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

Hello, and thanks for joining us on this Monday.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

Tonight, a few stories we'll get into later in the broadcast.

Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill is about to inherit one of the most complicated healthcare landscapes New Jersey's faced in years.

How experts say her administration should tackle it.

And after nearly a decade of federal oversight of Newark's police department, it is officially over what reforms have been done.

Then we head to the New Jersey Hall of Fame ceremony honoring Jersey's finest.

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

A record number of people are expected to travel this Thanksgiving holiday week by train, plane, and of course, on the roads.

At a press conference earlier today at Newark Airport, U.S.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said tens of millions of travelers will be on the move, with Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday being the busiest days for drivers, so plan ahead.

A record 31 million passengers will travel by air.

Duffy says Tuesday will be the bulk of that traffic, with 52,000 departures nationwide delivering people to their destinations.

The good news is that staffing levels at the airports are back to pre-government shutdown, and Newark has the most on-time arrivals and departures in the New York airspace.

Elsewhere in the region, the Port Authority forecasts a record-setting 8.8 million travelers using their crossings.

Officials say with all that volume, give yourself extra time and arrive early.

Also tonight, while some are making travel plans for the holiday, others are focused on how, or if, they'll get a meal on the table.

And the state is putting more resources behind the fight against hunger on college campuses, awarding $1.2 million in Hunger-Free Campus Act grants to three dozen colleges and universities.

It's all to help them fill the shelves of their pantries and connect more students with programs like SNAP at a time when a new statewide survey shows nearly half of college students in New Jersey struggle to afford balanced meals, and more than a third of all students statewide deal with food insecurity.

The money is being directed to campuses with the highest number of low-income students, including Rutgers, Montclair, and William Patterson universities.

But help is also available outside college campuses.

Food distribution events are taking place up and down the state in time for Thanksgiving.

This weekend in Camden, the Salvation Army Kroc Center and the Food Bank of South Jersey held their annual drive-thru event, you can see there.

Volunteers handed out turkeys and food boxes to 1,300 local families, as rising costs make putting a holiday dinner on the table all the more challenging.

And the newer community is facing more heartbreak tonight after officials confirmed a third victim has died following last weekend's mass shooting on Chancellor Avenue.

Nineteen-year-old Massey Rogers, who had been in critical condition since last Saturday, died from his injuries late last week.

His teachers say he was a respectful and promising student.

10-year-old Jordan Garcia and 21-year-old Kaya Scott were also killed in the gunfire.

According to officials, Garcia and his 11-year-old brother were walking home from a city recreation center last Saturday evening when shots ran out around 7 p.m.

The brother is recovering.

A 60-year-old man was also injured and is in stable condition, according to police authorities.

So far, no arrests have been made and investigators haven't released a motive, but they say two gunmen were involved.

Essex County Sheriff Amir Jones is urging those responsible to come forward, calling the attack brutal, senseless and cowardly.

His office is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or conviction.

A balloon release for Rogers was planned for this evening at St.

Peter's Park in Newark to help those mourning.

And coming up, as Newark city leaders re-examine that street violence, the Justice Department ends its nine year long federal oversight of the police department there.

We hear from independent monitor, Peter Harvey.

- Funding for NJ Spotlight News, provided by the members of the New Jersey Education Association.

Making public schools great for every child.

And RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

- Well, more than a decade after federal investigators found widespread unconstitutional policing in Newark, a federal judge has formally ended the city's consent decree with the US Justice Department.

The agreement, put in place in 2016, ushered in nine years of intensive oversight, new training, and major cultural changes inside the Newark Police Division, which had been found to be using excessive force and making illegal stops, among other things.

The judge says the department is now in "substantial compliance" with the right systems in place to keep improving.

But what does Peter Harvey say?

The former state attorney general served as the independent federal monitor throughout the process, and he joins us now to talk about what's changed.

Mr.

Harvey, good to have you with us.

We really appreciate it.

Your role first was for five years.

It was then extended for the full duration.

Do you feel that the work is done there?

It's substantially done.

Newark has made a tremendous amount of progress.

Both the city and the Newark Police Division have made a progress in implementing the reforms set forth in the consent decree.

As you point out, it came about as a result of unconstitutional policing.

And Newark has written 15 new policies.

These policies include some that weren't even required by the consent decree.

For example, a First Amendment policy that lets citizens record police officers on the street, an LGBTQI policy, also a bias-free policing policy, the first in its nation.

I mean, Newark still has some work to do.

For example, the police, as distinguished from the city, need a robust youth engagement policy.

The city also needs to hire a training director specifically dedicated to the police, also an information technology director to deal with only police data issues to address the data components of the consent decree or what was the consent decree, and of course, supervisory training.

