(upbeat music) - From NJ PBS studios, this is NJ spotlight news with Brianna Vanozzi.

- Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis, Brianna Vanozzi is off.

Coming up, META settles its lawsuit with New Jersey and other states.

What it means for protecting kids online.

Plus, local police across the state say they want tougher penalties on smoke shops and other stores that are selling banned vape products aimed at teens.

We talk with one police chief leading the charge for change.

But first, the latest in the Trump administration's funding fight over the Gateway Tunnel.

From the courts to construction, where does the massive transit project stand?

That's next.

Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

-The Trump administration is once again taking on the Gateway Tunnel Project, issuing a notice of appeal late last week to a previous federal ruling back in June that blocked the administration from freezing funds for the 16 billion dollar infrastructure project.

We look at this and other issues with Larry Higgs, the transportation and commuting reporter for NJ.com.

Larry, great to have you on the show.

Tell us the latest with the Trump administration and their plans to appeal this ruling over the Gateway Tunnel project.

What legal basis, what legal grounds are they basing their argument on?

Well, this is basically a notice to appeal.

So it's putting everybody on notice that they're going to file an appeal.

They have not filed the appeal yet.

But, you know, they basically they take issue with the decision that Judge Vargas made that said that the, their withholding of the funds from the Gateway Tunnel basically violated federal grant rules.

You know, the way it works is basically they do the work.

They have a line of credit where that they used to pay for the material and the workers and everything else.

And then they apply to the federal government for reimbursement.

That reimbursement comes for the grants that were granted in 2024.

But what happened in September 2025 was a new rule was passed and it was enforced right away on Gateway.

So and this is one of the things that was mentioned in the ruling by the judge was that instead of determining first whether Gateway had violated these rules, they went ahead and went right to a fine.

And that's been the problem because the Gateway Development Commission has gone back and said here's our proof of that we're obeying this rule, you know, and here's our proofs that we are, you know, that we're not... basically it deals with minority contractors and women-owned businesses and that there isn't an advantage given to them.

So they basically said, you know, we've changed our contracts, we're no longer doing that, here are our proofs, and they've heard nothing back from the US DOT.

And in the meantime, they kept holding back the money and what that did was that resulted in construction stopping last February.

The state and the state went to court, temporary injunction was issued to make the money flow, and a ruling came down last June that said, "No, you've got to continue to pay all $16 million.

You violated grant law."

In the ensuing time- So, Larry, let me jump in here because the question that everyone has now is, if this is going into the appeals process, what impact could that have on work and could there potentially be another work stoppage?

Well, you know, and that depends on what happens.

You know, if they, if they, in the appeal process, if they, I mean, there was a, there was a temporary restraining order that said you can't stop paying and there is the court order.

So that court order would still be in effect until the appeal is heard and a decision is rendered.

So it's, it's not as dire, but you know, at this, you know, for example, we talked to a Congresswoman Poe, who serves on the house transportation committee.

She predicted that they would appeal back in June.

And she said, she sees this possibly going to the Supreme court.

So, you know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a question mark that's out there, depending on what the court wants.

That issue of whether or not this makes it all the way to the highest court is certainly, I think, top of mind for those of us who've been following it.

Simultaneously, we know that Amtrak has been working to upgrade its infrastructure.

What can you tell us about what happened in the month of August?

Sure.

Well, this is a set of different tunnels.

These are the East River tunnels, and unlike the Hudson River tunnels, there are four of them.

So unlike the Hudson River tunnels, they can take one of these out of service and basically do what in essence is a gut renovation of everything inside the tunnel.

So that's what they've done.

They've just put the second tunnel back in service.

You know, they're 116 years old.

This is a $1.6 billion project.

And what it did is all the insides of the tunnel are brand new.

So the tracks are new, all the wires are new, the overhead wires that power the trains and the third rail is new.

And what that means for NJ Transit riders is this tunnel connects to Sunnyside Yard, which is where they park their trains in between rush hour.

So for example, last night there was an overhead wire problem in the area between those yards and Penn Station and it resulted in some delays for NJ Transit trains and some trains being canceled because they couldn't get the equipment out.

So that's basically what this means is the trains they park over there, there's more reliability means when you come down to the platform that train should be there.

Okay, when we look at delays, PATH is also making some upgrades.

Now this is under the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, right?

But there's some new infrastructure that's going into its rail cars that is also supposed to minimize delays.

What is happening there?

What do those upgrades look like?

Well, this is kind of interesting because it's a 5G system that allows technicians to diagnose a problem with a train car before without having to pull the train car in the shop.

So just think if your mechanic was able to diagnose your car before you brought it into them.

