Briana: Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, an all out war.

Israel continues his attack on Gaza, leaving 1500 that on both sides of the border, provoking fear in the Garden state.

>> My big concern is making sure my family get out of this country safe.

>> In order to see peace, we must also seek justice.

Briana: Also hammering out a deal.

RWJ nurses and their sticking point for higher nurse-patient ratios remain.

>> Were not giving up, and you can see that with the 89% of nurses that voted to continue with our strike reflects.

Briana: Plus failure to launch, Hoboken's first cannabis dispensary was set to open, but is now revised zoning laws.

Lauren: We have every penny into this decision.

Briana: And Gotta Know Jersey.

Our new political multimedia series design you navigate the upcoming legislative elections.

>> What happens in Trenton affects our lives really more than what happens in Washington.

Briana: NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

Announcer: Funding for "NJ Spotlight News" is provided by NJM insurance group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

And by the PSEG foundation.

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

Briana: Good evening and thanks for joining us on this Tuesday night.

I am Briana Vannozzi.

President Biden tonight making it crystal clear the United States stands with Israel.

President making remarks four days after an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants on Gaza, which he calls an act of sheer people, adding Israel had a right to respond, a response that killed more than 830 people in Gaza since the conflict broke out on Saturday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of health.

The death toll in Israel at more than 1000, according to officials there.

The White House also confirming at least 14 American citizens are among the dead, and another 20 or more Americans remain missing.

Some are among the more than 100 hostages being held by Hamas, including civilians, entire families, and young children.

Israel's retaliation for the initial bloodshed has been swift, pounding Gaza with deadly airstrikes.

The military promising a complete siege of the densely pollen -- densely populated strip, and sending mass groups of injured Palestinians to overwhelm hospitals.

Here at home, emotions are running high, as New Jersey residents with families in Israel and Gaza wait for word on whether their loved ones are safe.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports.

Brenda: As rockets roared into Israel, people ran for cover.

Hamas terrorists invading, going house to house.

Shockwaves immediately rocked friends and family back in New jersey, where Union County resident Tamar said her friend frantic text messages.

She read -- Tamar: "I'm not OK.

I'm not OK.

I can't stop crying.

I'm home by myself."

She's nine months pregnant.

Brenda: She tried to call her friend but later learned her husband had been shot in the stomach.

Both are hospitalized.

Her brother is a reservist.

Tamar: Glen Rock -- my brother is drafted.

Brenda: He's one of thousands.

>> We are talking at least 100 North Jersey residents that are right now in the Israeli army with a mass callout, and the numbers are 360 thousand people called up.

Brenda: Councilmen Mark Schwartz called from the airport in Frankfurt, Germany.

He is one of the lucky few who managed to get flights home.

The home last attacked -- the Hamas attack caught many visiting off guard.

>> We are expecting people who will not be able to get out being in the Delta, and are having to revoke.

>> My big concern is making sure my family gets out of the country safe that is not entangled and caught up in the war in any which way, shape, or form.

Brenda: His family has tickets to Dubai, as many flee the war anyway they can.

This lake what Rabbi is currently staying near Jerusalem and describes a tent, emotional atmosphere.

He has already witnessed many burials.

>> It is extremely, extremely sad.

It's the aftereffects of seeing, you know, one after the other.

Weisberg called the Hamas attack Israel's version of 9/11 and that they will only lead to more suffering, but it is clear both Israelis and Palestinians will continue to die in this conflict.

Pro-Israel's supporters in Short Hills and across New Jersey rally, promising U.S. support, as it President Biden.

Israel vowed vengeance and retaliated by Shell rocketing supplies in a country where half the nation resides below the poverty line.

County resident Najwa Alsadi says her sister and niece live in Gaza.

Najwa: They are destroyed emotionally and physically.

They cannot sleep.

They cannot -- they don't have food.

They don't have water.

It looks like they may even lose the shelter that they have.

No medicine is allowed to get in or out of Gaza.

Brenda: She says families keep moving from house to house, warned that more rockets are coming in from Israel.

Palestinians demanded to be heard at rallies like this one.

>> Please free Palestine!

Brenda: The Palestinian-American community center calls for an end to decades of Israeli occupation.

>> We do not condone bloodshed.

We don't own the killing of any civilians.

But this is a boiling point.

And this is an opportunity for our leaders, for the international community to correct what is wrong.

