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Anchor: Tonight, the Hamas leader responsible for planning the October 7 deadly terror attack on Israel has been killed.

Plus, airport facelift.

The port authority prevails -- reveals a facelift plan but at what cost?

>> We are tearing it down and putting up a new terminal B, and when we are done make room for a five-star rating.

Anchor: How will hurricanes and critical swing states and dampen voter turnout in November?

The woman who managed New Jersey's vote after Superstorm Sandy ways and.

-- weighs in.

>> They could control who was gonna be the next president of the United States.

Anchor: And behind the scenes at a new testing facility in Fairfield to see what is being done to keep your food safe.

>> Salmonella, listeria, many of the things we hear about in the media.

We also provide a full range of services if you want to look for indicate of organisms in products or environments.

Anchor: NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

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

Anchor: Good evening and thank you for joining us this Thursday night.

We begin with a few key stories we are following.

First, the Israeli military has killed a Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 attack that killed over 100 Israelis and set off a war in Gaza.

His body was found and DNA was used to confirm his identity.

Vice President Harris confirmed the U.S. worked closely with Israel on the mission.

Israel has made removing Hamas leadership a mission of the war.

Many of Israel's strongest allies are calling on Hamas to "immediately release the remaining hostages and lay down its weapons."

And Congressman, a staunch supporter of Israel, said today in a statement, "Sinwar has been brought to justice in the world is safer."

But it's unclear what his death means for resolving the conflict more broadly.

Also, insight on where New Jersey voters fight on the election.

A new poll finds that voter opinions on the economy fall mostly along partisan lines.

More than half of Democrats surveyed rated their financial situation positively compared to one third of Republicans.

The cost of everyday goods, housing and health care were the top three financial struggles cited by voters.

Democrats also felt more optimistic about the future of the economy than GOP voters.

When it comes to immigration, 55% of those polled view it positively.

Just over half said immigration to the U.S. should be more difficult.

A majority want to curb illegal immigration but are mostly supportive of legal pathways to citizenship.

Voters on both sides of the aisle overwhelmingly want to see more resources sent to the U.S. border with Mexico.

New Jersey voters remain strong on protecting abortion rights.

Most, including a majority of Republicans, would support a federal law reestablishing a nationwide right to abortion.

Hundreds of massage businesses in New Jersey are under investigation for illicit conduct, including some that appear to be involved with human trafficking.

The latest report from the state commission of investigation looked into 250 massage parlors and found the owners and operators routinely manipulated laws governing the industry while also working to conceal their illegal business practices.

Many times they were covering up fraud and tax evasion.

The report also showed some of those owners exploited female employees who were typically Asian immigrants who spoke minimal English.

After a visit to the parlors, investigators discovered evidence the female employees were living there and they found darkened windows, no signage and cash only operations.

Business owners were found to be living lavish lifestyles while only reporting modest incomes.

Among some of the reforms being recommended are stricter licensing requirements by the state and stiffer penalties for violators.

Newark Airport is getting another facelift, this time replacing old terminal b and c. The Port Authority unveiled a vision plan to redevelop New Jersey's largest airport, which is being used as a blueprint to guide and nearly century-old facility into a new era, and follows the well-received work to revamp terminal a.

It's unclear how much the planned work will cost, when it will be finished or even when it will start.

Brenda Flanagan reports.

Reporter: Newark Liberty's new terminal a has been open less than a year, garnering prestigious awards for excellence.

Today, Port Authority officials unveiled their next move, bold design plans to build a new terminal B, part of an overhaul of the airport with a very Jersey and Newark centric focus, touted the chairman.

>> It is the cradle of New Jersey, where all good things happen.

You are going to see the vision we have.

You will see the unveiling of the future of terminal B.

We are tearing it down and putting up a new terminal B and when we are done, make room for the five-star rating.

>> You can't get someplace if you don't know where you are going.

Reporter: Built in 1973, the current terminal B channels international air traffic and travelers often queue up for service.

