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>> The trial of New Jersey's senior Senator Bob Menendez continues.

The defense trying to poke holes in the event of a quid pro quo.

Plus, two years after the stunning reversal of Roe v. Wade, New Jersey lawmakers push new bills to safeguard reproductive rights in the Garden State.

>> Have to look at the state of New Jersey under the worst-case scenarios.

What if the administration changes to someone who is dramatically far thinking from what we are thinking today?

>> Also, deplorable conditions.

>> It is like we are living in Hell.

>> Residents say conditions have only worsened after the Camden Housing Authority promised to improve their horrific housing.

And AI in our schools.

As the state rolls out resources to help districts deliver artificial intelligence programs, new questions emerge about their safety and reliability.

>> There are a lot of concerns overall since this is a very fast-paced moving type of industry and technology.

>> NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

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

>> Thanks for joining us on this Monday night.

U.S.

Senator Menendez was in court today for the seventh week in what could be the first full week of testimony since his trial began.

His defense team took center stage trying to poke holes in the prosecutions to kill us timeline of text, calls and meetings laid out last week.

Those details finally collecting -- finally connecting the gold bars to actions taken by the senator on behalf of his friend and codefendant Fred Daibes.

The defense argued it was Nadine Menendez who received the gifts and was the key point of contact.

On the stand today were two key witnesses come FBI Special Agent Paul Venable right and a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan was in the courtroom and has more details to share.

How did you see the defense try to explain away the prosecutions timeline?

>> You know how the prosecution has talked about the search for the price of gold bars Senator Menendez would do that when he received an alleged bribe?

Today, the defense hit back.

They said how can you be sure this was Bob Menendez holding the phone during the search?

The way they tried to prove it could have been anybody was that they said to look at all these other searches.

Here is one for blow dry hair salons in Washington, D.C.

They pointed at their client who was sitting in the courtroom and said Senator Menendez does not look like a blow-dry kind of guy, right?

That got a big laugh in the courtroom, but obviously the implication is it was Nadine Menendez holding the phone making the search and we know the defense has made it a point to blame Nadine, to put the onus of this on Nadine that she was the one responsible for this scheme.

She is going to be tried later on because she is being treated for breast cancer.

The government also said this is this timeline they have laid out all of the circumstantial evidence.

.

The defense said what you did was cherry pick.

They talked about a couple of issues.

One of them, the alleged codeword for gold bar was glazed donut.

I got another big laugh when they said if that is your code for gold bar, it is really dumb.

They also talked about this search Menendez, Nadine Menendez was doing for expensive homes.

They called it her Zullo escapist fantasy saying this was something that she was doing, not Menendez, -- the prosecution however was able to show Menendez did go along and look at a couple of houses with Nadine.

>> We know later in the afternoon Sarah Arkin, a Senate foreign relations took the stand.

What did the prosecution get out of her?

>> They essentially had her testifying about what she did in the office and what she did was she set up meetings.

She would do background checks on foreign officials the senator would meet with.

She was really startled to discover he was taking meetings the staff did not know about.

They talked about one meeting in Egypt where she sent an emailed to a fellow staffer saying what is this meeting.

They had never heard about it.

She said this was very unusual that this was the only time she had ever encountered something like that.

>> Also unusual today was the judge's reproach to the defense.

What to do here from the judge?

Pretty infuriated today.

>> He was very upset a couple of times.

The first time was when he admonished the defense for objecting to Atkins testimony on grounds of speech and debate.

That clause essentially exempts official acts, votes, resolutions, specific legislative acts from being used as testimony in a criminal trial.

The judge said Arkin can testify about general meetings and things that happened without talking about a specific legislative act.

He said to the defense and you knew that.

It is just an attempt to slow down and sandbagged the prosecution on this trial.

He also slammed the defense for failing to submit a list of witnesses for their upcoming presentation to the jury without any proffers, not talking about the kind of testimony they are going to give.

He said he has had it with this gamesmanship and he does not want to see the government sandbagged and he wants them to do better.

>> Great recap from the courtroom.

Senior correspondent, thank you as always.

