Mark Lassoff is the founder of Connecticut based LearnToProgram.TV, a Vernon-based company offering online programming training classes as well as in-person boot camps.

Lassoff has a long history of corporate programming training, and says it was a natural move to begin a more consumer-oriented instruction. The relative low cost of launching an online business has created a considerable amount of demand for Lassoff's self paced online video courses.

"I saw a hole in the market that we could fill," Lassoff said, adding that professional coursesusually start at around $3500 per week and involve taking time away from the office to be immersed in the training program. Lassoff's online courses run between $50 and $200, competitive with what a programming instruction book might cost at a bookstore.

Students from the University High School of Science and Engineering and the Annie Fisher STEM Magnet School in Hartford are sending a bone density experiment to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule May 19.

The University of Hartford is supporting the student project, providing tissue culture facilities and other supplies and equipment that the students did not have in their schools. University of Hartford Assistant professor of biology Aime Levesque is supporting the student project.

The debate over the “Amazon Tax” continued this week with the company announcing, as many expected, the cancellation of Connecticut-based affiliate marketing contracts. The changes impact website operators who are linking to Amazon and receiving a commission based on the sales those links generate.

Lon and Doug were joined by special guest Daniel L. Gottfried for the discussion. Gottfried is a Tax Partner at Rogin Nassau LLC Attorneys at Law, where his practice encompasses domestic and international business transactions, as well as federal, state, and international tax planning, including corporate mergers, acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, partnerships and S corporations. Mr. Gottfried is regularly called on to assist business clients with cross-border expansion, including expansion into the U.S. and abroad.