(upbeat music) - From NJ PBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

- Good evening and thanks for joining us on this Wednesday night.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

Tonight, a few stories we're digging into later in the broadcast.

New Jersey takes its own stance on access to the COVID vaccine.

We'll talk to the state's acting health commissioner about what you need to know if you're looking to get the shot.

Then, an alarming new report on child poverty in New Jersey.

We look at what advocates are trying to do to help the state's most vulnerable residents.

And later, the Del Barton Prep School sex abuse trial begins.

We talk with one reporter who was inside the courtroom.

First, though, a few of today's top headlines.

A North Jersey mayor is accusing ICE of terrorizing communities after federal agents made arrests in two neighboring towns over the course of two days.

South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum said one resident was from the village, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement a day after two people in nearby Maplewood were arrested.

In a social media post, Mayor Collum said she was able to speak with the family of the person apprehended but isn't giving details about who they are or where they're being held.

She also condemned the Trump administration for what she called "thuggery."

Maplewood's mayor also shared frustrations over the operation in her town.

Video of the arrest, though, by a witness shows a confrontation between the man recording and ICE agents, but the person holding the phone appears to be verbally antagonizing the officers.

The White House contends that 70% of ICE arrests have involved undocumented immigrants convicted of or charged with crimes, but so far no data has been released to back that, and it's unclear why the individuals in Maplewood, South Orange, were targeted.

Also tonight, the state attorney general is declaring a victory for New Jersey's gun laws.

A federal appeals court is upholding almost the entirety of the state's sensitive places law, which limits the public areas someone can carry a concealed firearm, banning them in places like libraries, schools, museums, beaches, and parks, among other locations.

The legislation was a response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Bruin decision, which expanded the rule of law.

The ruling comes after a years-long legal battle where a federal judge first ruled that the sensitive places law could be violating the Second Amendment and issued a temporary restraining order.

Then, a federal court order later upheld the law, allowing enforcement of the gun restrictions.

Gun rights lobbyists have argued the law goes too far and targets law-abiding citizens, not those who have them illegally.

But in a statement today, Attorney General Matt Plotkin said laws like this one have helped contribute to record-low shootings in New Jersey at a time when guns remain the leading cause of death for kids in the U.S. And tomorrow marks 24 years since the tragic events of September 11th.

To honor the lives lost, Monmouth County is giving its government workers a paid day off so they can reflect on the attacks.

And officials there are urging other local governments to do the same, despite it not being a state holiday.

This is the third consecutive year Monmouth has declared September 11th a County Day of Remembrance, but leaders didn't pass a resolution until this summer allowing for county offices to close.

The Board of County Commissioners is calling on state and federal government leaders to follow suit, saying it allows employees to visit memorials and attend ceremonies.

Monmouth County lost the most residents on 9/11 in New Jersey with 147 killed in the attacks.

37 were from Middletown, making it the hardest hit community outside of New York.

We'll have more coverage tomorrow.

Coming up, defying federal guidelines, the State Health Department says all residents will have access to COVID-19 shots.

We'll talk with the Acting Health Commissioner about what you need to know.

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- New Jersey is breaking ranks with the federal government, expanding access to COVID-19 vaccines for anyone who wants one.

In a significant move this week, the State Department of Health signed off on a new directive that makes the shots available to everyone over six months old without a prescription.

It comes after federal regulators recently scaled back eligibility to only those with medical conditions, putting them at higher risk of severe illness, causing confusion for doctors and families alike.

I'm joined now by Acting Health Commissioner Jeff Brown for more details.

Commissioner, thanks for taking some time to be here with us.

Can you walk us through what this new directive means?

Who's eligible?

Who's not?

Where can they get these shots?

- Absolutely, and thank you for having me.

So late yesterday, the Department of Health issued an executive directive allowing anyone six months of age or older to receive the updated 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccines for this respiratory illness season, if they want one.

The department also, to go along with that, issued a standing order, which acts as a prescription for anyone to go and receive a vaccine at a pharmacy.

Pharmacies, the standing order authorizes pharmacists, pharmacy interns and externs, and pharmacy technicians practicing in the state to administer age appropriate FDA approved COVID-19 vaccines to individuals three years of age or older.

Importantly, for any child who's under three years of age, they'll likely need to go see their pediatrician or healthcare provider to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

But our recommendations are essentially aligned with the recommendations from three professional organizations that have studied these shots.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that individuals who, even if they don't have a high risk condition, do get a booster for the upcoming season.

