Hard Rock
It’s been a while since there’s been a casino opening ceremony in Atlantic City and the Hard Rock team pulled out some stops. There was a rock star, a governor non-grata (via helicopter) and some Seminole Tribesmen, as Amy Rosenberg reported for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Then there’s the matter of who was claiming credit for reopening the casino – as Christian Hetrick reported for The Press of Atlantic City. The nearly $400 million project is set to (re)create 3,000 jobs. Now’s probably not the time to be cynical, but… Weren’t we supposed to be moving on from casino jobs? This new map shows income growth by county across the United States since 1990. Atlantic County has the second lowest growth in income in the nation (behind Cape May County). Both counties are in the nation’s bottom 20th percentile for income growth.
ARTeriors
The Atlantic City Arts Foundation’s third iteration of ARTeriors, a project that temporarily takes over empty building space in the city with art, sculpture and performance pieces, will open at Ginsburg Bakery on Friday. We were lucky enough to get a sneak peak last week and meet some of the artists – read about it here and check out the pictures. We’re also hoping to post some video from the visit to our YouTube channel later today.
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In the rest of today’s headlines, the alleged leader of an Atlantic County drug- and gun-trafficking ring was held pending trial, Northfield taxes are set to increase by 2.9 percent, NJ Spotlight has this interesting piece on first-responders who are struggling with addiction, a 100-bed rehab complex is coming to Hammonton, read this NJ Monthly piece on hiking the Mullica River trail and there’s another #longread in The Guardian about MGM National Harbor’s efforts to work with the community in Maryland – read it, and let us know what you think. All that and more below:
Through Trump, Somers Point Hopes to Bring Home its Hero–A new president has brought renewed hope in a small town to bring home its local hero, Richard Somers, whose remains have been buried in Libya for more than 200 years. “It’s a sad story that we haven’t been able to bring them home,” said Somers Point Mayor Jack Glasser. “We’re just hoping that now that there’s a new administration in, that we can get with them and they're more favorable to us than the last administration was.” Press of Atlantic City
Unsafe lead levels found in water at 3 more Jackson schools–JACKSON — Water tests at three more schools revealed unsafe amounts of lead in water fountains, sinks and ice machines, according to results released by the school district. Asbury Park Press
Wilderness of the Mullica River Trail–Sitting beside a roaring fire at the Mullica River Wilderness Camp, my friend and photography partner Matt and I polished off a bag of freeze-dried ice cream and reclined in our chairs to the symphony of whip-poor-wills and tree frogs erupting around us. njmonthly.com
The big brown bat is bouncing back after devastating disease, biologist says–ROCKAWAY -- Some bat species are doing better a decade after a deadly disease decimated populations throughout the Garden State, but even with these rebounding numbers, it will likely be decades before other bat species rebuild their numbers, experts say. NJ.com
UPenn Rowing celebrates ‘Stan Bergman Class Day’–The University of Pennsylvania rowing program honored longtime Holy Spirit High School and Penn rowing coach Stan Bergman with the inaugural Stan Bergman Class Day on Saturday, March 25. Shore News Today
Four Former NJ Governors Join Together to Battle Dismantling of EPA–Four New Jersey governors, a pair of Republicans, and a couple of Democrats don’t like President Donald Trump’s plans to slash spending on environmental programs. www.njspotlight.com
Addressing Specific Needs of First Responders Struggling with Addiction–First responders are known to share uncommon traits: the willingness to run toward danger; a first-hand relationship with violence and often death; and a profession that is inherently risky, but not necessarily well paid. www.njspotlight.com