As Hurricane Earl moves toward the East Coast of the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is taking aggressive actions to prepare for the storm and is coordinating closely with state and local officials along the East Coast to help support their response as needed.  FEMA is also encouraging all East Coast residents to take steps now to prepare for possible severe weather in the coming days.

Go here for more information on how to be prepared.

FEMA encourages all residents and those visiting the East Coast to pay close attention to local updates and heed evacuation orders should they be issued.
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Courtesy of HBO

Including one very exciting one co-organized and co-presented by Atlantic City Weekly called “Conversations & Storytelling,” which will be followed by a free and open-to-the-public Viewing Party at Caesars on Sept. 19, the night of the premiere of HBO’s upcoming series Boardwalk Empire.

Click here for all the info, plus info about some of the major events planned for the Atlantic City area over next couple months in relation to the show.

While you’re at it join the AC Weekly Boardwalk Empire Fan Club on Facebook to keep up to date on all the news and promotions surrounding the Cable TV series.

Lou Pinella is restrained by an umpire.

I happened to catch the farewell press conference for retiring Cubs manager Lou Pinella on ESPN. Turns out the Tom Hanks character in A League of Their Own was wrong — there is crying in baseball.

Well known as one of the fiery and toughest son of bitches to ever put on a baseball uniform, as both a player and coach, Pinella lost it during the press conference at the thought of putting on a baseball uniform for the final time. He was originally going to wait until the end of the season to retire, but his mother has been ill and he felt that his lack of concentration on baseball was not fair to the team.

I happy ending would have included a win, but instead the Cubs got pounded by the Atlantic Braves 16-5.

Check out the video:

The Making of Boardwalk Empire premieres Monday, Aug. 23, on HBO.

Aside from the premiere of the first season of Boardwalk Empire (yes, we said first season because from what we’ve seen, it’s going to be a tremendous success) set for Sunday, Sept. 19, at 9pm on HBO, Atlantic City Weekly has learned that the cable station will also be running a couple of programs related to the new series, based on local judge Nelson Johnson’s book.

According to a spokesperson for HBO, Making Boardwalk Empire will premiere on Aug. 23 at 8:45pm.

And then on Sept. 16 at 9pm,  Atlantic City: The Original Sin City will premiere. This will be a documentary on the city itself. Word has it that several Atlantic City historians — including Atlantic City Weekly columnist (”Waltz Through Time“) Jim Waltzer — have been interviewed over the past few weeks for the program. To read Waltzer’s columns on our Web site, type in the words “Waltz Through Time” in the search bar and you’ll get a list of Waltzer’s articles. (And for all you Atlantic City history buffs out there, look for new “Waltz Through Time” columns starting up in our paper and online soon. Jim Waltzer and Tom Wilk will both be contributing to the column.)

Click here to watch the trailer for the Making Boardwalk Empire show.

Meanwhile, Harrah’s Entertainment has a really cool Web site for its contest, in conjunction with HBO and Boardwalk Empire, for a chance to win access to a Caesars suite for a year (three days a month) and other prizes.

Manilow and Slater (from usmagazine.com)

The former Jet Blue flight attendant who has been in the news since quitting his job prior to an Aug. 9 flight met Barry Manilow after the singer’s Aug. 14 appearance in Atlantic City and got this pic taken with him.

Read more here.

The Village Voice blog has an insightful post today on the New York Times “excellent piece” on Guy Fieri’s recent appearance at Caesars during the Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival.

Here’s the NY Times story. It’s called “Guy Fieri, Chef-Dude, Is in the House.”

Worth the read.

Catching up with some of the many items that have appeared on the Web over past few days on Atlantic City development and the state of New Jersey with regard to Gov. Chris Christie’s recent proposal and the latest gaming summit in Atlantic City.

First off, on Sunday, the Star-Ledger’s Web site published this blog post on the divisions within the state of  New Jersey regarding the Meadlowlands and gambling in the state. The post features an exchange between former New Jersey governors Brendan T. Byrne and Tom Kean, which took place during a July 22 teleconference.

Also on Sunday, the following blog was published about how the upcoming HBO series Boardwalk Empire may turn the tide for Atlantic City and offers a suggestion brought up by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson, the author of the book that the HBO series is based on.

