Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/2017/04/page/3/)
Earlier this year, as lawyers for the state of New Jersey were pushing Atlantic City’s police and firefighters toward pay and job cuts, a state authority in the city was quietly handing out thousands of dollars in back pay and salaries to members of its own board.
Air Marshal Training
Did you know that a new round of U.S. Air Marshal recruits (the first since 2011!) are training right here in Atlantic County? It was news to us too, but The Washington Post has a neat behind-the-scenes look at what the training program entails and the special set-up at the William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center where it all happens. Online High-School Chemistry
Atlantic City doesn’t have a high-school chemistry teacher, so kids are learning online, Diane D’Amico writes for The Press of Atlantic City. The piece talks to students, who on the whole aren’t very impressed with the lack of a teacher, and looks at the reasons why the school hasn’t been able to find a teacher (it’s still looking). Science and math teachers state-wide are in short supply – but it seems like luring them to Atlantic City has been a particularly tough sell and no one has any good solutions.
New AC Coffee Shop
There’s a new coffee shop in Atlantic City and it’s the result of a neat collaboration between Stockton University and the Rescue Mission – oh, and it’s “pay what you want”. The coffee shop, called ‘Hopeful Grounds’, will provide job training to Rescue Mission residents. It’s already proving popular with shoppers at the Rescue Mission Thrift store, Diane D’Amico reports for The Press of Atlantic City. Overdose Death Charges
An Ocean County man accused of supplying a lethal dose of heroin to a 26-year-old from Brick Township has been charged with (among other things) strict liability drug-induced death. This charge has been rarely used, in spite of the levels of the opioid epidemic in New Jersey.
It started with a simple question: What to make of Ryan Theriot? Do you know what his slash line is? Do you need to know? The Cubs shortstop was beloved of fans, who will, let’s face it, tend to focus their affection on players who get their uniforms dirty and don’t cost a lot of money, and “The Riot”, as he was known, was an affirmative on both those counts.“He dove for balls to his left. He dove for balls to his right.
“If Dorothy was a hooker.” I laughed out loud when I received that private message. It was sent from a former resident of Atlantic City in response to my public post on Facebook, with a wonderful picture of Atlantic City, wherein I stated our beloved city is like “Oz on the Ocean”. It doesn’t matter how much I love AC – the truth is the truth. Our city, to outside eyes is ugly, unsafe, and a place that begs you to be careful.
For the past eight years, Kim Guadagno has been Gov. Chris Christie’s right-hand woman, serving both as the state’s first lieutenant governor and as secretary of state. She’s crisscrossed the state with a mandate to build business and cut regulation. She also served as acting governor when Christie was campaigning in 2016, first for himself and then for Donald Trump. Guadagno said that puts her in a unique position in this year’s race.
Hard Rock
It’s been a while since there’s been a casino opening ceremony in Atlantic City and the Hard Rock team pulled out some stops. There was a rock star, a governor non-grata (via helicopter) and some Seminole Tribesmen, as Amy Rosenberg reported for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Then there’s the matter of who was claiming credit for reopening the casino – as Christian Hetrick reported for The Press of Atlantic City. The nearly $400 million project is set to (re)create 3,000 jobs. Now’s probably not the time to be cynical, but…
Heather Deegan Hires stands under some industrial lighting and looks from her phone to the wall in front of her and back to the phone again. She’s trying to show me her vision for transforming the sterile space with graying baby-blue walls and institutional floor tiles into a topsy-turvy wonderland. She first saw the room a couple of weeks ago and, at this point, she has just over a week before it will become one of the installations at Atlantic City’s third ARTeriors project.
“The whole theme of our room is an upside down, sort of Alice in Wonderland, but a dark version of it,” said Deegan Hires (@bodypaintingbyheather). “So we still – we have a lot of work to do.”
South Jersey Industries
The parent company of South Jersey Gas is in talks to combine with another New Jersey energy company, according to the Wall Street Journal (read a version of the story here). There has been no official comment by SJI. The company is involved with two major projects in the area, including transferring its headquarters from one side of Atlantic County to another as part of the Atlantic City Gateway development and the controversial Pinelands pipeline. It is not clear how any merger talks might affect those plans. The company’s share price rose on the news.
There’s a scene in David Scott Kessler’s film about the Pine Barrens where Steven Carty, a basket-weaver from Mount Holly, reflects on the nature of Piney identity. Steven’s a Bozarth, which makes him Piney royalty, and he’s Lenape Indian (“the first Pineys”) on his mother’s side, but he has an open mind on the question of what makes a Piney a Piney—if you say you’re a Piney, you are one. But he does have one pet peeve. “If you ask me, claiming to be a ‘redneck’ does not make one a Piney,” he says. “Some folks forget the Mason-Dixon line ends at Delaware.”
Apt words during these interesting times in the history of our Republic, when identity crises have burst forth into our political culture with such unprecedented force.