The airport handled 49 million passengers last year, more than pre-COVID levels.

New terminal B will streamline service and highlight New Jersey art and culture, local businesses and amenities.

>> We don't want it to be branded as a gateway to New York, we want it to be branded as a gateway to New Jersey and reflect the values of the people who live here.

Reporter: The agency's aviation redevelopment director says it fits into a grand plan to tackle Newark Liberty's tired, outmoded transportation systems.

>> This cascades into numerous delays, which makes us one of the most delayed airports in the country.

It is very difficult to navigate, a spaghetti of roads.

The result is you might circle a couple of times and we have all done that.

Reporter: Larger aircraft, spacious passenger loading zones, that are roadways served by a new air train system, and anchoring it all, the new terminal B, and eventually a new terminal C. But it means years of construction and passengers are already expecting -- >> Delays, longer lines, may be less amenities available while they are working through things.

>> I think it will disrupt a lot.

It will make it even harder.

We were already delayed a couple hours coming in.

Reporter: The port of 30 hit turbulence during similar -- Port Authority hit turbulence during similar products.

>> I have no doubt that lessons learned at LaGuardia and JFK will allow us to handle the construction.

Reporter: When will construction start?

No timeline yet, it's still in the planning stages, which is why there was also no price tag on the project yet either.

At Newark Liberty International Airport, Brenda Flanagan.

Anchor: National guardsmen from around the country, including New Jersey, continue to support hurricane relief efforts in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and elsewhere, clearing downed trees, reopening flooded roads and getting the lights back on for millions of people.

Experts say the damage is still being added up but they expect losses to surpass $50 billion each.

What is worse, about 95% of the damage in the case of Hurricane Helene, affected people who were uninsured, putting victims in a financial hole.

The devastation from storms have election officials concerned in may impact the turnout on election day either because voting is not top of mind or because residents won't have access.

New Jersey's former lieutenant governor has been in this situation before, she oversaw elections when Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012, which left 38 people dead, close to 350,000 homeless, and more than 2 million without power.

State officials scrambled to pull off voting at the time, creating one of the first playbooks are modern-day elections in the wake of a natural disaster.

She joins me now.

Thank you for coming on the show.

You know how difficult it was to balance the right to vote and protecting the right to vote while also making sure folks had trust in the system.

What was your biggest challenge in the wake of Sandy on that election day?

Kim: Leading up to the election date it was preparing for it, getting as many possible to vote in advance.

This was of 2012 and early voting was not necessarily the way it is now.

It is not that common.

It was very controversial in 2012.

We opened the polls, we had clerks opened longer, we had good working relationships with all of the parties involved.

Leading up to Sandy and then after Sandy, we had 3000 polling districts disappear.

We had to try to put those together as quickly as possible.

There were a lot of challenges.

It wasn't so much trust as it is today in terms of the legality and to many people voting as it was making sure people had access to the polls at the time.

Anchor: It was just the sheer fact people could not get there.

The roads were not open, power wasn't necessarily on.

Now it's more a question of folks concerned their votes will be counted, if there will be fraud involved.

Have any of the states impacted reached out to you or anyone in the administration for advice?

Kim: I haven't seen at.

There were a lot of reports on voting after Sandy.

There's a lot of paper out there, the league of women voters did an investigation just to find out how we did it and how we can do better in the future.

Anchor: I'm curious, all the talk is about whether it will affect turnout.

Did it affect turnout in New Jersey?

Kim: We looked at it very closely.

President Obama was first elected with 72% of the vote in 2008.

Our election was 2012, the next time he was on the ballot.

He went down from 72% to 66%.

But we went back up the following presidential election with 68%.

I think the record turnout in 2008 was because it was President Obama, the first black president.

I think it was a little lower in 2012 but that was because it was a little lower across the country.

It was at 68, 68 and 66%, that's not a big difference in terms of the presidential.

I don't think it had a large impact.

I think to the extent there was lower turnout was probably due to Sandy but we did everything we could to make sure people had a chance to exercise their rights.

