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>> Tonight an emotional reunion late last night.

Princeton native and wall street reporter native Evan Gershkovich is home.

>> It's been emotions and tears.

16 months leading to that moment.

>> Hundreds of police and correction officers were disciplined in 2023 for misconduct.

New reporting shows some were demoted, suspended or fired.

>> These are very serious offenses the public needs to know about.

>> Plastics protest ends in arrest as activists rallied outside claiming the company is illegally dumping into a waterway.

>> These companies, especially with most of the plastic, has a choice to stop polluting and causing harm.

>> And going for gold.

New Jersey athletes winning their way to the podium in Paris with more hopes of gold to come.

"N.J. spot light news begins right now."

♪ three American citizens finally returned to U.S. oil after being detained in Russia.

Among them was New Jersey native and wall street journal reporter Evan Gershkovich who spent days in Russian prison what was accused of espionage.

Another one released was Paul whale an.

And they were greeted by president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris.

Thanks in large part to family members urging them to bring their relatives home.

It ended in a joyful reunion between Evan and his parents and was involved with five other countries and Russia and Germany and 25 adults and two kids exchanged.

The largest swap in history from these countries.

Watching from home were two of , greet his family and lift his mom off her feet.

What was that moment like.

Jeremy: I was smiling ear to ear.

Elation is what we felt the most and also tears.

It's been an emotional year, 16 months leading up to that penalty.

to that moment.

To see him get off the plane and literally sweep his mom off her feet was a fantastic moment and I'll relive that for the rest of my life.

>> I see you smiling, what was it like for you.

Michael: it was amazing, the most incredible moment.

I was with friends watching together and we were cheering and clapping and crying.

It was just so amazing to see him on American soil and see him hugging the vice president and the Giving them the day to sort of recuperate and catch up with each other and we cannot wait to see them.

>> Michael, what will you do and what will you say when you do see Evan?

Michael: just give him a huge hug and I don't know.

I just want to tell him how much I love him and how happy I am that he's home.

And yeah, that's pretty much it.

I just can't wait to see him and be in his presence again and just -- you know, put this all behind us.

>> Jeremy, are you reading into what you've seen so far from Evan?

You've communicated with him throughout and come on our show to talk about those communications and how he has remained strong through this process.

Do you have a sense of how he's doing even from watching his body language?

Jeremy: he's incredible.

There's only so much you can get from it in watching someone through a live feed.

But look, as soon as he got off the plane he did this to the vice president, which is so Evan.

We saw him walk over to the press and he was chitchatting, his passion in life, where it looked like his parents had to pull him away to get into the car and go to the hotel.

He looked great.

We can't wait to see him.

You know, he'll have enough words for both of us.

I'll let him do the lead and dot talking.

He looked awesome.

It was really thrilling to see that.

>> Michael, we saw some sound, probably the only sound he's offered yet to a reporter from the tarmac, already talking about the other political prisoners he sat alongside.

We're speculating but given what you know with him, he came off the plane talking about it.

Do you anticipate this becoming a point of advocacy for him moving forward?

that basically s already talking again about Russia, you know, about the political prisoners that he wants to share his story.

What he was saying is that they -- no one knows about them.

No one is talking about them and we should be talking about them.

Yeah.

And then the tidbit in "The Wall Street Journal" article about him asking for an interview is also I think incredibly Evan and shows how passionate he is about his work and how, you know, seems like he is excited to get back to it.

Joe Jo Jo Joanna: we'll talk to Paul Beckett in a moment.

But as Michael: yeah, we've had conversation about that and his access to the country will be different moving forward.

However -- even beyond his career aspirations or mine, we're happy to have him home and taking it one step at a time.

That being said, I think it was certainly amazing and speaks to who he is and his character that the first thing he told the press when he got off the flight, what about the other political prisoners in Russia?

And I think that's something that taking Evan's lead is something we can turn our focus to because he doesn't have the backing of "The Wall Street Journal" and Dow Jones and this groundswell of public support and we want to provide that and will be part of our mission moving forward.

Joanna: how proud are you of your friend, Michael?

Michael: incredibly proud.

And really, that's the feeling I've heard from a lot of friends of his is what an incredible -- yeah, just so proud of him and in awe.

Joanna: you've been steadfast in his return.

I'm sure it's a relief.

