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Briana: thank you for joining us this Monday night.

I am Briana Vannozzi the Rutgers university strike is over for now.

A tentative contract deal was reached this week and after five days of tense negotiations, picket lines that stop traffic and intervention from Governor Murphy's office.

The striking unions were fighting for salary increases that kept up with the nation, job security and other improvement for their unionized faculty members and graduate teachers.

According to Rutgers President the framework agreement includes 14% raises across the board for full-time faculty and counselors by 2025 part-time lecturers will get a nearly 44% increase in per credit pay.

Minimum salary for postdoctoral fellows will increase nearly 28% for the same period.

Teaching and graduate assistants will get a pay bump over the course of their contract.

Concessions were enough to pause the strike.

Classes resumed today for all students affected across three campuses.

David Cruz has the story.

>> The news that the strike had been suspended came just after 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.

The biggest dollars and cents issues if an -- essentially settled.

The first academic work stoppage lasted five days.

>> It's a cloudy Monday morning and campus is pretty quiet.

You have a few students struggling into and out of the student center.

It is a morning after field to things.

There are no signs and no singing and no chanting.

It's almost as if nothing really happened here, except that it did.

♪ >> It was a joyous week in some ways.

I think that some, the way the students it makes them grow in places brought their instruments and everyone started singing as we were merging down from campus to the New Brunswick College Avenue campus.

It's the worst -- best workday of my life.

>> A result of active and engaged leadership of Governor Murphy to home we are all deeply indebted said Jonathan Holliday.

The strikes technically not over.

Suspended is the word officials are using.

There are other issues equally significant that remain outstanding like five years of funding for graduate assistants.

Student debt forgiveness, a fund to help undocumented and other surface workers across the campuses and a settlement with medical faculty.

>> We suspended the strike, we didn't end it and we have it in our muscle memory so we are ready to go out again.

There are people picketing today for the medical faculty which still has to get its contract issues resolved.

I'm hopeful, we want to be able to do it by the end of the week.

I think we can get there.

>> Some of those on the picket line that formed around noon today were expressing disappointment that the union may have taken its foot off the gas too soon.

>> I am pretty devastated that we suspended our strike as early as we did.

We are a democratic union, though, and we make democratic decisions.

Our Council voted to suspend the strike so that is what has happened.

We are out here because we continue to put pressure on the administration.

>> Are you concerned that suspending the strike is going to lose some of the great momentum?

>> For sure.

We were literally shutting streets done last week.

Basically, we have power in numbers and we have power when we withhold our labor, right?

The University didn't budge for over 250 plus days.

The only time they budged on our demand was when we withheld Britain got onto the streets and into the picket line.

>> Relying on our the good faith in taking a bit of a leap and rely on the good faith of university management.

>> The union may have won a resounding victory but the governor will wonder who pays for it all.

Lawmakers for election this year will have to answer that one.

I'm David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: the unprecedented strike is underscoring labor issues at other New Jersey colleges like New Jersey city University in the midst of an ongoing financial crisis that has caused cuts to staff and academic programs despite the desperate times Ted Goldberg reports they have managed to avoid a labor action.

>> The administration continues to dig the school out of a financial hole.

After cutting programs and laying off staff they are running at an $11 million deficit for the fiscal year about half of what they projected.

>> The university is not going to wipe out its operating deficit in a single year.

There is a structural fixed cost because it's built as a larger institution.

One that at its peak has served more than 8000 students.

>> The University is engaged in a process of renewal.

We will be 100 result -- years old at the end of the decade and we are looking at almost every aspect of ourselves.

>> When staffers made headlines by preparing to go on strike early this month and JC you's administration got ahead of it.

It's a document that among other things encourages collaboration between people who run the campus and those who teach there.

>> The days of being spoken to rather than spoken with are over.

>> It's the most important document that has ever come across my desk and I'm not over emphasizing that.

>> Bill has taught that NJCU for over 40 years.

His school is serious about turning around the troubled finances.

In becoming a more accommodating school for students and were committed to its professors.

>> We are showing the governor's office, the state of New Jersey, every one of our stakeholders that the union is on board with 4 key areas this represents on marketing and recruitment, retention, years to graduate and job placement.

>> There is a shared understanding that there is a shared responsibility when it comes to the student's success.

It's not enough just to talk about bringing in students.

It's about how we serve them.

>> The interim president says the state budget will play a big role in determining NJCU'S outlook for next year.

They would receive $2 million less in state funds than it did last year.

Although it's not clear where the money in the Rutgers deal is coming from Murphy floated giving more money to records to help seal the deal with their educators.

Factoring in Murphy's active role with negotiations during the strike.

