Several small businesses across New Hampshire participated in a general strike on Friday in solidarity with those protesting the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. While some businesses decided to close for the day, others are donating some — or all — of their profits to organizations that advocate for immigrants’ rights.

That’s the case for Wonderland Books and Toys, an independent bookstore in Manchester. Owner Deirdre A. L. Shaw said she’s donating 10% of her profits from Friday to support an immigrant and refugee support group run by the United Church of Christ in New Hampshire.

It wasn’t an easy decision: Shaw said she was balancing being a one-employee business against what she saw as her civic responsibility.

“There are always so many potential things going on,” she said. “And as a local business owner, I can’t always participate in those things. I own my store and we’re a one-employee location, so being closed means there is no income for the day.”

Instead, she decided to lean into one of her goals for the business: providing resources for teachers and parents to have age-appropriate conversations about difficult topics with kids. She hosted two special story times centered around books for civic responsibility and immigration, including “Just Help!” by Sonia Sotomayor.

“Having resources for parents or for themselves is very helpful,” Shaw said. “There are so many things going on in the world that kids either hear about inadvertently or they have conversations with their friends, or they read about something, or it’s a topic that’s brought up at school for whatever reason. But maybe they don’t get all the answers or information, or they only hear a part of it.”

Other businesses, like Brewbakers coffee shop in Keene, decided to stay open for the day Friday and donate all their profits to organizations that support immigrants.

While owner Jeff Murphy felt a responsibility to his employees, he said that the events in Minneapolis are personal to him: His sisters live in the heart of the city and helped him pick the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota as an organization that is helping immigrants with their legal representation.

“It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happening in this country,” he said. “We love our country, we support our law enforcement and our service members, and trust that they can do a good job. But it’s been obvious and apparent that the actions in Minneapolis have been a gross overreach and abuse of power. So we’re just doing the little bit that we can.”

For other businesses, like MrSippi’s BBQ in Rochester, participating in the strike meant closing altogether on Friday. Owner Cecil Abels said it was a sacrifice, since business is slow this month and Fridays are usually busy. But he decided to participate in the strike in solidarity with other parts of the hospitality industry that have been targeted by immigration enforcement, especially in nearby Maine in recent days.

“It’s going to be a financial hardship,” he said. “I’ve lived 42 years of not having to feel a lot of pain or sacrifice, and if we want change in this country, then things are going to get harder whether we want it to or not.”

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Saanvi Kulkarni, 17, of Livingston, plans to take full advantage of a new voting law in New Jersey that allows some 17-year-olds to cast ballots in primary elections if they turn 18 before the general election.

The high school senior is set to cast her first vote in the 11th Congressional District special primary election on Feb. 4, and plans to vote again in the special general election on April 16, one day after she turns 18.

“In the United States a big advantage of our system is that we can complain, like when things don’t go the way that we want them to in our government we’re allowed to complain about it. But I don’t think complaining is enough, I think you also need to use your voice,” she told WHYY News.

Kulkarni is among the first group of 17-year-olds to benefit from the New Voter Empowerment Act that went into effect earlier this year.

Beth Thompson, the president of the New Jersey Association of Election Officials and the supervisor of the Hunterdon County Board of Elections, said the new law is designed to make teens aware of their civic duties and get them involved with the democratic process.

“I think that young people have a right to vote in the primary, to have their voice heard so that other people aren’t just making the choices,” she said.

Erik Cruz Morales, the director of democracy for the League of Women Voters of New Jersey, agreed that the New Voter Empowerment Act empowers young voters.

“It gives them an opportunity to become civically engaged and I think there’s a lot of appetite for young people to get involved right now, so we’re hoping that people come out to vote,” he said.

Heather Richner, the associate council in the democracy and justice program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, said there is evidence that the earlier people vote, the more likely they will continue to vote.  She said giving 17-year-olds a seat at the table makes sense.

“This strengthens democracy for our future,” she said.

“We’re hoping this is going to make New Jersey a leader for voting rights in this country, especially as we head down a path where voting rights are being attacked,” she said.

TOMS RIVER – An Ocean County grand jury has charged a Pennsylvania woman with aggravated arson, accusing her of deliberately setting a fire in Surf City that injured a firefighter,  Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said. 

In addition to aggravated arson, the indictment the grand jury handed up on Jan. 28 also charges the defendant, Juliette Tournier, 30, of Horsham, Pennsylvania, with eluding Ship Bottom police, Billhimer said. 

The incidents contained in the indictment both took place on Feb. 19, 2025, according to a news release issued by Billhimer. 

About 8:40 p.m. that day, Surf City police and firefighters were dispatched to a fire at a house on North Central Avenue, the release said. 

During efforts to extinguish the blaze, a firefighter suffered injuries for which he was transported to Southern Ocean Medical Center in Stafford Township, the news release said. 

The firefighter was treated for his injuries at the medical center and subsequently released.

An investigation of the fire by the arson squad of the prosecutor’s major crimes unit, the Ocean County Sheriff’s crime scene investigation unit, Surf City police and the Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office revealed two separate areas of origin of the fire – one upstairs and one downstairs. Detectives determined the fires at both locations were incendiary, started by someone introducing an open flame to ignitable liquids, the news release said.