Northeast

Anti-Israel Yale protesters joining Columbia students in 'tear down our society' Ivy League movement: Law prof

Published

2 years ago

April 24, 2024

Anti-Israel Yale protesters joining Columbia students in 'tear down our society' Ivy League movement: Law prof

Anti-Israel activists at Yale University in Connecticut set up a “liberation zone” in solidarity with Columbia University in New York City on Saturday.

This comes after protesters at Columbia University were heard shouting pro-Hamas slogans, resulting in more than a hundred arrests as they set up an encampment on campus Thursday that continued into Friday.

Protesters at Yale were also seen setting up an encampment, laying down a banner that read, “Liberated Zone.”

The video starts out with students holding the banner and placing it on the ground in front of several students. Surrounding the students are other banners that read “Stop Investing in Genocide,” “Jews for Ceasefire Now,” “Yale is Complicit,” and “Stop the Genocide.”

ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS HEARD SHOUTING ‘WE ARE HAMAS,’ ‘LONG LIVE HAMAS’ AMID COLUMBIA U DEMONSTRATIONS

Yale protesters set up a liberation zone encampment to show solidarity with Columbia University (FNTV)

The video also shows a woman and man banging on drums before the man stands up and begins playing a horn.

Another shot captured protesters marching across campus while holding signs and chanting their demands.

“Up, up with liberation. Down, down with occupation,” they chanted.

MORE WILD ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS DESCEND ON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LAWN VOWING TO ‘HOLD THIS LINE’

Protesters at Yale marched across campus, chanting, “Free, Free, Free Palestine,” and other chants. (FNTV)

“Down, down with genocide. Free, free, free Palestine,” the protesters continued, as they held signs reading “shame “and “Free Palestine.”

Tents were put up in a communal area, and beyond the tents people could hear chants.

Then, a Jewish man was seen speaking with a man wearing a shirt that read, “F- -k Hamas.”

JEWISH COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDENT TOLD TO ‘KILL YOURSELF’ DURING ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST: REPORT

A man trying to record the protest at Yale University on April 20, 2024, was hounded by activists who used umbrellas and flags to prevent him from seeing the activity. (FNTV)

The man wearing the shirt attempted to record the protest while walking among the protesters, but they began to hound him by blocking his view and shoving flags and umbrellas in his face.

Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson, who has been studying the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for about 15 years, told Fox News Digital the protests at Ivy League universities like Columbia and Yale are reminiscent of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. During the movement, protesters raised issues with economic inequality, corporate greed and how money influenced politics, while setting up an encampment in Zuccotti Park in the financial district in New York City.

“It’s kind of a different topic here, but it’s really the same topic. I mean, it’s an anti-capitalist movement. It’s about the movement. It’s a ‘tear down our society’ movement,” Jacobson said. “I think it’s essentially a similar phenomenon which has been directed toward Israel as the object of their hate, instead of Wall Street or instead of something else.”

CORNELL UNIVERSITY SLAMMED FOR ‘WINDOW DRESSING’ STATEMENT AFTER ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUS

Protesters at Yale University set up an encampment on campus on April 20, 2024. (FNTV)

While protesters at Yale established a “Liberated Zone” it really did not mean they were liberated from anything because they still rely on the system to provide water, food and other things, he said.

Jacobson also said he thinks the protests are the result of 20 plus years of “gross dehumanization” of Israeli Jews on campuses, through the BDS movement as well as through radical faculty members found on most campuses across the U.S., particularly at Columbia.

While covering the BDS movement, Jacobson found the boycott was just a tactic. He said he never understood how it was just a tactic at first, but then it clicked.

JEWISH STUDENTS AT VANDERBILT DETAIL ANTI-ISRAEL SENTIMENT ON CAMPUS, SHARE MIXED EMOTIONS ABOUT FREE SPEECH

Yale protesters setup an encampment to boycott the occupation of Gaza by Israel. (FNTV)

“They don’t really care if you boycott Sabra hummus in the dining hall. They don’t really care about those things,” Jacobson said. “What they care about is having the entire campus spend 3 or 4 months debating how evil Israel is, and if they lose the vote, they declare victory anyway.”

Ultimately, he said the anti-capitalist movement focuses on Israel, which results in the dehumanization of Jews because Jews support Israel.

With that, though, there are other factors feeding into the protests, according to the Cornell law professor.

