Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by the members of the New Jersey Education Association.

Making public schools great for every child.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

New Jersey Realtors, the voice of real estate in New Jersey.

More information is online at njrealtor.com.

And Oriston, committed to delivering clean, reliable, American-made energy.

Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, Haba will stay on the job.

President Trump is trumping the formal process to keep Alina Haba in place as the state's top prosecutor.

Before she could become the acting U.S. attorney, they had to first pull her nomination from the Senate.

Plus, lawmakers meet with commanders at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst after the Trump administration says it'll be used to detain thousands of undocumented immigrants.

The idea that our own country is shutting down transparency on what they do, and our core issue as members of Congress is that oversight.

Also, stock trade scrutiny.

Representative Tom Kaine Jr. and other members of Congress are under fire for their personal stock trades.

And students at this summer's Alvin Ailey Camp aren't just gaining confidence in their dance skills, but also in themselves.

Ailey Camp has taught me so much, not just about dance, but over the years I've learned how to be confident within myself, how to be resilient, how to grow, and how to show my emotions.

NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

♪♪♪ From NJ PBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vanozzi.

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

I'm Brianna Vanozzi.

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

First, President Trump's former lawyer will remain the top federal prosecutor of New Jersey.

The Justice Department Thursday night appears to have found a workaround for Alina Haba to continue in her role as acting U.S. attorney for the state instead of as interim U.S. attorney, ending a standoff between New Jersey's federal judges who ousted her and the White House, at least for now.

In a complex maneuver, the Trump administration on Thursday withdrew Haba's formal nomination to the post and appointed her first assistant U.S. attorney.

The job was held by career prosecutor Desiree Grace until earlier this week when she was fired by the White House.

That was after the state's federal judges voted to have her replace Haba when her term was set to expire this week.

U.S.

Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim immediately fired back on the move, calling out the administration for bypassing the courts and the required advice and consent of Congress, saying the "relentless attacks on the court are not only disgraceful, they're knowingly hypocritical."

Tracy Tully of The New York Times joins us now to explain how the power struggle unfolded.

Tracy, thanks so much for giving us some of your time.

Let's start with what felt like this pretty extraordinary moment yesterday.

Can you sort of walk us through how this workaround all came together to enable Alina Haba to stay in this role?

My understanding is that typically the interim U.S. attorney could be named acting, but only if they haven't been formally nominated by the president to be for Senate confirmation.

So Ms. Haba had been formally nominated for Senate confirmation, even though it wasn't likely, given that New Jersey senators have criticized her first four months in office.

So before she could become the acting U.S. attorney, they had to first pull her nomination from the Senate.

And on Tuesday, they had created a vacancy as first deputy or first assistant by firing Desi Grace, who Ms. Haba had actually put into that position in April, so soon after she was named to the job by -- or sworn in by Pam Bondi, the attorney general.

How rare, Tracy, is this kind of standoff and the use of this procedure by the DOJ, by the White House when it comes to an appointee in a role like this?

I don't know over time how common it is.

I don't -- my sense is it's not terribly common, but it in fact happened just like 10 days ago in the Northern District of New York, so based in Albany, where there was a similar situation involving a U.S. attorney, Mr. Sarkoni, who had been placed in the temporary 120-day position by the attorney general.

And then the judges there did nothing.

They declined to extend his term, much like happened in New Jersey.

Yes, it is definitely a workaround.

What are your sources telling you about the effect, if there is an effect, on the day-to-day operations within the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey?

I mean, I know we called a couple of times this week out of the confusion and asked the receptionist who answered, who's the U.S. attorney right now?

And they told us, that's a great question.

What type of effect is it having?

I mean, there has been a practical effect.

I think that even prior to this week, the morale was low for a variety of reasons, including staffing levels.

But then this week happens, and there's such, you know, so topsy-turvy.

And functionally, I'm told, my reporting shows that they stopped grand jury presentments this week, because there was such uncertainty about what was going on.

And assistant U.S. attorneys were apparently told not to send what they call "informations," I believe, to the front office, because there was a lack of clarity over who might be able to sign it.

It's had a practical effect.

And so what happens now with Desiree Grace?

Will she be able to reassume her old job if Alina Haba is, in fact, the acting U.S. attorney?

Unfortunately, she's out of a job, I think, short of something else happening.

And given this week, I wouldn't preclude that.

