>> From NJ PBS studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

Coming up, another heat wave is hitting the state this week.

What are the rising temperatures mean for our homeless population?

And later, when the heat rolls in, many New Jerseyans head to the beach.

So which one should you go to?

NJ.com's got them ranked and it's sure to cause some controversy.

But first, if you filled your tank recently, you've probably seen that gas prices are rising again.

We look at the escalating conflict between the U.S.

and Iran and its impact here in New Jersey.

That's next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

The ceasefire between the U.S.

and Iran has collapsed and the conflict is escalating fast.

After three straight nights of American strikes and Iranian retaliation, the naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz looked like it might resume today.

It's a fast-changing situation, but if you filled your tank lately, you might have already noticed the fallout.

Gas prices are climbing here in New Jersey.

So how much more could we be paying?

Michael Boyle is a professor of political science at Rutgers University, who joins us now to break it all down.

Michael, obviously, so many moving parts happening when it comes to the US and Iran conflict, but we do see oil prices spiking here at home.

What's the latest?

Can you kind of sum up what's happened over the last few days when it comes to what really feels like the dissolving of this peace deal that was tentatively in place?

So I think the headline is that the ceasefire is effectively over.

The US has more or less admitted that legally.

The Iranians have more or less said the same thing.

It prevailed for a long period of time, but there were a lot of issues in the ceasefire that were left more or less vague to be and to be resolved later.

And I think what they ran into was these vague ceasefire does not end a war.

And so at the moment it looks like we're back into a state of what I would describe it as kind of intermittent armed conflict with Iran.

Iran is striking targets in the Straits of Hormuz.

It's also threatening its neighbors and sending projectiles and drones towards its neighbors.

The U.S.

is now again striking targets in Iran.

So what we've seen is a resumption of the war but at a lower intensity that we saw prior to the ceasefire.

Nevertheless it doesn't look like this is going to end anytime soon.

So the Strait of Hormuz has become something of a pawn in this in this whole conflict and who's going to control it and now we have the issue of whether or not there will be a fee imposed.

The president had said that there would be a 20% fee on cargo ships moving through.

Iran has also said they would impose a fee.

Help us understand of course at the time that we're talking right now, President Trump has walked it back, but help us understand the legality of that and whether either side can impose a fee.

So in general in the international system, under the international law of the sea, you are not allowed to charge fees for transit in international waters.

So if you're flying, you know, if you're essentially in open space in the open seas, you're not allowed for one country to simply say, I'm going to charge a fee for transit of these goods.

And prior to this conflict with Iran, goods were passing through the Straits of Hormuz without a fee.

And what Iran has realized is that this is a very effective choke point.

So since the ceasefire, and even before the ceasefire, they've been threatening to impose some kind of a blockade and toll system on this, which really would be an enormous source of revenue.

And it's worth pointing out that large amounts of the world's oil supply, especially that goes to Asia and to the east, goes to the Straits of Hormuz.

Not so much for Europe and the United States, more for what we see in countries in the east.

Well, if you start imposing, you know, a fairly substantial fee structure on that, you're going to drive a lot of revenue.

The U.S.

has had no consistent position on this.

Very early on in the conflict, they said we will not tolerate any kind of fee system being imposed on the Straits of Hormuz, but the Trump administration has walked this back.

More recently, the Trump administration has said that they themselves will impose a 20% fee.

Just today, President Trump reversed himself yet again and said we won't be imposing a fee on the Straits of Hormuz, but we will be demanding some kind of international trade and cooperative agreement from countries that want to ship their goods through it.

In other words, not a formal legal fee, but almost in a sense like a kickback from the trade that you generally get through that kind of work, through that kind of transit.

It's important to realize that all of this is illegal.

And what has happened is that this war with Iran has opened up a Pandora's box, which now Iran is exploiting in order to impose a blockade, in order to impose a fee system, which will get it a lot of revenues.

It's worth pointing out that it's cooperating with a lot of its neighbor, Oman, in doing so.

And there've been kind of reasonably coherent discussions between Iran and Oman about a fee system.

The U.S.

can't seem to decide under the Trump administration whether they think this is a horrible thing or whether this is something that they themselves want to kind of taste up.

And I think what we've kind of settled on is that there's kind of incoherence at the top.

The formal position of the United States is no fee system should be in place, but President Trump on Truth Social himself is looking for a way to get some revenues from the Straits of Hormuz.

Let me jump in here, Michael, because I think what's important to note is the difference in terms of percentage and what the actual cost would be between what Iran suggested and what we heard initially from the president when he was toying with this idea that 20%.

What would that actually mean in terms of dollars and what impact does that have on oil prices that are already spiking?

