BRIANA: tonight NJSpotlightNews, expanding construction from Texas.

Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill proposes a new bill pushing for private health-care plans to cover for your supplies of contraception.

>> the Sticks one thing of the table that we have to manage and makes life a lot easier.

BRIANA: Also, mental health services canceled.

The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education abruptly what the end of its students mental health programs, leaving the school community asking, why?

>> I have seen this is yet another example of several board members attempting to metal in the inner workings of the schools.

BRIANA: Plus, finalizing the Essex-Hudson Greenway.

A $65 million project to transform a railway into a public recreational trail.

And urban hotspots.

Researchers finding populated cities like no work experiencing higher and more intense heat, as the state battles a brutal heat wave.

NJSpotlightNews begins right now.

>> Funding for "NJ Spotlight news," provided by the members of the New Jersey Education Association.

Making public schools great for every child.

RWJ Barnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

And Orsted, committed to the creation of a new, long-term, sustainable, clean energy future for New Jersey.

♪ ♪ >> From NJPBS, this is "NJ Spotlight news," with Brianna Vannozzi.

Brianna: Good evening and thanks for joining us this Thursday night.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

It is becoming much clearer which issues are emerging as possible flashpoint in the 2024 presidential election, as both Democrats and Republicans start fine-tuning their messaging and pushing a big legislative proposals.

Moderate and progressive Democrats appear to be focusing their energy on social issues like abortion and reproductive rights as areas to motivate voters.

New Jersey Congresswoman Mikey Cheryl is leading on a new legislation that would expand access to contraception medication, a fight she's taking on and chaos in Congress over a military Spango.

She joins me now.

Congresswoman, thank you for joining us from D.C. for the show.

Talk to me about the convenient contraception act, how do you go about enabling more people to actually access this bill?

Rep. Sherrill: that is exactly what this piece of legislation is about.

As you probably know, we make and get a three month prescription for birth control.

What this bill would allow you to do is to get a whole year prescription, which would just make it easier to have that kind of access.

We know that the three month limit leads often to gaps in coverage.

When you're talking about family planning and talking about all the different things you can imagine going on whether it is travel or things you might have going on, it is so important to have this longer access to birth control.

We also know that in areas across the country, millions of women are in what we call contraception deserts, meaning they don't have full access to reproductive health care options like contraception and it is really hard for them to access that.

So, making it easier provides much better health outcomes for women.

BRIANA: We have seen Democrats in particular really coalesce around reproductive rights, but are you seeing this as an emerging issue as we eye that express additional race Rep. Sherrill: This is such a key issue.

Many of us were appalled when the Supreme Court ruled back what we thought were just basic, kind of the floor up Texans actions we could expect in reproductive health and health care.

So to see Roe v. Wade overturned -- what the Supreme Court said was that this was going to be a states' rights issue.

What we didn't anticipate or maybe did not want to anticipate, is that that wouldn't be the end.

Now we see so many Republicans coming after reproductive rights nationwide, and they will not stop until they have a nationwide ban against abortion and access to abortion care.

We have seen things like the National Defense Authorization Act where servicewomen who don't have a say as to where you are given orders -- you could be a Jersey girl who decides I will go and serve my country and southerly you are stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas, as I was, and suddenly you have no access to the reproductive rights that you assumed you had in New Jersey.

BRIANA: Let me ask you about that, because your colleagues in the Senate are set to votem possibly well into the night on the National Defense Authorization Act.

It was a little bit chaotic when the house took the vote.

Do you anticipate bipartisanship to get this moved by tomorrow so you can go on recess?

Rep. Sherrill: We passed a bipartisan bill out of committee .

Only one person voted against it in the entire house Armed Services Committee.

Then it hit the floor.

And extremists in the house loaded up with far-right, Draconian measures that were against what most of the American people want to see, things like a travel ban for service members.

Quite frankly, this was the first time I voted against National Defense Authorization Act, it is usually a very bipartisan piece of legislation.

I think it will be bipartisan out of the Senate, because Democrats are in charge and I think they have a commitment to serving our men and women in service and making sure we are not using the Defense act to score political points, but rather to support our men and women in uniform.

BRIANA: Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, thank you so much for your time.

Rep. Sherrill: Thanks so much for having me.

BRIANA: When well today, Congressman Josh Gottheimer unveiled a new bipartisan school safety legislation, joining with other House members in Washington, D.C., and parents of children who were killed in parklands Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

The 2018 massacre left 17 people dead, including 14 students.

