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

And by The PSEG Foundation.

Briana: Tonight on NJ Spotlight News -- Keeping hope alive.

Gathering to remind the world a 20-year-old is still being held by Hamas.

>> The world cannot stop thinking about the hostages.

We need to keep them in the top of our mind.

Briana: Plus, lighting up, a compromise in the casino smoking ban, rolling the dice in Atlantic City.

>> This is about job preservation and working in the environment to keep it better.

Briana: Negotiating prescription drug prices.

Just ask the governor.

>> The governor has not reported to the Council, the state level that will dig into the cost of prescription drugs.

Briana: And sounding the alarm.

A desperate call to remedy a nationwide shortage of physicians.

Dr. Tallia: if we keep going the way we are going, we are not going to have enough physicians left Briana: NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

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

Briana: Good evening and thanks for joining us this Friday night.

I am Briana Vannozzi.

Lines of communication between the White House and Israel remain open, but it does not appear to be getting negotiators any closer to a hostage relief deal.

President Biden today told reporters he's had extensive conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Bennett Netanyahu over the last few days, telling the premise or a temporary cease-fire is needed to secure the state's release still being held captive by Hamas.

Biden is urging Israel's military to hold off on a land invasion while talks continue.

In New Jersey, discussions about releasing the hostages are deeply personal.

Every week, a group walks through the borough, keeping a spotlight on Israelis being held captive, including one of their own, 20-year-old Edan Alexander.

Ted Goldberg has the story.

Ted: A weekly walk is raising awareness for the hundreds captured by Hamas October 7, including Tenafly native Edan Alexander.

>> The world cannot stop thinking about the hostages.

Every week I asked when can we change the numbers to the number of days they have been held by captivity.

I have emailed President Biden every day to keep them on the top of our minds.

Ted: Every week, anywhere from 20 to 30 to hundreds of people meet up, walk through, holding a vigil for hostages held by Hamas.

Ilan: all of those videos are captured by groups around the world.

They are mated to five or six IFO minute videos, so you see from town to town, people standing up, saying bring them home now, to show them everybody cares and supports them.

Ted: Ilan is one of the walkers here, to keep hope alive and bring attention to Edan Alexander, who was captured by Hamas while serving in the Israel Defense services.

Ilan: we want to support community.

I was born there.

I have a lot of family there.

Every little bit of your time you can put out and raise awareness and support the family.

Ted: Run for their life is a global organization.

Roberto organized the Tenafly chapter because of his personal connection to Alexander.

Roberto: I swim with a gentleman whose grandson is best friends with the hostages.

Ted: The weekly walk-through Tenafly run 18 minutes each.

That is not a number chosen at random.

Roberto: 18 is a special number in Judaism.

It equates to life, and the idea was 18 minutes before come on Friday, before Shabbat starts.

Ted: While Shabbat is a day of rest for Jewish people, the folks here are not resting.

>> It has been overwhelming, the number of people who join, wanted to walk, we have 1000 people, and Edan's parents were here.

We talked to everybody, and we showed support for them.

Ilan: it is very heartwarming that people are supportive of it and are coming out in strong numbers to show the love and kind of just, you know, create a community around here to bring attention to it around the world.

Ted: Alexander graduated from Tenafly high school two years ago.

He is one of about 100 people held hostage by Hamas.

As folks hold out hope he can make it home safely.

In Tenafly, I'm NJ Spotlight News Ted Goldberg, -- I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana:Briana: Another compromise being proposed to ban smoking on Atlantic City's casino floors.

This looks to appease al groups by allowing smoking to continue with some restrictions.

As an alternative to the litany of options that have already been presented, but as Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports, Bill is dead on arrival for one of the largest unions representing casino workers.

Brenda: workers pushing for smoke-free casino stop they finally hit the jackpot last month when the New Jersey Senate health committee about smoking on all giving floors.

Now there is competition from so-called compromise bill.

It would still let gamblers light up but in restricted areas, smoking opponents are certainly lit.

>> I don't know if the casino executives are aware of this, but smoke goes where it wants, which is not acceptable in the state of New Jersey, you put on a dealers New Jersey, and it is totally fine, you get secondhand smoke in your face.

