♪ Announcer: Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by, the members of the New Jersey Education Association.

Making public schools great for every child.

And, RWJ Barnabas health.

Let's be healthy together.

♪ BRIANA: Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, Suing Apple.

The U.S. Department of Justice and New Jersey are taking on the tech giant, accusing Apple of creating a smartphone monopoly.

>> Apple protects its business model by restricting technologies that would make it easier for iPhone customers to switch to another smartphone.

Those restrictions go to the core of Apple's unlawful conduct.

BRIANA: Plus, will he run?

The embattled U.S. senior senator faces a looming campaign filing deadline.

>> Theoretically, he could run as an independent.

He is running out of options and the paths are closing.

BRIANA: Also, learning loss.

New data shows the ripple effect of the pandemic is still affecting New Jersey's kids.

>> State leadership needs to make sure this money is being allocated effectively and to work with the districts to make sure we find the most evidence-based programs that are going to help kids.

BRIANA: And, lawmakers are looking to retail stores to donate their excess food to help end the hunger crisis.

>> Every meal that we can rescue from disposal is a step towards New Jersey figuring out how we are building that sustainable future.

BRIANA: NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

♪ Announcer: From NJBS studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

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

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

The Department of Justice is taking on Apple, filing a blockbuster antitrust lawsuit in New Jersey federal court today against the tech giant along with 16 attorneys general, including New Jersey's Matt Plotkin who is leading the suit for the states.

At a press conference today, they accused Apple of holding a smartphone monopoly and allege the company was able to do so not because instead ahead of the competition, but it broke federal antitrust laws, keeping a chokehold on the market by creating an ecosystem, think Apple watch, Apple pay, even the inability to Facetime with Android reserves, that blocks developers from competing and makes consumers reliant on apples devices, giving them fewer choices and higher prices.

The lawsuit points to things like cross-platform messaging, those green bubbles and pixelated videos you get from in an iphone.

The lawsuit alleges it makes other smartphones appear inferior, when in fact it's a tactical move.

The DOJ says Apple, which has grown to a $3 trillion company owning 70% of the smartphone market, plays by rules established by Apple for Apple.

>> We allege that Apple has employed a strategy that relies on exclusionary, anticompetitive conduct that hurts both consumers and developers.

For consumers, that has meant fewer choices.

Higher prices and fees.

Lower quality smartphones, apps and accessories.

And less innovation from Apple and its competitors.

For developers, that has meant being forced to play by rules that insulate Apple from competition.

>> Apple protects its business model by restricting technologies that would make it easier for iPhone customers to switch to another smartphone.

Those restrictions go to the core of Apple's unlawful conduct, and the end result is that you pay more money for an inferior product.

BRIANA: Apple responded, saying the company believes, quote, "this lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets."

It goes on, "The lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will vigorously defend against it."

The Port Authority is moving along with two major cap projects that will impact both the state's commuters and visitors.

It includes a long-awaited new transit have that will help people going to and from Newark airport, and a big step towards finding the new Midtown bus terminal.

Senior correspondent Bernard Flanagan reports.

Reporter: The current Newark train station sits isolated among AC of long-term parking lots.

It is a point of access to Penn Station and a couple of NJ Transit lines, but no buses run here, no taxes are waiting to take your way.

Nothing helps the nearby neighborhood.

That is the problem the Port Authority has fairly promised to solve, by building a new airport transit have connected by a flying bridge over the tracks to the air train.

>> I am just so very proud.

It may not be the biggest project that the port has done [laughs] -- but in terms of RIGHTING the wrongs of the past and a game changing benefit to the residents who so deserve this, this is early proud day.

>> People in Newark and Elizabeth, to them, it is monumentally game changing, it is as big as it gets to them to have access to schools and work and economic opportunity and public transportation.

They will save an hour and a half each way.

Reporter: The board voted unanimously to approve the transit hub, noting it would help airport workers access jobs but cutting current commute times.

Best trips from Newark and Elizabeth that take 40 minutes, could get shortened to 7.

>> This project is exciting because it opens up educational opportunities, job opportunities, and just making sure that this neighborhood isn't kind of cut off.

It is a very low income neighborhood, very little car ownership, and it will be fantastic to see this community with new access, with broader connectivity to the rest of the city as well as the rest of the region.

Reporter: the port authority predicts the new hub could generate thousands of jobs and $290 million in economic activity.

It is expected to open in 2026.

Elizabeth's Mayer sits on the board, and will companies.

>> For the people in Elizabeth and the city that I represent not will be able to access not only the Amtrak in the Northeast corridor at another location, they will also be able to access the air train.