Today marks the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Any the wake of that decision, New Jersey has taken several steps to guarantee reproductive health Access, not just for New Jersey resident of those coming from other states for care.

Today, to mark the two year anniversary, Senate majority leader Janessa Rees has issued a new batch of bills she says will safeguard reproductive and bodily autonomy rights in New Jersey.

More on the bills and what they would provide.

>> We so in states where abortions are now a legal, 171,000 women leave their homes to travel to other states.

>>>> It has been two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and in New Jersey, lawmakers are making sure the decisions about a woman's body, life and future remain solely hers, which is why she introduced nine bills under the reproductive freedom and health equity bill package.

It comes four years after Governor Murphy -- after Governor Murphy signed a bill called the freedom of every productive choice act which codified the right to abortion and to state law.

>> We parked and separated each of the bills because this was a huge package dropped in 2020 and it has not moved.

In an effort to be sure we keep chipping away at human protection rights, we separated the bills.

>> The new package includes regulations for providers, insurance, patients and providers rights, grants to strengthen access to reproductive health care and data privacy to ensure confidentiality for those receiving reproductive health services.

It includes guidance for universities to require the implementation of reproductive health services.

The bills would also seek to increase the number of providers in the state care for patients requiring reproductive health care services and they addressed charitable donations to provide equitable access to all residents and emergency contraception access.

Lawmakers and advocates say the goal is to ensure reproductive health care is protected for generations to come.

>> Where is the government's role in this?

They don't care what you do after that has happened.

Don't seem to want to give you any money for that, but they want to ban you from taking choices and responsibilities that you are looking to do at the beginning of your life.

In many terms, early parts of women's lives.

>> We have to look at the state of New Jersey under the worst-case scenarios.

What if the administration changes to someone who is dramatically far thinking from what we are thinking today?

What if the assembly and the legislature are aligned?

What protections do we have in place?

>> Ruiz and the Senate president's sentiments were echoed in Congressman Mikie Sherrill and Sue Altman who joined advocates and organizers to stress the critical importance of abortion rights in women's health.

Sean Hyland of the New Jersey policy Center says the overturning of Roe v. Wade is a step in the right direction.

>> The goal is to protect this entity of human life from the moment of conception.

How that looks the next five years, 10 years or 50 years no one really knows.

It took almost 50 years to see roe overturned and 50 years from now there are still a lot of work to educate voters on the issue.

Educate legislators on the issue.

To force people to pay for abortion procedures they have strong moral objections to is a violation of conscious rights and the just rights.

It is one thing to have access for women seeking an abortion was to make everyone for that decision, that is a step too far.

>> It is a step that Senator Rees says she is willing to take as she wants to push forward a constitutional amendment to protect the right to abortion in the state of New Jersey.

She says she and Senate President will be putting forth the insurance bill in the budget committee aligning with the budgets governor -- aligning with the message providing for reproductive and gender affirming procedures.

>> We are still more than a year away from electing our next governor in New Jersey and with an already crowded field, Democratic candidate and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop is letting the public know his policies early and often.

Today he released his plan to fight government corruption in the garden state and a CODA some powerful political leaders in doing so.

Senior political correspondent David Cruz breaks down the mayors anticorruption platform and explains the negative impacts his approach could have on his campaign.

>> You have to give Jersey City Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Steve candidate -- Steve up credit.

First out of the gate and a year away from the primary, the Democrat is not afraid to take you into the tall policy grass as he has done with regularly released policy papers on issues from.

Education to transportation.

this.

Week, he took on Government Reform entrance -- and corruption.

Coincidentally, he says considering the news of the past few months and weeks.

>> It is more of a coincidence.

My background with Bob Menendez and George Merkouris are fairly clear.

In 15, 16 when George Moore cross was at his peak power and influence, there was no lack of coverage around where and how he would disagree around issues ranging from Atlantic City to beyond.

Bob Menendez has been a more complicated situation because he looms very large in Putnam County.

>> Those of the indicted, the latest poster children for Jersey corruption, easy pickings as it will -- as it were.

Again says the mayor.

