>> From NJPBS studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News," with Artie Williams.

with Brianna Vannozzi.

- Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

Coming up, as tomorrow marks 25 years since September 11th, one New Jersey first responder reflects on the tragic events of that day and her continued fight for 9/11 families.

Plus, we talk with Miss New Jersey USA on how she's making a difference for individuals with disabilities in her community.

First, though, our own Colleen O'Day asks Governor Sherrill about the reported investigation into her Lieutenant Governor over misconduct.

Hear what she had to say next.

Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

- Well, the fall political season is off to a fast start with Governor Sherrill facing new questions over the reported investigation into her Lieutenant Governor, Dale Caldwell.

The US Appeals Court today rejected the Trump administration's executive order limiting mail-in voting, while the Supreme Court weighs a similar decision, and several key congressional races in the state are now entering the home stretch.

Our senior writer and projects editor, Colleen O'Day, is here now to break down what to watch as we head into the midterms as part of our Under the Dome series.

Colleen, good to see you.

Before we get into everything with the elections, you were with Governor Sherrill last night.

This was her first, I believe first, press avail since the news broke last Friday about this alleged investigation into her second in command, Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell, which we've been talking about.

Did she shed any light on that investigation?

The details have been so scant up until this point.

What did you learn?

- Yeah, so as you point out, it was her first public press avail.

And I think a lot of us in the press were hoping that we would hear some details.

It was something that was kind of added to her schedule yesterday that she would have an avail.

So I asked her kind of right out of the gate, what can you tell us about this investigation?

What can you, people are asking, they want more information because everything we have is kind of anonymously sourced.

And this is what she had to say.

- Well, I'm not gonna confirm or deny whether there's an ongoing investigation, but what I can commit to people is that any complaints are taken very seriously, and certainly anyone who has a complaint lodged against them, their rights are protected, and they have a full hearing and a full review.

Interesting.

So she didn't confirm or deny, which up until this point, we have been taking to mean that there is an investigation, typically the governor or those in charge will come out with that out of the gate.

Do we know anything about when she learned of this, when the internal matter was first discussed?

Anything about the timeline?

- We unfortunately know nothing officially from the Sherrill administration.

There have been some other news reports that have come out.

One report from BINJE says that the Lieutenant Governor Caldwell had written a letter to the state ethics officer back in May, essentially denying that he had done anything improper.

So it would appear that at the very least, this investigation, again, if there is an investigation, the governor has not confirmed it, dates back at least to May.

There are other reports that would indicate that perhaps they knew about at least some complaints from folks, perhaps dating back to Centenary College, which is where, or Centenary University, where Lieutenant Governor Caldwell was the president.

And those would date back to September.

But again, these are all anonymously sourced reports, and we don't have a full timeline or full confirmation of a lot of this.

Yeah, and the governor did say this week in her statement, Colleen, that she has a responsibility to both protect anyone who comes forward with a complaint and the person who the complaint is made against.

In this case, it's her second in command.

But it does make for some murky waters, especially as we now are heading into a big election season, the midterms.

I want to ask you about one component of that.

U.S.

Appeals Court today upheld a block on the President's executive order that would limit mail-in voting.

It comes, though, as the U.S.

Supreme Court is weighing a similar decision.

What are the potential implications here for voters in New Jersey, folks who have now become accustomed to voting by mail and those ballots are being printed.

I mean the implications are just tremendous at the moment because September 19th is the date that county clerks start mailing out these ballots.

The most important ones have to have to go out first are those two members of the military, people who may be living temporarily overseas, because it certainly takes more time for those ballots to go back and forth.

County clerks have really pretty much, we haven't talked to all of them, but we've spoken to many county clerks.

Many of them pretty much have already got their ballots printed.

They've got their envelopes printed.

They're ready to go with this.

They're just kind of doing final preparations.

So the problem, if the Supreme Court were to allow this rule now to go through, certainly could throw that whole process into chaos because there are certain regulations in that rule that the USPS has put forward that require certain trackable barcodes that would have to be placed on envelopes that are not necessarily what New Jersey counties do now.

There would also be the requirement that these lists of voters would have to be sent to the USPS, and these would have to be verified against the ballots that wind up coming into the post offices.

You know, every county mails its own ballots out.

And the idea of that all being able to happen smoothly in, you know, nine days is where we are at now.

It's just kind of, it's impossible to imagine that that could happen smoothly.

