Briana: Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, a deadly fire prompts outrage from the union, calling out the department for staffing, training, and equipment saying their jobs are more dangerous than ever.

>> We are the ones that come to work with one less brother on a fire truck, and a second sitting in a chair eating with us.

Briana: Reducing lead exposure, the EPA, new regulations targeting and reducing blood levels in homes.

>> Today's proposal acknowledges any exposure at any level is high hazard is a gigantic leap forward.

Briana: Also, Township residents rally against a controversial warehouse project fearing it will draw tractor-trailers and traffic to their community.

>> We are making a statement to our planning board that the residents don't want this.

Briana: Business is booming on climbs the ranks in a new survey cementing a spot as the most improved state to do business.

NJ Spotlight News Starts Right now.

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♪ [typewriter typing] ♪ >> From NJPBS, this NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

Briana: Funeral services for two firefighters responding to a fire last week again tonight with the viewing of one firefighter.

Governor Murphy is expected to attend the service.

The funeral is tomorrow morning.

The funeral for the other firefighter Wayne Brooks Junior is scheduled for Friday and a nonprofit group said it will pay the mortgage on his home and provide financial help to the family.

And while the Coast Guard said it is standing down -- meanwhile the Coast Guard says it is standing down the response now that the fire is extinguished and the boat will be scrapped in the coming months with a full investigation into the fire set to begin.

Now Newark firefighter union beater saved the incident is shining a light on neglect the department has endured for years.

David Cruz reports.

>> We are the one that has to come to work with one less brother on a fire truck peered a second less brother sitting in the chair eating dinner with us.

David: The two firefighters who died battling the Newark Oort blaze -- port blaze will be laid to rest this week honored by the governor, Mayor, and mourned by the families on their peers but even as this process unfolds, those involved in the day-to-day of fighting fires into the city are using the attention of the tragedies to raise the alarm about what they say is a department in a near crisis, from staffing, training, equipment.

He is president of the fire officers union.

>> Let's start with the repairs of vehicles.

You have a car that breaks down and you get your oil changed.

Um, our mechanics shop for fire apparatus is made up of one maybe two and at best three guys on a sporadic basis.

Any maintenance records that are kept, I can't call down to the shop right now and find out when the last time 28 engine got an oil change.

It does not exist.

David: that is just one issue brought up by the union at a press conference this week and they say their division is woefully understaffed to fight fires in the city limits, let alone at one of the largest ports in the world.

This morning, the mayor reacted angrily to the union statements.

>> It is inappropriate and wrong to have this back-and-forth before we put those boys in the ground.

When we put those boys in the ground then we will have a press conference to talk about all this stuff.

>> I am sorry that the mayor's feelings are hurt but we lost two brothers that day.

I am -- I am, uh, I am not concerning that his feelings right now.

David: the city sent out a fact sheet said the budget for 485 fighters -- firefighters and brought on more firefighters and secreted the Department of Public Safety in 2016.

>> So the fact sheet they put out according to their facts says they hired 180 six guys is the public safety department was formed, but they are not taking into account that 70 retired.

There may be 435 people on the payroll.

There are only 397 actually putting out fires.

>> The tragedy here definitely puts a spotlight on the fire division and whether or not you know, the city has been able to provide them the resources they need.

The question as to whether or not a local municipal fire department or division should be fighting fires in an area like Port Norris.

David: that question has come up several times in the aftermath of the fire.

How would that work and who would stand it up and who would manage it?

Newark?

Port Authority?

Some other agency?

They say everything has to be considered in the governor was asked about it yesterday.

>> It seems to me that it reminded me way back was that airports did not have their own fire force under the theory they did not have fires happening that frequently but the fact of the matter is, it is a very specific expertise and was fires do happen, they are substantial.

David: tragedies can serve to unify but also expose divisions and while both the administration and the union site that their goal is protection and service, the city of 300,000, they seem at odds over the best way to do that.

David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: Attorney General Matt Plotkin's office is calling on state residents to oppose and confront white supremacy.

