10.10.26 Seth Grossman WPG Radio: Joe Bertolino, president of Stockton U, rearranges the deck chairs as the ship sinks. South Jersey Socialism blocks success in Ocean City– supports bail out of failure in Atlantic City.

NJ's Stockton University is broke and heavily in debt. It is short $25 million just for this year. Without major cuts or new income, Stockton will be short $32 million next year. Stockton quickly burning up the endowment money it got from years of donations and fundraising. We all know why. We have been talking about it for years. Click here for link to October 11, 2026 post in Press of Atlantic City: Stockton University’s budget crisis is not getting better. Last May, we proposed this 7-Point Plan to Save Stockton University: 1. Fire the overpaid "woke" professors and administrators who created the mess. 2. Replace them with less paid adjunct professors and administrators with real world business-experience and a diversity of political opinions. 3. Hire all new professors, administrators and staff based on talent, motivation and achievement rather than "diversity, equity and inclusion" and political conformity. 4. Use AI and technology to teach useful skills needed for good-paying jobs in business and industry. 5. Sell all Atlantic City properties and pay down all debt. Cancel all leases for properties outside Galloway campus. 6. End all sports programs. 7. Apply above savings to cut tuition to roughly $6,000 per year-- roughly what a student can earn during one year. Click here for link to full post: Stockton University Needs What Saved Atlantic City Government - Liberty and Prosperity Stockton started building boom at its main campus in Galloway Township about 15 years ago. It built a bunch of big, expensive new luxury buildings that it did not need. It borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to do it. Stockton now cannot pay that money back. Then, Stockton built a whole new duplicate campus on prime beachfront land in Atlantic City. Stockton also borrowed hundreds of millions more to build it. That campus is almost empty, and Stockton can't afford to pay that money back either. Stockton is also spending money and burning fossil fuel to run buses 15 miles back and forth between its Galloway and Atlantic City campuses. So much for caring about climate change and a low carbon footprint! They're burning all this gasoline for nothing. Most of those buses are empty. According to the Press of Atlantic City, Stockton reported 8,101 students this fall, down 525 from the previous year. Its first-year retention rate fell from 85% in 2019 to 74% this year, the lowest in seven years. Of 1,486 first-time, full-time students who enrolled last fall, 380 did not return for their third semester During this time, the cost of room, board, books and tuition at Stockton has exploded. When Stockton began in 1971. a year of Stockton coast roughly $900. At that time, most students could earn roughly $1,200 from a summer job. In 2011, before Stockton began its building boom, the cost of room, board, books and tuition there was roughly $12,000 per year. At that time, most students could earn roughly $3,000 to $4,000 from a summer job. Today, the total cost of a Stockton "education" is roughly $33,000 per year for New Jersey residents and $42,000 for out-of-state students. To deal with this disaster, Joe Bertolino, Stockton's new President is saying he plans to lay off 21 professors and "professional staff" next summer at the end of the school year. This is as helpful as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. https://youtu.be/JUdgG2A7tqo?si=l_t60gNnt3NMmw6N Above Video: Roughly 100 Stockton students chant, "1, 2, 3. Palestine will be free! 4, 5 6. Stockton is next!" Others say "F**k Genocide Joe!" (Referring to Stockton University President Joseph Bertolino). Click below links or above image for video: https://youtu.be/JUdgG2A7tqo?si=Ux6tOghWVBG-SHmi https://youtu.be/JUdgG2A7tqo?si=l_t60gNnt3NMmw6N Even more disturbing is the "education" students are getting at Stockton. Don't take my word for it. Watch the above video. It was posted by Breaking AC, an online news site done by Lynda Cohen. She used to be the crime reporter for the Press of Atlantic City. The video shows about a hundred Stockton students protesting outside the office of Joe Bertolino, the President of Stockton University. Would you donate money to Stockton to produce this? Every parent or grandparent of a high school student should watch this video before spending or borrowing a nickel to help your son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter attend that school. How many of these students are being prepared to hold a productive job? How many are learning to do more than complain and demand? How many would you hire for even an entry level job? How many are learning the responsibilities needed to marry and raise children. How many can speak or write complete sentences? The video is also posted at Breaking AC News – Powered