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Oct. 27 to Nov. 2
AI Companions
As the battle rages over AI data centers and their impact on electricity prices for consumers, another area of controversy involving the rapidly expanding use of artificial intelligence is surfacing in K-12 schools across the country. Teens are turning to AI for friendship, advice and emotional support. Experts are increasingly reporting the mental health dangers involved.
In a July survey by the nonprofit Common Sense Media, 72% of teens said they turned to AI companions at least once a month. More than half of those teens surveyed said they interacted with their AI companion several times a month.
A smaller but still significant group of those surveyed showed that one in three turned to AI companions for social relationships, including romantic interactions, emotional support and friendship. Parents and researchers are sounding an alarm about the potential dangers.
In the federal court for the middle district of Florida one parent filed a first in the nation wrongful death lawsuit against Character Technologies and Google over the companion tool Character.AI, which Megan Garcia says manipulated and “sexually groomed” her teenage son Sewell, who eventually took his own life.
In Sept. 16 testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Garcia said the chatbot was designed “to seem human, to gain trust,” and “to keep children like Sewell endlessly engaged by supplanting the actual human relationships in his life.”
The Federal Trade Commission announced in September that it has requested information from seven tech companies on how their companion tools “measure, test and monitor potentially negative impacts of this technology on children and teens.”
Now multiple lawsuits are pending with the aid of the Social Media Victims Law Center on behalf of families alleging their children committed or attempted suicide following intense use of the technology. The company behind Charater.AI said it will soon ban the use of a popular chat option on the app that facilitates the development of relationships with companions.
In another survey, by The Center for Democracy & Technology, 20% of students reported using AI to experience a romantic relationship. 42% of teens said they used mental health companions for mental health support.
While some areas of interaction will be closed off to teens, others are opening up, like the ability to create videos and streams with an AI character.
$1.4 Trillion Investment
Global credit ratings agency Morningstar DBRS reported Oct. 27 that U.S. electric utilities are posed for a five-year capital expenditure “super cycle” to build out transmission and generation facilities in response to new demands from data centers. “Investment in electricity infrastructure is projected to be $1.4 trillion from 2025 to 2030, double the amount invested in the prior 10 years,” the company projected. That does not bode well for any near-term reduction in consumer energy prices.
In an opinion column in Utility Dive, Jeff Jakubiak, an energy regulation attorney, speaking about the mind-set of regulatory boards, said, “That mind-set needs to change. Commissions should think of themselves not only as regulators but as economic developers, fostering an environment in which the power system propels business investments that strengthen communities and drive innovation.”
As Jakubiak argues, “Utilities can proactively expand their grid to accommodate this load growth, but only if they have financial security that ensures they will recover the costs. That is the domain of commissions, which can guarantee cost recovery for proactive, controlled and reasonable grid build-out.” It is precisely that guarantee of cost recovery that is at stake in the battles now being fought over consumer electricity rates.
In a panel discussion facilitated by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the assembled professionals argued that prices will need to go higher to attract the investment needed for capital improvements.
Massive investment is needed for a state or region to be a player in the economics driving data center development. Yet the Morningstar report admits that “traditional funding sources are inadequate to meet future investment needs.”
Solutions to the dilemma will not be easy or quick. State officials want both relief for angry voters and the economic development benefits that come from being a part of the data center growth phenomenon.
State Tax Competitive Rankings
The Tax Foundation has published its competitive index for how states compare across five broad areas of taxation. The rankings were announced on Oct. 30 for the 2026 index.
True New Jerseyans will not be surprised to know that the Garden State ranked 49 out of 50. We were saved the ignominy of last place by neighboring New York at 50th place. The tax areas that were included in the analysis are individual income tax, sales tax, corporate tax, property taxes and unemployment insurance taxes.
As the analysis states, “New Jersey levies all major categories of tax, typically at high rates and significant levels of complexity.”
The report notes New Jersey taxpayers have one of the highest per capita property tax collections in the nation. This even in the face of all of the other tax avenues. In addition to the broad areas of taxation that the report focuses on, it also shows that New Jersey is not new to the bottom of the Tax Foundation rankings. In 2020 and 2021, New Jersey ranked 50 out of 50. It “improved” to 49 out of 50 in 2022 and has held that spot each year through to the 2026 index.
One could dispute some of the criteria used by the Tax Foundation, just as one could with any type of ranking system, but the overall picture would probably not change much. The tax burden in New Jersey is among the highest in the nation. Yet with that multitude of points of taxation, all individually high, New Jersey has built in structural deficits in its budgets, underfunded pension plans, has an employee health benefits plan for its local government employees that is considered by the state’s own Treasury to be in a “death spiral,” and owns an energy profile that forces the state to import significant energy supplies in an era of record high rates.
Somehow amid it all the state still spends more than it collects, with a record $58.9 billion spending budget in 2026.
Week in Review
*The Lower Cape May Regional High School football team jumped out to a two-touchdown lead early in its final regular game for the 2025 season and held on to win the West Jersey Football League Liberty Division title with a 28-20 win over Oakcrest.
*With the State Health Benefits Plan for local government employees in what the state Treasury Department calls a death spiral, municipalities like Stone Harbor are facing difficult choices in order to meet obligations to employees for health benefits.
*A Democrat was making an uphill bid to win one of two seats open on the Board of County Commissioners, vying against the two Republican incumbents for a spot.
*The county commissioners, acting in advance of the Nov. 1 deadline for massive cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for low-income families, authorized the distribution of $112,000 to eight community food pantries.
*With a series of storms eroding sand from Avalon’s beaches and an impasse in Washington that constrains the ability of county representatives from securing federal replenishment funds, the borough is looking to two possible options to get sand moved to eroded portions of beach at the north end.
*A Cape May County grand jury handed up 18 indictments Oct. 28.
*The Cape May City Council has introduced a measure it hopes will result in more workforce housing in the city.
*Two homes on the market in Avalon and Stone Harbor have agreed to accept cryptocurrency as payment. The owners of the homes are asking in the neighborhood of $25 million. If a cryptocurrency deal is finalized it would be a first for Cape May County real estate.
*Despite the continuing shutdown of the federal government, the military will be paid through Oct. 31, including the Coast Guard workforce at Coast Guard Training Center-Cape May, according to published reports.
*Six-person outrigger canoe racing is a sport with deep ties to Hawaiian culture, and after a thousand years of popularity among Pacific Islanders, it has taken hold in South Jersey thanks to the hard work of a local lifeguard.
*The Cape May County Zoo welcomed two baby capybaras, known as pups, on Sunday, Oct. 26, with more on the way soon.
*Each fall, hundreds of thousands of waterbirds—geese, swans, ducks, grebes, jaegers, alcids, gulls, terns, loons, shearwaters, gannets, cormorants, pelicans, herons, egrets and ibises—pass by the coastal areas of South Jersey, and there is no better place than Avalon to witness it for yourself. Most importantly, the peak time is now—the month of November.
*With the federal food stamp program having been targeted by the Trump administration, emergency food pantries in Cape May County anticipate a greater need than last year, while some food items have become more difficult to obtain.
Spout Off of the Week
My life became so much better when I made the conscious decision to get to know my neighbors. Until recently, I (a young artist, a ‘free spirit’, a detractor of routine lawn-maintenance) thought that I wouldn’t be able to connect to the upstanding, lawn-maintaining citizens of my new neighborhood. I was right–but only because I hadn’t even tried! When I realized this, I decided to make a conscious effort to reach out and try to get to know the people around me. Turns out that you don’t have to be the same to connect to each other, you just have to have an open heart and open mind.
Upper Township
