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

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

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

Tonight, a few stories we'll get into later in the broadcast, including a changing of the guard in Trenton and a flurry of action.

Newly sworn in Governor Mikey Sherrill signs a slate of executive orders on day one.

We'll tell you what they are and the impact on you.

Plus, growing criticism over immigrant protections or lack of them in the state.

Then, Governor Murphy's final hours in office included signing hundreds of bills with others left on the table.

What does it mean as New Jersey turns the page?

First though, a few of today's top headlines.

New Jersey's senior U.S.

Senator is weighing in on how to curb the Trump administration's hardline immigration actions.

Senator Cory Booker was in Morristown today, speaking with local leaders about a recent ice raid at a laundromat that resulted in the arrest of multiple people, including a high schooler.

Democrats in Congress have been debating ways to rein in federal immigration enforcement after an ICE officer shot and killed U.S.

citizen Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.

Booker recently introduced legislation he says would create more rigorous hiring and training standards for ICE agents and require federal officers to work with the federal government to ensure that ICE officers are trained and trained to be effective in their job.

Booker recently introduced legislation he says would create more rigorous hiring and training standards for ICE agents and require federal officers to wear body cameras during immigration enforcement.

But there are stark divisions among the party.

While Booker and others are calling for reforms or withholding money from the Department of Homeland Security, some other progressive members have introduced bills to "abolish ICE," saying the agency and its practices are beyond repair.

Senator Booker today said he disagrees.

I will always be putting forward, as I have with one of the leaders, for more accountability in law enforcement.

We need higher standards and we need more accountability.

Clearly those are steps in the right direction, but it is not enough.

Right now this is an agency out of control.

There's so much more that we have to do to stop this nightmare.

I am not interested in slogans that people are using.

I'm interested in results that can end these nightmares in our community.

Also tonight, the state is suing the owners of two South Jersey nursing homes, accusing them of pocketing millions in Medicaid money meant for patient care, all while conditions inside their facilities allegedly deteriorated.

The lawsuits, brought by outgoing state comptroller Kevin Walsh, target the owners of the Deptford Center for Rehabilitation and Health Care and Hammington Center, claiming a years-long scheme of mismanagement, deceptive financial reporting and profiteering.

State investigators say the operators diverted Medicaid funds through related side businesses, inflated rent payments to companies they controlled and intentionally understaffed the homes.

According to a Comptroller report, those alleged practices coincided with thousands of emergency calls to police and disturbing claims of neglected patients.

The nursing home operators haven't responded to the lawsuit, but they deny the allegations.

The state wants to recoup roughly $124 million, potentially making it one of the most significant Medicaid enforcement cases here.

And among several final acts in office Tuesday, Governor Murphy issued a sweeping round of clemency, granting nearly 150 pardons and commutations that included many people supporters say deserved a second chance, but also some who appeared to have benefited by the politically connected.

Murphy pardoned Harris Jacobs, the son of a prominent Democratic fundraiser, even as a jury convicted him that same morning in a fatal Atlantic City hit and run.

According to Insider NJ, Jacobs' father, Joe Jacobs, helped raise over $100,000 for First Lady Tammy Murphy's failed U.S.

Senate bid.

Prosecutors sharply criticized the move, warning that political influence shouldn't override a jury's verdict or undermine faith in the justice system.

Murphy also pardoned a former Democratic Assemblyman convicted of stealing from a family charity, a politically influential pastor, and a Lakewood man convicted of vehicular homicide.

The practice of issuing pardons before leaving office is a long-held tradition used by governors of both parties and U.S.

presidents, but the high-profile clemencies he granted is raising questions about who gets to be elected, who gets chosen, and who doesn't.

Coming up, making good on campaign promises.

What did newly sworn-in Governor Mikey Sherrill do on day one in office?

We'll have the details next.

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Well, Governor Sherrill didn't waste a minute on day one.

Just hours after taking the oath of office, New Jersey's new chief exec quickly moved to put her stamp on the job, signing multiple executive orders-- in fact, double that of Murphy on his first day.

From freezing proposed utility rate hikes to reshaping how the state government operates, political onlookers say she's signaling urgency.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gackis has the details and how her actions set the tone for what comes next.

Governor Mikey Sherrill had quite the first day.

