>> Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM insurance group.

Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield New Jersey.

And by the PSEG foundation.

reg.

voters inspired by the change at the top of the Democratic ticket are signing up to vote.

>> She has a cleaner slate so I'm definitely excited.

>> Replacing Menendez.

Governor Murphy facing pressure to pick Congressman Andy Kim to fill the seat of the resigning senior senator.

>> New Jersey will accrue more seniority in the Senate.

The Senate is steeped in tradition and runs on seniority.

>> Transit troubles.

NJ transit issues are not only on the roads and rails.

Employees raise allegations of abuse and harassment on the job.

>> They interviewed witnesses, interviewed her multiple times.

Little or nothing was done according to her.

>> A state investigation finds discrimination against disabled students trying to attend class.

>> Many students have been excluded and shouldn't face the consequences of schools not having the processes in place to reintegrate them into the community.

>> NJ Spotlight News begins now.

♪ >> From NJPBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

>> I'm Raven Santana.

Voter registration surged after President Biden bowed out of his bid for reelection and Kamala Harris took his place at the top of the ticket.

According to vote.org it prompted a surge of voter registration driven by young voters varied Americans between age 18-34.

Youth voter turnout had been low in previous elections for both parties but Harris' campaign announcements sparked enthusiasm among Democrats.

As our Senior correspondent reports, Harris is trending on social media.

>> 59-year-old Kamala Harris took the torch Joe Biden past her and sprinted to social media to connect with young voters.

She is all over TikTok which hailed her as brat, a description meaning edgy.

Posts like this have logged over 700,000 likes.

The Harris campaign hit a demographic she needs to mobilize younger voters, minority voters.

Polls show they felt apathetic about the election.

Harris rushed to reengage them, putting endorsements on Instagram.

>> We called to say Michelle and I couldn't be prouder.

>> The Obamas phone call trended.

She is trending on campuses.

Students talk about her replacing Biden.

>> She was his vice president but she has a cleaner slate than him so I'm definitely more excited.

>> It will be better for the black community.

>> Joe Biden has been in politics for a lot of years.

There is a lot of younger voices that need to be heard.

>> The shift is quantifiable.

In the 48 hours following Biden's announcement, 30 8000 people registered to vote in the U.S., some 1300 and New Jersey.

Vote.org says 83% of the new registered voters are 18-34 years old.

>> New Jersey Democrats have not seen gains in voter registrations like this since the Obama days.

That wasn't Seth -- something that was a concerted effort on the part of the party, it sprung up and was a sense of enthusiasm about the candidate.

>> Young people are starting to notice whether they like it or not, they are part of this story.

>> This organizer with a nonpartisan New Jersey league of women voters says Gen Z and millennials have started mobilizing.

>> In New Jersey, which had the highest youth participation in 2020 in the country, I think we will see the trend continue.

>> It is not the first time New Jersey and the nation have seen a sudden tsunami of voter registration.

Taylor's prompted more than 35,000 folks to sign up a year ago.

Swift posted on Instagram, voters going to vote.

Virtual fundraisers show last night, white dudes for Harris, including the dude, raised $4 million.

>> I'm white, I'm a dude and I'm for Harris.

>> Tonight, cat ladies are full -- hosting a fundraiser.

Will Harris have enough time to harness the youthful energy over an unprecedented short runway to election day?

>> We will look for metrics like voter registration and see is this a one-time bump or something that will continue week by week?

>> A lot of the issue is college students aren't registered to vote.

It winds up being an older generation voting.

We need the youth to be voting.

College students, if you are watching, go out and vote.

>> It is an uphill effort some folks on campus don't feel connected.

>> I have done my due diligence on Kamala Harris and the type of character she is.

I won't delve into that.

Not a fan.

>> I don't really care.

I have never been huge into it.

It has started arguments.

>> Nonpartisan voters rights group says they will work to register the college crowd.

Raven: Two weeks ago today, Senator Bob Menendez was found guilty on all counts and his federal corruption trial.