A report released by the office this week analyzes the prize in white supremacist recruitment and violence and comes after the New Jersey office of Homeland security and preparedness rated the threat posed from white extra Mrs. and extremist as high for the third year and a route and to the report used information gathered from hundreds of community members during virtual public listening sessions and details ways that white supremacist have blended into American mainstream society and normalized ideologies by gaining positions in government organizations like law enforcement and even school boards.

It also dives into the mental health harms that bias and discrimination causes the residents.

Experts say it is a call to action for everyone.

>> There is a heightened sense of awareness that comes along so it is more of a survival mode that a lot of us -- that takes a lot of us to get out of that survival -- where our mind is completely just on [INDISCERNIBLE] It is not calm.

It is restless and seeing threats every single where that you are so bet is something that is heavy with individuals who experience the separation and segregation due to white supremacy.

Briana: The 19-year-old Middlesex County man has admitted to posting online threats about attacking a synagogue and individuals jew thes manifesto prompted the FBI to heighten security.

In schools and places of worship along with issuing a warning that spread fear through the community.

Omar -- pleaded guilty in federal court today to one count of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce and he now faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced November 14.

Federal prosecutors say that he used two social media apps to send messages to talk about plans to kill jews as a revenge for the death of Muslims and according to court documents, he told law enforcement he became radicalized after viewing ISIS propaganda on line and communicating with people he believed were from Al Qaeda who encouraged him to carry out an attack.

Authority site they don't believe he had the means to carry out his plans.

Hundreds of homes and schools throughout the state will not likely need to have lead paint and dust removed under new federal regulations.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency were in Newark today announcing talk new standards reducing minimum lead levels which are poisonous to children to zero in houses and other buildings.

As our Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports, advocates say it is a significant change that will expose more disparities in lead exposure affecting a large chunk of New Jersey's agent housing stock.

>> We know that no level of exposure to lead is good for our children.

Zero.

Brenda: EPA officials announcing groundbreaking row strengthening lead safety requirement for homes built before 1978.

The change would lower allowable lead-paint hazard levels for floors and windows down to zero, finely matching what health experts have advised decades, ingesting lead paint can damage help and lower IQs and cause behavioral problems in kids.

>> Today's proposal which finally acknowledges that any exposure to blood at any level is a hazard is a gigantic leap forward in this country's long-delayed efforts to eliminate or at least significantly reduce lead exposures.

>> Communities of color and lower income are at greater risk of lead exposure.

Studies have shown that older homes owned or rented by lower income families are more likely to contain lead-base paint the newer properties.

Brenda: an estimated 1.6 million New Jersey homes could be impacted because they were built before Congress banned lead-based paint in 19 said that a and a state mapping tool shows that more than half of Newark rental housing was built prior to the ban including this three apartment home in the South award.

The landlord tells a terrifying story.

>> The um grandchild of my tenant uh ended up in the hospital due to being exposed to lead, so as a landlord, I had to take action.

Brenda: he applied to Newark's lead abatement program that paid about $5,000 to remove lead paint from windowsills, door jams, chair rails, and shelves.

New Jersey has earmarked more than $180 million in federal grant funding from blood abatement.

In 2021, local health departments tested 790 homes statewide in order 360 lead abatements and 37 in Jersey City and 59 in Newark.

>> Newark has several ZIP Codes that have some of the largest number of housing units built before 1960 in the country and it is also likely that the more than 60-year-old paint on those wells can crumble and turn into dust the children might breathe, touch, and eat.

Brenda: the mayor feels a personal connection.

>> We actually found lead dust in our home and we had to move out in order to get it abated and thankfully that Newark has a program.

Brenda: the agency chose Newark to make the announcement after the city replace lead waterlines and because it has already have a list of approved lead abatement contractors.

After lead cleanup is done, any remaining residue will have to meet new, blower requirements under another set of regulations unveiled today by the EPA, but higher standards mean higher abatement costs, and the new regulations will not be universally welcomed.

>> We hope that the rules we are proposing today are finalized expeditiously and without being weakened by the inevitable industry pressure we know that you will face and then is limited vigorously.

Brenda: the comment period run for 60 days and EPA officials hope the new topper regulations will be finalized by the end of this year.

Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: New Jersey transit has moved to a pricey new location that appears to be a done deal.

According to reports by North Jersey.com, the rail agency signed the controversy police with Onyx equities and will relocate just a couple of blocks away to the two Gateway building in Newark.

