NJ Spotlight News | NJ Spotlight News: February 5, 2024 | Season 2024

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♪ Briana: Tonight on "NJ Spotlight News," It's official.

New Jersey's MetLife Stadium will host the FIFA 2026 World Cup final.

The international sports spectacle is expected to draw millions of fans and dollars to the state.

>> the idea that we were hosting the final right here at MetLife Stadium, I said it yesterday on a great Sunday, it is the whipped cream and cherries and walnuts on a fabulous Sunday.

BRIANA: Plus, a war of words in the District eight race.

Congressman Rob Menendez and Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bala square off on social media.

It appears to be giving Bala fundraising edge.

>> It's an indication that nobody is going to let anybody come up for air without answering it back.

BREANA: also Trenton police are , under fire for their alleged use of force towards a homeless black man.

>> And what we saw in that video from that officer shows as we have a lot of work to do on the soul of the city of Trenton.

BRIANA: And Rutgers is on the verge of a COVID-19 treatment breakthrough that could work on future drug resistant strains.

"NJ Spotlight News" begins right now.

♪ >> From NJ PBS studios, this is "NJ Spotlight news" with Briana Vannozzi.

Briana: Good evening and thanks for joining us this Monday night.

I am Briana Vannozzi.

Talk about a score.

New Jersey is the chosen host for the 2026 Fisher World Cup final.

It's a major victory for the Garden State, and the MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, where the match will be played.

The announcement came Sunday, after the Murphy administration spent two years leveraging MetLife Stadium's proximity to Manhattan and all that goes with it.

Beating out reported front runner AT&T Stadium in Dallas and the SoFi stadium in L.A.

The final is scheduled for July 19, 2026, marking the end of a tournament that will span three countries and see a total of 104 matches.

New Jersey was also awarded five opening-round games," during the knockout stage.

State leaders are calling it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the state and region, with a major economic boost anticipated.

For more on that, I am joined by one of the many leaders behind New Jersey's win, Jim Kirkos, the CEO at the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce.

Jim, good to see you.

Congratulations is in order.

How big a deal is this for New Jersey?

Guest: I can't tell you how big of a deal.

I can take my scarf off, it's amazing.

BRIANA: Yes.

Tell us about the economic impact.

For soccer fans, it's a big deal to have the number ready, but this will draw thousands and thousands of spectators.

Guest: Listen, the fact that we have eight games stretched out over four or five weeks is just amazing.

The ability for us to bring in groups of people and for corporations to entertain, and for us to showcase New Jersey and the greater Meadowlands region that I represent, it is just so powerful with the brand of the FIFA World Cup.

The idea that we are hosting the final right here at MetLife Stadium, I said it yesterday on a great Sunday, the whipped cream and cherries and wet walnuts on the fabulous Sunday!

BRIANA: Clearly this is something that yourself, the administration and a lot of folks have been working on for a few years now, and you also did pretty confident going into it, but take me to the moment when the announcement came, to have any indication beforehand?

Guest: No indication at all.

Quite frankly, I wasn't that confident, I was cautiously optimistic that we could be granted the final, but, you know, we were up against some stiff competition.

The Dallas Stadium is a spectacular facility.

But at the end of the day, we checked off more boxes than Dallas did.

For everything that we put on here.

Have to give a lot of credit to Governor Murphy and his team.

My organization plays a small role, they were leading this.

He has been all in on trying to get the final here from the very beginning, and they did a fabulous job.

BRIANA: Walk me through the preliminary figures.

How much are we anticipating revenue, amount of jobs, and how do you plan on keeping the bulk of that in New Jersey?

Guest: FIFA announced yesterday that -- the FIFA World Cup in the United States, a 2 billion-dollar dollar economic impact, and we plan on trying to capture that.

Our task here for New Jersey and New York is to make sure people and visitors from all over the globe understand all there is to do here.

We have to be really good in our marketing and in our social media, we have to make sure people know where they can spend their discretionary dollars, and for my job here in the greater Meadowlands area.

We are a better destination today than we have ever been.

BRIANA: Are there any lessons from hosting the Super Bowl that you plan on taking into this big event?

Guest: At the great question and one we have thought a lot about, because every time we do a big event, there is always a couple of naysayers that say, well, didn't realize the economic impact.

I am of the school that says we can't just expect people to walk through our door just because the game is in town.

Would need to be really good at activating our local communities and letting the world know what we have to offer here.

If we do that better this time, we will capture a tremendous economic impact.

BRIANA: How do you separate New Jersey from New York, because just about every national media outlet is advertising this as the New York region, so how do you make sure New Jersey gets the prominence it deserves?