by Fideri News. We are sharing that video on our Liberty and Prosperity website at VIDEO: Stockton Protest Oct 8, 2026. - Liberty and Prosperity. We also posted it on our Liberty and Prosperity YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/JUdgG2A7tqo?si=R9vO10IBBJPkOSfS South Jersey Socialism is blocking a good new hotel in Ocean City. It supports bailing out a failed one in Atlantic City. When America was great, dozens of luxury hotels in Atlantic City were built and opened in less than a year. It began when the owner of an old wooden hotel at North Carolina Avenue and the Boardwalk wanted to replace it with a new eight story brick and steel "skyscraper" hotel in 1902. He applied for a building permit from the city in July. It was approved two weeks later. Right after Labor Day, workers began jacking the old wooden hotel onto rollers. By Halloween, they had moved it to a vacant lot next door. The pilings and foundations for the new hotel were then put in place. Construction of all eight stories of the new brick and steel hotel took place during the next eight months. The new Chalfonte Hotel was finished and open in time for July 4 Weekend of 1903. During the next 30 years, dozens of brick and steel hotels were built all over Atlantic City just as quickly. One of them, the Haddon Hall was built along the Boardwalk across the street. Today, the Haddon Hall is known as Resorts Hotel Casino. Today, the owner of successful Icona hotels in Wildwood and Avalon cannot get permits to build a new luxury Icona hotel in Ocean City. He has been trying to get them for the past two years. He wants to build it on the site of the old Wonderland Amusement Park that has been closed for the past two years. However, the Ocean City zoning law does not permit any hotels there. It does permit almost every other business that serves tourists. It permits amusement parks, arcades, parking lots, restaurants, shops and fast-food shops. There were no zoning laws at all in New Jersey until 1928. Until then every landowner could build and do whatever he or she wanted on his or her own land, as long as the building or use did not create a "common law nuisance". That was noise, smoke, vibrations or smells that "unreasonably annoyed or disturbed" people nearby. That changed in 1928, when New Jersey allowed towns to adopt zoning laws. People who bought homes in residential neighborhoods did not want stores, factories, or gas stations built next to them. People who owned store or restaurants did not want new factories or power plants built next to their businesses. The first zoning laws did little harm to the economy. Most business and factory owners did not want to build on expensive land where homes were built and people would complain. They preferred cheaper land far away. However, zoning laws became corrupt and smothering during the 1960s. People with big fancy houses did not want poor or even middle income people living near them. Owners of successful businesses did not want new businesses competing with them. They used their influence to make new zoning laws that made almost every proposed new building or business in violation of something. As a result, builders and developers could not build anything new unless they got "variances", "redevelopment approvals" or special changes to zoning laws that nobody else could get. Almost anyone with political influence could block or slow down almost any new project unless they got something out of it. As a result, fewer new houses, businesses, and factories were built. Every new building and business was far more expensive than it was before. Consumers had fewer choices and higher prices. The refusal of Ocean City to allow a new hotel to replace the closed Wonderland Amusement park is typical of this. The Boardwalk between 6th and 7th Street was once filled with people every summer. However, it was almost deserted for during the past few summers. Fewer businesses earned money. Fewer people, especially young people were employed. State and local government and the Ocean City public schools raised less in taxes and had to raise taxes on everyone else. However, people who live nearby would rather live next to a quiet empty lot than any business. Their property is worth more because they have less traffic and more parking spaces. Above Image: The Beachwatch Condominium in Ocean City. Until 1985, it was the Beachwatch Motel! Last Wednesday, its condominium association president publicly opposed building a new hotel on the site of the closed Wonderland Amusement Park next door. Last Wednesday, the president of the Beachwatch Condominium Association wrote. The Beachwatch condominium is a building of 46 mostly one-bedroom units. It was built in the 1970s as the Beachwatch Motel. However, it was converted from a motel to a condominium in 1985. This is classic example of how bad zoning laws bring out the worst in people. There was no problem with a 46-room motel on the block at 7th Street and the Boardwalk duri