Others are also used as visual aids in a section called conflicts of interest reform for Party Chair's and elected officials.

>> The chairman of Middlesex worked for the comforters but became a chairman and then he became a lobbyist.

If you look at those lobbyist forms, he is not even disclosed as a lobbyist.

He unilaterally selects a huge number of legislators that he continuously communicates with.

You have the chairman of Essex who represents insurance and energy companies.

The largest in New Jersey.

You have the legislature voting on things like changing the structure of horizon or massive hundreds of millions of dollars of subsidies to PSE&G.

>> He would tighten reporting instructions on donors, inject more cash into the election law enforcement division, restore elements of the open Public records act and put me to toy dates and limits on the state's budgeting process requiring bills like the final budget bill to be publicly available for 72 hours ahead of a vote.

Ranked choice voting and same-day registration are also in the policy paper.

>> This is a campaign that is putting together ideas.

And you can judge those ideas.

You can let those ideas stand on their own merits.

You can disagree with those ideas that he is putting ideas forth.

>> Of course the downside of driving under the renegade Lane is you can offend the very people you need to support you like in Hudson were a new party chairman closely aligned with State Senator Brian Stack who is not a full up fan says he is rescinding the endorsement by his predecessor Anthony venire.

Aligned with the North Bergen Mayor who is a supporter.

He says that can make Hudson a battleground next year.

>> The majority will probably go with the mayor.

That leaves it up.

Craig guy has to work with the mayors and see where we stand as an organization.

>> We'll work around the party infrastructure peeling off big name like Senator Angela McKnight who posted her support for the mayor on X last week.

It is an unconventional approach that makes party leaders wary of him who is keen on becoming a governor not beholden to a dying party political system or the politicians who run it.

I'm David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.

>> Residents at a Camden County affordable housing building thought their deplorable living conditions would improve when the Camden Housing Authority took control of the complex two years ago but since then, those residents, many of whom are seniors, say things have only gotten worse.

Now among other problems, they are dealing with no air conditioning as temperatures have reached close to triple digits.

Ted Goldberg spoke to many today and has that story.

>> It is like we are living in Hell.

>> People in some of Camden's public housing are furious about their living conditions and their anger is earth -- is aimed at the Camden Housing Authority ship >> It is hot as Hell so it is high in the house because the air conditioner not working like it should work.

>> Folks say their issues have been ignored for months, sometimes years.

Whether it is a broken window, a missing smoke alarm or even a hole in the ceiling that has not been patched up.

>> His mom walks with a walker and because the carpet has these little ripples, he is afraid she is going to fall and hurt herself.

>> Another persistent issue has been mold.

And I visited the senior tower at Baldwin's run, some mold was being remediated.

Residents say there is a lot more of it.

>> My baby was hospitalized for a whole week in intensive care.

Her oxygen level keeps dropping.

Her heart rate keep racing.

.

It is all from her being in that house.

I have mold in there.

No one has been out to assess the mold since they had the people come out to say it was mold in the house.

>> Three or four years, I have had mold around might.

I cannot take a bath in my tub.

I have to wash up in my sink.

>> Mold has been in my house since 2010.

They tried to move me on the others of town.

My kids be here for 16 years.

YMI fighting not moving on the others of town?

>> I pay the rent.

I don't miss the first.

They don't listen.

>> The Camden Housing Authority did not respond to our request for comment.

People here say they don't appreciate how the Housing Authority has responded to them.

Resident Amaryllis says these marks on her arm are from birds that nest near her window.

>> I cry at nighttime because the babies don't let me sleep because they are in their home.

>> They tell me they are putting it down for maintenance.

I don't never hear from them.

They just give me a bunch of -- about something and I don't hear nothing from them.

>> They are lying to us.

They are playing around with me.

They are just not honest people.

>> Residents have made some fixes on their own like laying mousetraps.

They have reached out to elected officials like their City Councilman.

>> Is nowhere to be found -- he is nowhere to be found.

When they won a vote, they are here.

They feel like that is what they are being used for.

>> A problem specific to Baldwin's run is a clogged trash chute which has led to that smells, bugs and widespread anger.