Brenda: Dan Benson is with United Auto Workers, which represents valleys, Tropicana, and Caesar's, all Atlantic City casinos currently permit smoking on 25% of the gaming floor.

This new bill continues that 25% limit and allows smoking at slot machines located at least 15 feet away from live dealers.

It also creates enclosed smoking rooms where workers could opt out to avoid smoke.

Sen. Polistina: let's get everybody to a point where there's no more smoking at a table.

Dealers don't have to deal with it but not have the impact that would essentially cost, you know, upwards of a lost of 3000 jobs.

Brenda: Senate Republican Vince Polistana drafted a bill but dropped after UAW will protesters showed up at his office in the city.

Burzichelli is now sponsoring a bill.

Sen. Burzichelli: the casino industry at what it sends off is significant.

Brenda: He critics a total smoking ban will struggle to pass the full Senate, even though surveys show casinos have been smoking and still continue to thrive, business leaders and site industry warnings that a complete smoking ban could steer Atlantic City customers to Gable in Pennsylvania, causing thousands of layoffs back in Jersey.

Christina: When you talk about economic impact, the closest casino to New Jersey residents is a 50% smoking, which is already more than Atlantic City currently has witches why the conversation about economic impact is very different than it was even five years ago.

Sen. Burzichelli: so this is about moving incrementally to a work environment that is going to be better.

Brenda: The casino organization is on board, saying it is grateful to the bill sponsors for introducing this legislation and we look forward to finding meaningful compromise that will prioritize public health and economic stability while protecting jobs, but Senator Burzichelli is refusing to propose the compromised measure discussion in his committee.

The casino industry has done a good job to deceive lawmakers, Vitale said.

Are thousands who don't come to Atlantic City because of the smoking.

This will likely increase if they ban smoking altogether.

Vitale expects a bill soon.

Then that says the UAW will only back a full band.

-- ban.

Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: Newark is now joining 19 other major cities suing Kia and Hyundai for defects in vehicles that led to theft.

The lawsuit, which also includes Chicago, New York, and walking, among others, claims Kia and Hyundai intentionally failed to include engine immobilizer in their vehicles for more than a decade that is antitheft technology designed to make a car harder to steal.

In Newark and elsewhere, city officials say the surge in thefts also led to an increase in violence incidents.

Newark's complaint points out many of the models are designed with lower income workers in mind, and when they are stolen, it is that much more of a burden on the owner.

Lawsuit is seeking damages from the automakers alleging fraud and deceptive marketing practices.

More than six months after Governor Murphy signed a law giving the state more power to negotiate prescription drug prices, not much has changed, and it may still be a few years before the public sees the benefit of this new transparency and oversight.

That is partly because the Murphy administration has yet to nominate members to a newly created drug affordability counsel.

It missed the January deadline to do so.

Our Washington correspondent Ben Hulac looked into what is delaying the process and joins me from D.C. with the latest.

Ben, this was really a breakthrough that both the state and federal government got from new oversight into this process.

Why are we seeing it take so long?

Ben: A lot of this is just how the language was written, and I will start on the federal side.

The idea of having Medicare negotiated as a block, as a sort of significant arguing for some behalf of thousands of Americans, that has been backed by consumer groups for decades.

This is really new.

We will, of course, see the prices going up in 2026, but this has never been done, and that is just the lay of the land federally.

And the delays in changes to prescription drugs at the state level and then the measures that they have taken, the main holdup as I understand it is the governor has not named members to this drug affordability counsel, which is the stateboard that will dig into the costs of prescription drugs and sort of deal back what to this point have largely been a paid process.

Ben: In fact, there was a January deadline for the governor to do so.

He did not.

What are you hearing about what is holding up the process?

Ben: I have nothing on the record on that matter from the governor's office.

From advocates, they are wanted -- just keen to see this progress get going.

There are a handful of other states.

Maryland and Colorado are sort of known as the most aggressive and furthest ahead in this process, but at the state level, it has largely been a quiet process.

Briana: Separate for us, if you can, Ben, what we will see changed both in the federal and state level, because they were three drugs, as I understand it, whose monthly costs will now be capped.

