>> Major funding for NJ Spotlight provided in part by NJM insurance group, serving the insurance needs for residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

And by the PSEG foundation.

>> Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, a done deal?

After walking off the job four month ago, 1700 striking nurses reach a tentative agreement.

The sticking point, safe staffing standards.

>> The nurses have said all along they were going to hold out for an forcible nurse patient ratios and they seem to have achieved that.

>> COVID cases rising.

>> It is simply a case of their more people getting sick and therefore as a result a certain proportion of those individuals are going to become hospitalized.

>> Health officials warn of a new COVID-19 variant driving up infection rates and hospitalizations here in New Jersey.

Plus, seafood industry oversight.

For a bombshell investigation into forced labor practices, lawmakers are looking to crackdown on Chinese seafood imports.

>> You cannot compete when you have forced labor with no overhead.

It is unfair trade.

It is also a gross violation of human rights.

>> Taking a toll.

Critics of New York City's proposed congestion pricing plan say it could take the holidays.

>> Putting 15 lumps of coal into everyone's stockings with his $15 a day congestion tax.

>> NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

♪ >> From NJPBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briand the Vannozzi.

>> Thanks for joining us on this Monday night.

The end could be near in the bitter nurses strike at RWJ University Hospital in New Brunswick, which marks four months today since 1700 nurses walked off the job and into the picket line.

That is where they have remained will Hospital and your leadership battled through tense negotiations reaching a tentative agreement on Friday.

Few details are known does include pay increases at along with an forcible safe staffing ratios.

That was a significant sticking point for the nurses.

Senior correspondent Joanna getting -- Joanna Gagis reports the contract still has to be approved by union members and there is no potential date for when the nurses will return to work.

>> Has the Strike been hard for you?

>> Yes.

And I make money.

>> I never thought we would be out here this long.

>> Several strike weary nurses were of the picket line once again outside of RWJ University Hospital.

It is day 123 of the Strike where nurses are pushing for enforceable staffing ratios in the hospital.

The strike could soon be coming to an end.

>> We did sign a memorandum of agreement.

We are still waiting for informational sessions and a vote sometime within the next 10 days.

>> Union leadership has not shared the details of the agreement with its members would called it a historic agreement that includes an forcible safe staffing standards for the first time.

The hospital saying it reflects our shared goals of providing the highest quality patient care and creating a safe and supportive working environment for our nurses.

>>>> This has been a long and pretty bitter strike.

And the nurses have said all along they were going to hold out for enforceable nurse patient ratios and they seem to have achieved the so it is good news.

>> Congressman Frank Pallone has had a hand in the discussions between the hospital and nurses.

He is hopeful about the tentative deal.

>> The hospital spending a lot of money hiring temporary nurses.

When they came together, for the latest agreement, we have been encouraging them to not only do it but saying this seems like a good agreement.

>> This was not the first time a deal was reached that they union members later turned down.

>> Are members did not agree on it so hopefully this one will be presented and they will agree and we will go back to work.

>> Given the size of RWJ Barnabas health which owns RWJ University Hospital and his underwriter of NJ Spotlight News, the impact of the deal could be far-reaching.

>> I think we will see a huge amount of pressure for all of Barnabas to adopt these ratios, these minimum staffing levels.

We may then see is a greater willingness of other health care providers to support legislations everyone has a level playing field and everybody has those minimum ratios.

>> A bill was introduced in May by Senators Joe Vitale and Linda Greenstein and would require among its list of nurse ratios one nurse for every five patients on a medical or surgical unit, one for every two patients in critical care and one nurse per patient in trauma.

It covers staffing of developmental and psychiatric facilities as well.

>> This is not a strike just to that will stop once it has been resolved.

It will continue until New Jersey achieves safe staffing ratios.

Until that is passed in the legislation.

>> It is a timing issue to see which moves forward first.

A finalize contract here or the legislature finally taking up the staffing ratio bill in the lame-duck session.

>> They say they are going to put it forth for the lame-duck in January so I can only hope that happens and it passes through.

>> The hope a sentiment you could feel any they are on this picket line today.

>> The nurses strike may be ending at a significant time for the state.

New Jersey health officials warn COVID-19 cases have been slowly rising the last couple of weeks.

They expect the trend to continue throughout the winter.

Just shy of 500 people in the state are hospitalized for the virus according to New Jersey's health department.

It is also the first major uptick in new coronavirus cases seen nationwide in months.

With another new variant driving the rise in infections.

The World Health Organization is calling this strain one to watch.

Here to explain why is Montclair State University epidemiologist Stephanie Silvera.