Reporter: Capital program that awarded's the award-winning terminal that are a and the proposed new air train around the airport in Newark.

The Port Authority also moved the long-awaited Midtown bus terminal replacement closer to reality by adopting a funding agreement with New York City.

The authority would receive so-called pilots, payments in lieu of taxes new office tower developments that would help cover the new terminal's $10 billion price tag.

>> The close of this view with the support of the mayor, the community boards, the elected officials, is equitable forward step -- is a critical forward step in funding $10 billion terminal.

Reporter: The old bus terminal will be 2008 29 and the new one, slated for completion in 2032.

Jenna Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

BRIANA: All eyes are on U.S. Senior's letter Bob Menendez, is facing a Monday filing deadline to decide if you will run for reelection in the Senate primary .

.

Era D.C. correspondent Ben Hulac chased him down the halls of the Capitol and is with me now.

So good to finally have you unset Welcome unofficially and officially to the team you .

With Menendez, which is in necessarily an easy thing to do.

What did he tell you?

Guest: he has been elusive these days, logically, in the Capitol.

He didn't say much.

I caught him in the Senate somewhere and he said he would let us know this week.

It is Thursday.

I took that to mean by the end of business on Friday, tomorrow.

other than that, he really wasn't keen on talking about much.

BRIANA: He said he is focused on the trial that is slated to begin in May, focused on getting his defense and proving that he is innocent of these corruption charges that he is running out of time, and I wonder if there is a path for him if he decides Saturday to stay in it?

Guest: Conceivably.

But it is hard.

Tammy Murphy and Andy Kim are, of course, duking it out for the Democratic nod.

The election date is in June.

Erratically he could run as an independent.

There are about 2000 U.S. senators in history, since the start of the country, 1789, this tally goes back, and only 77 have been Independents or from a lesser or third-party.

So he is really running out of options and routes are closing.

BRIANA: And I don't know what the statistics are in New Jersey, but Independents typically don't fare well here regardless of the election.

Curious about the race, you did the digging into the financial disclosure forms for the candidate, first lady Tammy Murphy and Congressman Andy Kim, Petra Cetkovska Didnâ and others running on the Democratic side.

What did you find?

COLLEEN: I didn't look at -- needed Guest: I didn't look at Patricia CAMPOS MEDINA.

But Murphy has a lengthy, lengthy failing.

I have looked at hundreds of filings in rate reporting career.

Hers is 69 pages.

A whole trove of information.

BRIANA: How does it stack up to other voting members of Congress was reported to have looked at?

Guest: It is a safe bet that if she were elected, she would be among the wealthier members of Congress.

Mitt Romney is quite a wealthy guy, he has a lengthy disclosure, as does Mark Warner, will make a mint in the tech industry, he is the Virginia senator.

She is certainly towards the top of the list.

By comparison, Senator Menendez, I think his displeasure with seven pages, Cory Booker, six pages.

Andy Kim's was in the same ballpark.

Hers is in a different galaxy what does it tell us about a candidate when we look at a report like that?

Guest: Frustratingly to me, it doesn't tell you a lot.

It gives you broad numbers and a general ballpark of what someone is worth.

And I should add on top of all of this, the state ranges of not only of assets, but income from those assets.

BRIANA: BRIANA: What does that mean?

Guest: Murphy, the biggest item on the list that I could find was a blank trust in her name.

And I should point out the governor has a blind trust in his name.

Hers was a minimum of $5 million and a maximum of $25 million.

BRIANA: So we are not talking a small chunk of change, it's a wide range.

Guest: $5 million is a heck of a lot of money to any average person.

25 is a different realm.

And the money she said she gets from that blind trust annually is, again, this gaping range, 100 K to $1 million.

So there is a lot of guesswork.

It is nice that these exist, is better than operating in the dark from a reporter's perspective, but it is hazy.

BRIANA: Interestingly, too, because we know Tammy Murphy has a powerful perch but many also gives her access to power, and there is plenty.

Ben Hulac, great to have you in the studio, thank you.

Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic, New Jersey students are still recovering from learning last.

A new Harvard-Stanford study finds we are one of 17 states where students are lagging in math, and those from low-income districts are affected the most senior correspondent during the Gagis has the details.

>> Even though we are technically out of COVID, the impact of COVID continues to linger.

Reporter: And we are seeing it in our schools.

The education scorecard was just released, showing New Jersey among 17 other states whose math scores in 2023 were lower than they were in 2019 before the pandemic.

And the disparities are worse for students of color.

>> People have unrealistic expectations about what it is going to take to help students catch up.