She started by shaking up the Trenton norms, holding her inauguration ceremony at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, rather than the Trenton War Memorial, and hosting her inaugural ball in the mall at the American Dream in the Meadowlands, where she joined Naughty by Nature on stage for this performance.

♪ Now we don't be speaking, you know we ♪ But it wasn't just the pomp and circumstance and rap that took the day.

The newly sworn-in governor wielded her pen on day one to sign not one, not two, but six executive orders.

The first two signed during her inaugural speech.

I am issuing an executive order giving the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities the authority to pause new utility requests for additional rate increases, and I will freeze rate hikes to finally provide families with real relief on their energy bills.

I am issuing an executive order directing the Board of Public Utilities to open solicitations for new solar and storage power generation to modernize gas and nuclear generation so we can lower utility costs over the long term.

Those two executive orders, or EOs, fulfilled Sheryl's campaign promise to declare a state of emergency for electricity costs on day one.

Problem solved?

Not even close.

But Rider University's Micah Rasmussen sees these more as an indication of the Governor's priorities.

I think what this does more than anything else is prioritizes her administration's focus on this issue.

And it says to her day-to-day administrators, this is what I want you to make our priority.

I want the agencies across government to collaborate on this.

I want you to focus on this.

I want this to be part of the work that you do.

I want it to be top of mind.

Top of mind is clearly government transparency and accountability with the next two EOs.

Number three continues a code of conduct for behavior within the governor's office, also signed by Governor Murphy on day one.

And EO number four creates a chief operating officer within the governor's office, a position Sheryl says is designed to drive efficiency, transparency, and accountability across state government.

But EO number five fulfilled a campaign promise to the business community to cut permitting delays and costs part of her quote, save you time and money agenda.

I do think that this is reaching across the divide.

It's reaching across Trenton to the business community.

It's reaching across to conservatives.

It is reaching across to business It's certainly not what y know, you might not see s is going to be sped up.

U a more moderate tone.

We the Republican legislative on this and all of Sherri executive orders but didn' in time for this story.

B E. O. That Cheryl signed gown and dancing the night is one we're likely to hea in the coming weeks.

It c the Department of Health kids online.

Now, often e signed when governors don the legislative support to Rasmussen doesn't see it this way with the day one flurry of EO's.

I'm sure when it comes to specific actions that she's going to take on these issues, she will involve the legislature.

They will want to be involved when money is involved, it needs to be appropriated, she'll need to involve them.

But how often and how well Sheryl's administration works with the legislature, which now has a Democratic supermajority enough to override her vetoes will be the work of the next 1,459 days of her term.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Joanna Gagas.

Well as he headed out the door on Tuesday, Governor Murphy took some last minute action that's drawing sharp criticism from immigrant advocates across the state, declining to sign that would have offered the bills would weaken ex New Jersey up to new legal proponents of those measu be looking to the Cheryl answers.

Raven Santana rep under the dome series.

Go not meet the moment.

Gove left our communities out in office, Governor Phil sign two out of three clo contentious immigrant prot at limiting cooperation w authorities.

Murphy did s to keep ice out of sensit schools, hospitals, court courts, and places of worship.

But he pocket vetoed the other two, prompting frustration from immigrant advocates, including Vieri Martinez with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

The two bills that were left on the table were the immigrant trust directive codification, which would create, which the immigrant trust directive already outlined the ways that police and the state of New Jersey and ICE could collaborate and could not collaborate.

They could only collaborate in certain cases.

And this bill went a step farther by removing final orders of removal, which our community really needed.

The other piece of legislation that was left on the table that was left by the table on the table by Governor Murphy was the Data and Privacy Protections Act, which would create protections for our communities and safeguarding our data.

That bill would have prevented health care facilities and government agencies from sharing sensitive information like immigration status with the federal government.

Murphy defended the decision in a statement saying he was extremely concerned the bills could spark new legal challenges that could threaten existing protections including the immigrant trust directive, reopening the door to judicial scrutiny of our state's immigration policies combined with the Trump administration's increasingly targeted actions against states and cities is a recipe for disaster for our immigrant brothers and sisters and puts them in greater danger and that is not something I am willing to risk when the directive is secure for the foreseeable future.

The kids I spoke with say they are frustrated that it took this long for Governor Murphy to sign that piece of legislation.

