Bald Eagles, CRDA and Sports Gambling – Wednesday’s Roundup

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Bald Eagles
Starting off with a feel-good story – 15 new bald eagle pairs were spotted this nesting season in New Jersey, 12 of them in South Jersey. More than half the state’s nests were in Cumberland, Salem and Cape May counties, according to an observers project run by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. You can read their report here and the NJ Advance Media story on the findings here. CRDA
The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority held its first meeting yesterday with new executive director, fresh-faced 32-year-old Chris Howard. The Press of Atlantic City covered the meeting and the challenges ahead of the Authority, which has seen almost a third of its budget redirected to the city itself.

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Casino Winners and Losers, Opioids and Juvenile Sentencing – Tuesday’s Roundup

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When the Taj Closed, Who Gained? It might not surprise you to learn that Tropicana was the biggest beneficiary from the Taj’s strike and closure last year (Tropicana and the Trump Taj Mahal have the same owner – Icahn Enterprises). Perhaps more interesting from our exclusive analysis of the winners and losers since the Taj strike is that the Caesars properties lost casino market share. You can read the full story here on Route 40, with data. Safer Oxy Led To More Deaths
We have been following the opioid epidemic in Atlantic County closely and anyone else who is interested should take a look at this piece by Zachary Siegel in the Daily Beast.

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Kings of Leon, Trump Museum, Booker’s Vote On Cheaper Meds – Friday’s Roundup

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Kings of Leon
The band Kings of Leon were in Atlantic City this week, which appears to have been a very-well-kept secret (until the careful PR campaign that announced it). They were there to rehearse an upcoming world tour, according to Atlantic City Weekly, but maybe it was some very smart thinking by Comcast’s venue management company Spectra, which operates Boardwalk Hall and Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center (coincidence! Kings of Leon play there next Thursday). In which case, hopefully Spectra is cottoning on finally to how to exploit its Philadelphia/AC synergies. There’s another issue here that kind of fascinates me: having a band like Kings of Leon come and ‘rehearse’ secretly-but-not-really is the kind of stealth marketing that Atlantic City really needs.

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Atlantic City Has An Amazing Community Spirit and The Boss – Thursday’s Roundup

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Atlantic City Area Has An Amazing Community Spirit
It’s not quite the middle of January, everyone’s got energy bills, taxes and that back-to-work-or-school feeling on their mind. But a video of Alex, a homeless man who is well-known to many in the area, was posted by the Atlantic City Crust Kings and there’s been a spontaneous outpouring of affection for him and a successful fund-raising campaign. And it’s not about the money. You should read the comments and willingness to help here on the Scan AtlanticCity page and watch the video:

Sometimes it’s really hard not to be ground down around here by the foreclosures or the drug crisis or the casino job losses or just the winter weather. People are still angry after a divisive election.

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Christie Also Talked Pensions, Atlantic County Food and MLK Recognition – Wednesday’s Roundup

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Christie Also Talked Pensions

We covered the State of the State address here and while everyone focused on the outgoing governor’s main message on tackling the drug crisis, he also alluded to more reforms to the state’s public-sector pensions. Those comments seemed important but they have not gotten as much coverage. This is from his transcript, on the subject of the state’s pension system: “We have done more to restore solvency to this broken system than any recent group of leaders in this city. There is more to do and I will present more ideas to finish the job we started in 2011 when I present you with my 2018 budget.” So there’s that to listen out for.

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Flu Rate Rises, Jingoli and AC, Philly Mag Thinks NJ Shore Towns Need Watchdogs – Monday’s Roundup

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Flu Rate Rises
If the snow on the ground wasn’t enough to remind you winter is really here, NJTV adds to the seasonal feeling with this look at how flu cases are up from last year. The state’s department of health data (if you prefer your information direct from the source, it’s here) shows there were 145 new cases in December, with the worst of the outbreak in the northeast of the state. NJTV has both good and bad news about the particular strain causing the illness this year, H3N2. Edward Lifshitz, director of the state’s Communicable Disease Service, told the TV station it is a close match to the vaccine but it is a strain that can cause more severe illness, particularly for young children and the elderly. Jingoli & AC
After Bill Sprouse’s Route 40 story last week looking into why an entire Atlantic City neighborhood is filled with vacant lots, councilman Marty Small gave us some more insight into what happened when New Jersey construction and real estate moguls Joseph Jingoli and Jack Morris approached the council with a plan for some of the land. Small said the vote against their plan was “nothing against Jingoli” but the councilman who represents that neighborhood didn’t get a chance to meet with the developers and hear details of the plan before the project was “shoved down city council’s throats.”

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Casinos Pay More Taxes, PILOT Fight and Clean Energy – Wednesday’s Roundup

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Casino Taxes (And The Taj Mahal)
Atlantic City’s casinos paid more in gaming and resort taxes to New Jersey last year, bucking a decade-long trend of slumping tax revenue from the sector, Route 40 reported exclusively here. The numbers from the Division of Gaming Enforcement indicate the sector’s declining revenue is flatlining – largely helped by a pickup in online gaming. The numbers, however, are through the end of June last year, meaning that they don’t include the closure of the Trump Taj Mahal. Speaking of which, Icahn told the AP that he has no immediate plans to sell the Taj, but he did change its deed so that he could reduce his property tax bill. PILOT Fight
The Press of Atlantic City’s Christian Hetrick reports from yesterday’s county freeholders’ meeting that the freeholders are withholding $12.8 million from the city, until the city pays the county its 13.5 percent share of the casinos’ Payments In Lieu of Taxation (PILOT). “The stress on the Atlantic County budget, and therefore on the residents of Atlantic County, has the potential to be tremendous if the county does not receive its fair share,” Freeholder Chairman Frank Formica said.

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Better Internet, Snow, Maybe – Tuesday’s Roundup

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Better Internet, Maybe

Consumers in Atlantic and Cumberland county have finally found a government agency to listen to their complaints about poor internet and phone service – NJSpotlight reports that the president of the Board of Public Utilities will hear comments about Verizon’s service in the area. Verizon separately has promised to boost its high-speed internet and phone service through fiber-optic networks in Estell Manor and Weymouth, so hopefully the regulator will also check to make sure the phone giant follows through on that commitment. Snow Later This Week? Local weather guru Dan Skeldon says it’s going to continue to be a revolting rainy day today, and then there might – just maybe – be a chance of snow later in the week, according to his Press of Atlantic City forecast here. As he puts it, “Two opportunities for snow will follow, but in a fast-moving weather pattern, there’s still too much uncertainty to definitively say whether either will actually result in snowflakes.”

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Black Horse Pike Developments, Cool Jersey – Monday’s Roundup

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Pike Developments
If your commute or general life in the area has been disrupted by work on the Black Horse Pike (our very own Route 40) near the mall lately, then The Current has some news for you on the progress of all that development. The bottom line is that the area is going to be a mess for a little while longer – but construction is finally set to begin on the retail park that the roadworks are in aid of. It’s called Gravelly Run Square and it will house 300,000 square feet of retail space. Hamilton Township’s director of community development, Phil Sartorio, told The Current that the road redesign in the area (which will also change access to the developments around the Mays Landing Country Club) should be completed shortly, while construction on the shopping center will begin this quarter. South Jersey > Middle Jersey

South Jersey is the coolest part of New Jersey and it’s true because Patti Smith said so.

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