In the wake of the conviction, a school district officials announced they will remove his name from an elementary school before students return in September.

All eyes are on Governor Murphy, who needs to name someone to fill his seat and the remainder of his term by August 20.

There are a handful of candidates, including Congressman Andy Kim, the Democrat running for his seat.

What could Kim's advantages be?

I'm joined by our Washington correspondent.

Thanks for joining me.

Governor Murphy has said he will promptly fill the seat.

What are names you are hearing?

>> It could be Andy Kim, the house Democrat running for the seat.

He ran against Murphy's wife in the Democratic primary.

Coleman has been floated.

But all eyes are on Murphy.

He will make a decision in the coming weeks.

Raven: Andy Kim is the frontrunner in the race.

Why not Andy Kim?

Ben: I wouldn't speculate about why not and dare to get into the governor's head.

The argument in favor of him is that if you appoint him now as governor, New Jersey will accrue more seniority in the Senate and the Senate is very old, steeped in tradition and it runs on seniority.

Seniority is how you get to the top of powerful committees like Appropriations, armed services, finance.

Cory Booker has been in the Senate by way of explanation for about a decade.

He is still relatively junior on all of his committees.

If you appoint Kim now, you give him a slight edge and the state a slight edge over the incoming senators.

Raven: We heard about the advantages if Andy Kim was chosen.

When can we expect a decision from the governor?

Ben: your gas is as good as mine does your guess is as good as mine.

The governor says he will make a decision when he makes a decision.

Theoretically if Democrats don't want to step on their momentum going into the nomination, the Democratic national convention in Chicago, may be the decision comes sooner rather than later.

Menendez is out of the seat August 20 so it would have to happen before then.

Raven: Is Bob Menendez still working?

Can he still vote on bills?

Do you expect him to do it are well on the Senate floor?

Ben: that is a dynamite question.

I have been fascinated by this.

He has not voted since he was found guilty.

There was a vote today, a handful of votes in the Senate.

He has not voted on any of those and he can vote.

He doesn't lose his power to vote or show up and use his office as it was meant to be used.

There is nothing in the guilty plea that limits his potential, but he is not here as present.

-- as far as I could tell.

Raven: Thanks for joining me.

Ben: my pleasure.

Raven: NJ transit can't catch a break.

New reporting from NorthJersey.com is exposing darker issues within the agency that go beyond transit delays.

Allegations of sexual harassment and racism and retaliation.

The most recent complaint was filed by a former transit worker who is accusing the agency of failing to protect her from years of abuse by a supervisor.

After a five-month investigation, the female employee received a letter from NJ transit substantiating her claim that her supervisor violated the agency's sexual harassment policy area of the accusations are in addition to the growing calls from lawmakers to hold NJ transit accountable for delays.

We have been looking into these stories.

Thanks for joining me.

>> Thanks for having me.

Raven: The issues with NJ transit are not just on the roads and rails but your reporting shows there have been serious issues of harassment, racism and retaliation going on.

What did you find?

>> I wrote about a woman who works on the rails, who had experience, years of sexual harassment from a boss according to her.

Allegations, and she put those allegations into a claim with New Jersey transit's EEO office charged with investigating that sort of thing.

They substantiated her complaint.

They interviewed witnesses, interviewed her multiple times and little or nothing was done according to her.

The agency wouldn't say anything.

It is a personnel matter.

But at the end of the day, as far as we know, the harasser is still employed at New Jersey transit and she was forced to go back to work with that person, which is an unbelievable situation.

Raven: We know she is not alone and this is not the first time the agency has faced these allegations.

Given the frustrations and fear from employees, could we see more stories like this publicized or employees coming over?

-- coming forward?

>> We have already seen them.

In three years I have written about 20 plaintiffs who have reported these matters and had similar circumstances.

I will often have to go back to work with them because the consequences are minimal or none.

So there is definitely, I know of more people out there.

