Curbing Opioid Incentives
New Jersey is considering curbing the lavish meals and other incentives handed out to doctors by pharmaceutical companies, reports the AP. New Jersey’s Attorney General Christopher Porrino held a public hearing in Newark on Thursday to discuss whether the incentives encourage doctors to prescribe highly-addictive medications such as opioids.
The BierGarten Atlantic City – right on the Boardwalk. It’ll be opening Presidents Day Weekend 2018.
LD2
NJSpotlight has an incredibly long analysis of the battle for senate seat in LD2 (most of Atlantic County). The piece interviews Colin Bell but Chris Brown “wasn’t available”. Bell doubles down on his commitment to fight North Jersey casinos (which seems all the more relevant given the candidates at the gubernatorial debate this week discussed expanding gaming). Brenda Taube, on Brown’s ticket, talks about the influence of special interests on the Dems. Both sides talk about the need to reduce property taxes (it’s not clear if they were asked how this would happen) and diversify the economy.
In the rest of the day’s news, students at a Gloucester County School (Washington Township High School) staged a peaceful protest on Thursday in response to a racial incident, more than 20 percent of Sandy survivors are still not back in their homes (and is the state listening to the lessons to be learned?), Sen. Bob Menendez campaign fundraising has been hurt by his corruption trial, and Stockton University President Harvey Kesselman has written an op-ed on the value of higher education. All that and more below:
String Of Burglaries At Atlantic City Cedar Markets Has Workers Uneasy–Arriving at work in the mornings for city Cedar Market workers has been bringing a bit of uneasiness lately. When store clerks arrive at work around 7 am, they’ve been walking into a mess — broken windows, doors, gates and merchandise all over the floors. www.pressofatlanticcity.com
Sexual Assaults Up At NJ Colleges, Victims May Feel Safer About Reporting–Acts of violence and sexual assault at New Jersey’s colleges and other post-secondary schools were higher in 2015 than a year earlier, which could be a positive sign that victims are feeling more comfortable in coming forward and reporting incidents. The data are timely, as former Vice President Joe Biden visited Rutgers University’s New Brunswick campus last week and told students that non-consensual sex is assault and urged them to support victims and to create an environment in which sexual violence is not tolerated. www.njspotlight.com
Barack Obama Gets Out The Vote For Phil Murphy–A New Jersey Democrat seeking a boost less than three weeks before an election could not do much better than bringing President Barack Obama to a rally in the blue bastion of Newark. www.njspotlight.com
Christie And Others Celebrate A Camden Project, But No One Brings Up The ‘A’ Word–Governor Chris Christie and other officials who spoke at the groundbreaking for a key piece of Camden’s downtown development had many celebratory words for the city Thursday, but no one uttered the “A” word — for Amazon, that is. The governor earlier this week spurned Camden’s upstart bid for the online retailing giant’s second-headquarters project in favor of one being submitted by Newark. www.philly.com
Lack Of Youth Programs Gets Atlantic City Council’s Attention–Atlantic City’s youth got some attention at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. LaToya Dunston opened the Multicultural Community Center on North New York Avenue a little more than a year ago. But she had to close down after she says parties used as fundraisers were shutdown due to what she said were threats of fines from the city. breakingac.com
Four Teens Arrested In Car Thefts — Two With Stolen Guns–Four Egg Harbor Township teens burglarized several unlocked cars and even stole two, police said. Two of the teens also allegedly had a semiautomatic handgun and high-powered rifle reported stolen from Hamilton Township. breakingac.com
Atlantic City Woman Allegedly Strikes Two Cars Then Hides Behind Dumpster–A woman with a suspended driver’s license and an active warrant struck allegedly fled the scene of two crashes — including rear-ending an Atlantic City police officer. Destinee Carpenter, 19, of Atlantic City, was found hiding behind a dumpster near her car, parked in the lot of Angelo’s Fairmont Tavern, police said. breakingac.com