From NJPBS studios, this is NJ Spotlight News.

>> Good evening and thanks for joining us on this Tuesday night.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

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

The Trump administration says there's a link between taking Tylenol during pregnancy and autism.

But what does the science say?

We hear from one of the nation's leading autism experts.

Then, a look at the state of Newark schools five years after regaining local control, what's improved, and what's falling short.

And later, how a global trade war is hitting small communities.

We look at the strain on New Jersey's Little India.

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

More cell phone bans could soon be coming to New Jersey schools, following a bold new recommendation from a state education commission calling for a bell-to-bell phone ban in all public school districts.

The proposal comes after a year-long study into how social media and smartphones are affecting kids.

The report, titled "Growing Up Online," warns of serious risks from cyberbullying and mental health struggles to sleep loss and distractions from learning.

It urges schools to keep phones off and out of sight during the entire school day.

Governor Murphy has said he'd back a statewide measure which passed the Senate with bipartisan support earlier this year, then stalled in the assembly.

Jersey City, Montclair and Ramsey are just a few of the districts that have already enacted a ban.

The commission also calls for tougher federal laws to shield kids from online threats and says social media use shouldn't start before age 16.

And when it comes to higher education, New Jersey isn't just excelling, it's leading the way.

Princeton University has once again clinched the number one spot in the U.S.

News and World Report College ranking for a stunning 15th straight year.

The Ivy League icon beat out MIT and Harvard, which took the second and third rankings.

And Princeton isn't the only school from the Garden State to make the list.

Six New Jersey universities are in the national top 100.

They include Rutgers New Brunswick and Rutgers Newark.

Stevens and NJIT both tied at number 80 and Rutgers Camden landed at 97.

Now four more New Jersey schools cracked the national top 200.

That's Montclair State University, Seton Hall, Stockton and Rowan.

By the way, there was nearly no college from New Jersey that didn't make the list in some way, shape or form.

The College of New Jersey, Monmouth University, Ramapo and Rider all led the pack for regional rankings in the Northeast.

The rankings evaluated 1,700 colleges and universities using more than a dozen factors from graduation rates to faculty research and this year, social mobility, meaning the school's record in enrolling and graduating students from all backgrounds with manageable debt afterward and good earnings.

Coming up, a leading national expert on autism weighs in on President Trump's guidance linking Tylenol and autism.

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.

The White House on Monday made a sweeping and controversial announcement linking Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism.

Standing alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

and other top federal health officials, the President warned of a "very increased risk of autism from acetaminophen."

That's despite decades of research showing it to be the safest pain medication option for pregnant people.

The White House is now directing the Food and Drug Administration to revise warning labels and notify doctors so they recommend women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary like to treat a fever according to the president but the administration didn't release new data or evidence to back the change and multiple studies including one of over two million children have found no causal link here's the president don't take Tylenol there's no downside don't take it you'll be uncomfortable it won't be as easy maybe but don't take it if you're pregnant don't take Tylenol well the announcement has sparked confusion among doctors and expecting parents along with backlash from some in the research and autism community for more I'm joined by Dr.

Walters Ahuradne the director of the CDC sponsored New Jersey autism study at Rutgers University.

Doctor it's good to have you back on the show.

Thank you so much for coming on.

I wonder as someone who has done deep extensive research on autism for years how you interpret the president's claim that Tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism.

Does that reflect current scientific consensus?

In my opinion, it's not so simple to say autism is caused by acetaminophen or by any single environmental trigger.

It is, however, quite likely that prenatal use of acetaminophen does increase risk of autism.

It's not the cause of autism.

It's possibly one of many causes that occurs in context of a genetic background.

So I understand, I think Mr.

Trump's motivation, I interpret that to be that he thinks that autism prevalence has increased a long time and he wants to understand why.

And one thing that seems to have garnered sufficient research information is the hypothesis that acetaminophen causes, sorry, acetaminophen is related to autism risk.

There are very good studies which point to that.

And after identifying a possible risk factor, you also want to take steps to identify what the right interventions or treatments might be.

