Icahn Strikes Again, Imitation Guns, Dog Beach – Wednesday’s Roundup

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Icahn Strikes Again
If you were the owner of an enormous, empty casino in a struggling resort town filled with other large, vacant properties (including another one owned by you), and a buyer – wafted in on the wind of political change – comes along, you’d take them up on that offer, right? Probably a lot of people would dust their hands off at that point and leave, but if you’re Carl Icahn, you get down to business trying to wring every last drop out of that property that you no longer own. The Press of Atlantic City’s Christian Hetrick has this great piece looking at the Taj’s tax appeals against the city. The state’s Department of Community Affairs, now in charge of AC’s finances, says it is in negotiations. The purchase price of the Taj was not disclosed, which in finance land means it was not significant, or under $100 million.

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Teachers, Monopoly, Part-Time Mayors – Tuesday’s Roundup

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Teachers
Margate, Ocean City, Brigantine and Atlantic City schools have some of the highest-paid teachers in the state, according to state Department of Education data written up by Diane D’Amico at The Press of Atlantic City. The data ranks districts by median salary. Margate and Brigantine said the data reflects the longevity of their staff but D’Amico notes that higher starting salaries also contribute to higher median salaries in these districts. Monopoly
Atlas Obscura has this amazing piece that tells the history of the Monopoly board game and the buildings and streets in Atlantic City that inspired it – it’s a trip back in time, complete with great pictures. Part-Time Mayors
The Press has a piece about how the Atlantic County Economic Alliance is helping out part-time mayors, but I think (this is Elinor) when you read it, it’s a little bit more interesting than that.

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County Taxes, Deer Salad, Motels – Monday’s Roundup

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County Taxes
County Executive Dennis Levinson explains his position in an opinion piece on the county-versus-city fight over the Atlantic City casinos’ PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) money. The state offered the county 10.4 percent of the casinos’ PILOT, but Levinson and Mayor Guardian had an agreement it would be 13.5 percent. The difference is $40 million that would have to be made up by county taxpayers. Levinson said that while the success of a court fight against the state is uncertain, “We’ll try anyway. Even if we lose, the depositions should be very interesting.”

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Dog & Pony Show, Geek Amusement Park, Dollar Store Layoffs – Friday’s Roundup

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Dog & Pony Show
Wayne Parry’s Associated Press piece does a nice job of contrasting the fanfare and showbusiness of Gov. Christie’s Atlantic City visit yesterday with the somewhat harsher realities of the state takeover that were presented at a follow-on press conference by the president of the NAACP and others. Meanwhile, the Press has a look at the possibility of a lawsuit over the PILOT payments the county was shorted on (and Christie’s response), and The Inquirer’s Amy Rosenberg writes about Christie’s – possibly – softening stance on selling the water authority. It was a busy day. Geek Amusement Park
Bill Barlow, writing for Newsworks, got some more insight into developer Bart Blatstein’s plans for The Showboat, after he announced the launch of weekly mini-conventions dubbed the Atlantic City Fan Expo. It all hinges around professional sports gaming – but there will be some live music thrown in too, for fans of the former House of Blues.

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Beach Trash, Town Hall, Early Retirement Spin – Thursday’s Roundup

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Beach Trash
New Jersey’s ocean and beach cleanup group Clean Ocean Action released its annual report and NJ.com runs down the list of things the group found on beaches last year: a toilet seat, a pink flamingo, decorated Christmas trees and so much more. The next round of beach sweeps organized by the group are this Saturday, from 9 am to 12.30 pm, and here is the list of beaches where a cleanup is being organized, plus details on how you can join in. Town Hall
Your 12-term (yes) U.S. Representative Frank LoBiondo has opted to hold meetings with individual residents, groups and organizers, as well as taking questions on radio shows and (he says) replying to Tweets (@replobiondo), instead of appearing at a town hall. So yesterday a group calling itself Cooper River Indivisible held a town hall meeting to which LoBiondo was invited, but he didn’t show up. And they tweeted to him, but he didn’t reply. Amy Rosenberg has the story.

