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New York Health Care, Inc. Business Information, Profile, and History

1850 McDonald Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11223
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

Our mission is to provide comprehensive, cost-effective and competitively-priced quality home care services, that can allow patients to remain at home, in their communities.

History of New York Health Care, Inc.

New York Health Care, Inc. derives all of its income by providing home healthcare services to New York City and surrounding counties in New York State and New Jersey. Since 2004, however, the company has embarked on a course that would divest this business in favor of concentrating on the activities of a wholly owned subsidiary, Bio Balance, developer of treatments for chronic gastrointestinal disorders in an effort to create a pure-play pharmaceutical company. New York Health Care is a public company, trading on a Pink Sheet basis since being delisted by the NASDAQ in 2004.

Company Founding in 1983

New York Health Care was founded in Brooklyn, New York, in 1983 by Jerry Braun. He was originally employed in the garment industry but turned his attention to the healthcare field where he believed there were greater opportunities. He launched the company as a staffing agency, providing nursing staff to area nursing homes. It proved to be a prosperous line of work, as the demand for nurses, especially quality ones, grew, and hospitals were forced to pay increasingly higher salaries. Later in the 1980s, however, the healthcare model began to change, with patient stays curtailed, resulting in the reduction of hospital staffs. In 1988 Braun transformed his business by acquiring National Medical Home Care, Inc., provider of home healthcare support services, with offices in Brooklyn, Queens Village, Rockville Centre, and Mount Vernon, New York. Braun bought the fixtures and equipment, but more important, he picked up National Medical's paraprofessional aide lists and roster of clients. New York Health Care was now in the home nursing business, operating out of three offices: Brooklyn, Hempstead in Westchester County, and Mount Vernon on Long Island.

By the early 1990s, after achieving steady growth, Braun was ready to expand the company. In 1992 New York Health Care opened a fourth office in Spring Valley, located in New York's Rockland County. A year later an office was opened in New York's Orange County in the town of Newburgh. Each of New York Health Care's five offices operated essentially as separate entities, with each responsible for its own recruitment, training, scheduling, and quality assurance programs. Also in 1993 New York Health Care broadened its business by adding a specialty division called "Special Deliveries," which provided home nursing services to women during pregnancy and after childbirth to both mother and newborn. For this unit the company recruited Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Nurses, Maternal/Newborn Registered Nurses, and Registered Nurses with at least two years of experience in maternal childcare. In other ways, New York Health Care adapted to the needs of the communities it served. For instance, it recruited Russian-speaking staff to serve Brooklyn's growing Russian neighborhoods, where many patients spoke little or no English. The company also recruited nurses and paraprofessionals fluent in Spanish and Yiddish and who were knowledgeable about the practices and requirements of keeping a Kosher home. Revenues approached $9 million in 1994 and reached $11.8 million in 1995, while net income during this period improved from $771,000 to more than $1.1 million.

In 1995 Braun and four other directors of New York Health Care formed and became the sole stockholders of a new company, Heart to Heart Health Care Services, Inc., to provide home healthcare services to northern New Jersey. Although technically a separate company, Heart to Heart relied on New York Health Care's personnel to provide payroll, data processing, and benefits management services, for which the start-up paid about $15,000 a year.

Going Public in the Mid-1990s

Braun took New York Health Care public in 1996 to raise money to fuel further growth. With H.J. Meyers & Co. Inc. serving as underwriter, the company completed the offering in December 1996, raising $5 million. According to the company's prospectus, the money was earmarked for acquisitions, the opening of additional offices, expansion and upgrading of computer systems, and expansion of the pediatric services division, as well as for marketing and working capital. Revenues grew to $11.9 million in 1996, and the company recorded net income of $571,000.