Listen, the reason police officers on the street sometimes, shall we say, go astray is because of management.

When you have good management, good supervisors who are reviewing body cameras, car camera footage, they're reviewing reports, arrest activities and other practices of the police department.

Then you get corrective action on the spot that same day.

And you get proper handling of property and evidence and other kinds of issues.

So supervisors play a very important role here.

And Newark will have to give sustained attention to supervisory training.

Can you just remind us, Peter, what type of situations were happening on the ground in Newark when this investigation was launched?

I mean, those are a lot of the top level changes, but what were city residents saying and what was taking place?

Well, city residents were not being treated respectfully by a number of officers, not all officers.

Remember, some officers really dug in and did the work the right way.

Also, you had undercover, plainclothes officers getting out of vans, stopping people on the streets who were not doing anything improper, weren't violating any laws.

They were placing them under arrest, putting them in handcuffs, laying them face down in the street, telling them they weren't under arrest when in fact their movement was restrained.

And this is unconstitutional.

You just can't do that.

And there were property and evidence issues.

For example, property that was confiscated from suspects was not returned to them after charges were dropped.

Property went missing.

And you just had a number of different practices that just weren't constitutional.

And you had an internal affairs office that did not thoroughly investigate these cases.

They didn't investigate officers.

They didn't bring charges against officers.

They didn't discipline officers so that officers thought that there were no consequences for violating people's constitutional rights.

That has changed in Newark, substantially changed.

- What do you think?

- And Newark has to continue the work.

- Yeah, what do you think Newark needs to do to continue that work, to make sure that the progress goes on from here?

Because there are those longtime activists, Larry Hamm among them, who are concerned that perhaps once the microscope is gone, things will start to unwind a bit.

Do you share that concern?

And what needs to happen to make this continue?

- I don't.

I think there's some structural reforms in Newark that will stay put.

I think the internal affairs unit of Newark PD really has to engage in collective bargaining with the units to implement the new policy regarding internal affairs and more importantly discipline.

That is one thing.

I think again a training director is important.

You need a dedicated person who maybe is a civilian, maybe a former police officer, maybe a former prosecutor who is dedicated to training officers and keeping track of changes in the law.

You need also an upgraded data system.

Managers need data.

They need to be able to look at an officer, check the name, badge number, and go in and look at the officer's reports, look at the officer's body camera footage, car camera footage and review it so that the officer can receive instructions, guidance, more training if necessary or an investigation is opened if required.

And in addition to that, you need a robust youth engagement strategy.

Young people become adults.

The city of Newark has done a very good job in engaging young people.

The Newark PD has to do a better job and a more sustained effort in engaging young people.

But there are -- some of this costs money.

For example, a new data system is going to be expensive, but it's an investment in your future.

It's an investment in your officers.

It's an investment in your managers.

If they don't have the data, if they're relying upon sketchy records and paper records, they just can't be as effective as they could be if you allow them to sit at a computer, check out an officer's activities, both with respect to really a 360-degree view of an officer's activities, from body camera footage to car camera footage to an officer's reports, arrest reports, and other kinds of activities of that officer.

So it's going to require sustained compliance.

Now, Newark is considering an office of constitutional policing, meaning these will be independent experts funded by the city to continue some of the work of the consent decree, some of the work of the monitoring team, looking at use of force, looking at internal affairs, looking at property and evidence.

I hope the city pursues that activity.

We created a similar office at the state level through an attorney's general directive.

And Newark would be wise to create a similar office in the city.

Peter Harvey, now, I guess, former independent monitor for the city of Newark.

Thanks so much for your insight on this.

Thank you.

As Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill prepares to take office in January, she's rolling out new committees and action teams as part of her transition, including one to tackle affordable health care and the Medicaid cuts from Washington.

Among the members is Linda Schwimmer.

She's the president and CEO of the Health Care Quality Institute of New Jersey, who recently wrote an open letter warning the incoming administration of what she calls stiff headwinds.

Everything from unprecedented changes to Medicaid, mounting pressure on public health, reproductive care, and more.

Well, Linda Schwimmer joins us now to explain what steps the institute believes the Sherrill administration needs to take right away.

Linda, thanks so much for taking some time to be with us.

You outlined a number of challenges that the new administration is going to inherit.

What do you see as the top priority once the governor-elect takes office?

- Thank you for having me, Briana.

I really appreciate it.

I did, I outlined what I think the top priorities are gonna be for the incoming governor and really addressing all of the federal assaults that are coming at the state, everything from the changes to Medicaid, to public health and funding losses we're gonna see are all going to be challenges for her.