The Congressman is making a renewed push for the alyssa act, named for one of the slain students, and in North Jersey native who lived in Congressman Gottheimer's district before moving to Florida.

The bill would require excellent panic alarms in all public schools, to immediately alarm police of an active shooter situation.

A second bill, the sos act, strengthen our schools act of 2023, would increase investments in school resource officers.

Advocates say the legislation will save lives as the U.S. is experiencing a record number of mass shootings.

The increase in gun violence and concerns on school safety are among reasons students have been in need of increased mental health care.

So it surprised a lot of parents this week when the Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education voted to cancel all mental health programs for the coming school year.

A senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports, the fight is on to reverse the controversial decision.

>> Just shock and anger.

>> it was gut wrenching.

It was Shock.

Joanna: parents are still reeling over a vote earlier this week by the Ramapo Indian Hills School Board that did not renew the contracts for two long-standing mental health services provided by the district, one of them called thrive.

>> it is a program that helps students with disabilities, that have deficits in mental health issues like anxiety and depression.

Joanna: like her daughter who has an IEP and was referred to the program for her anxiety.

>> they go to regular classes but if at any point they are having stressed, to go to a separate classroom housed by a teacher that can bring their work there and they can work on their academic work in that part of the environment and then returned back to their classes.

Joanna: she says her daughter went from missing school for almost a month to hardly missing a day thanks to thrive.

The other program on the chopping block, care solace.

>> It's a program that gives parents access via a website to mental health professionals should they find themselves in a situation where their students and or family member is in crisis.

Joanna: but in a vote that ended with a 4-4 guy with one member absent, the contracts for these programs were not renewed.

One board member says the district is just too focused on mental health.

>> our main focus should be on student achievement and helping all our students for graduation ready.

As such, I can't support the two initiatives on tonight's agenda.

These types of programs actually remove parents to some degree in being involved in and supervising their children's mental health.

This is overreached, and I feel that we are becoming a psychiatric institution at this end.

Joanna: she is referencing a familiar theme in school board wouldn't lately -- parental choice.

>> I support mental health the same way I support the Whole Health of our students and that is that parents are more appropriately suited to guide and support their children's mental health.

Parents aren't responsible for their children's whole health, and it needs to stay that way.

>> How would providing mental health services, away from parental rights?

>> It doesn't.

It's as simple as that.

In order for everyone to participate in the thrive program for the care solace program, there must be parental consent.

Joanna: Janelle leaves more parents want the option available to their students she just lost her 19 year old brother to suicide last year.

He graduated only two years ago from Ramapo high school.

>> he is not alone.

His funeral was attended by hundreds from the community and so many parents approached my family and said my teen is going through this.

So if we have a school that has a program that is working for so many students, that helps navigate the health care system for students and parents, why take that away.

Joanna: Plus, parents say there would be no financial savings, because the district could be on the hook for failing to provide services.

>> These students all have IEPs that have Services listed that the district is mandated to provide.

If they cannot be provided in the school, they need to go out to this replacement.

You're talking 50 students.

Joanna: What would it cost to send a student?

>> The superintendent said likely hundred thousand dollars per student.

Joanna: The board is holding a special session that will be open to public discussion.

When they are hopeful this decision will be overturned.

Joanna Gagis,, NJ Spotlight News.

BRIANA: This week the Rockaway Township School District agreed to pay what will be the largest settlement of a bullying case in state history.

$9.1 million for a civil lawsuit brought by the parents of Mallory Grossman, a 12-year-old middle-schooler who died by suicide in 2017 following repeated cyber bullying by her classmates.

According to the lawsuit, students tormented her via text, Instagram and Snapchats, even encouraging her to commit suicide.

Her parents say the school failed over and over to protect her, or act on their pleas for help.

Her tragic act let her parents to create an anti-bullying foundation and helped get a lot law signed last year that strengthens the state's anti-bullying statutes.

The state attorney says that large settlement should send a clear message to all schools around the country that children must be protected.

There is unrest over New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant merck's fight to block Medicare negotiations.

It was previously mandated the Biden administration to help seniors in particular afford their prescriptions.

Merck is calling the White House move extortion.

But groups today turned out in protest, citing grade.

[Protestors chanting] Reporter: protesters from across the nation rallied at MERCK's Raleigh headquarters, calling it to cooperate with Medicare and negotiate for lower prices for the nation's most expensive drugs.

