Dunes
Just in time for July 4, the Army Corps of Engineers has changed its plans for the Absecon Island dunes project, again (we’ve lost count). As Amy Rosenberg reports for The Inquirer, “In a move attributed to weather and equipment problems but which people in Margate immediately interpreted as payback from the highest levels of Trenton for their ferocious objections to Gov. Christie’s dune project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said late Thursday it would spend the summer building dunes and closing beaches in Margate, not Ventnor.”
A Casual $6.3 Mln
Yesterday we wrote about how much the state has spent on ‘overseeing’ Atlantic City. We’d just been given a dump of documents from the New Jersey Law Office and we hadn’t had a chance to go through them. Well, after some long hours, we now have a database. And the total cost of hiring six different private consultants and law firms to oversee Atlantic City – just since 2015 – is now $6.3 million. Read more here. (You can download the database here – if you are a Route 40 member, you can get the database for free by emailing us.)
Remembering Albie
“Between September 1987 and December 1988, a period of about 16 months, the Holy Spirit High School Spartans played 21 football games. They won 20 of them. I was an eleven-year-old waterboy at the start of the run, and I’d already been around the team for six years at that point (my dad was a coach), but I’d never seen anything like the ’87-’88 Spartans. Up to that point, the Spartans had been very much a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust football program. Successful enough, but a little boring maybe. Then Brian Little, a junior running back from Atlantic City, took the opening kickoff of the first game of the 1987 season and ran it back 80-some yards for a touchdown, and from that point on, things were different in Absecon. On offense, they could run over you or around you. They could throw and catch and block. On defense, they were fast and aggressive. They forced turnovers and collected shutouts. And for two seasons they casually beat the snot out of the Cape Atlantic League en route to back-to-back South Jersey Parochial A (“State”) championships. And in the middle of it all was a quarterback with kind-of-red hair who wore a running-back’s number (30?) and came from Egg Harbor Township. His name was Albie Mallen. He died the other day at age 45.” Read more.
In the rest of the news from the last 24 hours, the Chelsea Pub & Inn closed, you should read this incredible investigation into the Fentanyl death rate in New Jersey, and a New Jersey government shutdown is looking likely (at this point on Friday afternoon). All that and more below:
Image via @lazan_acnj on Instagram.
Beyond ‘Club Wa:’ Shore towns grapple with teens gone wild–WILDWOOD, N.J. -The empty cans of Natty Ice were scattered in the sand, spilling out of the plastic bag, working out to about two beers per person. Philly.com
Op-Ed: Medicaid Cuts Would Devastate People with Lifelong Disabilities in NJ–Imagine losing your home, job, and your best friend. Now imagine what would happen if you lost all three, at the same time. www.njspotlight.com
As shutdown looms over Horizon bill, Sweeney says it could be repealed–Regardless of the merits of the bill, Sweeney said, it’s likely to get repealed if Democrat Phil Murphy is elected governor in November. Politico PRO
Trenton, no closer to budget deal, inches toward shutdown–With minimal progress made toward a final budget and all sides digging in their heels, the New Jersey state government is inching ever closer to a shutdown with little to no indication of a compromise. Politico PRO
Doctors raked in cash to push fentanyl as N.J. death rate exploded–Meet fentanyl. It's heroin on steroids. It's killing people in droves. And, in New Jersey, you can get it after having your tonsils removed. NJ.com
Without funding, offshore wind project for AC hangs in limbo–ATLANTIC CITY — Ten years ago, New Jersey was poised to become the first state in the nation to build an offshore wind farm. Press of Atlantic City
Chelsea Pub & Inn announces closing, effective immediately–ATLANTIC CITY — The Chelsea Pub & Inn, a staple in the city for 159 years, announced Thursday it has closed, effective immediately. Press of Atlantic City
Dr. Kauffman’s license temporarily suspended after armed standoff–An Egg Harbor Township doctor’s license has been temporarily suspended after an armed standoff with police serving a search warrant at his medical practice earlier this month. BreakingAC