And so my recommendation was she really needs to make sure that government is working here in New Jersey as best as possible on behalf of all of our residents.

How can the government do that?

I mean, I know you describe this whole approach.

We know there are certainly areas of the government that are understaffed.

Perhaps technology isn't where it needs to be.

Where do the core focus need to go here?

Right.

Right.

So I the Quality Institute is a membership organization.

So I see this every day and I hear from all of our members every day, which they are involved in health care, every aspect of health care, head to toe.

And what we see is and hear is there's there's about four core agencies that really focus on various aspects of health care, everything from the Department of Health, which focuses on public health and safety and licensing, opening up new facilities and offices, the Department of Banking and Insurance, which is responsible for overseeing and regulating health insurers, making sure that they are acting appropriately in the market, that they have the networks that they say that they're going to have, and that those providers are available for people to get the care they need.

Human Services, which really regulates and runs the whole Medicaid program, which we've heard a lot about, and there's a lot of federal changes there.

And then finally, the Treasury, which runs our state health benefit program.

So that's the insurance that covers state employees and retirees, as well as teachers, fire unions, firemen, police, anyone who works in local government.

So those are the agencies that really need to be fully staffed up to have the right talent and technology to be able to run health care and provide health care the way New Jerseyans need it.

I want to ask you about the Medicaid component.

There's about one point eight million New Jerseyans who rely on it.

What's changing.

What's at risk here.

And is there something tangible that this new administration can do to protect New Jerseyans from losing their coverage?

Absolutely.

So as you mentioned, there's there's about one over one point eight people covered in Medicaid today.

Right now, people renew their what's called eligibility.

So they re-enroll or renew their eligibility on an annual basis.

Moving forward next year, that's going to be done every six months.

So that's literally doubling the work that Medicaid is going to have to do and doubling the responsiveness of everyone who's insured.

The other change is there's a new work requirement that's going to go into effect in most likely the beginning of 2027.

So people will have to demonstrate that they're either working or involved in some sort of volunteer, approved volunteer activity, or meet one of the exceptions.

There's a list of exceptions.

But that is going to be a very complicated process for the state to have to administer.

And the concern is that with all of this re-enrolling every six months or having to go through these hoops of proving that you meet one of these requirements, that people are going to fall off Medicaid when they are entitled to be on Medicaid.

If you fall off Medicaid, you'll be blocked then from even joining the individual market or the ACA market and receiving subsidies there.

Right.

So it's really a scary prospect for many people in New Jersey.

So the administration is going to have to make sure we've got technology, we've got community outreach, we've got all of the systems in place.

And the key thing is to make sure that we have identified as many people who are going to meet a lot of those requirements and exceptions so that they can be automatically reenrolled.

I want to ask you about one more item in the little bit of time that we have left.

Sorry to step on you there, Linda.

The state health benefits plan, which Governor Murphy just unveiled this $260 proposal to use state money to essentially help bail it out.

You wrote many months ago in the summer that it was facing a death spiral.

Do you think these changes and that amount of money is enough to keep it afloat or to right the ship?

The problem with these changes in the proposal is some of -- they need to happen comprehensively.

And that's doing something thoughtful and comprehensively, working with the unions, building a trusted relationship.

That doesn't happen in a lame duck situation.

That's really my concern with this, that they really need to have a sit-down with the unions and all the parties that are impacted.

They need to have the numbers from AON, which is the state's actuary, in front of them.

And they need to be looking at both short-term and long-term changes.

And it's not just for the locals.

This proposal is just for the locals.

This isn't just a question of the locals.

This is a question, too, for the education plan and the plan for all of the state employees and retirees.

So, a much more comprehensive, well-thought-out plan with the data is really what's needed here.

- Linda Schwimmer, thank you for that insight.

Linda, of course, is the president and CEO of the Healthcare Quality Institute.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you so much.

Support for The Medical Report is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

The state rolled out the red carpet for its hometown greats this weekend as 20 Garden State legends were honored at the 17th annual New Jersey Hall of Fame ceremony, hosted by none other than Danny DeVito over at the Hall of Fame's new home in the American Dream Mall.

The inductees included a range of talents from pop stars the Jonas Brothers to Olympic gold medalist Sidney McLaughlin-Laroni and of course, NJPBS's own former anchor, Mary Alice Williams.

Our senior correspondent Joanna Gaggis was there to capture all the fun and Jersey pride.

It's a big deal.

When you got some Jersey pride, you know how it feels.

with a whole lot of Jersey pride and now a new accolade to claim members of the 2025 class of inductees into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

<"JERSEY IS SUCH A PART OF OUR STORY AND OUR ROOTS.

