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And by the PSEG foundation.

>> Tonight on "NJ Spotlight News ," winter blast.

More snow sweeps New Jersey, prompting weather alerts across the state today, leading to unsafe conditions in some areas.

Is this the end of our snow drought?

>> Not a major event, but enough to lead to some disruption and slippery streets and walkways.

We're just not used to this.

>> Also, spending access to school meals.

With the new bill signed today by Governor Murphy, thousands of kids will be eligible for free and reduced lunch.

>> Ensuring our children are fed and nourished, this legislation will give our kids the support they need to fully focus on their studies and ultimately excel in their lives.

And of course, it will make a life in New Jersey a little more affordable.

>> Plus, in a new report, researchers find a high number of plastic particles and bottled water you might be drinking.

>> If you have a chance to reduce plastic intake, since we don't know what the health effects are yet, that's a good decision.

>> And after 50 years of legislative service, longtime state senator former New Jersey governor Richard Codey says his farewell to public office.

"NJ Spotlight News" begins right now.

>> from NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Briana Vannozzi.

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

I am Briana Vannozzi.

It may not be one for the books, but New Jersey is blanketed with more snow today, one to three inches for most of the state, four to six for the Western areas, giving us the first statewide accumulation of snow since March 2022, according to forecasters.

Hundreds of school district's close or open with delays.

State offices also opened two hours late.

The snow turned to a wet mix, making it a slower ride for early commuters.

No additional flooding is expected from the storm.

It has been a long month of heavy rain events combined with snowfall.

As of late this afternoon, the National Weather Service lifted most of the winter weather advisories in place for Central and North Jersey counties.

If you are disappointed by today's totals that they were entire, a state, ecologist is optimistic.

>> We have plenty of with are still to come, and climatological he, the snow the iest portion of our winter is a still to come in the January and early February and March.

We have yet to come close to closing the book on this winter.

Briana: We continue our coverage of the federal investigation into last summer's cargo ship fire in Port Newark.

The Coast Guard National Transportation Safety Board today continued the public hearing with the multiple high-ranking members of the Newark fire division testifying.

As Ted Goldberg reports, the statements show firefighters battling the blaze were faced with nearly impossible challenges at every turn.

>> Over an hour into this, we haven't found Brooks, and it's like, you know -- and we are 12 stories up.

Ted: The battalion chief describe the chaos faced by Newark firefighters last summer, contending with the growing fire and widespread problems with communication.

>> Sometimes you hear something, sometimes you didn't.

Depending on where you stood, if I moved one foot to the right or left, sometimes you don't hear anything.

>> The structure of the ship being steel is going to block a lot of the radio communications.

If there is steel between two radios, that could be blocking those communications.

Ted: Over the last two sessions, the Coast Guard and NTSB hearing investigating last summer's deadly fire in Newark has looked at what led to the fire which led to the deaths of Wayne Brooks, Jr. and augusto acabou.

>> You are trained, find a wall, because in most normal circumstances if you can find a wall you can find egress.

It would have been logical that once firefighter Brooks located a wall, you would've fi followed it with an understanding that it would have led to a way off the deck.

The egress on the starboard side would have been in the engine casing or engine housing area, which not being familiar with this shift, he may not have recognized or realized.

Ted: The battalion chief testified that his firefighters weren't given a map of the ship when they arrived and took on a fire different from what they were used to.

>> What specialized equipment does the department have specific to firefighting on ships?

>> I'm not aware of any .

Ted: The structure lead to inconsistent messages coming from firefighters' radios.

When people did hear each other, there were still problems getting messages across.

>> We were trying to communicate with the foreman or whatever, just trying to communicate, find out what was going on.

It was hard enough, the language barrier was very hard.

I need that crane.

Can we get that crane to operate?

The guy goes, "I don't know if we can, we may not be allowed to because of poor authority, I don't know if we can get to the control panel."

It turned out later because of the communication, the crane he ended up getting me was a small, little one.

Ted: Communication breakdowns did not stop with getting wrong cranes.

He testified he wasn't told the ship had deployed its carbon dioxide-based firefighting system and a waterproof door failed to close, discovered by testimony from the second-in-command last week.

>> When, if ever, were you informed that the carbon dioxide compression system has been discharged?