Thank so you much.

While the friends and family of Evan celebrate his safe return, so, too, is his work family at "The Wall Street Journal."

They've been the loudest and strongest voices saying he was wrongfully imprisoned and defending his journalistic integrity and last night also was an emotional moment.

I'm joined by Paul Beckett, assistant editor at "The Wall Street Journal" to share his thoughts and feelings about seeing Evan step off that plane.

So great to have you with us, Paul.

You've been working behind the scenes pretty much full time over the last nine months or so trying to get Evan's release finalized.

What was that moment like yesterday when you saw him step out on to the tarmac.

What did you feel personally?

Paul: extraordinary smiles of joy and tears of relief and exhilaration and excitement all the same time.

That was was free.

We waited until we knew that moment had come and we published the story and then celebrated.

Joanna: so much goes into a negotiated deal like yesterday.

What went on behind the scenes on your end trying to keep Evan front of mind for officials in the U.S. and trying to make sure those conversations were happening?

Paul: the goal was always to try and create a landscape on which successful negotiations could happen.

We're grateful to the Biden Administration and all the other governments involved for doing the negotiating and getting the deal done.

That's huge, obviously.

But we always felt it was so important that Evan not be forgotten.

"The Wall Street Journal" newsroom rose up in support of him but so did so many other news organizations, including your own.

And so many well-wishers around the world that that's what created the momentum, that created the environment in which we could be successful and again, so grateful to president Biden, Jake Sullivan, I want to get into this a bit as a journalist yourself, do you believe is the impact of situations like Evan's on other reporters, even on Evan wanting to go back and cover Russia at all?

Paul: part of the reason he was taken and they chose him, I think, was not just because he is a high profile American but because he had a chilling effect on other news outlets and reporting the news in Russia which I think exactly what the Kremlin wanted.

They knew perfectly well he was not a spy and became very clear over their farcical trial.

Journalists have to be in these places but we have to find a way to protect them so this can't happen.

And broadly speaking for journalists or others who may be operating in dangerous environments, I think the U.S. government's goal now will be to work with the allies to find a way to stop this detestable practice of hostage diplomacy.

They're still joanna: it was so good to see Evan.

I can't imagine Evan wanting to go back on Russian soil.

Perhaps he does.

Paul: ball's in Putin's court for once.

So let's see what if anything comes of it.

It just showed what a reporter Evan is and funny last night when he landed on the tarmac and obviously greeted first the vice president and then the president and then his wonderful family and walked over to the cameras and he said two things that jumped out at me.

First, his concern for the political prisoners that were still in Russia.

He had met a bunch of them while he himself was in prison and he wished we could do something to help them.

And the second was as part of the swap, there was this assassin sent back to Russia from Congratulations on this effort.

Paul Beckett, thank you so much.

Paul: I agree.

Joanna: police conduct is coming into the news again.

A woman called 911.

And the man who killed him had a history as an officer.

Senator Cory booker urged his colleagues to take measures to allow police departments to better screen the officers they hire.

Sen. booker: how is it we can't demand every police department check a database to make sure the person they're hiring or thinking of hiring doesn't have something in their background that puts the community they serve in danger?

This is not too much to ask.

This is common sense.

Joanna: it's an issue moving forward in New Jersey.

Police misconduct is being shared with the public now in greater detail.

The Attorney General is issuing more detailed annual reports that includes specific allegations, investigations, and consequences police officers have faced both while on the job and at home.

Our senior writer Colleen o'day has more insight to what the reports show and what impact they could have.

Colleen, great to talk to you tonight.

There's a new process we know for the state police reporting incidents with their officers.

First, before we get to what they're reporting, let's talk about the process and what's changed about how it's reported out.

Colleen: so this year, they added -- or for last year, they added some additional incidents that had to be reported, for instance, bias, domestic violence committed by a police officer.

It's kind of hard to believe that was something not reported in the past, lying, being untruthful, be it verbally to a superior or on a report.

So those are some of the charges, complaints, that are now being reported.

Joanna: you had a great article you posted on our website, njspotleastnews.org.

And you showed some Stark contrast to behavior on the police force we didn't understand before.

Colleen: the major discipline report shows -- what they consider major discipline, which is the suspension of at least five days or a termination or demotion.

