(upbeat music) - From NJ PBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

- Good evening and thanks for joining us on this Wednesday.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

Tonight, a few stories we'll get into later in the broadcast.

The U.S.

jobs picture is getting murkier, with signs the economy is lagging.

But has New Jersey avoided the worst of the national issues?

An expert explains.

Plus, a final summit and a passing of the torch.

How the state plans to keep improving maternal health under the next administration.

And later, Democrats and Republicans joining forces, going after food dyes and additives linked to health risks, what it means for the items you see on your grocery shelves.

But first, a few of today's top headlines.

If you own a Hyundai or a Kia, you may be owed money and you could soon be entitled to free anti-theft upgrades.

New Jersey and 35 other states reached a nationwide settlement with automakers this week over failures within the vehicles to deter car thieves.

Millions of Hyundai and Kia models built between 2011 and 2022 became easy targets because the companies didn't install engine immobilizer technology, which prevents thieves from starting an engine without the car's smart key.

It's a standard feature in most other cars.

The flaw was exposed by viral videos on TikTok showing how easily the cars could be stolen, triggering a national problem.

The new settlement requires Hyundai and Kia to equip all future vehicles with the anti-theft technology and offer to install that tech on models currently lacking it for free.

They also have to provide up to $4.5 million in restitution to drivers whose cars were stolen or damaged.

Authorities are urging Hyundai and Kia owners to contact their local dealership as soon as possible to schedule upgrades under the settlement.

Also tonight, the city of Patterson is seeing a dramatic drop in gun violence this year, according to new police data.

The number of shooting victims is down more than 50 percent compared to last year.

So far in 2025, 41 people have been struck by gunfire compared to 84 for the same time a year ago.

Now those numbers include both people who were killed by gunshots along with those who suffered non-fatal injuries.

The data also shows a nearly 40 percent drop in the total number of shootings in which someone was hit by the bullets.

The decline in Patterson far outpaces the statewide trend where shootings and victims are down about 25 percent.

Local leaders credit stronger police-community relationships, the work of grassroots violence intervention programs, and increased police presence funded by an extra $10 million a year from the state.

Police officials say Patterson is experiencing one of its safest periods in years, but caution, the progress is fragile.

And the longtime leader of New Jersey's largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group has resigned following criminal charges.

Christian Fuscarino stepped down as Executive Director of Garden State Equality this week after being charged with child endangerment and assault, stemming from an incident last month at his Neptune City home.

According to a statement on social media, Fuscarino describes the situation as a private family matter and said everyone involved is safe.

Court documents allege Fuscarino pulled a child out of bed and struck them multiple times during an incident that was captured on home security video.

He faces a second-degree charge of endangering the welfare of a child, along with two counts of simple assault.

In an online statement, Garden State Equality said he was placed on leave once the charges became known.

The organization has named staff member Brielle Winslow-Maged as acting executive director.

Coming up, the latest U.S.

jobs report raises new economic concerns, but is New Jersey bucking the trend?

We'll tell you more next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, and by the PSCG Foundation.

- Well, the latest U.S.

jobs report is raising fresh questions about where the economy is headed.

The unemployment rate is now at its highest level in four years.

Job growth has slowed and wages aren't rising much faster than inflation.

At the same time, though, New Jersey's economy is holding up better than some economists expected, though affordability remains a top concern for families all across the state.

To help us make sense of the numbers and what they mean for folks living here, I'm joined by Will Irving, a researcher and professor of practice at the Rutgers Blaustein School.

Will, good to see you.

Thanks for coming back onto the show.

What stands out to you, first of all, about the jobs report?

Is this a clear indicator of a slowdown?

I would say that it is, certainly.

If not screeching to a halt, at least heading into fairly tepid waters.

I think one thing that jumps out in terms of the top line number is that you see in October there was a significant jobs decline.

But it's important to sort of point out that most of that was deferred retirements from the federal sort of doge layoffs.

Even with that, the private sector gains that month and in November on average are quite weak and indicate that we are sort of on a on a slowing trajectory nationally.

And that is is likely to affect New Jersey as well.

Yeah the unemployment rate climbing to four point six percent nationally.

New Jersey's is higher five point two percent.

But modest gains as you said in November all of it comes with a big asterisk because some of this data was delayed due to the government shutdown and there were revisions.

How accurate is it then of a picture of our economic health.

Is the situation worse than what the numbers are showing.

That's difficult to say from a state perspective.

You might be aware that the September numbers for New Jersey actually came out, I believe, about a week ago.