>> No one said anything to me, but when I did go up the steps, I opened up -- I'm not sure what floor -- one of the floors just to see what they had, like if I could see anything, try to get a layout.

As soon as I went in there, I lost my breath, and I they would have to try something to deploy the system.

>> If it was used, maybe that is why we weren't seeing the fire.

I thought they had knocked the fire down.

I found out later that they never had sealed the whole place.

They never did it correctly.

Ted: More leaders from Newark's fire division will testify this week as the hearing will continue for at least two more days, shining a light on a dark chapter in the city's in union, I'm Ted Goldberg, "NJ Spotlight News."

Briana: for years research has consistently shown Black homeowners are facing disk termination during the home appraisal process, despite federal laws on the books designed to prevent it.

Data compiled over a five-year period on millions of homes revealed Black- and Latino-owned properties receive appraisal offers far lower than my Kindle parts.

As Brenda Flanagan reports, the state is launching a new program to address the problem after a bill to prevent the discrimination stalls in the legislature.

>> I definitely have experienced appraisal bias in Newark.

Brenda: Vivian says she has seen homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods get lowball appraisals versus comparable homes in mostly white neighborhoods.

National studies have back to that up.

Realtors will sometimes advise a Black family to hide evidence of their existence before appraisers walk through their homes.

>> The realtor will say remove all of your personal items, photos, physically whitewash your house -- basically whitewash her house so you will get a higher value.

>> Your appraisal might be less, simply because you are Black, and that is absurd.

That shouldn't be what is happening.

That is racism at its core.

>> And it is absolutely a factor that we've seen discrimination in this process.

Brenda: New Jersey's Attorney General says he has launched a new initiative against appraisers who undervalue homes based on protected classes like race, gender, or religion.

The notice warrants that New Jersey law prohibits discrimination not just by the appraisers who conducted the appraisal, but other entities involved in selecting an appraiser and using the appraiser to decide whether and on what terms to extend the mortgage or other financing to a prospective borrower.

>> They are subject to civil rights laws, and we will enforce them and protect people as they are going through whether it be a home purchase or home sale, as well as ensure that communities of color are not being artificially devalued.

Brenda: The Attorney General has created a new task force to investigate cases of alleged bias in home appraisals and referred them to the state's division on civil rights.

When even one home is under appraised, it can drag on property values in the neighborhood and bar Black families from crossing a wide racial wealth gap.

>> That is a college education.

That is retirement.

That is buying a whole new house for your kids.

That is genuine wealth that you can pass on to the next generation that is being denied.

Brenda: Advocates of law that the Attorney General's decision to catch applauded the Attorney General -- applauded the Attorney General's decision to target appraisers.

A bill would've punished violators with steep penalties.

Republican Bob Singer opposed the bill.

>> Let's understand something -- is the task force going to be with appraisers, realtors, mortgage bankers?

Those are the people affected by this.

Brenda: Singer is in the banking business and he is not convinced there was a problem, and predicts appraisers will start avoiding minority neighborhoods.

>> We are all against discrimination.

No question it is against the law.

Show us where it is happening, that's corrected.

Instead we are taking a sledgehammer, let's go after the bad actors with a $10,000 fine.

Brenda: The initiative includes antidiscrimination training for appraisers and public education to raise awareness.

I am Brenda Flanagan, "NJ Spotlight News."

Briana: More students will have access to free school meals in New Jersey.

Governor Murphy signed legislation expanding eligibility to the state program.

It means some 60,000 kids will be added to the pool of families who qualify.

The new law expands income eligibility to take part in the program from just under $60,000 a year for a family of four to a little more than $67,000 a year.

This is the first time students in private schools will be eligible.

The previous school meal program was only open to public-school students.

More than 390 5000 students in New Jersey received a free or reduced breakfast or lunch during the 2019-2020 school year.

But the state Department of Education says 450,000 public school children are considered economically disadvantaged.

Although it doesn't come cheap, the program will cause the state roughly $34 million, the bill is just one of many signed by the governor today before the noon deadline of the session.

Otherwise it would have died.

Gov.

Murphy: In addition to ensuring our children are fed and nourished, this legislation will also -- I mean that literally -- give our kids the support they needed to fully focus on their studies and ultimately XL in their lives.

