Galloway for Amazon?
Galloway Township’s Mayor Don Purdy says he has been trying to bring Amazon to a 450-acre parcel of land close to the Atlantic City International Airport for ten months, The Current reports. Purdy said he has been talking to state Senators Chris Connors and Steve Sweeney to get the economic incentives that would make it work. Amazon has said it is seeking a second headquarters that would employ 50,000 people.
Casinos
Atlantic City’s casinos reported slightly lower (-0.4 pct) gaming revenue of $244.8 million in August. The numbers are a bit rosier when they do not include revenue from the Taj Mahal (still – just about – open in August last year). On a like-for-like basis, comparing 2017’s open casinos with their 2016 numbers, gaming revenue increased by 5.5 percent. Next month will be the quarterly report, so we’ll get to see how occupancy rates and food and beverage sales went over the summer.
It’s an elephant mosquito! It lives in the Pine Barrens – but don’t worry, it eats other mosquito larvae and doesn’t bite humans. Picture via @pinebarrennaturalist on Instagram.
NJ Wealth Disparity
NJ Spotlight has a new interactive map that looks at wage disparity by county in New Jersey, based on census data released Wednesday. The map shows, as you’d expect, that South Jersey counties have more residents living in poverty. The numbers also show, however, that there is less of a wage gap in South Jersey because there are fewer high earners. Although the state as a whole ranks 43 among states – making it one of the worst in the nation – for income inequality, this is more of a North Jersey issue. South Jersey just has a poverty and low-wage issue. Less than 5 percent of the households in Atlantic, Cumberland and Salem Counties has an income over $200,000. Even Cape May County (6.4 percent) and Ocean County (6 percent) do better in that regard.
Whelan
State Senator Jim Whelan will be honored at Boardwalk Hall this morning, with a receiving line from 10 am to 11.30 am, followed by a service from 11.30 am to 1 pm. Whelan’s family has requested that donations be made to the Stockton University Foundation in his memory, in lieu of flowers. To RSVP for the service, visit the event’s Facebook page here. Separately, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Sen. Raymond Lesniak on Wednesday said they would introduce legislation to rename Boardwalk Hall in honor of Whelan. Read more via Lynda Cohen at BreakingAC.com.
In the rest of the day’s news, the U.S. government has agreed to clean up the mess it made on Margate’s beaches by running underground pipes parallel to the beach to collect the water that was causing ‘ponding), read Brigid Callahan Harris on why an Atlantic City to New York rail line should be restored, no one was hurt in a fire that spread up 12 floors on the outside of Atlantic City’s Ritz condominiums on Wednesday, read about the collector in Cinnaminson who has more than 600,000 “sheets” of music, and there’s a new initiative to get homeless people off the street in Camden. All that and more below:
Forsythe Refuge to Receive $867,600 Thanks to Duck Stamps–Rep. Frank LoBiondo announced last Thursday that two of the three South Jersey national wildlife refuges in his 2nd District are receiving a $1.3 million injection of federal funds. The Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, which spreads over 47,000 acres in Ocean and Atlantic counties including the local municipalities of Barnegat, Stafford, Little Egg Harbor and the Holgate section of Long Beach Township, will receive $867,600 from the U.S. Department of the Interior. thesandpaper.villagesoup.com
Salem County Offering Free NARCAN Training to Residents– Officials announced on Monday, September 11th, that residents of Salem County can receive free training on how to administer the life-saving naloxone spray (NARCAN) to a person who had overdosed on opioids. Training is offered by the Salem County Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Drug and Alcohol Services at the county's Office of Emergency Management (134 Cemetery Road). www.snjtoday.com
Four Handguns, Xanax Found In Atlantic City Storage Unit–Four handguns and a lot of Xanax were found inside an Atlantic City storage unit, police said. Detective Darrin Lorady, who is assigned to the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, led the investigation that resulted in a search of the unit at Clayton’s Self Storage on Absecon Boulevard, Sgt. Kevin Fair said. breakingac.com