The Special Deliveries Division added services in 1997 following the renewal and expansion of its contract with a major area HMO. Special Deliveries now offered home uterine monitoring and terbutaline pump therapy. Moveover, the division now packaged its perinatal support program for hypertension, diabetes, and preterm self-palpation, charging per episode rather than on an individual cost basis. This bundling approach saved money for the HMO and served to attract the business of other managed care companies, healthcare institutions, as well as traditional insurance companies. In 1997 Special Deliveries also reached an agreement with Biomedical Systems Corporation (BMS), a St. Louis-based medical monitoring and telecommunications company. Special Deliveries would supply the personnel trained to use the BMS equipment for managed care organizations and other providers who contracted with BMS. On another front, New York Health Care expanded its Westchester business, landing a contract with Hospice of Westchester to work jointly with White Plains Hospital Center and Visiting Nurse in Westchester to provide healthcare services to terminally ill hospice clients at home or in nursing homes.

New York Health Care flirted with expansion outside of the New York City metropolitan area in 1997. It announced in May that it had signed a letter of intent to acquire a Florida home health agency to gain a toehold in the growing market of the Southeast. But two months later, following the completion of due diligence, management scuttled the deal, electing instead to focus on the New York market. In keeping with this approach, New York Health Care formed another subsidiary in December 1997, NYHC Newco Paxxon, Inc., to purchase New Jersey-based Metro Healthcare Services, Inc., operator of paraprofessional home healthcare services in West Orange, Budd Lake, and Jersey City, New Jersey. Two months later, in February 1998, NYHC Newco acquired three additional Metro Health Care offices, located in Edison, Toms River, and Shrewsbury, New Jersey. At this point, New York Health Care elected to bring Heart to Heart into the fold to combine all of the New Jersey assets within the NYHC Newco subsidiary. One March 26, 1998, Heart to Heart was acquired from Braun and the other stockholders for $1.15 million in the form of a promissory note, to be paid off in installments over the next two years. Primarily due to the addition of the New Jersey operations, New York Health Care's revenues grew from $13.2 million in 1997 to $20.2 million in 1998. Net income totaled $184,000 in 1997 and $341,000 in 1998.

During 1999 New York Health Care continued to add offices. In February NYHC Newco acquired the Shrewsbury, New Jersey, office of Staff Builders Services, Inc., primarily providing home healthcare services in central New Jersey. Then, in June 1999, NYHC Newco bought another Staff Builder office, this one located in Hackensack, serving Northern New Jersey. Finally, in October 1999, New York Health Care bought the Staff Builder operation in Manhattan, and the business was transferred to the established New York Health Care offices in the city.

Turning to Pharmaceuticals in the 2000s

Revenues totaled $23.8 million in 1999 and grew to $29.4 million in 2000. It was at this point that New York Health Care began to look in an entirely different direction, from home healthcare to dabbling in the pharmaceutical industry. In October 2001, it agreed to acquire a start-up company, The Bio Balance Corporation. It was incorporated as "The Zig Zag Corp." in May 2001 and changed its name to Bio Balance shortly before the acquisition overture from New York Health Care. The company was engaged in research in Israel to develop "probiotic" technology for use in treating gastrointestinal diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome and forms of chronic diarrhea and inflammatory bowel disease in both animals and humans. Probiotics are live microorganisms or microbial mixtures that have the potential of stimulating the growth of healthy bacteria inside a host and restoring the microbial balance to address gastrointestinal disorders. Bio Balance was already working on its first product in Israel, an oral liquid called Bactrix, later renamed Probactrix. It consisted of a nontoxic strain of E.coli preserved in a vegetable extract formulation. The plan was to market it as a medical food, rather than a drug. In this way, the company avoided the more stringent requirements facing a drug. Classifying the product as a food ingredient, Bio Balance could self-determine that Probactrix was "generally recognized as safe." A potential major use for the product was in treating AIDS-related diarrhea caused by a reaction to antibiotics and irritable bowel syndrome suffered by AIDS patients. Company researchers also would pursue the development of a prescription drug for AIDS-related diarrhea. The upside for the technology was tremendous, with the company estimating that the market for an effective irritable bowel syndrome treatment could top $1 billion a year. For a small company like New York Health Care, which posted sales of $34.3 million in 2001, the allure proved irresistible.

