>> Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, missing New Jerseyians as the war in Israel escalates, and ways await news from loved ones as Governor Murphy contends that hamas attack.

>> It is a massacre, terror activity.

>> Chaos on the hill, the war adding to the urgency for Republicans to fill the house speaker seat.

>> Right now their hands are tied, they cannot do anything without a speaker.

>> Plus fentanyl overdose fears.

>> 110,750 Americans lost their drugs, that is over 300 people a day.

>> The drug enforcement administration has the family summit to increase awareness of the deadly effects.

A free vaccine clinic.

Hoboken offers free shots of the newest COVID-19 vaccines as health officials warned of a spike over this winter.

>> People still die.

It has been proven effective.

>> NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

Announcer: Funding for "NJ Spotlight News" funded by the Verizon, Blue Cross Jill of New Jersey.

And by the PSEG foundation.

♪ From NJPBS this is NJ Spotlight News.

>> Good evening, and thanks for joining us.

I am free on the Vannozzi.

At least one New Jersey resident is among the dead in Israel.

Governor murky -- Governor Murphy saying he was killed during this week's terror attacks on the country.

According to reports, the 20-year-old was a dual citizen when he was killed Saturday in a surprise attack.

The governor's office confirming New Jerseyians are among the missing, including a high school graduate serving in the Israel Mr. Terry -- military near the Gaza Strip.

Alexander has been unaccounted for since Saturday when armed militants rated homes and communities, brutally killing entire families, babies, and civilians.

The onslaught has killed more than 2000 people in Israel.

The Palestinian-American community Center says multiple New Jersey residents are reporting their family favorites -- family members have been killed in Gaza.

Donald Norcross was part of a small Congressional group who met yesterday in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a show of unity.

The Garden State is home to some of the largest Jewish and Palestinian communities in the country, and the effects are being felt deeply here at home.

Our Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports.

>> Is Israel amassed it soldiers before an apparent gun division, New Jersey families on both sides of this brutal war worried about loved ones and praised for the worst.

At a Hoboken vigil Governor Murphy memorialized to the dead, more than 2000 total, including this one.

>> there is a reported one loss of life.

We know there is at least one missing.

I've got no update on his whereabouts.

He served >> -- And to school noted we know that many in our community are suffering, our thoughts are with all of our families and loved ones.

The coverage of the terror attack has uncovered horrific images, one is really soldier commented.

>> You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers in their bedrooms, in the protection rooms and how the terrorists killed them.

>> I started to see all of the pictures and all of the videos.

They are horrible.

>> This resident's undeserving in the IDF and has not heard from him since Sunday but weird for his life.

Finally late last night a recording arrived from Israel, and she listened with joy.

>> Please let my mom know that I am alive and I have 10 toes and 10 fingers and everything is OK. >> I am one of the lucky people.

I cannot imagine what other people are going through right now.

>> Families trying to get back home cannot get plane tickets, and they have reached out to officials.

The governor said they are working two of them find a way home and provide humanitarian aid.

>> Putting aside the horror of hamas which met -- must be brought to order and eliminated.

>> Israel has established a total siege of Gaza.

It is blocking shipments of food, water, power, and medicine.

It is impossible to leave the area.

I Israel reportedly bombed the only open exit point to Egypt and continues its bombardment of targets inside Gaza and ongoing retaliation for the attack.

Among the Palestinian population, several families have gotten reports of loved ones killed.

This person's family is in Gaza.

>> Many children and women are being killed around them, so it is getting worse.

>> There is no way to hide.

Sorry.

>> This woman could not separate tears, but her friends urged her to report conditions there.

>> There is no way to hide.

>> It is very clear that an Israeli life means more than a Palestinian life.

>> hamas are Palestinians.

She points to purchase like the one Senator Cory Booker's office which often elicit backlash.

>> We need to get to the root cause of it, which is occupation of 75 years.

>> This political analyst says hamas opposes any Israeli state.

>> One motivation may have been to obstruct the progress that potentially could have been made normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and it is really tragic, because they do not want an independent Palestinian state on the land.

They wanted on all of the land.

>> She expects the violence will escalate.

>> On Capitol Hill House Republicans voted behind closed doors today choosing Majority Leader Steve Scalise as their nominee for speaker.

The GOP congressman from Louisiana still needs to win the majority from the Full House to become the chamber's leader.

The conference was closely divided between Scully's and Jim Jordan, with just a 14 foot difference.

The move comes as the GOP stairs down the outbreak in Israel.

I am joined by an associate professor of political science.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Critical happenings on the hill today, the house GOP behind closed doors put Steve Scalise as their nominee for the speaker.

What does this say?

It puts us a step forward from getting to the floor, and other question is can Steve Scalise win the 217 votes he needs to be speaker, and I think right now that is not at all a short bit, because if you look at the boat they came out of this committee, at least 99 Republicans did not vote for Steve Scalise.

