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Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, HABA is out.

New Jersey's district court judges have rejected the president's nominee for U.S. attorney after a tumultuous 120-day term.

Plus, Nurture NJ breaking ground on a new maternal health center to improve pre- and post-natal care.

This is a very exciting moment because this will ensure that all of the great work that I've been doing together with so many thousands of stakeholders will continue.

Also, property tax relief.

Check your mailbox.

The first round of reimbursements for senior homeowners is rolling out.

So there's still plenty of time to find out what you qualify for and to get your application in for these benefits.

And World Cup boost.

A new report projects New Jersey will bring in billions by hosting the tournament next summer.

NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

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

I'm Brianna Vanozzi.

We begin with a few of today's top stories.

First, President Trump's choice to be New Jersey's U.S. attorney is officially out.

A panel of federal judges today blocked Alina HABA from staying in the job where she's served in an acting capacity for the last 120 days.

And instead, selected Desiree Grace, HABA's first assistant, to replace her through a rarely used power, allowing judges to vote on a candidate of their own.

Grace is a seasoned prosecutor and registered Republican who clerked for state Supreme Court Justice Stuart Rabner and with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Her appointment is effective as of today, according to an order signed by Chief Judge Renee Boom.

The decision came just hours after HABA's temporary term was set to expire.

The former personal attorney for President Trump needed either a vote of the U.S. Senate to confirm her nomination or the support of New Jersey's federal judges to continue.

But there is still a possibility HABA could remain on the job after a similar showdown happened last week in the New York federal prosecutor's office and the White House intervened.

Also tonight, the fence have dealt another blow to a state law banning ICE detention.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld a lower court ruling that allows private prison companies to enter into contracts with ICE in New Jersey to detain migrants.

In a two to one decision, the judges sided with the for-profit prison company CoreCivic, which runs the Elizabeth Detention Center.

Attorney General Matt Flatkin today said he was disappointed by the ruling and that, quote, "Entrusting detention to for-profit companies poses grave risks to health and safety."

New Jersey is home to two detention centers run by private prison companies.

Delaney Hall in Newark is the other one, which is run by Geo Group.

It's come under fire recently for poor living conditions that led to a riot and the escape of four detainees last month.

Part of the law that bans state and local authorities from entering into contracts with ICE does remain in place, but the ruling comes on the heels of an announcement by the White House that it plans to house detainees at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakers to help with the ramped up immigration crackdown.

And it looks like New Jersey will be the big winner when the state hosts the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final, at least financially anyway.

A new economic impact report released Monday projects the New Jersey and New York region will get a roughly $3.3 billion boost from holding the world's biggest sporting event.

Eight matches will take place at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, including the final.

A deeper look at the numbers, though, shows a little less than half of the money generated is expected to come from labor income, people who get jobs.

The other half is projected to come from spending in the regional economy, both from people who are and aren't attending the match.

The report was released by the host committee, which is responsible for organizing the games, and also anticipates, get this, 1.2 million fans and tourists will roll into the area for those games, which is now less than one year from today.

First Lady Tammy Murphy got to deliver the news of the World Cup's economic impact in her role as host committee chair.

She also led the administration today breaking ground on a new maternal health facility, planted right in the heart of the state's capital and part of a years-long campaign.

The Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Center is the culmination of First Lady Tammy Murphy's effort to confront one of New Jersey's most urgent health crises, the racial disparities that exist for maternal and infant health outcomes among black and brown families.

Through her Nurture NJ initiative, Murphy has been working to reverse the deep inequities in care.

I spoke with her earlier today about what the new center means for Trenton and why she believes the work must outlast her time in office.

Madam First Lady, thank you for coming on the show.

You launched Nurture NJ in 2019.

Where does New Jersey stand right now in terms of the mission to improve some of those maternal mortality rates, and how does this center represent really what may be seen as the next phase in that?

Thank you, Brianna.

I'm really excited that we have made great progress.

Just in terms of maternal mortality rates, we've gone from 47th in the country to 28th since 2018.

We've also moved on infant mortality from fifth to second, and on neonatal mortality we've moved from sixth to first.

But there are myriad benchmarks at this point in time.

This is a very exciting moment because this will ensure that all of the great work that I've been doing together with so many thousands of stakeholders will continue.

And that's really just something that makes me incredibly happy and proud.

What type of services are going to be offered there that will really target some of these disparities?