What are they, and what will we see at the state level?

Ben: At the state level, I believe the three items you are thinking of mentioning are inhalers, EpiPens, and insulin, and those are through medical devices, medicine broadly known by the public.

People know what those are.

And those caps will roll out in the coming year, I believe.

I really delved more into the price transparency element of the trio of bills that Murphy signed last year in my reporting.

Briana: You have a lot of people talking about the pharmacy benefit managers and the roles that they play in setting the standards in the market.

Is that the crux of the issue for New Jersey consumers, when they are looking at prescription prices?

Ben: not going to plead ignorance on that, but that is really why this is such a fascinating topic.

Within the medical community, you have the pharmacy benefit managers, the drug companies, the insurers, we have government bodies, and, other than the government, the rest of the parties are sort of blaming each other for why prices are high, and it is a bit of a carousel of finger-pointing.

So the interesting thing here is , at the state level and the federal level, that we may now see behind the curtain of how prices are actually set, and the fact that drug prices are largely set in a murky, complicated process is really no good.

That is not benefiting the patients.

That is not benefiting the public.

Briana: Ben, thank you so much.

Ben: My pleasure.

Thanks.

Briana: If you had a hard time finding a primary care doctor in recent years, you are not alone.

There is a nationwide shortage of general practitioners, and a new report from New Jersey's Health Care Quality Institute finds the problem is even worse in our state.

There are a number of factors at play, but it comes down to one familiar issue, the money.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports.

Dr. Tallia: If we keep going the pathway we are going, we will not have any health care experts in New Jersey.

Joanna: health care experts, some forced into early retirement because Covid, far more new clinicians are opting for specialty practices that pay much better.

Linda: Primary care physicians really practice what we call continuous care.

Joanna: New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute's Linda Schwimmer explains it as a way of treating patients with a large, trusting way over time.

But primary care physicians do not get reimbursed the way specialists do.

Linda: It has been fee-for-service, code base, so when you can do a procedure, when you can intervene in some way, that is a billable event.

Also the complexity of those events or interventions are reimbursed at a higher rate.

Joanna: Yet primary care has been proven as one of the most critical pieces in health care, says family medicine Dr. Alfred Tallia.

Dr. Tallia: it has been found to improve outcomes for people with aquatic illnesses, reduce mortality, eliminate disparities and actually reduce costs, which has been undervalued in this state.

We are now at 48 out of 50 states in primary care reimbursement for New Jersey.

That is outrageous, and that has driven a lot of providers out of the state.

Joanna: The Health Care Quality Institute just released a report outlining several steps New Jersey can take to achieve success of states like Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Oregon have, that reimburse both fee-for-service along with per member, per month, known as capitated fees.

Linda: We need the programs across the state to really commit to how they are going to get involved and support these hybrid models of payment.

For instance, CMS, Center for Medicaid and Medicare services, has had a model called primary care first for a while now.

Very few of the health plans in New Jersey have participated in that model.

The state health benefit program has been a great supporter of primary care.

We would like to know, how has that gone?

They should be reporting data.

Joanna: Without these changes, primary care doctors like Dr. Nicole Henry-Dindial say their business models will soon improve because the work required just to keep a primary practice open is unsustainable.

Dr. Henry-Dindial: if you squeeze a doctor and particularly primary care where we cannot keep our practices open, you are losing access in all the different areas, in small communities, in the underserved areas.

You are not really encouraging the recruitment of physicians that look like the patients that we need to treat.

Joanna: Yvonne Ye is in her third year of residency and is facing the challenge now of where to go.

She says without changes, they will affect -- Yvonne: our ability to treat patients educate quality of the state because they do not feel like they are being compensated fairly, and they will seek opportunities elsewhere, then that will have a widespread effect toward our health as a state.

Joanna: And says a report with an aging population, the situation will only worsen without significant and speedy changes.

I am Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: Get our spotlight on business report, A milestone today in the long-planned construction of the Gateway program.

The first phase of the structure project got approval today from the Gateway commission, which will start this spring.

