>> Tonight on NJ Spotlight News.

The concealed carry debate, oral arguments begin today to try and overturn the state strict public gun carry laws.

>> Every parent ought to have the right to take their child to daycare, to school, and not have to worry about there being guns and dangerous weapons there.

>> A crime of genocide against Palestinians.

Or than 800 legal scholars calling the atrocities on the ground in the Middle East not only war crimes but genocide.

>> Certainly the prospect of genocidal assault, and without a doubt, war crimes and crimes against humanity that are perpetrated in the Israeli assault on Gaza.

>> Fighting the opioid crisis.

New Jersey health officials looking overseas to find new strategies to combat the rise of Fentanyl use here at home.

>> We no further criminalization does not work, that is how we got here in the first place.

We cannot arrest our way out of this crisis.

>> And New Jersey drivers race yourself for another toll hike, a 3% increase is slated to hit your wallet in the new year.

"NJ Spotlight News" begins right now.

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♪ >> From NJPBS, this is NJ Spotlight News.

>> Thank you for joining us tonight.

New Jersey's top law enforcement official was in court today urging a panel of U.S. appeals judges to uphold the state's new concealed carry law.

It limits guns from being carried in public and sensitive places like schools, libraries and restaurants.

The measure is being challenged by gun rights groups who say the law is unconstitutional.

Governor Murphy signed the regulation in 2022 following a U.S. Supreme Court decision, striking down New York State's rules on carrying concealed handguns outside the home.

And was immediately confronted with lawsuits.

The regulation has been blocked from being enforced and now it is up to the appeals court to decide its fate.

Ted Goldberg has the latest.

>> I am confident that after the court hears this argument we are going to win and to the law is going to remain in effect and we are going to be safer as a result.

>> The New Jersey AG is confident the state's new gun law will be upheld and appeals court.

Earlier this year a New Jersey law was struck down that band conceal carry in sensitive places and added character witnesses to people trying to get a concealed carry permit.

>> I am so proud to defend what I think is the most common sense thing we could be doing which is ensuring that we don't touch -- we don't have guns in sensitive spaces, entirely consistent with what the Supreme Court has said.

>> The decision changed how courts determine whether gun safety laws are constitutional.

And that is one of the things they are going to be discussing today.

It declared that any laws restricting gun axis had to be deeply rooted in the historical tradition of America's gun regulations.

And apparently a 100-year-old Newark law was not historical enough.

>> Last year's decision set by the Supreme Court struck down laws restricting on rights in public.

In response New Jersey state assembly designated sensitive places where you cannot legally carry.

In attorneys representing New Jersey argued there are historical precedents for these kinds of laws.

>> Every parent ought to have the right to take their child to daycare, to school, and not have to worry about there being guns or dangerous weapons there.

>> Attorneys representing the plaintiffs argue that New Jersey's examples were either taken out of context or interpreted too broadly.

Earlier this summer when the third appeals a court -- a court reinstated the law, they said despite the new ruling they will continue to defend gun carriers rights.

>> I read each provision to make sure we thought we could make it one that would pass judicial review because we knew it would.

People think will -- think they will go out and play cowboy, you not understand the enormity of the responsibility you are taking when you carry a gun in public.

>> Judges asked New Jersey's attorneys if they can ban unpopular speech in certain public spaces using the logic from the gun law.

They also asked the plaintiffs attorneys if there was a problem with adding interviews to agreed-upon background checks.

He things New Jersey's laws will not be struck down another court.

>> Everything in this law last year in the wake of the devastating brewing decision is consistent with the second amendment, consistent with the Supreme Court decision, and consistent with our Nation's practice going back centuries.

>> The trial court got this one wrong.

Let New Jersey's fix stand.

>> This case will take weeks or months, giving gun rights and gun safety advocates time to continue arguing inside and outside of the courtroom.

>> With the entire legislature on the ballot in less than two weeks, Democrats and Republicans are recommitting to their party's policy issues.

