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

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

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

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

Code Blue, as the state recovers from the massive winter storm, will give you the updates on the roads, rails, schools, and what communities are doing to keep residents warm in these cold temperatures.

Then, construction on the long-awaited Gateway Tunnel project will start winding down today, if the Trump administration doesn't unfreeze federal dollars.

And later, the future of the New Jersey GOP.

What's the strategy and messaging for Republicans as they recoup from their November losses?

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

The winter weather wreaking havoc in more ways than one.

Repairs are still underway after a major water main break shut down a busy stretch of Route 1 in Edison, Snarling traffic for thousands of drivers.

Crews from the Edison water utility have been working around the clock since Monday morning to fix the break beneath the highway where four aging pipes intersect.

The leak caused part of Route 1 to sink 3 to 4 inches, according to Edison Mayor Sam Joshi who added the frigid temperatures are not making an already complex repair any easier.

Four valves need to be installed to fully stop the water flow.

As of midday, southbound lanes have reopened, but all northbound lanes remain closed with detours in effect through Route 27 and Route 18.

Now, those are both busy roadways without all the extra traffic, so the DOT says expect heavy delays in and around the area.

Once repairs are complete, the DOT will inspect the roadway before fully reopening it.

Crews anticipate that'll happen later tonight.

Also tonight, a decades-long effort to get smoking banned on casino floors is getting another chance.

This week, a state appeals panel ordered a lower court to re-hear a challenge to the casino exemption in New Jersey's indoor smoking ban.

ruling the case was never given a fair hearing.

It all centers on the 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act, which banned indoor smoking statewide, but carved out an exemption for casinos, allowing patrons to light up on 25 percent of the floor.

Workers backed by the United Auto Workers and an anti-smoking group have argued for years that loophole violated their constitutional rights by exposing them to secondhand smoke, causing illness, cancer and even death among their ranks.

A trial judge tossed the case in 2024, ruling that workers fearing for their safety could find other jobs and that a ban could hurt the gaming industry.

But the appeals court sharply disagreed, saying the judge used the wrong legal standard, relied too heavily on casino-funded studies, and failed to consider competing evidence showing smoke-free casinos can remain profitable.

Legislative efforts to close that smoking loophole have failed to break through, despite strong backing from lawmakers, as officials in the resort town say a ban on smoking could harm casino profits.

The case now goes back for a full rehearing at the trial court level.

And water bills for nearly 3 million state residents could spike later this year.

New Jersey American Water, the state's largest water utility, is asking regulators to approve a 12 percent rate increase.

That will add about $10 a month to the average customer's water bill.

The investor-owned utility says the hike is needed to help pay for more than a billion dollars in water and wastewater infrastructure projects statewide, including replacing aging pipes, removing lead service lines, and addressing toxic forever chemicals like PFAS from the system.

If the Board of Public Utilities approves monthly water bills, will likely see the increase in the second half of 2026.

Customers who also receive wastewater service could see a combined increase of about $18 extra a month.

But the request, of course, comes just as Governor Sherrill plans to deliver on her campaign pledge to bring down utility costs, and a little over a year after the company's last rate hike.

American water leaders, though, argue the investments are needed to prevent bigger problems down the line.

The proposal is now being reviewed by the state PPU.

And coming up as the deep freeze continues, what are cities doing to help residents stay warm and safe while bracing for another possible storm?

That's 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.

The state is still contending with ice, piles of snow, and freezing weather today.

Many school districts started on a delayed opening, with many others remaining closed, calling for a second snow day, as roads remained impassable in some parts of the state, including Jersey City, which got pummeled by the storm and just has nowhere to put all the snow.

Kids there are among those home for a second day now, along with Union City and Patterson.

On the rails, New Jersey Transit continued today on a limited severe weather schedule.

CEO Chris Calori saying they would add more trains for the evening commute after a packed morning rush.

The agency plans to resume regular weekday service on Wednesday.

The bus and light rail are now operating on regular weekday schedules.

It all comes as forecasters are tracking yet another storm for this weekend with the chances of more snow increasing.

And as all 21 counties have issued a code blue advisory, with outreach workers doing their best to bring people off the streets and into shelters.

Raven Santana reports.

I was homeless during the cold blue temperature.

It was extremely cold out.

It's about 80 degrees.

I was currently sleeping in my sleeping bag at a near near playground near Ironbound Park.

As dangerously cold air grips New Jersey, outreach workers say survival for some unhoused residents comes down to minutes.

During a prolonged cold blue marked by single digit temperatures and a major snowstorm, teams across Newark are racing against the cold to save lives.

Our team brought somebody into well got them out of a building and then had to call 911 to get them because they were experiencing frostbite and looked like signs of hypothermia.

