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Valerie McMorris has served drinks at the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J., since it opened 24 years ago.

Casinos have sustained McMorris most of her life; both of her parents worked in casinos, she says. "It just allowed so many people a middle class status."

But McMorris says that's changing. Her pay and benefits have been cut. Her husband lost his job at the Revel, a gleaming $2.4 billion casino that went bust this year.

Four of the city's dozen casinos have closed so far in 2014, eliminating nearly one-tenth of Atlantic City's jobs. Unemployment now stands at nearly 11 percent. And with Trump Taj Mahal set to close next month, another 3,000 casino workers stand to lose their jobs — unless the casino's bankrupt parent company strikes a last-minute deal with its billionaire creditor, Carl Icahn.

McMorris says neighbors and friends are moving elsewhere. She'd like to apply for teaching jobs, "but even teaching jobs in this area, they're hard to find," she says. "Because a lot of people can't afford to live here anymore. So they're moving out of New Jersey."

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I'm interviewing McMorris at Burger, a restaurant in the Taj Mahal that now only opens when there are enough customers. These days, that's about once a week. As the city loses gaming clientele to neighboring states, state and local officials are scrambling to try to bring jobs back, by building retail and a new conference center, and repurposing casinos.

Oliver Cooke, an economist at Stockton College, says the city should focus more on growing companies outside hospitality.

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He says "the whole point is to somehow kind of move your city or your metropolitan economy, kind of up the value chain. What you hope, of course, to foster is kind of high-wage-led development, as opposed to traditionally low-wage growth."

John Palmieri, executive director of the state's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, says the city is trying to do just that. "We are fully attuned to the fact that we need to replace the jobs lost with new jobs, but that won't happen overnight," he says.

Palmieri wants to attract higher-paying jobs — "meds and eds, as they say, people who work in hospitals and education. He says the aerospace research park near the city's airport could expand as a tech center.

But he acknowledges that the local workforce, with a low percentage of college graduates, isn't quite ready.

"We have certain distress factors that we deal with," he says. "It's a poorer population. Education's an issue."

So is urban blight. Layoffs and closures have left their mark around the city, with restaurants and businesses boarded up and dark.

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Layoffs and closures have left their mark across Atlantic City, with boarded up businesses and restaurants lining the streets. Rob Szypko/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Rob Szypko/NPR

Layoffs and closures have left their mark across Atlantic City, with boarded up businesses and restaurants lining the streets.

Rob Szypko/NPR

As buildings fall into disrepair, the quality of jobs is also eroding, says Paul Smith, a veteran cook at the Taj Mahal. Smith, whose colleagues call him Smitty, is a single father who raised two boys in Atlantic City. Like many others, his main worry is losing health care coverage.

"I need another surgery," Smith says. "Without the benefits, I can't have it."

Last month, the bankruptcy judge approved cuts to work hours and health and pension benefits for Taj Mahal workers. The workers union, Unite Here! Local 54, is appealing the cuts.

Smith, other workers and their union president all say they're fighting to maintain a standard. They worry that any concessions on benefits in a down market like this one would become permanent and would be applied across what remains of the city's casino industry.

"If we do give up our benefits, I mean, I'm not willing to sacrifice the standard for the rest of Atlantic City to change," Smith says. "I would rather this building close."

Trump Entertainment, Taj Mahal's parent, says that if the union fights the cuts, the company will close the casino Dec. 12.

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Atlantic City

New Jersey

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In gambling, they say, the house always wins. But that hasn't been the case in Atlantic City this year. By year's end, the city that once had an East Coast monopoly on gaming may lose its fifth casino.

The city is reeling from the closures. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday that the first order of business is to "stop the bleeding." So city and state officials are trying to reposition Atlantic City by literally building it up.

For a city with lots of closed shops and casinos, there's also a fair amount of new construction here. Across from the shuttered Trump Plaza, Mayor Don Guardian proudly shows off what will be a Bass Pro outdoor goods store occupying a whole city block.

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Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian stands in front of an outdoor goods store under construction. The state's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority contributed land and $12 million for the project. Rob Szypko/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Rob Szypko/NPR

Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian stands in front of an outdoor goods store under construction. The state's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority contributed land and $12 million for the project.

Rob Szypko/NPR

The state's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority chipped in land and $12 million for the project. It will employ 290 people, Guardian says, "so that's real good for the city as well."

In trying to recast itself, Atlantic City must partially wean itself from its biggest industry: gaming. It lifted the city out of disrepair four decades ago, but over the years, Guardian says, the city became too dependent on it.

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"The city was happy, because it provided decent jobs with benefits and it paid the taxes, but we lost everything else," Guardian says. "You lose your whole entrepreneurial spirit."

