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

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

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

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

New Jersey reflects and remembers on this September 11th.

We talk with one advocate continuing to fight for 9/11 survivors and families 24 years later.

And later, we take a closer look at signs of trouble in New Jersey's job market and what it means if you're on the job hunt.

But first, a few of today's top headlines.

Reaction is still pouring in from New Jersey political leaders over the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Officials on both sides of the aisle are condemning the deadly attack and calling for an end to political violence.

Governor Murphy and both gubernatorial candidates, Republican Jack Ciatarelli and Democrat Mikey Sherrill were united in insisting that political violence has no place here.

The 31-year-old Kirk, a close ally of President Trump, was hosting one of his popular college campus events at Utah Valley University on Wednesday with the youth activist group he co-founded, Turning Point USA.

Speaking to a crowd of about 3,000 when a single shot rang out, hitting Kirk, his death adds to a time of great political upheaval and politically motivated violence.

Just three months ago, Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed along with the shooting of another lawmaker and his spouse.

Of course, there have been numerous others, including two assassination attempts on President Trump during his 2024 campaign.

Political figures around the state and around the country today are now grappling with finding solutions to a highly complicated problem.

Also tonight, Nadine Menendez, the wife of disgraced former US Senator Bob Menendez, was sentenced today to four and a half years in federal prison.

That's for her part in a sweeping bribery and corruption scandal that landed her husband an 11-year sentence earlier this summer, time he's currently serving.

now according to reports from those inside the courtroom today, Nadine was sobbing before Judge Sidney Stein as he imposed the sentence, which also includes three years of supervised release.

then, in a statement to the judge, Nadine threw her husband under the bus, saying, among other things, quote, "I put my life in his hands, and he strung me like a puppet."

Defense lawyers for Nadine Menendez argued she was an unknowing participant to the scheme, in which she and Menendez obtained expensive gifts like cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes Benz from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for official political acts by the former senator.

Judge Sidney Stein made it clear today, Nadine Menendez was not only a central participant in the plan, but she knew what she was doing throughout.

And coming up, we talk with one advocate who's made it his life's mission to continue the fight for federal support of 9/11 survivors and families.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part 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 PSCG Foundation.

24 years ago today, the actions of a few changed our nation forever when 2,977 people were killed in terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a plane that crashed in Shanksville, PA. For those who experienced it, the day is etched into our memories, but the aftermath is still unfolding for so many.

Those who ran toward the danger or lived near and around Ground Zero have been left to battle with related illnesses and bureaucracy.

At the center of the fight for their care is John Feal, a 9/11 responder turned advocate who's urging Congress to fully fund the World Trade Center health program before it runs out of time.

He joins me now.

(dramatic music) John, thank you so much for coming on the show.

I wanna ask you because yourself and other advocates, you have been urging Congress in just this week, urged Congress to make some reforms to the health program.

What are you asking them to do?

Yeah, well, one, thank you for having me, Brianna.

You know, we were in D.C. for a couple days this week, and it was our ninth trip to D.C. You know, we're fighting two fights.

One, we're trying to get legislation passed, H.R.

1410, which is to fund the World Trade Center Health Program for a correction that was made in 2015.

This is the third year that we've been trying to do it.

We're close, and I think we're gonna get something done by the end of the year.

Because if we don't, a lot of people are going to suffer.

But we're also trying to fix the mistakes that Secretary Kennedy has placed upon the World Trade Center Health Program and NIOSH, who administrates the World Trade Center Health Program.

Those cuts that were made in February have still not been fixed.

There's no communication between the World Trade Center Health Program and their Centers of Excellence with the advocates.

The steering committee hasn't met in six months.

The registration, the process to get into the program, the enrollment, and to get certified with your illnesses has been delayed because under the original bill in 2010, it calls for 113 people to work at NIOSH for the World Trade Center Help Program.

There's only 80 people there.

They're on the staff.

This is a program that was working.

It's a mandatory program.

It's doing its job.

And they're intentionally and maliciously hurting people with their reckless actions.

What does that look like on the ground?

I mean, because you work with families all the time.

What type of services are they either being denied from, not getting, or having delayed?

Yeah, so the enrollment process usually takes about three or four months to get into the World Trade Center Health Program.

Then you would get a physical.

And when your physical comes back, any illnesses that the federal government said, yes, 9/11 and the aftermath caused that, it would get certified.

Instead of three or four months and then another three or four months, this is now taking over a year.

This is unacceptable.

There are people that are sick and dying.

There's 142,000 people in the World Trade Center Health Program.

