>> Funding for "NJ Spotlight News" provided by the members of the New Jersey education association making public schools great for every child.

And RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

Briana: Vice President Harris taking an early lead.

>> People have opinion about trump.

I don't think there is a person alive who does President.

I via J.D.

vance has and interesting flair of youth to the ticket and is the passing of the torch.

Briana: One-on-one with Congressman Menendez, first interview following his father's resignation after being found guilty.

>> It has been a challenging couple of months.

But as I have talked before with you and especially during the primary, my focus was always focusing on what is under my control.

Briana: Questions are still swirling after a police shooting in fort Lee.

>> It's not clear whether or not any of the officers involved in the fort Lee case had tried to de-escalate the situation.

Briana: And power outages and major flooding as New Jersey braces for the remnants of tropical storm Debby.

"NJ Spotlight News" against right now.

begins right now.

>> From NJPBS, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Briana Vannozzi.

Brie borrow the new Harris-Walz campaign is making a new shift.

A enthusiasm poll finds Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is keeping ahead of Donald Trump.

Jumping up 9 points 53 to 44% after being down 14 points with independents when she launched her campaign two weeks ago.

Black voters and white women with college agrees and women who identify as political independents are fueling her rise and improved with white voters overall, according to the poll.

In early July, trump was beating President Biden by four points.

The Democratic party said there is a surge of voting registration and enthusiasm.

On Monday, in bridge water, a Democratic called tour to save democracy held a rally of 200 people talking about the importance of young voters in the 2024 election.

The event was headlined by Congress members Kim, Sherrill, and Altman on a bus tour traveling to the 15 congressional districts that they identified that they think have a chance of flipping blue.

Any assumption that most young people identify more closely with the Democratic party would be wrong.

There is a large contingency of again-z Republicans who are making inroads this election cycle.

David Cruz caught up with them.

>> The Nation's electorate appears ready to engage as suddenly energized Democratic party tries to put the Obama-Biden coalition back together behind Harris and Walz.

And big part of that coalition is young voters.

While Democrats have been hitting the trail with youthful down-ticket candidates, young Republicans say they are making inroads into this.

Shawn Denning chairs the young Republicans.

>> The big push is getting away from the age because conservative themes and conservative ideals, they transcend all age groups.

You could be young or old, it doesn't matter.

Limited government, freedom, the freedom to be who you are and to determine your own destiny, that is a timeless point of view.

>> Republican assembly Brian Bergman at 46 still self-described young Republican says he meets a lot of young GOPers, less activists and career minded people who were reluctant to get involved because they see the paths to advancement shut down.

>> Sometimes there is a lot of people who are older that kind of clog up the pipeline and can be discouraging.

If you are new and young and excited and nowhere to go, why would you get involved?

>> Bergen says the challenge is to engage voters beyond decisive partisan rhetoric.

Abortion access.

In New Jersey, young Republican federation of New Jersey treasurer Joe Miller age 27, young voters especially here in jersey don't see that as an issue.

>> They are more moderate and work alongside with us.

But issues like abortion, individuals my age want to be able to just not have a Government involved as much, not have the Government being able to make decisions for them.

>> Republicans have been leading Democrats in terms of new registrations which could be a reflection of the lack of enthusiasm for Joe Biden who is no longer at the top of the ticket, though.

Republican Senate candidate Curtis says young people are not the monolith that Democrats would lead you to believe they are.

>> There is a registration drive happening on the Republican side that is outpacing.

That is a trend that no one can deny in this cycle.

Young people aren't asking me the fact that I'm a gay married man or talking to me about social issues.

We are an outsider, a business person who has created a thousand jobs.

>> To use an old Democratic talking point, it's the economy, stupid.

And while Democrats talk about the potential of eroding rights and other social issues, young voters are more worried about the economic future.

Also, it may come as a surprise to most of us, but in terms of total combined age, the Republican ticket is actually younger than the Democratic ticket.

119-118, for whatever that's worth.

I am David Cruz.

"NJ Spotlight News."

Briana: There are a number of competitive congressional races on the ticket.

And as part of our election exchange podcast we are speaking to each of the candidates to drill down on issues before you cast your vote.

Earlier today senior political correspondent David Cruz sat down with rob Menendez since his father's decision to resign after his father being found guilty.

>> I want to start by talking about the senior Senator from New Jersey who happens to be your dad.

I know that this past primary was about separating yourself from him in the eyes of voters so they can understand you are this guy and he's that guy.

I guess for me, maybe curiosity more than anything, how are things with you and him and him with you?

>> He's my father.

And it has been a challenging couple of months.