Criticism over the deal started mounting in February when North Jersey.com reporter Colleen Wilson reported the police with Onyx was the most expensive option on the table and unveiled emails during discussions over the moon started a year before New Jersey transit began the bidding process.

As she reports, it all comes as the agency is facing a massive budget sort all in the next two years.

-- a shortfall in the next two years.

Colleen Wilson joins me now.

It is good to have you back.

We were speaking about this when we were trying to get information about the move.

Now it is signed.

What can you tell me about the police because it has been tough to get information.

Colleen: yeah I wish I had more to tell you about the contents of the police.

We don't have it yet.

I have requested it.

I'm sure others have as well and the agency has not provided answers to the questions I have sent about the contents of the police -- lease and some elements and details that were waiting to hear more but it is 4700 square feet which is more than what we had previously reported in what has been previously told to lawmakers, so yet that is among the questions that we have.

Briana: I mean there are state packages and information out there that show you roughly the price per square foot so do we have even just back of the envelope map on what this could potentially could cost?

Colleen: sure.

Yeah.

The back of the envelope math I have done based on reporting sources and document we have obtained as it could be anywhere close to $500 million over the course of 25 years but that it's a rough estimate and we really do not know and do not have a full understanding of the scope, and a real estate lease of this size and scope is not just you know, square footage, rent per square foot, there are many other elements to it that can add or take away value.

Briana: Yeah like what because you have fired off a list of questions that you say so far have gone unanswered?

What were those?

Colleen: sometimes they offer free rent for one year to year's etc.

and there can be rent escalations ended this case they were talking about 2% at one time annual rent increases and then also there are construction allowances offered to the tenant to make changes and you know rework the space for the client or for the person printing the space, so -- renting the space, so what are those?

We have some idea of what the offers were on the table and I think that is another thing that leads into other questions we have in documents that should be made available, is the real estate analysis but they did and their vendor did to analyze what the options were.

What were those expenses?

Now our reporting and my sources have told me that those other options were you know, 100 million dollars less than the gateway option, so trying to understand what they went with that option.

Briana: And why wasn't the option to just a in the building where they are at which is a couple of blocks from here where we are ain't an option at all?

Colleen: sure it should've been.

It was an option.

They did an analysis that seem to show over $100 million may be close to 120 mega dollars worth of renovation work, which is a far cry like I said last time from the scope of the new police.

-- new lease for a building they own, so yeah but that was an option on the table and why they did not know with that I know that it is disruptive but at the same time you know, we want more answers.

These are all things that should have been that are fairly simple and should be straightforward.

Briana: Yeah.

OK. Talk to me quickly about the budget shortfall because without some type of hikes or changes there where New Jersey transit gets a lot of its revenue but they will not be able to make up those gaps that you cited and we reported on, so what are we looking at potentially down the road especially now that this new lease?

Colleen: the playbook for dealing with fiscal cliffs and crises at New Jersey transit is fair hikes, layoffs, maybe corporate consolidation and service cuts, so that is not going to be enough I don't think to address the agency's need and as you said, this lease adds conflict and probably scaled to their operating budget, so why, why add the complication, why add that expense?

That actually leads to another question I had that was not in that list that I put the transit before which is how much does it cost to maintain and operate the building it is in?

Is there a significant savings there or is it a bigger expense?

That is a good question I think we need to have answered and I think lawmakers taxpayers and commuters should be wondering.

Briana: Colleen Wilson has been falling the New Jersey transit police --lease in investigating this move for New Jersey.com.

Thank you so much.

Colleen: thank you for having me.

Briana: In our spotlight on business report opposition to warehouse brawl is hardening.

In Warren County, hundreds of residents protested against a plan to .5 million square foot warehouse project, one of many that have popped up in the garden state recently, ensuring that residents get their items faster but at what cost?

We have this report.

>> Honk your horn.

[HORNS HONKING] >> There we go.

>> A proposed warehouse has people hollering for honks.

[HORNS HONKING] >> Folks are not just raising noise levels, they are raising awareness for planning board meetings.

>> Last month we had 150 people here and for the meeting and I am hoping that we have more tonight because we are trying to make a statement to our planning board that the residents do not want this.