So the center is anchored by three different tenants.

We have Rutgers, and particularly Rutgers School of Nursing.

We have Capital Health.

And we have Trenton Teamworks.

And those three work hand in hand to not only provide the education for the perinatal workforce training, which is so urgently needed, as well as a data collaborative, because everything we do is based on the data.

But also, obviously, Capital Health will be the provider of all the clinical services, the wraparound services will also be directed and enabled, communicating with the community together with Trenton Teamworks.

So all coming together and working in conjunction with one another.

We know, obviously, Trenton Proper no longer has an actual birthing hospital in the city.

Will there be a place for folks to give birth in this center?

So really exciting.

We have a slogan in our office that says "Not About Us Without Us," and that means that we pay very close attention and incorporate the community in everything we do.

And we have been on the ground through the Watson Institute at Kean University for the last three years interviewing thousands of people to understand what are the needs actually on the ground as opposed to making an assumption as to what we think the needs are.

The great answer here is that this center is going to be the anchor of an entire ecosystem in Trenton.

We are bringing together a birthing center, a black birthing center, through Greater Mount Zion Church, which is literally next door to the center.

And the Henry J. Austin Center is also nearby.

There's great access to public transit.

There are community gardens and green spaces.

So this is going to create an entire hub and be a place where one can go for birthing, for services thereafter, to understand policy, given we've passed over 70 pieces of policy in this space over the past seven plus years.

So it's kind of bringing everything together.

So we know often the groundbreakings are somewhat ceremonial.

Can you sort of loop us in on what we can expect for the construction and timeline and completion?

When will patients actually be able to walk through the doors and use some of these services?

The center is slated to open in early 2027.

So that's when we expect to have patients walking through the door.

I know that obviously this has been a hallmark of your time with the administration, but what gives you confidence that the work will continue, that this work will sustain and that the outcomes will continue to move in this direction?

This is a nonpartisan issue, which is fantastic.

Everyone loves moms and babies, and I can assure you that with the number of silos that have been broken down over the last number of years and the ability, giving everyone the ability to work together as a team across all sorts of areas, whether you're in health care, whether it's policy, whether it is the faith community, everyone has a vested interest in fixing this scourge.

And my absolute expectation is that with Lisa Asari as the CEO and president of the Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Authority, she is going to spearhead this going forward in ways that will make me and all of us very proud down the road.

First Lady Tammy Murphy, thanks so much for your time and for your perspective.

Thanks, Piana.

Support for The Medical Report is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Well, more than a week after deadly flooding wreaked havoc on the town of Plainfield, residents, state and local officials today rallied calling on lawmakers to pass the Climate Superfund Act.

It's in order to help pay for some of the cleanup and recovery efforts there.

The bill would force fossil fuel companies that have contributed to the warming of the planet to pay for damage caused by storms intensified by climate change.

Ted Goldberg is on the ground in Plainfield with the latest.

Ted.

Brianna, people in the city of Plainfield are still recovering after last week's flash flood.

The city water levels were on average about three feet higher than normal.

And when I drove in here today, I passed multiple houses that had rotten furniture sitting on the driveway or out on the streets.

People came to Plainfield City Hall today hoping they can rebuild with help from the Climate Superfund Act.

If passed, would find companies based on their greenhouse gas emissions since 1995.

These are not isolated incidents.

They are a warning sign of a planet in crisis.

One that is heating up faster than ever because of decades of burning coal, oil and gas.

These are not just natural disasters.

These are political outcomes, direct results of systems that protect corporate profits over people.

The fossil fuel industry has known for decades that their products cause climate change.

That's no secret.

They have known this all along.

They chose to lie.

This is your life.

This is the lives of your children and your grandchildren.

And as so many speakers have said, we're not doing enough in New Jersey.

Who cares what they do in Washington?

Who cares what the fascists want to do?

States can act.

States can act.

Similar laws have been passed in other states.

But the Trump administration signed an executive order directing the U.S. Attorney General to go after states with laws regarding climate change.

Vermont and New York are defending their climate superfund laws in court.

While leaders and advocates here are confident those laws will stand.

We fully expect court challenges, but at the same time we're going to make this bulletproof.

We're watching what the courts might think is less than sustainable, and we're making sure that that's not an aspect of our bill.

So we're kind of taking the best of Vermont, best of New York, and being certain, again, that's where I'm getting the bulletproof from.

