Presidential Life Corp. reported much lower earnings in the third quarter and cut its dividend payment to shareholders by half, citing an “uncertain economic climate.” For the quarter ending Sept. 30, the Nyack-based insurer reported Thursday earnings fell to $625,000 from $14.6 million in the year-ago quarter. On a per-share basis, the company reported it [...]

A new Starbucks has opened in New City at 83 S. Main St. The 1,200-square-foot store is in space formerly occupied Friendly’s restaurant. The café, which employs about 22 workers, has been open about six weeks.

A new report by Pace University shows the job market in the region for jobs in the information technology, or IT, sector shrunk dramatically during the third quarter, with few exceptions. The decline was most pronounced in Westchester, Pace said, where the IT job market had its worst quarterly slide since Pace created its IT [...]

The recent departure of Lubin’s Men’s & Boy’s World and a Chinese restaurant from a White Plains strip mall has resulted in the 6,000-square-foot expansion of Wine Warehouse, according to Goldschmidt & Associates, the agency that negotiated the deal. In addition, three new tenants, Carpet World, Bushido Karate and Royal Beauty Supply, occupy the remainder [...]

Armonk-based IBM Corp. said today that for the second year in a row it outsold its competitors in sales of identity- and access-management software, citing analysis from independent analyst firm IDC. The report noted that IBM’s sales of such software rose 6 percent from 2006, while total worldwide sales of the software by all vendors [...]

A 36-acre site in the town of Cortlandt opposite Cortlandt Town Center has been sold to a developer who plans to turn the parcel into a mixed-use complex of residences and retail stores. Westrock Development LLC, based in Yonkers, plans to devote 10 of the acres to retail, creating Cortlandt Crossings, an 85,000-square-foot shopping center [...]

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said today clinical studies have shown its Arcalyst drug to be effective in reducing incidents of sudden pain in patients with gout, a form of arthritis. In tests of 83 patients, Arcalyst reduced the number of gout flares 81 percent in patients prescribed allopurinol, a drug used to reduced the amount of [...]

State regulators today approved the $4.5 billion sale of Energy East Corp. to Iberdrola SA., with a requirement that the Spain-based energy conglomerate credit New York customers $275 million. The sale includes two New York state subsidiaries: Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. and New York State Electric & Gas Corp., which has nearly 90,000 customers [...]

The Maxon Co., an Irvington-based manager of health care plans, has begun offering insurance to cover the cost of organ transplants. Maxon said it is the first third-party administrator in the state to offer the insurance, which is offered to employees of companies with self-funded insurance plans. The coverage is underwritten by AIG Medical Excess, [...]

Burlington Coat Factory will open a new store in White Plains in the Shoppes on Main retail complex on Aug. 29. The 82,000-square-foot store at 255 Main St.  will feature women’s and men’s apparel and accessories, kids clothing, shoes and, of course, coats. The outlet will also have a home décor department selling bedding, home [...]

Standard & Poor’s Rating Services yesterday affirmed its AA financial-strength rating of MBIA Inc., and removed the rating from credit watch negative. S&P’s outlook for the troubled Armonk-based bond insurer is negative, S&P said. “We assigned a negative outlook to MBIA due to its significant exposure to domestic nonprime mortgages and related exposures,” S&P credit [...]

Students who graduate from Pace University can expect to earn roughly the same as those who graduate from Ivy League colleges, putting Pace among the top 50 colleges in the nation, a survey of salaries has shown. Pace graduates earn a starting median salary of $53,200, only a few thousand less than graduates of Yale [...]

The Journal News cut 12 jobs today citing further erosion in ad revenue from retail, housing, automotive and employment sectors of the economy. The cuts were part of a larger plan by the newspaper’s parent company, Gannett Co. Inc., to eliminate 1,000 jobs across the company’s 84 news properties in its Community Publishing division, which [...]

Vision-Sciences Inc. reported today that it lost $100,000 in its fiscal first quarter, less than the $1.4 million it lost a year ago. The Orangeburg-based medical-device maker said the reduced loss was primarily the result of a one-time $3 million gain related to sale of assets last year to Medtronic Xomed Inc. On a per-share [...]

ConEdison Solutions has been awarded a contract by the New York Power Authority to provide upgrades and services to the nation’s largest state-owned power utility, ConEdison Solutions said today. Under the contract, granted through competitive bids, ConEdison Solutions will provide efficiency upgrades, including  lighting, motors and controls at NYPA plants in Westchester and New York [...]

JMT Consulting Group of Patterson has agreed to acquire St. Louis-based NFP Consultants Inc., said the companies, which both provide consulting and software to nonprofit organizations. Terms of the deal, announced this week, weren’t disclosed. “Bringing these two great companies together will allow us to transcend what we have accomplished as separate businesses into one [...]

Westchester County has signed a $150,000 contract with Westchester Residential Opportunities Inc., a nonprofit agency certified by the federal government, to reduce the number of evictions in the county caused by the nation’s ongoing mortgage crisis. The money was derived from a special fund the county set up to deal with emergencies, said County Legislator [...]

Universal American Corp. reported earnings rose to $28.4 million in the second quarter, including a net gain on investments of $1.8 million, compared to $22.3 million a year ago, a 27.5 percent rise. Excluding the net gain of 2 cents a share, the Rye Brook insurer reported per-share earnings of 30 cents in the three [...]

IBM Corp. of Armonk plans to build a $360 million data center at its plant in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The data center will include new technologies and services that will enable the computing giant to provide individuals with access to information and services from any device with high levels of quality and availability, IBM [...]

Drew Industries Inc., a supplier of parts for recreational vehicles and manufactured homes, said earnings in the second quarter fell 27 percent to $9.2 million from $12.6 million in the year ago period. Revenues fell 18 percent to to $151 million, Drew said. Drew blamed the drop on higher costs for raw materials, lower sales [...]