Northeast
Crisscrossing PA to register voters, Scott Presler says he's 'moving the needle' as key counties flip red
A Republican activist who leads the group Early Vote Action has been crisscrossing Pennsylvania since January, working to register new Republican voters and meeting others to encourage them to cast their ballots early.
Fox News Digital followed Scott Presler as he made his near-weekly stop at the massive Green Dragon flea market in Ephrata, outside Lancaster.
The Friday-only market is a popular stop for tourists and locals alike, including the area’s Mennonite and Amish population. Amish, Mennonites and Brethren make up a large portion of the county population, and when they come out to vote, they typically also lean Republican. Both Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump courted the Anabaptist community during their administrations.
“And as you can see, we’re out at fairs, we’re going to farmer’s markets, fraternity houses, American Legions, gun stores, supermarkets, gas stations. Our motto is to meet people where they are,” Presler said.
SCOTT PRESLER ON EARLY VOTING AND THE AMISH VOTE’S IMPACT
Volunteers help Scott Presler register voters at the Green Dragon Farmers Market in Ephrata, Pa., this month. (Charles Creitz/Fox News Digital)
“We want to bring our conservative message to the voter and get everybody registered to vote.”
In an interview with Fox News Digital at his second stop of the day, the Solanco Fairgrounds in Quarryville, Presler said Democrats are down 300,000 registered voters in the commonwealth from where they were four years prior.
“Pennsylvania is trending to the right. And at Early Vote Action, we want to deliver Pennsylvania for Donald J. Trump,” he said.
At the Green Dragon, Presler was joined by a family from Charleston, West Virginia, who decided to volunteer to make a difference in Pennsylvania this year after Trump handily won the Mountain State twice.
In addition, Joe Brady from nearby East Earl said he’s been following Presler’s work for months and decided he would answer the call for more Pennsylvania volunteers.
Brady, who has volunteered weekly at Presler’s booth at the Green Dragon, said Early Vote Action averages 20 to 30 new registrants each outing.
SCOTT PRESLER TRAVELS AMERICA CLEANING UP LIBERAL CITIES FAILED BY DEMOCRATIC POLICIES
A new voter takes a photo with Scott Presler. (Charles Creitz/Fox News Digital)
“In addition to that, [there have been] a lot of great conversations with local residents and even out-of-towners. Everybody’s sentiment seems to be moving in the same direction. Everybody seems very positive about Trump. I think we’re doing good work here. I think we’re really helping move the ball,” Brady said.
One of those locals who stopped by was Denver Mayor Rod Redcay. The chief executive of the smaller of the two Denvers that’s located along I-76 praised Presler’s work and said it has added to the “excitement” in Lancaster County.
Redcay said the 100 Trump signs his group brought to the Denver fair were gone in three hours.
“There’s a lot of passion and motivation for those who are supporting Trump to get out the vote and visit their neighbors and connect with those to talk about the issues,” Redcay said.
“We’re not talking about personality here. We’re talking about issues; what’s important to us, what’s important to our community. And we want safe communities. We want economic development in our community.”
“So, whatever we can do to close the border, we want to get back to an economy wherein we can afford our food again.”
One man who approached Presler had recently been released from prison.
Presler informed the man that in Pennsylvania, felons who have completed their sentences are eligible to vote, and the man filled out the form and expressed support for the GOP ticket.
As Presler moved south to Quarryville, he noted that Bucks County – while represented in Congress by Republican Brian Fitzpatrick – had long been a Democrat majority.
That changed this month, he said, taking credit for helping move the Philadelphia suburb “from blue to red.”
“Four years ago, there were 15,000 more registered Democrats. Now there are nearly 2,000 more registered Republicans. That’s a shift of 16,004 years to the right and a county outside of Philadelphia. That does not happen,” he said.
Luzerne County, where Democrat nominee Vice President Harris recently rallied, was within a few dozen votes of flipping red as well, he said. One day after Presler’s comments, the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader reported the county is now (+83) voters for the GOP.
Scott Presler registers voters and hands out signs to tailgaters in State College. (Charles Creitz/Fox News Digital)
After the Solanco Fairgrounds flea market, it was three hours up to State College ahead of what turned out to be a blowout of visiting Kent State at Beaver Stadium.
Outside one of the largest stadiums in the country, Presler and his group of local volunteers, which included officials from the Centre County GOP, set out to register new voters, including out-of-state-native students who can legally vote in Pennsylvania.
While a few Harris supporters jeered Presler as his crew walked among the tailgaters, many chanted “Trump!” and sought out selfies.
“Centre County is 1,100 voters away from flipping. The Democrats are working tirelessly to keep that county blue. But I’ll tell you, we are going to be at every single Penn State University game, including on Nov. 2nd, three days before Election Day. We are leaving no community unturned going into November, and that includes young people,” he said.