There could be a psychological aspect affecting students because they are told they have to go deeply into debt to attend elite colleges, only to find out their dreams were crushed by a system that lured them into taking on enormous debt.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT BIDEN’S LATEST ATTEMPT AT STUDENT LOAN CANCELLATION

Pro-Palestine protesters demonstrate along NYPD police lines outside of Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Multiple students were arrested as officers cleared an encampment on the campus’ lawn. (Peter Gerber for Fox News Digital)

Then there are those who did not take on debt but cannot find a solid career path.

“I think there’s a bunch of different things going on, and Israel and Jews are the convenient scapegoat, as historically has been the case,” Jacobson said.

Nearly 500 students were seen protesting at Columbia University on Saturday night, just two days after tensions reached a breaking point when the New York City Police Department arrested 108 people who refused to leave an encampment created on the main lawn.

The daughter of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Isra Hirsi, was also arrested during the protest on Thursday. According to sources, Hirsi was taken into custody, put into flex cuffs or zip ties and will face trespassing charges.

Earlier that day, Hirsi said she was suspended from Barnard College, located near Columbia, for “standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”

The Columbia Spectator, a student newspaper, reported, “While suspended Columbia students may remain in their individual rooms in their residence halls, suspended Barnard students have been evicted from their college housing.”

Social media posts also show several New York City council members arriving to check out the ongoing protest.

While protests continue at Columbia, Jacobson said a BDS referendum was sent to the Cornell University student body for a vote, though the results were not immediately known to the faculty.

Still, movements like those seen at Columbia, Yale and several other campuses across the U.S. are, as Jacobson said, “dead end movements.”

“I don’t think there’s really a future for them because they’re built around tearing things down,” he said. “They have no positive agenda. Their agenda is to tear things down, and I think what people need to understand is that these protesters, who ostensibly are anti-Israel, are also anti-American.

“It’s almost a complete overlap between the anti-Israel, anti-American and anti-capitalist protesters,” he added. “That’s what this movement is about. It’s not just about the war in Gaza.”

Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson, Louis Casiano, Alexis McAdams and CB Cotton contributed to this report.

Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.

Story tips and can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.com and on Twitter @GregWehner.

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Maine

Maine libraries scramble for books after distributor closes

Published

15 minutes ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Maine libraries scramble for books after distributor closes

Rosanne Barnes, an adult services reader’s advisor, shelves new fiction books at Portland Public Library on Wednesday. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

Some hot new titles have been arriving late at Maine libraries in recent months, after the closing of one the country’s major library book distributors.

Baker & Taylor, based in North Carolina, began winding down its operations in the fall and expects to close entirely this month. The company’s demise has left many Maine libraries scrambling to buy books through other sources, including local book stores, and to endure deliveries taking twice as long.

That means patrons expecting to get new books on or near publication dates are waiting longer to start turning pages.

At the Portland Public Library, “Heart The Lover” by Maine author Lily King wasn’t available to patrons until nearly a month after its Sept. 30 publication date, even though it was ordered in July. At the Libby Memorial Library in Old Orchard Beach, John Grisham’s Oct. 21 release “The Widow” took six weeks to arrive. Staff at the Kennbunk Free Library weren’t sure how long they’d have to wait for “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans, so they bought two copies at a local store, Octopus Bookshop. As of this week, there were 28 holds on the book.

“Baker & Taylor closing has totally rocked the library world nationwide. It has long been the preferred vendor among many Maine libraries, and their closure is certainly having an impact on us,” said Sarah Skawinski, associate director of the Portland Public Library and president of the Maine Library Association. “I think we’re over the hump now, though.”

Skawinski and other librarians say Baker & Taylor had been having problems getting books from publishers and had been slow with some deliveries, a problem that began during the COVID pandemic. Last year when it became apparent Baker & Taylor was likely going out of business, many libraries switched to the nation’s other major distributor, Ingram Content Group, as well as another company called Brodart Library Supplies. But with increased demand, both those companies have been slow in filling some orders in the last couple months, too.

Industry publications reported that Baker & Taylor’s problems were mostly financial, beginning in the pandemic and included the failed acquisition of another company. An email to Baker & Taylor asking for more information on its closure was not answered Wednesday.

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Aspen Kraushaar checks books in at the front desk at the Kennebunk Free Library on Wednesday. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)

Not every Maine library bought the majority of its books from Baker & Taylor; some used other distibutors instead. Staff at the Waterville Public Library, for instance, say they rarely used the company and weren’t impacted. The Lithgow Public Library in Augusta was only getting about four books a month from Baker & Taylor, said Director Sarah Curra Schultz-Nielsen. Those included children’s books, reference books and travel guides. Finding other distributors for those books, including Brodart and Bookshop, a company that sells mainly to independent bookstores, has been “mildly inconvenient” for staff and has not impacted patrons, Schultz-Nielsen said.