You know, it cuts down on the time for ordering parts and for getting repairs.

And the other thing is, it even allows them to do a little preventative maintenance by examining the electrical systems in this train car, and determining what needs to be replaced or what might be on the verge of failure so they could basically tackle that work.

So it doesn't break down in service and that way passengers are not delayed.

So it's kind of cutting edge technology.

Yeah, very, very cool.

What's happening there?

World Cup.

We've been covering this certainly leading up to it during the games.

Everyone trying to get a handle on what it cost the state.

We know that NJ Transit had to plan for up to 40,000 riders per match.

They didn't see those numbers in terms of actual ridership, closer to 25,000-26,000 per match.

So in the end, Larry, what did it cost the state to have this transportation plan that, by the way, had no subsidy from FIFA?

Yes.

And, you know, it's kind of interesting because I would think that the people at NJ Transit and the governor might do a bit of a victory lap over their controversial decision to increase fares to make sure that it covered the cost, because it pretty much did that.

NJ Transit basically put out a very, very brief document that said it cost them $55 million to provide the service.

They brought in $51 million in revenue, so they lost roughly $3.9 million.

And what they're saying is that's something that they'll be able to cover without going to the governor for, or the legislature for an additional appropriation.

NJ Transit CEO, Chris Calori, made that commitment even before the numbers were made, that they would find a way to absorb it within NJ Transit.

So of course, what happens is, you know, no mass transit system is self-sustaining, self-liquidating, but in this one, they estimated that they covered 93% of the cost, which is kind of phenomenal because when it comes to the regular buses and trains you and I ride, they cover about 30% of the cost from fares.

- Yeah, that's a great analysis there.

I know you were in Terminal C today.

There were some upgrades being made there.

30 seconds, what can you tell us?

- Well, it's an interesting system that uses biometrics.

If you have pre-check and you've signed up with your airline and pre-check and you're a frequent flyer, it's a biometric system where you don't have to hand your driver's license to boarding pass, your passport to a TSA agent.

It basically scans your face and if everything is copasetic, the doors open up and you go to the next step.

- All right, we gotta leave it there.

Great job.

Larry Higgs, thanks for getting that in there for us.

Thank you.

Good to talk to you.

-You're welcome.

Always a pleasure.

-New Jersey helped lead the landmark case against MEDA, blaming the platform for addicting teens and contributing to a rise in anxiety, depression, and suicide.

Now in a settlement joined by nearly every state, MEDA is expected to pay about 17 billion dollars.

Now the company didn't admit wrongdoing, but did agree to changes for users under 18, including a two-hour daily limit and a block on overnight activity on Facebook and on Instagram.

I recently sat down with digital safety advocate Nikki Petrosi, who hosts the podcast Scrolling to Death, to talk about this and other online safety issues.

Nikki, great to have you back on the show.

We know that New Jersey was one of the states that helped to lead this lawsuit that ended in the settlement with MEDA.

Can you describe some of the details of the settlement and the changes that MEDA will have to make?

Absolutely.

So this was a lawsuit filed three years ago by 47 different states.

And what it did was allege that MEDA designed and deployed their harmful features on Instagram and Facebook that drove addictive and excessive use by children, which harmed their physical and mental health.

Some of those trials had begun, and I think everybody saw the writing on the wall, from what I've heard from attorneys general, that MEDA was potentially going to lose in trial.

And so they really ramped up settlement negotiations, which includes a $17.2 billion payout to the 47 states, of which New Jersey will receive at least $525 million to fund youth online safety initiatives.

And, you know, even better than the monetary amount is that META will have to make court enforceable teen safety defaults and changes to Instagram and Facebook for the next 10 years.

That includes some things like, yes.

- Go ahead.

I was gonna say, Todd, tell us what some of those key changes are going to be, and especially for these youth accounts.

>> Yes.

So that includes a midnight to 6 a.m.

teen lockout on Instagram and Facebook, so they will not be able to access it when they need to be sleeping.

It includes a two-hour daily max across Facebook and Instagram.

No push notifications to their phones from these platforms during the school day.

Teenagers won't be able to see like counts anymore.

They're banning cosmetic filters.

There will be overall stronger safeguards on the type of content being pushed to teenagers.

And there will be an option for a chronological feed as well.

- I'm so curious about that chronological feed.

We know that the quote doom scrolling that many of us, even adults tend to get sucked into.

How does chronological feed potentially impact that doom scroll behavior?

So chronological feed, meaning how it started, how that algorithm worked when we first started using social media, it's just a list of posts by people that you follow and people that you know in order of when they were posted.

I have heard some negative feedback to chronological feeds that it just ends up being a feed filled with whoever is posting the most that you follow.