The other thing added this year is it an officer left in the midst of an investigation and that showed 80 officers in 2023 who had done so.

So really in the past, something that could happen is it you were an officer that got in big trouble for something, you might have decided to resign, retire, try to take a job with another department, and then you never really would have faced that discipline.

So this is capturing that and I think it shows that there are a lot more officers, certainly in 2023, than we were able to see in 2022.

Joanna: advocates have called for this transparency so folks in the public can understand who the police are on the force and who they're interacting with.

I want to get a sense from you whether you think this information, this data, translates to different action.

Does it change hiring practices, firing practices?

Colleen: it certainly should change both in terms of if you are a department that is considering an officer who has recently transferred from another department departments -- in some ways, it's had them discuss and look out for the blue line and many other occupations do, but it gives supervisors in the department the ability to say, look, this is transparency, this is out there, so we certainly can't keep you on if you have committed these kinds of offenses.

And I do want to note, one of the things I found really surprising, shocking maybe even is that there were 70 instances involving these 460 officers who faced major discipline in 2023 who had indictable offenses or criminal offenses that didn't rise to the level of indictment but these are very serious offenses I think the public needs to know about.

Joanna: Colleen o'day, senior writer, thanks for that.

In our spotlight on waterways in Taiwan and Louisiana and Texas where it also operates.

>> Mostly, they've been very reluctant to arrest people.

>> You sound disappointed.

>> A bit, a bit.

>> Wilson was ready, one arm had a phone number for jail help, the other had her lawyer.

She got her wish this morning as she was one of six protesters arrested at the headquarters in Livingston.

>> We see you!

>> We love you!

>> We're with you!

>> We're with you!

>> 50 protesters showed up with only one thing in mind.

>> Shut them down!

>> The protest was somewhat successful.

While they didn't shut down fermosa, workers were told to work at home.

>> You have to get right in their face and make it so they don't forget who you are.

>> It is not a household name and nobody knows who they are, so bringing attention to the injustice that they have done in Vietnam with the steel factory out there, 7,000 people still yet to see just compensation.

>> People were arrested this morning, are you concerned or worried you may be next?

>> No, standing on the right side, no concern.

>> Many have come from Louisiana and Indiana where fermosa has been accused to pollute the environment.

>> They make it so we cannot fish and eat the fish.

Plastics, we don't need any more made in this world.

>> They welcomed the first industry and thought it was so wonderful and brought jobs but the industry didn't tell the other side.

>> After the protest, they rallied at a church in Newark.

>> ♪ we have not come here alone ♪ >> Their motto is no faith in plastics and their criticism at times sounded biblical.

>> Formosa is Satan and Satan will fall.

If did not respond to our requests for comment.

>> No wonder I cry.

But I hope we all keep fighting for these people to be free, to go back to their normal life.

>> Life isn't fair but life isn't going to give you anything.

You have to go after it.

So I say Amen.

And I believe that sometimes protesting is necessary.

>> These protesters called for companies to divest from formosa plastics with more possible protests to come.

In Essex county, I'm Ted Goldberg, N.J. spot least news.

Joanna: stocks plummeted, the worst since 2022 and here's how they posed for the week.

♪ Joanna: New Jersey is well represented at the Paris Olympics right now and some of our athletes have competed their way to gold.

Jack Alexei was the first U.S. team member to earn a gold medal in Paris and his win came in the four by 300 relay with three of his teammates and pontin lakes high graduate who took gold in the fencing event and hesley Rivera was the 16-year-old who got to experience a gold medal win with the gymnastics win.

She is there is a substitute but no doubt enjoying the moment and touted as the future of U.S. gymnastics.

But all eyes will be on Sydney McLachlan, graduate of union Catholic who dominated in her track and field events in Tokyo and will be running in two races, giving her two chances at gold.

That does it for us tonight.

Before you go, download the "nj spot least news."

I'm joanna gagis.

Have a great weekend and we'll see you back on Monday.

>> New Jersey education association, making public schools great for every child, and rwj Barnabas health, let's be healthy together.

>> Our future relies on more than clean energy.

Our future relies on empowered communities, the health and safety of our families and neighbors, of our schools and streets, the pseg foundation is committed to sustainability, equity, and economic empowerment, investing in parts, helping towns go green, supporting civic centers, scholarships and work force development that strengthens our community.