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Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, term ending without a US Senate confirmation hearing.

New Jersey's interim US attorney Alina Haba's term will end on Tuesday.

Her fate is now in the hands of New Jerseys federal judges.

Plus, immigrant detention.

A New Jersey military base is being tapped to imprison undocumented immigrants.

This could be sort of a jumping off point for deportation uh to pull people out of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York.

Also dismantling FEMA.

Experts say cuts to the country's emergency response agency will leave residents left to clean up the mess caused by intensifying storms.

To use a British term, gutted.

Absolutely gutted.

It was uh we were so excited to finally fix this this centurylong issue and uh to have it just pulled out from under us is uh is very trying.

and True Grit.

A summer camp for teens with spinal cord injuries gives them a sense of independence and more importantly a little fun.

It's the little things that really make a big difference in my life that even if it's just putting my shirt on or like washing my hair this week or whatever it is, just those little accomplishments mean the biggest things to us.

NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

from NJPBS studios.

This is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Venoszi.

Hello and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagas in for Briana Venoszi.

We begin with the major headlines of today.

First, Alina Haba will likely not become the next US attorney for New Jersey.

Haba's role as interim US attorney ends on Tuesday, which marks 120 days since she was appointed by the president.

That's the maximum amount of time a person in an interim position can serve.

Now, President Trump did nominate Haba to the role officially, but she's never had a confirmation hearing by the US Senate.

And according to statute, New Jerseys US District Court judges have the authority to vote in a new US attorney when a position is vacant and the nomination has not been approved by the Senate.

According to the New Jersey Globe, Haba has reportedly indicated she doesn't have the support of New Jerseys federal judges when they vote on Monday, but she has said that she loves her job and she hopes to stay.

The federal judges are likely to choose instead between two registered Republican candidates for the position.

former US District Court Judge Null Lawrence Hillman and first assistant US Attorney Desiree Grace.

Also tonight, the recisions bill passed its final hurdle to become law.

The House of Representatives voted early this morning to pass the amended version of the Doge bill that cuts $9 billion in federal funding, about eight billion for foreign aid and 1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which includes PBS and NPR.

These funds were already allocated by Congress.

Kate Riley, president and CEO of America's public television stations, released a statement saying the cuts will decimate public media and force many local stations to go dark, cutting off essential service to communities that rely on them.

Following passage of the bill, House Speaker Mike Johnson said, "This isn't the end, it's the beginning."

Public media was first created by Congress in 1967 to serve the public good and encourage development of programming that addresses the needs of unserved and underserved audiences like children and minorities.

Passage of the bill is another big win for President Trump.

This is the first recisions bill passed in more than 30 years.

And US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegsath announced that New Jersey's military base, Fort Maguire Dixs Lhurst was chosen to temporarily house undocumented immigrants.

The announcement came in a letter sent earlier this week to Congressman Herb Conaway, whose district houses the base.

Hegs letter said that housing illegal aliens will not negatively affect military training, operations readiness, or other military requirements, including National Guard and Reserve readiness.

The announcement brought criticism from two Congress members, Conaway and Mikey Cheryl, as well as the ACLU of New Jersey that said in a statement, "Expanding immigration detention to military facilities sets a dangerous precedent and is contrary to the values embedded in our Constitution."

Our Washington DC correspondent, Ben Hulac, first released this story and joins us now to talk about it.

Ben, great to talk to you.

What can you tell us about the announcement from the Trump administration today when it comes to uh undocumented people being held at this New Jersey base?

Secretary of Defense Pete Hexith sent a letter to members of the Armed Surge Services Committee here in the House uh notifying those members um that two bases will be used temporarily to house undocumented in his terms illegal aliens.

so that you can read that as undocumented immigrants.

And one of those bases is the joint base uh Magguire Fort Dicks or Dix Maguire in South Jersey.

And then there's another base in Indiana.

But I talked with Herb Conway last night who represents uh whose district includes the base and he is just as baffled about why the base was chosen and um as the public is at this point.

So there was no formal announcement.

This was just a letter that went from the Pentagon to members of Congress.

There's been plenty of controversy already in New Jersey by folks who don't want to see people housed in some of the existing u detention facilities that we have in the state.

We know Delaney Hall was reopened for that purpose.

Why end up using then a military base rather than Delaney Hall?

Has the White House indicated why they're making this decision?

It has not.

But I will say the administration uh has used military bases or at least has eyed military bases far from population centers to uh to anchor to sort of uh power their deportation agenda.

They've eyed Fort Bliss which is on the border that's in Texas is on the border with Mexico near El Paso as one site to expand uh deportation.

And also uh really this has dominated headlines in recent recent days aside in the Everglades in Florida.

So these are places away from population centers and that's certainly the case uh for for the joint base in New Jersey.