YOU LOOK AT THE NUMBER OF ICONIC MUSICIANS AND ARTISTS AND CREATORS THAT HAVE COME OUT OF THIS STATE.

IT'S REALLY WILD.

IT MUST BE SOMETHING IN THE WATER.

TO BE RECOGNIZED AND TO BE AMONGST THOSE PEOPLE NOW IS SUCH A DREAM FOR US.

WE'RE THRILLED TO BE HERE TO CELEBRATE IT.

"> <"ORIGINAL BONJOVI BAND MEMBER, KEYBOARDIST DAVID BRYAN WAS AN INDUCTEE PRESENTED BY THE BAND'S NAMESAKE, JOHN BONJOVI HIMSELF.> We've seen bands that didn't stand the test of time, that couldn't stay together.

Is there a certain magic about Bon Jovi that kept you together?

Was it hard work?

Was it communication?

What was it?

Pretty much blackmail.

Best answer ever.

You'll tell us later?

It's a lot.

You'll tell me later.

I'll tell you that.

I got pictures.

No, it's, you know, there is no formula.

We just were, it started off with five guys really setting out to conquer the world.

We kept going and going and going and we just keep going forward.

What does it mean to you now to be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame and to be here with your brother from the band?

It's pretty excellent.

I actually knew about, I was in Newark Airport, I look on the wall and I went, there's Bruce, there's John, there's little Stephen.

I'm like, hey.

What about me?

What about me?

So, uh, and you said it loud enough and I said it loud enough and boom, here I am.

The Hall of Fame has grown since it started in 2005.

Now with a museum at American Dream in the Meadowlands, that's open to the public.

It selects inductees from a range of backgrounds, including athletes like Olympic gold champions, Sydney McLaughlin, LeBron, who hails from Dunellan.

It's so special.

I mean, this is where the dream started, where I fell in love with track and field.

And so just being able to come back to come full circle like this is so special.

Growing up here, I never knew what the future held and if I was going to make it to where I am now, but I have to credit my roots here in that journey.

The obviously next Olympic Games are going to be right here at home in LA.

What do you hope to accomplish?

Hopefully just continuing the greatness, just wanting to show that anything's possible.

Always going for gold, 100%.

Going to push the bounds of what's possible and hopefully just continue to represent Jersey well.

And New Jersey Devils goaltender, great Martin Brodeur.

22 years in the NHL, 21 with the New Jersey Devils, is that about right?

That's about right.

Played lots of years in Jersey, it's been great.

you know, you try to try as you can.

And obviously got to a great, great fran devils and a lot of succe and you know, it's still, back about what I've acco hard to believe, but that times for me.

And then th like CNN anchor and chief Dana Bash, who took a min to talk about the challenges facing women in the industry right now.

Where do women need to go in a space where they're being silenced, condescended to, called piggy?

What is the answer here?

Keep doing what we're doing.

The answer for women is just to keep excelling and doing as well as we have been.

I have to say it's tough, but it's been a whole lot tougher.

But I just think we have to keep pushing, keep being as persistent as we possibly can and having each other's backs.

And one of the founding anchors of CNN and former anchor of this show, Mary Alice Williams.

It's incredibly moving.

It's just a wonderful thing.

And I think the most important thing is when I was a kid, in my day, girls were not allowed to do this.

And the fact that they can walk in there and see all the faces of the people in this Hall of Fame, many of whom were stopped at every step, but followed their own dreams and did it anyway, and accomplished extraordinary things.

But New Jersey's leading lady, Soprano star Edie Falco, stopped by to offer a hot take on this New Jersey controversy.

Would Tony and Carmelo have really named their daughter Meadow?

[laughs] That's funny.

I think they probably thought it was sort of artsy and cute, you know.

I thought about that in the past.

It is, you know, she should have been Maria probably or something.

Gianna.

Yeah, Gianna, exactly.

But maybe they thought they were like ahead of the curve as far as being like, you know, forward thinking.

A little bougie maybe.

That's right.

Yes.

Trying to be bougie.

Yes, I like that.

From chefs to philanthropists, teachers to scientists, the talent of New Jersey was on full display.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Joanna Gagis.

That's going to do it for us tonight, but a reminder, you can download our podcast wherever you listen and watch us anytime by subscribing to the NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

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

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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 PSEG Foundation.

Whatever your cancer journey, there's one place in New Jersey where our discoveries become your care.

You'll have access to advanced treatments, including clinical trials, thanks to our renowned scientists and multidisciplinary teams at New Jersey's only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, the one world-class cancer program that's close to home.

RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute.

Let's beat cancer together.

[MUSIC]