I think the approach, though controversial, is basically positive because it's action-oriented, and it accepts the fact that autism has increased significantly and that we don't understand the primary environmental drivers or triggers for autism.

Well, I know the last time we spoke, just this past spring, you and I talked a lot about how you were encouraged by environmental factors being more at the forefront of research now.

But I wonder, you mentioned some of those scientific studies.

There was a JAMA study of about two million children, which did not find a direct link.

Then another study from Harvard found strong evidence of an association, but not causation.

How do you reconcile those two findings?

And is it fair to say a causation as opposed to an association?

Yeah, I don't believe anybody has ever found a definitive evidence for anything causing autism.

Rather, some factors might increase the risk or the probability of autism.

One of those things I'm convinced based on the paper from Harvard and Mount Sinai is that the bulk of scientific evidence on this question supports the premise or the assertion that autism is associated with prenatal use of acetaminophen.

There'll never be a single paper or a single report that solves all the important questions for the final time, finally.

But rather we go with the basis of most of the evidence, and I would say most of the evidence suggests that we should be suspicious of acetaminophen.

So is it an oversimplification then to single out one factor in this case Tylenol.

I mean if as you say there's a lot of factors it's a very complex issue influenced by genetics environment early brain development the like.

Is it can it be traced to one source.

Is that a scientifically sound thing for the president to say.

It probably is a great oversimplification to convey the impression that there's a single risk factor or a single cause for autism.

That's definitely not likely to be true.

In fact, there are probably multiple environmental triggers and that you also require a genetic substrate in order to be effective.

So if we pick out one possible risk factor, we're probably overstating the likelihood that that one risk factor explains most of autism.

I would say that probably prenatal exposure to autism to acetaminophen does increase the likelihood of autism in in the children but this might be a matter of a number of degrees rather than a causal structure for most cases.

Folks from places like the Autism Science Foundation said that this type of messaging harkened back to when mothers were blamed for their child's autism.

How do you see that and what type of conversations are you having now in light of this announcement with colleagues and how you approach families?

Yeah, there definitely will be a difference of opinion in this regard.

I don't know anyone or have never spoken to anyone who believed that mothers were responsible for autism.

Rather, there are probably a variety of factors in the environment, which most, which all of which were naive about, which are active nonetheless and which should be understood.

And then for which there should be either interventions or preventive efforts.

It seems like you would rule out a whole category of understanding and exploration if you said that environmental factors would be indicative of something very simplistic like the role of the mother or the choice of an over-the-counter treatment during pregnancy.

I wanted to get your take very quickly, Doctor, on the FDA also announcing approval for Licoravine, the drug that's long been used in cancer treatment but now for certain children with autism.

Are we overstating what this drug is able to do or what do we know about it as a potential treatment?

Yeah, I'm not a physician, but I would say that what I've read about lucovorin and autism is only suggestive.

The number of studies that have been done is small and the number of patients tried with lucovorin is small and what's indicated is that on the positive side, lucovorin has a positive safety profile.

Patients prescribed this medicine don't tend to get debilitating side effects and it's probably safe for use.

However, we're far away from having something close to definitive proof of its efficacy.

And I would recommend that we take what little prevailing positive information there is to sponsor larger scale conventional medical trials of lucovorin with randomization and double blind assignment.

That hasn't occurred yet.

Very quickly, just before I let you go, any final thoughts on this, on the announcement, this rollout from the White House?

It's a great beginning because it opens the door to the acceptance and the study of possible risk factors for autism.

It takes us a lot farther than the position of we don't even know whether it's a true increase or not.

Dr.

Walter Zahirodny, thank you so much for your time and your insight.

Thanks a lot.

Well, Governor Murphy will return from a week-long trip to India, where his administration is looking to expand ties and economic opportunities with one of the state's largest international trade partners.

But it also comes amid growing turmoil between India and the U.S.

The Trump administration this weekend announced a $100,000 price tag on new H-1B visa applications.

Now, about 70 percent of people in the U.S.

who hold that type of visa are from India.

On top of that, 50 percent tariffs on most goods imported from India went into effect last month, and they're hitting local businesses and their customers hard.