It is away from the you know more populated North Jersey and certainly away from Philadelphia.

So Conway's thought as I spoke to him um here off the floor last night was that this could be sort of a jumping off point for deportation uh to pull people out of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York.

Um we know that Congresswoman Mikey Cheryl, who's running for governor in the state, has a military background.

She put out a statement today saying that she feels this really reduces vital national security and creates a a what she called political theater in a place that should be apolitical which is a military base.

Are you hearing any concern any push back from any of the Republican members of our congressional representation?

I I am not.

Chris Smith also represents the base.

Uh his district overlaps with it.

It's a large sprawling base that's of course been added on to uh over the years.

Historically, decades back, it was called Fort Dicks.

Um, and and now the name is much longer.

But no, I have not heard push back from Republicans.

This really just all emerged in the last 24 hours or so.

Um, there is a bit of a history with a base taking in uh refugees.

In 1999, about 4,000 folks fleeing violence in Kosovo uh stayed there and were moved moved along later.

And then of course uh after the withdrawal during the Biden administration, folks from Afghanistan um were processed there at the joint base.

But this is uh this is the reverse.

This is 180 degrees different.

So this is likely sending people abroad, not bringing them into the US.

Just very quickly, we know that the House did pass the recisions bill.

Along with that, there was discussion on the floor about a non-binding ordinance to release the Epstein files.

Can you just give us some context around what that vote does, what it means?

Right.

Democrats tried to hold this into uh the broader package that you mentioned last night.

This was uh really a furious fight in a key House committee uh before the the full chamber voted and then on the floor.

There was loud.

I was in the chamber at one point and I was too distracted.

I had to leave.

Both sides were just shouting about this.

But this has really enraptured DC uh all week.

this desire to disclose the full Epstein files as you mentioned and the resolution though to answer your question more directly this is a flimsy resolution it is symbolic it is essentially worth nothing yeah okay we'll leave it there Ben Huac Washington Washington DC reporter uh to see more of Ben's reporting you can head to our website njspotlightnews Ben appreciate your directness as always thanks the federal agency FEMA is known to many as the disaster relief program that funds recovery efforts after a storm.

But it's also funded several projects that help communities prepare for and mitigate the impacts of flooding from storms.

The Trump administration is currently working to dismantle FEMA entirely.

And in the process, one New Jersey shore town has just lost a grant to prevent flooding off its main highway, Route 36.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan has the story.

New Jersey got another reminder this week of how quickly flash floods can strike.

It dredged up bad memories for towns like Highlands on the coast where torrential rains rose rapidly eight years ago, blew through storm drains and inundated the town.

Flash floods often swamp Route 36 as Mayor Carolyn Bion.

Often times it completely closes state highway 36 which is an evacuation route.

So it's dangerous.

People would be trapped in their homes with no way out and their cars would be, you know, the water over the uh the dashboard.

To keep its downtown dry and its residents safe, Highlands applied for a special $13 million FEMA flood resilience grant to renovate Kushon Field with an underground detention basin to store flood waters and a pumping station to clear the grounds.

It won all preliminary permits.

But in April, FEMA tanked the entire program, leaving Bruion, to use a British term, gutted absolutely gutted.

It was uh we were so excited to finally fix this this centurylong issue.

And uh to have it just pulled out from under us is uh is very trying.

The president recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been.

It needs to be redeployed in a new way.

As Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome explained on Meet the Press, the new administration shifting FEMA's focus.

She's actually promised to eliminate the agency.

A FEMA spokesman called its flood protection grants wasteful and ineffective.

More concerned with climate change than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.

Any FEMA contract over $100,000 now requires Gnome's personal sign off.

And I can't think of a worse idea to do right now on the heels of a major storm in our state.

New Jersey's Attorney General Matt Plackin this week joined a coalition of 20 states to sue the Trump administration over its decision to shut down FEMA's $4.5 billion dollar building resilient infrastructure and communities grant program, the one to which Highlands had applied.

The president in this country has broad powers, but he's not a king.

he does not have the ability or the legal right to withhold funds that Congress in a bipartisan way came together and said these funds need to be spent to do certain things.

In this case, these funds need to be spent to protect us from floods, natural disasters, wildfires.

A new poll shows a majority of Americans don't want FEMA cut back.

In fact, 36% want it expanded and 30% want it kept the same compared to folks who'd cut or eliminate the agency.

And 59% strongly or somewhat oppose abolishing FEMA versus 27% who'd strongly or somewhat support its demise.

We believe we should be very concerned about what's going on with FEMA at the federal level.

Amanda Deva Reneer co-founded New Jerseys organizing project after Superstorm Sandy.

She'd love to see FEMA reformed so that the problem plagued agency could respond faster with fewer denials and better survivor support.