But other libraries used Baker & Taylor for most of its new releases, including fiction and non-fiction, as well to replacements for worn-out books. Stephen King’s books, for instance, have to be replaced pretty regularly, some librarians said.

The Portland Public Library had been ordering about 1,000 items a month from Baker & Taylor, mostly printed books. The library has about 359,000 physical items in its collection. Now, new books are coming to the library from Ingram, but will take maybe four weeks to arrive, compared to one to two weeks when Baker & Taylor was running smoothly.

And there is added work for librarians: While Baker & Taylor sent books that had already been catalogued and ready to be shelved, with bar codes and spine labels, Ingram is not yet offering that service, said Nicole Harkins, cataloging librarian at the Portland library.

“Patrons are aware it’s taking longer and they’re being patient,” Harkins said.

Kennebunk Free Library also switched to Ingram, and staff are spending more time prepping books, including putting protective plastic covers on them, said Allison Atkins, assistant director and head of adult services. Atkins said library staff wrote about their “book ordering troubles” in a library newsletter and on social media, so patrons would understand why new books were slow to arrive. The library used to get about 100 books a month from Baker & Taylor and despite still being “way behind” on new books, patrons have been patient, Atkins said.

For smaller libraries with smaller staffs, finding a new supplier is not always easy. Baker & Taylor was the major books supplier for Davis Memorial Library in Limington. The staff there is so small that they didn’t have time to research or compare new suppliers, so they waited until early this month, said Heidi Libby, the library’s director. As a result, the library has very few new arrivals on its shelves right now and has been filling the “new book” shelves with donated books as well as ordering from Amazon.

Several librarians said this week that local book stores have been a big help during this period, getting books quickly and pricing them affordably. Sherman’s Maine Coast Bookshops, which has 10 stores across the state, saw its sales to local libraries increase from $50,000 in 2024 to nearly $100,000 in 2025, said Jeff Curtis, owner and CEO of Sherman’s.

The Auburn Public Library would sometimes get more than 300 books a month from Baker & Taylor, including books for adults, teens, and children, as well as fiction and nonfiction as well as some large print books and CDs, said Nancy O’Toole, collections manager at the library.

When Baker & Taylor started having problems, the library bought books from Amazon and the local Bull Moose music and book store chain. Now, with Baker & Taylor closing, the library has switched to Ingram, but has seen delivery delays as that company has been inundated with new customers. This week the library got an order of books that were released in November, including “Exit Strategy” by Lee Child and Andrew Child, “The Seven Rings” by Nora Roberts and “Return of the Spider” by James Patterson.

“The hope is that now that the holidays are over, shipping from Ingram will expedite. But just to be safe, we are choosing to buy certain books elsewhere, including titles by big-name authors, popular series, or anything tied to a fast-approaching holiday,” said O’Toole. “Patrons want to see those titles on the shelf in a timely manner, and we want to make sure we fulfill those expectations.”

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Massachusetts

Minnesota childcare fraud allegations spark audit request in Massachusetts: ‘Serious risks’

Published

33 minutes ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Minnesota childcare fraud allegations spark audit request in Massachusetts: ‘Serious risks’

Fraud allegations in Minnesota’s childcare system are prompting two Massachusetts Republican lawmakers to ask the Healey administration to conduct a “top-to-bottom audit” of a Bay State voucher program.

State Reps. Marc Lombardo, R-Billerica, and Nicholas Boldyga, R-Southwick, say they’re alarmed after seeing national reports of fraud in childcare subsidy programs, pointing specifically to widespread allegations in Minnesota.

Their concerns have prompted them to ask Gov. Maura Healey to direct Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler to “urgently conduct” an audit and review of the Massachusetts Child Care Financial Assistance program to identify any potential fraud and vulnerabilities here.

Child Care Financial Assistance helps low-income families pay for childcare in Massachusetts.

“While Massachusetts has not yet been directly implicated in the same manner, the similarities in program structure, relying on voucher reimbursements to providers for low-income families, raise legitimate questions about whether comparable fraud or waste could be occurring here undetected,” Lombardo and Boldyga wrote in a joint letter to Healey on Wednesday.

