Was it at free-fall speed?
"Trump Plaza casino expected to close this fall" by Wayne Parry | Associated Press July 13, 2014
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Atlantic City’s crumbling casino market disintegrated even further Saturday as the owners of the Trump Plaza casino said they expect to shut down in mid-September....
And the state $cum legi$lators here think it's a golden goo$e.
Notices warning employees of the expected closing will go out to the casino’s 1,000-plus employees Monday. If Trump Plaza closes, Atlantic City could lose a third of its casinos and a quarter of its casino workforce in less than nine months, a ‘‘catastrophe’’ that will affect the state’s tourism industry and tax collections.
*********
Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union, said 7,000 casino workers — or about one in four — have been warned their jobs could disappear within 60 days.
‘‘While this is a personal tragedy for every family involved, it is also a crisis for the state,’’ he said. ‘‘We expect Trenton to react with more than just sympathetic sound bites; we demand action equal to the magnitude of this pending catastrophe.’’
Especially for Trump's 2016 presidential bid.
Trump Plaza, which cost $210 million to build, opened in May 1984 as one of Donald Trump’s pet projects. The real estate mogul has since limited his dealings in Atlantic City to a 10 percent stake in Trump Entertainment Resorts and does not control its day-to-day operations.
The news is the latest in a cascade of setbacks for Atlantic City’s gambling market, which until just a few years ago was the second-largest in the nation after Nevada; Pennsylvania has now taken over that spot.
Analysts have long said that the casino market here, and in the Northeastern United States, has been oversaturated, and that some casinos need to close to ensure the survival of others....
I wouldn't worry. They have hired a search firm to solicit buyers.
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You know what? You're fired!
Also see:
Atlantic City sees our folly of casinos
In New Jersey, a case of too many casinos
The problem is $y$temic, as in too much in the hands of too few.
Hotly debated Mass. casino repeal will be Question 3
Even if they lose they keep on playing.
Some have already placed their votes:
"Boston, Mohegan Sun near deal on Revere casino; East Boston won’t be able to vote on project; financial details of pact being worked out" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff July 08, 2014
Mayor Martin J. Walsh will accept an offer from casino developer Mohegan Sun that would pay the city to offset the effects of a Revere casino at Suffolk Downs but would not allow East Boston residents to hold their own binding vote on the project, said a person in the administration familiar with the negotiations.
Details of the deal were still being worked out, but the person said Monday evening that the two sides had reached an agreement in principle, with the essential outline in place. How much the casino company would pay the city, however, was still in flux and a figure was unavailable.
In accepting the casino company’s offer, Walsh would give up on his insistence that East Boston vote on the project as a “host community” under the 2011 casino law.
Walsh lost an attempt to win more power over the development in May, when the state gambling commission ruled that Boston is not a host community to the Mohegan Sun project or to Wynn Resorts’ rival casino proposal in Everett.
The power grab collapsing?
The commission said Boston qualified for the lesser designation of “surrounding community,” which allowed the city to negotiate for compensation or to seek it in arbitration, but not to block a casino project in a binding local vote.
A Mohegan Sun spokesman could not be reached Monday evening.
The Walsh administration considered suing the gambling commission over East Boston’s right to vote on the project and the rights of Charlestown residents to vote on the Wynn proposal, but concluded that a lawsuit would be too risky, said the person familiar with the negotiations. If the city were to forgo bargaining and lose in court, it could end up without compensation for a giant casino development on its border.
Matt Cameron, a lawyer who advises the East Boston anticasino group No Eastie Casino, said Monday night that he was disappointed, but understands why Walsh would agree to a deal.
“We appreciate he has been fighting for the city,” Cameron said. “He’s in a tough position.”
Massachusetts voters will decide in November whether to repeal the state casino law, which would kill the licensing process and prevent any casinos from opening in the state.
And if we say no this is all for nothing.
The gambling commission recently denied Walsh’s request to freeze the licensing process until after the referendum.
For some reason rigged machines just came to mind. A 52-48 vote in favor upcoming?
Mohegan Sun officials have pushed hard for months to sign a surrounding community deal with Boston, to score a public relations coup in their battle with Wynn, as well as to send a message to the gambling commission that the company would be accommodating and easy to regulate if awarded the lucrative Boston-area resort casino license.
I'm tired of whirring buzz and flash of coups and mind-manipulating messages in my agenda-pushing paper. Sorry.
Barring some last-minute breakthrough, Wynn Resorts and the Walsh administration will finalize their surrounding community agreement in arbitration, with each side presenting its best offer for consideration.
Wynn has already won such arbitration hearings with Somerville and Chelsea.
Mohegan Sun presented a far better surrounding community offer than did Wynn Resorts, said the person familiar with the negotiations, but Walsh will not endorse one casino project over the other....