And that was in the stairwell of a building.

Richard Uniac is the president of Bridges Outreach, which provides 24/7 support to unhoused residents.

A code blue alert is triggered by freezing temperatures or dangerous wind chills, activating warming centers, shelters and outreach services.

On average, Bridges Outreach teams see at least 100 people a day looking for warmth.

But Uniac says they've seen more people than ever in this stretch of brutal cold, pushing the system to its limits.

They have been extremely helpful.

Bridges Outreach gave me an opportunity.

They gave me housing as well as a seven day stay at the YMCA.

If it wasn't for them, I probably would still be outside.

People can die.

You're going to experience hypothermia.

You're going to experience frostbite.

I honestly thank Bridges because this is not my first time going to Bridges.

I have metal rods on the waist down and so I'm not supposed to be in this cold.

I'm very bad in anemic.

Inside warming centers, staff say fear often lingers long after people come in from the cold.

They came in and I offered them food and some coffee.

It was warm.

This was in the snowstorm, in the peak of it.

They sat down but then they kept getting up.

I said, "They seem really nervous."

I asked them, "Why don't you just sit and rest?"

He said, "I'm afraid."

I said, "Afraid of what?"

He said, "If I relax and fall asleep, at any moment somebody might wake me up and tell me I have to leave."

I had to assure him that we are here for you.

We will not put you out.

We're going to find a place for you.

At the city level, Newark's Office of Homeless Services is seeing demand rise fast.

Director Luis Ulario describes this location as a hub, connecting clients to mobile medical teams, social workers and outreach staff in the heart of the city.

You brought up a story where that in fact did help save someone's life recently.

Absolutely.

There was a concerned resident, you know, alerted us of a senior that was staying in his car in a parking lot of a church.

We actually approached the car, knocked on the door, and he came out and I said, "Hey, we're here to help."

He says, "Well, let me grab my bags.

I'm on my way with you."

But meeting the growing need is becoming harder.

We're also seeing a lot of folks outside of Newark.

That is a trend that we're seeing that is really growing.

Why is that?

Not sure, but I will suspect that a lot of the systems, homeless systems in their areas are just maybe not sufficient or not responding to their need.

We had a family here from Ohio, so they're coming from all over.

The mayor actually partnered with the state and the late, great Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver just two years ago to apply for a grant that we've received.

And actually just now, there are construction crews building out the space on Raymond Boulevard.

It's going to be a state-of-the-art, 24/7 drop-in center that's going to provide services to our most vulnerable in our city.

So we're really excited about that.

As the city braces for another possible storm and more freezing temperatures, officials urge anyone in need or anyone concerned about someone outside to text PATHHOME to 85511.

Messages go directly to street outreach teams who can respond and offer help.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.

It is a race against the clock for one of the most critical infrastructure projects in the country and a lifeline for New Jersey commuters.

At a meeting this morning for the Gateway Tunnel Project, Commissioner Tom Prendergrass said contractors have been notified that construction on the Hudson Rail Tunnel will stop on February 6th if additional federal funding doesn't become available.

The project will begin winding down on both sides of the river today if the money isn't unfrozen.

The pause started in the fall when President Trump announced the Gateway Tunnel was terminated.

Work continued, but now the funds look like they're drying up.

And at today's meeting, Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Josh Gottheimer urged the president to unfreeze the money.

It all comes after the House voted last week to appropriate another $700 million to the project, which has had broad bipartisan support over the last several years.

Joining me for all the latest on it is our Washington, D.C.

correspondent, Ben Hulak.

Ben, good to see you.

No shortage of things to talk about here.

So project leaders warned back in the fall that construction was going to grind to a halt.

These are union jobs, as everyone was reminding folks of today.

Lots of money that's been poured into it.

And now here we are.

What's the issue here?

The current funding is running dry?

That is not the issue.

The issue comes down to one man and that man is President Donald Trump.

He has long had a personal vendetta with Chuck Schumer.

These are two New Yorkers from outer boroughs.

Chuck Schumer from Brooklyn.

Donald Trump was born in Queens and they're having this rough and tumble fight over the future of gateway funding.

Schumer has fought for this project for decades and Trump has really relished twisting this verbal knife in Schumer's side to deny him a victory over the Gateway Project.

There is there is money available in other words.

I would also underscore here that on the Hill this is a project that has bipartisan support.

Elise Stefanik she's a Republican congresswoman from upstate New York put out a statement after this funding cleared.

There's about 700 million that is bound assuming Congress passes spending legislation for the tunnel project.

Now Stefanik said basically this is bipartisan and tapped sort of gave a shout out to our fellow New York state Republicans for pushing to include this money.

So it's not just Republicans done not just Democrats I should say who want this.