>> The issue is a proposal that would build about 2.5 million square feet worth of warehouses on this vacant piece of farmland in white Township knew the intersection of our rip Road and County Route 519, about two miles south of Belvidere.

People who live there have put anti-warehouse signs on their lawns, arguing that the warehouses should go elsewhere.

>> They are inappropriately placed.

They are so far from Route 80, Route 78, taking in prime farmland, some of the best farmland in New Jersey.

>> It is totally illogical.

It is ill placed.

It is halfway between the freeways on the little country lane.

There is just no way it should be that there.

>>>> There is no shoulder down Route 19 so if a truck blows a tire has an air leak or something and has to pullover, you will have the truck still in the driveway by five or six feet.

>> The land is owned by a developer based in Pennsylvania that bought it four years ago.

The application has gone through changes since then including how trucks would enter and exit the warehouses.

>>>> The county says you cannot modify file rift Road, County Road, for them to have access to the property, the warehouses.

>> They were going to use file rift Road in the county said no you're not using file rift Road, so now they have to put in a new road to just go and that would be another traffic light and we know we will have the traffic light.

That will cost us does the taxpayers.

>> You would think in four years, four plus years of time that it might have occurred to them that access to the property might be a forethought instead of four down -- years on the road.

>> A couple of hundred people packed into yesterday's planning meeting where a debate about the proposal was postponed.

>> This board in May promised us that the matter would be heard in June and you can't keep putting this matter off.

[APPLAUSE] I think -- [APPLAUSE] It smacks of a conspiracy.

>> Even members of the planning Board admitted frustration with the lack of movement on the proposal.

>> I am just wondering when will this vote take place.

>> I will speak for myself.

Quite frankly, I am getting sick of this, OK?

It is taking up our time.

It is due process and it has to go forward this way.

>> They cite they have not sent a representative to a meeting all year and if they do not send anybody to the August meeting that the proposal could be rejected and gentle would have to start all over again.

Jan told did not respond to our request for comment on the story.

In white Township, Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: The city of Newark is trying out a new innovative way to boost homeownership, launching a $6 million program that will help black and Latino residents specifically own property in the city.

The Urban league of Essex County will develop 10 family homes that will include a unit for the buyer and unaffordable rental unit that is to be used as a way to offset the cost of owning the home.

The properties will be sold to low income residents at below market prices and they will get help with mortgage and financing options.

Newark says it is committing $750 million -- $750,000 to the plan and other funding comes from Wells Fargo and the investment fund and the hope is to transform that community and give people a chance of building wealth.

And how about this for a turnaround?

New Jersey was just named CNBC's 2023 most improved state to do business.

Climbing the ranks from number 42 and last year's business rankings to 19th this year.

According to the survey that is thanks to a strong economic recovery and housing market along with two consecutive credit rating upgrades from Moody's.

CNBC cited the record budget surplus in the end of the corporate business tax and a third straight pension payment, but the outlook comes with some bad news too.

New Jersey is still one of the most expensive places to do business and among the least business friendly according to the rankings.

We also still have the nation's second-worst debt rating according to Moody's.

Governor Murphy Bo is planning to lobby session though is planning to lobby their ratings agencies for an upgrade and consumers may finally get a break from price increases.

Inflation rose just 2% in June, falling to its lowest annual rate in more than two years for that timeframe.

Now up just 3% year over year.

Here is how the markets reacted today.

♪ >> Support for the business report provided by Junior achievement of New Jersey, providing students with skills and knowledge to explore, choose, and advance their career path for a brighter future.

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♪ Briana: And that is going to do it for us tonight, but a reminder you can still download the NJ Spotlight News to listen anytime.

I am Briana Vannozzi for the entire NJ Spotlight News news team.

Thank you for being with us.

We will see you back here tomorrow.

♪ -- New Jersey realtors with the voice for real estate in New Jersey, more information online at NJrealtor.com.

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♪ >> 2020 three President New Jersey realtors whether helping a family find a perfect home or securing space for small business owners, New Jersey realtors have been helping their clients achieve their dreams for more than a century no matter what your unique needs are, there is a New Jersey realtor for you.

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