75 years of occupation is too long!

In order for us to see peace, we must first see justice.

But in order for us to see justice, we must first see an end to the occupation of Palestine.

Brenda: But right now, there is no end in sight.

Hi Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: Three months and no deal .

The nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital on the picket line.

The nurse's union and hospital continue to negotiate after a meeting on Friday with a federal mediator.

Each side digging in their heels while meeting today, and as Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports, the tone is more bitter.

>> Hopefully we have a fair contract where safe staffing is implemented.

>> That's all we want is a contract, so we can go back to work.

Orsted -- Joanna: After failing to reach an agreement during a mediation on Friday way federal monitor is present.

>> We are not giving up.

We are fighting for something that we do believe in, and we want nurses to come into this profession knowing that we are doing the right thing for all the people that we are taking care of.

Joanna: It is day 67 of the strike that left workers without benefits since September 1 and that brought out the raw emotion of the messy negotiating process and a job that can be grueling in and of itself.

>> If I did not love what I do, we would not be here.

We all work together hard, you know, all of us work together well, even with the doctors and all the ancillary staff and all my fellow colleagues, we all help each other.

It does not matter if it is our patient or not, we still help each other.

We are always there for them.

It is not just about doing a task in just giving medications and going home on time.

We spent time with the patient, genuinely.

Joanna: The hospital calls the nurses' demands untenable, outlier positions and says the higher calls for nurse to patient ratios actually exceed those posted legislation that the union claims to support.

>> Some of them do have the safe staffing ratios, but other units do not, and we are trying to fight that, where all of us have the safe staffing.

Joanna: As these negotiations dragged out, both the nurses Union and the hospital have pointed out nearly $80 million has been hit so far -- spent so far on temporary nurses, filling on the gaps.

>> Is that a back money could have gone to helping us get our contract in helping us move it along.

They look at a contract as being a long term.

They look at temporary employees as being short-term.

It is still a lot of money that should have never happened that way.

Joanna: How could you have better seen that $80 million spent, in terms of what you are asking for?

>> More staff, better staffing.

That is what we would ask for, permanent staff.

Joanna: The hospital said in a statement if there was any validity to the union's claims that staffing was not safe, they would propose the Hospital hire more nurses instead of asking that nurses ask for $20 more an hour.

But she says the payraise was never a sticking point and they've already agreed to a pay increase.

>> Just a 4% increase.

I don't know that even meets the cost of living.

Joanna: She's said they could have a effect on the entire RJ but of -- RWJBarnabas Health entire system, which is a sponsor of NJ Spotlight News.

>> Every hospital will why would we get.

I think that is part of the issues.

Joanna: Issues they hope to be ironed out before the end of this week.

I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: Top leaders in the Patterson Police Department are suing New Jersey's Attorney General, asking the court's determining the state takeover of the embattled department.

A lawsuit filed Friday by the ousted police Chief, review arrow, and acting police director, says the Attorney General violated the state constitution while his office took control of Paterson PD.

The takeover followed years of controversy within the force, including police shootings and deaths while in custody along with an FBI corruption probe.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Matt Platkins' office says the student is "as unfortunate as it is meritless," and reflects the problems within the department that necessitated a state intervention.

Officers say the takeover is working, saying violent crime is down significantly this summer compared to earlier this year.

Paterson Mayor André Sayegh says he is not part of a lawsuit but said on Monday he is supporting the effort.

Meanwhile, embattled U.S.

Senator Bob Menendez is still digging in his heels over a 2024 potential reelection bid, that is despite calls from more than half the senior senator to resign, amid bribery and corruption charges, alleging Menendez and his wife exhibit hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for political favors, and a new investigation by the Attorney General's office into a fatal 2018 car crash by his wife, Nadine, which is facing fresh scrutiny for its connection to the indictment and whether law enforcement followed proper protocol after the crash.

Katie Sobkois a Statehouse reporter for "The Bergen Record" and is part of the team that broke the story about the fatal accident.

She joins me now.

Katie, thank you so much for joining me.

This is one line in a 39-page indictment that Nadine Menendez had been in a car crash, but you and your team unfolded what is in and of itself an entire other scandal.

Talk to me about that.

Katie: Yeah.

Everyone did great reporting on the indictment itself, and it took days and weeks to go through the entire thing.