The Bio Balance transaction was not consummated until January 2003, in what became a reverse merger. Technically, although New York Health Care acquired Bio Balance, it was the start-up business that was the key player in the deal, as revealed by the company's new ticker symbol, BBAL. Following a reverse stock split the pre-merger shareholders of Bio Balance owned about 90 percent of the company. In conjunction with the merger, Bio Balance privately placed more than $6 million in stock, the proceeds of which were earmarked for its operations. In essence, New York Health Care's function was to provide cash flow to support Bio Balance while it developed a revenue-generating business.

Although it had been in operation for 20 years, New York Health Care was little known on Wall Street until the summer of 2003. Priced at $2 in early July, the company's stock topped $3.25 a month later, prompting a notice in Business Week. The company attributed investor interest to excellent trial results on AIDS patients at The Moscow Center of HIV. That reasoning was thrown into doubt a few months later when a former Bio Balance director, Paul Stark, and a company consultant were indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office, accused of trying to inflate the price of New York Health Care stock by bribing a hedge fund manager to buy 500,000 shares. In reality the manager was an undercover FBI agent. The company emphasized that the indictment made no mention that the price of the stock had actually been manipulated and following an internal investigation concluded that none of its current officers, directors, or employees were involved in or knew about the scheme.

In 2003 New York Health Care recorded revenues of more than $45 million, but because of the cash requirements of Bio Balance, the company lost $22 million. The company took the next step in its transition from healthcare provider to biotech in August 2004 when Jerry Braun stepped down as CEO, replaced by Bio Balance's president Dennis O'Donnell, a 20-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. At the same time, the company announced that it would sell off its home healthcare business in order to become a dedicated pharmaceutical company, and it intended to change its name to Bio Balance Holdings Inc. Three weeks later, the company reached an agreement with Braun and Jacob Rosenberg, a New York Health Care director since 1983, to acquire the healthcare business for $4 million. Yet, several months later the pair had still not raised the necessary money. Instead, in April 2005, New York Health Care divested its New Jersey healthcare business to Accredited Health Services, Inc. It was a significant step in restructuring the company as a dedicated pharmaceutical company. When New York Health Care would sell off its remaining home healthcare assets and whether Bio Balance would ever achieve the kind of growth and profitability management envisioned remained open questions.

Principal Subsidiaries: Bio Balance Corporation.

Principal Competitors: Apria Healthcare Group Inc.; Gentiva Health Service, Inc.; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.

Related information about New York

pop (2000e) 18 976 500; area 127 185 km²/49 108 sq mi. State in NE USA, divided into 62 counties; the ‘Empire State’; second most populous state; one of the original states of the Union, 11th to ratify the Federal Constitution, 1788; explored by Hudson and Champlain, 1609; Dutch established posts near Albany, 1614, settled Manhattan, 1626; New Netherlands taken by the British, 1664; scene of several battles in the American Revolution (eg Saratoga); capital, Albany; other chief cities, New York City, Syracuse, Yonkers, Rochester, Buffalo; Hudson R flows S through the E state, St Lawrence R part of the N border, Delaware R part of the S border; Niagara Falls in W; Adirondack Mts rise in the N, Catskill Mts in the S; highest point in the Adirondacks at Mt Marcy (1629 m/5344 ft); state contains 11 334 km²/4375 sq mi of the Great Lakes, as well as L Oneida and the Finger Lakes in the C; extensive woodland and forest in the NE, elsewhere a mixture of cropland, pasture, and woodland; clothing, pharmaceuticals, publishing, electronics, automotive and aircraft components; dairy products, corn, beef; New York City the chief ethnically mixed centre of population in the USA.

text-align:center;">The Empire State

State animal	Beaver(Castor canadensis)
State bird	Eastern Bluebird(Sialia sialis)
State freshwater fish	Brook Trout
State saltwater fish	Striped Bass
State insect	Ladybug
State flower	Rose(Rosa)
State motto	"Excelsior!"
State song	"I Love New York"
State tree	Sugar Maple(Acer saccharum)
State fossil	Sea Scorpion(Eurypterus remipes)
State gem	Garnet
State beverage	Milk
State reptile	Snapping Turtle
State fruit	Apple
State shell	Bay Scallop
State muffin	Apple Muffin

New York is a state in the northeastern United States.

