>> 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.

And by the PSEG foundation.

Briana: tonight on "NJ Spotlight News," more than a dozen hospitalized after a school bus carrying kids from liquid overturns on the Garden State Parkway.

This after a deadly weekend of crashes on New Jersey roads.

Plus, advocates rally outside a proposed new immigration detention center in Newark, as family members struggled to locate those detained.

>> Those transfer periods, there in the dark, and it is getting to the point where the loved one is experiencing emotional distress in the process.

Briana: Also, as measles cases spread across the U.S., there are growing concerns in New Jersey about the rise of unvaccinated children.

>> They think there has been a significant erosion of trust that goes beyond politics at this point.

I think it is causing parties, I think it is causing cultures -- crossing parties, I think it is crossing cultures.

We are seeing a reduction in overall vaccination rates.

Briana: A decades-old study of pregnant women resurfaces in light of new ways to improve maternal health care in the garden state.

>> When we see a unique pool of participants who can give us insights into mom's health and children's health we might not get elsewhere, we want to capitalize on it.

Briana: "NJ Spotlight News" begins right now.

♪ >> From NJPBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Briana Vannozzi.

Briana: Good evening, and thanks for joining us on this Tuesday night.

I am Briana Vannozzi.

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

First, multiple children were injured Monday night when a school bus traveling from Lakewood overturned on the Garden State Parkway in Bergen County.

UOf the 31 people on board, 15 were injured, including the driver and 14 kids who were taken to local hospitals.

One child, a 14-year-old boy, was seriously injured after being thrown from the vehicle during the crash and pinned under the bus.

According to a social-media post from the mayor where the crash happened, the teenager is still in the hospital fighting for his life.

Police authorities say the bus was heading north when it veered off the right side of the road near exit 172 and flipped onto its side.

Because of the crash remains under investigation.

It comes on the heels of a deadly weekend on New Jersey roads, where 11 people died in seven separate traffic accidents across the state, including entities from Patterson and Toms River to Manahawkin and elk Gloucester County.

New data on congestion pricing show New Jersey drivers and bus riders are the big winners since the program rolled out in January.

That is thanks to less traffic near the Lincoln and Holland tunnels.

The regional plan Association issued a report outlining how much time and money commuters are saving.

For some of the longest trips, commute times were cut by more than 20 minutes coming to the Lincoln Tunnel.

The FTA reported in January that overall average trip times are down by 17% at the tunnel and 48% at the Holland.

Estimates of the annual value of time savings show it is more than a billion dollars, though the report doesn't take into account the frustration New Jersey transit riders haven't felt now that more people are taking trains that haven't proven to be more reliable.

New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli says if elected in November he would hit New Yorkers with a reverse congestion fee, charging drivers who enter the Garden State and using the money to pay for New Jersey transit.

That is an idea that was first floated by a Democratic candidate for governor, Steve Fulop.

An update on the federal cuts to a teacher training program in New Jersey we have been following.

A district court judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocked the move by the trumpet administration that slashed hundreds of millions in grant funding that prepare educators to enter K-12 bathrooms as one way toThe program also focused n hard-to-fill subject areas like math, science, and special education, along with positions in a hard-to-staff district in urban and rural areas.

Attorney General Matt Platkin co-led a group of 8 attorneys general in a lawsuit against the White House challenging the cuts, arguing they would lead to layoffs and less support for students and fewer teachers entering the pipeline.

In announcing the slashed grant money in February, the Trump Administration said the programs were training teachers on divisive policies like DEI and antiracism.

More than 100 people protested outside of Delaney Hall into Newark today, the site of what will be one of the largest ICE detention centers on the East Coast and the first to open under President Donald Trump's administration.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and immigrants rights activists slammed the deal and the mass deportation efforts taking place all over the country, vowing not to back down.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis has the story.

>> We are here to call for the end of immigration detention Angelini Hall come at the detention center, and calling for full production, statewide full protection under the immigrant trust act.

Joanna: Dozens of immigrants rights groups gathered to protest outside Delaney Holcomb the site of an immigration detention center set to reopen in Newark.

>> Every time a person is detained by ICE, their life is at risk.

Joanna: Last month the Trump Administration announced that ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had entered into a contract with the GEO group, which used to run Delaney Hall as an immigration detention center from 2011 to 20 17th.

It is a 15-year contract worth $1.2 billion to run the center, the first to open under the second Trump term.

ICE said it would help agency removal operations because its location near the international Airport streamlines logistics and helps facilitate the timely processing of in of individuals "as we remove illegal aliens from our communities."

These groups say it is all about profit.