It all comes down to Donald Trump who is dead set against the project.

Yeah.

And I mean we should note he spends a considerable amount of time in New York and of course in New Jersey.

He has a golf club here.

And so in the past he had emphasized that he would be behind this project although it's been in fits and starts during his first presidency and again now.

But that ultimately he was convinced that he saw the need.

How down to the wire might this get.

Well so we could really the big question is is there money going to flow out of Congress at all.

There is money.

I mean basically if Trump lifts his Trump gives us the green light the money can flow pretty fast.

The other question looming large is what does Congress do with its current spending talks.

Right now the House passed a bundle of bills late last week and left town.

The Senate is here sort of digging out of the snow in Washington D.C.

and is debating the bills the House sent over.

The sticking point is actually all down to security funding homeland security funding.

And if that is enough to sink this broader spending package then it would actually imperil the funding funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project.

It would also imperil funding for transits transit transit agencies for FIFA for the upcoming World Cup.

We know the final will be host hosted in New Jersey and a whole host of other issues that are not nearly as controversial.

So Ben I mean as you mentioned the Senate is there.

It appears anyway that Democrats are definitely poised to allow for at least a partial government shutdown for that separate political fight over the ice and DHS funding.

What are you hearing from members about that and how this could all really fall apart.

And so it could fall apart pretty fast and pretty easily.

Corey Booker and Andy Kim the two senators from New Jersey both Democrats are dead set against any sort of funding that would increase any sort of package that increases funding for ice.

I would underscore though here and this is something a lot of folks are missing.

There is funding from a Republican law that that was passed into law over the last summer that included one hundred and seventy eight billion dollars for DHS overall and DHS is the parent agency of ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

Those are the two main agencies that have been out arresting people on American streets.

Some documented some undocumented.

But if they're even if Democrats could block all funding for ice and for DHS overall the agency is still running on this bank of billions and billions and billions of dollars that are allocated for the next four years.

In other words Republicans thought ahead about this and put this money aside for the rest of Donald Trump's presidency.

They were thinking ahead back back last summer about Democratic efforts to block ice funding and other security funding.

Wow.

I mean when you put it in those terms it's a pretty stark situation that they're going to be left to contend with.

What are you talking with members about Ben when it comes to largely this spending bill and other points that may hold it up or block it entirely.

It's really down to how people can get, how the Senate can get 60 votes and Democrats, including moderate, more centrist Democrats, are dug in in their opposition to, at a minimum, cut ICE funding or keep it flat and rein in the agency in some way.

So there is a little money, a few million dollars, which in federal terms is a rounding error effectively, to scrutinize the agency more intensely.

For example, body cameras would be funded in part.

But also that's that doesn't necessarily mean these body cameras will be worn or turned on when people are interacting with ICE agents.

So that's the main sticking point.

But this is a massive spending bill that actually is certainly sort of suddenly a rebuke to Donald Trump.

He came in wanting deep cuts to essentially across the board to just about every agency except for the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Administration.

And what Congress has done is come back and said, you know what, we're going to write our own bill, our own law, and we're actually going to increase a lot of budgets for agencies that you wanted to slash.

All right, Ben Hulak for us on the Hill, Ben.

Good to talk to you as always.

Thanks so much.

Well, fallout from a post-election decision inside New Jersey's Republican Assembly caucuses still stirring debate months later.

Veteran Mars County Assemblyman Jay Weber, a former state party chairman, lost a key committee assignment and his leadership role after pushing for a conversation about the GOP's string of November losses.

Party leaders say it was part of a routine reorganization, but supporters of Weber argue he was sidelined for raising uncomfortable questions about strategy and accountability.

Assemblyman Jay Weber joins us now to talk about what led to that moment and the party's direction moving forward, which is most important.

Assemblyman, welcome.

I wonder if you see it as fallout.

And also the big question, which is, what did you want the caucus to consider or to discuss after November, which we don't have to remind folks, five incumbents lost their seats in the assembly?

HENRY: Well, right.

Five incumbents lost their seats in November, but six incumbents lost their seats the November before that.

So in the span of two years the Republican leadership in the assembly caucus lost 11 of its members, almost a third of the caucus, and reduced us to a minority that we haven't been in since Watergate.

23 out of 80 in the assembly is a very small minority.

And so after the election on November 4, I thought it was a smart idea for the caucus to come together and say, OK, where are we going?

You know, time out.

What happened here?

Where do we want to go in the future?

What does this want to look like?

I don't think we should be doing the exact same thing we did for the last two years for the next two years.

It doesn't seem to work.

We should at least consider changing our leadership.

That discussion wasn't even had.

It was shut down and stifled inside a caucus.