>> There are people in misery going through so much unnecessary.

>> Housing is a right.

People need to be -- the seniors deserve to live at their best quality of life.

Right now they are going through so much.

>> Residents tell me their next step is to make enough noise people will start thing attention.

And maybe bring some relief for folks who live here.

>> In our spotlight on business report, Governor Murphy wants New Jersey to lead the way on artificial intelligence innovation.

He has made it a key priority for the year and says it should start in our schools.

Gardens to educators now have access to a wealth of AI resources that were just released by the Department of Education.

It is the first guidance on AI of any kind for New Jersey teachers.

But as districts navigate some of these programs, concerns have been raised about the efficacy and about some of their privacy and security implications.

Jesse Gomez has been covering the issue and joins me to break it all down.

So great to have you here with us.

What can you tell us about what the state Department of Education has offered to districts as they think about how they are laying out this AI education?

>> As we are talking about AI, this is a fast-paced industry.

There is a lot of technology coming out.

New technology coming into schools and throughout the different sectors of business.

Earlier this month, New Jersey released its first set of what we would call resources for educators and school districts across the state to implement what they are calling responsibly and effectively incorporate AI into schools.

A lot of those resources range from webinars about what AI is, different types of systems and machines to actual articles and discussions about what is the right way to use AI, how AI can be used not only help in classrooms with a learning setting and help administrators and teachers, reviewing essays and things like that.

It is not a strict set of guidelines on how school district and teachers should regulate AI or use it in classrooms.

It is more so additional resources for these sets of educators and administrators to use in classrooms.

>> Your reporting laid out the multiple pieces of AI.

Newark is a great example in terms of how AI can be used with the classroom and it can be used as a tool for the district but not without some concern.

What are we seeing in Newark in terms of their proposed use of AI cameras across their district?

>> Newark, New Jersey's largest school district is trying to incorporate a lot of this AI.

So in the last couple months, Newark a book schools approved a contract to install over 7000 AI cameras district wide.

That is a lot of cameras and there is a lot of concern around that.

The district is saying they need these cameras to efficiently track students and keep students safe across district buildings.

We are seeing that in the classroom the district is implement think new AI programs.

Specifically a program called conmigo, created by a nonprofit education company.

This program would be in classrooms to help didn't be tutored, assist teachers with assist -- S -- assist teachers with additional learning.

This AI program would be there to assist.

Have been a lot of talks about new technology entering schools, new technology entering Newark what there is a lot of concern overall since this is a fast-paced moving type of industry and technology.

>> We have seen the American Federation of teachers, the largest teachers union, come out and say there have to be benchmarks and there a lot of concerns about those cameras and how they could misidentify students.

What is the AFT asking for and what are those concerns they have raised?

>> I spoke with the president last week of the American Federation of teachers.

They came out with a new report that since their own set of guidelines for the proper use of AI in classrooms.

From what they are saying as a perspective of educators.

What they're calling for is to maximize security, privacy and ensure the safety and security of both students and staff is at the forefront of these regulations and resources states and districts like Newark start implementing the new technology.

They are calling it a very fast-paced technology but they are saying there are benefits to this.

As there is more implementation of this, there needs to be conversation about the proper way to use and regulate it should >> A lot of questions about who manages the oversight.

Questions around the tutoring program you mentioned at how effective it is.

It is a conversation I know we will continue to have because this is going to be a broad field as it rolls out.

Jesse Gomez, thank you so much.

>> Thanks so much.

>> Turning to Wall Street, the market was off to a good start to kick off the week.

Here is a look at today's closing numbers.

>> Support for the business report is provided by experienced the vibrancy of Newark's arts in education district and Halsey Street.

Halsey, neighborhood built on heart and hustle.

Visit Halsey for the schedule.

And by NJMEP, a partner to New Jersey's manufacture industry focused on productivity, performance and strategic development.

More on njmep.org.

♪ >> That does it for us tonight before you go, a reminder to download the NJ Spotlight News podcast so you can listen to us anytime.

I'm Joanna Gagis.

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

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

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♪