But she's a very, very well-regarded assistant U.S. attorney.

She became first assistant.

Ms. Haba put her there.

And the judges thought highly enough of her to make her the U.S. attorney, which is not unheard of.

This has happened 48 times, but my reporting shows since 2007, where the judges, a judicial panel, actually appoints the U.S. attorney, even though there were some social media comments about how this was, I believe the White House called them "rogue judges," which is -- it's really more common than that.

But she'll, unfortunately, I think, be looking for a job.

Tracy Tullys with The New York Times.

Tracy, great reporting.

Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Thank you.

Another big headline we're following tonight, outcry over the widespread famine in Gaza.

A United Nations aid agency said this week that the hunger crisis in Gaza has reached -- quote -- "new and astonishing levels of desperation," with one in five children malnourished and a third of the population not eating for multiple days in a row.

Officials with the World Food Program went so far as to say people in Gaza are neither dead nor alive.

They're walking corpses.

Israeli officials have blamed Hamas for blockades that continue to prevent humanitarian aid from trickling into the Gaza Strip.

Here in New Jersey, advocates have been speaking out in defense of Palestinians.

In Montclair on Thursday night, a group gathered calling for an end to what they say is a forced starvation, banging pots and pans and waving Palestinian flags in solidarity and demanding action by the government.

Meanwhile, after a marathon hearing in Trenton, lawmakers on Thursday night passed a controversial bill to adopt a statewide definition of anti-Semitism, which uses language crafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, raising free speech concerns by critics, who worry it criminalizes any criticism of Israel, while supporters cite rising rates of anti-Semitic hate crimes as reasons why the state needs to codify the bill.

And immigrant advocates are cheering an announcement by Union County officials that they won't sell the shuttered county jail to any buyer who plans to use it as an ICE detention center, saying it wasn't in the best interest of the county's residents.

Now, county commissioners voted in March to accept proposals from interested buyers, stirring concerns that they'd opt to sell the building to a private company that could enter into a contract with ICE.

Activists who protested outside last night's meeting were surprised by the move, calling it a huge victory.

Concerns over the future of the jail were heightened after an appeals court decision earlier this week.

It upheld a lower court ruling that allowed private prison companies in New Jersey to continue to detain migrants for ICE at two other facilities in the state.

Meanwhile, plans to use a South Jersey military base as a holding site for undocumented immigrants is moving forward.

As we've reported this week, the Trump administration approved using Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst as a detention center with the capacity to house up to 3,000 detainees.

But a few other details have been released.

Democratic Congress members Herb Conaway and Donald Norcross today dropped in on the base to find out for themselves.

Senior political correspondent David Cruz was there.

Policy announcements from the federal administration can sometimes seem like they're written in disappearing ink.

So an idea to house or incarcerate, depending on your point of view, thousands of undocumented immigrants on the Joint Base is subject to change.

And for the two Democrats who visited the base today, that was an important takeaway.

The base does not have any plans on where this may or may not be located.

That will, if it comes, will come from DHS, the requirements that they will need.

And that's part of the concern, say the lawmakers.

Congressman Conaway says ICE, which is in the Department of Homeland Security, has had a less than stellar track record of running detention facilities, something they almost always hire private companies to do.

See Delaney Hall in Newark, operated by the GEO Group.

Conaway says the visit today confirmed to him that nobody seems to know what's next.

Quite frankly and in fairness to the commanders on the base, they are as much in the dark as we are about what may happen.

We're confident that the commanders at Joint Base MDL will conduct their mission as they're ordered, and they will do that dutifully and responsibly.

I have to say I am much less sanguine about DHS and ICE conducting their mission and their taskings responsibly and according to our constitutional principles.

The 40,000-acre base, whose main mission is refueling and other tactical support missions around the world, has expanded in the past, harboring over 14,000 Afghan refugees in 2021.

Food, lodging and even English language classes were provided.

So was the Department of Defense operation noted Norcross, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

It's just another example of what it's been like trying to deal with the federal government.

I have never in my 11 years of being in Congress have been shut out by our own government trying to get the information on what might or might not happen on a base that happens to be in our backyard.

The idea that our own country is shutting down transparency on what they do, and our core issue as members of Congress is that oversight, and that's not happening.

An appeals court ruled this week that New Jersey could not block private prison operators from running immigrant detention centers in New Jersey, clearing the way for corporations like GeoGroup to make a beeline for the base, something they told their shareholders they were expecting to do this year.

