Free Republic

Dominick White has a bleak but clear-eyed view of his Atlantic City home in a public housing project known for crime and drugs. “I grew up in a bad neighborhood,” he said. “I’m trying to beat the odds and get away, and not become a statistic.” On Monday morning, White will start training for a career as a construction worker, a move that could be a life-changer for him and 14 other young city residents. They were selected for a 12-week program that will teach them construction skills, and then connect them with jobs at the Hard Rock Hotel &...

Film footage showing life on the boardwalk circa 1919 in Atlantic City NJ. Appx

Atlantic City police officers confiscated 62 realistic-looking toy guns from a Boardwalk shop, police said Tuesday.

A state agency that lost its bid to seize the home of piano tuner Charlie Birnbaum in state Superior Court last month plans to continue its lengthy legal battle to acquire the Oriental Avenue property.The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, or CRDA, on Wednesday filed a notice appealing the Aug. 5 decision from Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez, who wrote the state agency's effort to condemn Birnbaum's property is a "manifest abuse of the eminent domain power." The agency has targeted the brick walkup that has been in Birnbaum's family for more than four decades as part of a mixed-use development project in...

An Atlantic City police officer was shot and wounded and a suspect is dead in a shootout at a casino parking deck early Saturday morning, authorities said. The incident occurred outside Caesars Atlantic City casino around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, authorities said. The officer, reported to be in critical condition, was rushed to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in the city, according to authorities. The officer and his partner came under fire when they got out of their patrol car, according to authorities.

Donald Trump has been gone from Atlantic City for years, but his name has lived on in glowing neon on the façade of a casino he no longer owned. But later this year, the Republican presidential nominee’s name will disappear from the seaside gambling resort — along with 3,000 jobs. The Trump Taj Mahal casino, opened 26 years ago by Trump, announced Wednesday that it will shut down after Labor Day. The business now belongs to Trump’s friend and fellow billionaire Carl Icahn, who decided he can no longer support a casino losing millions of dollars each month amid a...

Atlantic City has so little money left that it could miss a $1.8 million bond payment due Sunday, a step that would make it the first New Jersey municipality to default on debt since the Great Depression. The Jersey Shore gambling destination has endured years of strain as a third of its casinos shut down. But now its cash levels are low enough that bankruptcy is a possibility for the 39,000-population city, according to Mayor Don Guardian.

WEST POINT – A West Point instructor was found dead in Atlantic City Sunday afternoon. Atlantic City police are investigating, but there is no indication of foul play at this time, West Point’s public affairs office said in a news release Monday afternoon. Maj. Benjamin Recla, 34, was an instructor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, and was an officer representative for the West Point Flying Team. He was a member of the West Point class of 2004 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the aviation branch of the Army. “I wish to extend to his...

In October of 2014, Steven Pratt was supposed to begin his life anew. He had served out a 30-year prison sentence and gone home to Atlantic City, N.J., where his family held a party to welcome him. But a violent history would repeat itself all too soon. Pratt was 15 when he got into an argument with his next-door neighbour, Michael Anderson. Court records show that Anderson was a father figure of sorts to Pratt. On Oct. 11, 1984, he asked Pratt and his friends to vacate a hallway in their apartment building where they were noisily hanging out and...

<p>TRENTON -- Atlantic City may run out of money within three weeks after the Borgata casino announced Friday it will stop paying taxes until the city hands over $62.5 million in court-ordered tax refunds.</p> <p>It's the latest in a long stretch of bad news for the financially ailing Jersey Shore gambling resort town, which has spent more than year reeling from the closure of four casinos -- a scenario that has decimated its tax base and led top New Jersey officials to announce a proposal last month for the state assume greater control of the city's finances to stave off municipal bankruptcy.</p>

"Trump bankrolled politicians to steamroll the little guy, a pattern of sleaze stretching back decades. Worse? Trump still supports eminent domain today." Who knew such a wonky topic would find its way into political attacks in the Republican presidential race? An ad released this week by Ted Cruz's presidential campaign lodged a renewed attack on Donald Trump's support for eminent domain and alleged use of the government's powers for private gain, to bully an elderly woman out of her home. There are two problematic aspects of this ad: the misleading headlines that accompany the narration and the cherry-picked footage of...