Geography

New York's borders touch (clockwise from the northwest) two Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario, which are connected by the Niagara River); the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada; three New England states (Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut); the Atlantic Ocean, and two Mid-Atlantic states (New Jersey and Pennsylvania). In addition, Rhode Island shares a water border with New York.

New York is also the site of the only extra-territorial enclave within the boundaries of the U.S., the United Nations compound on Manhattan's East River.

The southern tip of New York State—New York City, its suburbs including Long Island, and the southern portion of the Hudson Valley—can be considered to form the central core of a "megalopolis," a super-city stretching from the northern suburbs of Boston to the southern suburbs of Jean Gottmann in 1961 as a new phenomenon in the history of world urbanization, the megalopolis is characterized by a coalescence of previous already-large cities of the Eastern Seaboard: a heavy specialization on tertiary activity related to government, trade, law, education, finance, publishing and control of economic activity; Several other groups of megalopolis-type super-cities exist in the world, but that centered around New York City was the first described and still is the best example.

While the state is best known for New York City's urban atmosphere, especially Manhattan's skyscrapers, most of the state is in fact dominated by farms, forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes. New York's Adirondack State Park is larger than any U.S. National Park outside of Alaska. The Hudson River begins with Lake Tear of the Clouds and flows south through the eastern part of the state without draining Lakes George or Champlain. Four of New York City's five boroughs are on the three islands at the mouth of the Hudson River: Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and Long Island.

"Upstate" is a common term for New York State counties north of suburban Westchester and Rockland counties. Upstate New York typically includes the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains, the Shawangunk Ridge, the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes in the west; and Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Oneida Lake in the northeast; and rivers such as the Delaware, Genesee, Hudson, Mohawk, and Susquehanna. Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor, in 1524. Giovanni da Verrazzano named this place New Angouleme (Nouvelle Angoulême in french) in the honor of the French king Francis I ('François 1er' in french).
(Believed to be after this event) A French explorer and mapper, Samuel de Champlain, described his explorations through New York in 1608. A year later Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Dutch, claimed the area in the name of the Netherlands.

Early settlement

The first European settlers in the area now known as the State of New York were Dutch settlers in the colony known as New Amsterdam, beginning in 1613. The English traded the modern-day country of Suriname for New Amsterdam in 1664; The colony, then called the Province of New York, was divided into twelve counties, each of which was subdivided into towns. Two of New York's eastern coastal counties, Cornwall and Dukes, later became parts of Massachusetts and Maine.

Statehood

New York was one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. It was the 11th state to ratify the United States Constitution, on July 26, 1788.

Origin

The Dutch, who began to establish trading-posts on the Hudson River in 1613, claimed jurisdiction over the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware Rivers, which they called New Netherlands. The government was vested in "The United New Netherland Company," chartered in 1614, and then in "The Dutch West India Company," chartered in 1622.

In 1649, a convention of the settlers petitioned the "Lords States-General of the United Netherlands" to grant them "suitable burgher government, such as their High Mightinesses shall consider adapted to this province, and resembling somewhat the government of our Fatherland," with certain permanent privileges and exemptions, that they might pursue "the trade of our country, as well along the coast from Terra Nova to Cape Florida as to the West Indies and Europe, whenever our Lord God shall be pleased to permit."

The directors of the West India Company resented this attempt to shake their rule and wrote their director and council at New Amsterdam: "We have already connived as much as possible at the many impertinences of some restless spirits, in the hope that they might be shamed by our discreetness and benevolence, but, perceiving that all kindnesses do not avail, we must, therefore, have recourse to God to Nature and the Law. We accordingly hereby charge and command your Honors whenever you shall certainly discover any Clandestine Meetings, Conventicles or machinations against our States government or that of our country that you proceed against such malignants in proportion to their crimes."

These grants embraced all the lands between the west bank of the Connecticut River and the east bank of the Delaware.