>> They are using detention for profit, not for public safety.

Joanna: Mayor Baraka, who is running for governor of New Jersey, joined the group to decry ICE's mission.

Mayor Baraka: this is a private prison, an opportunity for them to make billions of dollars.

[BOOS] This is what the foundation of this is about.

It's not about anything else.

It is about folks making billions of dollars off the back of working people, particularly Black and brown people.

Joanna: These groups point out how many people have died in these facilities in deplorable conditions.

>> Limited medical care, harsh conditions of detention for stem like many other migrants to choose voluntary departure.

>> forcing people into impossible decisions like self deportation by making their existence in detention miserable.

She would rather go back to the place that she fled then be detained here in the United States.

We refuse to be complicit in an agenda that turns detention into a profit-making, family-breaking machine.

Joanna: The GEO group has invested $70 million in capital projects that its executive chairman says is to strengthen capabilities to deliver expanded detention capacity, secure transportation, and related services to ICE and the federal government.

The GEO group operates a hangar at Newark Airport that allows them to deport people.

We reached out for comment on how the investments could potentially impact the conditions of those detained.

We have not yet heard back.

Mayor Baraka accuses the company now of operating with impunity, ignoring the laws in Newark that govern its reopening.

Mayor Baraka: they actually believe they can come into the city, not get any permits, not follow the laws of municipal government, the state government, because I guess Donald Trump is telling them this is what they can do, because he has violated the law, so can they.

They have been very brazen and very arrogant about telling people they are going to open up, giving dates they are going to open up, sent us a letter saying "hate, we are opening-- hey, we are opening up," have, not taken up one permit have not done one inspection, have not done anything.

They believe they are going to open up, and we say you are not going to open up.

Joanna: Baraka and others are pushing for adoption of the immigrant trust act in New Jersey that would prevent people from deportation action.

New Jersey lost the challenge in court would the GEO group try to pass a state law to back privately run facilities like Delaney Hall.

These advocates say immigration reform is a critical next.

>> We need policies that are going to change these dinosaur immigrant policies we have.

We don't need detention centers.

We need policies that allow those that are in the works of getting a green card have legal status within the U.S., that the pathway to this is clear, because it is currently not clear.

Joanna: Mayor Baraka says this case will end up in court if the GEO group tries to open without following the proper permitting process.

As of now the GEO group says they are opening in May.

In Newark, I'm Joanna Gagis, "NJ Spotlight News."

Briana: A federal judge blocked the trumpet administration from deporting a Columbia University graduate last spring helped work the school's pro-Palestinian rallies.

Immigration agents on Saturday arrested Mahmoud Khalil from his university-owned apartment over what officials said was his support for Hamas.

According to Khalil's attorney, federal agents told him his student visa was being revoked and detained him despite being made aware that Khalil is a permanent resident with a green card.

President Trump has said the grad student's arrest was the first of many to come, down to deport international students who protested against Israel and the war in Gaza.

Khalil's detention has put a spotlight on just what happens after ICE steps in.

His wife, who is eight months pregnant, described to reporters the fear she felt when she went to visit Khalil at the Elizabeth detention center in the state, only to find that he had been transferred, then transferred again.

Families of detained immigrants say they often cannot find their loved ones after they have been taken by ICE.

They shared with our social-justice reporter Taylor Jung the problem is only getting worse.

Taylor joins me now.

Glad to have you on the show.

Let me start with this, the most recent news, is Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil who has gained a lot of attention for the fact that his family could not locate him but through your reporting, you have found this is not uncommon.

When have family told you --what have family told you?

Taylor: In Khalil's case, his pregnant wife went to visit him at the Elizabeth detention center and found out he wasn't there.

That is kind of the case for a lot of different families.

They will show up at the detention center only to find out that their loved one has been transferred.

There is an online tracking system that ICE has so you can see where detainees are, but what is happening now with the influx of ICE arrests is that that tracking system is not updated in a regular or consistent fashion.

Before this year, maybe it took about a day for it to update, when now lawyers are saying it could take two to three days or even longer to show where the person is.

Briana: So if a family member like in the case of Khalil shows up and their loved one, the detainee, is not there, what do they do?

What action do they have if the tracking system hasn't caught up?

Taylor: Well, in most cases they are turned away.

And it is a frustrating experience for families, but also lawyers.

Lawyers can call the deportation officer and kind of ask what is going on with their detainee's case, but once they get transferred there is a new deportation officer assigned and the old one doesn't get any updates.

What I have heard from individuals is usually you have to wait until your loved one appears either in the system or arrives at the facility and is processed and then can finally make a phone call to you and that you know where you are .

