Right now on NJ Spotlight News, is the Haba saga over?

A Pennsylvania judge ruled that Alina Haba has no legal authority to serve as the state's U.S. attorney, so now what?

- It seems like what we heard last night from Alina Haba and from the attorney general were comments that they're going to continue fighting this and no suggestion that Alina Haba's gonna step aside.

- Plus, Hurricane Erin barreled up the Jersey coast, causing major flooding along the shore and forcing some residents to evacuate.

Also addressing the energy crisis, governor Murphy signs legislation to bring more solar power onto the grid to try to reduce your electric bills and a community in crisis.

Ukrainian refugees here in the state share their hopes and fears for their country.

As meetings show little progress towards peace, buckle up and get ready for another year or two of this war.

I mean, there's not too many people talking about this, but realistically when you look at this, this is, there's nowhere near to the end.

NJ Spotlight News begins now.

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

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

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

We begin with a few of today's top stories.

First, some of New Jersey's largest universities are staring down major cuts in federal research money after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration can, for now, cancel more than $780 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health that the government argued was slated to be used for projects in diversity, equity and inclusion along with gender ideology, studying vaccine hesitancy and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 5-4 decision overturns a lower court ruling but also leaves in place a separate ruling that says the administration's policy for ordering those cuts was probably unlawful and shouldn't be put on hold.

It's a tangled web of court orders, but it means this is not the end.

There is more litigation to come.

Grants already canceled likely won't be reinstated, but now those recipients can sue in specialized court.

Princeton University, for example, has a lot at stake after the Trump administration gave the school the least amount of NIH funding out of all the Ivy Leagues last year at $58 million.

Also tonight, an update on the case of the double murder-suicide involving a New Jersey state trooper.

The families of Lauren Semanchik and Tyler Webb, who were killed in their Hunterdon County home earlier this month by the trooper Semanchik had been dating, are suing local and state police over their deaths.

That's according to attorneys for the families and as first reported by NJ.com.

The family of Semanchik has said repeatedly that she went to police for help after her ex, Lt. Ricardo Santos, began stalking and harassing her.

But her attempts for help went unheard.

Well earlier this week, authorities released a voicemail.

Semanchuk left for Franklin Township Police in May, where she asked about filing a police report or restraining order, but was never called back.

At a news conference on Thursday, attorneys said Semanchuk also reached out to one of Santos' colleagues at the state police for help, to no avail.

The Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office took control of the Franklin Police Department a few days after the murders.

And in our spotlight on business report tonight, renewable energy gets a boost in New Jersey and your electric bill could too.

Governor Murphy today signed a pair of bills that'll expand access to community solar programs and allow for more battery storage, potentially bringing down long-term electricity costs for residents here.

The new law directs the state to open registration for another 3,000 megawatts of community solar capacity, eliminating a previous cap, meaning some 450,000 residents, including half who are low income, will be able to participate in and benefit from solar energy without having to install their own solar panels.

Now the other piece of the legislation pushes New Jersey to reach 2,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030, which the governor's office says is one of the most ambitious targets in the nation, enabling the state to capture energy during low demand periods and release it when the grid needs it most.

Utility bills have been skyrocketing this summer after an energy auction triggered a statewide rate hike averaging 20%.

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.

- And coming up, is the HABA saga over?

A Pennsylvania judge deals a massive blow to the president's pick to be New Jersey's U.S. attorney.

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A major legal shakeup is rocking New Jersey's federal court system after a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled on Thursday that Alina Haba, the former personal lawyer for President Trump, has been serving without legal authority as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey.

The ruling disqualifies her involvement in ongoing case-ins and deepens concerns over how the Justice Department is handling top prosecutor appointments.

Judge Brand's decision came after several people charged with federal crimes in New Jersey challenged the legality of Haba's tenure, and the controversy raises questions about presidential power and the independence of prosecutors.

For more on all of it, I'm joined by Jacob Elberg, a Seton Hall Law professor who also served for more than a decade in New Jersey's U.S. Attorney's Office.

Jacob, really appreciate your insight on this today.

I'm just going to start with the basics.

Why did Judge Brand rule that Alina Haba is serving unlawfully in this role right now?