As I have talked about before with you and during the primary, my focus was focusing on what is in my control.

Each day I have the honor of doing two things.

I love my role as a husband and a father to my two small kids and I owe everything to my wife for what she has enabled me to do and our family and to the residents of the 8th congressional district.

I find so long as I focus what is in my control I can get the most done a be the most service to my family.

>> The strain on the relationship, though, right?

>> It's challenging and I have said this before, it is a unique challenge, no doubt about it.

Everyone's family has a challenge to deal with it and trying to do the best we can.

And understanding that, you navigate and make the best and move on.

>> Still talking and trying to work it out as a family?

>> Absolutely.

>> On the campaign, a lot of people say once you get past your first re-election that it becomes a lot easier in Congress.

Do you feel like it's a little easier right now?

>> Well, I put a lot of pressure on myself.

And I actually like we have two-year terms and requires you to go back to your residents, your voters with a case why they should re-elect you every two years.

I am proud of the work we have done.

Not just as a freshman Congressman but overall in the caucus, but I want to do a lot more.

Whether it is our first re-election or second re-election, each is a case to take it back to the voters.

We focused on our track record and talking about what we did and proud of the work we have done and proud of the team that we have built.

And during the primary, the greatest pressure I felt was making sure I got through the election so I could keep this team together because this team has done great things for the district and will continue to do it and I wanted to keep the band together because you are a music guy.

Historically, you get through your first re-election.

But I believe it is incumbent to make the case every single election to go back and ask the job they have been asked to do.

Briana: There is a surge of gun owners who want to carry a firearm in public.

The State saw applications for permits soar.

The overturned national gun restrictions that it is a constitutional right.

Since then more than 41,000 gun owners have applied for carry permits, 26 times more than the 1500 people who applied for permits in the two years before the case.

This is just a fraction of just to come as residents wait for the legal fight over New Jersey's State restrikes to finish playing out.

A public fight gives a clear look who is applying and majority, 34,000 were white men with residents in Ocean, Monmouth, and Bergen counties.

We have new details about the woman who was fatally shot by police in fort Lee.

They identified the victim as 26-year-old Victoria Lee.

The victim's brother called the police saying she was having a mental health crisis and had a knife in her hand.

She was shot and killed by police officers.

The family said Victoria was not holding the knife saying, the unnecessary... approach led to her death.

Lee's death is raising questions about why mental health services weren't used in this situation.

Our reporters teamed up to look into it and join me now.

I want to start with you and you did some digging into the arrive Together program and whether or not that would have been helpful in this situation in fort Lee or whether it would have been enough.

What did you find?

>> What I have seen, the arrive Together program is available in a number of different towns surrounding fort Lee with those police departments respectively.

It has not yet been implemented in fort Lee's police department yet.

With that being said, though, I had heard recently from the attorney general's office that the Fort Lee Police department and are in the time stages of rolling that program with Care Plus New Jersey, a nonprofit based in Paramus that specializes in behavioral health.

There isn't an exact timeline but they are in the final negotiation stages and we have seen instances and people calling for this program.

>> Is there too much emphasis or pressure being put on the successes of arrive Together especially when you are in a crisis like this one as it was reported through the police reports that we got where the 26-year-old woman was evidently wielding a knife and her brother called police.

It seems we have heard over the years from activists they want a community first, not a police-first program and what did they tell you?

>> I think the idea there is that they want the community in charge of its own public safety.

The community knows itself best and knows how to take care of itself.

And they say police tend to escalate situation and not tend to help individuals when they are in a mental health crisis.

And the A.G.'s office has created a list to make use of force and deadly use of force the last resort.

Not clear whether or not the officers involved in the fort Lee case had tried to de-escalate the situation.

Officers asked her to open the door and did not comply and when the door was opened, the gun was shot.

So beyond that, I think advocates have been clear they would have liked more police accountability lockstep with just arrive Together and community programs but making sure police are held accountable when this conduct does take place.

Briana: There are a number of instances that have been recorded where use of force was not used and tactics were deployed successfully, but is the legislature or the governor stepping into make any of that possible, these ideas that have come from community-based groups or accountability?

>> Legislative black caucus has been at the forefront with this police reform legislation as well as making there is funding for community-led violence- intervention programs.

But it feels like those initiatives have fallen upon deaf years.

They have introduced police accountability whether chokeholds or civilian oversight when there is police misconduct.

Those bills have minimally moved forward or not moved forward at all.

Not just the caucus but advocates are calling on the legislature to do more.