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Pipeline Problems, Sick Pay Boat Checks, Oh CRDA – Wednesday’s Roundup

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Pipeline Problems
The perennially problematic pipeline is facing a new challenge in the form of an injunction to stay its construction while the Apellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court considers various pending appeals, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Each delay raises the financial costs for the companies involved in the project, which include Atlantic County’s South Jersey Industries. One company, PSE&G, sold its stake in the project March. The completion date for the 100-mile natural gas pipeline was pushed back to the second half of 2018 and further delays look likely. Sick-Pay Boat Checks
Following up on NJSpotlight’s awesome data journalism that showed which towns in New Jersey are running up the highest liabilities in the form of accumulated sick-pay checks owed to their local employees, NJ.com has this piece polling all the governor candidates on the issue.

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Christie & NAACP President #DoAC, Booming Lakewood, Tax Fraud – Tuesday’s Roundup

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Christie & NAACP President #DoAC
Governor Chris Christie and Cornell Brooks, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will be at opposite ends of Atlantic City on Thursday. Christie will be in town for a photo opportunity with the developers and construction crew at the Stockton Atlantic City campus site, while Brooks will be at a press conference in City Council Chambers (at 1.30 pm), where he will talk about the state’s takeover of the city, the potential privatization of its water authority, and the breaking of union contracts. Mary Grant, project director for Food & Water Watch, the state’s AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech, and Firefighters Local 198 President Bill DiLorenzo will also be at that meeting. The Press’ Christian Hetrick has more here. Booming Lakewood
It’s a little outside of our area, but we know our readers like development stories, so you might be interested in this Asbury Park Press piece that looks at the backlash surrounding a developer’s plan to turn a 27-hole golf course into 1,872 homes.

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A Tale of Two Drug Clinics, Sheep, Opioids – Monday’s Roundup

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A Tale of Two Drug Clinics
Pleasantville Mayor Jesse Tweedle fought hard to stop a drug-treatment clinic from coming to his city, but he said he’s heard few complaints since it opened almost a year ago. Meanwhile, as Camden officials move forward on plans to relocate a methadone clinic from the heart of the city’s downtown to a semi-industrial section of Bergen Square about a mile away, the proposal has been met with anger from those who live and work nearby. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Allison Steele takes a look at both projects. Sheep
New Jersey is enjoying a small uptick in sheep farming and the biggest sheep farm in South Jersey is in a surprising location: Moorestown, surrounded by luxury homes. The owners of Little Hooves farm lease some of their land from Burlington County under a farmland preservation project, and the business keeps going thanks in part to the area’s ethnic diversity and demand for lamb from muslim and orthodox communities.

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Polercoaster, First Responders, Seal – Friday’s Roundup

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Polercoaster
The vertical rollercoaster planned for the former Sands casino site in Atlantic City got a grant of $38.4 million from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the Press of Atlantic City reports. The developer hopes to open the attraction – which will also feature other draws such as a zip line and ninja course – in time for the 2019 summer season. First Responders
NJSpotlight has this piece on a program run by the Jersey City Medical Center that is training volunteer first responders. The program began as a way to help the medical center reduce its response times and (according to the director) it seems to have helped… But the volunteer training program is pretty intense, requiring 60 hours of training and a serious commitment, which seems to have limited the actual number of people who have completed the course.

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Free Coffee, County Taxes, Early Retirement Plans – Thursday’s Roundup

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Free Coffee
It’s Wawa Day (aka, the convenience store’s 53rd anniversary) and that means free coffee! All day, any size. Details here via Townsquare. County Taxes
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Amy Rosenberg unravels the strange turn of fortunes of county executive Dennis Levinson, who went from being Gov. Christie’s ally against Atlantic City mayor Don Guardian, to being – apparently – kicked to Christie’s curb. “This week, alliances and strategies seemed to have shifted under the odd political theater of the state’s third version of dominance in seven years of control over the struggling Atlantic City’s municipal government,” writes Rosenberg.

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