Here in New Jersey, a vibrant stretch of shops, restaurants, and other businesses along Oak Tree Road, known as Little India, has been rocked by the tariffs.

Raven Santana spoke with members of the community who worry their livelihood is on the line.

Oak Tree Road is usually buzzing with shoppers searching for South Asian food, clothing, and jewelry, drawing visitors from across the East Coast.

Now it's much quieter, business owners pointing to higher prices, fueled by 50% tariffs on imports from India.

All the cost, whatever we get from India, is a 50% tariff now.

So it's very tough.

It's affected the customers.

So we definitely increase the prices.

And I don't know, everything goes to the customer head only.

So I don't know, we lose the business definitely.

And we get some special spices from India.

We can able to get it from here locally.

So that spices and all very important to import from India.

At Saravana Bhavan, a popular vegetarian restaurant, the manager says they are already feeling the impact.

We're getting already 50% increase.

All the vendors who deliver us, they charge it now 50% more prices now.

So we have no options.

We can't get to the customer head only.

So we plan to increase the menu now.

We price hike.

And that's because Rutgers economist Tom Pruscia says for this community, those imports aren't optional.

They're essential.

This is uniquely burdensome in a sense because of the lack of substitution options.

And given the nature of these products, the idea that Americans can, you know, that's one of the mantras you hear is that, well, we can move production back to the United States.

This is not the situation on these products.

Profit margins are not large enough in these industries to imagine they could be absorbed.

Indian consumers in the United States fully have to expect higher prices.

We special in South Asian jewelry and we import a lot of jewelry from India.

And India is very badly hit with tariffs.

Almost 56 percent on jewelry from India.

And majority of our clientele travels all around from United States to come to this jewelry district in Woodbridge to buy jewelry.

I believe even on the weekends where we would have you know people waiting in lines at the restaurant or the jewelry stores to buy jewelry we have more employees you know standing and waiting for the customers to come in.

Next three months are very very important.

Diwali is around the corner.

We have Thanksgiving.

We have Christmas and there is no tariff deal happening with India or other countries that export jewelry.

So I think it's going to be a difficult to you.

Owner of Raj jewels Bobby Bensal says tariffs are pricing people out.

If you see peace behind me pieces like this can be manufactured only in India because they are manufactured not by machines they are made by handmade skill artisans.

So obviously we cannot manufacture them in United States.

They have to be imported from where labor oriented product comes in.

Businesses that would normally spend thousands on devol the ads say they're pulling back.

And let me tell you this is a time which is the festival time.

People really advertise.

and customers are less, w I see people are not very because they're not sure to show up at their store because prices are higher continue to struggle.

Gove on an economic mission to address the climate crisis.

Joshi.

During a press conference there, the governor said he's optimistic the tariffs could ease soon.

"The sub-national relationship, the particular relationship between New Jersey and India is so important.

And it's easy to be here when times are good.

It's a lot harder to be here when times are a little choppy."

And that leaves this community wondering how long New Jersey's Little India can hold on.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.

It's been five years since Newark officially regained local control of its public schools, after 25 years under state oversight.

The move returned decision-making to the elected school board right as the COVID-19 pandemic began, causing widespread learning challenges.

But in the years since, the district has made real gains.

Graduation rates are up, new schools have opened, and test scores have steadily improved.

But even as the district celebrates its hard-fought progress, community members say there's a lot more work to be done.

Jesse Gomez is a reporter at Chalkbeat covering Newark City's public schools and she joins me now.

Jesse, good to have you with us.

Let me ask you first, if you could just remind us, for those who might forget, why did the state move to take control of Newark?

What type of situation were they in?

Yeah, so the state really came in to take over Newark in 1995.

That's 25 years ago.

And at that time, Newark public schools were what state leaders said at abysmal levels.

Graduation rates were down.

Chronic absenteeism was up.

And test scores are frankly pretty, pretty low.

So the state really decided to take in at that time and try to what they would call clean up schools and improve student achievement.

- The community always though had a lot of skepticism about the state stepping in.

What was their reaction to regaining that local control and how would you describe how the public school district sits now?