>> I welcome that and I think the governor is responding appropriately, demonstrating concern while engaging in leadership in bringing the parties together.

>> For years the institution has been underfunded so I'm encouraged by the governor stepping forward and taking the leadership that he did in terms of establishing a type of communication between labor and management.

>> We have a lot of students who come from a lot of circumstances ourselves and I expect that as it goes forward, that the governor, remembering his own circumstances, that he will remember how important this university is.

>> Some representatives have criticized RV's proposed plan saying he is Pick -- picking winners and losers.

The administration will continue to look for ways to turn around their finances.

I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: the legal battle over the abortion pill Mifepristone is far from over.

A ruling was temporarily blocked that sent restrictions on access to the medication only until this Wednesday at midnight.

The High Court constructed responsive need to be filed by noon tomorrow.

All of it stemming from a Texas federal judge's decision to spend the approval of the drug.

Opponents have been protesting the action Planned Parenthood of New Jersey and Garden State equality this weekend held an event drawing Congressman Frank Pallone and Fingal Powell among others to speak out.

The future of access to Mifepristone remains uncertain.

Joining me to where the case goes from here is Professor of Law at Rutgers Camden law school.

Let me just break this down very simply in my first question.

What was Friday's SCOTUS ruling?

>> It is in response to the opinion from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

That opinion was in response to the District Court in Texas, and the injunction they put into place.

Basically what happened was a series of dominoes where we got the opinion from the District Court in Texas and the District Court said going to stay my opinion for seven days so the parties can appeal.

The Fifth Circuit issued an opinion so stating -- staying its opinion and order to allow the parties to appeal to the Supreme Court and it went to the Supreme Court Justice Alito sitting alone is the one who stated it's going to have to be hurt by the entire Supreme Court.

Briana: they have until basically end of day Wednesday for Mifepristone to be status quo availability wise.

What happens after Wednesday?

>> We will have to see what the court says.

The thing that I think is really important for people to keep in mind here is everything that is happening here is just a bunch of civil procedure.

Anybody who is a civil procedure professor is very excited by all the things happening.

These courts are making decisions about what the status of Mifepristone going to be during the dependency of proceedings.

There haven't been full hearings, none of that has happened yet.

We are going to get in front of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court is going to have to decide well, while this proceeding is going on, because we haven't even had a full trial yet.

What is the status of Mifepristone going to be in the United States?

Briana: does this raise questions about the power of the federal government?

The fact that this case is even at this point in his here?

>> It's pretty extraordinary, right?

It's a drug, folks have been think this is a drug that has been approved well over 20 years , it was approved in Europe before it was a preacher in the United States.

There is a lot of safety data about Mifepristone.

So the idea that we are reopening the FDA's decision-making so long after the initial approval is really quite shocking.

It raises serious questions about the power of the FDA, who gets to decide what drugs are safe and efficacious for Americans to take.

Briana: we talked to abortion providers, physicians, pharmacists just about how they are handling this.

Essentially the liability that it places on them.

What does it mean for someone who is awaiting this prescription and what's it going to mean in the next week?

There is so much confusion in the public.

>> Are right now it means everything is status quo, as you said before.

If you are a person who is dispensing Mifepristone, if you are a person who is getting a prescription for Mifepristone, you will still be able to do that at least for now.

On Wednesday we will see what we get from the Supreme Court.

I am past the point of making guesses about what we are going to get from the Supreme Court.

I feel it's not a wise bit.

-- bet.

The issues are so much bigger than just access to this particular drug as you said there are serious issues here about federal agencies, about what the power is, about the power of the courts to review decisions by those federal agencies.

So there is a lot on the line here that goes far beyond abortion.

Briana: thank you, so very much for your insight.

>> Thank you.

Briana: Some advocates are calling for more help curbing the rise of domestic violence.

There is an 80% increase in calls last year to the hotline.

The organization says it helped an unprecedented number of domestic violence survivors find shelter and legal representation.

Executive Director Julie Miner says her team is serving 91% more clients than it did just 10 years ago.

She joins me now.

When we are talking about an increase, like 80% year over year, what does that look like for your center?

>> We are serving more people now then we have ever served in the organization's history.

It's a significant demand.

A lot of people who are in danger, living in abusive homes who need to have a safe place to live.

We have expanded our safe house operations, which used to be approximately 30, 35 people on any given day at one location.

To now serving close to 170 individuals in five different locations.

Increase occurred rapidly throughout the pandemic and has reached its height in January.

Briana: So you have people who are calling both for help and shelter?

How are you meeting that demand?

>> We have consolidated our efforts by bringing team members from other departments to help in our safe house program.