Not everyone is able to bring their case to a lawsuit.

Not everyone is willing to put themselves out there like that.

It is an extremely vulnerable position.

The person I just wrote about had to leave their job, where she wanted to have a career, where you have great benefits, where you have an opportunity to rise and get a great career and salary.

So she left.

Raven: How many people are we talking about the actual -- talking about?

>> I know of 20 plaintiffs who have sued or recently settled.

But there are 12,000 employees at New Jersey transit.

So who knows how many there are that we don't know about.

Raven: Talk about bad timing.

This comes after there has been a summer of delays, disruptions in the headlines all summer.

There are growing calls by New Jersey's congressional delegation for the U.S. Department of Transportation to hold NJ transit accountable for repeated delays.

Recently we know a Congresswoman demanded money be appropriated to repair lines.

Where does that stand and how will that help?

>> A Congresswoman was calling on Amtrak to also be part of that, that they want to see Amtrak use the money for repairs, but you are right.

There are a number of lawmakers who want to see what New Jersey transit is doing to address its own issues.

They are conflating New Jersey transit and Amtrak but they both have mailing, aging equipment at the end of the day that they are charged with keeping a good state of repair four.

And that hasn't happened or is not happening.

The aging network of equipment is failing.

So what is being done?

Those are the questions people want to know, not what will be done in two years, five years but what will happen now so my commute tomorrow isn't an unpredictable mass like the weeks and months before this.

Raven: Seems like the toxic culture in the agency and constant service disruptions on the rails means the agency is falling apart.

What is at stake?

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel?

>> Sure.

You have to be optimistic.

People are paying more so they want to see a better outcome in their lives and their commute.

They don't want to spend hours not knowing if they will get home or get their kid from daycare.

With these lawmakers are asking for is to see some accountability for how the money is going to be spent.

Is it being spent on lawsuits and settling and outside counsel for sexual harassment?

Or is it being spent to fix old trains?

Is it being spent to improve the daily lives of commuters they are supposed to be serving?

That is what I think everyone wants to know the answers to.

We could just see whether someone will take them up on whether there need to be hearings or an audit or some other measure in order to get more answers.

Raven: Follow the money.

Excellent reporting.

Thanks for joining me.

A state investigation by the New Jersey Department of Education found Trenton public schools violated the individuals with disabilities education act and state regulations.

This comes after disability rights NJ filed the complaint in May alleging all students from out of home placements faced barriers in -- and delays getting back in the classroom and delays lasted from weeks two years.

Sometimes while receiving no education at all.

Our Senior correspondent has more.

>> And ruling is supposed to be immediate.

Once the parent completed the online form or went to the Board of Education offices and enrolled their child, the student should have been placed in school immediately.

>> Lisa is an attorney with disability rights, an organization representing young people with disabilities.

They filed a complaint with the state department of education against the Trenton school district for failing to re-enroll youth coming back from out of home placements.

>> A number of students who were in and out of home place months -- placements, primarily in detention centers or mental health treatment, were having trouble getting back into the Trenton public schools.

>> When students tried to return to school, what were they told?

Why were they denied?

>> They were asked to re-enroll so they would have to bring reenrollment forms, and the law states they should be immediately reenrolled.

Sometimes, days and weeks went by where the enrollment was not completed.

Some of the students had been placed in an out of district placement that was terminated while they were in and out of home placement so once they came back, they technically didn't have a placement.

>> Disability rights worked with 25 students affected by this in four years.

Following the complaint, the state opened an investigation into the district and found it was not compliant with state regulations or the individuals with disabilities education act.

Those findings were released this month and the Department of Education is now requiring the Trenton schools to create a corrective action plan.

>> Schools need consistent procedures in place to reactivate students when they come home from youth detention centers.

Many students have already been excluded from public schools for some period of time and should not face consequences of schools not having proper policies to reintegrate >> Them into the community.

>>Really reached out to Trenton public schools but received no response.