It they will all fall in line, but from the comments we heard even before the meeting today, it is likely that there will be some holdouts in that group, and it might be anywhere from a very small number as result previously with Kevin McCarthy to a large number who might force the conference to go back to these closed-door meetings and figure out another route to a solution, so I think we still have work that needs to be done to get to a speaker ultimately.

>> And this scene was chaotic enough.

Add to it the tragedy unfolding right now in Israel.

What does that mean for these negotiations and how tied the hands of Congress are right now?

>> It sheds a bright spotlight on the lack of a speaker, so it puts a lot of pressure on the Republicans to come together and figure out how they will proceed through this gridlock so that the business of Congress can be done, and of course, at this moment one of the most important points of business is on the substantive side making sure resources that need to be sent to the Middle East get to move forward, and symbolically Congress is look to as a voice in international politics as well, so it matters that they speak on the floor in support of our allies and against of these atrocities, and right now their hands are tied.

>> Do you see this hampering the U.S.'s ability to aid Israel as President Biden came up boldly saying we will give Israel whatever it needs to defend itself without a speaker?

Is it possible?

>> I think that the administration will find all of the ways that they can move around this, but it is going to be much easier and important for Congress to be functioning so that a full support package can be sent to the Middle East.

>> If this drags out, we know what happened with Speaker McCarthy, 15 ballots.

Can Congress afford to go through a lengthy process again?

Given the circumstances, and if they do, how far does that set us back in the goals that need to be accomplished immediately?

>> Unfortunately the answer to the first is it might not matter if we can or cannot handle it.

There will come a point where there has to be a resolution in large part because the government will not be funded in another -- I do not know what the counters now but we are probably under 40 days, so there will be increasing pressure on the members of Congress and particularly in the Republican conference to figure out a solution, and I think they will, but there is certainly digging in their feet largely for party and ideological reasons, which is important -- unfortunate because that continues to play into voters' perceptions that this Congress is unable to get things done.

>> Kelly is an associate professor of political science, thank you so much.

>> Families who have lost a loved one to Fentanyl poisoning or whose lives have been affected by the tragic overdose crisis are gathering this week for an annual event with the drug enforcement administration New Jersey searching for ways to work together and slow the resident to the rate of deaths being caused by the drug.

Our Senior correspondent reports.

>> Today we gather together as a community in memory of those who have lost their lives to drug poisonings.

>> The drug enforcement administration held its second annual family Summit focused on the scourge of Fentanyl in our state and nation.

>> 174,000 Americans lost their life to drug poisonings.

>> Top officials in the state outlines what each of their departments are doing to combat the growing problem of Fentanyl poisonings in New Jersey, like New Jersey's Attorney General.

>> For a long time to get action crisis was viewed as a criminal problem, and punitive approaches were deployed and I think we can all agree these were resounding failures.

We have changed our approach collaboratively across our federal, state, and local partnerships to tackle this epidemic for what it is, a public health crisis where law enforcement plays a critical role but not the only one.

>> The U.S. attorney Philip Salinger who spoke about recent initiatives including $345 million for Naloxone distribution, your support for families who have lost loved ones, and education and awareness.

>> The violent drug cartels are manufacturing to Fentanyl in fake pills, so they are designed to look exactly like the brand name pills, but instead they contain deadly amounts of Fentanyl.

The agents of the D.A.

office are working tirelessly to prosecute those who are flooding our communities with these drugs.

>> In New Jersey alone there are approximately 2900 overdose deaths last year, which is a slight improvement from the year prior, but the state recently launched an expansion of its harm reduction sites with the goal of having at least one in every county, as the acting health Commissioner explains.

>> The harm reduction centers offer a multitude of services.

Anything that prevents overdose, death, preventing infection, they can test for infection.

At broader spectrum of care and medication on-site, so with that multitude of services we can be saving lives in all different ways.

>> It is a battle.

>> This summit gives grieving loved ones a chance to talk about what comes next after the loss and how they turned their pain into advocacy.

>> My heart was broken like I was getting constantly stabbed.

>>'s investigation was a murder investigation, because he was deceived.

I think we need to talk a health Sentinel -- fentanyl is being put in things they do not know they are doing.

And overdose is something that you are aware of, and you take too much and you overdose and die.

>> We are now focused on education.

Education in the schools, the community.

>> The photos of lost loved ones a somber reminder of why this work matter so much.

>> Solitary confinement is often considered the harshest punishment handed out in prisons .

It is known to cause mental stress so severe the United Nations classifies the practice as torture.

State leaders in 2019 passed a law that prohibits keeping an inmate in a cell for 20 hours or more a day over an extended period of time, when a new report finds people who run New Jersey prisons are not following that law.

Terry Schuster is the state corrections ombudsperson and he joins me now to discuss the report.

Thanks for coming on the show.

I am interested to know specifically what did you attain find in this report about the use of solitary confinement?

