Each week, the business section asks readers to take a poll on a business or financial question and leave comments.

Newsday publishes the results of the poll and some of the reader comments on Sunday. Join the conversation -- take the poll, leave a comment.

This week's question: Compared to this time last year, is the job market on Long Island better, worse, or about the same?  ... » more

Westbury-based New York Community Bancorp Inc. said Friday that it will accept a payment of $24 million as part of its agreement to assume $2.3 billion in FDIC-insured deposits from a former subsidiary of the bankrupt financial services firm Lehman Brothers.

The Aurora Bank FSB deposits are mostly in the form of certificates of deposit.

Aurora, a Delaware bank, will pay NYCB the $24... » more

The industrial filtration maker Pall Corp., of Port Washington, has named a new president to lead one of its major divisions.

Pall has brought in Ruby Chandy, 50, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with more than 25 years' experience in management and marketing, much of it in the chemical industry. She will lead the company's industrial division with $1.3 billion annual... » more

Hauppauge-based Orbit International Corp. said this week it has received $2.6 million in new orders from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Pentagon.

The FAA ordered $1.7 million in air traffic control system keyboards; and the Army and Navy, for a cooperative radar transponder program, ordered $890,000 in remote control units.

Orbit will begin deliveries for both orders by... » more

Stony Brook-based Applied DNA Sciences Inc., a maker of advanced anti-counterfeiting solutions, has teamed with a company that makes passport covers. Applied DNA said it hopes the pact with clothmaker Holliston Llc will produce a workable, highly-secure passport authentication system for customs officials.

Plans call for the Stony Brook company to supply its SigNature DNA product, which is... » more

P&F Industries, a Melville-based metalwork toolmaker whose sales and earnings are dependent on the housing and automotive industries, on Tuesday reported that its profits quadrupled for 2011 compared to the prior year.

The company, with offices on Broadhollow Road, in recent years had seen its revenue slide due to the economy's effect on car and home sales. However in 2011, increased demand... » more

A new Nordstrom Rack retail clothing store will open in Huntington Station this fall, at the Huntington Shopping Center on Route 110.

Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc. said the store will carry clothing, accessories and shoes at prices 50 to 60 percent below those of its standard Nordstrom locations.

In its Tuesday announcement of the Huntington Station plans, Nordstrom did not discuss its... » more

Wondering how bad the foreclosure crisis has gotten on Long Island?

A new interactive map released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York lets users click a button and watch foreclosure hot spots on Long Island light up as the crisis intensifies from fall 2007 through 2011.

Users can view three time-lapse maps showing the percentage of mortgages in foreclosure, those delinquent by 90... » more

A rival company has filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston in an attempt to reverse a $22.5 million public school lunch service contract won by Whitsons Culinary Group, of Islandia, a published report says.

The Boston Globe reports that the losing bidder in the Boston schools contract, Preferred Meal Systems Inc., has filed a lawsuit in Suffolk County, Mass., Superior Court saying Boston... » more

Four Long Island radio stations — WKJY, WBZO, WIGX and WHLI — are being sold for $23 million by their Massachusetts-based parent company to a Connecticut-based media company.

Newton, Mass.-based Barnstable Broadcasting filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission late last week to sell its four Long Island stations to Connoisseur Media of Westport, Conn., according to a... » more