[Music] 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 new Jersey Realtors the voice of real estate in New Jersey more information is online at njreeltor.com and Orston committed to delivering clean reliable Americanmade energy tonight on NJ Spotlight News creating an election integrity task force the interim US attorney is looking to carry out President Trump's plan to overhaul the nation's election system plus Mayday protests workers around the world unite to protest the president's policies also the battle of where to house ICE detainees here in the state plays out in a courtroom in Philadelphia they're disappearing immigrants in our communities and we are here to make sure that New Jersey does not become a detention state and the Trump trade war with Canada is causing tourism to take a hit along the Jersey Shore we are seeing a major drop in Canadians um booking at this point nj Spotlight News begins right now [Music] from NJPBS studios this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Venoszi good evening and thanks for joining us on this Thursday night i'm Briana Venoszi we begin with a few of today's top headlines first New Jersey's US attorney wants to make changes to how elections run here by launching an election integrity task force in an announcement this week interim US attorney Alina Haba who was appointed by President Trump said the task force will be made up of prosecutors from her office who will work alongside with the FBI Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to remove ineligible people from state voter lists and investigate and prosecute election crimes now those can include voting by non-citizens casting fraudulent ballots and voting multiple times among other things these are all directives from an executive order signed by the president last month parts of which have been put on hold by a judge who noted that it's states who have jurisdiction over elections that executive order also requires voters to show proof of citizenship before casting a ballot and bars election officials from accepting mail-in ballots received after election day attorney General Matt Platkin is part of a multi-state lawsuit against the executive order arguing the White House is making an unconstitutional attempt to control elections also tonight Mayday protests thousands of demonstrators from around the state and globe marched in support of a national day of action pushing back against the Trump administration its policies and what they say is a war on working people being waged by the president and his billionaire supporters well from Vinand to Dville and more than a dozen locations in between protesters today spoke out about mass deportations cuts to the federal workforce and a roll back on workers rights in Newark a car caravan started in the city's military park with signs and chants then blasted horns on their way to Port Newark one of the busiest ports on the east coast where they also protested against shipping arms to Israel in the war against Hamas the events are loosely organized by a group called 5051 grassroots activists who were leading the protest to coincide with traditional Mayday demonstrations by labor organizations massive crowds gathered in major cities around the nation and world today in a show of solidarity against the president and higher education funding is back on the chopping block in Governor Murphy's proposed budget higher ed leaders from around the state testified before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee today pleading once again for their combined $20 million in operating aid to be restored now similar cons to county colleges were proposed in last year's budget but were ultimately restored this year Governor Murphy has also proposed slashing money for financial aid programs including for the community college opportunity grants and summer tag programs which were entirely eliminated in this budget now those aid programs help many low to moderate income students complete their degrees that was according to several college presidents today members of the Senate committee on both sides of the aisle said they were alarmed by the proposed cuts especially after hearing testimony from presidents like Dr margaret McKennon president of UCJ that's Union College of Union County here's what she had to say we face many challenges in higher education today including a $13 million increase in our health care costs for community colleges ongoing inflation unprecedented federal policy and funding uncertainty and now a proposed state budget that would set us back to the funding level we last had in 2005 we ask you to at a minimum restore the $20 million in operating aid that was cut in the governor's proposed budget under the Dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting a private corporation funded by the American people the future of housing immigrant detainees in New Jersey now sits in the hands of a Philadelphia federal appeals judge who today heard arguments in the case of a 2023 ruling that struck down part of a state law barring ICE detention in the state now that ruling allowed the federal government to enter into contracts with private prison firms but not public ones like county jails attorneys for the Murphy administration today argued against the private group Core Civic making their case against a backdrop of ramped up deportations under the Trump administration senior correspondent Brenda Flatigan reports [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] immigrant advocates marched from Philadelphia's Independence Hall to the federal courthouse to show support for a New Jersey law against privatelyun immigration detention centers it's an especially volatile issue since the Trump administration's ramped up arrests and deportations they're disappearing immigrants in our communities and we are here to make sure that New Jersey does not become a detention state for every person stripped of dignity for every child who misses a parent's touch we say no more no more while protesters rallied on the street lawyers upstairs argued