There is strong precedent for assessing polluters for their pollution and for the damages caused by that.

We don't have to look further than the original federal superfund bill, as well as the New Jersey State Spill Act, both of which held polluters liable for their historical pollution.

So what would a superfund be spent on if it passes?

Things that municipalities and the state might not be able to afford.

It will fund the rebuilding of our infrastructure, support disaster relief, and protect our communities from the storms ahead.

As individuals, as municipal councils, even as counties, we lack the funds to properly repair what has been damaged and to remediate against future disasters.

We just, we can't do it.

Not alone.

These funds will go directly to climate adaption, flood protections, stronger infrastructure, and emergency response systems for overburdened towns like Raleway and others.

But this is not just about Raleway.

It's about every town along the Raleway River, about every town that experienced extreme flooding.

Upgrade our retention systems to be able to get people out of harm's way, to better predict storms, even just things like having more cooling centers and more microgrids.

The business community has pushed back on this bill, saying it's unfair to penalize companies for doing things that have been legal over the last couple of decades.

There's also been pushback from some saying that this bill will make energy prices in New Jersey more expensive.

A longstanding debate that doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon.

In Plainfield, I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

For the first time in roughly 30 years, Jersey shore towns won't be able to count on federal money to help pay for beach replenishment projects, which are needed to protect the sandy shores from erosion and to keep tourists coming.

Local officials tell senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan they're losing tens of millions of dollars needed to do the work, and that there's a good possibility the funding won't be restored next year either.

For the first time in almost 30 years, the flow of sand and dollars for beach renewal down the Jersey shore has stopped.

Army Corps projects in Ocean City, Stone Harbor and Avalon, among others, got zeroed out by the Trump administration.

For Avalon's mayor, that strip of sand is his town's first line of defense during severe storm surges.

If we don't have the beach in front of it, now it starts getting into our dune system and our protection, the next level of protection, and eventually it would get to the properties and get to the houses.

John McCarston says Avalon on its own scraped up and moved 40,000 cubic yards of sand to bolster eroded beaches along the island's north end, an emergency stopgap paid for with local tax dollars.

But he says Avalon needs 400,000 cubic yards, and that'll cost millions they can't afford without federal aid.

So whatever our original budget projections were, they're gone.

Will there be a tax increase?

I would venture to say that's a darn good possibility.

Even worse for shore towns, the House Appropriations Committee approved just $60 million for Jersey Beach replenishment in fiscal year 2026, instead of the typical $200 million.

It's part of budget cuts driven by the Trump administration that blindsided these solidly Republican towns.

When you think that you have a great Republican group here that are working so diligent for the people of South Jersey, how it slipped away, no one has an answer for that right now.

And hopefully it will be back.

But it was something we never, truly never expected.

It would be disastrous.

Democrat Frank Pallone says New Jersey's shoreline depends on regular federally funded replenishment, averaging $100 to $200 million every year, and that erosion and property damage from severe storms would cost taxpayers even more to fix without regular renewals.

This is only the first stage of what Trump and the Republicans have done to try to cut back on future punishment.

And there are a lot of people on a bipartisan basis that will work to try to make sure this doesn't happen.

Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew, who represents these shore towns, told the Philadelphia Inquirer he's also pushing to renew beach funding in 2026.

But at the same time, we're looking to make beach replenishment more sustainable.

We're working on solutions to reduce the cost of replenishment and mitigate erosion.

I want to believe someone made a mistake and that it's not an abandonment of our coastal communities because that's sure how it feels.

Jersey's DEP commissioner explains the federal funding stream has consistently repaired New Jersey beaches.

It's cost over three billion dollars since 1936.

I know there are some who say chasing after the sand and putting it back is, you know, throwing good money after bad.

I understand that folks make that argument.

What we're talking about is protecting life and property and the economic vitality of one of our biggest industries, our tourism industry.

So we can't just stop.

You've been trying to hold a shoreline in place for five decades now that is trying to move.

And it's just going to get harder and harder in the future.

Erosion expert Robert Young claims New Jersey shore towns could charge hotel taxes to raise money for beach renewal.

But Young warns trying to keep barrier islands from shifting even as sea levels rise.

It's going to get more expensive and you're going to have to do the projects more frequently.

And nor'easters are going to take that sand away faster and faster.

That's just the way it is.

We keep trying to build on an edge that the ocean wants to reclaim for itself.

