FOX 5 News Update - Newark Mayor Ras Baraka released, Sheridan Hotel imploded

From Fox 5, New York, this is Good Day Weekend

And good morning on this Saturday, May 10th. Welcome to Good Day Weekend

I'm Richard Giacobis here in the Fox 5 newsroom. Thanks for joining us live right here on the Fox Local app

We begin with breaking news this morning. Take a look at this. That was a 22-story Sheridan Crossroads Hotel, which has just been imploded

a New Jersey landmark that has stood adjacent to I-287 in Mahwah, New Jersey, for nearly four decades

Officially, a pile of rubble. You may remember the iconic rows of gleaming glass windows that maybe made you turn your head for a second while driving

The Sheridan Hotel closed in 2023, and officials say the building was demolished today in an effort to redevelop the area

Sign of the Times. We will have much more on the demolition tonight on the 6 and 10 o'clock news

Meanwhile, Newark Mayor Raz Baraka has been released after being arrested at a federal immigration detention center in his city

It all happened outside Delaney Hall in Newark yesterday afternoon. The interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey says the mayor trespassed and ignored warnings to leave the detention facility

The mayor and Democratic candidate for governor insisted he did nothing wrong

Now we'll look at your forecast. Finally, the sun is back and temperatures in the low 70s into tonight will be mostly clear

And tomorrow, a winter for Mother's Day. Nice for Mom. Sunny, and it'll be even warmer than today with highs getting into the mid to upper 70s

And by this time next week, New Jersey Transit train cars could be off the rails and on ice

Next Friday is the strike deadline, and both sides seem to be pretty far apart

But they're going to try to hash it out in their differences in Washington on Monday in a meeting with the National Mediation Board

Fox 5's Jessica Formoso has the latest from Penn Station. NJ Transit officials and the union representing its train engineers are at odds

With just a week left before a potential strike, the president and CEO of NJ Transit says he believes the union

the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, wants its members to walk off the job

They are intent on striking, not for some abstract reason, because they're trying to make New Jersey the test case for the rest of the country

Wages is what is keeping them from striking a deal. The engineers have been working without a contract since the end of 2019

Last month a tentative deal had been reached but nearly 90 of the union members rejected it All we asking for is equity We asking for parity with other people within the region

When you look, we've lost eight engineers, at least in the last month, to other railroads, Amtrak, Long Island Railroad, who pay more

NJ Transit says in 2024, the average wage of an engineer was $135,000

But that math does not add up for Tom Haas, chairman of the union

According to his calculations, on average, his members made $113,000 last year

Right now, NJ Transit engineers get paid $39.78 an hour. NJ Transit officials say the rejected deal would have put them at $49.82 an hour at par with LIRR engineers

He now wants a pay raise every year going back to 2020

That is 2% more than anybody else. And then he wants 3% on top of it every year going from now until 2030

Money, he says, the agency can't afford to pay. If there were to be a strike, it would cost NJ Transit $4 million a day to accommodate riders

Well, I wouldn't be able to get into the city. There's no other way I can get into the city

So it's a disaster. Well, it would really mess me up. And with the clock ticking, both parties have now been called to Washington, D.C

to meet with the Federal Mediation Board in hopes of striking a deal

That meeting is set for Monday. At Penn Station, I'm Jessica Formoso, Fox 5 News

columbia university says it has suspended a total of 65 students after a pro-palestinian

protest on campus earlier this week the suspensions are pending further investigations

police say at least 80 protesters were arrested on wednesday after forcing their way into the

library were charged with trespassing following an hours-long standoff and a groundbreaking

ceremony in new jersey as a brand new veterans village is being constructed to help our military

heroes who are struggling with homelessness. It's all part of an effort by the Tunnel to Towers

Foundation to assist our vets in need. Fox 5's Antoine Lewis has a preview

Groundbreakings are always special. This one even more so for Tunnel to Towers Chairman Frank