before a third circuit panel of appellet judges their focus the Elizabeth Detention Center run by Core Civic under a federal contract with ICE governor Murphy did sign a law barring the feds from hiring private firms to run immigrant detention facilities but a lower court struck that down today New Jersey and a long list of good government allies defended the state law they're not saying that the state is trying to regulate the federal government what they're saying is that the state can take actions to protect the state from uh horrific conditions that are that exist in private immigration detention new Jerseys attorney said the law would still allow ICE to lease build or buy its own lockup explaining there's no way ICE couldn't run the Elizabeth Detention Center itself but core civics attorney Bradley Simon argued this is an interference with the federal government's right to do their business a major roadblock in their right to do their job with catastrophic effects he said the 300 bed Elizabeth facility is New Jerseyy's only remaining immigrant detention center citing its proximity to Newark and JFK airport Simon said closing it would force ICE to relocate detainees hundreds of miles away from their families and attorneys but another company Geog Group is moving to open a thousand bed immigrant detention facility in Newark under a new contract it signed with ICE so there's a lot at stake for the immigrant community geog Group is also trying to open up Delaney Hall in in New York and we have a petition against that we're fighting that reopening there's rumors that that facility is going to open today make sure to sign the petition make sure to show out on the streets and remember it's not just in New Jersey and Pennsylvania we're fighting this across the country legal arguments here ran over two hours as the three judge panel pressed attorneys with questions the federal government's lawyer accused New Jersey of trying to prohibit ICE from working with the contractor to carry out federal operations but the judges wondered whether a clear federal law could better solve the conflict asking "Isn't the easiest thing to get Congress to draft something that supports your position hook line and sinker?"

I think it was a really robust argument and clearly these are really fundamental questions that they are dealing with relating to what states and what the federal government can do so there's going to be a lot that they're going to have to think through the court reserve decision and it won't just affect New Jersey many other states are watching this case closely in the meantime the Elizabeth Detention Center continues to operate in Philadelphia i'm Brenda Flanigan NJ Spotlight News thousands of New Jersey kids will lose access to preschool under a funding cut being proposed by the White House which is looking to eliminate money for Head Start a federally funded program that provides early childhood education and support services for low-income families researchers say Head Start has been critical in growing the state's preschool enrollment and terminating it would dismantle the entire early education system here now parents and Head Start providers are stepping in to fight the cuts filing a federal lawsuit i spoke with our education and child welfare reporter Hannah Gross about the details hannah um a lot to unpack here let me ask you first about the effect that this would have particularly on kids of uh lowincome families and just sort of the long-term impacts on you know equity in education for them head Start serves some of the most disadvantaged students in the state and nationwide so if that funding gets cut it means a lot of children and families wouldn't have access to early education it means parents wouldn't have child care and researchers at Ruckers also said that it would impact the entire state of preschool because all of the funding and services are very intertwined mhm so what's the uptake about how many kids are enrolled in Head Start programs in New Jersey and how many are taking advantage of the state funded prek programs so there are about 10,000 three and four year olds in the Head Start preschool programs there's about 2,000 more children and families who are being served through other programs like Early Head Start which are from 0 to three and that's a decent percentage of the overall preschool population which is around 62,000 from last school year so uh it's interesting right because in past years there were um arguments made you know preschool is babysitting but we know from research that it's really so much more um but Head Start in particular helps a lot of kids where English is a second language immigrant children with other wraparound services what did you hear from advocates to that end they've said Head Start is extremely successful it helps students graduate high school and even college at a higher rate they show up to kindergarten more ready to learn more ready for schooling it also helps parents put their kids in child care so they can work or go to school and helps the whole family not just the kid that's in the program there's been some talk um that this is essentially dismantling uh the preschool system the New York I believe regional office of Head Start um was shut down um what does that mean for support here in New Jersey and are Head Start providers taking any action on their own behalf the federal government closed five of the 10 regional uh Head Start offices including the one in New York which oversees New York New Jersey Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and the people who used to work in that office had very strong knowledge of our region and knew what all of the local communities need now providers with any questions have to turn to the office of Head Start in Washington DC which means response times are slower and they don't know as much about what communities in New Jersey need mhm in response to those office closures and some other steps the new administration has recently taken some Head Start associations in other states have sued um saying they're