It is part of a Biden administration program designed to make medicines more affordable for the 65 million folks on Medicare.

But MERCK is leading a no holds barred court battle to block the initiative.

>> It is because of price-gouging and greed.

There is no reason we cannot have fair and affordable drug prices!

>> You have seen the stories in the media about people going bankrupt and having to sell their houses to get blood thinners, to get insulin and blood pressure medication, cancer drugs.

Those days are over.

REPORTER: Medicare is expected to announce 10 costly drugs that will kickoff a series of negotiations in December, it could include cancer meds, blood thinners, drugs for asthma and arthritis, drugs many struggle to pay for, advocacy groups say.

Negotiations could save an estimated 98 dollars over the next decade, lower insurance premiums, and save out-of-pocket costs.

>> To say they will not negotiate at all and we have no right to ask them to do so is outrageous.

>> The United States compared to other countries, we pay much more for the exact same drugs they do in other countries.

REPORTER: The coalition delivered a letter to the MERCK CEO, urging him to drop the lawsuit and help Americans afford needed medication.

The letter claims MERCK's actions betray its own mission statement which professes to operate responsibly everyday to enable a safe, sustainable and healthy future for all people.

>> We are asking them to negotiate fair and lower prices.

REPORTER: There are billions of dollars at stake here.

Lower prices could cause the industry an estimated $4.8 billion in the first year of operation of the program.

Drug companies claim, that means less money for developing new medicines.

>> Their research and development costs are half of what they spend on marketing and advertising generally speaking across the industry, so we don't buy it.

REPORTER: It is a lawsuit against the Department of human services and Medicare, MERCK because the program political theater.

Not negotiation, that amount extortion.

They made violets the company's Fifth Amendment right to compensation.

Other drugmakers, both major New Jersey pharmaceutical companies have joined in, as has industry lobbyist pharma.

>> The way the bill is crafted, this is not a negotiation.

This is the government saying you can take it or leave it, and if you want to leave it, here are the consequences.

REPORTER: Brian says firms who refuse or pay large fines will have to withdraw those products from negotiations.

He says the industry instead likes price cap payments.

The lawsuit is expected to land before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

BRIANA: There is new life ahead for an unused rail line in one of the densest parts of the state.

The nine mile stretch of land will be transformed into a public trail cutting through towns that have little green space.

And the state wants your input on what to include.

Ted Goldberg reports.

TED: parts of the old boot entry line show atoms, signs of nearly a decade of disuse.

Other areas like the old Denson Street station have been refurbished and repurposed.

The state of New Jersey hopes the other 8.5 miles of train tracks can be reborn as a Greenway permit and they have invested more than $60 million to help make that happen.

>> I think it's a good thing so people can see nature.

So people do less pollution, and to help global warming.

TED: aliyah lives in Kearny, one of the eight Melissa police that will be part of the Essex-Hudson Greenway, a public recreation trail cutting through some of New Jersey's most densely populated areas.

Earlier today the State Department of environmental protection hosted the first of six listening sessions to hear how people's recommendations.

>> I feel awesome but they will put a park when everybody's ideas from the whole neighborhood.

I think it is awesome.

>> I love the idea.

I am all excited about it.

We have a lot of great suggestions.

TED: The DEP says the first segment should be open by the end of 2025 event so suggestions are popping up, one by one.

>> it would be great to do our show, for up food trucks -- do a band show, pull up food trucks and kiosks, food and bathrooms.

>>>> I have never gotten to see Montclair so I really want to see.

TED: The state of New Jersey paid 65 million dollars to buy the land from Norfolk Southern , the railway company that ran freight trains here until 2015.

The deal was brokered over four years by open space Institute a company that converts private land to public open space.

>> osi and other local advocates have been very adamant that they wanted a strong, public outreach component to make sure that the communities surrounding the Greenway had a say in how it would become developed.

TED: How it would be developed is an issue for the DEP, which is still in the process of sampling and testing soil.

They good portion of this land runs through industrial sites so while pollution is expected the DEP tells me they don't anticipate finding another Superfund site.

Other questions include, how to deal with streets cutting into these Railroad Tracks, and how to handle stormwater.

>> Also, there is the drainage problem of those old railroad tracks.

We have a lot of water that I could but it's right there.

TED: No doubt the DEP will find other issues and hear more concerns from people who live near the Greenway.

>> I am trying to find out about the safety for, say, mugging, stuff like that.

TED: If you want your voice to be heard by the DEP, the next listening session should be in late August.