Another one of Presler’s volunteers in State College was Bobby Jeffries of Dauphin County, who said he’d already launched a 2026 State House bid against a moderate GOP lawmaker to seek, in his words, to have its representation match the county’s conservative lean, sans Harrisburg.
“I recently registered a voter. She was born in 1965. She’s never voted. She said, ‘Scott, I’m voting this year because I can’t afford anything. Life is unaffordable,’” Presler later added.
(Charles Creitz/Fox News Digital)
While Centre County’s environs and politics away from the university match its deep-red neighbors in Cameron, Clinton, Elk and Blair, throngs of students in State College have been enough to keep the county reliably Democrat for decades.
“If young people want to be able to afford a home, vote Trump. If young people want peace, not war, vote Trump. If young people don’t want the government getting involved in your life, like during COVID, vote Trump.”
While Democrats have made inroads in the collar counties around Philadelphia, Presler said flipping Bucks, the likelihood of flipping Luzerne, and his group’s work in Beaver, Lehigh and Centre show that “meeting voters where they are” offers the opportunity to make a difference come Election Day.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Read the full article from Here
Thousands of students across New York State this week were unable to finish annual standardized tests after a technological issue disrupted the computer-based exams for the second consecutive year.
Students in grades three through eight from Buffalo to New York City encountered error messages on Wednesday when they tried to log in to their math or English language arts exams, which do not affect students’ ability to advance to the next grade. While some could sign in and complete the tests, others were kicked offline, frustrating students, teachers and parents.
For the past three years, New York State has been transitioning to digital exams, with this spring marking the first time that every student in those grades had to take them on a computer. So when students encountered issues on Wednesday, there were no paper exams available as a backup.
The developer of the state test, NWEA, an educational testing and research group, said it had worked overnight to identify the source of the disruption, which was identified as a problem with a server, and repaired it before school started on Thursday.
After problems emerged a year ago, the company pledged that it would not happen again. The New York State Education Department has awarded $116 million in contracts to NWEA to develop the untimed, federally required assessments.
The repairs this week came too late for many New York City students who were taking the math portion of the state assessment. Education officials in the city had advised principals on Wednesday not to reschedule the math test for the next day out of concern that the system could remain offline.
But some schools resumed the math exams on Thursday after the outage had been resolved, said Dominique Ellison, spokeswoman for the Department of Education. The remaining schools will administer the test in the coming days.
“I know this issue has been challenging and frustrating for schools, students and families who have been working hard in preparation for these exams,” Kamar Samuels, the schools chancellor, said on Wednesday night at a meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, an oversight group.
It was unclear how many students in New York State had to scrap the exams, but the disruption appeared to be widespread. JP O’Hare, a spokesman for the New York State Education Department, said that 116,000 students had taken the tests on Wednesday without problems.
It was also unclear how many students were scheduled to take the exams on Wednesday because school districts have a window of several weeks in April and May in which they can administer the tests. There are about a million third-through-eighth-grade students in the state.
On Wednesday, Buffalo Public Schools stopped all math exams for students, while more than 1,600 students at Zeta Charter Schools in New York City had to give up on their English language arts assessments.
“The current system is failing, creating unnecessary challenges for students, teachers and administrators,” Emily Kim, the chief executive of the charter school network, said. “Our students deserve a testing experience reflecting the same level of preparation, care and accountability we ask of them.”
Those must be some extra sticky fingers.
The Boston Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in identifying a man they say robbed a South End candy shop at knife point.
The man, captured on surveillance video, entered Madeleine’s Candy Shop at 47 Clarendon St. just before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. He then walked up to an employee while holding “what appeared to be a knife,” according to a BPD statement, and demanded cash. He fled with an undisclosed amount of money.
Police describe the man as a white or light-skinned Hispanic man wearing a maroon sweatshirt, a gray wool cap, gray sweatpants, and a black mask.
Police ask that anyone who recognizes the man or who has information on the theft to contact detectives at (617) 343-5619 or to provide information anonymously through the CrimeStoppers tip line by calling 1-800-494-TIPS (8477), texting the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463), or through the online portal at Police.Boston.gov/CrimeStoppers/.
FBI recovers stolen 17th century Italian urn
Boston FBI agents recovered and returned a 17th century urn stolen from an Italian church.
“It’s incredibly exciting when the FBI can recover a piece of history that carries such deep emotional and cultural significance,” said Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the Boston FBI. “After all, this reliquary urn is a tangible link to intense religious devotion and a connection to the generations who lived and prayed with it.
It represents the intersection of faith, history, and art – elements that are invaluable to the people of Italy and to humanity as a whole,” he continued. “This case highlights the power of international cooperation and our collective commitment to safeguard the world’s cultural treasures, no matter where they may be.”