So Iran has worked out a system that works a little bit more like the transit in the Straits of Malacca, where if you require specific services to transit a specific point, you pay a series of associated fees, but you don't pay a generalized transit fee.

President Trump has demanded 20%.

20% would vastly push up the cost of the shipment of oil, for example.

And, you know, a normal tanker of oil might cost millions and millions, tens of millions of dollars more expensive in order to get through the Straits of Hormuz.

That is going to translate for the people of New Jersey into higher gas prices.

And we're already starting to see this in the market, where we're starting to see an increase in gas prices as a result of the prospect of this.

So the President's sort of 20% tax or 20% transit fee is far more substantial than what Iran is even threatening to do at the moment.

And that's one of the reasons we're seeing such sort of oil instability in terms of the prices.

So going back to the conflict, the president has said that one of the strikes that could be coming in the coming days is on Pickax Mountain.

This is, of course, a nuclear facility.

Can you just explain, one, what's significant about striking there and what we know about Iran's threats of retaliation if that does happen?

So the US has struck facilities that are associated with Iran's nuclear program before, and Iran has hardened most of its nuclear program in order to have it sort of underneath mountains, underneath fairly substantial amounts of natural protection.

If the US struck something like Pickax Mountain, they would probably have to do it with a bunker-busting bomb, something fairly large like a JDAM.

That would cause substantial casualties.

But it's also worth pointing out that it would pose an enormous risk of environmental danger and potential of a nuclear accident.

And so Iran has threatened responses to this.

Now, realistically, the responses that Iran would more likely offer would probably be conventional and probably would be an increase in drone strikes to other Gulf countries.

Because what Iran has realized is it can't directly strike at the United States, it doesn't have the capacity to do so.

It can strike at US forces in the Gulf, but that its best play is probably to continue to attack Gulf countries and to disrupt shipping, airports and so on to impose huge costs to get them to make the United States stop.

So if the United States does this, I would expect an intensification of the war, but mostly in the direction of Israel and the Gulf countries.

Of course, Michael, the whole reason why this conflict started was the president saying he wanted to ensure that he was dismantling Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Is striking their nuclear facility the only way to do it at this point?

It's not the only way to do it.

I mean, if we're talking about war objectives, the war objectives in terms of dismantling Iran's nuclear facilities have more or less failed.

The Trump administration has attacked a lot of the delivery systems, they've attacked a lot of the facilities, but the evidence suggests that Iran is capable of kind of rebuilding, you know, within a three to six month timeframe.

Obviously, there'll be some costs imposed upon that.

It's worth pointing out that the ceasefire agreement that they signed actually had fewer provisions to stop Iran than the JCPOA, which was the green Iran deal that the Trump administration ripped up in its first term.

So at this point, that was the peace deal signed during the peace deal signed during the Obama administration.

The peace deal signed by the Obama administration was more comprehensive and required more from Iran than what the Trump administration got in its most recent ceasefire.

And I think the fact that they're talking about striking more Iranian nuclear facilities is an admission of failure in a sense that their ceasefire agreement didn't get as far as they needed it to get.

And without Iran cooperating, it's very likely that Iran is going to wind up in an equal position or better position than it was before the war in terms of its nuclear facilities.

I mean, to be clear, they definitely degraded capabilities, but they didn't knock Iran's nuclear program out.

And so now the Trump administration, not getting a lot of progress on negotiations over the terms of the ceasefire, is left with very few options other than very difficult strikes against secure nuclear facilities.

All right, we have to leave it there.

Great analysis as always.

Michael Boyle, political science professor at Rutgers University.

Thanks for coming on.

Always appreciate talking to you.

Thank you.

Extreme heat at the start of July is suspected to have contributed to the deaths of 29 New Jersey residents.

A number of those were unhoused individuals.

Now their death brings into focus an issue that continues to challenge the state, the number of people who are homeless and need services, especially during extreme weather events.

As another heat wave hits the state this week, I recently spoke with Connie Mercer, CEO of the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness about this issue and their efforts to make a difference.

Connie, it's so great to have you with us.

Thanks for taking some time to talk.

We do know that 29 people died during the heat wave that blanketed the state from July 2nd to July 6th.

What do we know about the number of those individuals who were unhoused?

We know for sure that at least nine of them were unhoused and that another three or four of them who were in cars but were probably living in their cars were also also died a horrible tragic avoidable death.

Yeah, this is absolutely tragic.

Is there anything more that you can share so that we understand the situation around how these individuals died.

They died because there is a homelessness crisis in New Jersey that has been precipitated by the increased impossible cost of housing and all of the other expenses that have gone up.

In the month of June alone, there was a 57% increase in unsheltered homelessness from last year.

And now there are more unsheltered people in New Jersey.

That's over 10,000 people on those horrible hot nights who had no shelter of any sort than there were sheltered people in New Jersey who were safe in shelters or perhaps in motel rooms that some government agency had bought for them.