Anchor: Does it somewhat motivate folks to go to the polls even more once they are faced with a disaster like that and their life up ended?

Kim: Everyone asks, what happened with the voting, did people stay home because they were in shelters?

I think people deliberately went out because they were in shelters.

The only thing they could control was their ability to exercise the right to vote.

They couldn't control the weather or electricity or where they were, the tides.

But they could control who would be the next president of the United States.

That's why I think we had a record number of votes in polling places, completely slammed with people trying to get in and strike a ballot.

Anchor: What would you say over a decade later was your biggest take away about getting an election underway with circumstances like that?

Kim: We were only a week out.

If Helene had hit a little earlier, I think they would be in bad shape because people would not trust each other.

We had a very good elation ship with all the major parties and voting advocates.

I'd been meeting with them on a quarterly basis as the Secretary of State.

It was a cell phone call literally, 4:00 a.m. in the morning the day of the election we will still down with districts and I said I know you will all sue me, can you just wait until after the votes are in so we get through the selection and you go back and examine if there was any problems and any fraud and then we will go through the exercise.

Anchor: They agreed to that?

Kim: Not only that but they did not sue me, the only group that sued me was the law center.

The Republicans were not happy with extended voting days and hours, voting by email.

I had a lot of yelling out from my own party.

I regularly said show me in the Constitution where you can do this.

Because right now this is a disaster and we will get through it and we have to let people vote.

Anchor: The email especially ruffled a lot of feathers.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Kim: Thank you for having me.

Anchor: The ballot design for November's election has already been decided but the debate has not ended at the state level.

Assembly leaders late last week announced they created a select committee on ballot design made up of six Democrats and six Republicans, to come up with a legislative solution to the issue rather than leave it in the courts hands.

But several counties have already settled, agreeing not to use the so-called partyline ballot structure that caused the battle in the first place.

What exactly will the legislative committee do here?

David Cruz takes a look.

>> The whole design of a ballot is for -- not to confuse the voter, that they can easily see the office they are voting and the candidates in it.

Reporter: The way Union County Clerk Joanna Hoppe explains it sounds straightforward and the court agreed, putting a stop to what many think is a convoluted ballot design beginning with the recent Senate primaries.

But lawmakers, many of whose income and seas were made because of the ballot design, said the court should stay out of the ballot design business and are taking the matter into their own hands.

>> The judge has called into question the constitutionality of that.

And the way we respond is to look at our law, find out what is wrong with it, make it better.

Reporter: Craig Kaufman says the legislature should be responsible for ballot design and anything else that has to do with voting.

The 12 member committee has six Republicans and six Democratic members.

>> We will hear from national experts, we will hear from the people who administer the ballots, clerks and things like that.

Most important we will hear from the people of New Jersey.

Reporter: The Senate Republican leader says rather than sniping on social media and elsewhere, critics and skeptics should come before the committee to be heard.

He praised the speaker for fielding a truly bipartisan committee but held off on his suggestions just yet.

>> I will be keeping my finger on the pulse.

I don't want to have any preconceived bill or tenants of a bill before the committee does their work.

Reporter: The line which research found conveyed an advantage for committee organizations was temporarily struck down after Congressman Andy Kim and others challenged in court.

The star witness was a wreckers professor -- Rutgers Effexor who did research.

>> I'm hoping for the best and there was certainly an argument to be made there was a role for them to go beyond the court ruling and improve our ballots.

Reporter: She says she has not been invited to testify but has a few suggestions.

>> Right now in New Jersey, whoever gets drawn out of the bin first gets the advantage and that is not fair.

What some states have done, at least 15 states randomized, they randomized the order by voting precinct, the smallest geographic unit.

That way each person appears roughly the same number of times first, second, third, depending on how many candidates there are.

That would be the most important thing they can do and if they do that, you would really do that through a computer program.

Reporter: As opposed to the County Clerk pulling names out of a box, a long-standing tradition that has led to some convenience if not suspicious ballot placement for organization candidates.