Guest: That's my task.

We need to be really sharp at all those items.

The fact of the matter is we have a great collaboration with New York City.

I am not sure we get this final game here without being next to the greatest city in the world, but the fact that we are a budding destination all by ourselves, New Jersey, is lots of reasons to keep people here we will always kind of be the sister to New York City when it comes to its media market, but we have a lot to offer.

Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, the greater Meadowlands area.

There are 70 great places to dine, to stay, to shop, to experience and our job will be , to tell that story over the next couple of years so we can capture as much of it.

BRIANA: Jim, CEO of the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce, good to talk to you.

Guest: Great talking to you as well.

Thank you.

BRIANA: What started as a political spat between 2 congressional candidates has erupted into an all-out war of words.

Incumbent Democratic representative Rob Menendez and his opponent, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla are in the midst of a nasty fight on social media, and neither side is pulling punches, as we near the June primary.

Both are vying for the seat in Hudson County's eighth Congressional District.

As a Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports, Bhalla appears to have the edge, at least when it comes to fundraising.

Reporter: It's gloves off, knives out online, in the eighth Congressional District race.

Incumbent Rob Menendez started it last week, slamming his opponent for unethically doing a political interview at Hoboken City Hall where Ravi Bhalla is the mayor.

Challenger Bhalla shot back, "Wow, the entitled son of corrupt Bob "Gold bar" Menendez trying to lecture me about ethics."

And they are still at it.

>> Is further used his influence to give his son a congressional seat.

That is rank nepotism at its worst.

>>.

>> He is only going to want to pivot every single time.

He is not going to want to address his own failures as mayor.

Reporter: His own ethical issues aside, Menendez says a couple of City Council members blew the Bhalla.

Whistle on Bhalla.

Who admits he shouldn't have done a political interview inside City Hall.

>> we did this one on the sidewalk so we can show how we are different.

>> We are proud of how we have represented the eighth District.

That is what we want to talk about.

But we are not going to let him set a false narrative about what we -- who we are and the work we are doing.

Reporter: Hudson view correspondent says posted rock'em, sock'em robots after Monday's round one in the online political boxing match.

>>>> You hit each other till somebody's head pops off.

That is pretty much what they are doing.

>> I don't think either side is going to give an inch between now and June.

This is an indication that nobody is going to let anybody come up for air at any point in time without answering it back.

Reporter: Rider's Michael Rasmussen says, each candidate is valuing for voter attention.

Rob Menendez is a first term incumbent, and while he scored the coveted endorsement of Hudson County's powerful Democratic political machine, it abandoned his father after Senator Bob Menendez's latest indictment on corruption charges.

What's in a name?

>> Even though Robert Menendez is not on trial, they have the same name.

That alone is quite, problematic how many voters in the eighth district even know that there are two Menendez's?

Probably not Reporter: A lot.

Bhalla served as mayor.

His campaign is electing money from small donors, and early fundraising shows some stunning figures.

Bhalla raised $974,000 in the fourth quarter of last year.

That is almost triple the 348 thousand dollars increment Menendez brought in.

It is historic, Rasmussen says -- >> Nobody who has ever ran for the house in New Jersey before has raised as much money as he did it his first quarter.

It tells me that as Menendez was putting together the pieces, it wasn't enough to stave off the sense that he was vulnerable.

The sense that he could be beaten.

Reporter: Bhalla has about 900 $50,000 in cash right now, with Menendez behind by more than 200,000.

Much of the incumbent's donations come from major players and PACs.

In politics, money talks, but the county machine can still make it rain for Menendez.

Moreover -- >> It doesn't look like this district has ever elected anyone off the line.

>> I would say the organizational edge goes to Menendez so far.

And Bhalla has his work cut out for him between now and June.

Reporter: Expect a rock'em, sock them campaign.

In Hoboken, Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

BRIANA: The turn from Police Department is facing scrutiny over use of force tactics, less than four months after a federal civil red investigation into the unit over the practice.

Officers have been accused of routinely using excessive force and illegally stopping pedestrians.

This time, the capital city's NAACP chapter is speaking up against in early January incident involving law-enforcement and a homeless man that advocates say, shows the city is failing its most vulnerable residents.

Ted Goldberg has the story.

>>.

>> I don't want to do the report!

!

I don't want to lock you up!

I don't want to put you in custody!

I don't care!

Reporter: In Trenton police officer has come under fire for how he interacted with the homeless man last month.

Bodycam footage shows the policeman shoving a homeless man during the argument.

In the video you can hear the officer shouting at the man, who says he was visiting his brother's apartment.