Thanks for coming in to talk about this new variant, which the World Health Organization says is one to watch.

It seems to be following the same path other variants went.

Is it more aggressive?

>> It does have a little bit of an advantage over the strains that have been circulating.

We are seeing this quickly become on the track to become the dominant variant.

That said, there is no good data at this point to indicate it is more dangerous in terms of hospitalizations.

Hospital he Asians are taking up but that is to be expected after the holidays.

>> This new strain is called Pirola.

We will not get into the digits and numbers after it.

If it does not cause more severe disease, how does it differ from what we have seen in the past?

>> What we are seeing is there are more people getting sick and as a result, a certain proportion of those individuals are going to become hospitalized.

If you are an individual over 65 who has comorbid conditions, you do need to be concerned and you need to do what you can to protect yourself especially as we go into the holiday season.

>> What is the efficacy of the latest vaccine, folks who are now in the rhythm of getting regularly boosted at those who are not?

What do they need to know about it?

>> The Carreno Busta which was for related for -- the current booster does seem to offer protection against this variant.

The problem is, not a lot of people are getting boosted at this point.

Our overall level of immunity is a little lower.

The big concern with this variant is there is a subvariant.

Once those recombined, which seems to be happening in Europe, that is where we could lose some of the immune production.

-- immune protection.

>> Viruses love to mutate so we should not be surprised by that but what should we anticipate for the winter months and the last couple of years we have had a lot of talk about this triple demic.

>> We do need to be concerned about the impact Covid has on our immune systems.

We have seen is individuals who get sick with the are more likely to be susceptible to things like flu or RSV or even the common cold.

Because our immune system is under attack and we are busy fighting COVID, you are less able to fight off some of these other illnesses.

Anything we can do to stop the spread of respiratory on this helps across the board.

>> Pretty much the same practice we have gotten used to as soon as the cold weather months hit.

>> As much as possible, if you can meet outdoors, keep windows open, improved ventilation.

If you feel sick, stay home as much as you are capable.

Don't spread what you have weathered his flu were Covid to anyone else.

>> When we look at flu and RSV rights, is it about where we expect it to be because there is a pretty heavy onset in the fall as far as data goes.

It appears with RSV it is leveling off.

>> I think that is what we are seeing and we are getting back into what are the more typical RSV and flu patterns we sell pre-COVID.

They were all thrown off during COVID because our behaviors were different.

>> Some sense of normalcy if we can say that.

>> As much as we can have.

>> Thanks so much.

Israel is expanding its military ground operation against Hamas in Gaza with forces now hitting the southern part of the strip around the densely populated city Khan Yunis, a city already home to far more Palestinian refugees that it has capacity for.

A spokesperson for the IDF confirmed they are now targeting all of Gaza saying a weekend airstrike killed a Hamas commander responsible for carrying out the October 7 terrorist attack on Israelis.

Adding the military is determined to eliminate Hamas around the world even if it takes years.

The focus on the southern Gaza is intensifying the humanitarian crisis for Palestinians.

The U.N. says where than 80% of Gaza's total population, 1.9 million people, have been displaced since the start of the war.

Many were told to evacuate from the north to the south, which is now under been barred mid.

With new evacuation orders issued this Sunday and no place left for Palestinian refugees to go.

For more on the crisis, I'm joined by Kenneth Roth.

He served for nearly three decades as the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch and is a visiting professor at Princeton University.

Thanks so much for joining me.

This latest round of fighting has put Palestinians in a even more dire situation because they are running out of places to go.

What type of choices are they having to make right now when they are being asked to evacuate again?

>> Completely impossible choices.

Israel has sent around this detailed map of southern Gaza.

Many Palestinian civilians don't even have access to electricity to download the map.

Israel stop saying you can move here because it is safe.

They have started saying move there because it is safer.

But they are not guaranteeing any place will not be bound.

They said they are attacking all of Gaza now.

The civilians don't know what to do.

Did they stay where they are and risk getting bombed?

All of this is in the context of extremely limited access to basic food, water, electricity.

The necessities of life.

The hospitals have been severely curtailed.

It is a horrible situation for Palestinian civilians.

>> I'm also thing about the fact a lot of these individuals and families have already moved once or choice.

Evacuated once or twice.

As you said, aid is limited.

How did they go about bringing with them what they need when they have already left a home or place of refuge?

>> They cannot.

That is the basic thing.

We do have two at this point say Israel is required to abide by humanitarian law that is to say the.

-- were crimes on one side do not justify were crimes on the other.