And so there are better ways to create algorithms that are safer based off of feedback that you give it like a like rather than how long you've paused on something.

And so there may be better solutions, but this is definitely a great option for teenagers who or families who find that algorithm to be unsafe.

You said that the writing was on the wall, according to attorneys general, that it looked like Mehta was going to lose in court.

Mehta has not admitted to wrongdoing.

We know that Mark Zuckerberg was also set to testify in trial.

Are you satisfied with these results?

Are you satisfied with the way this settlement played out?

Obviously we would like to see a trial carried out and see justice be served and see the jury be able to make that decision and the judge.

From what I've heard from the attorneys in the case, they were not confident enough that the judge was going to issue the changes and force the companies to make the changes to their platform that ended up being in the settlement agreement.

So I am satisfied, but we can't rest on our laurels now.

These changes are not enough.

This is only one platform.

And so we need to keep pushing, keep the lawsuits rolling.

There's additional lawsuits coming or trials coming from more individuals and other states and from school districts.

And so the fight continues for sure.

- Yeah, we just saw people crying in that video and names of individuals.

When we talk about the harms that social media has caused, can you just explain that?

- Yes, I've been fortunate enough to interview and meet hundreds of parents who've lost their children to social media harms.

And when you first hear that, you think, well, there's gotta be other factors.

And of course there are in any situation, devastating situation like this.

But I've reviewed hundreds and hundreds of legal complaints from these families and the commonalities are striking.

These children are all getting addictive, sorry, these children are all experiencing compulsive use because of the features of the platforms, won't let them put their phone down, won't let them log out, the notifications, the addictive algorithm.

It is created in order to take advantage of especially vulnerable children and teenagers.

And so I just, what keeps me going every day in this fight is those parents who bravely tell their stories over and over of the worst experience they've ever had in their lives in order to get the progress that families deserve.

When you're scrolling to death podcast, you don't just talk about meta, but you look at many companies that you've said are harming our kids, YouTube, snap, Tik Tok, even Pinterest, and then video games like Roblox and Fortnite.

More broadly, what do you believe is the role of Congress here?

What should Congress be doing to safeguard our kids no matter what platform they're using?

We need Congress to pass federal legislation that forces the companies to have a duty of care.

And this needs to be industry-wide.

It can't just be one platform doing better.

So we need the responsibility to be on the companies, no longer on parents to try to figure out how to work the parental controls.

It is not, it does not work in our favor.

And you have to have a computer science degree to figure out the parental controls.

I think some of the stats are about 1% of parents use parental controls on these platforms.

And so we need Congress to pass strong legislation that puts the duty of care and the responsibility on the companies to build non-addictive products that children are going to be accessing.

And to that end, the conversation around technology in the classroom and whether it's helping or perhaps even harming our kids.

You talked about a hearing that's coming up on Tuesday, September 15th.

Can you just tell us quickly where parents can lend their voice to decisions that could be made at the federal level, even within the administration?

Yes.

And so there is policy that has been drafted to allow parents to opt out of educational technology in school, where we are seeing a lot of similar harms to social media platforms in addition to a lack of actually educational outcomes that we're looking for in comparison to human and face-to-face learning.

And so the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, NTIA, is hosting a public listening session for parents, where we can share for three minutes our experiences and what we would like to see.

And if you are in favor of being able to opt out of educational technology at school, I would highly recommend signing up and attending that session.

>> You are following this closely.

Is there data that clearly shows that the technology that's being used in schools is harming our kids?

>> When it comes to the school issued devices that are being given to our children, there's data to show that for every hour our kids are spending on a laptop at school, 38 minutes are spent off task.

So most of the time they are not doing what the lesson is or what is being assigned to them by the teacher.

That is because schools, technology restraints and their budget restraints do not allow them to keep kids off of things that we don't want them on while they're at school.

So they're getting distracted.

And that is a huge problem that often leads them down to seeing pornography or other harmful content.

And so there is the issue of them getting distracted, but there's also research to show that kids just learn so much better from analog and face-to-face learning and human-led, human-centric lessons.

And so our kids are actually getting a substandard education when they're learning all of their lessons on those laptops.

>> Thank you, Petrosi.

You really make it easy to digest what can be sometimes feel like overwhelming content and data.

Podcast host and digital safety advocate with scrolling to death.

You're also a mom of three.

I know you're in this fight.

Thank you so much for coming on to talk to us today.

>> Thank you, Joanna.

Six years after New Jersey banned flavored vapes, police say they're still on shelves in smoke shops and convenience stores across the state filled with unregulated chemicals and aimed at teenagers.

Health officers who inspect those stores say the fines have become a cost of doing business.