But following Monday's storm as New Jerseyy's Office of Emergency Management fielded inspectors statewide to see whether flood damage is eligible for federal aid, DevCa Reneer warned, "If that doesn't reach the level of federally declared disasters, we have nothing to support those people in the state of New Jersey."

And it's entirely possible that we could make our own individual assistance program and so that storm survivors could apply for that while we are struggling to reform FEMA and make it work for us.

The Murphy administration had no comment on creating a new New Jersey program, but noted the success of our state's emergency response and recovery efforts has been made possible through the strong and sustained support of our federal partners at FEMA.

Simply put, New Jersey would not be as ready or as resilient today without FEMA's ongoing partnership.

Meanwhile, in Highlands, we're feisty here in Highlands.

We can um we we find ways of doing things where we've you have to come become used to it because until we have a fix, you always have to have a plan.

She says they'll look for other funding sources that don't rely on federal approval.

I'm Brenda Flanigan, NJ Spotlight News.

Another agency that's facing significant cuts under the president's administration is Noah, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and in particular, a research project that was being conducted there called Atlas 15 that helped to predict future rainfall.

That's an important tool for regional planners and civil engineers who are relying on decades old data in their planning and development.

Sarah Kaplan is a climate reporter for the Washington Post who first reported that the Trump administration would be delaying the release of Atlas 15.

She joins us now to explain.

Sarah, it's great to have you with us tonight.

I want to ask you, what is Atlas 15?

Can you explain the research that was going on there?

Yeah, so Atlas 15 is intended to be an updated data set of what scientists call precipitation frequency estimates.

So, if you've ever heard the phrase a one in 100year flood, which means like a flood that's expected to happen once every, you know, roughly 1% chance per year or once every hundred years, that comes from these Noah data sets.

And scientists have known for decades that um the chance of these kinds of rainfall events is shifting because of climate change.

And so, Atlas 15 was going to update the precipitation frequency estimates for the whole country based on historical observations.

and it was going to include um an extra forward-looking data set that would tell us how those estimates could change in the future.

How would that impact regional planners uh civic engineer civil engineers, how would that impact their work?

Yeah.

So, it's these estimates are hugely important.

If you are designing a highway, for example, and you know that it needs a covert for water to go through during an extreme rainfall event, the size of that culvert depends on how much rainfall you think you could potentially experience.

And so civil engineers will look to the Noah data set um to answer that question.

You know, if we're designing for to be able to withstand a 100red-year rainfall event, you want to make sure that you are using the right numbers.

Um, it's also used by flood plane managers to understand, okay, what's the area that could potentially flood during heavy rainfall.

Um, all kinds of uses.

You you broke this story that there was this announcement that the project was being put on hold.

What was the explanation that was given as to why?

Yeah.

So, part of Atlas 15 is on hold.

This is the forward-looking part that takes into account climate change to tell us what precipitation could look like in the future.

and officials within Noah told me that it was intended at um you know commerce secretary Howard Lutnik had ordered a review of that component to make sure that it was you know best serving the American people um but they didn't say how long this hold is expected to last or why they thought it might not be serving.

You mentioned part of the project is on hold.

Explain volume one and volume two and what is being released.

So volume one is based on historical observations.

So for some parts of the country, these estimates haven't been updated in like 20 years or more.

And so making sure that you have when you're sort of saying this is what could happen has a 1% chance of happening, you want to know, you want to include data from the past 20 years.

And that's what volume one was going to do was sort of bring the entire country up to date based on what we know has already occurred.

And then volume two would have been forwardlooking and saying, okay, based on how we know climate will change in the future, how could these things continue to change?

And that's really important for infrastructure because if you're building a bridge or a house or a highway, you want that to last decades, right?

And and within the decades, coming decades, we know that rainfall is going to be getting more intense.

You know, disaster preparedness has never really been a partisan issue before.

It's it's starting to feel like this perhaps is.

Is this part of a trend that we're seeing of of these types of projects being halted?

Absolutely.

Um we have seen the Trump administration um cancel or uh defund a lot of pro pretty much any research that has the phrase climate change in it.

Um in the recent budget proposal that the administration presented to Congress, they proposed zeroing out all climate research at Noah.

Um and they've canled the National Climate Assessment which looks at how climate change is affecting the United States.

Um so this definitely reflects I think the the administration's you know it's part of a pattern of the administration um kind of putting a hold on climate research.

Well, thank you so much for your perspective.

Terrific reporting.

Great to have you with us.

Sarah Kaplan, climate reporter at the Washington Post.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Summer sleepaway camp is a right of passage for so many young people.

But kids with spinal cord injuries face a whole different set of challenges that often preclude them from participating.

That's where True Grit Camp comes in.

On the campus of Ruckers University in New Brunswick, Camp Grit offers more than just activities.

It offers a chance to belong.