What Hamas did on October 7 those not justify Israel either bombing civilian targets as an Israeli media target showed with her trying to get Palestinians of lay-ins to pressure Hamas which can be a death sentence.

That is a war crime.

The indiscriminate bombing of hold neighborhoods rather than Villa Terry targets, that is a war crime.

The -- most commonly we are seeing when there is a military target, Israel has been firing in way that causes disproportionate harm to civilians.

>> There was an investigation bite 917 magazine looking into the way it identifies its targets.

You alluded to that in terms of civilian casualties.

In your experience of 30 years at Human Rights Watch, and I am not asking you to speculate as to whether the Israeli military specifically knows what the civilian count will be in terms of casualties, but is this type of expansion under the way these military offenses can be carried out just leading to mass casualties among civilians?

>> What you are referring to, the Israeli independent media outlet 972 had the stunning revelation, which is the Israeli military is deliberately targeting with they call power centers.

What they meant is significant prestige civilian institutions.

Not legitimate military targets but civilian institutions as a way to force Palestinian civilians to put pressure on Hamas to surrender.

To give an example of something we have seen in prior wars where they would go after some big prestigious apartment building.

No real military reason for doing that suddenly they render 100 families homeless and the idea is to show Palestinian civilians you are going to suffer the consequences.

Put pressure on Hamas to stop.

How do civilians pressure Hamas?

This is a military dictatorship.

This is a cruel wartime strategy of the Israeli government is pursuing.

It is adding to this civilian casualty counted >> The former executive executive human -- executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Animal shelters across New Jersey say they ready tipping point.

Overcrowded, running out of space and volunteers needed to maintain the welfare of the animals they keep.

Activists who showed up at a hearing in Trenton today say there is another problem plaguing the pet industry.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports there is a patchwork system of oversight making it nearly impossible to know whether a dog from the pet store came from a licensed breeder or a puppy mill.

>> Should you adopt instead of shop?

How can towns best care for a feral cat colonies like this one under Atlantic City's Boardwalk?

People got emotional over a couple of bills before lawmakers today like the proposal to fund trap, neuter, vaccinate and release of on socialized cats with state tax dollars.

>> Organizations like mine cannot continue to sustain paying for all of the community cats and the feral cats that are brought to our attention.

>> Supporters of the compassion for cutie cats Bill told the Senate economic growth committee in 2021 cats comprised 60% of animals impounded in New Jersey and 80% of those euthanized.

Exploding cat populations can overwhelm local organizations and town shelters.

It is expensive.

A single shelter -- >> We trap over 2000 cats per year.

We are on pace to spend $70,000 on TMV are clinics and another 60,000 getting medical attention for injured community cats.

>> She says it works at her Burlington shelter.

Reduce the number of cats euthanized from 500 in 2019 to 200 this year.

Opponents insist cats don't belong in the landscape and pray on songbirds.

>> You will hear shelter workers say they are stressed by having to euthanize cats.

Here is something else that is stressful.

Working in wildlife rehabilitation.

Holding in your hand the broken body of a songbird that has traveled 1000 miles on way to land in the jaws of a cat.

>> Overcrowded animal shelters to get a boost from another build that band pet shops from selling dogs, cats and rabbits from breeders and foster adoption from shelters.

.

I would also repeal New Jersey's pet purchase protection act.

>> Unsuspecting consumers are routinely duped by pet story claims their animals came from family breeders, small breeders.

Virtually all animals sold at pet stores are sourced from mills.

Large-scale commercial breeding facilities that prioritize profit over the welfare of animals.

>> Pet shop owners are outraged and blame so cold activists.

>> These animal rights people have been harassing us for years extending in undercover activists with hidden cameras, harassing local town officials with spam emails and lies about our business.

The activists will stop at nothing to try to drive our stores out of business.

>> Matter the quality of our breeders, if they sell to a pet store, by definition they are automatically bad.

There is no standard that will ever be acceptable to them simply because they don't like what we do.

>> Who breeds the dogs and what defines a puppy mill remains open to interpretation.

Seven states have already passed similar laws and New York's ban on animal sales in pet shops takes effect next year.

>> If New Jersey does not pass this law in 2024, some of these same bad actors in New York are going to come right across the river and come to our state.

>> The committee did not vote on any of these measures.

It is still taking testimony and could tweak the language in response to comments.

>> We now know it will likely cost drivers an extra 15 bucks a day if they enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.

The newly revealed details on New York City's congestion pricing plan are causing one of the most vocal New Jersey critics to ramp up attacks.

Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer joined today with a local restaurant owner in Manhattan arguing the added toll will take a hit on holiday tours of money the city.