And they say they are now cautiously optimistic about the future as they watch Governor Cheryl be sworn in and hopes that they don't have to start from scratch.

It's been bittersweet.

Right.

We did win one bill and the other two have left a lot of promises behind.

Now with Governor new Governor Cheryl coming in, it's going to be very difficult.

We would have to start all over one, you know, get sponsors, become that that voice again in the state to the legislators in the assembly and the Senate.

But most of all, I think because of the time we're living, the intense aggressiveness of ice in our streets right now, just this morning, we've had about five to eight detained persons in Trenton alone.

And so this just leaves us very, very, very at risk.

elected District 32 Assem Katie Brennan joined imm over Murphy's vetoes at a of ice activity are incre upset to hear that Govern out did not sign the Immi into law.

If what are we points?

Um, we really nee sure that the state is us of tools in the toolbox t Um, we have certainly rea in Braddock Park, a few m four people were kidnapped what's happening in Hudson We have to make our voice these stories and make su type of oppression.

The b assembly say they will re introduce the two vetoed with Governor Sherald to Meantime, advocates say t community education, urgi their rights while prepar legislation yet again.

For I'm Raven Santana.

Under in part by the Corporation a private corporation fund funded by the American people.

Yeah, as we mentioned, Governor Murphy went out with a flurry of activity on Tuesday, signing more than 120 bills into law, rejecting others and taking one last step to lock in policies that'll shape the state well beyond his time in office.

From those immigrant protections to regulations on e-bikes, and how about this one, bringing back cursive writing for all third through fifth graders in New Jersey.

The last minute bill signings offer a look at how Murphy wanted to solidify his legacy and the lines he wasn't willing to cross.

For more on that, I'm joined by our senior writer Colleen O'Day, who's been tracking all of those final moves.

Colleen, good to see you again.

Less than 24 hours fresh off the inauguration.

So talk to me about some of the more significant actions that the governor took and I'll throw the e-bike legislation out there as a starter.

Yeah, so you know, we have not had any update in e-bike legislation in six years and there have been some accidents that we've seen around the state.

There were a couple of deaths, although those were not really related to the cyclists and what they were doing.

But what this bill would do would require anyone who is age 15 or older to have a license, either an e-bike license if you're 15, if you're 17 you can have a regular driver's license.

You'd also, so you'd need to be licensed, your bicycle would need to be registered, and I mean there's just been some controversy over this because e-bikes were seen by some as kind of a cheaper way, right, to get around.

So this is going to kind of, you know, require some more licensure.

But Murphy said in signing the bill, and certainly the bill's sponsors said that they think it's necessary to make things safer on the road for these cyclists.

Yeah, particularly I know a lot of the conversation centered around teens and young owners or users, operators, of these bikes, right, will have to see from theory to practice how it works.

But he signed it.

What else in this 120-liter list of bills?

Oh, my goodness, there were so many things.

I mean, one of my favorites, maybe not favorite, I've used that facetiously, is the ban on plastic utensils and single-use packets of condiments.

You know, now if you go to a store and you buy a salad or, you know, I like my egg bites at Starbucks or Dunkin', you automatically get a fork with it.

Well that, theoretically anyway, under this law is going to stop.

You would have to ask for the plastic utensil.

Similarly, if you want some extra ketchup with those fries, you're going to have to ask for it.

Now, that is supposed to take effect at the end of the summer.

Now, I guess the question is just whether that's going to happen.

You know, we stopped supposedly the giving out of single-use plastic straws years ago.

And I mean, I can tell you just when I go into a fast food place, they're still sitting on the counter.

So how effective this might be, I don't know.

Well, they're still there, but they're not handing them out, right?

So maybe that's it's the language.

Maybe that's the bill.

Let me ask you about with regard to Atlantic City.

The governor signed a bill that would allow the state.

There's no wording of takeover in there.

It's what we call it.

But essentially, the state would what be allowed to oversee and monitor the finances of Atlantic City for X amount of years?

Yeah.

So, you know, now since the Christie administration, Atlantic City was in deep financial trouble.

It was on the risk on the verge of bankruptcy.

And so the state went in there, brought in essentially a fiscal monitor and has ever since then been, it's roughly 10 years has been overseeing the finances of the city.