I think we're going to have to rethink that a bit because we're not going to be able to defend everywhere if this very big historic subsidy from the federal government disappears.

Coastal ecology expert Tim Dillingham agrees the day of reckoning is moving closer with shifting political priorities up against shifting sands.

I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

In our Spotlight on Business report tonight, the check is in the mail.

The state's first round of property tax relief payments for seniors is on the way according to the Treasury Department.

And more payments will be processed each week.

But there are several tax relief programs residents can take advantage of to put money back in their pockets.

Our budget and finance writer John Reitmeyer joins us now for what seniors need to know so they don't miss out.

John, good to see you.

I really want to break down what these programs are that people may be eligible for because I feel like there's quite a few.

So can you just walk us through what each of these property tax relief projects aim to do and who might be eligible for them?

Sure.

And it's good to be with you also.

We can start with the program that is already sending out benefits right now to an initial batch of recipients.

And that's called Senior Freeze, which senior citizens and disabled homeowners in New Jersey are eligible to receive if they meet certain residency and income requirements.

And that's funded with about $240 million in the annual state budget.

And then next month, you will begin to see letters go out and applications opening up for a program, a much bigger program called Anchor.

And the Anchor program benefits millions of New Jersey residents.

This is homeowners and renters of all ages if they meet income and residency requirements.

And this program is funded with more than $2 billion out of the annual budget.

And what we've been told is the benefits for Anchor recipients will begin to be distributed by mid-September.

So next month, you'll start to see some application windows open, but there's a big group of Anchor recipients who also get their applications filed automatically by the state.

And so they'll just get a letter that says, "You're in the works to get your benefit again."

And then looking ahead to the beginning of next year, there's an altogether new program starting up.

This one also benefits a group of senior homeowners, but the income ceiling for this program, it's called Stay NJ, is a lot higher than the income ceiling for the Anchor and Senior Freeze programs we've already talked about.

And this one is funded with $600 million in the new state budget that was just enacted at the end of June.

And then we also have some other smaller programs, and also costing a lot of money in the annual budget, in what's known as a tax expenditure, is an income tax deduction that is provided to many New Jersey residents, either for property taxes paid or for a portion of rent that's paid.

And that's an acknowledgment for a lot of renters.

They actually pay property taxes indirectly through the monthly rents that they pay their landlord.

So for the main programs that folks should be aware of, Anchor, Stay NJ, the Senior Freeze, of course these income tax rebates that you're talking about, but how can folks apply?

Do they need to go online and file a different application for each one of these?

That's, I think, the best way to do it.

The state also, for some, has sent out information, but some of this is changing, especially for senior and senior homeowners.

This is something that we should highlight.

There's a new form that debuted earlier this year called the PAS-1, that for senior citizens in New Jersey, you can now file your application across the different relief programs in one single application.

And this is something that seniors in New Jersey had complained about for a long time, that it was a very complicated process.

You have different applications with different income requirements and standards, and there was an effort made to tighten this all up and create one common application.

And this one is already out there.

It's available online.

It has also been mailed out.

And for these programs for seniors, the application deadline is October 31st.

So there's still plenty of time to find out what you qualify for and to get your application in for these benefits.

And for something like Anchor, the senior freeze benefits for homeowners can be up to $1,750.

So it's well worth your time to check in and potentially even higher if you're one of these senior citizen homeowners who qualify for these enhanced benefits provided through what they're calling Stay NJ.

Yeah, it's a good point.

Potentially thousands of dollars that you can recoup.

All right.

You can find all of the information out about these property tax relief programs and more of John Reitmeyer's reporting on our website, NJSpotlightNews.org.

John, thanks so much.

You're welcome.

Support for The Business Report is provided by the Newark Alliance Presents the 2025 Halsey Fest, featuring the vibrancy of Newark's Arts and Education District and Halsey Street.

Halsey, a neighborhood built on hustle and heart.

The 2025 Halsey Fest schedule is available at HalseyNWK.com.

Before we leave you tonight, we have an update on the governor's race.

NJ Spotlight News has confirmed Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli will tap Morris County Sheriff James Gannon as his pick for lieutenant governor.

As first reported by NJ Globe, the 64 year old is a decorated law enforcement officer from Democratic nominee Mikey Sherrill's district.

A formal announcement is expected tomorrow and we'll have more on the story then.

For now, I'm Brianna Van Osie.

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

Have a great night.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and by the PSCG Foundation.

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