48,400 plus have a certified 9/11-related cancer.

More than one in three now have a certified 9/11-related cancer, and that is staggering.

That is--that's not normal, and it's only going to get worse because of the age of these men and women now, uniform and non-uniform, or even those who lived or worked or went to school in lower Manhattan.

You know, there were 13 schools in lower Manhattan that are within the geographic zone that Congress mapped out, which is considered the toxic exposure area.

There were kids on 9/11, four, five, six, ten, sixteen years old.

Now they're adults, and they're going to get sick with cancer and they're going to die unless we fix this.

I know yourself, Congressman Frank Pallone here in New Jersey, are also concerned about the fact that there are illnesses.

Here we are, as you point out, this was passed in 2010, so here we are on the 24th anniversary, but 15 years later, all of the challenges that you have faced in getting to this point, and there are still illnesses that aren't recognized.

There are illnesses that people are coming down with that still are not on that list.

What has that meant?

Yeah, so, you know, let's go back to December of last year, the Correction Act of 2024, because now it's the Correction Act of 2025.

All four leaders in the House and the Senate agreed upon a bill.

We had a bill done and then Elon Musk killed it and then Speaker Johnson you know followed up with it and killed it.

Told Garabino and Gillibrand and we're right back at it again.

But in March we were supposed to make an announcement that autoimmune and heart cardiac would be added to the bill and now that's been taken off the table.

And it will take at least the earliest another year for that to come up.

But with these cuts there's no research being done, there's no peer reviews being done, and the steering committee can't meet and talk.

And there's no future for the 9/11 community without the steering committee and at the World Trade Center Health Program being able to communicate with everybody in the 9/11 community.

So they have stymied us, they have placed obstacles and hurdles in front of us, but we seem to be getting through them slowly.

We left D.C. this week with 83 co-sponsors.

And I can guarantee today on a day of reflection, on a day where every elected official is going to come out and say, never forget, never forget the heroes of 9/11, they're either going to be hypocrites because they don't support the bill, or they're going to do the right thing and co-sponsor the bill.

And I think after today, we'll be over 100 co-sponsors.

And I think by the end of the year, because I'm an optimistic person, that we're going to get a bill passed and attached to something, and we're going to look back at all of this and say, you know what, it was temporary, it was painful, but we got through it.

And I'm not surprised by anything Congress does.

I'm disappointed.

You know, we've got to stop the labeling.

Stop being a Democrat.

Stop being a Republican.

Stop being an American.

Just be a human being.

And the true spirit of the human being is to help those less fortunate.

And that's what we do.

And we're challenging the humanity in Congress to do the right thing.

When you consider, John, that now just the FDNY alone, 400 members have died of 9/11 illnesses, that's more than were killed on that day, 343.

How does that concern you in terms of what's ahead with what we're going to need to grapple with to make sure that these folks are getting the care they rightly deserve?

Yeah, well, one, you know, the FDNY screening program has its own center of excellence.

But they fall under the World Trade Center Health Program.

And this is not just for cops and firefighters.

It's for those who lived and worked and went to school in Lower Manhattan.

It's for the trades.

It's for the unions.

And these men and women need this lifeline to continue until their very last day.

We lose somebody on average once a day.

This Saturday and two days from now, on my park on Long Island, we're writing 362 names that died in the calendar year from a 9/11-related illness.

362 names.

Their names will be read out loud, followed by the ringing of the bell and a flyover.

And this is the most painful day of the year for me.

And my heart bleeds, and my soul cries, because Congress is sitting on their hands.

You know, over the years, 2010, 2015, 2019, we always knew our opposition.

There was always somebody who got in our way, and then we blasted them.

Now we're fighting the boogeyman.

Nobody has told us no.

Nobody said they opposed us.

They just keep prolonging it because of politics and poor leadership and reckless ideologies.

And we're here to say we're not going to take it.

And while today is a day of reflection, we try not to advocate and pick fights and, you know, attack Congress.

Today is the perfect day to attack Congress, because they're going to come out and say, never forget.

Hypocrisy is repulsive.

If they're not going to support a bill that saves lives for those who they said never forget about, it makes no sense.

It's sad.

John Field, thank you for your advocacy.

Thank you for your time.

We appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

And God bless this great country.

To mark this solemn anniversary, residents gathered for memorials and ceremonies all across the state, including the Waterfront Memorial in Jersey City, where the view alone brings memories from the events of that day rushing back.

The site served as a triage center following the attacks where first responders provided care to people who fled from lower Manhattan.