“Our Commonwealth invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually in this critical program to support working families and early education,” they added. “We owe it to Massachusetts taxpayers and the families who genuinely need this assistance to ensure every dollar is spent appropriately and reaches its intended purpose.”

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a Herald request for comment on the letter.

Early Education and Care Commissioner Amy Kershaw has said that Massachusetts is not facing disruption to its $293 million share of federal childcare payments amid a nationwide freeze in response to the Minnesota fraud allegations.

Kershaw has also added that Child Care Financial Assistance is not being impacted, either. The state appropriates funds for the voucher program at the beginning of the fiscal year and then seeks federal reimbursement.

This fiscal year’s funding totals about $1.087 billion for the program, which covered more than 66,000 children in fiscal year 2025, according to a December report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

“Obviously, we are incredibly concerned about families across the country and in Minnesota who may lose access to Child Care Financial Assistance based on acts by the federal government,” Kershaw told Bay State childcare stakeholders on Monday.

Before the new year, the federal Administration for Children and Families froze all funding to Minnesota. All 50 states must now provide additional verification before receiving more funds.

Minnesota Democrats accuse the Trump administration of playing politics and hurting families and children as a result.

This all comes after a video surfaced on YouTube alleging fraud in childcare in Somali communities in Minnesota, to which Kershaw has said none of the allegations have been proven.

The Massachusetts early education and care commissioner noted how there have been similar videos posted in Massachusetts and other states like Ohio, California and Washington.

In their letter to Healey, Lombardo and Boldyga also highlighted how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has responded to the Minnesota allegations by closing loopholes that allowed payments without verifying attendance.

“These developments highlight serious risks in subsidized child care systems across the country,” the Republican lawmakers wrote, “including the potential for misappropriation of taxpayer funds on a massive scale.”

Lawmakers across the country are seeking similar reviews as Lombardo and Boldyga. In Michigan, State Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, a Republican, has asked for an audit of a state program that aims to help low-income families afford childcare there.

The Massachusetts audit would zero in on verifying that voucher payments to providers are based on documented child attendance records; cross-checking to detect potential “ghost children” or overbilling; and on-site inspections of voucher-receiving providers to confirm they are operating legitimate childcare programs, among other objectives.

“Such a thorough review would not only safeguard public funds,” Lombardo and Boldyga wrote, “but also strengthen confidence in a program that is vital to thousands of Massachusetts families.”

The Associated Press and Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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New Hampshire

NH Lottery Powerball, Lucky For Life winning numbers for Jan. 7, 2026

Published

1 hour ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

The New Hampshire Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026 results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from Jan. 7 drawing

15-28-57-58-63, Powerball: 23, Power Play: 2

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Lucky For Life numbers from Jan. 7 drawing

05-14-15-21-39, Lucky Ball: 10

Check Lucky For Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 3 numbers from Jan. 7 drawing

Day: 1-5-7

Evening: 0-1-4

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 numbers from Jan. 7 drawing

Day: 6-8-6-9

Evening: 7-8-6-6

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Megabucks Plus numbers from Jan. 7 drawing

03-08-13-33-40, Megaball: 04

Check Megabucks Plus payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Gimme 5 numbers from Jan. 7 drawing

16-19-21-25-34

Check Gimme 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

When are the New Hampshire Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 10:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Pick 3, 4: 1:10 p.m. and 6:55 p.m. daily.
Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
Megabucks Plus: 7:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Lucky for Life: 10:38 p.m. daily.
Gimme 5: 6:55 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Winning lottery numbers are sponsored by Jackpocket, the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network.

Where can you buy lottery tickets?

Tickets can be purchased in person at gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores. Some airport terminals may also sell lottery tickets.

You can also order tickets online through Jackpocket, the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network, in these U.S. states and territories: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., and West Virginia. The Jackpocket app allows you to pick your lottery game and numbers, place your order, see your ticket and collect your winnings all using your phone or home computer.

Jackpocket is the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network. Gannett may earn revenue for audience referrals to Jackpocket services. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). 18+ (19+ in NE, 21+ in AZ). Physically present where Jackpocket operates. Jackpocket is not affiliated with any State Lottery. Eligibility Restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. Terms: jackpocket.com/tos.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a New Hampshire managing editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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News Pub

Anti-Israel Yale protesters joining Columbia students in 'tear down our society' Ivy League movement: Law prof

Northeast

Anti-Israel Yale protesters joining Columbia students in 'tear down our society' Ivy League movement: Law prof