Sitting outside the restaurant on East 2nd Street, he said it will make with commuters and visitors think twice before driving in.

Congestion tax is on top of existing tolls the bridges and tunnels entering New York City and it is expected to go into effect in the spring.

Proponents say it is intended to reduce traffic and air pollution along with raising money for the Transportation Authority but critics including Governor Murphy have called the plan unfair because none of the funds go toward New Jersey mass transit projects.

Gottheimer today renewed his calls for the state to lunch tax incentives to lure businesses across the Hudson River.

>> Next Christmas I fear that families will be priced out of coming to see the Rockefeller Christmas tree or walking past Macy's storefront windows were coming to dinner.

Every single restaurant, store, small business will lose customers paired putting 15 lumps of coal in everyone's stocking this year with his $15 a day congestion tax paired >> In our spotlight on business report, Congressman Frank alone once U.S. customs to step up enforcement when screening seafood products imported from China which account for $2 billion worth of goods bought annually here.

The demand follows a sweeping investigation that revealed much of the seafood is produced through illegal and unethical labor practices driving American seafood companies out of the market and harming the fishing industry.

Ted Goldberg reports.

>> The Belford seafood Co. up sells a ton of fish could even as they face stiff competition from other countries.

>> The problem with the fish coming in, they are a lot cheaper than ours and we cannot go that cheaper.

If we go that cheap cannot pay our cruise.

>> While they have the regulars, most Americans get their seafood from non-American companies.

>> We cannot fish for 80 sent fish and pay three or four dollars a gallon for fuel.

>> 80% of all seafood consumed is imported up your the country that produces the largest portion is China.

>> China has cornered the global seafood market.

According to four years of reporting from the outlaw Ocean project, Chinese ships have done so thanks to overfishing and he been right suffuses -- human rights abuses especially on fishing vessels.

>> Death rates are high.

Sometimes they are from avoidable injuries pit other times they are from now nutrition, disease or violence.

>> Workers on Chinese ships risked being blacklisted if they complain about their conditions.

Uighur people are forced to work there.

>>>> Do not have the option of saying no when the recruiter comes knocking.

This is textbook state-sponsored forced labor.

They have to go what they are called.

When they get there, they are under close watch.

A lot of their earnings are confiscated by the government.

>> He says boycotting China is difficult because those processing plants take care of fish scooped up from American waters.

>> A lot of U.S. seafood fished in Alaskan waters or the coast of California where the coast of Maine gets frozen, sent to China for processing and frozen again and sent back.

Some of that seafood is going through processing plants in China.

>> Politicians have gotten involved from both sides of the aisle hoping to boost American businesses that are fully behind China.

>> I'm sending a letter to the customs office.

We want them to step up enforcement in light of this report and other reports.

We want them to do better screening of seafood products coming into the country.

>> At this point Frank Pallone says this is a problem that does not require Congress to come up with a new set of laws.

He says the current issue is regulation or a lack of it.

>> We want them to report back to us about what they are doing to prevent illegal Chinese seafood from coming into the country.

>> You cannot compete when you have forced labor with no real overhead.

It is unfair trade but it is also a gross violation of human rights.

>> Congressman Chris Smith says it is an enforcement issue.

Since there are laws on the books against doing business with companies that commit abuses against human rights.

He says this is also a national security issue.

>> The use those ships for other extracurricular types of activities like spying.

Severing cables as they did in the South China Sea.

These are their fishing boats.

The Soviets were good at that too.

>> Smith wrote the Department of Homeland Security in October asking for the supply chain to be investigated.

He says he is not heard a response.

At least one New Jersey-based company has dropped as a player accused of using forced labor.

The fishery in Cade Mays said although our investigation did not find any evidence of illegal activity or forced labor in the operations of Ron Chang hi Bo seafood, we are maintaining our cessation of new businesses pending further investigation.

>> Turning to Wall Street, stocks pulled back after five straight weeks of gains.

Here is how the markets closed.

♪ That does it for us tonight.

Don't forget to download the NJ Spotlight News podcast so you can listen anytime.

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

We will see you right back here tomorrow.

>> New Jersey education Association, making public school great for every child.

And RWJ Barnabas health.

Let's be healthy together.

>> NJM Insurance group has been part of New Jersey for over a century.

We support our communities through NJM's corporate giving program.

Supporting arts and culture related and nonprofit organizations that serve to improve the lives of children.

We build communities and help to create a new generation of safe drivers.

We are proud to be part of New Jersey.

NJM, we have got New Jersey covered.

♪