From Casino Hotspot To Conference Host

Guardian and redevelopers want to do what Las Vegas did two decades ago, on a smaller scale: branch out into more entertainment and conference and event hosting.

Nine million pounds of steel went into the structure that will become the Waterfront Conference Center in Atlantic City, says Rick Mazer, regional president of Caesars Entertainment. The center is being built with substantial backing from Caesars and the casino reinvestment authority.

Inside the adjacent casino and hotel, a food industry and teachers' convention are taking place. That's perfect, Mazer says, because meetings fill in weekdays and off-season months when the summer gaming season falls off.

"This is the business that I think will evolve and regrow Atlantic City," he says.

But some are skeptical about the potential payoff from new construction. Standing on the city's famous boardwalk in front of the darkened Trump Plaza, Oliver Cooke, an economist at nearby Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, says city officials have an uphill battle.

"You simply are not going to consume your way out of the morass that you're in," he says. "Doing things like building more retail, building more convention centers, has a very, very limited upside."

Early this year, the Atlantic Club and Showboat casinos closed. The $2.4 billion Revel opened and closed within 10 months. Then Trump Plaza. And next month, the Trump Taj Mahal could close as its parent company negotiates with creditors through bankruptcy.

The city's gaming revenue is now at half its $5 billion peak eight years ago. Competition is fierce. According to the American Gaming Association, there are now 984 casinos in the country — about 60 of them on the East Coast.

There is talk of reselling, reopening and repurposing some casinos. This week, Cooke's employer, Stockton College, announced its intention to buy the old Showboat property. The Revel's new owners are reportedly planning to reinvest and reopen.

'I Like The Challenge'

Meanwhile, the casinos that remain are doubling down. On a recent night, crooner Allen Edwards is the lounge act at Resorts Casino, singing Christmas tunes.

It feels old school. Indeed, Resorts is Atlantic City's first casino — and had its own brush with death four years ago.

"Everybody around would've bet this would've been the first place to close," says CEO Mark Giannantonio.

But it didn't. Instead, Giannantonio says, a new owner, backed again by the state development authority, invested in a Margaritaville restaurant-and-gaming wing — and now Resorts is turning a profit.

In addition to commercial projects, Mayor Don Guardian hopes state grants will attract new residents who want to invest and rebuild the city, one rundown home at a time.

"Then we've gotta work on our school system," he says. "But I gotta fix the city first, find jobs, get taxes, reduce cost of government, make the place pretty, and then we'll work on the schools. I like the challenge."

He's going to need that optimism; Atlantic City's challenge gets tougher with every casino closure.

Correction Nov. 14, 2014

In the audio of this story, as in a previous Web version, we cite a figure from the American Gaming Association that there are 1,400 casinos in the U.S., including 100 on the East Coast. Those figures included card rooms, which are not considered casino operations. The number of U.S. casinos is 984, including both commercial and tribal casinos, the association says, 60 of which are on the East Coast.

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During the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, in the late 1980s, Palestinians refused to work in Israeli companies. Many threw stones and firebombs at Israeli troops.

During the second intifada, which erupted in 2000, suicide bombers repeatedly blew up public places in Israel, such as cafes, night clubs and buses.

Israeli Charlotte Slopack-Goller didn't ride the bus for a few years then.

"Now I take the buses without thinking," she says.

But that was before Palestinian attackers began driving cars into Israeli civilians at bus stops, killing several and wounding dozens.

"I must admit that when I was trying to cross the street the other day and standing at a narrow bus stop, I was a little nervous, and I thought maybe I need to stand behind something to protect myself," she says.

She isn't sure a third Palestinian intifada is on the way. But Palestinian Latifa Abdel Latif hopes it is.

"I hope there's intifada because we had enough. We had enough," she says.

Although fatal car and knife attacks have prompted discussion of whether a sustained period of violence lies ahead, Abdel Latif says an intifada means finding even small ways to constantly oppose Israeli policies.

Any sustained Palestinian protest, Abdel Latif says, needs guidance from the top, meaning Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, commonly known as Abu Mazen.

"Like Abu Mazen, you know, our boss, he should agree about the intifada," she says. "Because everything now is happening is just individual. An intifada needs leaders."

Israel says that Abbas and leaders in the Islamist group Hamas are fanning the recent rise in fatal confrontations through speeches and social media.

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Palestinian members of Hamas' armed wing takes part in a rally Thursday in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The event was held in memory of Hamas military commanders killed during seven weeks of fighting with Israel in the Gaza Strip this summer. Abed Rahim Khatib/APA/Landov hide caption

itoggle caption Abed Rahim Khatib/APA/Landov

Palestinian members of Hamas' armed wing takes part in a rally Thursday in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The event was held in memory of Hamas military commanders killed during seven weeks of fighting with Israel in the Gaza Strip this summer.