The Duke of York previously purchased in 1663 the grant of Long Island and other islands on the New England coast made in 1635 to the Earl of Stirling, and in 1664 he equipped an armed expedition which took possession of New Amsterdam, which was thenceforth called New York. This constitution was framed by a convention which assembled at White Plains, New York on July 10, 1776, and after repeated adjournments and changes of location, terminated its labors at Kingston, New York on Sunday evening, April 20, 1777, when the constitution was adopted with but one dissenting vote. This imbalance of power between the branches of state government kept the elite firmly in control, and disenfranchised most New Yorkers who would fight the Revolutionary War. Slavery was legal in New York until 1827.

Under this constitution, the Assembly had a provision for a maximum of 70 Members, with the following apportionment:

For the city (at the time, New York City included only what is today Manhattan) and county of New York, nine.
The city and county of Albany, ten
The county of Dutchess, seven.
The county of Westchester, six.
The county of Ulster, six.
The county of Suffolk (eastern Long Island), five.
The county of Queens (Now Queens and Nassau Counties), four.
The county of Orange (Now Orange and Rockland Counties), four.
The county of Kings (Brooklyn), two.
The county of Richmond (Staten Island), two.
Tryon County (Now Montgomery County), six.
Charlotte County (Now Washington County.), four.
Cumberland County (Partitioned January 15, 1777 for the creation of the State of Vermont.), three.
Gloucester County (Partitioned January 15, 1777 for the creation of the State of Vermont.), two.

This apportionment was to stand unchanged until a period of seven years from the end of the Revolution had expired, whereupon a census was held to correct the apportionment.

On the subject of Disenfranchisement, Article VII of the new constitution had the following to say:

VII. if, during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a freeholder, possessing a freehold of the value of twenty pounds, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to this State: Provided always, That every person who now is a freeman of the city of Albany, or who was made a freeman of the city of New York on or before the fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and shall be actually and usually resident in the said cities, respectively, shall be entitled to vote for representatives in assembly within his said place of residence.

For more information on this constitution, see: New York State Constitutions

Westward expansion

The western part of New York had been settled by the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy for at least 500 years before Europeans came. The Sullivan Expedition moved northward through the Finger Lakes and Genesee Country, burning all the Iroquois communities and destroying their crops and orchards. The Hudson and Mohawk Rivers could be navigated only as far as Central New York. While the St. Lawrence River could be navigated to Lake Ontario, the way westward to the other Great Lakes was blocked by Niagara Falls, and so the only route to western New York was over land. Governor DeWitt Clinton strongly advocated building a canal to connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie, and thus all the Great Lakes. The Welland Canal was completed in 1833, bypassing Niagara Falls to connect Lakes Ontario and Erie.

Sullivan's men returned from the campaign to Pennsylvania and New England to tell of the enormous wealth of this new territory.

Demographics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2005, New York was the third largest state in population after California and Texas, with an estimated population of 19,254,630 factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_event=Search&_name=&_state=04000US36&_county=&_cityTown=&_zip=&_sse=on&_lang=en&pctxt=fph, which is an increase of 27,542, or 0.1%, from the prior year and an increase of 277,809, or 1.5%, since the year 2000.

The top ancestry groups in New York are African American (15.8%), Italian (14.4%), Irish (12.9%), and German (11.1%),

New York contains the country's largest Dominican population (concentrated in Upper Manhattan) and largest Puerto Rican population (concentrated in the Bronx). Brooklyn and the Bronx are home to many African-Americans and Queens has a large population of Latin American origin, as well as the state's largest Asian-American population.

The 2000 Census revealed which ancestries were in which counties. Italian-Americans make up the largest ancestral group in Staten Island and Long Island, followed by Irish-Americans. According to the July 1, 2004 Census Bureau Estimatefactfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US36&-_box_head_nbr=GCT-T1&-ds_name=PEP_2004_EST&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-mt_name=PEP_2004_EST_GCTT1_ST2&-format=ST-2&-_sse=on, New York City and its six closest New York State satellite counties (Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange) have a combined population of 12,626,200 people, or 65.67% of the state's population.

New York State has a higher number of Italian-Americans than any other U.S. state.

Religion

As of 2006, the religious affiliations of New York citizens were:

40.0% Protestant,

38.9% Roman Catholic,

7.3% Baptist,

6.1% Methodist,

5.5% Episcopal,

3.2% Presbyterian,

17.9% Non-religious

3.4% Jewish,

2.0% Muslim,

The Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan contains the shrine and burial place of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (Mother Cabrini), the patron saint of immigrants and the first American citizen to be canonized.