- The concern I imagine is that ballots that don't comply would be refused delivery.

Is that right?

- That's exactly right.

And there was some reporting last week from, I believe this was the reporting from a whistleblower who said that there is the possibility that if even one ballot in a package of ballots that were being sent out, let's say a thousand ballots are going out in one day, if one of those does not comply that the Postal Service could refuse to mail any of those out.

So there really have been a lot of concerns among voters out there who use mail-in ballots about whether they'll even get their ballot and be able to vote it in time.

Yeah, they've had no shortage of challenges, these county election officials, in these last several years since mail-in voting became a thing.

Let me just shift gears, of course, the midterms are on all of our minds.

We've talked a lot about CD7 because that's the battleground district, but where else are you watching and is anyone who's closely involved expecting any type of upset?

So you know, the other two potentially interesting races are, one is in South Jersey in the second district.

This is the district that is currently represented by Jeff Van Drew.

He is a Republican, but remember back in 2018, which was our last huge midterm election when Donald Trump was in office, we did have a blue wave in New Jersey.

And Jeff Van Drew was one of the people who won an upset down there.

At the time he was a Democrat and he defeated a Republican.

He won the seat.

A year later he decided to switch the parties.

He became a Republican.

He's now been a Republican ever since.

Zach Mullock, who is the Cape May mayor, is running against him.

If we were to see that kind of huge wave, it's possible that Zach Mullock could have a chance at unseating Jeff Van Drew.

But nobody's really talking about that as being an actual possibility.

You know, it really would be, it would have to be an amazingly anti-Republican year or anti-Trump year for that to happen.

The other district is the ninth.

No, go ahead.

I'm sorry, I was going to say, you know, that the other district is the ninth district up in upstate county.

Patterson is kind of the base where Nellie Poe, a Democrat, is the freshman congresswoman.

That district, she won that district two years ago.

It's the first time she won election to Congress at the same time as Donald Trump won that district.

So Republicans had been targeting that, but at this point they haven't spent any money there.

They haven't made that one of their targeted races.

And I think that's because what we saw then in 2025 was Mikey Sherrill just, you know, won it hugely.

And I think the Republicans have kind of, they probably won't say this vocally, but off the record, I think they've kind of lost faith in having a chance to win that.

- Yeah, well, they've got to use their resources, obviously, in those districts where they know it's going to be tight.

Colleen O'Day will continue to be on it for us, our senior writer.

Coll, thanks so much.

- Thanks so much, Bree.

- "Under the Dome" is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

- The calls for help went far beyond New York City's borders on the morning of 9/11.

Countless first responders from New Jersey rushed into the city to aid in recovery efforts which eventually led to cleanup efforts.

Valerie Velasquez-Stetz was working as a Jersey City police officer at the time and recalls what it was like that day, in the weeks that followed, and how it led to a new career fighting for all those impacted by the 9/11 attacks.

She shared that story with our Joanna Gagas.

Valerie, thank you so much for being with us.

I know this is a hard time for all of us as we reflect 25 years later, but can you take us back to the morning of 9/11, 2001?

You had just dropped your son off at preschool.

Thank you very much for having me on your show.

Yes, I went to work.

I started at 7 a.m.

that day and I dropped my son at three-year-old preschool he just started in Jersey City and that was a downtown area by the waterfront and that's where he went to school and then I drove back up the heights to the North District Police Department and by 8 o'clock, a little after 8, our radio started going off to come back to the precinct, 4th with, for riot gear and we were under attack.

And just hearing those words, you're like, "What is happening?"

Like, we had no idea.

And when I looked, I saw the towers being hit.

From Jersey City, you could see that.

I grew up in Jersey City, and I saw the towers every day of my life across the water.

So that was a part of my upbringing.

And all I could think about was like, "Oh no, I can't.

I have to go get my son."

So I drove really fast to get Johnny and bring him to my mom's house in Jersey City and my mom and dad and said, "Mom, don't go to work.

Just stay with Johnny."

And whatever it is, I don't know when I'm coming back, just watch the news and you'll see what's happening.

And basically I gave her my life in her hands.

And then I had to go.

- Yeah, I know you went over to the Twin Towers at that point.

Can you describe the feeling and the scene that you arrived to?

- So we didn't know, we thought we were going to help people and triage people that were injured.

We really didn't know the extent of it.