Of course it will make a life into New Jersey a little more affordable for working and middle-class families throughout our state.

Briana: Researchers are offering a reality check on the bottled water you pick up at the grocery store.

It turns out a standard sized bottle can contain up to 100 times more plastic particles than previously thought.

A new study published by scientists at Rutgers and Columbia University found one liter of water contained 240,000 tiny plastic fragments known as nano plastics, which researchers say could be even more dangerous than the micro plastics found virtually everywhere.

I recently asked of the co-author of the study from Rutgers University what that means for your health.

Dr. Stapleton'it'great to have you on the show.

Let me start with the basics, because the findings are pretty significant.

What specifically did you find on average with these nanoplastics when looking at water?

>> So, previous studies have looked at micro signs plastics and bottled water, and we were able to take it one step further with this technology to look at nano-sized plastics as well.

They are about 1000 times smaller than the microsized plastics.

We were able to confirm the microsized plastic, but also identify about a quarter million on average nano sized plastics within a liter of bottled water.

Briana: Is this new, meaning did we know that nano plastics existed before?

Of course we have had research for years about the micro plastics in water.

Phoebe: So, we as a scientist have that gut feeling that they should be there, but having the tools and their methodology to be able to not only quantify them but identify the chemistry of what types of plant articles are there was new.

They are invisible, you can't see them in the air, you can't see them in the water.

It is pretty clear it is likely coming from the patch again itself -- packaging itself, the bottle or the capping.

The greatest percentage was not that type of plastic, so it was either coming, we theorize it may have been in the filtering process on the water, or as you say, the source water itself.

Briana: You didn't list the brands of water you tested -- I'm guessing that is for a reason.

But for those who drink bottled whether, and there is virtually none among us who haven't at one point, what are the health implications if any we should be concerned about?

Phoebe: You're right, we didn't list the types of water, but they were commercially available products.

The health effects are still under investigation.

We know that these nano sized plastics are a greater concern because they preach biological barriers, they get through the GI system, they get through the long as well and translocate or moved to other tissues in the body.

The question we have in our laboratory in particular is what are those effects once those nano-sized plastics get to the other tissues, like the liver or in our particular case the placenta.

Briana: Not that this is your place to say, but what should be done with this information both on the consumer side and then also for folks who are in the policymaking position?

Phoebe: This is in that awareness category.

It is something that you can't see, but now we can confirm that they are indeed there.

I think bottled water definitely has its place if the weather that is in the community isn't safe -- lead, for example, or natural disaster.

We may need to rely on bottled water in those cases.

If you have a chance to reduce plastic and take, since we don't know what the health effects are yet, that is a good decision.

Reducing bottled water use not only reduces the chance of ingestion, but also reduces the single-use risk as well.

I think at the moment we are just ahead of the game for policymakers and regulation, that we know that they are there.

Not sure it is wise to wait for all of the health effects before we start to wonder if they should be there.

Briana: It's good advice, no doubt.

Dr. Phoebe Stapleton is a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Rutgers University.

Thank you so much.

Phoebe: Thank you for having me.

Briana: In our "spotlight on business" report, brewery and distillery owners are so living after Governor Murphy's signed bill to ease restrictions on their businesses.

The new law removes a cap on the number of events brewery's can hold and let them sell snacks and nonalcoholic drinks.

They can partner with food trucks.

Murphy signed the bill after the legislature reverted to add reforms to the state's century-old liquor laws, including boosting the number of liquor licenses by bringing in active licenses back into the market place and creating a new category of licenses for restaurants and malls.

That should free of existing licenses for restaurants located in downtowns.

Murphy has made liquor reform I keep I'm ready to help the restaurants harmed by the pandemic, but advocates say the bill doesn't go far enough to help with scarcity or affordability, since some of those can go for upwards of a million dollars.

Turning to Wall Street, stocks fell to start the first day of a shortened trading week.

Here is how the markets closed.

Briana: Well, after 50 years of legislative service, longtime senator and former Governor Dick Codey's trading trips to Trenton for retirement.

He leaves as the longest-serving lawmaker in New Jersey history, retiring five decades to he was first warning, spending eight years in the assembly, 42 in the Senate, two stints as Senate President, and 14 months as governor following Jim McGreevey's resignation.