But the judge's decision was dealing with two statutes and had to get into some pretty complex and detailed issues involving the operation of those two statutes and their language.

But at the heart of it is the constitutional concept of separation of powers and checks and balances and what's written right into the Constitution, the idea that the presidential appointment power is still subject to that checks and balances advice and consent.

And so we've got a couple of statutes in operation about how you basically deal with what ends up happening, which is the president has the ability to make an appointment subject to the advice and consent of the Senate.

Since that doesn't always happen so fast, doesn't always happen so so easily.

There needs to be rules in place for what happens in the meantime so that we don't have offices just not functioning.

So we've got these two statutes that deal with that and the judge ruled that the way the administration was trying to use those statutes was essentially trying to do an end run around that advice and consent concept from the Constitution and that following those statutes means she's not lawfully in the position.

I also found it interesting that he, that Judge Brand noted that her tenure didn't end on July 22nd or July 26th as we were all trying to figure out that actually the interim role began when the president put another person in before her.

How does that affect all of this?

Because that plays into sort of the executive branch's ability to tap and have someone serve at their discretion.

No.

Yeah, and that goes right to the way those statutes operate.

And so one of them to deal with that issue I mentioned before about about how you deal with the fact that advice and consent might not happen right away.

One of those statutes has a provision that says the president can appoint for 120 days somebody to act as an interim U.S. attorney.

And so what the administration here had tried to do was essentially stack those on top of each other to say, well, we have this one guy for a period of time.

Now we've got this other person for another period of time.

And the judge says, look, that's not what the statute is doing.

It's not what by its specific language allows.

And if it did allow it, we wouldn't have the checks and balances, because if it did allow it, the administration would be able to just keep appointing folks 120 days at a time and never get that advice and consent.

What are the implications, Jacob, for ongoing cases in New Jersey?

And does it put any prosecutions in jeopardy?

So it really depends on how the administration reacts at this.

The judge at the hearing made the suggestion that given what was going on, that Alina Haba should recuse herself, should step aside and let somebody else be running the office who clearly would have the authority until this is resolved.

And if that were to happen now, then the office would be able to function and function as it should.

It doesn't appear, though, to be what the administration is going to do.

Instead, it seems like what we heard last night from Alina Haba and from the attorney general were comments that they're going to continue fighting this and no suggestion that Alina Haba is going to step aside.

And that means that whatever happens in cases at this point is really at some risk of being reversed.

Yeah.

I mean, the criminal defendants who challenged her legal authority, the judge did ask that she recuse herself from prosecuting those cases as well.

But I mean, you spent 11 years as an assistant U.S. attorney.

I mean, inside this office, what type of upheaval does it have or not have on the day-to-day goings?

Because, I mean, you all are used to working under Democratic administrations, Republican administrations, right?

I mean, it's supposed to be nonpolitical.

Yes.

And it's important not to lose sight of that.

The office was and still is filled with dedicated public servants who are working hard in a nonpartisan way and going about their jobs to try to protect the people of New Jersey and beyond.

It's a real problem.

And that they just -- first of all, the leadership uncertainty in any organization is a significant challenge.

But here it's worse than that, because these cases are hard enough, the job is hard enough without dealing with the potential that cases may be viewed as not legitimate because of her involvement and the fact that she's unlawfully in the position.

Let me ask you, in the little bit of time we have left, you mentioned the Justice Department is poised to appeal, an appeals process will play out.

What might that look like?

So that remains to be seen, because a little-- some of that is going to be up to the Court of Appeals and maybe even eventually the Supreme Court.

So the next step would ordinarily be the Third Circuit, where a panel of judges would consider the-- consider the issues.

That's the sort of thing that in the ordinary course takes a long time, and briefing and scheduling and those sort of things.

There may be a request here.

You can imagine a request here to expedite that.

But what that will turn out to mean in practice remains to be seen.

And then from there, whether this ends up at the Supreme Court is also something we could be looking at down the road.

Jacob Ellberg is a law professor, a faculty director at Seton Hall Law School, also spent 11 years, as we mentioned, as assistant U.S. attorney in the office in New Jersey.

Thank you so much for your perspective.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

Hurricane Erin stirred up serious trouble along the Jersey coastline over the last 24 hours, despite never making landfall here.

