Carla Linz-Callaway's Editorial Blog

When Tom Carver was head of the Casino Association in Atlantic City during the 1980s, he had a way of getting himself in trouble with local politicians. Usually, it was something he said — bluntly and colorfully, the kind of quotable guy reporters love.

The Community FoodBank on the Black Horse Pike has always sparkled and caught the attention of passing motorists - the result of a jaw-dropping mural that was built into just about every square inch of its outside walls, a mural shimmering with mosaic tiles and detailed inlay. The building itself always seemed to say that even when times are tough and money is short, there is joy and beauty in life and in helping others.

The Press ran a story a little while back about rural towns complaining about cutbacks in the aid the state has long provided  to compensate towns for tax-exempt preserved land. I got a letter shortly afterward from someone in tiny Washington Township in Burlington County — one of the towns complaining — who pointed out that the taxes were incredibly low there, and that the community really had little reason to be crying the blues about cutbacks.

I knew I liked Ed Rendell.

I'm on vacation now. But when I get back in a week, newspapers and wire services will be starting to put together their picks for the top stories of the year. It's far from the biggest story of the year, but here's my early choice for the most important on the national level:

Gov. Christie, where are you?

"Who wrote it?" Senate President Steve Sweeney joked after the state ballot question passed, despite its absurdly convoluted language. "That's what I was asking... But whoever wrote it should be shot."

Conservative activist James O'Keefe - who gained fame when he posed as a pimp and surreptiously filmed ACORN workers giving him advice on how to facilitate his business - is at it again, this time filming a New Jersey teachers' union convention during which attendees dissed Gov. Chris Christie in colorful language and joked about how hard it is to fire a tenured teacher. The action took place at a hotel bar, and they seemed a bit inebriated. According to the union, O'Keefe and the so-called "citizen journalists" who used hidden cameras to film the teachers contributed to that inebriation by buying drinks and trying to pick them up. The tapes, NJEA contends, were heavily edited.

Playing with stimulus numbers is a national, bipartisan sport. But during a recent editorial-board meeting at The Press, U.S. Rep. Frank Lobiondo, R-2nd, presented an interesting local example of how the numbers can get skewed - and how the Ocean City-Somers Point causeway project wound up No. 26 on the Obama administration's list of the top 100 stimulus projects in the nation.

The Wall Street Journal did an article this week on “middle of the road radicals,” the huge group of independent voters that is estraged from government, aligned with neither party and increasingly swings elections one way or the other. They are pragmatic, not ideological; centrist, not far-left or far-right.

I love the Delaware River and Port Authority. It hearkens back to a time when government made writing editorials (and blogs) so easy.

Think Atlantic City's finances are in the toilet? Look at Newark - where Mayor Cory Booker said the city can't even afford toilet paper or holiday decorations.

On Friday, we ran a letter from a Linwood woman who told a heart-rending story of how a thief stole the only gift her 3-year-old had gotten for her birthday: an electric Barbie Jeep. The girl's father has been out of work for more than a year, and the entire extended family had chipped in to get her the gift she had wanted for months.

What if they gave a hearing and nobody came?

Ready for more depressing news on the state's bleak financial outlook?

Could it be true? Could Atlantic City government essentially shut down if it doesn't get a state budget-cap waiver next month?

Yes, folks, New Jersey has racked up another dubious "first": It is the first state in the nation to be charged with securities fraud.

Does the Atlantic City Council have any idea how its arrogance, waste and foolishness play out statewide right now?

A reader passed along this YouTube video to me — one of those old travel shorts, circa 1951, of Atlantic City.

The U.S. correspondent for The Observer, a large British newspaper, is in town doing a story on Atlantic City because of the upcoming debut of the "Boardwalk Empire" miniseries on HBO. Expect more of this attention, much more. HBO is hyping the show big-time. Reporters from across the nation and around the world will likely be descending on the city.

The Atlantic City plan promoted by Gov. Chris Christie envisions an Atlantic City that has adult entertainment in and around casinos, a Vegas-style nightclub area downtown - and fun for families and kids on the Boardwalk.

The staggering shortfall in New Jersey's pension fund has many factors - the biggest being overly generous benefits, the failure of politicians to pay into the fund and a downturn in investments.

Gov. Chris Christies statewide gambling/entertainment plan has triggered the old north-versus-south battle, with northern New Jersey lawmakers wanting slots in the Meadowlands and southern New Jersey lawmakers staunchly opposed, preferring Christie's approach to making Atlantic City a premiere destination resort.

Transportation officials say they are re-evaluating the $3.6 billion Atlantic City regional transportation master plan in light of Atlantic City’s shrinking market and the state’s shrinking resources. (Who didn’t see that coming?)