Reporter: Howard University researcher Tom KANE helped author the report and to point home the fact that metaphysical scale, he says, it comes down to numbers when trying to catch these students up.

>> Students in Newark and Paterson are more than a grade level behind.

So that would mean that students would have to learn 150% of what they would typically learn in a school year, two years in a row, just to get back to where they were in 2019.

So are we thinking like teachers are just going to talk faster?

Reporter: The report makes recommendations for districts.

The main 1 -- adding instructional time after school, and in the summer.

>> For each student that attends six weeks of summer learning, you get a quarter of a year's worth of additional growth.

So, if students were to do that four summers in a row, that would make, on average, a whole year loss made up.

But if only 10% or 15% of students are attending summer learning, that's not going to solve the problem.

Reporter: Districts have until the end of September to dedicate the last of the federal COVID relief funds to closing their educational gaps or they will have to give the money back.

This is where state oversight is needed, says advocates for children of New Jersey's Mary Coogan.

>> State leadership needs to make sure this money is being allocated effectively and work with districts to make sure we find the most evidence-based problems to help kids.

>> One of the biggest blown opportunities from this whole pandemic is that we have not systematically tracked what different districts are doing with the federal money.

And so, we have missed an opportunity to learn which of the strategies are most effective.

Reporter: Last year are the state provided funding for districts applied for an in-school initiative called I-impact tutoring.

This teacher runs one of them.

It has seen their students' math proficiency improve in one year from 16% to 40%.

>> Pre-COVID, tutoring was not accessible to so many, the majority of our estate's families, because of the cost.

Post-COVID, post-pandemic, tutoring is available to all scholars who need it.

And when you look at that report and we look at those numbers, what comes through to me is equity.

We need to do more to get high-impact tutoring made available at no cost, to all children who need it.

Reporter: But for all the concern Betsy Ginsberg,, from the Garden State coalition of schools, remains optimistic.

>> In December 2023, the stateboard and the rest of us looked at results from the spring NJSLA testing.

And we saw that gains are starting to happen.

I think it is key to think about that.

Reporter: Most agree, we need to find out which efforts are having the most success.

I am Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.

BRIANA: A Texas charter bus company sued by Newark city Mayor -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams' administration will temporarily stop busing records to the city.

It entered an agreement with the Adam Sandler station to hold busing from the southern border to New York, New Jersey and surrounding areas while the loss plays out.

.

New York City sued RoadRunner and 16 other bus companies in December for the cost of supporting the migrants, and accused them of participating in Texas Governor Greg Abbott's "bad faith plan to make migrants here and make them the responsibility of the government."

In exchange for the pause, New York City will hold off on pursuing some $700 million, officials say the city has incurred to care for the roughly 33,000 migrants bust to the city in the last two years.

In all, Texas has sent more than 95,000 asylum seekers to so-called sanctuary cities including New York, which brought its shelter system to a breaking point.

Turns out Newark's job replacing , lead water lines throughout the city isn't entirely over.

An audit has so far found 12 partial lead service lines weren't properly replaced from the curb to the water main by a subcontractor.

That is up from three in February, when city officials first announced the audit after being made aware of the problem.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and State Department Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette, updated residents on the investigation Last night via Facebook Live, saying the problems are not widespread.

Those one dozen pipes were discovered out of 90 excavations from over 1300 points evaluated, and he said there is no reason to be concerned about drinking water quality.

Corrosion control has been effective at keeping any remaining need for reaching into the supply, but free water testing is still available for city residents who want it.

Newark began replacing service lines after elevated levels of lead in the city's drinking water garnered national attention.

The city said the investigation is ongoing, and criminal charges against the contractor are still possible.

In our "Spotlight On Business Report," the Diocese of Camden just finalized the largest settlement involving a Roman Catholic church in the U.S.

Under a plan approved by a bankruptcy judge, the diocese will Kate roughly 87 million dollars to more than 300 survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

The settlement was first announced in 2022, but a judge made the final approval just days ago.

Some survivors have waited decades for this, but their fight isn't over, according to one of the attorneys representing the group, the agreement allows survivors to sue the diocese's insurers for additional payments for as much is up to $600 million.

.

It was the insurers who had blocked previous settlement plans.

The agreement creates a trust and allows for new child protection measures.

On Wall Street, stocks climbed on the record-setting rally.

Here is how the market closed.

♪ ANNOUNCER: support for the business report, provided by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

Announcing its New Jersey business Summit and Expo on March 26-27 at Harrah's in Atlantic City.

Event details online at njchamber.com.

BRIANA: And make sure to tune into NJ Business Beat with Raven Santana this weekend.