Chris Christie, stalking New Hampshire votes, is reportedly embarrassed at the idea of Atlantic City declaring bankruptcy. He shouldn't be. There's no shame in an honest bankruptcy, whether for a city or a person. If you've taken on more than you can ever repay, it doesn't do you any good to pretend you haven't. It doesn't really help the people you owe money to, either. Last year, Atlantic City's budget deficit was more than $120 million -- or more than a third of revenues. That would be like if New York City had a budget shortfall of $20 billion. The...

Atlantic City's local officials backed a revised plan proposed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday that called for the city to be rescued through additional layers of state oversight and new revenue sources. The plan, which Christie introduced with state Senate President Steve Sweeney and Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian by his side, combines elements of previous proposals to save the distressed gambling hub. [...] Christie's joint plan on Tuesday, which he said he wants to get cleared by the end of February, would allow the state to restructure city debt and terminate municipal contracts, including with labor...

Margaret Thatcher, when she was British Prime Minister, used a simple formula to describe the economic freedoms due to a properly free people: "A man's right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, to have the state as servant and not as master." This was, in her view, "the British inheritance." Her thinking, influenced by centuries of English jurisprudence and political philosophy, provides a modern statement of the same rights that America's founders sought to bestow upon their posterity. Thatcher's phrase embodies the conservative view of the role of government and of citizens' rights...

Donald Trump may be looking to get litigious with the Washington Post after the newspaper published an article detailing the bankruptcy of the billionaire presidential candidate's Atlantic City casino. When asked to discuss the details of the Taj Mahal's failure in the early '90s, Trump said, "This was not personal. This was a corporate deal. If you write this one, I'm suing you."

#Donald Trump has declared his unwillingness to accept Syrian “refugees” if he were President. Their undocumented status would make it easy for terrorists to slip into America. By contrast, the Obama administration and the Democrats have been trying to welcome the Syrians. The owner of Atlantic City‘s Revel Hotel proposes housing Syrian refugees at his old casino: “[Glenn] Straub told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he's willing to let people displaced by the civil war in Syria stay at the 47-story  Revel resort as he fights in court over its future. Straub has been trying to reopen Revel since buying it in April for...

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Donald Trump has never declared bankruptcy, but his businesses have -- four times. The real estate mogul, television star and Republican presidential frontrunner filed for corporate bankruptcy in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009. Three of the cases were related to his casino and hotel properties in Atlantic City, N.J. And even though more than six years have passed since Trump had his last run-in with Chapter 11, it remains a touchy subject. Trump was quick to clarify at the Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox News in August that he had never filed for personal bankruptcy. Instead, he cast his...

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — The reverend and congregation of a church that unveiled a “Black Lives Matter” banner on Pomona Road say they are fearful after a receiving a hostile response to the sign on social media. Rev. Cynthia Cain said comments on the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore’s Facebook page could be described as threats. Many of the comments on the page also state: “All Lives Matter.” “When we say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ they mistranslate it to ‘ONLY Black Lives Matter.’ Why? Are they afraid that people might start empathizing with people of color?” Cain asked. Police...

She once called Donald Trump "a maggot, a cockroach and a crumb." This week, he remembered her as "an impossible person." The woman who became a folk hero for resisting decades-long efforts by big-name developers like Trump to displace her Atlantic City boardinghouse is now 91 and, at last, ready to sell. But it remains to be seen if anybody still wants to buy. Vera Coking has moved to California to be near her family. And the 29-room property she and her husband bought for $20,000 in 1961 and fought to hold onto is on the auction block Thursday for...