I think he ju$t did.
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"Casino deal would pay Boston $18m annually; Funds, hiring preferences for East Boston in pact" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff July 09, 2014
Mohegan Sun and its Revere casino would pay East Boston at least $18 million annually for neighborhood improvement under an agreement negotiated with Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, a person familiar with the offer and the negotiations said.
The deal, which would be the most lucrative in the state for a community that is not actually hosting a casino, could enhance the standing of the Mohegan Sun project in the fierce contest for the Greater Boston resort casino license and give the city a template to use in arbitration to try to leverage a similar agreement from a rival casino developer, Wynn Resorts.
Lawyers for the city were still combing through the nearly 100-page agreement Tuesday; it had not yet been signed.
The deal would also include $30 million for local capital projects, paid over 10 years, and hiring preferences for local workers. It also reiterates Mohegan Sun’s commitment to pay for about $45 million in transportation improvements in East Boston and Revere, and it would preserve Suffolk Downs, the thoroughbred racetrack that straddles the East Boston-Revere city line. The track would be the casino’s landlord if Mohegan Sun wins the license.
The yearly payment for East Boston is less than the $32 million committed to the city annually under a defunct Caesars Entertainment casino proposal in 2013, but it is more targeted to the Eastie neighborhood, the person familiar with the offer said. Caesars, which was part of an application to operate a casino at Suffolk Downs on a portion of the property in East Boston, withdrew after investigators for the state gambling commission raised red flags during background checks.
The current casino proposal is entirely in Revere, denying Boston the bounty of real estate taxes enjoyed by casino host communities and limiting the city’s power to drive a bargain on compensation.
Just wanting their cut of the loot.
As a “surrounding community” under state law, Boston cannot block either casino proposal by refusing to negotiate or by asking for too much....
Let me guess: government!
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Deal him out:
"Walsh to boycott casino hearings on compensation" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff July 11, 2014
Mayor Martin J. Walsh will boycott arbitration hearings intended to decide how much compensation a Wynn Resorts casino in Everett would pay to Boston, leaving state gambling regulators in charge of determining how big a payment, if any, the city deserves.
By refusing to participate in “surrounding community” arbitration, the city could end up with little or nothing in payments from a $1.6 billion casino on its border; casino regulations say the state gambling commission could rule that Boston has “waived its designation as a surrounding community” by refusing to participate in arbitration.
The commission also has the power to impose an appropriate compensation package on the developer to offset the effects of the development on Boston, which is what Walsh expects the panel to do.
In passing on arbitration, the mayor is deferring the compensation question to a commission he has publicly tussled with throughout the opening months of his term. The commission has already rejected Walsh’s claims for more power over the Wynn project, and a rival Mohegan Sun casino proposal at Suffolk Downs in Revere, and spurned his call to freeze the licensing competition until after voters decide a proposed repeal of the casino law in November.
Walsh’s frustration with the commission was palpable in comments to reporters Thursday....
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Also see: Walsh deal with Suffolk Downs: Eastie residents should lobby gaming commission
Time to fold:
"Revere mayor took donations from men tied to Wynn plan" by Mark Arsenault | Globe staff July 04, 2014
Mayor Daniel Rizzo of Revere, a supporter of a Mohegan Sun casino planned for his city, has blasted a rival proposal by Wynn Resorts over allegations that two local felons may have hidden ownership in the Everett property where Wynn wants to build.
But though Rizzo rails against “unsuitable persons” — referring to Charles Lightbody and Gary P. DeCicco — possibly making a profit on the land deal, Rizzo has himself accepted thousands of dollars in donations from the two men for his political campaign fund.
Lightbody, a Revere businessman with a four-page criminal record and at least eight convictions, contributed to Rizzo, a former Revere city councilor, as far back as 2000, according to records on file at Revere City Hall....
In a statement, Rizzo’s campaign spokesman said the mayor would no longer accept donations from anyone involved with the Everett casino proposal....
That makes everything all better, doesn't it?
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Related: Coakley seeks strict controls on casino credit to gamblers
That's Marty backfilling because she ruled we couldn't have a referendum.
"Steve Grossman is gaining votes, one at a time" by Yvonne Abraham | Globe Columnist July 13, 2014
He didn’t connect, as other candidates might, with warmth and empathy.
How interesting.
Instead, he was, as always, relentlessly — exhaustingly — earnest. Spend a little time with him and he impresses; it’s clear he knows a lot about a lot. This is a guy who cannot be stumped, not just on where to find ice cream in Dracut or the name of Nahant’s Democratic Party chair, but also on early education, Gateway Cities, and the economy. But you also see why he needs the ice cream thing to sweeten the pitch.
Related: Nothing Doing in Nahant
Also see: Expediency Governs This Post
Moving as fast as I can.