So our executive directive aligns with those recommendations, responds to the evidence and science that these shots are in fact safe and effective, and the best form of prevention against COVID-19 complications.

Ensures that anybody can go to a pharmacy in New Jersey and receive one.

- So you listed some of the groups that you're taking guidance from, but you are breaking with the FDA.

What about their guidelines?

Did you find problematic?

Well I think what we're doing is trying to clear up confusion and give some comfort to consumers that they can get the COVID-19 shot if they if they choose to get one.

You know the FDA when they approved the 2025 2026 COVID-19 vaccines they did put restrictions on who was recommended to get them specifically they're only recommending them to those over the age of 65 and those who have high-risk conditions.

You know there are lots of individuals though who may not have a high-risk condition.

I'll talk about health care workers specifically who work with a lot of individuals who do and therefore getting a vaccine can be an important way not only to protect themselves but protect the patients they serve.

Similarly, there are lots of family members who care for elderly parents or, you know, relatives who might have high-risk conditions.

Again, this will ensure that they can get a COVID vaccine and protect themselves and their loved ones in this upcoming season.

You know, when we're talking about the federal government, RFK Jr. in the Senate hearing last week said everybody can get a COVID shot if they want one.

And so, you know, what we're doing is trying to clear up that confusion and ensure that everybody in New Jersey can indeed get a COVID-19 vaccine if they choose to get one.

We spoke with an independent pharmacist who said, you know, this new order gives them some certainty about what they can and can't do.

How's the department working with pharmacists and pharmacies, both to help get the messaging out, but also to make sure that they have the vaccines that they need, will they?

We've been talking to stakeholders across the entire healthcare industry, and we're going to continue to do that.

That includes, you know, pharmacy experts, health insurance plans, you know, physicians, nurse practitioners.

We want to make sure everybody has clarity on what they can recommend to their patients, where patients can access vaccines, and what they can do to help ensure that New Jersey is well vaccinated against COVID-19 and well protected against COVID-19 going into this respiratory season.

I think, you know, we'll continue to monitor, you know, this, monitor supplies at pharmacies.

We'll talk to them.

We know as of last week, pharmacies in New Jersey were already starting to stock these vaccines.

And we hope that this order will only ensure that more pharmacies stock these and make them available to consumers.

- From a public health standpoint, is there concern within the department about the confusion that may already exist, even given this new order, and how you plan to get the messaging out to the public so that they know what's available and when?

And are you concerned that we might see rates drop off even further?

Yeah, I mean, we are concerned about confusion.

And I think some of the conflicting messaging coming out of Washington has not helped that.

So that's why this executive directive, the standing order, make it very clear for people.

If you are six months of age or older, and your parent wants you to get a vaccine, or you want to get a vaccine, then you're able to do so.

So we're trying to take some of the guesswork and the barriers out of this for people.

We know these vaccines are effective.

We know they are safe.

And we know this is in line with the recommendations of physicians who serve many of the populations that really need to get these vaccines.

So the goal is really to clear up confusion.

And we hope that this executive directive makes it very easy for consumers to access these vaccines.

Commissioner, is the state willing to or considering going as far as others like Massachusetts by requiring insurers to cover the costs of these vaccines?

So right now, we're strongly encouraging consumer insurers to continue doing what they have been doing, which is to largely cover these vaccines without cost sharing for consumers.

That's been the case in past seasons here, and we hope that continues this season.

We'll continue to work with others in state government.

We have an interagency vaccine access work group that we've convened that includes the Department of Banking and Insurance, Department of Human Services, Division of Consumer Affairs, the Department of the Treasury, other state departments who are all working together to make sure we can solve this problem and ensure that our citizens and those who work and visit New Jersey have access to life-saving vaccines.

A couple of seconds left.

I know last month you joined with your counterparts up in Rhode Island for the Northeast Consortium.

What did you all discuss and was it about safeguarding vaccine access?

What's the plan?

So, you know, as a public health professional, we know a couple things.

Number one, diseases don't know borders.

It's really important for us to collaborate with other states, collaborate with national organizations.

A number of states got together and discussed really how to put public health principles into action.

We certainly discussed vaccines.

We discussed other initiatives, but this is really, it's public health in action.

It's ensuring that we're communicating with our neighboring states.