Shot down in one place, pop up in another.

Now police chiefs are working with the state attorney general to crack down and a bill in Trenton would make selling the products a crime.

Here with us to discuss the crackdown is Andrew Caggiano, the Montville police chief and former head of the state association of chiefs of police.

Chief Caggiano, great to have you with us.

We know now that New Jersey banned the sale of flavored vapes in 2020.

So why is this still a problem in our communities?

What are you seeing?

So we're seeing this, uh, in our communities, in our gas stations, convenience stores, and a whole host of other stores within our communities.

And a lot of it has to do with the fact that, um, there's only civil penalties for selling these vape products.

- Okay, when you say that you're seeing it in all of these different places, is this something where if you walk into any random convenience store or gas station shop, you yourself might see these products sold openly despite the ban?

- Yeah, you can see them.

If you know what you're looking for, you can find those products on most of these shelves.

You know, some are a little less obvious, but they're being sold fairly widely throughout our communities.

Does it end up being local police departments that have to catch it, that have to monitor who's abiding by the law and who's not?

So it falls not only on the local police department, but it also falls heavily on our local health offices, which go around and can inspect, conduct inspections on these sites.

They're typically the ones who sign the complaints, and these are civil complaints that they sign that wind up in our municipal courts.

- Yeah, I wanna talk about that.

Go ahead, go ahead.

- Yeah, but more importantly, there is proposed legislation out there that could help fix this issue, and I'm hoping to see that legislation passed.

- We're gonna get to that in a minute, but I just wanna mention the fact that I've read that for some of these shop owners, it seems that the fines are simply a cost of doing business.

Do you know what those fines are and what impact they have versus the profits from the sale of these flavored vapes and other restricted products?

These fines are minimal.

You don't, it's essentially the cost of doing business.

If they, they'll be fine, they'll pay their fine and then they'll continue on going forward.

It's much more profitable to be selling these.

So that's why we see that the civil penalties are just not that effective here in New Jersey.

>> Yeah, you talked about the civil penalties and you alluded to this new bill.

We know that state, excuse me, Senate President Nick Scatari introduced a bill that would change the penalties.

What can you tell us about that change and what impact you think it could have?

These changes will actually set forth criminal penalties for those who sell these products.

It's a graduated rollout, so depending on how much you're selling is what the crime actually will be.

So we've seen the legislation.

We very much support the legislation and we look forward to the Senate president getting this bill passed.

- Can you explain that rollout for us a bit further and what some of the higher end penalties could look like?

- Yeah, so they range from fourth degree penalties to second degree penalties.

And it's all based on the amount of these products that they're selling.

So it's, you know, the store that's selling a wide variety of these products and have a lot of them will face different penalties than those that have smaller amounts.

But either way, it will give law enforcement a much better way to deal with this issue.

- Do you think, given what you've seen already and how many are kind of flagrantly opposing the bans and the restrictions in the state, do you think that these criminal penalties will actually have a greater response in stopping these illegal sales?

- I do.

I think once people see that law enforcement have a stronger ability to enforce these laws and enforce laws that have stiffer penalties, I think you're gonna see a drastic reduction in the amount of fee sales.

- I wanna get into the fact that some of this is completely unregulated, right?

Where are these products coming from?

How are they completely bypassing all US regulations?

- So a large majority of these products come from China.

They come into the U.S.

and they're sold widely.

Not only is this an issue that they're coming from overseas, but there really is no regulation on what these products contain.

And a lot of these imported products, we don't really know what's in them.

So it can have serious health implications to those who are using these products.

Can you talk to me about Nixidine?

I know this is a new synthetic product that's made its way to the market.

What is that?

It's just another synthetic product that's come from overseas.

And it's, you know, the chemicals that are involved in that are put into these products aren't really known.

They're not inspected and they're not regulated.

So what people are taking in and ingesting, you know, is a big risk.

Yeah, and of course the ban that first went into effect to stop the sale of flavored vape products we know was because so many young people were getting hooked on, attracted to, and hooked on these flavored vape products.

Chief Andrew Caggiano, Chief of Police in Montville, and also former president of the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police.

I want to thank you for everything you're doing to keep our community safe and thanks for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

That's going to do it for us.

I'm Joanna Gaggis for the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you right here tomorrow.

[music] NJM Insurance Group.

Serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

NJM Insurance Group has been serving New Jersey businesses for over a century.

As part of the Garden State, we help companies keep their vehicles on the road, employees on the job, and projects on track.

Working to protect employees from illness and injury, to keep goods and services moving across the state.

We're proud to be part of New Jersey.

NJM.

We've Got New Jersey Covered.

[MUSIC]