violating the law including the Head Start Act and the Separation of Powers what are parents saying have you been able to talk to any families who would be directly impacted by this two of the groups suing are parent organizations who are saying this is disastrous for their children there was one Head Start center in Washington that was forced to close for a few days which meant um hundreds of parents had to take their kids home that day they couldn't go to work they couldn't go to school and their kids weren't learning um I'm wondering about alternate plans or contingency plans if the money goes away i mean is there an argument to be made that uh there can be other resources for these kids if it's not Head Start so New Jersey receives about $200 million each year in Head Start funding from the federal government and researchers at Ruckers said that's a big sum of money that couldn't be easily replaced by the state so maybe the state would be able to help out a little bit but I don't think they would be able to conjure up that sum of money based on what I'm hearing so no contingency plan i mean the state department of education is in the loop they're talking to local Head Start providers about what's going on and trying to support them as best as they can but I don't think it's so clear-cut about what they would do if this funding does get taken away okay uh you can read all of Hannah Gross's reporting on our website njspotlightenews.org hannah thanks so much for coming in thank you so much for having me Bri scientists are putting more focus on eliminating POS which are toxic compounds known as forever chemicals from our environment the man-made chemicals are found in just about everything including our tap water and they're linked to serious health diseases like cancer at NGIT researchers from around the region recently got together working on new methods to remove PAS and ultimately reduce exposure to them altogether ted Goldberg reports it is estimated that nearly half of all the US tap water contains forever chemical and microplastics scary right more studies are showing increased risks of certain cancers and fertility issues from exposure to forever chemicals also known as PIFA and microlastics njit hosted professionals in the world of water academics and public officials for a conference on how we should deal with these dangers there is a dire need of coming together from the innovators and the researchers to the community leaders to the legislature people to find out what are or what should be the industry standard so given these health effects um the department is committed to reducing exposure forever chemicals have been found in everything from tap water and clothing to firefighting foam used on military bases katie Yangaron is the chief strategy officer for the DP and explained why their focus is mostly on getting forever chemicals out of water we prioritize drinking water because water that contains PAS has the potential to contribute to human exposure more than common sources such as food food packaging uh consumer products house dust those sorts of things even indoor and outdoor air we're not talking about some abstract environmental issue we're talking about families in my own district who worry about what's coming out of the tap this is not a rural problem it's not a suburban problem it's not an urban problem or an agriculture problem it's a problem across every sector new Jersey first found PFAS in its water supply in 2006 in 2018 the Garden State became the first state to create PAS standards for drinking water why is it difficult and challenging to capture all PAS okay first they occur in the environment at very very low concentration parts per trillion parts per billion right so obviously you can't destroy PAS directly in water samples it's not energy efficient in New Jersey PAS in water can exceed 13 or 14 parts per trillion federal requirements are a little more stringent and Violia North America spent tens of millions of dollars to upgrade a treatment plant in Delaware to meet that new standard not only is the PAS treatment system intensive from a capital standpoint you have to think about operating it over the long term which is a costly endeavor as well so we're always looking at uh how do we operate in a way that optimizes those those costs it's really all about how do you concentrate it up into as small a package as possible so that that becomes an economical solution clean water can come with a hefty price tag violia has requested a more than 40% rate hike for its customers in Delaware they also supply more than a million people in New Jersey where leaders say they're doing what they can to monitor forever chemicals in the water supply so far we've set groundwater standards we've listed certain PAS as hazardous substances which is really important uh because it gives our private well owners access to spill fund researchers at Princeton are looking at a novel approach bacteria that can destroy PFOA instead of looking at the traditional let's filter let's block um this particular methodology looks at how do we actually break down these materials this um microbial electrolytic cell is something that's in the process of translating and in our preliminary results we're showing significant increase in the breakdown uh of these harmful chemicals those microbes grow slowly so researchers will need time to scale things up and make it viable in the meantime leaders will grapple with an everpresent problem and complex expensive solutions at NJIT i'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News well businesses at the Jersey Shore say they're bracing for a hit due to tensions between the US and Canada hotels at beaches frequented by Canadian tourists say they're getting calls to cancel reservations and rooms that would normally be fully booked right now are sitting vacant so is it a blip or a bigger trend business owners should be worried about raven Santana has the story from Wildwood Coast Elite Realy Joy speaking in the seven years that I've been doing this it's definitely the slowest