And they actually showed a bit of a rebound, a little bit of a gain, and pushed us into, I believe, positive territory for the year.

That was a bit of a surprise.

But, again, we are lagging the national data by about two months.

Whether the delay in the data necessarily changes the story that that the data is telling, it's difficult to say.

But I think all of it certainly points toward a slowdown in the job market as we you know head toward the new year that's likely to persist certainly through the first part of the year.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

I mean that labor data that you mentioned on the state showed job growth in areas like health care, like construction, but also job shedding in places like transportation, hospitality.

How do you see New Jersey's economy lining up with the national picture?

There were some comments made this week by the Fed to a reporter over at NorthJersey.com where they said New Jersey's actually better positioned than most states to fare what's coming.

I don't know that I would necessarily be as positive that New Jersey is well positioned like many states like the nation as a whole.

Indeed, New Jersey has seen much of its job market propped up by gains in the health care sector, which has been extremely resilient and is commensurate with sort of an aging population in sort of the broader strokes.

In other sectors, you mentioned construction.

Construction, I'm not sure if it rebounded in September, but it's still down significantly over the course of this year.

We've seen modest gains in some other sectors, but, you know, again, a bit of a rebound in the third quarter, but things like wholesale and retail trade, which will be interesting to see what the fourth quarter looks like, had been weak through most of the year.

I think there was a bit of a bump in retail, but moving into through this season, through this holiday season, when we expect to see seasonal hiring, hiring jumps driven by consumer activity.

It'll be interesting to see because so far this year, we have seen significant weakening in those sectors.

What are you going to be watching for then over the next several months, maybe even beyond that?

Indicators that tell you the economy is stabilizing or what might you be looking for specifically?

Well, certainly the jobs numbers that come out for at the state level and the unemployment rate over the next couple of months.

As you know, as you mentioned, New Jersey's unemployment rate is now at about 5.2 percent, so significantly higher than the nation.

The last time we had sort of a rapid rise in New Jersey's unemployment rate that sort of led the nation, that was from, I think, about sort of the late summer 2023 over the course of the next six to seven months, the unemployment rate jumped significantly and rose quite a bit faster than the nation.

But other states eventually started, if not to catch up, at least to increase at a somewhat similar rate.

We would expect now maybe to see the same thing.

New Jersey has jumped out ahead of the rest of the nation, but there seems to be some indication, or we'll be looking for indication as to whether other states start to follow suit, I should say.

Will Irving, always great to have your expertise, your insight on the program.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me.

First Lady Tammy Murphy is taking a final bow on one of the signature efforts of her tenure, maternal and infant health.

At her eighth and final Nurture NJ Leadership Summit, Murphy reflected on years of progress that helped move New Jersey from near the bottom of the nation to the middle of the pack for maternal health outcomes.

But as senior correspondent Joanna Gagas reports, the message wasn't about closing the book, but continuing the work with Governor-elect Mikey Sherrill pledging to carry the mission forward.

This work has been without question the most meaningful work of my time as First Lady and my life.

You could call it a victory lap of sorts in a relay race that's far from over.

First Lady Tammy Murphy took the stage last week in her eighth and final Nurture NJ Leadership Summit looking back on all she's accomplished, yet laser-focused on the work that continues.

Our responsibility is to make sure that every future administration and every future legislature and every future health system leader sees maternal and infant health not as optional but as essential.

And our hope is that this summit and the movement that all of you have helped to build sets the model for how others across the nation and honestly around the world can strengthen partnerships, center community voices, and join us in creating the safest state in the safest nation to deliver and raise a baby.

In a room of about 800 maternal health advocates, Murphy shared that New Jersey's climbed from the 47th in the nation to 25th for maternal and infant health outcomes in the last several years.

And there was a figurative passing of the baton from the Murphy administration to Governor-elect Mikey Sherrill.

While introducing her, Murphy asked the crowd, "Did you know she delivered a baby in the back of a taxi?"

As a mom of four kids, and yes, you heard it, one of them I delivered myself.

I don't recommend it.

Sherrill reaffirmed that this issue is a key priority when she takes office in January.

Maternal and infant health equity is not a side project.

It is core to who we are as a state.

As I stand here today, I want everyone to know this.

I'm committed to continuing that important work to improve maternal health outcomes, particularly for black women in the state of New Jersey.

We'll work to expand programs that build the midwife and doulap workforce and leverage telehealth services, remote monitoring and home visiting programs to support postpartum outcomes and healthy infants.

