Hudson Valley Bank plans to open a new branch in Brooklyn, the Yonkers-based financial-services company said today.

The planned office, at 16 Court Street, will focus on serving the needs of attorneys and nonprofit organizations, as well as other businesses and individuals, in downtown Brooklyn, bank President and Chief Executive Officer James J. Landy said.

The branch [...]

Five Westchester enterprises will be honored this evening at the Business Council of Westchester’s 2008 Business Hall of Fame awards dinner, being held at the Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle.

Three of the businesses are run by women, representing the first time the business association has recognized so many women in one year, said [...]

Emisphere Technologies Inc. reported today that studies involving dogs have provided additional evidence that a technology the company is developing enhances absorption of oral vitamin B12 supplements.

The results confirm an earlier report of effectiveness in studies conducted in rats using Emisphere’s Eligen technology, which reportedly improves absorption of orally administered drugs.

About 40 million Americans undergo [...]

General Patent Corporation International said today it has licensed a cell-phone patent to LG Electronics Inc., the South Korean maker of consumer electronics, including cell phones.

The license gives LG non-exclusive rights to technology to improve communications between cell-phone transmitters and handsets, as well as devices, such as Bluetooth wireless headsets.

The patent is held by a [...]

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has entered into a $375 million loan agreement with various lenders as part of an amended credit agreement, the hotelier disclosed in a regulatory filing today.

Proceeds from the loan will be used to repay debt, to pay fees and expenses related to the repayment and for general corporate purposes, [...]

Fantastic Sams hair salons said today it will open its first Hudson Valley store Saturday in Hartsdale in the Dalewood III shopping center on North Central Avenue.

The Westchester salon will offer free haircuts Saturday as part of its grand opening, the company said.

Fantastic Sams, based in Beverly, Mass., operates more than 1,400 salons across North [...]

In an effort to boost aluminum recycling, Pepsi-Cola North America will begin placing messages on Pepsi products reminding consumers to recycle cans and keep them out of the waste stream.

The ads, which will appear on some 500 million Pepsi cans and about 250 million Diet Pepsi cans each month, or 7 billion cans by year-end, [...]

Jarden Corp. said today it expects to meet or exceed earnings estimates for the first quarter.

Analysts predict the Rye-based company will earn 20 cents a share for the quarter that ended March 31, based on a consensus estimate of five analysts provided by Zacks Investment Research.

The maker of appliances and other consumer products reported net [...]

The Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley will host a jobseekers’ seminar April 28 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The “How to Get a Job in the U.S.A.” workshop is geared toward immigrants, foreign nationals or anyone entering the U.S. job market, the library said.

To register, call the library at 845-352-5700.

Hudson Valley Bank has opened a new branch on Manhattan’s West Side, it said today.

The office, at 112 W. 34th St., near Herald Square and Penn Station, joins three others the Yonkers-based financial-services company operates in Manhattan.

Hudson Valley Bank is a unit of Hudson Valley Holding Corp., which also owns NYNB Bank.

IBM has released a report outlining new risks to people, cargo, and worldwide flows of information, finance and transportation, the Armonk-based technology giant said today.

Based on research and interviews with more than 200 former and current government officials and policy experts, the report highlights the complexity and vulnerability of these systems and provides recommendations for [...]

ON2 Technologies Inc. has signed an agreement to share its video encoding and publishing technology with European sports satellite and cable network Eurosport, the Greenburgh-based company said today.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

ON2’s Flix Engine technology will allow Eurosport to provide high-quality programming through its various Web sites to viewers with slower connection speeds and [...]

Drew Industries Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Leigh J. Abrams will relinquish his role as president next month, the company said today.

Chief Financial Officer Fred M. Zinn will assume the role of president May 28, in keeping with the company’s management-succesion plan. Zinn, 57, has served as CFO since 1986 and as executive vice president since [...]

A listing on a popular Internet jobs board for a new general manager at Palisades Center means the county’s largest retail complex may soon be under new leadership.

Postings on Monster.com yesterday showed “immediate openings” for both a general manager and the newly created position of assistant manager.

The mall’s current general manager, Peter Janoff, who has [...]

Universal American Corp. will reduce the value of some of its sub-prime holdings by $26.7 million to account for the reduced value of the assets, which has been revised downward to their worth as of Dec. 31.

The Rye Brook-based company took the action, it said today, in agreement with its auditors, after the assets [...]

Researchers at IBM Corp’s Yorktown Heights research center have developed technology that allows information within a computer chip using light pulses  instead of electrons, the company said today.

In building the world’s tiniest nanophotonic switch, researchers have added an important building block to control the flow of information inside future chips and can significanty speed up [...]

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its ratings on Reader’s Digest Association Inc.’s corporate credit rating to “B-” from “B,” and revised its outlook on the venerable publisher to stable from negative, the bond-rating company said yesterday.

Standard & Poor’s cited the Chappaqua-based publisher’s higher debt levels, lower earnings and negative cash flow as reasons for [...]

Aureon Laboratories Inc. named former ImClone Systems Inc. executive Ana I. Stancic as its chief financial officer, the biotechnology company said today.

Stancic joins the Yonkers-based company in the newly created post as its prepares bring its prostate cancer prognostic test to market later this spring.

Stancic most recently served as executive vice president and CFO at [...]

During the past two months, students from colleges in the New York City metropolitan area have busy creating and submitting designs for a new recyclable grocery bag to be sold at area D’Agostino Supermarkets.

Judges have winnowed the selections down to four and are asking fans of the D’ag Bag to choose the winner. Go [...]

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. plans to open its first W Hotel in Boston next year, the White Plains-based company said today.

The 235-room luxury inn, to be built in the city’s theater district, will also feature 123 private residences, a restaurant, bar and spa, Starwood said.