Norcs
Sam Sutton at Politico reported on a bill that passed the state senate that makes it easier for insurance brokers to collect fun benefits when they sell insurance plans, a “clear victory for the state’s insurance industry,” which includes George Norcross and his company, Connor Strong & Bucklew, that also gets lots of money from the EDA. Steve Sweeney was the primary sponsor.
Trains
NJ Transit Executive Director Kevin Corbett stood in a crowd at the Atlantic City train station to give clarity on the rail line, which was supposed to reopen a while ago but hasn’t, and here are two actual quotes, as reported by the excellent Michelle Brunetti Post.
“’We would like to have given you a date certain today,’ said Executive Director Kevin Corbett, but he could only continue to say sometime in the second quarter, which ends with June.
‘I can say June 15 — I’m 100 percent covered with June 15 or June 30,’ said Corbett, adding it could be sooner.”
It sounds like a Monty Python sketch. Also – there’s still no real reason for the delay.
Drugs
In non-local news that should piss you off anyway, Richard Sackler, of the billionaire Sackler family whose name appears on many of our favorite museums and hospital wings, appeared in a newly unsealed deposition to support a plan to let doctors go on thinking their new drug, OxyContin, was weaker than morphine when in fact they knew it wasn’t.
If you think overdose deaths shot through the roof since 1997 because people suddenly developed bad values, you might add this new data on the terrible Sacklers to the fact pattern. Meanwhile, the Atlantic City Police Department published its annual report and it seized almost twice as much heroin from the city’s streets last year compared to 2017.
Purdue’s Sackler embraced plan to conceal OxyContin’s strength from doctors, sealed deposition shows
Donuts!
In happier news, Ocean City’s Drip N’ Scoop is getting closer to starting building work on a new location in Atlantic City that should open this summer, one of the owners told us.
For more feats of journalism…
Not Your Average Germ: New Jersey Designates a State Microbe–Even the most fervent Jersey boosters have to admit that the Garden State lacks some crucial elements. A new tunnel under the Hudson River for commuters to New York would be nice. Shorter lines at the DMV. More NJ Transit trains. And, of course, a state microbe. njmonthly.com
With toothless, unenforceable rule, N.J.’s HS sports transfers remain rampant–Hackettstown athletic director Bobby Grauso thought something was fishy when junior All-State football star and solid basketball player Christian Maciak transferred to Pope John in the middle of the 2017-18 basketball season. highschoolsports.nj.com
NJ DEMS TO TRUMP: SHOW YOUR TAX RETURNS OR YOU WON’T GET ON 2020 BALLOT–State lawmakers are taking another shot at enacting legislation that would force President Donald Trump to release his tax returns if he wants to appear on the ballot in New Jersey for the 2020 presidential election. www.njspotlight.com
ESSEX JAIL LOCKDOWN KEEPS ICE DETAINEES IN CELLS FOR DAYS–Detainees at the largest immigrant lock-up in the New York area, the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, were held in their cells for days earlier this month, as helmet-clad officers swept the facility for contraband. www.njspotlight.com