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April 10–16
Cannabis Anniversary
New Jersey will celebrate the one–year anniversary of legal sales of recreational cannabis April 21. By the end of May 2022, sales of recreational cannabis totaled $24 million and grew to $80 million by June 30, 2022. Despite controversies over locations and the high price of legal cannabis in the state, recreational and medical cannabis sales for the third quarter of 2022 totaled $178 million.
In Cape May County, four municipalities have indicated a willingness to host recreational cannabis businesses but thus far, no licenses have been awarded to applicants from the county. With the May 2023 meeting of the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) cancelled, local applicants will have to wait for the CRC’s June meeting at the earliest to hear about any license awards.
Currently, the state has 12 locations for medical cannabis and 24 locations with both medical and recreational cannabis retailers. Licensed recreational cannabis businesses are spread out over 15 of the state’s 21 counties.
The largest single business in the state, Curaleaf, suffered a major blow this month when the CRC failed to renew the company’s license at two of its locations. Curaleaf called the decision “unprecedented,” arguing that the decision was in retaliation for a company plan to consolidate its cultivation operations into one location, thereby closing a current location and doing away with about 40 jobs.
Stating that the CRC action was “arbitrary” and lacking in “merit and legal basis,” the company said it would work to ensure the renewal of its licenses, including “by any legal means necessary.”
Maternal Filicide
Filicide is the term for the killing of a son or daughter by a parent. It is a term most would have no reason to know until an incident occurs like the one that has impacted Cape May County this past week.
Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead is being accused of murdering her son, Matthew Whitehead, 11, in his sleep in Horsham, Pennsylvania, and then fleeing about 120 miles to Cape May where she drove her car into the surf on a city beach.
Each day brought new revelations, including the mother’s comments in an affidavit of probable cause that she killed her son so he could avoid the family’s financial difficulties.
Cape May police found the vehicle in the ocean at Cove Beach at just about the same time that the boy’s father, Daniel Whitehead, discovered the body of his deceased son in the master bedroom of the couple’s Pennsylvania home. DiRienzo-White head apparently fled to Cape May County because the family owns a home on Seaview Avenue in Wildwood Crest.
Arrested in Wildwood Crest, detained at the Cape May County Correctional Facility and offering no opposition to extradition, DiRienzo-Whitehead was successfully transferred to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility April 14. She was arraigned in Montgomery County District Court that evening and is in jail awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 27.
Federal Funds
In May 2021, the State of New Jersey received $6.2 billion in federal pandemic aid from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. As of a state auditor report March 31, 2023, the state has allocated $5.2 billion but actually spent only $1.1 billion. Now, in Washington, Republican lawmakers may seek a claw back of unspent pandemic aid as part of a deal to raise the debt limit. The state strategy that allowed so much of the funding to go unspent this far after it was received may backfire.
Among the projects that have been allocated but for which no funds have actually been spent are an affordable housing production fund allotment of $300 million, another $300 million for capital improvements at Rutgers University, $41 million in funding for county health infrastructure programs, $4 million for county services on aging, and $26 million allocated for mental health grants.
The list of projects and the status of funds runs for seven pages in the auditor’s report. The Governor’s Office has maintained that these funds were meant for long-term strategic purposes. Meanwhile, opponents of the state’s strategy have pointed to the damage done by two years of historic inflation in which the purchasing power of the unspent funds has declined.
There has been almost no public accounting for the use of what was a historic level of federal funding. Even some of the allocations themselves noted in the report are not very informative. Consider $207 million for unspecified pandemic related funds to be determined by the governor.
The auditor’s report states, “It is our intention to provide New Jersey legislators with periodic update reports” in the future.
Happenings
A grey seal was rescued off a North Cape May beach. A young North Cape May woman helped a stranding technician from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center get the seal onto a truck, so the animal could be taken back to the center for care.
In Avalon, some residents are raising concern about impending changes to Armacost Park while the borough says no plans exist to do anything at the site.
Avalon has updated its Flood Management Plan with the help of a committee half composed of borough residents. The plan is one example of the effort that has earned the borough the only level 3 CRS rating in the state and one of less than a dozen in the nation.
A Wildwood man gets a new chance at life after receiving the liver of a Pennsylvania teenager who died from a drug overdose at the age of 18.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is exercising all four options on its beach replenishment contract, which means a lot more sand for the communities on Seven Mile Island. Avalon expects to extend its beach fill an extra 10 blocks.
Cape May County’s Phase II airport redevelopment program is feeling the impact of inflation. The project was originally planned as a $6 million bond issue in 2022 but now needs additional funding. A new $9.2 million bond ordinance was introduced April 11.
A massive campground fire brought firefighters from 26 fire companies and ended up destroying 12 trailers and damaging 14 others in Seaville.
Sam Repici has been a barber for 55 years. The 80–year–old Court House barber is finally hanging up his scissors.
An Avalon bakery that has served customers and visitors for 75 years may be closing in 2023. The building is for sale and unless someone buys the business and continues to operate it, the bakery will close after summer.
After a Covid-induced pause, volunteering at Cape Regional Medical Center is back in full swing. Volunteers, both two and four–leg versions, make a big difference at the hospital.
For those who think some of the inflation at the supermarket may be due to profit manipulations, a modicum of proof came in settlements between Washington state’s attorney general and 14 chicken producers totaling millions in restitution. The attorney general maintained that the companies colluded and exchanged information in order to manipulate the retail price of chicken.
Pete Byron says he has no intention of resigning, even after pleading guilty to two federal felonies related to his taxes. Byron is also facing a four-count indictment on state fraud charges related to illegal use of health care benefits.
Spout Off of the Week
Upper Township - I’ve been working remotely, and now my employer has outsourced my job to India. My boss said that since I’m not coming into the office, they might as well as find someone who can do my job for a third of the cost. Is this a trend? If I look for another remote job, am I going to be out of work again?
Read more spouts at spoutoff.capemaycountyherald.com.