year I've seen jersey Shore rental manager Joy Kostas says properties that are normally in demand by Canadians who frequent the Wildwoods have experienced a steep decline she believes the decline may be linked to US immigration policies under the Trump administration and concerns over a potential trade war which have led many Canadians to cancel their travel plans ahead of the 2025 summer season we are seeing a major drop in Canadians um booking at this point i'm hoping that that changes but we've had we've had Canadians cancel we've had Canadians ask us if there's some sort of a problem between the countries and the borders close um will you refund us if we can't travel to the vacation destination and of course we would that would not be a problem if god forbid something like that happened we don't anticipate that happening but some people are worried about it obviously or we would not be getting questions about whether or not we would issue those refunds we we're getting calls from Canadians saying they feel unwelcome they feel disrespected uh they do not like the politics and most of them are most of them are saying they will see us in four years greater Wildwoods Tourism Authority Director Ben Rose says the anticipated decline in Canadian visitors may end up being greater than originally projected we don't know what the percentage is of Canadian visitors that we're not going to get this year we're we were projecting a 3 to 5% uh loss of Canadian visitors this year we now think it may be higher than that uh there are some reports out there from Adam Saxs of tourism economics reporting a 23 to 24% drop off in Canadian visitors so we have total 85 rooms here at the Canadian uh roughly I have about 55 reservations coming from the Canadian market and so far this year we about got about half i mean we still got plenty of time for the rest to book rental agents aren't the only ones down the shore preparing for a potential dip in Canadian tourism this summer hotels and motel are feeling the impact too including the Royal Canadian Motel where property manager Antonio Cataldo believes the decline is driven more by economic factors than political ones you've mentioned the economy plays a big part in your bookings have you put out any incentives or how to drop the price at all yes price we have dropped we do our like during the week to get people in through the door we do like specials we do price reduction to get them in okay um prior years and people are saying "Hey you know that was 25% we losing our dollar."

I say "Was there anything we could do?"

We work with the Canadian we do work with the Canadians and concerns you know the best deal we can do for them we understand they're losing and we want them to keep coming back but I don't think this tariff issue is causing them from not come here catalo's views are shared by Ben Rose who adds that the unfavorable exchange rate may also be contributing to the drop in Canadian tourism well I I think the political situation is is one aspect of it but I think even more importantly is the exchange rate the exchange rate is not favorable right now what's the exchange rate do you know it i think it's at uh 60 cents on the dollar 60 63 cents on the dollar so it's uh not very favorable right now to help counter the decline and reassure Canadians that they're welcomed and appreciated in New Jersey Rose says the tourism authority has launched targeted marketing campaigns in Canada to highlight why a Jersey Shore vacation remains a great choice free concerts three nights a week uh free Friday night fireworks we have uh free events going on all summer long so we're really stressing the affordability uh and we have over 8,000 hotel rooms and over 3,000 vacation rentals and they're all different prices so people can find something within their price range so we're looking at affordability and we're trying to really promote the fact the Wildwoods are an an affordable family vacation destination i think that's going to resonate even more than the political aspect of of what people are feeling right now in Canada despite the cancellations business owners are hopeful that new reservations will come from new shore visitors and help make up for the shortfall many remain confident that their loyal Canadian guests will be back next year if the political climate settles for NJ Spotlight News I'm Raven Santana that's going to do it for us tonight but before we go make sure you check out reporters roundt tomorrow with David Cruz he talks with New Jersey GOP Chairman Bob Hugan about the president's first 100 days and whether he'll make an endorsement in the gubanatorial primary race here in the state plus a team of local journalists talking all the week's big political headlines that's streaming Friday at noon on the NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel i'm Brianna Venoszi for the entire team at NJ Spotlight News thanks for being with us have a great night we'll see you right back here tomorrow njm Insurance Group serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years horizon Bluec Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey an independent lency of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and by the PSCG Foundation or believes that clean energy is more than just a power source it's an opportunity to create stronger economies and communities together the South Fork Wind and Sunrise Wind projects from Orstead will provide American wind powered energy for New Yorkers and support jobs education and the local supply chain orstead committed to a clean energy future for New [Music] York life is unpredictable health insurance shouldn't be for over 90 years Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has provided quality affordable health plans to New Jersey residents we have served generations of New Jersey families and businesses and are committed to driving innovations that put you at the heart of everything we do our members are our neighbors our friends and our families we're here when you need us most horizon proud to be New Jersey [Music]