From dangerous rip currents to street flooding and beach erosion, towns up and down the shoreline are battling the storm's powerful coastal aftermath, with some beaches remaining closed, swimming still off limits, and residents in Egg Harbor Township on edge after being evacuated due to flooding late last night.

For local leaders, the bigger worry now is the long-term toll.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagas has more from Monmouth County.

We've had quite a rough surf here for the last three days.

third solid day of rough surf.

We had the beach closed now for three days, like many towns up and down the Jersey Shore.

For most people along the shore, Hurricane Erin didn't bring much more than big waves and beach closures.

As the sun came out today, lifeguards had their hands full keeping people out of the water, reminding them it's still a code red, or a double red flag as they call it, meaning absolutely no swimming.

"You look at how beautiful the day is today, the last few days of summer, it's hard to tell people no on a day like today.

But this is a very dangerous surf right now.

It doesn't look too friendly and I'm glad of that.

But if you get caught in a rip in this it is not an easy thing to get out of.

So we are advising no one in the surf.

We're letting people maybe get their feet wet.

Lifeguard stands are all open.

Beaches open.

But we are not letting anybody in the water throughout today.

I see surfers.

Uh, will if needed?

Absolutely.

Th We're here tonight till se put them in jeopardy?

Yes highly trained and everyt you go into water with th it does put them in jeopard people don't listen to the and they still try to get towns chasing people out o the worst of the storm.

B and beach erosion are the Some towns last night saw the seawall onto the stre coming up to the beach he were flooded throughout L rain bands associated with it was really the coastal impacts.

The beaches, the water came up to the berm, came out into the streets at high tide on Thursday evening, still may go out into the streets at high tide on Friday evening.

The water heights down in Cape May came just within a couple of inches of being considered a major coastal flood.

New Jersey State climatologist Dave Robinson says the impacts of Hurricane Erin will be long lasting.

That storm really churned up the Atlantic and it's going to take some time for it to calm back down.

So people along the coast are still going to have some high tides as we go Friday, even into Saturday.

Rip currents for sure and some pretty good wave heights.

I mean, we had 6 10 ft wave heights along and near the coast.

Good for the surfers bad for the shore.

Several towns had significant beach erosion like upper township in Cape May County where the mayor said part of his coastal town simply has no more beach on the northern part of New Jersey's shore.

Monmouth Beach Mayor Tim Summers is concerned about the amount of sand his town lost this past week.

We know for sure we've lost about 50% of the beach we currently had, well we had about about 72 hours ago, so some of that sand may migrate back but we know that through history we understand when we lose this much we don't normally see it come back in total.

Monmouth Beach is considered an erosion hotspot and has worked with the Army Corps of Engineers over the years to replenish its beaches, especially here where even last night the waves crashed right up to the base of this high-rise housing complex.

A spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Protection said the office expects to begin post-storm inspections of beaches tomorrow, focusing on areas that typically experience erosion.

And Republican Congressman Jeff Vandreu said he's been in touch with federal agencies so that if there is any damage along our shore, we will have the resources and support we need.

But Summers says FEMA budget cuts have him worried they won't get relief.

Some three quarters of the funding has been stripped away from this year's Army Corps projects, and so this is going to have an impact not just in New Jersey but all along the coast of the United States.

If you were planning on a beach weekend, there's still hope for the water to open up.

Emergency management teams say they'll be out here early in the morning looking at wind conditions, whether the surf is coming down, and of course how strong the rip currents are.

They know you want to be in the water, but safety has to come first.

In Long Branch, I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.

While Ukrainian refugees in New Jersey say they have mixed feelings about President Trump's flurry of meetings on Russia's war in Ukraine and the major obstacles that exist before the two countries reach a peace agreement.

President Trump sounded positive earlier this week after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House just two days after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where it appeared Trump was going to broker a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

But Russia poured cold water on those efforts after launching a rare drone and missile attack on an American plant in western Ukraine Wednesday night, then telling NBC News no meeting is planned.

Meanwhile, here in New Jersey, our senior correspondent, Brenda Flanagan, caught up with refugees we've been following since the war began.

And she joins us now to share how this latest news could affect their status.

Bren.

Yeah, Brianna, we reached out to some folks that we've been covering in New Jersey's Ukrainian community and found two are actually back in Europe.