It is quite a run, and he joins me now.

Governor, good to see you.

Why would one want to spend 50 years in Trenton?

Mr. Codey: because every day you are helping people, and I enjoy doing things for people.

People related to me.

I'm blessed in many, many ways.

Briana: You, of course, are known for your work with mental health, maternal health, the ban on indoor smoking, the negotiations for MetLife Stadium.

The undercover governor.

You went to a state psychiatric hospital, and to a shelter in Newark.

Mr. Codey: You've done your homework.

Briana: I've been covering you for a number of years.

Mr. Codey: I'm unusual.

Briana: How did you find a path in the legislature forward you wanted to work on?

Mr. Codey: I didn't want to be a ho-hum legislator.

I wanted to be different and get things done.

When you do it in a dramatic fashion, it makes it easier to get it done.

When you go into a psychiatric hospital, after you come out it gets fixed up.

Briana: You also, governor, have been pretty vocal about party bosses.

How do you survive in a political climate like New Jersey's, when party bosses have quite a bit of say, everything down to the ballot?

Mr. Codey: Well, I've survived.

I've run against the organization many times and won.

People say you can't win.

Hell you can't.

Make your case.

We made our case on numerous occasions and we won.

But there is good party bosses and there is bad bosses.

Briana: Who are the bad party bosses?

Mr. Codey: Well, they don't live around this area.

[LAUGHTER] Briana: We get it good OK, but I have to ask, then, you ran in the primary, you ousted your colleague who was moved into the district after the maps were redrawn, and then two month later you announced you were -- you announced your retirement.

And then ultimately the ticket gets to set -- the ticket gets decided by party bosses.

Is that not a little hypocritical?

Mr. Codey: Listen, the party bosses a friend of mine who ran off the line back in 1993.

I've known the family for a long time.

There is bad party bosses and good party bosses.

They exist, you have to fight them, and some people stand up and do the right thing, and the people who are representing me in the legislature, very happy with, especially a longtime friend and good legislature.

-- legislator.

Briana: Were you upset with how it played out with switching names on the ticket -- first it was Brendan, it was his wife.

Mr. Codey: That was up to Jones to make that decision.

I think at the end of the day he made the right decision.

Briana: There was a number of bills, obviously, that you have either sponsored or cosponsored.

I'm thinking about the indoor smoking ban, because that is something you are really passionate about.

It has not yet made for the casino workers.

Is there something more you think could have been done to get over the finish line?

Mr. Codey: When I was governor, I instituted the smoking ban in the state of New Jersey, and I'm extremely proud of it.

We saved the lives of many New Jerseyans because of it.

Smoking is only allowed in New Jersey in a casino.

It's allowed because the party bosses in South Jersey do business with the casinos, and they've been able to stop it in the legislature.

Very sad, but true.

Hopefully that will change.

I don't know if it will, though, but it's a very small group of people.

Briana: What will you miss and who will you miss most from your time in the legislature?

Mr. Codey: Just being around people in the legislature and all the good people who worked there and who worked for me and under me and did a fantastic job.

I've loved every minute of it.

Somebody was talking to me -- talking about the I made a speech to the legislature and the tele-pumper broke down, which it did just Teleprompter down -- the day the Teleprompter broke down, which it did.

I had practiced it so many times I had memorized.

I would say to the clerk, "the Teleprompter is broken, call somebody!"

Briana: You had a lot of good times there.

Can we expect to see like we have seen from the past governors and senators a Codey Institute, a think tank of politics?

Mr. Codey: I don't know if I think that high, but people like Tom Kean, Brendan Byrne, I idolized those people.

I was a chauffeur for the Kean family a couple times.

Briana: This was pre-legislative service?

Mr. Codey: Oh, yeah.

Great stories there.

Briana: Thank you for your public service and thank you for your time.

Mr. Codey: thank you!

Briana: That will do it for us tonight, but don't forget to download the podcast so you can listen anytime.

I am Briana Vannozzi.

Four the entire "NJ Spotlight News", team have a great evening, drive safely.

We will see back tomorrow night.

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

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What do you see?

I see myself.

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The opportunity to learn, to dream, to achieve, a chance to be known and to be an American.

My name is Julia, and I am proud to be an NJEA member.

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