The Long Island Association board today elected Bethpage Federal Credit Union CEO Kirk Kordeleski as its chairman and streamlined its committees to create a more focused approach and reach out to small as well as large companies.

The organization, which also unveiled a new website and logo along with the slogan Leading Long Island,” named Kordeleski to a three-year term after Brian Cullen of King Kullen Grocery Co.’s term ended.

“As the leading business organization on Long Island, the LIA brings organizations together, not only so we speak together as one voice, but to ensure that small and large companies collaborate,” Kordeleski told a crowd of about 800 at the group’s annual meeting at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

The chief of the Bethpage-based credit union described an organization he said would serve the interests of businesses large and small.

“We will work to help every business owner prosper,” Kordeleski said. “This organiz

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The New York Giants’ Victory Parade through New York City. Photo: AFP

NEW York mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city had the Blues this week. It may have appeared an odd statement if you saw footage of the euphoria that spilt out into the city’s streets after the Giants won the Super Bowl. But he was referring to ”Big Blue”, the Giants’ nickname.

The team returned to New York on Tuesday and a million people lined the streets for a parade.

As I watched Giants quarterback Eli Manning and coach Tom Coughlin hold up the Vince Lombardi trophy while drowning in a never-ending stream of ticker tape, it was evident that Super Bowl means big business in the United States.

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RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina’s unemployment rate is a fraction lower at 9.9 percent, sliding just out of the double-digit range for the first time since June.

The state Commerce Department said Tuesday that the jobless rate dropped in December for the third straight month. It was 10 percent in November.

North Carolina’s labor analysis division says the number of people on unemployment rolls fell by nearly 5,200 while the number of those with jobs increased by 9,500 to more than four million.

The state’s unemployment rate is now almost down to the level where it stood a year ago. It was 9.8 percent in December 2010.

The state’s rate is still higher than the national average of 8.5 percent, which dropped in December from 8.7 percent in November.

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Wall Street is opening slightly higher. Traders are weighing signs that Germany, Europe’s largest economy, could slide into a recession against reports that the International Monetary Fund could get more cash to help countries struggling with debts.

12:09 PST NEW YORK, –

Wall Street edged higher Wednesday following reports that the International Monetary Fund could get more cash to help countries struggling to manage their debt.

Stocks got another push from a surprisingly strong report on the housing market.

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Federal prosecutors Monday said a Los Gatos video game developer has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bank fraud.

But the man told this newspaper that part of the government’s announcement of the crime was inaccurate.

David Foley, 46, said he had agreed to sell his company, UltraCade Technologies, in 2005 to Global VR, a larger game developer based in San Jose. The $1.4 million cash deal included a provision for Foley to join Global VR as chief technology officer, he said.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag said that after taking the new job, Foley continued to produce and sell “game packs” — thumb drives containing video game software that could be loaded onto arcade game machines for the home market — under the UltraCade name.

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Street smarts, judgment, discretion.

Other than relying on those skills taught at the police academy and honed through experience, off-duty and retired law enforcement officers appear to have few protocols to follow when confronting a crime out of uniform, like the apparent friendly fire that left a federal agent dead on New Years Eve.

And when different police agencies are involved, with unfamiliar officers coming face to face and making snap decisions about life and death, the peril is greater, according to a 2010 New York state study of police-on-police shootings that called for uniform protocols across agencies.

The task force created in 2010 by then-Gov.

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