So while there may not be a lot of details, there's plenty of anticipation in some quarters that the joint base will soon be open for the detention business.

I'm David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.

In our Spotlight on Business report tonight, Congressman Tom Kaine has come under fire for ethics and transparency surrounding his stock trades.

The second-term Republican is facing scrutiny for quietly walking back a high-profile campaign pledge to place his personal assets into a blind trust.

Kaine made the issue a centerpiece of the hotly contested race where he ousted then-Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski over stock trades Malinowski failed to disclose.

But according to new reporting by NJ Advance Media's Riley Yates, Kaine now says restrictive rules by the House Ethics Committee made it impossible to follow through.

Riley Yates joins us now to help break down the political implications.

Riley, let's start with this promise that Congressman Kaine made in 2022 that he would move his assets into a blind trust.

What's the official explanation from his camp as to why it hasn't happened?

Well, so as you probably know, and just to give your viewers a little bit of a tutorial, a blind trust is set up to separate a public official from their investment so they don't know where their money's going.

And the idea behind that is that it protects them from conflicts of interest when they vote.

If they had money in gas interests, they know not to--they can't vote their pocketbook.

And it also prevents them from using insider trading, so you know something's going to happen and you invest in a company to make money on that.

And so Congressman Kaine had vowed to take his--put his money in a blind trust in that way, and he said that the rules that the Ethics Committee had enacted were too cumbersome and that it prevented him from doing sort of common-sense investment ideas that he wanted.

And specifically what he wanted to do is he wanted to make sure that his money didn't go toward foreign adversaries, so he didn't want to invest in, say, like Chinese companies.

And also he wanted to make sure that he didn't--his investments didn't short-sell American businesses, which is an investment strategy where you kind of bet that a business is going to perform poorly.

So he didn't want to be betting against American companies.

So it sounds like a fair argument, and yet as you report, he's worth about at least $12 million.

A lot of that, of course, it appears anyway, from family trusts that had been set up.

Of course, he's from a political dynasty, but he made about $270,000 from those investments, which is more than his congressional salary.

But I guess how does that argument stack up, and are these the types of earnings that you make when you're someone who has $12 million that's being invested?

Well, certainly his critics don't accuse him of, you know, flip-flopping on this issue and promising one thing when he was running for election and delivering something else.

You know, it should be noted that when he was elected in 2022, it was in a pretty bitter race against a Democratic incumbent, Tom Malinowski, who had been dogged by accusations that he'd failed to timely disclose stock trades.

And so Tom Malinowski ultimately did establish a blind trust, and I talked to him for this story that I did.

And he said, yes, it can be hard to do, but I was able to do it, and he said it was very expensive for me to do it.

I lost between 15 and 20 percent of my assets when I did that.

And also potentially the seat, right?

I mean, it was a big factor.

It's a battleground race.

Let me ask you, there are, though, other Congress members, Josh Gottheimer, Mikey Sherrill, who's running for governor, who's faced scrutiny over the same issue.

Josh Gottheimer, for example, has said, yeah, these rules are really onerous, and it's a real hit to follow through with this.

Could these same issues, dog cane all the way through this next campaign cycle in 2026, are we likely to see this come up again?

Oh, I would certainly imagine it.

This seems to be a very popular line of attack right now.

And this is a very important district.

The 7th District in New Jersey, which is what Congressman Kaine represents, is considered to be the one swing district in New Jersey.

And there's eight seats right now that separate Republicans and Democrats for control of Congress.

And so Democrats are very eager to try to pick up a seat wherever they can.

And so this will definitely be a battleground.

We should note the argument from Kaine's lawyer is that he's divorced from his investments, and he doesn't have any decision-making in that.

How do you think that will fall with voters who, as you point out, these are issues that have really been put in the spotlight?

Yeah, and you just don't know.

I spoke with one expert who said, well, you know, there's an argument that Kaine is doing the best he can, and ultimately voters are going to have to decide that.

You know, it probably depends on where you fall in the partisan landscape.

All right.

Riley Yates with NJ Advance Media.

Great reporting.

Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Thanks so much for having me.

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.

And the spirit of dance is returning to the heart of Newark through Ailey Camp, a six week annual summer dance program that teaches more than the art of ballet or hip hop, but a celebration of culture, confidence and community.

As senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports, every step tells a story.

Resilience means to me, it's like really being tough and believing in yourself when you're going through tough, going through hard times.

Resilience means to me that you should always keep trying to never give up and you should always put in the effort.

Resilience is the theme of this summer's Ailey Camp, named after Alvin Ailey, renowned dancer and founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

The camp has 10 locations around the country, and one of them is right here at Newark's Arts High School.

One of the highlights for me, and it's something that Mr. Ailey wanted and it's still going on.

This is the 36th year of Ailey Camp, is that the program is free.

So where can you go and send your child to have a quality summer experience?

Six weeks, 830 to 330, they go on field trips, they get all of their attire, their dance wear, breakfast and lunch daily.

And then there's the dancing.

Step forward, toes, heel up.

Which covers a range of genres and styles that these 88, 11 to 14 year olds may not otherwise have access to.

From West African dance, to ballet, jazz and modern dance, the students are selected to be part of the program, but it's not based on their proficiency in dance, rather on their willingness to learn and grow, which is what this camp is really all about.

We're looking for campers who have an interest in the art form, but we offer a lot more than just dance.

There's creative communication, which is an art class, and they do learn all the different techniques, but throughout it all, it's just about bonding and social interaction.

It's just six weeks of self-discovery.

And problem-solving skills that are taught in the personal development class, which they call PD, and that co-director Cherise Hill says is the cornerstone of this six-week program.

Our curriculum is very enriching.

We have a plethora of classes that teach our children resilience.

They learn hygiene, conflict resolution, how to manage peer pressure.

They're given a lot of tools to help them be full citizens of today's society.

I will listen to learn.

AileyCamp has taught me so much, not just about dance, but over the years, I've learned how to be confident within myself, how to be resilient, how to grow and how to show my emotions, not just with dance movements, but in PD, we're able to express ourselves.

And starting AileyCamp, I used to be shy, but now I'm able to express myself, not just with the movement, but with other people around me and my surroundings.

It's given me that space of emotional maturity.

It's definitely advanced me in that skill.

That's a big thing, a part of me, mental health is such a big thing.

When I talk to people, first thing I talk about.

So definitely that matured me and who I am as a dancer especially.

And then there's the growth they experience in their art form that these students say is directly tied to their emotional growth.

I've always struggled growing up expressing myself and I always try to keep it in.

But when I'm dancing, I'm expressing myself through the movement and through the algorithm of the music.

No matter if it's West African, jazz, hip-hop, I'm able to express myself and I think that's what AileyCamp showed me.

The program is possible because of funders like Prudential Financial and a partnership with the Newark Public Schools that provides the school space.

It's a beautiful partnership to see the doors of Arts High School open every summer, welcoming the youth to experience dance, the arts, creativity, and just personal growth.

The absolute most rewarding part of this job is actually seeing the campers go through the summer, come out with the other side enriched, empowered, pursuing their goal, being able to speak up for themselves, being able to understand that the world is their oyster and they can go ahead and conquer anything.

The program ends with a final performance on August 6th in front of family and friends at NJPAC, a moment where these young dancers demonstrate the transformation that happens when someone believes in them and they believe in themselves.

In Newark, I'm Joanna Gagas, NJ Spotlight News.

And finally tonight, the gubernatorial tickets are now set.

Democratic nominee Mikey Sherrill today announced she's picked Dale Caldwell as her lieutenant governor running mate.

Caldwell is the president of Centenary University and pastor at the United Methodist Church.

We'll have a deeper dive on the candidates next week.

That's going to do it for us, 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 up to date on all the state's big headlines.

I'm Brianna Van Osie.

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

Have a beautiful weekend.

We'll see you right back here on Monday.

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.

Public service, it's what we do.

At the PSCG Foundation, through volunteer hours, partnerships, and our other contributions, we're committed to empowering communities.

We work hand in hand with you, our neighbors, to educate young people, support research, environmental sustainability, and equitable opportunities.

Provide training and other services all over New Jersey and Long Island.

Uplifting communities, that's what drives us.

The PSCG Foundation.

Look at these kids.

What do you see?

I see myself.

I became an ESL teacher to give my students what I wanted when I came to this country.

The opportunity to learn, to dream, to achieve.

A chance to belong and to be an American.

My name is Julia Torriani-Crompton, and I'm proud to be an NJEA member.

[Music]