The post states:

“The author of Boardwalk Empire, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson, offered an excellent suggestion in his book: Atlantic City’s casinos should get together and sponsor low cost air travel to Atlantic City. Why not? Air travel to Las Vegas is among the cheapest fares in the USA, and is a critical part of Vegas’s success.”

Interesting.

On Monday, the Washington Post had this article on its Web site basically stating how the HBO series (starting Sunday, Sept. 19 at 9pm) is being “showered with love” by the critics already and that HBO is betting the house that it will be a huge success for the cable station.

Which means it could also be a big success for Atlantic City itself.

Today, Bloomberg News reports that Trump Entertainment may seek a partner to redevelop Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.

Plus this on sports betting and this on the Hilton, its lenders, and its mortgage problems.

Stay tuned to this blog for more and follow us on Twitter for the latest development updates.

In an interview with the New York Daily News. Michael Lombardo, HBO’s programming president, says that officials at the cable giant feel “strongly” about the soon-to-debut Boardwalk Empire HBO series, which is based on the book by Atlantic County judge Nelson Johnson and which premieres on HBO Sunday, Sept. 19, at 9pm EST.

“We didn’t want to hold it,” Lombardo tells the paper of the series, which gives a close account of Atlantic City in the 1920s and the Prohibition era. “This is a show we felt strongly about and we think it will resonate even in the fall.”

The article, published today, also includes an interview with director Martin Scorsese, who directed the pilot and is one of the show’s executive producers. Scorsese says he would “love” to direct more episodes of Boardwalk Empire — are we talking second season already? — if his busy schedule allows.

He also tells the Daily News why he thinks Prohibition benefited the criminal element.

“It allowed crime figures at the time, Luciano and Capone and Rothstein, to organize to become more powerful,” Scorsese tells the Daily News, “something that pulled all the way through until the 1970s.”

Having watched the first episode, all we can say is that although some of the names have been changed in the cable TV series from the non-fiction book, you’ll hear all of the names mentioned by Scorsese above in the series. Meanwhile, the main character of the series, Enoch Thompson, played by Steve Buscemi (pictured above in the series’ first episode) is based on Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, the one-time main man of Atlantic City during its early 20th century heyday.

Read the entire story and interview with Scorsese here.

Maybe hip-hop star and Haiti activist Wyclef Jean wasn’t kidding when Atlantic City Weekly asked him back in 2008 if we was going to vote in that November’s U.S. presidential election.

His response? “Didn’t you hear, man? I’m running for president,” he told AC Weekly editor Jeff Schwachter during the interview, which he followed up by saying:

“I told everybody to just vote for me, man. It looks like it’s up for grabs. On a serious note [though], I think that this is perhaps the most important election that our country will ever face. And I’m speaking [in terms of] health care; the economy, which, I mean everybody’s home is in foreclosure; and for these kids, it’s been really hard for these college kids to go to school lately. We really, really need somebody to come in and get us back to America. So, yeah, definitely I’m going to [vote].

Listening to Wyclef Jean on NPR this afternoon — on Michel Martin’s terrific show Tell Me More — Wyclef explained why he is running for president in his native Haiti, a country that the three-time Grammy winner, who appeared in Atlantic City in January 2008, founded the charity yele.org for.

NPR’s “Tell Me More” blog includes this insightful post on the plight of Haiti following a number of disasters and devastations in recent history and the still rubble-ridden cities and streets.

On today’s program, Wyclef Jean and host Martin discussed why Wyclef is a suitable candidate for president of Haiti, how his uncle is also running for president, and about Wyclef’s plans for a better Haiti, including education proposals, ideas about a new agricultural revolution there and fixing and cleaning up the broken country. You could hear in Wyclef’s voice that he has done his homework and really has a deep-seeded desire to bring some hope to the brokenhearted people of Haiti.

Click here or on the January 2008 cover of Atlantic City Weekly below to read the entire interview.

According to a Fairleigh Dickinson/PublicMind poll published today, New Jersey voters are split on Gov. Chris Christie’s recent proposals regarding the state’s casino, racing and entertainment industries.

According to the poll:

Fifty-six percent say it’s a good idea to privatize racetrack operations.

However, 48 percent say state intervention in Atlantic City is a bad idea; 38 percent support it.

Read more from the BusinessWeek Web site.