Ruben also recommends a standardizing ballots across the toy he won counties, which is not the case currently.

Clerks like Joanne also have suggestions.

>> We think it's very important if candidates are going to be randomly selected in an office block format that the voter be able to identify the candidate they wish to vote on by slogan.

Reporter: The bottom line from clerks as always is expedite.

Let's not let the process drag on because there is a governors election coming next year with candidates already lining up.

Where and how they are positioned is important enough for them to maybe challenge in court if they don't think the new ballots are any bad -- are any better than the old ones.

The speaker says hearings could start as early as next month.

I'm David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.

Anchor: Frustration and confusion in East Orange tonight after a school district -- school district leaders on Wednesday announced they are cutting 75 positions to make up a $10 million budget shortfall for the school year.

The majority, 71 of the positions cut, our school staff, with layoffs taking effect in December.

This morning, the district announced it would be on an unexpected half-day schedule after a number of teachers called out sick.

A spokesperson for the school board would not confirm the teachers called out directly because of the layoff announcement.

In a social media post last night, the union representing teachers, the East Orange education Association, said they are working without a contract, but warned teachers against performing an illegal strike by calling out en masse, and instead encourage them to sue up -- show up to a rally tonight.

We will have more tomorrow.

In our spotlight on business report, how do we know what is in our food?

Scientist at a new lab in Fairfield they be able to answer that question.

They let cameras in for a tour of the new facility today, where they are carrying out critical food safety testing, checking for traces of bacteria, hygiene standards and importantly, the so-called Forever Chemicals known as pfas.

Ted Goldberg went behind the scenes to check it out.

Reporter: This microbiologist is dealing with hot stuff at the new food testing facility in Fairfield.

>> It is cooling down because it is 95 degrees Celsius.

After that I will transfer 50 microliters.

Reporter: This food product which we are not allowed to identify is being tested by SGS North America.

>> It will react and -- >> Emily is doing a DNA-based test.

To do the test we have to lise the bacteria.

Reporter: Meaning breaking the cells open.

They do test to make sure there are no nasty surprises in the food we eat every day.

>> We put it on the thermocycler and it can amplify the pieces of DNA specific to salmonella, E. coli.

Reporter: Jody is the head of food for SGS North America and says this plant will play a crucial role in safeguarding what we used to cook into the foods we eat.

>> We also provide a full range of services.

If you want to look for indicated organisms in your product or environment, we are here to help you.

We have the fastest methods, we can do pathogen analysis in 24 hours or less.

Reporter: While SGS North America has been in Fairfield a while, they used to specialize in consumer products and cosmetics testing.

>> We no longer have capacity issues and our new facility is designed to provide fast and efficient results to clients.

[APPLAUSE] >> We completely gutted the entire space.

We built a flow that makes sense for food testing.

We put in a dedicated heating and cooling equipment to control the airflow.

Reporter: Without the capacity issues, plant like this one can adapt to the larger demand of people who want more stringent testing on what they buy.

>> We are seeing high levels of growth within food as consumers become more concerned about the quality of their food and our government becomes more concerned as well.

>> The market is a vaulting so we have to evolve as well.

What clients are looking for on a regular basis, how can clients improve output?

Reporter: As for micro plastics and Forever Chemicals, Jurgens says they could test for them in the future depending on what clients ask for.

>> The methodology has been developed.

There is initial verification and validation happening for the methods within the laboratories.

We just haven't seen the demand in food products.

Reporter: SGS operates five food testing sites nationwide but this is the only one in New Jersey.

While the list of clients is confidential, there's a good chance the food you're eating has been inspected by their scientists to make sure you are safe and the label matches what is inside.

In Fairfield, Ted Goldberg.

Anchor: That will do it for us tonight.

Before you go, a reminder to download the "NJ Spotlight News" podcast so you can listen anytime.

For the entire team at "NJ Spotlight News," thank you for being with us, have a great night and we will see you tomorrow.

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♪ ♪ ♪