And the towers came down and we were sent over for aid and to bring over supplies.

So we brought over supplies.

We're walking down to ground zero from the boat.

And it just was surreal.

It was like a movie.

It was basically like a black and white movie, because everything was black and white.

And you were stepping on-- you didn't know, like a blizzard.

When you're walking through a blizzard, you don't know what you're stepping on.

And you didn't know what to expect.

You didn't know what you had to do.

You didn't know what you were going to do.

They started setting up buckets for bucket brigade.

They start, you know, looking for bodies, looking for people to try to help.

And it was just, mostly everybody was just quiet 'cause we didn't know what to say.

And I'm sure we were all feeling the same thing, but you don't want to share that.

You don't want to share your fears of not coming home to your families.

Like, are we going to make it?

Is this where I'm going to die?

So I didn't know.

And all we knew is we were trying to look for bodies.

And basically what we did find was body parts instead of live bodies.

- Yeah, you worked on what's called the bucket brigade, right, for two weeks.

The bucket brigade is correct.

Yes.

Explain that work.

That work was very difficult.

You're standing and you're passing buckets down.

You have no idea what is in it, what's going to be in it.

And everybody's just in a line to go down into the pit, you know, and most of us were like digging also in the pile.

But it, it was like we all came together as first responders.

We didn't care what department you were from.

As long as you could help firemen were putting out fires still, it was, you know, burnt.

It was still, it was still burning on the ground and the ground was hot, you know, and I had boots on, but the ground was very hot.

I remember that and I tried to make calls to my family because I knew my mom would be worried and my dad.

But the phones didn't work.

So they had no idea what was going on with me, which was really scary.

I'm curious how you've processed, how you handle these anniversaries as they come in this 25 year anniversary.

How do you reflect back?

Prior to this advocacy that I do for the 9/11 first responders with Varish and McGarry Law Firm, I would just basically stay home and watch TV all day and just be quiet and stay to myself.

And basically I didn't talk about it much.

People would ask me questions and I didn't like talking about it at all.

And until I started, you know, realizing so many people are sick.

And then I realized that I had illnesses from 9/11 and I felt that New Jersey was neglected in this whole process and that New York was taking care of their first responders.

They had so many benefits.

They had, you know, the health program, even though we did have it.

But New Jersey, we really didn't know much about it.

And so I brought Michael Barish, the owner of the law firm, over to Jersey City.

I said, please speak to our members of the retirees at a Christmas party.

So there was probably 350 cops there from Jersey City.

And he spoke to them.

And at that point, I realized like, wow, I'm right.

All these guys here, none of them was signed up for the health program or the victim's compensation.

And a lot of them were sick.

And some of them have died already from cancers, 9/11 related, and did not know and did not receive any benefits at that time.

So I felt like, you know what, I need to be a voice for the voiceless.

I need to do something.

I need to help out.

I need to do this.

And all of a sudden, I just said, OK, I'm going to help this law firm as a volunteer.

I didn't want to get paid or anything like that.

So I was like, I just want to be a volunteer.

And then all of a sudden, I didn't realize it was going to turn into a seven day a week job, you know, 16 hours a day, basically.

And I didn't realize the extent of it.

Like it wasn't just Jersey City.

It was Newark.

It was Wall Township.

It was Monmouth County.

Huge.

So many responders died from Monmouth County and civilians that worked in New York.

And I was able to help so many different people from all walks of life.

New York, Port Authority, Virginia, North Carolina, cops and firemen came over from so many different states to help out and unfortunately we're sick.

The toxins in the air were horrible and we didn't know this at the time because they told us the air was clean and clear and it was not and it's proven that it was not.

I know you now work as an outreach consultant like you said it's a seven day a week job never ending.

I want to thank you for your service immediately after, 25 years ago after the attacks and your continued service now helping so many in need.

Valerie Velasquez-Stetz, thank you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Well, she came close three times, but Katrina Langell refused to give up on her dream.

The 25-year-old Middletown native is now Miss New Jersey USA after finishing as first runner-up twice before finally taking the crown.

Langell says the title is about much more than pageantry.

She's a lifelong dancer with a background in finance who's used those skills to found a nonprofit inspired by her cousin, creating dance and social opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

I recently spoke with Katrina about how she's taking that message of resilience and belonging to the Miss USA stage.

- Katerina, welcome.

It is so great to have you on the show.

Your crown is as stunning as I expected it to be.