>> This was an officer who valued his own time over that of a man who was clearly in need of help.

>> You judge a society by how well or how poorly it treats its most vulnerable citizens.

And what we saw in that video from that officer, shows us we have a whole lot of work to do in the soul of this city of Trenton.

>> Such behavior has the chilling effect of eroding trust between law enforcement and the community that they serve.

Reporter: Trenton's chapter of the NAACP called for the mayor to investigate the footage, and take that Police Officer away from working the streets.

>> We are not against law-enforcement officers, they are a part of the fabric of how we repair, rebuild and restore communities.

What we are a guest is officers who are rogue.

In wealthier communities like Pennington, Hopewell, Princeton, none of the residents would ever be treated this way.

Reporter: The police director says the officers behavior wasn't ideal.

But he doesn't think any laws were broken.

>> The officer could have been a little less rude at one point, but he didn't do anything wrong.

Reporter: Wilson says that policeman started becoming aggressive with the homeless man because he didn't follow the officer's orders.

>> Every property owner has a right to be secure in his property and this guy was trespassing, the officer was trying to convince him to leave, he wouldn't leave, behind the story of his brother living in the upstairs apartment.

Reporter: The NAACP is calling for Trenton to change how it responds to distress calls.

Even though this was originally a call about illegal dumping.

Advocates say community groups should be responding, rather than police officers, something Wilson doesn't necessarily disagree with.

>> In instances which are quality of life, substance abuse issues, it's better to have brothers like these showing up, who care about people.

>> We can't force people to vote crisis.

We can't force people to take shelter with the service.

We can't do that.

But we offer it.

.

And that is specifically why I created the daytime task force two years ago.

Reporter: Other cities have seen success with arrived together, a program that pairs mental health officials with policemen for certain 911 calls.

.

Wilson says he would like Trenton to be a part of that.

>> We have got to have the resources to do that.

I, am not in charge of those resources but it will certainly be explored by me and I am not against that at all.

It's not something that I didn't hear of, something that I did inquire about.

If I can get it here, I will be glad to do it.

Reporter: Wilson says supervisors have reviewed the bodycam footage, and he does not think the officer should be disciplined for his action, something sure to disappoint advocates who are calling for consequences.

In Trenton, Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

BRIANA: Rikers researchers say they are on the verge of a potential COVID-19 treatment breakthrough that could work on future drug-resistant strains of the virus and supplement, or replace Paxlovid, the medication currently used should prevent death and hospitalizations in high-risk patients.

It comes as a study by the National Center for health statistics, and the Census Bureau, suggests up to 14% of all adults in New Jersey meet the criteria for Long COVID after initial infection.

It is a nebulous list of symptoms that can linger for months or longer.

COVID also remains the nation's third leading cause of death.

And researchers say there is a massive need for more treatment options.

For the latest, I am joined by one of the lead researchers, Associate Professor Wang.

Professor Jun Wang, thanks so much for coming on the show.

So talk to me about how this medication targets the COVID-19 virus in our that other antivirals aren't.

GUEST: so, currently the most -prescribed oral occluded drug is Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer.

However, there are two main problems associated with Paxlovid.

One is a drug interaction problems.

So for patients with underlying disease and taking other medications, Paxlovid can't be used.

So that is a major problem.

Another potential problem is drug-resistant issues.

Researchers have found that viruses can evolve to become resistant to Paxlovid.

BRIANA: That is what I am curious about because at the moment, we don't have a drug-resistant strain of this virus.

But researchers like yourself are worried about that happening in the future, yes?

As we do with most viruses?

Guest: Yes, 100% correct.

And so far, the good news is that the resistance has not been widespread yet.

However, like I mentioned, as scientists, we always want to plan ahead of time.

And as we learn from the lessons from the use of HIV and hcv antiviral drugs, resistance is not a question of if, but a question of when.

So we had better address the issue before it becomes more widespread.

BRIANA: Yes, so we are not caught flat footed like we were when this virus first broke out.

So I am curious though because you mentioned Paxlovid, it is not described about -- prescribed that often.

So this medication you are working on, it is obviously not to market level yet, would it be more prescribe a book because it has less side effects?

Guest: This is always the practical use of antivirus, and it should only be prescribed to people who most need them.

Generally speaking for people with strong immune systems, antiviral is probably not needed.

But like I mentioned before, for seniors and people with underlying diseases and people with high risks of COVID-associated complications, those people do need to take antivirals.

BRIANA: House soon, Professor, might we see this come to market, and what will it mean as we continue to battle against COVID?

Guest: So, this is still in the early stage of development.

.