And during that time, we had started hearing rumblings in Bergen County that things were not quite as they seemed in terms of what that car crash and -- entailed.

We heard what town it could have been in, and I got narrowed what year it could have been, and we did local boots on the ground sort of reporting, got the local public records, and found that it was actually a fatal car crash.

A man lost his life, and it was kind of glossed over in the indictment, and it was something that we felt needed to be shared.

Briana: Yeah.

And the dash camera video that you all obtained was very chilling and very gripping to watch.

Because of your reporting, the Attorney General's office is now investigating whether or not the Bogota police properly handled the case.

Do we know anything about where that investigation stands?

Katie: Well, the Attorney generals office and the governor's office don't comment on operations, so we are unsure of the bread or the depth of what they are investigating, but we know they are looking into it, looking into exactly what protocols were followed or were not on that night, and we are hoping that this materializes into something a little more concrete, and we get the full story of what happened that night in Bogota.

Briana: There are still gaps, correct?

Have you been able to fill in any of those pieces, as far as the time gap between when the video starts and when the accident actually happened or any more details about the folks who were on the scene?

Katie: We are actively reporting on what more happened on the scene, on what happened leading up to the crash and what happened afterwards.

We have a great team at the record that is still working day and night around the clock to try and paint the full picture, and also there were other law enforcement agencies that turned out, the Bergen County Sheriff's office, the Bergen County prosecutors were on hand.

So it is not just Bogota, we are trying to see who were all there, for how long, and why.

Briana: Is there anything else, Katie, as we are sitting here, still stand out in the indictment?

As we mentioned, this is one line, you guys took it and ran with it to its fullest.

Are there any items in there that to you are glaring and may tell a deeper story?

Katie: I think there are a lot of small details, especially in the way that Nadine communicated with the three businessmen that were also charged.

We don't know a lot about that.

Everybody knows who Senator Menendez is, his background, but there are still a lot of details that are not known about his wife and the other three businessmen.

I think over time, "The Record" and the other New Jersey papers are going to look into what exactly happened leading up to the indictment and who all the players are.

Briana: All right, Katie Sobko is the statehouse reporter for "The Bergen Record" and statehouse.com.

Thank you so much.

Katie: Thank you.

Briana: In our spotlight on business report, a Hoboken business owner is fighting to open its doors.

The first adult use cannabis dispensary got approval at both the state and local levels, and now, Blue Violets dispensary is facing a lawsuit.

A local group arguing the location near a school violates zoning laws, guidelines that were changed after the dispensary got approved.

Melissa Rose Cooper has the story.

Lauren: We have put every dime, every nickel, every penny into this dream.

Melissa: A business Lauren Thompson and her husband Max believed would be open by now.

But instead, the doors to their cannabis dispensary, Blue Violets, in Hoboken remains shut.

Lauren: It is frustrating, scary.

Myself and my husband, we are small business owners.

It is all of our savings.

We have been doing this the last two and half years.

It seems like it has been almost five.

Melissa: The couple became the first recreational cannabis applicants to receive full approval from both the state and the city of Hoboken.

The group Hoboken for responsible cannabis challenged its location for being too close to a school.

Max: As we were going through the process, Hoboken change the rule on us.

Originally, we were not able to be on the same block as a school, which we are not, and the rule was changed to say you cannot be within 50 feet of the school, which we are.

So even know we already started the process, and typically when you start the process, you get protection from that time you applied, but because of this new cannabis review board, we did not get that protection.

It is a brand-new board the state's law did not account for.

When we try to go to the planning board, the planning board agreed we were grandfathered and can continue.

Melissa: Last month, a judge ruled in favor of Hoboken for responsible cannabis and ruled -- vacated Blue Violets' zoning approval.

Mr. Quintero: I would have thought that Blue Violets would have a time of application protection, because they didn't start their cannabis business process during a different set of rules.

Melissa: Councilman Joe Quintero says with the city revised its ordinances prohibiting a dispensary within 600 feet of school, it was supposed to be future applicants, not for Blue Violets, where approval had already been given.

Mr. Quintero: However, it turns out the consequences of that, based on the judge's opinion, was that we essentially changed the rules out from under Blue Violet's feet, which again from my perspective was not the intention, but it was the result, unfortunately, and they now find themselves in a tough situation.