- Yeah, so a lot of what the school community said back then and they agreed with the state that things weren't going well in Newark public schools.

But once the state came over, the community felt as the state actually did more damage than it actually did good.

There were a lot of state appointed superintendents who closed down schools.

There was an expansion of charter schools across the school district that was really propelled by the governor at that time.

And it all sort of kind of mounted to a point where the school community said enough was enough and we wanted local control back.

And so, you know, during the late 90s and early 2000s, the school community really tried to push for local control.

But as we saw, it only took them 25 years to regain that actual control back.

- Yeah, so can you walk us through where some of the improvements have been made?

- Yeah, so in 2017, the state decided to give Newark a sort of two-year transition period, or a time where Newark can basically prove itself to be its own self-managed school district.

So between 2018 and 2020, the now the new locally appointed school board decided to bring in a new superintendent.

And that's when they appointed Superintendent Roger Leone, the first superintendent under state control and also the first Latino to lead the district.

And since then, Superintendent Leone came with a vision to really revamp schools in his vision called the next decade.

This is a 10 year plan to boost attendance, bring in more teachers and just again, turn around everything that sort of happened post state control.

But as you write, the district is seeing some challenges, especially when it comes to things like equity, lack of black leadership.

Where does the community want to see things head now?

And where do they find that there are areas lacking?

Like you said, Breanna, the community's concerns were twofold.

One, student achievement, but also two, now the way that the district is transparent in its problem solving and decision making remains to be a problem.

We are seeing a boost, a slow boost in state test scores.

We are seeing a boost in student achievement, but the community really wants to be involved in the way that the school district operates, makes decisions, and especially ahead of a really important board vote this week where the school board will decide on extending Superintendent Leone's contract to 2030.

Yeah, can you talk to me a little bit about the controversy over that?

Because there's been some lack of transparency, at least from advocates that we've spoken to within the Newark School District, about even just knowing that that might be up for discussion at this Thursday's meeting.

What do we expect there?

Yeah, so we didn't really hear about this report, well publicly, we didn't hear about this proposal until we caught wind of it just a month ago.

And so through public records, we found a couple of letters that the school district had sent to both the county superintendent and to the state asking for their approval on a proposal to extend Superintendent Leo's contract to 2030.

Now that didn't come to light to the public until the August board meeting and until we wrote about that as well.

So that caused a lot of sort of you could say concerns within the community about again transparency about not being allowed in this really big vote that will determine who is the head of New Jersey's largest school district until 2030.

And if it does get approved on Thursday that would make Superintendent Leone one of the most if not the most longest serving superintendents in the state of New Jersey.

Yeah.

And I know there's been talk of course about his salary.

It's about three hundred thousand dollars a year.

And with budgetary constraints how does it look like that's going to play out?

Because there are some concerns there as well.

Absolutely.

I mean the school district for years has said that they are not getting what they're owed under the state's school funding formula.

So that on top of looming federal cuts on top of potentially even more cuts down the line that sort of raises questions as to how will the district fund not only superintendent's salary but also continue funding more teachers as the school district continues to grow and also fund support for vulnerable students.

We're seeing an influx of English language learners and students who require special education services as well.

Jessi Gomez is a reporter with Chalkbeat.

You can check out her article which is linked on our website, njspotlightnews.org.

Jessi, always good to talk to you.

Thanks for the great reporting.

Thank you for having me.

Before we leave you tonight, a quick update about us.

For the past 14 years, this station has been managed and operated by WNET, Channel 13 in New York.

Now, the station itself is licensed by the state of New Jersey, and today WNET announced, quote, "Regrettably, we were not able to reach an agreement with the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority to continue beyond June 2026.

Until that time, NJPBS and this newscast will remain on the air.

After June 2026, this program will continue to be produced and will air on 13, its digital platforms, and will be made available to other outlets interested in carrying it.

We're not going away.

And while WNET will no longer operate the station after June 2026, it is eager to work with the New Jersey-based institution interested in shaping its future.

Of course, we will keep you updated every step of the way.

For now, I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

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

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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