New Jersey
Will smoking be banned in Atlantic City casinos? Lawmakers to consider bill next week
Atlantic City fortifies to fight a rising sea
The iconic getaway town of Atlantic City is known to some for its casinos, others for its amusement park, and about 38,500 people call it home. But sea levels are rising and flooding is increasing. (Aug. 30) (AP Video:Ted Shaffrey)
AP
State lawmakers are inching closer to potentially imposing a complete smoking ban in Atlantic City casinos with an important hearing set next week.
The bill – S264 – would no longer allow an exemption for designated casino smoking areas in the “New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act,” a landmark 2006 law that prohibited indoor smoking in almost all indoor public places.
The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday in Trenton on the measure that has received considerable bipartisan support. The Senate bill has 26 sponsors while the Assembly version has 57.
Supporters say it would protect casino workers from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Opponents have often said the ban would hurt casino revenues, the economic engine of the Atlantic City region.
The bill and its many earlier versions have stalled in Trenton over the years. But following November’s elections, the legislature has entered its lame-duck session where bills are often advanced at a rapid-fire pace with the two-year session expiring in January. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin seemed to throw support behind the bill at a news conference this month where he said his members would “take a look and see what we can get done,” according to press reports.
NJ news Tributes pour in for St. Joseph football player fatally stabbed in NYC
The bill would also ban smoking indoors at simulcast facilities. The Meadowlands Racing complex in East Rutherford only allows smoking at designated areas outdoors.
Smoking is permitted on about 20% of a casino floor in Atlantic City. A temporary ban had been implemented at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but smoking returned when Gov. Phil Murphy lifted the temporary ban.
At an Assembly hearing in March, supporters and opponents came out to testify on the bill.
Dozens of members of CEASE, Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects, attended the hearing with members saying they shouldn’t be subject to secondhand smoke. Workers are at “great risk to the health hazards caused by secondhand smoke, including heart disease, lung cancer, and acute and chronic respiratory illnesses,” according to a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Members of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey and the Unite Here Local 54 hospitality workers’ union said a ban may prompt some gamblers to go to other casinos in nearby states that allow smoking.
Public places in NJ that still allow smoking
If the ban on casino smoking were to pass, New Jerseyans would be able to light up in only a few public places including:
- Cigar lounge or tobacco shop
- A golf course
- Designated areas on beaches
- Research laboratories studying the effects of smoking
New Jersey
Trump declines witness stand as testimony in his first trial concludes • New Jersey Monitor
WASHINGTON — The end of the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president is in sight as Donald Trump’s defense team rested its case Tuesday in Manhattan, where jurors have heard weeks of testimony from nearly two dozen witnesses about Trump’s alleged reimbursement of hush money meant to silence a porn star before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump did not take the stand after his team called just two witnesses.
The former president is accused of 34 felonies for falsifying business records. New York prosecutors allege that Trump covered up reimbursing his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen for paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels just before Election Day in 2016 to silence her about a tryst with Trump.
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican candidate for president, denies the affair and maintains that he was paying Cohen for routine legal work.
The case will not resume until after the Memorial Day holiday, when closing arguments are expected.
A back channel to Trump
Trump’s defense team’s second and final witness, former federal prosecutor and longtime New York-based attorney Robert Costello, stepped down from the witness stand Tuesday morning. His brief but tense appearance began Monday afternoon and included an admonishment from Justice Juan Merchan for “contemptuous” conduct.
Costello testified to meeting a panicked and “suicidal” Cohen in April 2018 after the FBI had raided Cohen’s New York City hotel room as part of an investigation of his $130,000 payment to Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election.
After Merchan sustained a series of objections from the prosecution Monday, Costello exclaimed, “jeez” and “ridiculous” on the mic and at one point rolled his eyes at Merchan. Merchan cleared the courtroom, including the press, to address Costello and Trump’s defense team.
Costello’s testimony confirmed that he offered a back channel for Cohen to communicate with then-President Trump through Costello’s close contact and Trump’s former legal counsel Rudy Giuliani as Cohen was under investigation, according to reporters at the courthouse.
New York does not allow recording in the courtroom but provides public transcripts of the proceedings.
During cross examination, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger showed a series of Costello’s emails in an attempt to convince jurors that Costello was actively working to assure Trump that Cohen would not turn against him during the federal investigation.
In one email between Costello and his law partner, he asks, “What should I say to this (expletive)? He is playing with the most powerful man on the planet,” according to reporters at the courthouse.
Hoffinger also established from Costello during her final series of questions that Cohen never officially retained him for legal help — reinforcing that Costello showed up in Cohen’s life only after the FBI raid.