Raven Santana visited the camp and heard the powerful stories of the young people whose lives have been changed there.

Nice.

For most teens, summer means sleepa away camps, dorm room chats, and the freedom of independence.

But for young people living with spinal cord injuries, that sense of freedom can feel impossibly far off until now.

I'm diagnosed a C4C5 quadripollegic.

And I'm really just working on daily activities like putting my shirt on, getting dressed in the mornings, brushing my teeth, which yeah, a lot of people take for granted, but it's the little things that really make a big difference in my life that even if it's just putting my shirt on or like washing my hair this week or whatever it is, just those little accomplishments mean the biggest things to us.

So, 20-year-old Micah Mclundon from Chapel Hill, Tennessee, is one of nine participants in True Grid Camp, a unique Sleepaway program in partnership with Rucker University School of Health Professions.

Set on the Ruckers New Brunswick campus, True Grid is more than a camp.

It's rewriting the story of what life after injury can look like.

Now, we're able to accept up to 12 participants and the age range is between 16 and 21.

And the kids are coming from all over the country because like I mentioned, there's not really anything for them at this point um besides us.

So um the cost is we charge a $50 registration fee and there's no additional cost beyond that.

The program's founder, Cassandra Boyd, says the camp offers far more than just dorm keys and schedules.

It offers a road map for life.

We interview everybody before they come.

we do an evaluation and we really learn what's meaningful to them and that's how we schedule camp and that's how we make our program.

So if we have a kid who wants to try lacrosse again, we put lacrosse on our schedule.

Um we do some things every day altogether like going to breakfast in the dining hall and then we give them opportunities just to hang out and be on a college campus together and go to Starbucks.

Then we do things like yoga.

We do things like swimming.

We give them opportunities to try new things.

To be able to see these teens just light up again is everything to me.

Ruter's lecturer and program co-leader Kira McNair says what participants find here isn't just therapy.

It's team support, a purpose and a path forward.

They also really appreciated structure.

a lot of them are have a hard time refinding that structure post injury and a lot of things just look like well I go to therapy or I go to school and that's kind of it whereas um one of our participants he used to be a football player and he said like I felt like I was back on the team right I'm getting up in the morning I have something to do I have somewhere to be all day long and I've got my team with me and that was really meaningful so that was something that we wanted to bottle and keep for 18-year-olds Anthony Presto of upstate New York and Isaac Lima of Rosel Park.

The camp delivered far more than just activities.

It delivered hope.

So, I used to be a cheerleader and so while I was at cheer practice, I was doing some stunts and I fell and unfortunately suffered a spinal cord injury.

So, being here, it gave me like that push to say, "Oh, I can do it.

I can go to a college.

I can go to the classrooms."

I was diving through a pool tube and uh I ended up missing it and breaking my neck.

I've only been injured for a year and like 3 months ago, I wouldn't even go to the grocery store by myself.

So, this was like a really big step for me to be in contact with people and talk to people.

Looks like we got some eggs to uh to load up.

Chew Grid's powerhouse team includes nurses, therapists, and peer mentors, some of whom have traveled this road themselves, like camp mentor Josh Banks.

Can't just put on a different pair of shoes, you know, to go running, right?

We need a $5,000 at least equipment to go and bike, right?

We need equipment to do anything really.

Just so a camp like True is awesome because we have those resources and we share that with others to borrow and use for the time being.

Whether it's learning a new sport, cooking with adaptive tools, or simply bonding over shared experiences, Boyd says True Grit Camp is determined to grow, empowering more young people to build strength, confidence, and the unshakable belief that their future is still full of possibility.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.

Dreams of a scenic 9-mile long greenway connecting Jersey City to Montlair and all the places in between took a big step forward earlier this week.

Governor Murphy joined administration officials and local leaders for a groundbreaking on the project's first phase referred to as the Greenway.

The plan is to transform a long abandoned rail line into a state park similar to Manhattan's popular highline.

Proponents of the greenway believe it'll spark tourism and activity along its route.

One section in Newark in particular will be a onemile stretch between Branch Brook Park and Broadway Avenue.

And plans for that space include a performance stage, a playground, community garden, and more.

Governor Murphy said at the groundbreaking on Tuesday that he expects the park to be transformative for Essex and Hudson counties.

And I think it will rival any, not just the Highline, any other u park uh particularly urban park like it anywhere in the nation.

Um and it'll be particularly g a gamecher for the communities in both Essex and Hudson counties that will benefit um enormously from from this.

And it will benefit this is one of these things that will be benefiting folks many many many decades from now.

That's going to do it for us this week.

But a reminder you can download our podcast wherever you listen and watch us anytime by subscribing to the NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel.

Plus, you can follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky to stay uptodate on all the state's big headlines.

I'm Joanna Gagas for the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

Have a great weekend and we'll see you right back here on Monday.

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