Senate Republicans recently released a GOP roadmap for a better New Jersey laying out their legislative agenda if they were to take the majority in the November 7 elections.

The issues range from parental rights to public safety and taxes, all of it they say is to reverse what the party believes is Governor Murphy's far left progressive agenda.

Here to talk about those priorities is the Senate minority leader and Republican budget officer.

Thank you for joining me, good to see you both.

Before we get into the roadmap, I am wondering if you want to address, the comments you made in a recent Star ledger editorial board talking about potentially, if the Republican's were to get a majority, cutting extreme measures such as late-term abortions and taxpayer funding that could be on the chopping board when it comes to reproductive rights.

Is it a fair claim that they are making that you would go after both abortion and reproductive rights in the state?

>> Know it is not, I made it clear to the editorial board that here in New Jersey, our Supreme Court has said on two separate occasions that women have a constitutionally protected right to access.

I don't see any way to get around that.

What I did say is that perhaps someone may put something up like that, but I could not guarantee whether or not there would be the votes to support it.

We have a diverse caucus, some are pro-life, some are pro-life with exceptions, and some are pro-choice.

To even begin to speculate that that could happen is wrong.

And it is simply Governor Murphy and the Democrat trying to deflect away from the progressive policies they have promoted that are having a direct impact on our residents in the state.

That is why we put out the roadmap for New Jersey.

>> Would you keep in place current funding or would that be an area where you might look to as laid out in these priorities cut back on the government spending?

>> Look, like I said before, it is very difficult when it comes to this issue.

This is an issue that is personal to people, and if we are able to catch lightning in a bottle and get a majority, it will be by a slim margin.

>> As the Republican budget officer, what do you see as the main priorities, calling it lightning and a bottle, for your caucus if you were to flip some seats?

>> Certainly spending and taxes are the top of everybody's list.

And Republicans have put out a specific roadmap in those areas.

There is issue after issue where Democrats have failed.

And I believe strongly that there is an appetite out there on behalf of New Jersey voters to give Republicans a chance at leadership.

>> What specifically?

When you talk about radical positions that Democrats have taken, what specifically are you pointing to?

>> Let's talk about crime.

When we passed the marijuana Eagle's Asian -- legalization, they included handcuffing of our police.

This crime spree has happened for a reason.

It is because of a relaxation of pursuit rules and other soft on crime positions that the Democrats have enacted while they have been in control.

>> Crime, spending, what are the other key priorities that you see as needing to be addressed?

>> The erosion of parental rights and parents right to control their children's education.

And information sharing with the schools.

It is no secret that a child gets the best education when the parents and the teachers are communicating.

This administration has made it a project to try to interfere in that process.

I think that is dead wrong.

When you also look at the extreme energy master plan, with these windmills that they are talking about off of our coast, we still have whales watching -- washing up on the beaches.

You are telling folks that by 2035 we will have to buy an electric vehicle.

Many of the financial problems that the state faces are directly result of these aggressive policies.

All of these things have a direct impact on people's lives, and they all have a direct impact on the pocketbooks.

That is why New Jersey is becoming more and more unaffordable and why inflation is eating away at folks home income.

>> Laying out their legislative priorities, if there caucus gained a majority on November 7.

Thank you so much.

It took 21 days and four Republican nominees, but Congress has a new speaker of the house tonight.

Conservative Louisiana representative Mike Johnson was elected today with 220 votes and unanimous GOP support behind him.

It is a major leadership change that comes three weeks after the historic ouster of former speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Johnson serves as the house GOP conference Vice Chairman and on the judiciary and armed services committees.

He is also a vocal supporter of former President Trump and was a key congressional player in his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The 51-year-old is an attorney with a focus on constitutional law who also served in the Louisiana state legislature and as a conservative talk radio host.