It needs to go through extensive animal model studies and also kinetic studies.

Then hopefully we will move to human trials.

But we are doing it as fast as we can.

The good news is that from our preliminary studies in cell culture and also animal model studies, the inhibitor, which were developing as a next generation of COVID oral drugs, they have shown consistent and promising antiviral activity against the Delta and omicron variants and, more importantly, they are also active against other viruses against Paxlovid.

Which means they can be used for the treatment of infections caused by Paxlovid-resistant virus.

BRIANA: Wow, so potentially really breakthrough research here.

The doctor is an associate professor of medicinal chemistry at Rutgers University.

Thank you so much.

Guest: Thanks for having me.

BRIANA: Environmental groups are not with -- wasting any time during this legislative session, holding a press conference today at the Statehouse to lay out an environmental policy agenda for lawmakers.

Including securing a 100% clean energy future and safeguarding drinking water, among other things.

As a senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports, the event comes as senators consider pulling state funds out of fossil fuel companies.

>> This is no longer about the future generations.

We are to with climate change today.

Reporter: Environmental advocates joined with several of New Jersey's Democratic legislators today to outline their environmental agenda for the next two legislative sessions.

!

>> These are bold high-reach , priorities.

These are not easy things.

Reporter: The goals include five key areas, the first being reaching 100% clean energy by 2035.

A goal that is been prioritized by the Murphy administration, but never codified into law.

It failed to move forward during the last legislative session.

>> The energy master plan changes every time there is a new administration.

.

It is being done by executive order.

The point of this bill is to put 100% renewable energy standard in New Jersey statute.

Reporter: To help reach that goal, advocates emphasized the need for an upgraded energy grid to handle the state's growing solar and electric needs.

They made their case before the Senate environment and energy committee.

>> The grade was built in the last century.

We are now in 2024.

We need to build a grid for the 21st-century.

We cannot move forward with our existing solar projects and storage projects without having this grid modernization.

Reporter: Reducing transportation, pollution, and preserving parks and open spaces are other agenda items.

They pointed to the sunsetted of the corporate business tax surcharge at the end of last year that taxed companies whose profits are $1,000,000 or more.

>> It was generating $78 million a year.

So for open space preservation, we are looking at a cut right now of $48 million this year.

Reporter: And another priority, same-day voter registration.

Not something you might expect that an environment presser, but one that is integral to electing officials who best represent communities of color most impacted by environmental justice issues, says state Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson.

>> I need your support, but it means nothing if you don't have those in office to make sure we have the ability to effectuate change.

Reporter: But getting elected officials to pass some of these measures has been a challenge.

Two bills came up for discussion only in a Senate hearing that may be the toughest to move forward.

One would have New Jerseyans vote on amending the state constitution to prohibit the construction of new fossil fuel power plants in the state.

Another would prohibit the state from investing state pension and annuity funds into any of the 200 largest publicly-traded fossil fuel companies.

>> The U.N. secretary-general has declared that the business model of fossil fuel companies is incompatible with human survival.

And that is especially true for people living and dying from fossil fuels.

In New Jersey's environmental justice communities like the Ironbound, Carney and Camden.

Reporter: Those bills had mixed reaction, with environmental advocates in support, and NESN industry experts opposed.

>> We shouldn't be looking to use our pension funds as a lever to enact public policy.

We have a fiduciary responsibility to return as much investment as we can to our pension system.

We are currently facing a $75 billion to $80 billion pension deficit.

Reporter: Those bills are not yet up for vote, although several other bills focused on energy investments, did push out of community today, and many more are likely to be posted in the months to come.

In Trenton, Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.

♪ BRIANA: In our spotlight on business report, a new life for one of the state's beleaguered nesting homes.

The owners of Limecrest Subacute and Rehabilitation Center on Thursday sold of Sussex County facility, complying with the state order to either remain open under new ownership or close.

Judy Kushner of Bemet LLC , which is a for-profit company, took over immediately according to the State Department of health.

Kushner has stakes in several other rehab and nursing centers in the region.

The state Comptroller last month suspended Limecrest from New Jersey's Medicaid program, citing a litany of violations.

The department halted admissions at Limecrest in November, after a deadly COVID-19 Outbreak killed seven residents of an infected dozens of others.

The center was also hit with a lengthy list of serious health and safety violations.

Turning to Wall Street, stocks tumbled after the Federal Reserve took a march interest rate cut off the table.

Here is how the markets closed for the day.

♪ BRIANA: And that's it for us tonight.

But don't forget to download the "NJ Spotlight News" podcast so you can listen anytime.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

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

Have a great evening.

We will see you back here tomorrow.

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