Trump’s multiple indictments
Costello has been publicly critical of the hush money trial against Trump, and of Cohen, as recently as May 15, when he testified before the GOP-led U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
There, Costello told lawmakers that the cases brought against Trump during this election year are “politically motivated.”
Trump, who faces dozens of criminal charges in four separate cases, was indicted in New York in April 2023.
Three other criminal cases were also brought against Trump in 2023. They all remain on hold.
- The former president was indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida in June 2023 on charges related to the mishandling of classified information. Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed proceedings, making a trial before the November election unlikely.
- Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., in August 2023. A four-count indictment accused him of knowingly spreading falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election results and scheming to overturn them. Trump claimed presidential immunity from the criminal charges in October 2023, which both the federal trial and appeals courts denied. Trump is awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Weeks after the federal election interference indictment, Trump was indicted on state charges in Fulton County, Georgia, for allegedly interfering in the state’s 2020 presidential election results. The Georgia case has been mired in pretrial disputes over alleged misconduct by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Courtroom conditions
In the dim, tightly secured hallway just feet from the courtroom at the New York County Supreme Court, Trump again criticized the trial Monday and accused prosecutors of wanting to keep him off the campaign trail.
“We’re here an hour early today. I was supposed to be making a speech for political purposes. I’m not allowed to have anything to do with politics because I’m sitting in a very freezing cold courtroom for the last four weeks. It’s very unfair. They have no case, they have no crime,” he said before the news cameras that he’s stopped to speak in front of every day during the trial.
Trump told the cameras that outside the courtroom was like “Fort Knox.”
He complained that there are “more police than I’ve ever seen anywhere,” and said “there’s not a civilian within three blocks of the courthouse.”
That statement is false. States Newsroom attended the trial Monday and witnessed the scene outside the courthouse during the morning, mid-afternoon and late afternoon.
Just as dawn broke, people standing in the general-public line vying for the few public seats in the courtroom squabbled over who was in front of whom.
About an hour later, a woman with a bullhorn showed up in the adjacent Collect Pond Park to read the Bible and amplify contemporary Christian music played from her phone. A man paced the park holding a sign that read, “Trump 2 Terrified 2 Testify.”
Several people sat outside eating and talking at tables in Collect Pond Park during the 1 p.m. hour, as witnessed by reporters who left the courtroom after Merchan dismissed the jury for lunch.
By late afternoon, a small handful of protesters holding Trump flags and signs shouted that he was innocent.
New Jersey
6 ethnic restaurant gems in NJ
Last week, my friend Peter who owns the Ewing Diner in Mercer County (and yes, delivers a consistently delicious breakfast daily to the morning crew) invited me to speak at the opening of the annual Greek Festival at St. George’s Church.
The kitchen team was nice enough to send me home with some delicious souvlaki, gyros, and tzatziki. Of course, the food was delicious.
And when it came up on the show, we were flooded with restaurant recommendations. We started with Greek and then turned to Mexican, Italian, and even Thai. I hope you didn’t miss my attempt at pronouncing some of the more authentic names.
Kostas in Tuckerton
Pru Thai in Clifton and Pennington
Jozanna’s in Middlesex Boro
Must-visit NJ restaurants with James Beard nominated chefs
New Jersey chefs and restaurants have continued to make the shortlist for James Beard Award semifinals for over a decade. Here are those must-try eateries open as of 2024.
Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt
The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill’s own.
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New Jersey
Testimony at Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial focuses on his wife's New Jersey home
A New Jersey businessman rescued the home of Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife from foreclosure just as the Democrat allegedly helped him secure a lucrative business relationship with Egypt, a lawyer testifying at his bribery trial said Monday.
Attorney John Moldovan told a Manhattan federal court jury that he was working for the businessman, Wael Hana, in July 2019 when he was asked to pay over $20,000 toward the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home’s mortgage.
Moldovan said Hana provided the money that he delivered to a bank to negate the need for a mortgage foreclosure lawsuit.
Menendez, 70, who has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, moved into the home after the couple married a year later. Hana and Menendez’s wife, Nadine, have pleaded not guilty in the case as well, although Nadine Menendez’s trial has been postponed until July after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and surgery was required.
In 2022, an FBI raid turned up 13 gold bars and over $480,000 in cash in the home, and a federal agent who led the raid testified extensively about it last week, saying tens of thousands of dollars were found stuffed in four jackets where the senator kept his coats. Other cash was found in bags and in a closet safe.
Prosecutors say the gold bars, cash and a luxury car found in the couple’s garage were bribery proceeds.
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