She takes an early look at the economic impact of the 2026 World Cup.

She talks to host committee members and business leaders about what the next two years of preparation look like, and how the state stands to benefit.

What Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. on the NJ Spotlight News Youtube channel.

♪ BRIANA: New Jersey is already considered a leader when it comes to combating food insecurity and hunger.

Now, two Democratic lawmakers wanted to create a new pipeline to ensure more food waste instead makes it onto the kitchen table, by requiring some grocers and food suppliers to donate eligible food to local food banks and pantries.

Raven Santana has the story.

Reporter: Each year millions of pounds of food go to waste.

Rather than surplus food reaching whether it hundred thousand people in New Jersey who are facing hunger, it often tossed in the trash.

>>.

>> The sad reality is that around the United States, 40% of food goes uneaten.

Reporter: That is why Assemblyman Bill Moen is introducing a bill to require certain supermarkets, grocery stores and food suppliers to donate consumable food that would have otherwise been convinced Garden -- that would have been discarded.

The legislation cleared the assembly Health Committee.

>> When we boil this down to a micro level, every meal we can rescue from disposal is a step towards New Jersey figuring out how we are building that sustainable future.

Reporter: Moen says the goal is to ensure entities make a reasonable effort to donate excess food to various food banks, Non-profit organizations, and New Jersey residents.

>> To me, it's a no-brainer that we have supermarkets in New Jersey that are doing this now and that are helping to fix this .

The goal here is to just make sure that the rest of them in, again, a reasonable effort, are doing the same thing.

Reporter: Correctly sock it is not a requirement for food suppliers to donate.

While Moen has referred to the bill as a no-brainer, not everyone is on board.

The president and CEO of the New Jersey Food Council released a statement opposing the bill saying, "We have concerns about this legislation because there are circumstances that create barriers to donation.

Some food retailers don't generate a large-volume of surplus food that is suitable for donation, and the food pantries generally don't consider partnering with these retailers to be the best use of their resources.

Some grocers and convenience stores have surplus prepared food which is generally not able to be donated to food safety issues."

>> Retail food donations are already a large and very significant part of the food supply that fulfill and our sister food banks across the state and the country rely on.

Reporter: She is the president and CEO of fulfill food bank which serves about 300 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other community distribution programs within ocean and Monmouth counties.

Despite the concerns, she is in full support of the legislation.

>> Last year we received 5 million pounds in donations from all sources, but 70% of our donated food was from local retailers.

From all the grocery chains in the supermarkets that are in our communities, that serve our shoppers.

Reporter: She says the food donation partnership between local food retailers and Fulfill Food Bank has been a win-win.

>>.

>> We are seeing almost 500,000 pantry visitors a month across our two counties -- 100,000.

We have never seen numbers like that before.

Reporter: She says well she is concerned about food safety from these surplus donations,, she is confident that current food safety guidelines will help to prevent that.

>> Supermarkets have policies.

They clear the shelves when things get close to that Best Buy date or sell by date.

Much of that food it's still able to be eaten, perfectly good, just not able to be sold by that supermarket.

Not marketable for them.

Reporter: Moen says he is welcoming stakeholders to the table to make the bill better, especially those who are concerned that it creates potential barriers.

The bill has been referred to the food insecurity committee and he, now hopes it will be posted for consideration in the near future and passed by the summer.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.

BRIANA: Finally, for the first time in decades, the U.S. Navy's most decorated battleship today it left its dock on the Camden waterfront and floated down the Delaware River and route to the Philadelphia Naval Yard.

The famed Battleship New Jersey getting a proper sendoff from the governor and even some veterans who served on the vessel.

The World War II era ship will undergo maintenance expected to take about two months.

The first stop is the Paulsboro terminal where it will be balanced and prepped for dry docking.

Three major repair projects are planned, including inspecting and repainting the ship, and fixing the anticorruption system underneath the ship, that is important.

Once it is done, the battleship, which has served as a floating museum since 2011, will look as sharp as it did those years ago.

That will do it for us tonight, but make sure you catch "Reporters' Roundtable" tomorrow.

David Cruz looks at this week's marathon court hearing on Congressman Andy Kim's lawsuit to dismantle the party line, kicking it off with a guest from Rutgers University who was an expert witness in the case.

Then, a panel of local reporters break down this week's political headlines.

Watch "Roundtable" tomorrow at noon on the NJ spotlight News YouTube channel.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

For the entire NJ Spotlight News team.

Thanks for being with us.

Have a great evening.

We will see you back here tomorrow.

♪ Announcer: NJM insurance group, Serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

And, by the PSEG Foundation.

♪