This, this law now will allow the state to stay in there and do that for another six years of things are just not where they the state feels they should be where legislators feel they should be.

Now the local legislators Don Gordy and the Assemblyman and Senator Vince Palestina don't necessarily agree with this kind of continuing takeover.

They would like to see the state kind of trying to phase it out.

They're saying that the state really needs to do something to let Atlantic City get back on its feet again on its own and also to have some more control of things like planning and development decisions.

You also in your write-up of all of this hit on a couple of other things.

A pilot program that has to do with psilocybin, better known to most people as magic mushrooms.

What's happening there?

Is the state looking to get into this industry, much like legalized cannabis?

This is kind of just a first step.

It would allow some hospitals to start doing research and using these to see how effective they might be in treating mental illness.

This is not something that just New Jersey is looking at.

It's something that the National Institutes of Health is certainly or had been supporting both for mental health and also for substance abuse or substance use disorders.

So it's kind of just a, you know, a dip your toe into the water there, a pilot program to see if this is something that could be effective in the future.

Are there other bills he signed, Colleen, that will make tangible changes to voters' lives on the everyday basis?

Yeah, sure.

So near and dear to my heart is this law that will allow people who make a mistake in filling out the envelope that goes with their vote by their mail-in ballot, allow them a chance to correct the ballot if they make a mistake.

So up till now, you know, if your signature has not completely matched, then you have been able to, you know, fill out this form or alert your county clerk and say, "Yeah, no, no, that was me.

I actually did vote that ballot."

And we know that vote by mail has gotten way more popular in recent years.

But if you had a problem with your envelope, let's say you didn't sign that properly or you forgot to seal it, you haven't been able to correct that.

And that was an issue in the last election, at least in Bergen County, where there were dozens and dozens of those that were in contention, and there was a last-minute push to try to get those counted.

They didn't count because it was not permitted.

So the legislature pretty quickly moved that forward.

So now in the future, people will be able to correct those mistakes as well.

What about, Colleen, there was tens of millions of dollars in new tax credits, new spending that both the legislature and Murphy approved at the very end, and what he didn't sign, and what that tells us, quickly.

So there were new tax credits for the film industry.

There's an overall increase by $3 billion in the total amount of tax credits the state can issue.

There's $300 million for the Prudential Center refurbishment, which was quite controversial, because it's less than 20 years old.

A lot of legislators said, hey, the Prudential Center can afford to do this itself.

Things we didn't see, one very, very crucial one that a lot of legislators said was allowing utilities like PSE&G and JCP&L to put an extra charge, a surcharge, on data centers because we know they consume such huge amounts of electricity so that residences and regular businesses would not have to foot the bill for those.

We don't know why, but the governor didn't sign that bill.

Yeah, and potentially now Governor Sherrill's problem, right?

I mean, especially as she looks to freeze those utility rates, a lot of that power usage, of course, being driven by those data centers.

Exactly.

The Pew Research Center had a study last fall that said that in PJM, which is the area that we're in, but it's the whole area, includes the multiple states, data centers accounted for a $9.3 billion increase in electric capacity, which is certainly driving the increases, not only in New Jersey, but in other states in the area.

All right.

If you want to know what else Governor Murphy did on his last day in office, check out Colleen O'Day and Bobby Breyer's story on our website, njspotlightnews.org.

Colleen, thanks as always.

Thanks very much, Priti.

And finally tonight, a dream hatched in South Jersey is heading to the Olympic stage.

18-year-old Isabel Levito of Mount Laura will be competing in the Winter Olympics coming up in just a couple of weeks in Milan, Italy.

The Burlington County native earned her spot on Team USA after placing third at nationals.

Now, Levito is already a star in her own right.

She's a national champion and a world silver medalist.

But this is the biggest stage yet, and Levito will be competing just miles from where some of her family still lives in Italy.

Now, she's not the only Garden State athlete going for the gold.

New Jersey Devils star center Jack Hughes will represent Team USA in men's hockey.

Both are calling it a dream come true, and Levito is reportedly looking forward to the little things, like the Olympic Village and meeting other athletes from around the globe.

We will, of course, be rooting for them as they skate into history.

The Olympic Games start on February 6th.

And that's gonna do it for us tonight.

I'm Brianna 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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