The district will board attorney did issue a written response in May to the allegations made in the complaint, saying the district developed a standard operating procedure to address the issues raised that has been a work in progress for some time, but is now finalized.

But she hasn't seen a board vote.

>> I'm hopeful that the fact that we took this action, and these findings came out not only validate our position, but takeaway the school districts premise of the issue has been resolved.

>> The concerns of groups like the disability result -- rights and the ACLU go beyond the students need your education.

>> They need more resources, not less.

Schools provide stability and education so kids can thrive.

Without those resources, their chances of reentering the legal system increase.

>> Any student that is impacted is already involved in the school to prison pipeline we are trying to break.

There is a chance of recidivism.

>> And often I can -- a condition of the students return to home with back is that they be in school.

We have to issue education reports and the judges don't like to hear when it has been two or weeks and they say the student is still not in school.

>> She says disability rights will be watching to see whether new policies are instated when students return to school in September.

I'm Joanna Gagis.

Raven: In our spotlight on business report, two Jersey City building service workers say they were fired last year after participating in union organizing activities.

More than a year after their termination, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint seeking an official apology and compensation from the building owner.

As Ted Goldberg reports, they simply want their jobs back.

>> I woke up this morning and my kids have no food in the refrigerator.

The bills are piling up.

The rent is getting backed up.

>> Nicholas says the last year or so has been hard since losing his job as a concierge for this apartment building in Jersey City.

>> We have been to the point where I had to sell my car to avoid getting evicted to keep a roof over my families had.

-- over my family's head.

>> He worked for Guardian service industries, contracted by equity residential and he says they fired him and his partner for trying to organize a union.

He was a concierge in charge of checking in packages and keeping the building secure.

Unofficially, there was more to it.

>> They know I would go out of my way to do the best I could do.

Even if it meant removing rodents, stomping out a few roaches.

>> He wanted to organize a union for better pay and benefits and felt Guardian was being dishonest to residents about the condition of the building.

>> They started lying to us and the workers as well.

I thought that we were starting to get paid unfairly.

I thought we were doing more than what we will get Anne Heche to do -- getting paid to do.

The union -- when we had conversations with the union they started nitpicking out us.

Their attitude towards us started changing.

Roxie started speaking with a union that represents building workers statewide.

He says this got him fired.

He received a different explanation from Guardian.

Next they basically told me I was fired because I took a break, I took a lunch break.

>> Are you allowed to take lunch breaks the act -- lunch breaks?

>> I am.

Lawfully, on an eight hour shift everyone is allowed to have at least a 30 minute break.

>> Guardian didn't respond to requests for comment.

In response to getting fired, he filed a complaint with the national labor relations board within a few weeks.

It has been more than a year but the NLRB has taken his side and is asking Rivero's old employers to reinstate him with back pay and an apology.

>> They are continuing to reach out to us, give us information on what is going on with equity and what they are planning on doing.

Equity and guardian haven't spoken to us at all.

They haven't been in communication with us at all.

>> It doesn't happen in every organizing drive, but it happens with project frequency.

>> Print is the Deputy General Counsel for 32 BJ and he says the next step is in October when Rivera gets a hearing.

>> The case goes to an Administrative Law Judge, who will make an initial determination.

And then, of course, there are appeals.

We are confident that we will win in front of a judge and win any appeals, but that process can take quite a while.

>> Rivera hopes the judge sides with him so he can get back to work and keep food on the table and a roof over his family's head.

I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

Raven: Turning to Wall Street, talk -- stocks took a slight tumble.

Here is how markets closed for the day.

That does it for us tonight.

Before you go, download the NJ Spotlight News podcast so you can listen to us anytime.

I'm Raven Santana.

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

Have a great night and we will see you back here tomorrow.

>> New Jersey education Association.

Making public schools great for every child.

RWJ Barnabas health.

Let's be healthy together.

>> 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 be known and to be an American.

My name is Julia and I am proud to be an NJEA member.

♪