News in brief
”˜Big C”™ on Greenwich streets
Recently Greenwich served as the stage for the Showtime television show, “The Big C.”
The series, which stars Laura Linney and Oliver Platt, featured Greenwich High School, Sundown Saloon on Greenwich Avenue as well as street scenes shot in Old Greenwich.
The program is a dark comedy set in Minnesota about a teacher whose life changes after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The show, which began in August, usually shoots the majority of the show on a soundstage in a former factory building on West Avenue in Stamford currently owned by the Connecticut Film Commission. According to crew members, Greenwich will continue to play host to many of the show”™s outdoor scenes.
Tagged for more patents
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded three design patents to TagsMania in Westport.
Founder of the company, Paul Oestreicher, a former nutritional biochemist and adjunct professor at New York University, founded the company last year after watching his four children spend more time playing with the tags and wash labels attached to their stuffed animals than they did with the actual toys. The concept allows babies to grab and manipulate the tags as a way for them to interact with the toy and reinforce their motor skills.
The three new patents join the TagBall and the TagRattle in the company”™s product line which is offered in select toy stores and online. Of the new patents, the Tagacuda, the Tagasaurus and the Tagsdale, Oestreicher”™s daughter Rebecca, is listed as the inventor of the Tagsdale plush toy.
Laser therapy in Stamford
Stamford Healthcare Associates have opened the Chiro Laser Center which features low-level laser therapy as a new form of rehabilitation.
Under the direction of Christopher Sova and Jason Zwickler, the facility at 1425 Bedford St. has begun offering a new non-invasive method to restoring health and heal injuries through light waves.
According to Sova, the therapy is administered through a small device that sends light beams to an injured muscle, joint or pain area; the light penetrates through the skin and its wavelengths and frequency create electromagnetic energy that triggers a series of chemical reactions to stimulate cells and the body”™s natural healing process. The treatment lasts from three to five minutes and patients typically receive a series of up to 10 treatments.
FrontPoint closing funds
Greenwich-based FrontPoint Partners will close some of its hedge funds after clients asked to withdraw money amid charges a manager of the company benefited from illegal stock information.
FrontPoint oversaw $7 billion at the start of November before Chip Skowron, one of the company”™s health care fund portfolio managers, was tied to claims by prosecutors that the firm received early information on drug-trial results. Federal officials have begun pursuing a crackdown on insider-trading at hedge funds.
FrontPoint”™s assets have been listed most recently as $4.5 billion in January and the firm closed its health care funds. FrontPoint has said it plans to shut most of its hedge funds by the end of May.
Liberty arrives in Stamford
Boston-based Liberty Mutual Reinsurance has opened an office in Stamford.
Michael Finnegan, senior vice president of the company, will serve as the head of Liberty Mutual Reinsurance”™s new Stamford office at 600 Summer Street.
Liberty Mutual Group offers a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, workers compensation, property, commercial automobile, general liability, global specialty, group disability, reinsurance and surety.