>> We went around to the disciplinary housing units in prisons and fielded a survey with the people who were living there, so we connected with about 200 to 250 people and asked them how much time you were getting out of your cell a day, and most of them said less than two hours.

We gathered the logs at the Department of Corrections in the prison systems itself keeps about people's movement in and out of themselves -- in and out of their cells.

People were not really getting out of their cells.

>> This is hundreds of state prisoners that are spending about 22 hours a day in that cell?

>> On any given day it is between 700 and 800 people.

>> Why is this still happening when there are protections put in place?

Where prisoners being sentenced to these confined quarters?

>> To actually comply with the law and implement a schedule dictates people out of their cells and activities and to contradict interaction, it is a lot of logistics, and I think logistics can be interrupted really frequently by fights or by medical care or by understaffing.

One of the things that we have found that is good news is it can be implemented effectively, and the department has been able to prove that at the women's prison, so in the disciplinary housing unit at the Whitman -- women's prison, people are offered four hours out of there so.

It will require other policy changes about how does the department deal with violations, and can they have fewer people going into the settings where their movement is very controlled?

>> So less people would help these facilities to comply and be set up to succeed with this law?

>> Yes, and I think too that more consistent staffing, or follow up on their own data, the department is keeping logs of who is getting out of their cell and at what time and for what, so they should be able to set performance goals and say for the last month we were not getting people out enough, let's try to improve it by 10%, 15% for the next month and monitor performance.

>> Thanks so much for coming on to chat.

>> In our spotlight on business, stocks are on the move following a surprise wholesale inflation report out today which stirs higher than analysts expected for September, underscoring the challenge the Fed faces in those economic pressures.

She was a look at how the markets closed.

-- here is a look at how the markets close.

>> Support for the business report provided by Junior achievement of New Jersey, providing students with skills and knowledge to advance their career paths for a brighter future, online at janj.org.

♪ >> Finally tonight, if you need to visit a hospital in Hudson County, make sure you pack a mask.

Half of the six hospitals are reinstating a mask mandate due to a recent spike in coronavirus cases.

Hudson regional Hospital, Jersey regional Medical Center and Palisades have all put the safety requirement back in place.

So have all RJ Barnabas -- RWJ Barnabas health hospitals.

Weekly case counts have increased from about 1000 per week during the summer to a range of 3000 or more than 4000 since kids returned to school.

I will also brought back a pandemic air and necessity, a free COVID-19 vaccine clinic with the reformulated shots targeting new variants.

Raven Santana was there.

>> I do not want to get sick.

People still die, so it is been proven effective, so that is why I am here.

>> This resident is just one of more than 100 people who showed up to see -- receive the updated COVID-19 vaccines.

It was a when it coasted by the Hoboken regional health commission.

>> Is the updated formula, so it is protective against the newest variant emerging, and we have 120 appointments, and right now at this time we are actually appointment only due to the amount of vaccine we receive from our distributor, so appointments are strongly recommended because we cannot guarantee what at this time.

>> Those walk-ins include anyone six months or older.

>> We have a lot of interest in vaccinating and parents getting their children's excellent and older vaccinated.

We are providing an important piece by vaccinating that age group from six months and up are a lot of providers and pediatricians offices do not have the vaccine, so we are filling that cap.

>> Getting vaccinated is important.

We are past the crisis mode of the past three years, and now it is getting used to it.

Flu shot, COVID shot to try to get the newest variant covered.

Not going to prevented.

It will make things much easier.

>> Is this your first time getting the vaccine?

>> This is my fifth time, and it is his third.

>> boo boo.

>> Are you OK now?

Good job.

For this of you ready to get your neck shot, inventory has been a common barrier for those ready to receive their shop because some New Jerseyans are finding it difficult to get an appointment for themselves or their children after a rocky start to the rollout.

This professor at Montclair State University says logistical challenges are not rare when will he not new vaccines.

>> Anytime you were trying to rollout new vaccines or the next poster especially in something relatively new, there can be logistical challenges, one of which is the temperatures of these vaccines continue to need to be held in.

So there is a production side and distribution.

Because of the removal of the emergency order there may be the perception that you cannot get the vaccine for free, and that is not true in New Jersey with programs that support access to free vaccines.

>> Partnerships are critical tools to creating resources for the most vulnerable communities.

>> People are looking into the winter season and say it is time for me to get my updated vaccines.

I think people know know to look to the city for some level of infrastructure around the vaccine process.

>> Staff says due to the demand and need a plan to hold another clinic next week.

>> And that does it for us, but make sure to tune in tomorrow night for Chat Box with David Cruz.

David celebrates Hispanic heritage month with a two time Olympian: explains how her Puerto Rico and heritage influenced her and inspired her gymnastics career.

That is tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. on the YouTube channel, and do not forget to download the NJ Spotlight News podcaster you can listen anytime.

>> 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 schools 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.

♪