Briana: But if they are being transferred, as it seems like is the case because a lot of these detention facilities are filling up were quickly than they had, given this ramp-up, how are the families then able to track them down if they are being bounced between different locations?

Taylor: Well, in between transfers of the facilities, families are in the dark because detainees don't have access to a phone or anything like that.

So really it is just waiting.

It seems like an almost unbelievable answer.

I kind of pushed a lot of my sources further, whether it be family members, lawyers, advocates, like, really, you just have to wait until the person appears?

They pretty much just said yes, you are waiting for that phone call from your loved one to say, hey, this is where I am.

Lots of times detainees themselves are figuring it out in real time with the help of other people that are also detained that have been through the process before.

Briana: I know you spoke with one family in particular.

What did they share with you about their experience trying to navigate this while being, as you said, in the dark?

Taylor: They have just been trying to keep track of their loved one.

He was first -- this was their brother-in-law that was detainee.

He was first at Elizabeth detention center, then got moved to a facility in Pennsylvania, then Louisiana, then back to Pennsylvania.

When he was first in Pennsylvania, they did try to visit him, and similar to what we discussed earlier, they found out he wasn't there.

They said in the transfer periods there in the dark, and it is getting to the point where the loved one is experiencing a lot of emotional distress in the process because either conditions are worsening or he is frustrated himself about what is happening.

Briana: Taylor Jung, before reporting is online, njs potlightnews.org.

Thank you so much.

U.S. measles outbreak that started in Texas is continuing to grow with 25 more cases reported there over the last five days, bringing the total to 223, according to the data.

Almost all of the confirmed cases are in unvaccinated individuals or people whose vaccination status is unknown.

Public health experts say that is what concerns them the most, given the unprecedented percentage of parents who are choosing not to vaccinate their kids and the highly contagious nature of the measles virus.

As Raven Santana reports, New Jersey still has three reported cases of the on this, but doctors are worried the break could escalate quickly here, too.

>> So good.

Raven: The doctor says he has never seen so many parents declined vaccines for kids in over 30 years of being a pediatrician, especially when it comes to moms, measles, and rubella vaccination.

>> When people start to associate the MMR vaccine with autism and say "my kid is going have the MMR vaccine and get autism."

Raven: Any link between autism and vaccines has been repeatedly been debunked, but the collectors says damage has been done.

>> Is a viable, we will fight it off.

No, these diseases can be very deadly, and that is what we saw as these cases are spreading in Texas, New Mexico.

Raven: The doctor has been vocal about the measles outbreak and is concerned given the growing number of cases being confirmed in New Jersey by the New Jersey Department of health.

>> Right now in 2025 to date we have three confirmed cases of measles.

We have two additional cases that are close contacts associated with the first case identified in mid-February.

Globally we are recognizing that there is increased measles activity and because of that, there is more of a chance for unvaccinated individuals who are not protected against measles reintroducing measles back into the United States.

Raven: New Jersey allows for parents to decline vaccines if they claim religious exemptions.

The state epidemiologist says according to the CDC, vaccination rates are down for kindergartners in the previous year.

>> Looking at the percentage of kids in kindergarten meeting all vaccination requirements including measles-containing vaccine is under 95%, and in New Jersey for the 2023-2024 school year, it was about 93%.

Raven: Of the more than 2000 patients he sees annually, he since about 100 or so decline vaccines, including the MMR right here, which also protects against measles.

>> They keep on saying, "well, I need to do my research," or I wonder -- "you are pushing these vaccines on me and I don't want them, I don't know if they are beneficial to me."

Some of the common things that -- which I tell these patients doesn't make sense, "why do we have to take a polio vaccine, there is no polio out there."

The reason you don't see polio is these vaccines have been used for so many years.

>> Once a lie is out there, it is hard to undo.

Then you add in the pandemic, fears about vaccine, significant mis- and disinformation being spread by the person most in charge of our public health systems in the United States, and it is very dangerous.

Raven: Among Paris State professor and epidemiologist says her biggest concern is the rapid increase in cases in 2025.

>> In all of 2024 their work 285.

We are at the beginning of March and we have 222 cases.

Raven: Dr. Meg Fisher says it is important to know what symptoms to look out for.

>> The symptoms start with fever.

The fevers, 101, 102, 103, 104.

Fever and cough.

And a significant cough.

It is bigger coughs.

Big fever, big coughs.

Then your eyes turn red.

All of this happens for several days before you get the rash.

Raven: Dr. Fisher once the virus can remain in the air for several hours when someone has it sneezes or coughs.