If we are also trying to add on to our staffing to be able to meet that demand.

And also the state of New Jersey has been very supportive in helping support get us the resources we need to provide the level of support, especially the housing component area Briana: How should we process numbers like this?

Is it the matter that incidents are going up or more people are simply reaching out for help?

Or is it both?

>> I believe it is both.

The pandemic had been a perfect storm first amid -- domestic abuse.

The stress of the pandemic itself on your loved ones, it created a stressor that in itself tends to increase domestic abuse.

The isolation was another component to allow the abuser to control victims even more.

And then a funding -- of humans into the pandemic we saw a lot of women leave the work was.

Women became dependent on their abusers and less likely to leave and, again, providing abusers more control.

Thirdly, we saw an increase in gun sales throughout our nation.

We know when there is a gun present in the home, feminist cide increases.

The control as well creating a very difficult situation for victims.

To cope with, to keep themselves safe and also additional barriers to leaving.

As the pandemic progressed, more women and their children have been able to reach out for help, have been able to connect with our counselors by calling our hotline to better understand their specific situations.

And deciding whether or not it was time for them to leave and to take the steps to do so.

Carefully with our team members including our attorneys to address custody issues, spousal support, restraining orders so that safety would be embedded in the exit strategy.

Briana: A very serious situation there.

Julie Miner thank you so much.

>> Thank you.

Briana: Protesters used their bodies to block a construction site in West Milford for a new compressor station is being built colored and activist linked arms preventing workers from getting inside the deal to build a compressor is fully approved but the group is appealing federal and state permits.

Opponents argue the permits were granted in the Highlands region and believe they have grounds for the appeal since the natural gas station is new construction and won't serve New Jersey residents.

At least eight activists were arrested charged with disorderly conduct as they called on Governor Murphy to stop all fuse -- fossil fuel projects.

Weekend storms were a big help.

According to the forest fire service the wildfire that burned through more than 970 acres is now 100% contained.

It started Wednesday afternoon along Route 23 and quickly spread for about three days while hundreds of first responders and nearly three dozen fire companies from surrounding towns worked in some capacity to contain it.

The wildfire that broke out Saturday morning often Route 539 in Bass River State Forest is also 100% contained.

But not before burning through more than 1600 acres in the area.

The State Forest fire service at a prescribed and was used to help stop and contained the wildfire there the area at the state was one of few locations that didn't get much rain Saturday.

>> In our spotlight on business report a stunning reversal tonight from the states cannabis regulatory commission.

Backtracking on a decision to deny Curaleaf's annual license to grow and sell recreational marijuana giving one of the state largest cannabis companies a second chance to comply with state law.

Last Thursday, the panel denied Curaleaf's licenses for adult recreational pot citing the company's clashes with employees looking to unionize and a decision to close a location without notifying the commission.

Curaleaf Called the move political reality allegation for its decision to consolidate operations.

The reversal came hours after Curaleaf Employees and leaders rallied at the Statehouse Pro tasting the earlier -- protesting the earlier decision.

Curaleaf's CEO called it a vindication but that CRC says they will be watching.

>> Last week CRC meeting has been a wake-up call for many cannabis companies doing business in New Jersey.

Apparently, some companies did not understand or appreciate their obligations as a concerned labor relations with their employees and their representatives.

The meeting served to remind companies of that obligation than the CRC has done its job.

Let me make this very clear, it is time that we favor people over profit.

Briana: It looks like March turned out to be a good month for Atlantic City's casinos.

Sports betting was up 15% for the month.

That is the best merge on the bed for the last decade.

Casinos and horse tracks that take sports bets won millions of dollars in March.

The same division shows casinos are still struggling with their main business which is in person gamblers.

Only three of the nine casinos individually won more in-person than the same time in 2019.

A representative for the Casino Association says the number shows how it remains in a rebuilding phase.

Trouble at the area's largest soft rink distributor.

Hundreds of union workers at liberty Coca-Cola in North Philly on strike amid failed contract negotiations between the company and the local 830 union representing warehouse workers, drivers, and staff.

Members are picketing outside buildings on East area have until the deal is reached.

Workers are calling for better wages, retirement plans.

Liberty Coca-Cola said it bargained in good faith with 400 workers offering the highest wage increases in Coca-Cola's history.

Union reps called the proposal insulting.

It has a plan to continue delivery of products while the strike is in place.

Turning to Wall Street, here is how the markets closed today.

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Membership and event information online at ChamberSNJ.com.

♪ Briana: That's our show for tonight.

A reminder any time via podcast so make sure you download it and check us out.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

From the entire NJ spotlight team, have a great evening.

We will see you back here tomorrow.

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