Happy Thursday, comrades! The Route 40 editorial cabal will be traveling to Barcelona (“the Atlantic City of the East” as we like to think of it) for a few days to conduct some comparative urbanology. What have they got that we haven’t got? We’ll keep you posted.
In realer news:
“PSEG worked with CHRISTIE to keep financial info secret” is the headline on the New Jersey Playbook and now you almost feel bad for the company that’s been buying all that ad space lately. According to the AP, emails it obtained show lobbyists for PSE&G worked with the Christie Administration to “craft a $300 million bailout” while “adding language to shield the company’s financial information from the public” though a spokesperson for the company said that shouldn’t matter because the Board of Public Utilities will get to see the financials and that important state regulator would “presumably act in the public interest.”
Critics say the company, presumably, doesn’t want you to see how much money they make before you decide whether or not to give them a $300 million subsidy.
Elsewhere in headlines, the Press of AC asks: “Who will the Cape May Zoo camel pick for the Super Bowl?” while The Courier-Post reveals, “Amazon’s Alexa thinks Eagles will win the Super Bowl.”
The Metropolitan Business & Citizens Association held its annual luncheon yesterday and among the panelists were real estate developer Waseem Boraie, of that new Inlet residential project, and Stockton President Harvey Kessleman, who’s been a vocal booster of the real-estate investment opportunities opened up by his school’s new Atlantic City campus.
“I came here for the time share pitch and ended up enrolling at Stockton,” the Jitney Guy writes, over on the Twitter Machine.
Meanwile, former CRDA head Jim Kennedy says Stockton’s course offerings for the new campus “shows a real commitment. They are offering a lot of undergraduate classes in a a full range of academic disciplines. It’s a really great start.”
Phil Murphy said he wants a “new culture” at the Economic Development Authority and named Tim Sullivan to be the new chief executive. Sullivan is currently “deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development” and was a “top New York City economic-development official” under Mike Bloomberg, the valuable NJ Spotlight reports. Murphy has been critical of Christie for presiding over billions of dollars in corporate tax breaks while yelling at schoolteachers on the boardwalk.
Talk of a reborn Atlantic City always puts me in mind of that Robert Goulet song. This is the year!
NJ JOINS MULTISTATE SUIT TO STOP TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FROM DEPORTING ‘DREAMERS’–New Jersey plans to help an estimated 22,000 young undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers” by creating a state office to assist them and by joining a multistate lawsuit opposing the Trump administration’s decision to deport them. These young people, who were brought to the United States as children, could be forced to leave in as few as six weeks, if the Republican administration ends the policy currently protecting them. www.njspotlight.com
The high cost of pushing out honest officers–When police officers stand up to wrongdoing by other cops, the results can lead to upstanding officers being punished by their departments for daring to break what appellate judges in one case recently called the "'blue wall' of police silence." www.app.com
Trump has proposed offshore drilling in the Atlantic. Here’s what it means for N.J.–When President Trump's administration announced plans earlier this month to reconsider drilling off the Atlantic coast, officials and community leaders up and down the Jersey Shore began digging in for a fight they thought they'd won in 2016. Here are the basic facts behind the plan and the reasons why so many groups are against the proposal. www.nj.com
Todd Fath named Somers Point school board president–Todd Fath is the new president of the Somers Point Board of Education. He was chosen to lead the district by Atlantic County Executive Superintendent of Schools Richard Stepura. www.shorenewstoday.com
Kushners drop much-criticized effort to raise Chinese cash–The family real estate company once run by Jared Kushner is no longer seeking $150 million from Chinese investors for a New Jersey building project after months of criticism that the company was playing up its White House ties to raise the money. www.statesman.com
I’ve covered NJ Transit for 20 years, here’s what I think Gov. Murphy may find in his audit–When I first started covering NJ Transit, the agency wasn't considered a national disgrace, as Gov. Phil Murphy recently labeled it. www.nj.com
$20 Million for New Police HQ–Vineland Police are relocating to a new $20 million headquarters, funded through a groundbreaking financial agreement between the city and the Cumberland County Improvement Authority. www.thedailyjournal.com