Bags of Heroin And Crazy Clowns – Today’s Roundup

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If you’re going to smuggle heroin, go big. At least, that appears to be what a Cape May ferry rider tried to do earlier this month. Unfortunately for her (and presumably her future customers) some bright spark from the Delaware River and Bay Authority asked to search her bag, at which point apparently the lady with the heavy handbag confessed, “You got me, it’s drugs … it’s heroin.” Only in South Jersey. Meanwhile, the creepy clown craze is spreading apace throughout our area. PhillyVoice’s Kevin Shelly analyzes what exactly bothers us about clowns and spoke with EHT Halloween experts, Spirit Halloween, to get their fantastic smackdown to the new fad. “Spirit Halloween does not encourage or associate with the recent clown sightings, and we do not comment on ongoing police investigations,” said media manager Trisha Lombardo.

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Atlantic County Needs More Family Activities – Dr Miller

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Atlantic City and the surrounding area needs more places and activities for families, according to chiropractor Dr Thomas Miller. The local economy surrounding the resort town has been more stable since casinos brought year-round jobs, but cinemas, bowling alleys and other places for family entertainment disappeared when the casinos arrived, Dr Miller told us in a wide-ranging interview that is part of our series of local business profiles. “If they had places like they did years ago where people could go to a movie, it would be nice,” said Dr Miller, noting that in the summer many potential visitors drive by Atlantic City to stop in Ocean City or Wildwood. “There’s nothing here for people to do,” if they don’t want to gamble, he said. Pleasantville, which has seen its reputation marred by poverty and crime in recent years, is a good spot for business, according to Dr Miller, who has owned his own practice and office in Pleasantville for more than a decade.

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Ankle Bracelet, What Ankle Bracelet? And A Refurb In Somers Point

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In today’s roundup, The Press of Atlantic City tells us there’s no need to worry about more escaped criminals cutting off their ankle bracelets around here, since that only happens if they also abuse drugs… and we all know that there’s no overlap on the substance-abuse-plus-incarcerated venn diagram, so that’s a relief. In more upbeat news, The Press also reckons The Taj could yet reopen. And SNJ Today has a video piece on an apartment complex in Somers Point that’s getting some much-needed refurbishment.

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Lights out at the Taj Mahal

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The Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort is officially closed, but the slot machines are still blinking inside. They spin and whir insolently, kind of the way my laptop takes its sweet time powering down after I’ve slammed the lid shut. I don’t know what you call this stage in the life cycle of a defunct megaresort–a liminal phase maybe–but this is the way a casino dies, apparently, in the small hours of an unseasonably cold Monday morning in early October. The Taj, the alleged Eighth Wonder of the World, and one of the many saviors of Atlantic City foretold by the prophets, passed into oblivion at age 26. It had been in poor health for some time.

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Search For Atlantic County Business Leader Turns Up Empty

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Atlantic County has failed to hire a director for a planned million-dollar development corporation, a setback for a wider plan to steer the sluggish regional economy away from an unhealthy dependence on low-wage casino industry jobs. Even after a substantial search this spring and summer, no candidates from outside South Jersey could be drawn in to run the development corp. Instead, Max Slusher, the Atlantic County Improvement Authority’s (ACIA) economic development head, will perform double duty in the role for an interim period, the county’s chief of staff Howard Kyle said in an interview Monday. Although the non-profit development corporation, which should have about $1.2 million when it is fully funded, found candidates for the executive director gig, one turned it down for a better-paid alternative, and another withdrew, apparently because they couldn’t quite be persuaded to move to Atlantic County, Kyle said. Low local salaries and difficulties attracting workers to the county were both issues that were highlighted in a report by Austin, Texas-based consultants Angelou Economics that was commissioned by the ACIA and published a year ago.

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