a valuation in its impending initial public offering of as much as $100 billion, below previous expectations, as ride-hailing competitor Lyft Inc. LYFT 1.48% stumbles in its early days of trading as a public company,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

The company recently shows papers to holders of its convertible notes that set a possible price range of between $48 and $55 a share. “That would equate to an aggregate valuation of between $90 billion and $100 billion, including the roughly $10 billion Uber expects to raise in the offering,” the Journal noted. “By the time the San Francisco-based company begins marketing the shares to investors later this month, the range is likely to narrow and could shift, some of the people said.”

Some are wary. The headline in the New York Times read soberly, “Uber, Losing $1.8 Billion a Year, Reveals I.P.O. Filing.” As the story that followed explained, “… the prospectus renewed questions about how sustainable Uber’s business actually is. The company said in the filing that it lost $1.8 billion in 2018, excluding certain transactions, on revenue of $11.3 billion. And the prospectus also showed that its rocket-ship trajectory for revenue growth was beginning to slow.”

Competitor Lyft went public in March with a valuation of $24 billion. “But Lyft, which is also deeply unprofitable, fell below its offering price in its second day of trading as investors questioned whether it could make money. This week, Pinterest, the digital pin board company that also is losing money, set a price range for its public offering that values it below that of its last private market peg,” the Times added.

“We will not shy away from making short-term financial sacrifices where we see clear long-term benefits,” Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive, wrote in a letter accompanying the prospectus.

Commented Bloomberg, “That is an odd thing to say for a company that has been unprofitable for 10 years. It’s also the most important sentence about Uber. This company — already huge and built with billions of dollars in investors’ cash — has no choice but to keep investing and to jump-start growth in its sprawling empire.”

Uber’s founder’s letter, penned by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, reads in part: “Taking this step means that we have even greater responsibilities — to our shareholders, our customers, and our colleagues. That’s why, over the past 18 months, we have improved our governance and Board oversight; built a stronger and more cohesive management team; and made the changes necessary to ensure our company culture rewards teamwork and encourages employees to commit for the long term.”

By Pat Savage

The heads of the seven biggest banks in America talked to legislators last week about a variety of topics. It didn’t go especially well.

“With lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee each getting five minutes to question the seven CEOs, the bank executives were consistently cut off when trying to give answers to the barrage of quick and often unconnected questions,” Crain’s New York Business reported. “The topics have spanned the political and banking spectrum, as ranking member Patrick McHenry called the gathering “a hearing in search of a headline.”

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, called for megabanks to craft a solution to help Americans saddled with student loan debt to achieve economic goals such as homeownership.

“I’m going to ask you in all that you do to think about all that student debt,” Chairwoman Waters said. “I know that you sold the debt and you’re not involved with student loans any more but we have a whole population of millennials who are out there, who are still the victims of the debt that was incurred because they were trying to get an education. I’m asking you if you can come up with a creative product of some kind to deal with this population of millennials who can’t buy a home, who can’t get married, who can’t buy an automobile, who don’t have insurance.…I don’t know what it is, I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but I’d like you to think about it and next year when you come, I hope that you can give us some answers.”

Another: Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee of Investor Protection and Capital Markets, grilled JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon by asking: “After the Parkland shooting last year, where a lone gunman killed 17 student and staff with a military-style semiautomatic rifle, two of the banks on this panel, Citibank and Bank of America, stepped up to the plate and adopted formal policies limiting their business with certain gun industry clients, and I want to publicly thank them. Now, Mr. Dimon, last week you published your letter to shareholders. The section on responsible banking, you wrote the paragraph that is up on the screen right now. You said that turning down clients with low character is “often the only way to be a responsible bank.” Well, actions speak louder than words on guns, Mr. Dimon, and from what I can tell these are just words to you. Let’s talk about some of the actions on your bank’s activities.

Even after the horrific massacres at Sandy Hook, Las Vegas and Parkland, JPMorgan has arranged about 273 million dollars of loans for the manufacturers of military-style firearms, the same weapons that are being used in mass shootings all over our country. Even worse, last year JPMorgan took partial ownership of Remington, the manufacturer of the exact gun that was used to kill 20 children in the Sandy Hook shooting, And JPMorgan has refused to adopt a policy to ensure responsible lending to the gun industry, even though you claim client selection is important and even though two of your competitors have already adopted these policies. So my question is, will you live up to your own rhetoric, will you commit to adopting a formal policy that ensures responsible lending in your bank’s business with the gun industry?”