AutoZone Crash
A pickup truck drove through the front of the AutoZone in Ventnor Heights Monday after hopping the curb at Wellington Avenue, traveling the width of that entire empty parking lot I ride my bike through to get to the gym and then hopping another curb and crashing through the window, everyone reports.
The driver was injured and so was a customer inside, but neither injury, miraculously, was considered life threatening, Lynda Cohen reports. Police are investigating the cause but I’ll give you two guesses.
Overseer Overkill
Mighty Joe Hernandez at WHYY reports on the appointment of Jim Johnson as special counsel to the city of Atlantic City to help extricate our noble municipality from the clutches its current gang of overseers from up north, noting Johnson will be paid $1 per year, in contrast to Jeff Chiesa, a Republican (the party of small government) who was paid $400 an hour. Anyhow. Frank Gilliam says Johnson’s appointment is “overkill” and it was “important to talk to the locals.”
So far the state has cut taxes on the casinos, borrowed tens of millions of dollars and paid themselves and their bond-originator friends handsome fees. The locals don’t show up again until act three when they get to explain why they’re broke.
Gun Laws
Legislation that might marginally reduce the slaughter of our nation’s school children by heavily armed gunmen–by forcing the gunmen to slow down and reload, for example, or by keeping military weapons out of their hands in the first place–is impossible in freedom’s land as such tragedies are the price we pay for our dear liberties–for our civil liberties–to maintain our childish fantasies–but the influence of the arms-dealer lobby is not to be discounted, so Jonathan Salant at NJ.com reports that Tom MacArthur and Frank LoBiondo have gotten money from the NRA, though LoBiondo maintains he’s always donated the money or given it back.
Jeff Van Drew sponsored legislation in 2010 that would have made it “easier for New Jersey residents to carry handguns” and was asked after this latest massacre* if he’d be taking money from the NRA. As of yesterday morning, he hadn’t responded!
I've asked on the @VanDrewForNJ feed 2 questions: Will he be accepting any support from the NRA and if his policies regarding guns have changed at all after the Florida school shooting. No answer yet.
— Sharon Falkowski (@SharonFalkowski) February 19, 2018
Meanwhile in Trumpland, MacArthur was a co-sponsor of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act that would require New Jersey, among other places, to honor concealed-carry permits from other states because the real victims are the gun owners who cross state lines and end up busted in other states.
Anyway it’s not the NRA’s money as much as its ability to rile up the base.
This flu season is really bad and The Asbury Park Press has a good story on why.
*Hat tip to the Playbook
Elsewhere across your region:
Atlantic City Police Investigating Sexual Assault At Flagship–Atlantic City detectives are investigating a sexual assault reported at the Flagship Resort on Saturday afternoon. breakingac.com
Ode to an Obituary Writer, a Dying Breed–“Who died?” For 10 years, I sought to answer that question for readers of the Record, penning obituaries of 1,200 North Jerseyans. njmonthly.com
Dan Adams sworn in as Margate fire chief–Deputy Chief Dan Adams was sworn in as the city’s new fire chief Thursday, Feb. 15 at Historic City Hall. www.shorenewstoday.com
LAWMAKERS TRY YET ANOTHER VERSION OF CONTENTIOUS NUCLEAR SUBSIDY BILL–The Legislature will try to advance a controversial nuclear subsidy bill again this week — at least the fourth version of the measure drafted this year. www.njspotlight.com
N.J. medical marijuana growers are ready to expand. Will Phil Murphy let them?–As New Jersey's first medicinal marijuana provider six years ago, the founder of Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair said he and his partners drained their bank accounts when lenders would not touch them. They tangled with a distrustful administration of then-Gov. Chris Christie before and after they opened. www.nj.com
Watch electric unicycles on the Ocean City boardwalk–Mik and Olga Kvitchko, of Beach Haven, took advantage of a balmy Presidents Day afternoon Monday to ride their Solowheel electric unicycles on the Ocean City Boardwalk. www.pressofatlanticcity.com