Johnson secured the gavel after a nomination late last night, capping off a chaotic string of days that's all Republicans choosing other nominees only for them to drop out from lack of support.

In his first address to the house today, Johnson said he will bring a bill to the floor in support of Israel.

The house has been paralyzed throughout the conflict without a leader of the chamber.

Several hundred New Jersey air National Guard members from Atlantic City have been deployed to the Middle East.

Along with a squadron of F-16 falcon fighter just to support U.S. forces as the Israel Hamas conflict as glaze.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military says forces are preparing for the next stage of war.

With T-Rex on Gaza strengthening to target what it is as is Hamas terror infrastructure.

A top priority is eliminating senior Hamas commanders.

That stamen comes as President Biden offered his strong support yet for Israel, saying they have the right and responsibility to respond to the slaughter of their people.

Referring to the October 7 attacks by Hamas that killed 1400 Israelis.

Palestinian officials estimate the death toll at more than 6500, the President Biden said he did not have confidence in that data.

And Gaza officials say of the Palestinians who have been killed in the bombings, more than 2000 our children.

The nature of Israel's counter attack has a growing number of scholars accusing the military of perpetrating crimes of genocide.

More than 800 international law and genocide scholars have signed onto a public statement arguing Gaza is being subjected to a genocidal see Uche and instructive assaults.

Among them is the Stockton University professor.

He joins me now.

Professor, thank you for your time, you say and have written that this is intent to commit genocide on the part of Israel's military.

Why do you make that argument?

>> Thank you for having me.

I make this argument because we are seeing, I think we are seeing a special intent to destroy -- the Jennifer -- the genocide convention.

We have seen this since the seventh of October in explicit statements by Israeli leaders, army officers, the president who referred to Palestinians as responsible for the Hamas attack.

We have seen this in Israeli defense ministers, a proclamation of the complete see Uche, and politicians, calling for a second Nakba.

Referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the 1948 war.

>> Is that not a cap -- a valid counter attack even the reports, both of Hamas is attacks and general and the specifics of how the attacks were carried out on civilians and hostages?

>> I want to make it clear that I think the Hamas attack was a horrendous mass murder.

A war crime and war crimes against humanity.

I wrote yesterday that I also called for eventually putting the perpetrators on trial.

I want to make it very clear what I think about the Hamas attack on October 7.

That in no way justifies or excuses the retaliatory genocidal assault we are seeing on Gaza.

The answer to your question is no, that is not an appropriate response.

>> I am curious your take on this, it has been framed as the most deadly day for Jews since the Holocaust.

But you have spoken extensively about this idea of weaponizing Holocaust memory.

What do you mean by that and what are the dangerous about that context?

>> That is why I think we are seeing excellent -- explicit language.

The Hamas attack and the implicit ways Palestinians are framed as Nazis.

And Israelis are framed as powerless Jews.

We are talking about a powerful state with a powerful army backed by all of the Western powers.

We are talking about a stateless people, Palestinians under decades of settler colonial military occupation.

The context of the attack on October 7 by Hamas, which is a horrendous mass murder, is very different than the context of the Holocaust.

Weaponizing the Holocaust in order to justify this retaliatory genocidal assault that we are seeing, 19 days of bombings of civilian populations.

It is a very horrendous in itself, the weaponization of the Holocaust.

And completely inappropriate, I can speak in the name of more than 800 people who signed the statement.

All of them, a quite -- some very influential scholars in the field, are concerned about the genocidal assault and the prospect of genocidal assault.

And without a doubt war crimes and crimes against humanity they have perpetrated in the Israeli assault on Gaza.

That is for sure.

>> And Israeli Holocaust scholar and associate Professor X Stockton University.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to tune in tomorrow night with David Cruz, he will talk about the Israel Hamas conflict in an exquisite interview with New Jersey's embattled senior Senator Bob Menendez and get his reaction to the federal corruption allegations he is facing.

That is tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. on the NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel and right here on NJ Spotlight News.