What is settling into this role, this title of Miss New Jersey USA look like for those of us who aren't familiar with the role?

- Absolutely.

So being in this role has been four years of a journey to get here.

So I've really just been trying to soak in every moment.

Unreal, a dream come true being able to go on such cool experiences from meeting my sister queen, Miss New Jersey Teen USA, McKenna Wayman, and also being able to share opportunities like going on the news, talking about some of the stuff we do and even going to Miss USA where we just came back from competing in Miami.

What did that process, you competed three times before you clinched this title, what did that teach you about resilience and about going after your goals even when you get just so close that it feels like it's going to be an almost maybe?

I realize that progress is not linear.

My first time I ever competed is actually it was my first pageant.

So I placed first runner up and I never expected to gain that far in my first ever pageant and coming back the next year.

The only way to do better was to win, but it was still only my second pageant ever.

So I came in really nervous with just a lot on my shoulder and I actually didn't make the top five that year.

And it was my parents who told me that sometimes progress doesn't always look the way that we think it will.

And they encouraged me to come back and do better.

And I think that's what I've learned.

And I came back two more times, the next time being another first runner up placement.

So I knew it wasn't a fluke the first time.

And I came back this year just wanting to have fun, soak up every single part of the experience.

And it ended up working out.

I came out with a shiny new hat.

You sure did.

Well worth it.

You and your parents are both really wise because that's true.

Talk to me about your bigger mission.

You created this inspired dance team, which for you was inspired by your cousin, Ali.

What's your goal there?

What is it about?

So we are a dance and socialization 501c3 nonprofit organization creating dance and social events for neurodiverse individuals.

My cousin Ali growing up was born with an unbalanced chromosomal translocation.

And so she always taught me the importance of reaching out and making friends with my school's special education department.

Through my friendships there and also my cousin, I realized that there was a bridge in the gap of opportunities available to neurodiverse individuals.

So it became really important to me to work towards bridging that gap and creating more opportunities.

So right now we have a fall dance program that we are about to start up again, starting in actually two weeks.

I'm very excited about that.

And we're also looking to one day grow and expand, hopefully one day getting a retail space of our own, and becoming a full service gym, employing individuals with disabilities and creating a space for individuals with disabilities.

- I love that.

As someone who has a brother with Down syndrome, I think it's on all of us to be about inclusion.

Where do you see the success of this leading your platform?

And I know you've said that success means little if it only serves you.

What does that mean?

What should we expect to see from you in the next year?

You'll definitely see a lot with my initiative and what I do with Inspire Dance Team.

And this title has brought me into new rooms to continue pushing how important inclusivity is and what inclusivity is.

I think a lot of times people think that inclusivity is simply giving people a seat at the table, but it's so much more than that.

It's making sure that they know that they belong at the table.

So over this next year, you will see me speaking with my town mayor, which I had the opportunity to do so, and speaking about why it is so important what Inspire Dance Team is doing and other nonprofit organizations, creating inclusivity is doing.

And also continuing my work with Best Buddies as well.

It's another great nonprofit organization here in the state of New Jersey.

And also just trying to reach as many lives as I can to make sure that people know that they will always have a friend in me, regardless of where they are, who they are, and what walk of life they're on.

- You have such an interesting resume because you have this whole dance career that you've built upon, but you also have a master's from NYU's Stern School of Business in accounting.

No less, one of my least favorite subjects, but I wonder how those two things, kind of how those worlds intersect for you to be able to put these thoughts together and then achieve them on a platform like this.

- Yes, so I always say that dance is my creative side and then accounting is my number side.

I always love- - Left brain, right brain, I appreciate that.

- Yes, exactly, exactly.

And I think it's important to always have balance in your life.

So being able to go from working a long day in my career in finance to being able to dance and express my creativity at night has been so important to me and I hope to one day continue both these passions and my love for creativity as well as business and one day hopefully own my own business.

I am actually looking towards and starting to put thought towards creating a fashion line, specifically one that creates clothes for every single individual because it is so important that every single woman out there has clothes that she feels truly celebrate her and make her feel confident.

So especially through my work with my nonprofit organization Inspire Dams team, I really want to include everybody in my initiative.

Well, Katerina, we hope that you achieve all of that.

We are rooting for you.

Congratulations.

And we hope to see you soon.

Thank you so much.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Brianna Vannosi for the entire team at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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