In a new work, I am Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

BRIANA: In our spotlight on business report, a federal judge is siding with a state law having temporary workers more rights.

It was signed by Governor Murphy earlier this year, providing protections for thousands of temple workers who, for years, spoke out against unsafe working conditions and minimal pay.

This week allows new mandates regarding pay to go into effect starting next week, August 5 that require staffing agencies to pay temp workers the same average rate and equal benefits as permanent employees.

It also blocks pay deductions for things like meals and other expenses that would reduce a temp worker's pay to the aluminum wage.

Part of the legislation is already in effect -- it requires staffing agencies to give workers clear information about their job, the pay, the travel and length of the assignment.

The new law has been tied up in the courts no after the state's business and industry association along with employment agencies, filed a lawsuit in May calling the move unconstitutional, arguing it would hurt businesses.

On Wall Street, markets are reacting to today's store than expected GDP report.

Here is how trading numbers ended.

♪ BRIANA: Dangerous heat is gripping the state this week, with temperatures soaring into the high 90's.

A heat advisory is in effect today from the National Weather Service.

And excessive heat warnings along with advisories are in effect Friday.

That is what oppressive humidity -- that is when oppressive humidity is expected to push the heat index into the triple digits.

Forecasters are also calling for strong storms that could develop well into tonight, causing possible flash flooding and damaging winds.

Scientists recently confirmed Is on track to be the world's hottest month on record, warning, this is just the beginning.

Especially for those living in densely packed cities.

The nonpartisan research Center claimant Central has been tracking what it calls urban zones, and found new work was among the top 44 cities in the nation listed as having some of the most intense heat effects.

For more, I I am joined by my guest Peter Girardi, vice president of communications for claimant Central.

It's great to talk to you.

Obviously we are in the midst of a heat wave.

Never is it more important to talk about all the factors that can make this heat more intense for some people.

You all map that out.

What did you find for Newark and the factors contributing to the intensity here?

GUEST: we looked at the neighborhood phenomena where some neighborhoods because of the way they are built, or simply harder than others.

In Newark, you see that really intensely around the airport, you see it in the iron bound area, where temperatures that the residents feel are often as much as nine or even 10 degrees hotter than those in in cooler places.

BRIANA: And that is because why?

We have so much pavement as opposed to open areas, or are there other factors?

GUEST: That is under the important areas.

There is something that looks at all the materials in a city that either reflect or absorb heat permit what you are seeing are more materials that absorb heat -- dark rooftops, sidewalks, streets, essentially the whole built environment that can absorb heat and radiate it out to people.

And when you don't have parks and green spaces, that exaggerates the urban heat island effect.

BRIANA: OK.

Compare firmly how Newark stacked up against our major cities.

I am talking about our little hood, New York, but also places like Chicago or even on the West Coast or the South where they have seen heat indexes in the triple digits for weeks now.

GUEST: Every city is different, and older cities tend to have exaggerated heat island effects.

When you look at the south, particularly the Southwest, there is certainly a difference.

You turned to see cities with less building height, wider streets and more airflow.

You tend to see later Building -- you tend to see lighter Building Materials in some of them, and that contributes to a slightly lower Urban heat island effect than what you're seeing in Newark and what you're seeing in older, northeastern cities.

Even though they are experiencing more heat, there urban heat island effect is not necessarily as high as what you're seeing here.

The allegation we had The U.N. secretary-general saying that we are out of global warming, we are in global boiling, just recently when we hit the hardest global temperature record in July.

How great of a risk are we at?

GUEST: This is a really significant human health risk, and you are right, the temperature is only going to go up.

You are not necessarily going to see a more advanced urban heat island effect, but that urban heat island effect will increase temperatures on top of these already increasing, soaring heat that we are seeing in July.

So this is something that, in terms of the way it affects people, isn't going away.

It's only going to amplify.

BRIANA: Peter Gerard with claimant Central, thank you so much.

GUEST: Thank you.

I appreciate it.

BRIANA: That will do it for us tonight, but a reminder to download the NJ Spotlight News podcast so you can listen anytime.

I am Breana Vannozzi.

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

,Have a great night.

Stay cool.

We will see you tomorrow.

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More information is online at njrealtor.com.

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♪ ♪ >> Orsted will provide renewable offshore wind energy, jobs, educational, supply-chain, and economic opportunities for the garden state.

Orsted, committed to the creation of a new, long-term, sustainable, clean energy future for New Jersey.

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