Let me jump in here because you raise a great point.

The point in time count is a way that at least once a year individuals are able to track how many are unhoused in the state.

Now this happens I know in the winter months, but in 2025, 13,700 individuals were found to be homeless and that was an 8% increase over 2024.

So this is a problem that's growing in New Jersey.

When you say this was avoidable, what do you believe are the steps that state officials, local officials need to be taking, especially during these extreme weather, you know, events?

I think it might be helpful if I gave you just a real brief overview of what's going on in homelessness right now because I think that most folks just don't understand the magnitude of the problem.

There's been a 70% increase in homelessness in New Jersey over the last four years, 70%.

Last year more than 42,000 people were counted as homeless.

60% of them were homeless for the very first time.

One of the scary parts was that almost three people were coming into homelessness for every one person who the system could get out, and the system can't move them out because of the lack of affordable housing.

So then Connie, let me jump in here.

What do you believe is a response?

Is it a legislative response?

I know that you've said that this is a result of systemic policy failure.

What policy helps to solve or minimize this problem?

There are a huge number of things that must be done.

There must be more money put into the system.

New Jersey spends less than our peer states on homelessness.

In fact, Connecticut and Massachusetts, for example, spend almost double the amount of money per homeless person as New Jersey does.

For the immediate problem, and on Wednesday, we're the temperature is going to be up over 101 again, we are going to have people who are living, who have wheelchairs, people who have heart conditions people who have severe health issues, who are going to be out unprotected in that hundred and one degree heat.

This governor could declare a state of emergency.

Immediately, there could be some.

Changes so that shelters would be allowed to take.

In 20 or 30% more people.

And we could declare an executive order declaring the state of emergency.

There.

Or we could, in a broader way, just declaring.

An executive order declaring a state of emergency around homelessness generally.

Which I would think we need to do.

We could require submission of comprehensive code red plans across all 21 counties, which we don't currently have, and identify state fundings to make that a reality.

We could require cooling centers to remain open during holidays and extended emergencies.

One of the horrors during the last Independence Day crisis when so many people died was that the designated cooling centers were not open.

So often the designated cooling centers are places like recreation centers or libraries and they had closed for the three-day weekend and nobody had.

That's such a great point that you raised there and I wonder is this city policy or the city ordinances that need to change?

Is this something where the governor needs to step in, the administration is responsible to change that?

Who is responsible?

The governor needs to step in and require that there be realistic, well thought out plans and then there has to be someone who is responsible for enforcement.

Right now, the issue of enforcement is very, very, very unclear.

There are no penalties for a municipality or a county that doesn't adequately provide during an emergency.

These are really great points that you raise Connie, I appreciate you coming on to talk to us about it and continue to highlight this important issue.

Connie Mercer, CEO of the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness.

Thank you.

-Joanna, thank you so much.

-Well, if you're from Jersey, you know, there's no debating it, our beaches are the best.

But where there is debate is over which of those beaches reign supreme.

Well, that's where NJ.com comes in with its annual ranking of all 45 New Jersey beaches.

But I'll warn you, it creates some controversy.

To hear which ones top the list and why, I recently spoke with one of the writers behind this year's list, food and culture editor for NJ.com, Jeremy Schneider.

Jeremy, great to have you on.

You had the excruciating job of having to visit all 45 of New Jersey's beaches, you and your colleague, Isabel Farina.

So give us the lowdown, top five best beaches in New Jersey as you rate them.

It's a tough job but someone has to do it.

Number five was Sandy Hook, the northernmost beach in the state, no surprise.

High in the state, high on the list, super natural, super clean, very well maintained, lots of hiking paths and biking and just lots of natural beauty.

So if you're looking for that kind of experience, Sandy Hook is perfect for that.

Surf City and LBI was number four.

All the beaches in LBI are pretty great, but Surf City has a really good blend of a very nice beach without being overly crowded and really great things in the area to do once you're done with the beach.

Also in that vein, number three, Manasquan, which was, you know, maybe I'm a little biased because I grew up going to Manasquan as a kid.

I have family there and so much of beach, like love for beach is, you know, your relationship to that spot.

Manasquan has always just been a nicely sized, well manicured beach with some really, really excellent food in the area.

Buoys sandwiches are awesome.

I love getting pizza at Squan Tavern and when we rank the beaches we're factoring that in as well.

Number two is Cape May which has been number one almost every year.

You know if you've been to Cape May even once you can understand why it's such a great beach.

It's just, it's kind of its own thing.

It almost doesn't feel like the Jersey Shore.

It's kind of a vibe of like a Charleston meets a Key West meets a Cape Cod, but it still has a Jersey feel and it's just beautiful Victorian architecture mixed with really, really great sand and a lovely town.