We're sharing data and resources and making sure that we're following evidence and science to ensure that, you know, the populations that we serve are as healthy and as protected as possible.

All right.

New Jersey Department of Health Acting Commissioner Jeff Brown.

Jeff, thanks so much for your time.

Thank you for having me.

Well, opening arguments began this week in a civil trial accusing the prominent Catholic prep school Del Barton and one of its longtime priests of sexual abuse, along with decades-long cover-up.

The case, brought by a former Del Barton student, alleges he was abused by a teacher, Reverend Richard Vaud, in the 1970s, and that school officials not only knew but failed to act.

Now, this is the first clergy sex abuse lawsuit in New Jersey to go to trial since a wave of suits were filed under the state's extended statute of limitations.

Deena Yellen is a reporter for NorthJersey.com and was inside the courtroom for those opening statements and she joins us now.

Deena, welcome.

Thanks so much for coming on the show.

First of all, can you just lay out what the allegations here, the defendant who only goes by TM, what did he allege happened all those years ago?

So he was 15 years old and a student at Del Barton at the time.

And the Reverend Richard was a cleric, a chemistry teacher, and the supervisor of maintenance, who was his employer.

He worked for him as a student.

And he really admired him.

They were close.

And he was described by attorneys as being the cool priest on campus, who a lot of the students looked up to.

But this teacher, this cleric, had a bit of a dark side.

He would host these after-hours parties at his private quarters on campus and would ply the students with beer and allegedly would show them pornography, would distribute pot and take them on trips.

According to TM, on the New Year's Eve of 1975, he took him to an off-campus party where he plied him with beer and got him drunk and then brought him to his secluded quarters on campus where he sexually assaulted him.

TM claims that when he got the courage to write a letter to the Abbott Brian Clark who was the school leader at the time Clark actually did meet with him and admitted that Lott had confessed to doing this but he said to TM let me handle this in a quiet way because it'll be better all the way around.

Wow.

And his way of handling it was to allow the abuser to, the alleged abuser, to remain on campus where, according to attorneys, he continued to abuse other students.

And -- Let me jump in there, Deena.

And I'll clarify, because I think when I was referring to TM earlier, I called on the defendant.

He's the victim.

They were in there together yesterday, right?

I mean, in the courtroom.

What was that like?

You know, it was so eerie because I had read so many documents about this case and the way that the abuse had impacted the life of TM and how it caused him so much harm.

The word that the attorneys used to describe the harm that it caused him was that it destroyed his life.

That's the way his attorneys described it.

And they said that he's unable to have normal relationships, that he wasn't able to stay married to his wife, that it harmed him in his career, that it destroyed his belief in religion.

And they gave a whole array of other ways in which it ruined his life.

So to see these men sitting just a few feet away from each other was so strange.

They didn't really look at each other.

TM sort of just looked straight ahead at the judge.

Lott, I saw him interacting a bit with his attorney.

The two were even chuckling at one point.

And he walked around the courtroom and TM was just he stayed away from everybody and just walked in and out very quickly.

What did defense attorneys for Reverend Lott argue?

What was their case?

First of all, the way that the two attorneys present, there were three attorneys who did opening statements.

There was an attorney for a lot and an attorney for the school and the order that ran the school.

And I felt that the two sides could not have been more different in the way that they presented.

The plaintiff's attorney was very, he spoke for about two hours and was very academic.

He stood behind a lectern and went into great detail about the atmosphere in the school at that time, how Adele Barton was a place where the school allowed this atmosphere to fester of abuse and also it was an atmosphere of secrecy where school leaders allowed the clerics to abuse students and then swept it all under the rug.

He also went into great detail about the harm that it caused the plaintiff.

But the defendants, they were much, I felt that their presentation was shorter and they spoke to the jurors directly.

They went right up close to them and spoke in a very folksy way and appealed to them to not listen to the allegations, which they used the word outrageous to describe the allegations and said, you should focus instead just on the evidence and the evidence that you will be presented with.

And they promised that for every allegation, they would have proof that it wasn't true and that the client was innocent.

And they-- Despite the fact that TM, and as his attorneys argue, was told that there was a confession way back.

But let me ask you this quickly, Dina, in the little bit of time that we have left.

Obviously, first civil case to go to trial in New Jersey.

What's the significance of that milestone, knowing that there are many pending lawsuits as well against Del Barton?