At Chautauqua Lake in the southwestern portion of the state is the Chautauqua Institution, co-founded by Methodist Reverend John Vincent and devoted to adult continuing education in an uplifting setting, as that ambiance was understood in the last half of the Nineteenth Century. While some aspects of this pedagogy may seem quaint today, the Institution helped assure that high intellectual achievement would be recognized as consistent with the value system of an emerging powerful Midwest, and was one of several ways that Upstate New York served between the Civil War and World War II as a transmitting intermediary between the standards of the East Coast and the interior agricultural regions of the central states.

Important cities and towns

New York City is both the largest city in the United States, and home to over two-fifths of the population of the entire state. It is the leading center of banking, finance and communication in the United States and is the location of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street, Manhattan. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that in 2004, the total gross state product was $963.5 billionwww.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/gspnewsrelease.htm, ranking 3rd behind California and Texas. New York's agricultural outputs are dairy products, cattle and other livestock, vegetables, nursery stock, and apples. Its industrial outputs are printing and publishing, scientific instruments, electric equipment, machinery, chemical products, and tourism.

Many of the world's largest corporations locate their headquarter's home offices in Manhattan or in nearby Westchester County, New York. The Fulton Fish Market has been moved from Fulton Street in Manhattan to The Bronx.

New York's mining sector is concentrated in three areas.

Agriculture

New York State is an agricultural leader, ranking within the top five states for agricultural products including dairy, apples, cherries, cabbages, potatoes, onions, maple syrup and many others. The south shore of Lake Ontario provides the right mix of soils and microclimate for many apple, cherry, plum, pear and peach orchards. The state has 30,000 acres (120 km²) of vineyards, 212 wineries, and produced 200 million bottles of wine in 2004.

New York was heavily glaciated in the ice age leaving much of the state with deep, fertile, though somewhat rocky soils. Row crops, including hay, corn, wheat, oats, barley, and soybeans, are grown. Particularly in the western part of the state, sweet corn, peas, carrots, squash, cucumbers and other vegetables are grown. The glaciers also left numerous swampy areas, which have been drained for the rich humus soils called muckland which is mostly used for onions, potatoes, celery and other vegetables. Cheese is a major product, often produced by Amish or Mennonite farm cheeseries. The honeybees are also used for pollination of fruits and vegetables. Most commercial beekeepers are migratory, taking their hives to southern states for the winter. Buffalo also has a lightrailsystem, and Rochester had a subway system, although it is mostly destroyed. Only a small part exists under the old Erie Canal Aquaduct.

New York City

New York City is home to the most complex and extensive transportation network in the United States, with more than 12,000 iconic yellow cabs, 120,000 daily bicyclists, a massive subway system, bus and railroad systems, immense airports, landmark bridges and tunnels, ferry service and even an aerial commuter tramway. About one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New York and its suburbs.

Many suburban commuter railroad lines enter and leave New York City, including the Long Island Rail Road, MTA Metro-North, the PATH system and many of NJTransit's rail services.

Law and government

As in all fifty states, the head of the executive branch of government is a Governor. The legislative branch is called the Legislature and consists of a Senate and an Assembly. Unlike most states, the New York electoral law permits electoral fusion, and New York ballots tend to have, in consequence, a larger number of parties on them, some being permanent minor parties that seek to influence the major parties and others being ephemeral parties formed to give major-party candidates an additional line on the ballot.

New York's legislature is notoriously dysfunctional. Other officially incorporated governmental units are towns, cities, and villages.

Many of New York's public services are carried out by public benefit corporations, frequently known as authorities or development corporations. The most famous examples are probably the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees New York City's subway, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (actually a bi-state agency). New York State has its counties pay a higher percentage of welfare costs than any other state, and New York State is the only state which requires counties to pay a portion of Medicaid.

