Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/author/sprouseb/page/24/)
The Press of AC has a cool story about the bird believed to be New Jersey’s oldest osprey. He’s down in Maurice River Township and arrived a little later than expected to the nest this year, but he returned.
The New York Post reports that the US Supreme Court – the one in Washington DC – could rule as early as today on the case to allow sports betting in New Jersey, though they don’t really say why they think that ruling could happen today.
Scoop of the Week goes to Nanette LoBiondo who reports that a theater operator bought the long-abandoned Ventnor Twin theater and plans to reopen it next year as a boutique movie house slash restaurant where you can B your own B. Ventnor Commissioner Lance Landgraf said “the movie theater would be ‘a game changer’ for Ventnor,” NanLo reports. Honestly, this is more exciting to me than Revel + Hard Rock. (And it’s been Elinor’s dream for a couple of years). 59%
That’s the percentage of New Jerseyans in favor of legalizing marijuana according to the latest Monmouth U. poll, and it’s up 11% since four years ago. Elected officials, who get paid to do unpopular stuff all the time, are less excited.
Phil Murphy fired back at Texas Governor Greg Abbott after Abbott wrote yesterday that New Jerseyans should consider moving to Texas because the taxes are lower there. This reminds me of the time some Texas state troopers saw a big bird in the sky and word got out the Jersey Devil had for some reason fled to Brownsville and my grandmother had to intervene to stop these people from Smithville (“the Concerned Citizens for the Return of the Jersey Devil”) who were going to fly down there in a hot-air balloon to retrieve our local cryptid. My grandmother was from old Leeds Point “Bay People” stock and she loved to sit around and listen to millionaires complain about their taxes. God I miss her. Elsewhere in immigration, undocumented persons paid more than $14 million in taxes in Atlantic County in 2017, and they paid $587 million statewide, according to a report that was no doubt compiled by liberals.
$4.325 Million
CRDA has agreed to chip in $4.325 million in hazard pay to ensure the Miss America Pageant will be held in Atlantic City this year, everyone reports. Kudos to Amy Kuperinski for linking to that image of the board of directors. Amy Rosenberg points out they denied a request for $50K to expand a community gardening project. I’m not mathemagician but $50K is $0.050 million, right? In related news, the governor of Texas says you should move there because the taxes are lower.
Hard Rock’s going before the CRDA today to seek both preliminary and final site approval for their project to redo the Taj Mahal and does it seem weird to do preliminary and final at the same time? It seemed weird to Jim Kennedy – the former CRDA head – who tweeted, “I’m a big fan of Hard Rock Atlantic City. But, it’s just wrong for the CRDA to conduct a same day Preliminary & Final Site Plan approval process. The reason there is a two step process is it’s a deliberative process.” We called the CRDA spokespeople for comment, but they never get back to us. I wouldn’t get back to us either.
Happy Monday Campers! Don’t mind the flooding. There’s nothing we can do about it. In realer news, Carl Icahn is selling Tropicana. Yay him.
Why was President George W. Bush at the Borgata yesterday? Lynda Cohen knows. Is she going to tell us? What are you hiding, Lynda? PSE&G finally got its big subsidy bill, referred to euphemistically here as a “clean-energy” bill.
The world-famous Atlantic City boardwalk appears (wiggle word) about to get a little longer, according to a first-hand analysis by yrstrly at Route 40, who just took a bike ride down to 101 Boardwalk, which is a gem by the way.
Taxing millionaires is supposed to chase them off to South Carolina, where they live together in a big mangrove swamp and swim in piles of money all day, but that’s not what actually happens according to this report, which alleges “even in New Jersey, migration of high-income taxpayers in response to ‘millionaire taxes’ has been relatively unimportant.”