Abed Rahim Khatib/APA/Landov

But Mahdi Abdel Hadi, head of the Palestinian think tank PASSIA says Abbas will never lead an intifada.

"He said it many times: 'Not in my lifetime you'll have an intifada.' And people are telling him it's not an intifada. Because intifada means a program, a leadership, and a commitment to deliver. What we have is fragmentation and anger and frustration. You might lose control if people carry on this kind of frustration and confrontation," he says.

Ehud Ya'ari, an Israel-based analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says the situation isn't out of control yet.

"It's certainly not an intifada," he says, adding that it's not as violent, as widespread, or as organized as past uprisings.

"This time we see groups of teenagers throwing stones, fireworks and quite a lot of incitement coming from the political parties. My hunch is going to see it dying down pretty soon," he adds.

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Circumstances have changed since the previous uprisings. In those instances, Palestinians, whether they were rock throwers or suicide bombers, were able to directly confront Israelis civilians and members of the security forces.

Israel's West Bank barrier has made it difficult for West Bank Palestinians to enter Israel. In the Gaza Strip, Israel removed all of its Jewish settlers in 2005. The Palestinians can shoot rockets into Israel, as they did during fighting this summer. But these battles have lasted for only a few weeks and are led by the militants, not the broad Palestinian population.

In recent weeks, there have been stone-throwing clashes in Jerusalem and around the West Bank, though they have not yet approached the levels of the past intifadas.

However, independent Palestinian politician Mustafa Barhgouti says this is an intifada — but a new type. It's carried out by individuals, he says, but reflects widespread anger.

"People get confused because they keep comparing the new intifada with the first and second one," he says. "But they shouldn't because each one has its own characteristics. We don't want this to be militarized like the second intifada because this would serve the Israeli army purpose."

Past intifadas have been triggered by specific incidents. Barghouti traces the the current unrest to the collapse in April of peace talks brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry made repeated trips to the region, and got both sides back to the negotiating table, but was unable to build momentum for a diplomatic breakthrough.

"The clear change in the political atmosphere was the total failure of Kerry's effort," Barghouti says. "I think that was the turning point when it became clear that Palestinians have to rely on themselves and struggle against this injustice."

Ya'akov Peri, a former head of Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, says intifada or not – times are clearly tense.

"Nobody can really say when an intifada, an uprising is starting and when does it end," Peri says. "No doubt that the escalation is high and I think we should all call for calmness."

Palestinians

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Sweden says it's now sure that a foreign submarine illegally entered its territorial waters last month, but it still can't say which country is responsible.

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A sonar image showing subsea tracks left behind by a minisubmarine, according to the Swedish military. Claudio Bresciani/EPA/Landov hide caption

itoggle caption Claudio Bresciani/EPA/Landov

A sonar image showing subsea tracks left behind by a minisubmarine, according to the Swedish military.

Claudio Bresciani/EPA/Landov

As we reported last month, the Swedish government launched its largest submarine hunt since the Cold War, dispatching helicopters and stealth ships to hunt for whatever it was in a grainy photograph taken by a member of the public along the Baltic coast east of the capital.

"The military can confirm that a small U-boat breached Sweden's territorial waters," the head of Sweden's armed forces, Gen. Sverker Goransson, told a news conference. "We can exclude all alternative explanations."

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who attended the news conference with Goranson and Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist, warned of "enormous risks" to the trespasser and said that "all available means" would be employed to defend Sweden's territory.

"Let me say this, loud and clear, to those who are responsible: It is completely unacceptable," Lofven said.

Although Swedish authorities never said what nationality they believed the sub to be, military analysts suggested it is most likely Russian. Goranson acknowledged that it is "impossible" to confirm the nationality of the sub. "But we can confirm the fact that it has been there," he said.

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A photo shows an object traveling southward at a speed of 1 knot inside Swedish waters on Oct. 15. The white area around the object shows water escaping from valves at a pressure before the object disappeared below the surface, according to the Swedish military. TT News Agency/Reuters/Landov hide caption

itoggle caption TT News Agency/Reuters/Landov

A photo shows an object traveling southward at a speed of 1 knot inside Swedish waters on Oct. 15. The white area around the object shows water escaping from valves at a pressure before the object disappeared below the surface, according to the Swedish military.

TT News Agency/Reuters/Landov

Reuters reports:

"The submarine's presence was picked up by military sensors, Goransson said. Supporting evidence, he said, included a picture showing a bubble pattern typical of a diving submarine and a sonar image of tracks on the sea floor.

"Sweden has already said it will increase spending on its military, including up to 70 new fighter jets and new submarines, as it looks to reverse decades of underspending on its armed forces.

"The Nordic country has also drawn closer to NATO in the past few years although the current government has ruled out seeking membership of the U.S.-led alliance."

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