But number one this year has been number one in the past and they're back at the top talking Beach Haven, LBI, the southern most part of LBI.

You have the Beach Shell, which is a fun place to stay and party.

You got the Holiday Snack Bar, which is delicious.

And you just have the best beach.

It's super family friendly too, right?

Yes, I think that's, you know, there's some places on this list I would not want to bring a family.

Beach Haven is perfect if you want to bring your family but still have some fun.

They strike that balance really nicely.

It's not it's not a it's not as buttoned up as say Ocean Grove but it's not as crazy as Wildwood.

Okay so as I go through your list there's some that are a little controversial and we're gonna talk about them.

You say Wildwood I'm gonna quote I'm not here to besmirch your Jersey Shore memories but I am here to tell you this beach stinks.

Why is Wildwood so bad?

You put it at number 40.

I every year I get flack for where I put Wildwood.

Every year I go to Wildwood with a fresh mind like trying to see it and look I actually like when we do this beach tour we I like stay at a hotel at least once.

I stayed in Wildwood Crest so I could spend more time in Wildwood.

The town is lovely.

There's great restaurants.

The boardwalk is elite, but the beach itself, the actual sand, it's objectively bad.

It takes too long to get from the boardwalk to the water.

It takes so long that they have beach taxis.

I'm sorry, this is in New York City.

I don't need a taxi.

I'm at the beach and the sand itself, like I'd get it if it's like a really long walk and then you get there and it's like a paradise, but it's just not that nice a beach once you even once you've made that that uh pilgrimage across the sand.

I like, I, if you love Wildwood, I know a lot of people do.

I get, I get uh heat for this every single year, but just like from my pure beach perspective, it's just not a very good beach.

Yeah, I know some people who are going to come and find you and they might try to fight you, but let's go let's look into the 30s.

You've got... I'll hide on the sand because it's so big they won't be able to find me.

I love that.

You put Long Branch, Point Pleasant, and Belmar all in the low 30s.

These are some of the core childhood memories of mine, so I'm curious why you rank those there, really low middle of the pack here.

Well, I think that part of that is, and again, being, I think we said this before we started recording, being the worst beach in New Jersey, you're still one of the best beaches in the world.

And there are so many beaches that eventually, I mean, like there is going to just have to be some stuff that goes like in the lower part of the ranking.

Those are beaches that are very popular.

And they're, and that's part of the issue.

They're so popular that it's hard to find good space when you're there.

It's a, it's a more crowded experience.

And you know, some of these beaches that go higher up on the list, it's easier to get a more secluded experience.

And look, everyone wants something different at a beach.

And that's a beautiful part of the Jersey Shore.

The Jersey Shore experience, there is a beach for everyone.

Even the last beach on the list is someone's favorite beach.

All right, give it to us.

Yeah.

Give it to us.

Last beach on the list.

What is it?

It's Atlantic City.

I'm sorry, I have an affinity for Atlantic City as a city.

And it does have a , , , , , , , , , but also, that shows, you get what you pay for.

It's not a clean beach.

I'm not saying you're gonna be dodging sprints or anything.

- Raise your hand, I was gonna say raise your hand if you go to Atlantic City for the beach.

My hand's not going up.

I'm going to Atlantic City for the busy house.

- And I respect it.

I mean, it's a great food town.

It's a very fun boardwalk.

I've been to concerts on the beach there, but no, it's the beach itself, and look, someone has to be last.

And Atlantic City is, it's bounced around a little bit, and look, fantastic Bruce Springsteen song, terrible beach.

- All right, you've got Bayhead, Manilokan, Deal, and Brigantine also in that bottom five.

- Yes.

- Some of the ones, 17 for Lavalette, that's another childhood memory for me, Ocean Grove, number 11.

The real question I have though, is how much hate mail do you get and do you now need a security detail when you go out?

Because people are so mad at how you rank their beaches.

We've been doing this long enough that I think people are no longer as offended.

They know, I mean like, and we purposely, as we do these rankings, we are consulting the rankings from the previous year because we don't want anything, like things change time, like year over year, time over time, but we don't want something jumping from last to first.

We don't want something, we don't want to be too volatile, but look, people, people get mad, but also people, sometimes I get a email like, "Thanks for ranking us so low.

This will keep people from coming to the beach so we don't have to share it."

And I'm like, "Yep."

And then I say, "That's what I was going for.

I was just doing you a favor."

But yeah, I keep my head on a swivel when I go to Wildwood.

And keep the Bennys away, right?

Exactly.

Speaking as a Benny.

Well, there you have it.

Jeremy spoke again on how to do it.

Jeremy Schneider, Food and Culture Editor with NJ.com and The Star Ledger.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

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

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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