The current leader, John DeMaio, and his team insisted on a vote without a discussion, which I thought wasn't particularly Democratic, small d. And I spoke out against it because I thought that was just plain wrong for me, sure, but for the other members of my caucus and, frankly, for Republican voters all over the state.

And your reward or punishment is that you were stripped of that key committee assignment.

As I mentioned, where do you think the party needs to regroup its messaging, given what we saw in November and the numbers, right, the margins?

It wasn't just those seats lost, but also the margins.

And we talk a lot about whether New Jersey is red, blue, or purple.

But even in areas where some big returns were expected, it was meager at best.

Where do you think the party is missing its messaging?

Well, there's still a role for this party in the state, an important one.

You know, the state works pretty well right now for people who can afford to pay $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 a year in property taxes.

For people who don't care what their electricity bills are, they'll pay them.

For people who can afford whatever schools they want to send their kids to, right?

Some people are fine with that.

But I still think that the vast majority of New Jersey and New Jerseyans, they wince when they have to pay property taxes that are as high as their mortgages.

They care what their electricity bills are each month and still figure out ways to pay for them.

And they care about the quality of their kids' schools, that they stay open, and especially for those people who don't have great public schools, the ability to go elsewhere and give their kids an education they deserve.

So there are issues that the Republican Party stands for and principles we hold that I think still resonate and are important for New Jersey to hear.

But it, of course, starts with strong leadership.

And that was the discussion we wanted to have in November.

The leadership in the Assembly didn't want to have that discussion.

That was a shame.

It was a disservice to the caucus, Republicans in the state, and ultimately the entire state, because, again, New Jersey needs a strong minority party that aspires to become a majority party someday.

And I want to be part of that party, the one that wants to become the majority.

- Yeah, well, particularly, right, when we talk about this trifecta that now we've had in Trenton for the last eight years and now is continuing, as you mentioned, with an even larger majority.

The affordability issue, that was something that Republicans had really carried and was a message that was resonating with a lot of folks.

Of course, Democrats talked about it too and took it all the way, clearly, with the governor's race.

But what other issues statewide do you want to see this caucus focus on?

And where do you see your role in that, even without a formal title?

Yeah, I don't need a title to be a leader in the caucus.

I've said many times that there are people with leadership positions in our caucus, and then there are leaders in our caucus.

And I count myself in the second category.

And that won't change no matter what committee assignments I get or meetings I get to attend or don't get to attend or am relieved from, frankly.

But there are many issues that we can advance that I think speak directly to voters that we need to convince to give us a chance.

I mentioned education.

There are wonderful opportunities staring people in the face to leave public schools that might be failing them and their families and go to schools that will teach their sons and daughters well and in a way that they think is most appropriate.

We need to be champions for issues like that and empower parents.

Strengthening the family is again another issue that I think Republicans can really lean into and will resonate with voters who are open to giving Republicans a chance.

And frankly, you know what else we've seen time and time again?

People get tired of a state government that sends $60 billion, raises our taxes every year, and then finds every way to tell us how to live our lives, right down to whether we can use plastic straws at restaurants or take plastic bags from supermarkets.

And now it's you can't have plastic forks, you know, in takeout.

At some point, busybody government gets overwhelming, even for the average New Jerseyan.

And I think those kinds of issues are not just affordability issues, but quality of life issues and frankly, privacy issues will resonate.

And I think it can score with voters in the Garden State.

There's always folks, right, who say we need fresh voices within the party.

No matter what party you're looking at, are you concerned, though, that perhaps fresh voices or different voices are being given way in lieu of experience, in lieu of folks who have been battle-tested and who are veteran members of the caucus?

I mean, I think we're always looking for energy and fresh ideas and fresh voices.

And there's nothing wrong with a mix of people who have some experience and understand politics or have gotten where they've gotten because they're good at what they do.

So, I mean, a good party's, I think, always looking for new energy.

And together with those in the party who kind of have been there before and can see what's coming up around the bend, can be a very strong party.

So I, for one, want to hear more voices, want to bring -- advocate for different leadership, certainly in the Assembly going forward.

But this will be an ongoing conversation of how to hold leadership accountable, how to work together.

My interest is getting the Republican caucus on the same page, moving forward together in a principled way that brings in voices, that allows debate, and then that once the debate is had, moves forward together.

So I think we will figure that out.

The losses from November and the November before that sting, everybody understands that.

And once that sting wears off, we will figure it out and go forward together.

AMNA NAWAZ: Assemblyman Jay Weber, thanks so much for coming on.

We really appreciate it.

BRIANA VANNOZZI, Assemblyman Jay Weber, "Thanks for having me."

AMNA NAWAZ: That's going to 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.

(upbeat music) - New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

And RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

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