Melissa: The cannabis regulatory commission declined to comment on the lawsuit, but others say they are happy with the judge's ruling, saying Blue Violets did not submit a full program to the planning board, adding in a statement, "the application is too close to the school, but when we brought it up to the city, the local representative and planning board and not listen to us."

"It did not have to get this far if the residents' voices have been heard from the beginning."

Max: we had a license.

We did everything right.

Unfortunately, it did not work out for us, and we are trying to figure out our options.

Melissa: The couple is in talk with their lawyer to see what they can pursue, but they continue to fight until Blue Violets is open.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Melissa Rose Cooper.

Briana: Turning to Wall Street, investors are still assessing the impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Here's a look at the day's trading numbers.

♪ We are less than a month out to the next statewide election, where all 120 seats in the New Jersey Legislature are on the ballot, and if recent history is any indication, only about 1/4 of all registered voters will exercise one of the most important rights as a citizen.

In an effort to change that and get New Jerseyans more engaged with the electoral process, our NJ Spotlight News team is launching a new multimedia series titled, fittingly, Gotta Know jersey.

Senior writer and project manager Colleen O'Dea is here to explain.

Colleen, great to have you on.

Gotta Know Jersey.

You guys have been working on this for some time.

It is really getting the public engaged with the very basics of voting.

Colleen: Yeah.

It was just abysmal.

The one thing that kept coming up was a lack of civics education, a lack of understanding, so we thought about it and said, we should really do something to try to change that.

So we decided to try to put together this awesome team of folks on the broadcast site, social media, digital site, and we can working on this series of videos, and we are really excited to launch it.

Briana: Yeah.

It is a really great hub.

If you've never voted before, or maybe you are first time, now you're just eligible, you just turned 18.

What kind of things can people expect to learn here?

Walk us through what we will find.

Colleen: The very first thing we thought was important to say is legislative elections are really important, because what happens in Trenton affects our lives really more than what happens in Washington, when you think about it, from the ideas that we have the full range of reproductive health care, including access to abortion, despite what the Supreme Court did, to the fact that we want to pump our own gas, which I know is controversial.

I happen to not like doing it.

Briana: I happened to be on the same page as you.

[Laughter] Colleen: So we are starting out there.

We also explain because the election is coming up quickly and the deadline to register is next Tuesday, how do you register if you are not registered?

How do you check your registration to make sure your registration hasn't lapsed?

And then how to vote.

It is not as easy as getting up on election day anymore and walking to a polling place.

Briana: Let's take a look at one of those videos on how to vote.

>> Voting is not just your civic duty, it is your right, it is your chance to make your voice heard and help determine.

It can be intimidating.

We've got you covered when it comes to New Jersey.

But before you can vote, you need to get registered.

You must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, and not incarcerated for a serious offense.

New Jersey makes it relatively easy with automatic registration when you get your drivers license, but not everyone drives you may have to register a different way.

Briana: That is a lot of fun, actually.

I enjoyed watching that.

Where do you go from here?

How do you make sure folks are educated?

They pay attention more now to national news than local.

Where can they then take this information to help them stay engaged?

Colleen: Yeah.

We want them out to the polls, we want them to be registered, we want them to get out of vote either early, using a mail-in ballot, early in person before the election, or go out there on election day.

We have future videos coming up to help maybe, again, convince people why this is important, as we want to tell people, what is the legislature exactly, and we got our own version of that famous "Schoolhouse Rock" "I'm just a Bill."

Briana: yes.

Colleen: We are hoping to tell people how a bill becomes law.

Briana: In New Jersey, who are you targeting specifically?

Is this for anybody?

I'm thinking of students.

Colleen: Anybody can hopefully benefit from it, but, yeah, we are targeting, especially with these first videos, these college-age students.

The people who are eligible to vote.

But we would love to see high schools and middle schools even embrace these and use these to help embrace and teach kids how it is that our legislature works.

Briana: Not to mention there are a lot of adults that are not exercising their right to vote.

Gotta Know Jersey, Colleen O'Dea, thank you so much.

Check out the whole Gotta Know Jersey page and check your own civics knowledge.

Just head over to NJSpotlight.org.

That is going to do it tonight, but don't forget to download the NJ Spotlight News podcast, so you can listen anytime.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

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

Have a great evening.

We will see you back here tomorrow.

♪ >> The members of the New Jersey Education Association, making public school great for every child.

RWJBarnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

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

♪