One of the key changes in maternal health has been the expansion of Medicaid coverage for midwives and doulas in the birthing space to give voice to patients who've often been ignored.

But even with that expansion, some experts say it's not enough.

And I know a lot of doulas who are in this space who walk into rooms and do not feel recognized, do not feel safe.

And so just as much as it's important to ensure that we create spaces that are safe for our families, we also need to ensure that our care workers feel safe, feel dignified and feel like they're part of a community.

And so our commitment is really restoring the birth village.

Right.

And wherever that's taking place, whether that's in the home, in the hospital or in a birth center setting.

And they talked about the continued challenge of reaching out to women in communities of color where trust in the health care system still needs to be regained.

After a history of black women being experimented on during slavery to physicians erroneously being taught that black women don't feel pain in the same way that white women do.

You are able to build trust with authenticity, with humility, with time, with grace and with resources.

You don't come knocking on anybody's door without something to offer them.

OK, I'm talking financially.

I'm talking child care.

I'm talking lactation.

I'm talking postpartum support.

You have to be able to come to the table with resources from a place of humility and say thank you so much for your lived experience and expertise.

I'd love for us to think about ways we can partner together and that they continue holding space for feedback to continue improving systems of care as we're learning from our families.

We're also teaching them the people to policy pipeline.

So we want the people to know what policies are actually influencing the resources that they have access to and how can we help them.

And how can we also implement change in real time.

And that's where the feedback loop comes from.

There needs to be money for the evaluation and the evaluation includes people from the community and that there is a built in feedback loop for updating policy updating addressing the issues that come up as we go along.

Governor Murphy made a surprise appearance telling the crowd it's taken 70 pieces of legislation to get to where we are now.

There's no telling how many more bills will need to be signed to continue moving New Jersey toward even better maternal health outcomes for NJ Spotlight News.

I'm Joanna Gagas.

Support for the Medical Report is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Two state senators from opposite parties are teaming up on a bipartisan push aimed at what goes into the food on your plate.

Democratic Senator Andrew Zwicker and Republican Senator Mike Testa are sponsoring a bill that would ban several food additives and dyes that are linked to harmful health effects.

Things like cancer, hormone disruption and behavioral issues in children.

The pair put out a social media video touting the effort and why they're tackling the issue.

Take a look.

So we're teaming up on a bill that will ban these additives that are known to cause severe health issues, like kidney damage, memory loss and cancer.

And we're planning on adding amendments to phase out these food dyes in school lunches.

Yeah, well, the bill recently cleared out of committee and could put New Jersey among the most aggressive states for regulating chemicals in food.

As part of our Under the Dome series, I spoke with the senators earlier this week about what prompted their action.

Senator Testa, Senators Wicker, thanks for coming on the show.

I wonder why it was that food safety was the issue that broke partisan lines here.

Why did that bring you both together?

Well, I'll say a couple of things.

One, I don't think it broke partisan lines.

We work bipartisan in a bipartisan way as often as we possibly can.

This is something that food safety I've been working on for quite some time, both within the state and in partnership with Senator Booker at the federal level.

And so it seemed like a perfect time to ensure that this was bipartisan.

As we move forward.

Senator Testa and I talked about it and you know we talked about the policy.

We talked about all the implications.

And so very happy that we're doing this in a bipartisan manner.

So Senator Testa what would change exactly.

What additives are being targeted here.

So look it's mostly some of the what are deemed to be harmful food dyes.

And I would even go a little bit further than Senators Wicker said that this is in bipartisan you know food safety and the health of our children is a nonpartisan issue.

It certainly should be a nonpartisan issue.

So you know these what are deemed to be harmful additives, harmful food dyes.

These are the things that are targeted here that you know potentially harm our children's health potentially harm our health each and every day.

Senators Wicker and I both serve on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

And you know look sometimes we are adversarial you know on fiscal policy.

But when it comes to the health of our children the health of New Jerseyans it's certainly a place that we can come together.

And again I would say in a nonpartisan manner.

Senators Wicker so there's four substances.

Is that right.

That you are looking to initially ban and then potentially beyond that.

Can you can you talk a little bit about those.

Yeah.

And the four substances that are you know with long names but are are food colorings food additives to make food look particularly attractive to us or we're also deeply concerned about how it looks to children.

These are substances that have already been banned for quite some time in Europe.

And we're seeing other states in the United States also moving to ban these substances as well.

And so we are going beyond that to say and Senator Chester alluded to it that when it comes to children we want to be hyper vigilant.

And so we will also be banning some of these harmful substances from schools.