But today's event also served as a call to action through a community blood drive.

Organizers say it's a way to honor lives lost by helping save lives today.

Raven Santana was there for the ceremony and spoke with those who came to reflect.

With the World Trade Center rising across the Hudson River, the Jersey City community gathered today at its 9/11 memorial.

The sculpture, Twisted Steel, Salvaged from Ground Zero, stands on the very ground where first responders once set up a triage center to care for those escaping lower Manhattan.

I followed a column of smoke and saw what had happened.

At the time, I was on a FEMA-style urban search and rescue team, and after I witnessed what I did, I knew we were going to be mobilized, and I responded to the New Jersey State Police urban search and rescue team, New Jersey Task Force 1, and then we mobilized, and within hours, we were operating at ground zero for 10 days.

Robert Zamperi.

Mayor Stephen Fulop joined city leaders, police, firefighters, and community members to honor the 39 Jersey City residents who never made it home.

I was in lower Manhattan when the buildings were struck and it caused me to enlist in the Marine Corps.

I left my job at Goldman Sachs to serve the country.

Everybody who lived in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, knows somebody that's personally impacted.

Family and friends were seen throwing wreaths and flowers into the Hudson River during the annual memorial ceremonies.

People I spoke with say showing up each year is about making sure their memory lives on still.

Um, still emotional, you know, it's it's PTSD.

No other way around it.

I mean, I saw the building just burning on fire here.

The Hyatt Regency just steps away from the memorial.

The focus shifted from remembering the past of focusing on saving lives today at the annual 9 11 blood drive sponsored by the American Red Cross, where hundreds of donors rolled up their sleeves for a good cause.

We've got more than 200 appointments made today, so our team here will be very busy.

This is our 11th year, and it's sponsored by Suburban Propane.

And all together, we offer the opportunity for people to give back, donate blood, time to reflect, remember the people that lost their lives, as well as those who rushed in to help save people.

The first responders here in Jersey City played a vital role in helping those that were affected by the attacks.

I remember how the streets of Jersey City seemed like so vacant.

I remember trying to get out of the car.

I was with the secondary hazmat unit.

The blood drive has become its own tradition, bringing together first responders, survivors, and community members.

Owners say it's not just about saving lives, but about reflecting on the unity and resilience that carried people through September 11th.

I mean today, September 11th, being able to see the lights and the memorial and looking at One World Trade Center every day, it's just, I mean there's a constant reminder there that it used to be different.

(Bell rings) - I'm here in New Jersey City, with the president of the United States, - And here in Jersey City, nearly 25 years later, the message remains the same.

We will never forget.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.

- In our Spotlight on Business report tonight, the job market in New Jersey has been sending warning signals, and today, another sign of trouble.

BioReference Health, a major lab testing firm based in Elmwood Park, is cutting nearly 70 positions, as LabCorp prepares to take over part of its operations.

Its one more name added to a growing list of employers downsizing across the state.

From banks to construction firms, few sectors have been spared.

And while there has been hiring, it's just not keeping up.

Senior Correspondent Brenda Flanagan joins us now for a closer look at where the job cuts are happening and what it means for those in the economy here.

Brenda?

Hey, Brianna.

So, good news is hard to find in the job market lately.

Folks who keep their fingers on the economic pulse of New Jersey point to this year's layoffs.

Big companies about to hand out lots of pink slips by law need to post a warning.

And the list of impacted New Jersey firms include Big Pharma, Big Finance and Big Retailers.

All kinds of jobs, from construction to manufacturing to fintech.

A firm that collects labor market data found from January through July of this year, New Jersey companies reported about 26,700 job cuts.

Compare that to about 5,800 the previous year.

It's a 362 percent jump, according to one report.

Now, New Jersey did create jobs, but the state's unemployment rate still rose from 4.6 percent in February to 4.9 percent in July.

That's higher than the national average.

And experts focused on New Jersey's job market used words like stalled, stagnant and weak.

DR. RONALD MCNAMARA, Former U.S. Secretary of State, New Jersey: New Jersey's job market market sort of this year to date, it's been a mixed bag, overall relatively weak.

We are, through July, down about 7,800 jobs net.

And that reflects losses in both a number of private sector industries and public sector, state government in particular.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), Presidential Candidate: The number of people in the state, the number of residents who say they're working has been stagnant.

The labor force has been stagnant or even declining a little bit.

So that's a weaker picture, a somewhat weaker picture than suggested by the job numbers.

Again, these numbers are not perfect.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, former New Jersey State economist Charles Steindahl notes the numbers do get revised.