We Zoomed with Yuri Boyetsko, who heads a nonprofit called Hope for Ukraine.

They collect donated clothing and food, medicine and toys, pack it all up in Jersey and ship it to the beleaguered nation and distribute it there.

He says it's been an emotional roller coaster and that the ride's not over.

And so I think my message to everyone here in New Jersey is buckle up and get ready for another year or two of this war.

I mean, there's not too many people talking about this, but realistically, when you look at this, this is, there's nowhere near to the end.

Now Boyetko has kept a close watch on the war.

He pointed to Russia's continued attacks with missiles and drones, despite ongoing diplomatic negotiations involving Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and several European heads of state.

He noted, after meeting with Putin in Alaska, President Trump backtracked on the need for a cease-fire because Putin refused, to no one's surprise.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President: And the reason why there's no cease-fire, because Putin doesn't need it.

He feels really comfortable where he is right now.

Number one, he still has money to pay for the war, because there's no sanctions being applied.

Number two, he gets -- he gets backing by China and other of his allies, such as North Korea, Iran.

Number three, he has a -- he believes he has a friend in White House that can -- he can really play cards with and -- Boyechko says Russia even attacked a U.S.-owned electronics factory in Ukraine, even though it reportedly doesn't build military products.

As for peace talks, Russia's foreign minister recently shot down European proposals to shield Ukraine under a NATO-like guarantee of security.

So, Boyecko doesn't expect much now, even though Trump's trying to set up meetings between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

And I think there was a big mischance by President Trump that he did not apply those sanctions he promised, because then you would have bargaining chips on the table, whether he met with Putin in Alaska or these guys met in Washington, D.C. Because what's Putin doing right now, he doesn't want to get President Trump upset, so he's going to keep doing these meetings.

And you'll see, this meeting is going to go on for the next six months.

Now, we also corresponded with Paramus resident Yana Bron, who arrived in Ukraine this week to visit her family.

Her parents have refused to leave, despite the war.

She spent Wednesday night in Lviv in a bomb shelter with 30 other people during that harrowing Russian attack, while 540 drones and 40 missiles pummeled Ukraine.

Yana emailed me from the bomb shelter.

How delusional one should be to believe that Putin wants peace.

She described an elderly man who was crying and saying, "The world is so big.

Why nobody can stop him?"

It was heartbreaking.

A child was sleeping while her mom covered her ears so that she couldn't hear explosions.

A woman was moving her lips, whispering a prayer.

All the other people were staring at their phones, monitoring the attacks on a map.

In two hours, most of them should go to work.

This is Ukraine right now, sleep-deprived, scared, but with a desperate desire to survive.

She'll soon be heading for Kiev.

Meanwhile, where's Boyechikov?

He's in Italy, where he ran two 10-day summer camps for kids from Ukraine.

The first group came from the Eastern War Zone, the second from Western Ukraine, kids whose parents are soldiers either deployed or captured.

At the end of the day, I think these kids are the ones who are going to rebuild Ukraine.

So if we're going to lose the generation, we're going to lose the country.

So we're really focusing on really working with the kids right now and helping them understand that, you know, they're not alone.

Bree, he told me that the first couple of days, kids would run and hide whenever a plane flew over.

I mean, that imagery is so stark, especially what Yana described inside that bomb shelter, Brenda.

What does this mean then for those who did escape the war, for those who came to New Jersey for their immigration status?

We're talking about thousands of people, thousands of Ukrainians who fled to the U.S. and here to Jersey over the past couple of years could soon begin losing their humanitarian parole status as soon as this month.

The president recently told a German news agency that he'd let them stay.

Will you let those Ukrainians who fled the war to stay in the United States until the war ends?

I think we will.

Yeah.

You think we will?

I think we will.

We have a lot of people that came in from Ukraine, and we're working with them.

Now, that was at the end of July.

Moving forward, it's hard to say.

Folks are worried because their status is temporary, their working papers could expire, and if they're deported, many say they have no home to go back to, Brie.

Yeah, it's a really fragile situation there.

Brenda Flanagan, thanks so much.

Thank you.

That's going to do it for us this week, but a reminder, 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.

Have a beautiful weekend.

We'll see you right back here on Monday.

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