Still, it worked, or at least it was enough for Gallotto. “I pray to God you become governor,” she said as he was leaving.
Grossman will need those prayers. He called in the many chits he has built up over decades as a Democratic insider for a resounding win at the convention. But he hasn’t made much of a dent outside the party, trailing Attorney General Martha Coakley by 36 points in the latest Globe poll. His best hope appears to be the implosion of her candidacy. Stranger things have happened....
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Looks like he is getting the golden ticket on the Democrat side.
Meanwhile....
"Charlie Baker backed away Thursday from remarks he made a day earlier that downplayed the significance of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on insurance coverage for contraceptives. Baker’s swift turnaround underscored the enduring power of volatile social issues to trip up Republicans in Massachusetts, a traditionally liberal state where the GOP seeks to minimize its differences with Democrats on abortion and gay rights."
God I'm so tired of the Massachusetts myths when we are last in child welfare, last in mental health, last in so many areas, and not even liberal when it comes to things like law enforcement.
Also see:
Gordon College case shows need to contain Hobby Lobby ruling
Accrediting agency to review Gordon College
Related:
This Blog No Longer a Lobby Hobby
Boston Globe Abortion Clinic
Puts you right in the thick of the race for governor again.
"GOP replays 2010 strategy at state level" by Jonathan Martin and Nicholas Confessore | New York Times July 13, 2014
NASHVILLE — Republican candidates for governor around the country have built an unexpectedly strong position for election this fall, boosted by an improving economy, disaffection with President Obama, and a national fund-raising machine that is leagues ahead of the opposition.
Four years after an economic crisis and opposition to Obama’s health care reform propelled Republicans to capture a lopsided majority of state houses across the country, they are faced with a staggering political task: defending 22 of the 36 executive mansions up for grabs in November, led by a governor who is trying to rebound from a scandal.
While the sheer scale of Republican gains four years ago offers Democrats a wealth of opportunities to win, the political environment appears to be tilting once again in the Republicans’ direction.
There was once a day when this interested me greatly and I thought it was important.
The recession that doomed Democrats in 2010 appears to be shifting into a recovery, driving down jobless rates and bolstering GOP incumbents. At the same time, Obama’s approval ratings have fallen even in states that he won in 2012.
That means we are getting a Republican Congress because other than the 1% the recession never ended.
And campaign money is gushing into national Republican groups that focus on state capitals, including the Republican Governors Association, whose chairman, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, has set fund-raising records for the group even under the glare of multiple state and federal investigations.
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The governors associations of both parties raise substantial amounts of money from overlapping lists of heavily regulated industries such as tobacco, health insurance, and telecommunications. But Republican groups have had far greater success this election cycle in persuading the party’s leading individual donors to invest in the relatively less glamorous world of state elections.
Reading the Tea Leaves, so to speak.
By the end of March, eight individuals or couples — including the industrialist David Koch, the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and the hedge fund manager Paul Singer — had contributed $1 million or more to the RGA.
“At worst we probably are the same, and, ideally, if things work out, there are two or three more Republican governors,” said Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican, assessing how the current divide of 29 Republican governors and 21 Democratic governors may appear next year.
The improving economy creates curious and somewhat contradictory political conditions for the two parties.
That's what happens when you tell lies!
The brightening outlook has given many incumbent Republican governors the beginnings of a comeback story to sell to their voters. That forces their Democratic opponents to play down the good job numbers as illusory, even as their fellow Democrats in Washington claim success.
Really, is there anything left to say?
Meanwhile, the economic turnaround is not enough to raise Obama’s overall standing in several pivotal states, weighing down Democratic candidates for governor who might otherwise be in better shape.
All these journalistic contortions and conniptions so you won't smell the pile of bull$hit.
For example, Governor Rick Scott of Florida, a Republican, was widely viewed as imperiled, but the improving economic climate in his state, where unemployment has fallen by five percentage points since Scott was elected in 2010, has lifted his prospects.
Shumlin, of Vermont, acknowledged the difficult climate, but expressed optimism about the Democrat Party’s potential to make gains.
It's all a big game to these guys.
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Looks like Grossman will be bucking the odds if he wins.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Some Republican governors are resisting what they call the federal government’s intrusion into the classroom, but conservative activists who hold outsized influence in Republican politics aggressively condemned Common Core, and lawmakers in 27 states this year have proposed delaying or revoking Common Core. The issue has forced many ambitious Republicans who previously had few concerns to distance themselves from the standards, and the issue has begun to shape the early stages of the 2016 presidential race."
Let's hope we all make it to 2016, and as far as Common Core goes it is not just ambitious Republicans opposing it politically; it's teachers, administrators, and parents, too.
Of course, my hopes have collapsed regarding the $hamele$$ agenda-pu$hing paper so why bother?