That will kick off the engineering, survey, and design plans to built a two track tunnel under the Hudson River, rehab existing tracks in the North River tunnel, replace the Northbridge, and create a rail right-of-way planned in the Hudson yard.

The goal is to update the most heavily used passenger train line in the U.S. between New York and New Jersey is that going to cost about $284 million, but commissioners this morning pointed out that both states involved are now paying significantly less than anticipated.

The Garden State will kick in roughly $308 million total for the project.

The original estimate was about $2.4 billion.

The commission says it is just months away from getting a full funding grant agreement from the federal government, and once that happens, phase 2, that is the construction, will get started this fall.

On Wall Street, it was a complicated week for the market, with inflation taking of a -- inflation picking up and retail sales down.

Here is how trading numbers closed.

And today this weekend to NJ Business Beat with Raven Santana.

She marks Black History Month by sitting down with John Hartman from the African-American Chamber of Commerce and speaks the two Black female entrepreneurs about what is driving more Black women to open businesses and how to mentor.

Watch Saturday at 5:00 p.m. and Sunday morning on NJPBS.

♪ And finally, civility in politics.

Does it still exist?

This week on Chat Box, senior political correspondent David Cruz talks with former New Jersey U.S.

Senator Bill Bradley about the state of political discourse, from the ever-growing political divide in the nation to the contentious presidential election.

The former 2000 presidential candidate himself says despite all the negativity, there's reason for hope.

Take a listen.

Mr. Bradley: What I left the Senate, I pointed out what I felt were the flaws in the system back in 1996, that there's way too much money in politics.

There is still way too much money in politics.

That is courtesy of the Supreme Court, you know, and one of the dumbest decisions in American history, Citizens United, saying money is speech, and you cannot limit the amount of money spent on a campaign.

That is the core problem, and that it is exacerbated by social media and special interest groups that used to be primarily interested only in their economic interests, and now of course they are interested in ideological interest, but the result is the same.

It divides us.

It puts us into camps, and that is not where America does best.

We all came from all over, and here we are, and we have to live together and do so in a way that allows us to prosper.

David: In our previous segment, I was saying how I was dreading this presidential election that is upcoming.

Am I being too dramatic?

Mr. Bradley: Uh, no.

I don't think you are being too dramatic.

It is the most consequential election of my lifetime, and I lived through a lot of consequential elections, in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's.

And so I think a lot is at stake in this election.

Are we going to do what we learn from our parents, or are we going to be angry?

Are we going to be motivated out of honor or grievance?

I mean, basically, we all know what is the best thing to do.

The question is, do we have the courage to do it and trust each other?

We have to see each other as human beings, not as cardboard cutouts that prevent us from sharing what we really care about in life.

David: You know, Senator, that sounds great, and I'm with you there, but it seems so difficult to get anybody from either camp to just have a coffee together, or is that just the perception that we get by the people who want it to be so, that we don't get together?

Mr. Bradley: I think it is fanned by the media, it's fanned by some self-interested politicians, and a lot of self-interested interest groups on the right claim early but -- the right, primarily, but also on the left.

And I think that, you know, there are enough people in the Congress who want to do the right thing, that there is still reason for hope.

Now, we are in a terrible situation, dominated by money, as I mentioned earlier, more and more polarized by social media, by us thinking of the small things.

I always like to think kind beats anger, and that's not a soft thing to say, because to be kind, you have to be very strong, and I think this election has to be a little bit of that, kind versus anger.

Briana: You can watch the full interview on Chat Box this weekend, on NJPBS.

And on Reporters Roundtable this weekend, David talks to the public and budget Senator Declan O'Scanlon about the harsh realities facing New Jersey's budget and whether the state is headed for a fiscal cliff.

A panel of local reporters break down this week's political headlines.

Watch Saturday at 6:00 p.m. and Sunday morning at 10:00 right here on NJPBS.

I am Briana Vannozzi.

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

Have a great weekend.

We will see you back here on Monday.

>> New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

And RWJBarnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

>> Our future relies on more than clean energy.

Our future relies on empowered community, 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 part, helping towns go green, supporting civic centers, scholarships, and workforce development that strengthen our community.

♪ ♪