Other complications include pneumonia, swelling of the brain, and measles in pregnant women, can lead to miscarriage and preterm birth.

The virus is so contagious that just one ill person can infect between one and 18 unvaccinated individuals.

For "NJ Spotlight News," I'm Raven Santana.

Briana: Rutgers researchers are breathing new life into a decades-all pregnancies to do that followed 5000 women from Camden for more than 20 years.

The research contains crucial insight into maternal and infant health outcomes in a population that is rarely studied.

Scientists used questionnaires, medical assessments, and other records collected from moms and their babies, in some cases up until six weeks after they were born.

But a gold mine of bio data, things like blood and urine samples or core blood from infants, remain hidden in freezers at Rowan University until now.

Rutgers health researcher Dr. Emily Barrett and a colleague took over the project, and she joins me.

Dr. Barrett, thanks for coming on the show.

I'm curious what type of data is inside of this mysterious cohort that it seems has sort of lay dormant for the last couple of decades.

Dr. Barrett: Yeah, well, I think this is a really special project, and we are so thrilled we are the ones to be able to elevate it back into the public consciousness.

The Camden study is an example of a pregnancy cohort study, really powerful research tool that we have to understand maternal and child health.

I think for those of us living in New Jersey, it is really exciting to be able to get these insights into the health of moms and children in New Jersey.

Briana: What type of insights have you been able to glean?

We are talking thousands of pregnant women who were followed between 1985 and 2006.

So I can only imagine how much you need to go through.

Have you found anything unique so far?

Dr. Barrett: Well, I'll tell you what, we at Rutgers recently adopted this cohort as our own.

For a long time it was based at Rowan University, and as I mentioned previously, these pregnant dissidents were recruited for about two decades -- pregnant participants were recruited for about two decades from 1985 to 2006 from prenatal clinics in the Camden area, followed across the pregnancy to learn about their lifestyle, the levels of things like hormones and inflammatory markers circulating through their bodies , and then to ultimately understand the health of their babies.

There have been some really unique insights generated over the years from this cohort, so things specific to teen pregnancy in particular.

A lot of the participants were teenagers when they were recruited.

We have learned things about how the mother's body adapts to the fact that it is still growing as a teenager, and yet you are growing a baby at the same time.

What does that mean for the mom's health and also the baby's health?

There have been many publications to come out of this cohort over the years.

But then it got a little bit quieter in the last decade or so.

When we were able to connect with the team at Rowan that started the study and expressed our interest in elevating it, raising it back up using these data for new analyses, they were really enthusiastic.

Briana: So that's interesting, because the teen pregnancy rate has declined over the years, so it is unlikely that you would be able to get that type of data nowadays.

What is your hope?

What are you already targeting to use this data to look at?

We're talking about folks who lived in Camden, so this is an historically underrepresented population to begin with.

Dr. Barrett: Yeah, exactly, you hit the nail on the head.

A lot of the research we see going on is in wealthier populations, it's in whiter populations, more educated populations.

When we see a really unique pool of participants who can give us insight into moms' health and children's health we may not get elsewhere, we want to capitalize on it.

Our dream is moving forward to potentially reconnect with these families.

They gave such a gift to us giving us these data, spending their time with the researchers, and we want to give back by using those data responsibly to improve the health of New Jersey residents.

So we are hoping that moving forward we may be able to find these moms who were teenagers at the time but now are going to be in midlife or even older age, and also their children who were babies born into the study who are now going to be young adults.

I think that is going to be really potentially exciting to kind of look at these intergenerational relationships.

Briana: Yeah, so for those watching, listening, who may have been in or around in the area or born in the area, we hope that they pay attention and maybe reach out.

Dr. Emily Barrett is a Rutgers health researcher.

Thanks so much for coming on.

Dr. Barrett: thanks for having me.

Briana: That is going to do it for us tonight you can download our podcast wherever you listen watch us anytime by subscribing to the "NJ Spotlight News" YouTube channel.

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

I am Briana Vannozzi.

For the entire team, thanks for being with us, have a great night.

We will see you back here tomorrow.

>> New Jersey education Association, making public schools great for every child.

RWJBarnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

New Jersey realtors, the voice of real estate in New Jersey.

More information is online at njrealtor.com.

And Ørsted, committed to clean, reliable American-made energy.

>> Have some water.

>> Look at these kids.

What do you see?

I see myself.

I became an ESL teacher to give my students what I wanted when I came to this country.

The opportunity to learn, to dream, to achieve.

A chance to belong and to be an American.

My name is Julia, and I'm proud to be an NJEA member.