Briana: Are they steering the conversation in the right direction, because we know tackling a mental health crisis is not easy and even if you have a number of law enforcement and trained member, social worker, what have you, there is no script for how to handle this.

>> That's right, and to Taylor's point it remains to be seen how law enforcement and community-led groups would interact or do interact incisions like this.

What we do know in addition to the community-led responses there are two other emergency crisis response programs that are either in development or already accomplished.

The first is 988 mobile crisis response suicide hotline number and the other one and this is a lot of criminal justice advocates had pointed to is whether the county emergency service was called in this situation.

If not, why not.

These are some of outstanding questions to waiting from the attorney general's investigation.

Briana: Thanks so much for your reporting on this.

Parts of New Jersey are still under water tonight after the State got hit by a deluge of rain caused by relentless thunderstorms yesterday.

More than a dozen towns were drenched with a full month's worth of rain in several hours.

Others picked up two months worth.

Four to seven inches of rain.

Burlington county, here's a look at the road in cherry hill, streets were facing rising water levels.

Cars were left stranded and water rescues were reported across the State.

Bergen county took a beating.

Route 17 was shut down in several areas.

And wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour were clocked by the national weather service knocking out power to 25,000 homes.

And here's the bad news, according to Dave Robinson last night's system was not caused by tropical storm Debby but a cold front that picked up moisture from Debby which means there is more to come as the hurricane shifts up the coast.

>> If the forecast holds we are going to see more rain from yesterday's event than we'll see from Debby at the end of the week.

But again, we need to pay attention to the forecast models.

They have shifted west over the last 24 hours, but doesn't mean they can me and dear back and forth Friday and Saturday.

That is the key time.

We will get little rain between now and then.

The next heavy rain is later Friday into Saturday.

Briana: In our spotlight business report, taking Government spending practices out of the shadows.

The names of lawmakers responsible for more than $600 million in last-minute spending to the State budget have been made public after the budget plan was a record high 56.7 billion was signed into law.

The added spending was tacked on by Democrats in the final days before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year and done through 500 changes and last-minute requests usually referred to as Christmas tree items in the State House.

Money for soup kitchens and food banks and $20 million for community and millions for local ballparks.

And you can read the full story on our Web site and check out the online data base linked in the piece to see how much extra funding your local representative requested.

Briana: It may just be one of the best ways to stretch the bodies' minds and spirits of kids in Newark.

The camp is back and six-week dance and music program to help kids to develop confidence and critical thinking.

The camp founded by Alvin Ailey is celebrating helping kids reach their potential.

We visited students as they prepared for final performance on Thursday night.

>> As a hypnotic African drum beat fills the gym, they received positive feedback to do it again but this time with more excellence.

Excellence is the theme of this camp which is celebrating the 35th anniversary.

The camp was found in 1989 in Moseby a dancer.

The camp is held, this summer, 95 students attended the camp that was held here at Arch high school.

>> He was really for everyone but especially for your young people and vehicle which they can express themselves.

>> The co-director of the Newark camp which offers a variety of lessons from visual arts, per cushion and dance.

The six-week camp is available through funding by the New Jersey performing arts center, Newark public schools.

And in addition to free classes students are provided free attire and free breakfast and lunch and encourages personal development for students.

The best part, no prior dance experience is required to enroll and participants I spoke with said the camp is about more than just dance.

>> If you don't have friends at home, this is your family, this is your friends.

>> I just felt like I didn't fit in.

But as I came here, I gained more self-confidence and self-esteem.

>> The camp has nearly 20 teachers and five group leaders including this gentleman who attended the camp when he was just 11 and great way to break the stigma of boys dancing.

>> I wasn't too fond of ballet.

I was a kid.

I didn't know too much of it.

But when I grew up and got to appreciate it more.

Men can do this.

A guy can become a dancer.

>> The camp offers four daily dance techniques and classes that focus on building confidence during challenging situations.

>> We touch on a myriad of topics which include pier pressure, conflict resolution, health and nutrition.

And we encourage the campers to think critically so we try to equip them with enough in their tool kit to boost their self-esteem and more confident individuals.

>> Hill says the program embodies the mission to help youth reach their full potential in a safe place.

>> It teaches empowerment and agency and a mantra to own and claim and utilize those well after camp.

>> The dancers will take everything they have learned and have moment to shine at their time performance on stage tomorrow night.

Enrollment for next year's camp opens up next spring.

Briana: That's going to do it for us tonight.

But before you go, a reminder to enter the podcast so you can listen to us any time.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

For the entire team here.

Thanks for being with us.

Have a great night.

We'll see you back here.

>> NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

And by the PSEG Foundation.