Yeah, I mean, for clergy abuse victims and their advocates, this is very significant because, you know, it's the first one in New Jersey since the 2019 law was passed, which allows abusers to sue, abuse victims to sue their abusers and to bring them to court.

So this is a big deal for them.

And there was a lot of, a lot of the supporters who were there yesterday said they're happy for TM and they think he'll finally see justice.

So this is a big deal for them.

And there's going to be many more cases coming in New Jersey.

There's many more coming against Del Barton.

There's about 39 against Del Barton that are coming and then hundreds more in New Jersey against the Catholic Church.

Deena, thank you so much for your reporting.

Hope to tap you again in the future.

Deena Yellen with NorthJersey.com.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

One in eight.

That's how many New Jersey children live in poverty, according to the progressive think tank NJ Policy Perspective, which says it has a new plan to tackle child poverty in New Jersey.

And it centers around one simple idea, giving families in need cash.

The new report out today offers multiple ways to achieve that goal, but even advocates warn it'll come with a hefty price tag, and it's unclear if the state would foot the bill.

Raven Santana takes a look.

In a new report called Freedom from Want, an economic guarantee for New Jersey's kids, researchers lay out two pathways to dramatically reduce child poverty in the state where one in eight children live below the poverty line.

We talked about the challenges of raising a child as a working parent with, you know, relatively, you know, stable financial means.

Imagine when we're talking about poverty, that's $32,000 for a family of four, right?

One in eight children are living at that level of economic deprivation.

And the solution is straightforward.

We can give families money to help them meet the costs that children bring with them.

The first plan doubled the size of existing tax credits like the earned income tax credit and child tax credit.

Price tag, about $1.8 billion a year.

The second plan is more ambitious, a $5000 annual cash payment for every Medicaid eligible child.

It would start with the youngest children, then expand to kids up to 17, eventually costing more than $3 billion annually.

- Cash does, it's really about freedom for families.

It's about economic security, about knowing that one car repair, one rent increase isn't going to be enough to bankrupt your family, to put you out on the street, to force you to get a second job, right?

The whole point behind this is giving families, saying government should not be in the business of deciding how families spend their money.

Families know best how to spend their money.

Peter Chen of NJ Policy Perspective says the state can afford it, pointing out New Jersey already spends nearly $5 billion a year on property tax credits and hundreds of millions on corporate subsidies.

The expansion of the child tax credit that happened as part of the American Rescue Plan, that was a nationwide program that benefited 60 million people.

We're talking about a 40% reduction in child poverty at a national level that was immediately reversed when that expanded tax credit went away.

It's insane.

Anything, and look, and there are aspects to it that we could talk about.

We all want to eliminate poverty.

We all want to elevate people's standard of living.

So let's stipulate to the mission.

But the way to do it isn't to do a massive wealth transfer.

But not everyone is on board.

Republican lawmakers call the proposal unrealistic.

These programs, as proposed, would add $5 billion to New Jersey's $60 billion budget.

We already have a $4 billion structural deficit.

So we're going to now have a $9 billion structural deficit?

Stop.

It's impossible.

Advocates argue it is possible, pointing to pilots in Newark and Patterson that showed promise.

Jenny Marie Drobo, one of 400 Newark residents chosen from 4,700 applicants and who asked we not show her face, received $12,000 over two years, no strings attached.

So it wasn't like I went to Atlantic City and dropped it all on a five on a spin.

All of my money was invested into myself and my future and my family and things I could do with it.

And in Flint, Michigan, a program called RX Kids gives new mothers $500 a month.

Moms, expected moms receive $1,500 in about mid-pregnancy, and then $500 a month until their baby turns one.

Families can use it to buy cribs, to get to that prenatal care appointment, to pay for food, to buy diapers.

Supporters say direct cash assistance pays for itself over time, through better health outcomes, higher earnings, and lower costs down the road.

"A decline in the low birth weight in Flint, decline in prematurity, so we're having healthier babies.

We've seen a reduction in postpartum depression among mamas.

We've seen a decline in evictions.

Families are more residentially stable."

For advocates, the question is whether lawmakers have the will.

The report is now being sent to the governor and state legislators in hopes of sparking debate.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.

- That's gonna do it for us tonight.

A reminder though, you can download our podcast wherever you listen and watch us anytime by subscribing to the NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel.

Plus, you can always follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky to stay up to date on all the state's big headlines.

And if you want to help support the programming public media brings you and keep stations like this one thriving, head to njspotlightnews.org/donate.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

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

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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