That sparked a political firestorm recently, after the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the U.S. created just 22,000 jobs in July.

President Trump called the report fake and fired the agency's chief, only to see jobs numbers tank again, with revised data showing nearly a million fewer jobs created within the year beginning April to 2024 than first estimated.

The firings and the fireworks definitely impact how people feel and react at work.

And many now fear for their job security, says Corey Staley.

He's with the job search company Indeed and says workers are now job-hugging.

If you have a job, right now you're, you know, hugging on tight to it, right?

So, very strong symbolism there of hugging on, holding on to that job, because you knew that if you lost that job, things would be really hard to find one right now, especially if you're in one of those fields outside of health care or an area that's actually hiring, it would be very difficult, right?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, Staley says quitting is usually a good thing in the labor market, because new jobs traditionally come with better salaries.

But workers are hunkering down, even if they're unhappy.

It's called quiet cracking.

On the surface, like, you know, you're still getting your job done.

You're still doing the things you need to be doing.

But you're very much saying, hey, like, you know, the pressure is kind of building up here, because, again, this isn't necessarily where I want to be.

And in a different labor market, I would choose to take a different job.

But right now that's maybe not an option because of what is available out there right now.

So, where's the hammer falling in New Jersey?

Here's a list.

So far, Warren notices went out for almost 390 layoffs due to reorganization at JPMorgan Chase in Jersey City, some 660 corporate office jobs at Walmart and Hoboken, more than 800 at drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb, plus hundreds more at its competitor Novartis, after both pharma giants saw lucrative drug patents expire this year, and over a thousand jobs at Rite Aid, which declared bankruptcy tied to the opioid tort case settlement.

When you take huge new expenses and put it on a balance sheet, it throws you all out of whack.

And how do you make that up?

You either increase costs, which now makes affordability even more challenging for those who are buying the product and service, or you cut expense.

And we absolutely see, you know, the freeze on hiring, the lack of growth right now.

And I think it's going to take us some months to work through this.

NJBIA's Michelle Sekirka says business hates instability, and New Jersey companies fear spikes in energy costs.

Also, while President Trump's volatile tariff policies caused some companies to rush order inventory as a hedge against higher import taxes, they definitely did not inspire a hiring boom, at least not yet, says Will Irving with the Rutgers Policy Lab.

We've seen such a significant, significant sort of roller coaster in different tariff announcements and changes affecting different countries as well as different industries that it can have a stultifying effect on on investment decisions certainly.

Maybe the Supreme Court strikes down these tariffs and things get get better.

Things like that that can happen you have to change things in a few months.

On the other hand things might get worse.

We don't want to run out and hire a lot of people.

So we have this uneasy equilibrium where the unemployment rate though nationwide's been drifting up just a little bit it hasn't sort of spiked up.

I truly feel that people's hands are frozen on the wallet right now for lack of predictability.

You know you have so again in New Jersey right we're excited we have a governor's race.

What's the number one issue in the governor's race affordability right now.

All right.

It's it's it's people at their kitchen table saying how am I making my ends meet when my energy bills up one hundred dollars and it's going to be that way for a while.

Right.

Where am I going to where am I going to give on that?

And Brianna, just for the record, we did reach out to Jersey's Department of Labor for their comment on the issue, but so far we haven't heard from them.

Yeah, I mean, that's a lot of people, right, who are lining up for unemployment benefits filing.

Actually, initial jobless claims jumped to the highest in four years last month.

In August 2025, there were 7.4 million unemployed people, but just 7.2 million job openings in the U.S. That means 200,000 more job seekers than available jobs.

It's the first time that that's happened since 2021, Bri.

It's just staggering when you lay out the numbers in that way to put the faces who you might know who belong to those numbers.

Right.

Absolutely.

And, you know, if you're afraid to go out and look for for a job or are looking for a job right now, it's going to be it's going to be a slog.

Yeah.

Job hug is the is the term there.

Hug your job.

Hug your job.

Brenda Flanagan.

Thanks so much.

Great reporting as always.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you, Bri.

Support for the Business Report is provided by the Newark Alliance presents the 2025 Halsey Fest, featuring the vibrancy of Newark's Arts and Education District and Halsey Street.

Halsey, a neighborhood built on hustle and heart.

The 2025 Halsey Fest schedule is available at HalseyNWK.com.

- Well, 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 follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky to stay up to date on all the state's big headlines.

And if you wanna 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.

Thanks to all the first responders on this 9/11.

Have a great night.

We'll see you back here tomorrow.

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