The court system in New York is often cited as assigning unintuitive names to its courts: the New York Supreme Court, which people often assume is "supreme" in the same sense as the Supreme Court of the United States, is not the highest court in the state (the New York Court of Appeals is). These courts are the starting point for all criminal cases outside cities, and handle a variety of other matters including small claims, traffic ticket cases and local zoning matters. Presidential candidate John Kerry won New York State by 18 percentage points in 2004, while Al Gore had an even bigger margin of a win in New York State in 2000. Many of the state's other urban areas, including Albany, Ithica, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuseare also Democratic. Heavily populated suburban areas such as Westchester County and Long Island usually hold the power in determining state elections and have tended to favor Republicans at the state level and Democrats at the federal level but that trend seems to be changing since the past few elections, with Democrats picking up some more power statewide in both regions.

Because New York State consistently votes Democratic in national elections, many observers argue the state is insignificant in presidential contests.

Education

Primary, middle-level, and secondary education

The University of the State of New York (USNY), its policy-setting Board of Regents, and USNY's administrative arm, the New York State Education Department (NYSED), oversee all public primary, middle-level, and secondary education in the state. However, as is found in most other US states, individual school districts in New York have much latitude in exercising management and policy for such education within their district boundaries.

New York is one of seven states that mandates that Holocaust and genocide studies be taught at some point in elementary or secondary schools' curriculum. New York City operates the City University of New York (CUNY) in conjunction with the state.

New York's land-grant university is Cornell University, a private university.

New York is the nation?s largest importer of college students, according to statistics which show that among freshmen who leave their home states to attend college, more come to New York than any other state, including California.The New York Observer. www.observer.com/printpage.asp?iid=13093&ic=Editorials

See also Education in New York City, list of Colleges and Universities in the State of New York

Professional sports teams

Club	Sport	League
Buffalo Bills	Football	National Football League
New York Jets	Football	National Football League;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
New York Giants	Football	National Football League;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
New York Knicks	Basketball	National Basketball Association
New Jersey Nets	Basketball	National Basketball Association;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey - planning move to the Brooklyn Nets Arena at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn)
New York Liberty	Basketball	Women's National Basketball Association
Rochester Raging Rhinos	Soccer	USL First Division
Red Bull New York	Soccer	Major League Soccer;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
Buffalo Sabres	Ice Hockey	National Hockey League
New York Islanders	Ice Hockey	National Hockey League
New York Rangers	Ice Hockey	National Hockey League
Adirondack Frostbite	Ice Hockey	United Hockey League
Albany River Rats	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
Binghamton Senators	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
Elmira Jackals	Ice Hockey	United Hockey League
Rochester Americans	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
Syracuse Crunch	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
New York Mets	Baseball	Major League Baseball

New York Yankees	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Brooklyn Cyclones	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Staten Island Yankees	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Binghamton Mets	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Buffalo Bisons	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Jamestown Jammers	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Batavia Muckdogs	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Rochester Red Wings	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Auburn Doubledays	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Syracuse SkyChiefs	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Oneonta Tigers	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Tri-City Valley Cats	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Hudson Valley Renegades	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Long Island Ducks	Baseball	Atlantic League of Professional Baseball
New York Dragons	Arena football	Arena Football League
Long Island Lizards	Lacrosse	Major League Lacrosse
Rochester Rattlers	Lacrosse	Major League Lacrosse
Buffalo Bandits	Lacrosse	National Lacrosse League
Rochester Knighthawks	Lacrosse	National Lacrosse League
New York Titans	Lacrosse	National Lacrosse League
Brooklyn Wonders	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Buffalo Silverbacks	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Rochester Razorsharks	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Strong Island Sound	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Albany Patroons	Basketball	Continental Basketball Association

Navy vessel namesakes

There have been at least five United States Navy ships named USS New York in honor of the state. USS New York (LPD-21) was laid down on September 10 2004 and will be the sixth Navy ship to be named for the state.

References

Chronology

Key Dates:
1983: Jerry Braun forms the company as a nursing staffing agency.
1988: The company switches to the home healthcare business.
1996: An initial public offering of stock is made.
2001: Bio Balance is incorporated.
2003: Bio Balance and the company merge.
2005: New Jersey Health Care assets are sold.

Additional topics

Company HistoryHealth Care

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