Siller. This one will address the homelessness of U.S. veterans. It's going to be a multiple

story building. It's going to house, I believe it's 126 veterans. On this spot in Bayville

New Jersey will eventually be Bayville Veterans Village. As these renderings show the village will feature 98 single occupancy apartments The ground floor of the apartment complex will offer support services that include job training legal services and mental health support and counseling

The complex will also have a gym, multipurpose room, game room, and lounges

24 standalone comfort homes like this one will also be a part of the village

The foundation says these will be for elder veterans who've applied for assistance

Veterans that are a little bit older can have a little bit more trouble reintegrating back into the community

and they're looking for a permanent place to call home and live out their golden years. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has been building veterans' villages across the country

This is video from the groundbreaking of the village in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The foundation says they will continue to build as many as they can

adding it's the least they can do to those who've defended our homeland, but have found themselves without a home of their own

There are homeless veterans that are unseen, and they need a good place to spend their lives

This is not a shelter. I want to make that very clear. They need that dignity and that hope back into their lives, and this is what this project here in Bayville is going to do

Bayville Veterans Village is expected to be completed in 2026. Antoine Lewis, Fox 5 News

Incredible. We love Tunnelton Towers. A Long Island teen who developed an app worth millions finally found a college to go to after being rejected by every Ivy League school he applied to

Zach Yadagari is taking his 4.0 grade point average to the University of Miami

The 18-year-old from Roslyn developed a calorie counting app called CalAI, which is on track to bring in $30 million this year

Wish I was him. Yadagari says he wants to go to college because he missed out on a lot of social events

in the past few years. I'm sure he did. Fox 5 is watching your wallet and the tariff turmoil

could have people turning to secondhand stores for everything from clothes, electronics

even used baby items. Here's Theresa Priolo. The tariff cost might push parents to making decisions that could be unsafe for their children

There's fear in the baby goods industry right now of an unintended consequence of President Trump's

tariff war. The escalation in prices could force new and seasoned parents to rely on secondhand

baby gear, which on its face doesn't sound like a bad idea, but it could be. The risk is safety

Ultimately, child safety is what this is all about. There is not one car seat infant or otherwise

manufactured in the U They all stitched sewed and in many cases assembled in China And so with it will come a 145 percent tariff since car seats are not currently an exempt item So what a parent to do Pay hundreds more on a seat already several hundred dollars or turn to the secondary market

Jason Mundy is a child passenger safety tech. He helps install car seats

You don't have Carfax on a car seat. Some sellers on Facebook or eBay show when the car seat was purchased and when it expires, but many don't

They also don't detail if there's been a car accident or if there's mold in the seat

It's the same situation at a garage sale or a thrift shop. The experts caution, like most things you buy online

you literally do not know what you're buying and if it's safe. It's the hot, the cold, the plastic elastic aspect of it

They're cold webbing, but the shoulder straps, you know, they get frayed

Internal, you see things that you can't see externally. There's also another problem on the horizon

We are currently running into new safety standards starting in 2026 for car seats manufacturers

and many car seat manufacturers are delayed in testing product because the testing facilities

don't have enough sled time to test these car seats. Teresa Priolo, Fox 5 News

We are a year away from the World Cup, and the championship game for that event is being held

at MetLife Stadium, you may have heard. As you can imagine, transportation is a big concern

Yesterday, the North Jersey Transportation Forum hosted an event which addressed the major soccer event

Officials say they're in the process of exploring options to avoid a traffic nightmare

There needs to be a coordinated plan with lots of locations, with lots of redundancy to serve this demand

because it's very different than a football game. It's very different than a concert

It sure is before the World Cup will be the club World Cup this summer

And some of those matches will be held in New Jersey. Transportation officials say they'll see how that event goes and make adjustments for the actual World Cup

By the way, you can catch the 2026 World Cup right here on Fox

And another look at your forecast to bright and breezy today. Temperatures in the low 70s tonight, mostly clear and tomorrow

Nice for mom with highs in the mid 70s. It doesn't get better than that

Don't go away. We'll be right back