The overdose crisis is becoming even more challenging to solve, the epidemic is being fueled by the rise of Fentanyl use.

With more than 1800 residents lives claimed by drug overdose this year alone.

Public health experts met to share solutions, including replacing criminal punishments with better public health care, and harm reduction strategies.

Arbor Senior correspondent was there.

>> When the police come, the addict runs.

>> James Brown told us -- held a symposium on solving New Jersey's opioid overdose crisis, he learned a valuable lesson about law enforcement.

It did not help him.

>> Every time I dealt with the police I went to jail.

Every time I went to the police, they checked my name for warrants.

Any time I went to the police, they wanted to pat me down and see if I had drugs.

>> We know that further criminalization does not work.

That is how we got here in the first place.

We cannot arrest our way out of this crisis.

>> Folks at this gathering agree it is still a crisis in 2012, New Jersey law -- logged 1200 drug overdose deaths and the numbers climbed steadily.

It has decreased slightly since abut Fentanyl remains a deadly problem.

Prompting calls to toughen legal penalties.

The same time, New Jersey is opening new harm reduction centers to offer legal exchanges, addiction treatment and referrals in 14 of 21 counties.

>> New Jersey is attempting to things at once, to no avail.

On one hand we are criminalized, tough on crime, law and order.

On the other hand we are saying public health, compassion.

>> She says whatever laws it simply drive up incarceration rates for people of color and take them out of the health care system.

She notes the number one parole violation in New Jersey is a positive drug test.

>> Drugs and the use of drugs are used as a tool.

To deny people opportunity and in many cases to criminalize them and throw them away.

To make them not worthy of compassion and resources.

>> Over the next decade New Jersey is slated to get more than a billion dollars in opioid settlement money and advocates recommend it not be spent on policing but invested in communities hardest hit by the war on drugs.

>> It comes down to do people need to be punished in order to save their life or not?

>> This advocate helped pass Oregon's harm reduction programs that focuses on treatment.

She calls the angry pushback soul crushing because folks do not see immediate positive results.

It took time for police to adjust in Portugal after his nation decriminalized drugs.

>> One of the unintended consequences is that police officers no longer target drug users because it is just paperwork.

>> They offer drug users a path to treatment, like in the U.S., funding for programs mirrors levels of public concern.

But he warns -- >> We did not solve the problem.

It is not solvable.

Drug related issues, problematic usage of substances, it will always be around.

We did not solve the problem, we are managing the problem as we go along.

>> Well maybe -- many New Jersey residents face bills, folks and Portugal can count on Universal Health care.

But if harm reduction is available -- >> Harm reduction works, I am down with that.

With harm reduction, there comes love.

>> He says treatment programs need to meet the people where they are at.

♪ >> In our spotlight on business report, Democrats are leaning on Governor Murphy to block a planned full hike for the Garden State Parkway and Turnpike.

Drivers would face a 3% spike in tolls starting January 1 under a plan approved this week by Turnpike Authority commissioners.

The panel voted in favor of a more than $2.6 billion budget for next year.

That is $100 million of increase over the current budget.

They will need to raise tolls to help pay for it.

Commissioners cited the need for maintenance and engineering staff to work on a massive Turnpike widening project along with inflation and global supply chain pressures.

But Democrats who control the legislation are asking of Murphy to veto the minutes from Tuesday's Turnpike Authority meeting.

Saying New Jersey families are struggling financially due to rising costs from inflation.

New Jersey's chapter of the national motorist's Association is backing the request and called out the authority for three consecutive years of toll hikes.

Turning out to Wall Street, stocks took a tumble to start the day.

Here is how markets closed.

>> NJTIA.org for event information.

>> That does it for us tonight, but do not forget to download the NJ Spotlight News podcast so you can listen anytime.

For the entire NJ Spotlight News team, thank you for being with us, have a great evening, we will see you right back here tomorrow.

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