You know for the fact that children are developing and it makes no sense when there are alternatives, natural alternatives to have these harmful substances in food.

And so that's the intent of the legislation.

As I said the Europeans have had these out of their food for quite some time and the United States is frankly slow to get behind this.

But now momentum is building.

Yeah I mean didn't Senator Testa, didn't Washington or the FDA rather already ban red dye number three and the brominated vegetable oil.

Why then did you both feel like New Jersey needed to be even a step ahead.

Was the runway there just too long for the phase out at the federal level?

Well, I look at it this way.

You know, some of those means that you see on social media and Senators Wicker alluded to it.

You'll see the European product and then you'll see the American product and the American product has what are deemed potentially harmful food additives, food dyes and the list of ingredients is far longer on the American product and they're usually American companies.

So why not make our food products better?

Look, you know, we've seen what's been happening with the Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr.

This is a really great initiative.

It's not something that's going to hurt the companies that are producing these products.

They're already producing this exact product that is sold in Europe.

They certainly can make it here.

It should be available to Americans.

It should be available to New Jerseyans.

And the healthy alternative should absolutely be available to our schoolchildren.

Yeah, Senators Wicker, I mean, as an outspoken Democrat, do you think there's some credit due there to Secretary Kennedy, as the senator said?

I mean, he's really led this Make America Healthy movement, this Maha movement, which has focused a lot on food and the additives that are in it here in the U.S.

Well, you know, a stopped watch is right twice a day.

And while I am proud to work in a nonpartisan, bipartisan manner with Senator Testa, I think that RFK Jr.

is one of the most dangerous people in the United States at this point.

The vast majority of what he is promoting is anti-science.

It's harmful to children.

It worries me tremendously as a parent.

Having said that, OK, he also advocates getting rid of these harmful food dyes.

Great.

I would say the FDA does not move fast enough.

It's certainly not moving in a scientific manner at this point anymore.

And so it is beholden upon us at the state level to do everything we can to protect New Jersey's children and New Jersey's citizens.

So you hold two truths at once there is what I'm hearing from you.

Senator Testa, how quickly would families, would people in New Jersey start to see these changes?

How does the bill outline it?

Well, look, it really matters how, if and when the governor signs the legislation.

And look, because it does have bipartisan support, it will.

You know, as far as when it would be implemented, I do have to respond a little bit, you know, to Senators Wicker's allegations against the Secretary of Health.

And, again, I was hoping it wouldn't go in this partisan manner.

But, you know, you look at this, we don't need to look too back in our -- too far back in our history to remember Dr.

Fauci, who was saying that we were following the science, which, in fact, we absolutely were not.

Science is an evolving topic -- >> Senator, that's true.

>> -- at all points in time.

>> Michael, that's not true.

>> Well, okay, I didn't interrupt you, Senator.

But, look, it was no mask, one mask, two masks.

Nobody really was sure what was happening during the COVID-19 period, and we were getting all types of recommendations, and we found out that we didn't need to shut down our schools for two years and have children learn remotely and suffer severe learning loss.

All right.

Well, sure.

We'll rein it back in, Senator, because I do want to get to how quickly families could see these changes.

Two years.

So what we're trying to do is we've talked to the companies that make these products.

And let's be clear, they all want to do the right thing.

And they are all looking for alternatives for the substances that we are going to now ban in New Jersey.

So one of the things that was important, if you're a national company and you work over all 50 states, we've tried very hard to align what we're doing to the same time frame that other states are doing.

So as Senator Testa talked about, once the governor signs it, it'll implement a two year time period to give these companies enough time to make the changes.

So the products they sell in New Jersey are now in compliance with the new law.

And Senator Testa, quickly before we have to go, knowing what we do about some of the side effects that these chemicals that are in the foods can have, why then was it important for you to focus on kids, on schools specifically as well?

Well, look, you know, my wife is a public educator and she tells me tales and some of her friends tell me tales of some of the hyperactivity of some of the children that are in their schools.

And, you know, maybe some of these food additives that they're getting at breakfast or lunch is leading to that.

So we want to make sure that those children are able to actually be in a learning environment and the ones that are around them who are potentially being negatively affected by another student's hyperactivity.

We need to make sure that our learning environments are safe, both from outside intruders, and as well as the food that they're ingesting each and every day at breakfast and lunch when they're at school.

All right, kids' health and safety is something I think we can all agree on.

Senator Testis, Senator Zwicker, thanks so much for being with me.

Thank you so much for having us.

- Thank you.

- Under the Dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

- That's gonna do it for us tonight.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

For the entire team at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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