The reliquary urn, which authorities say is a significant piece of Italian history and is registered with the Historical Artistic Heritage Items of the Italian Episcopal Conference, was stolen sometime in August 2022 from the church of San Michele Arcangelo di Cangiano.
The piece turned up in the hands of an antiques dealer in the American Northeast on Feb. 11, 2026. The dealer, who purchased it at some point from an Italian dealer, voluntarily relinquished the urn to the FBI, who gave it back to the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Boston-based FBI agents worked with the agency’s art crime team, its attaché in Rome and with the Italian Carabinieri, a paramilitary national police agency. The FBI’s art crime division was launched in 2004 and has recovered more than 20,000 items valued at more than $1 billion, according to the agency.
A reliquary is a medieval holder of a relic, according to Bowdoin College’s art history department, an item that “belonged to a saint … or, in many cases, the relics were believed to be body parts of a saint, truly powerful objects in the eyes of many medieval Christians.”
2 teens arrested for Haverhill mill fire
Two teens have been arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a Haverhill mill building earlier this week.
Firefighters responded to the mill at 14 Stevens St. at around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday after callers reported heavy smoke and flames. Firefighters arrived to “intense fire conditions that required a coordinated, multi-alarm response,” according to the Haverhill Police Department.
Crews worked the scene all day and were still fighting hot spots at least as late as 11:22 that night, when the firefighter union made its own post on the efforts.
The building was determined the next day to be a total loss, according to a statement issued by Mayor Melinda Barrett, Fire Chief Christopher Cesati, and city Building Inspector Thomas Bridgewater.
“Due to the intensity of the fire, the resulting heat severely compromised the structural steel supporting the four-story building,” the update stated. An independent structural engineer “determined that the building sustained a critical loss of structural integrity and will require full demolition.
That same day, Haverhill PD announced the arrest of 18-year-old city resident Isabella Sargent, who they charged with arson of a structure and conspiracy to commit arson.
On Thursday, police announced they had also arrested a second teen, this one a 17-year-old juvenile, on charges of arson and related offenses.
Police report that there were no civilian injuries related to the fire and that the incident remains under investigation.
The police ask that anyone with any information contact them by calling 978-373-1212 ext.1551.
Police search for Roxbury shooters
Boston police are looking for three males they say are responsible for shooting two other males on Kendall Street in Roxbury last month.
Police responded to 3 Kendall St. in Roxbury a little after 7 p.m. on March 29. There they found two male victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were treated at local hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries.
One suspect fled toward the parking lot behind that address while the other two fled toward where Kendall Street intersects with Shawmut Avenue.
Police on Wednesday released a surveillance still of the suspects and ask that if anyone recognizes them or has any information regarding the shooting to contact detectives at (617) 343-5619 or through the CrimeStoppers tip line. Crimestoppers information is detailed at the bottom of the first Crime Briefs entry.
More than 50,000 people will run in one of the Pittsburgh Marathon events this weekend. It’s capped off by the marquee event of the marathon itself.
Call it a runner’s high or insanity; the marathon takes just about everything a person can muster up physically and mentally. That’s why supporters line the course, especially the tough miles down the stretch.
“It gives you a boost. It gives you a little bit of that rush to keep going, knowing that people are standing out there in sometimes not great conditions cheering you on,” said Ali Ewig with Dancing Gnome Running Club, which will be cheering around mile 23.
Running clubs, which are recent additions to the cheering sections, along with neighborhood groups like the Bloomfield Citizens Council and the Highland Park Community Council, which have been cheering for decades, all do their part. It can feel more like a block party with the vibes the groups give off as they help every runner get back Downtown.
“It’s a blast to finally be able to celebrate a sport that a lot of people do by themselves en masse together with everyone,” Dan Lampmann of Yinz Run Club said. His group will have a cheer section near PNC Park and on the South Side.
Arguably one of the toughest stretches can be crossing the Birmingham Bridge and climbing up the hill to get into Oakland. It can be a real gut check time for runners. So, Scottie Brown, dressed as Spiderman, will run up the hill with people to keep them going.
“I just run with them, encourage them, bring light to their day as they are halfway through the race, hitting that tough hill,” Brown said over Zoom.
And whether they are a yinzer running through town or someone from the other side of the world, there is pride in cheering people through the city’s neighborhoods.
“I think that we all have a lot of pride in cheering on these people that are maybe for the first time or maybe for the 50th time running this monumental personal goal for themselves,” Jessica Bowser Acrie of the Highland Park Community Council said. Her team will be set up around mile 20.
Sunday morning promises to be another marathon with miles of cheers.
-
Wyoming2 minutes agoRising fuel costs are squeezing a Wyoming landscaping business — and customers could feel it soon
-
Crypto8 minutes agoCryptocurrency scams are on the rise. Here’s how to protect yourself
-
Finance14 minutes agoSan Jose high school first in nation to pilot new AP financial literacy courses
-
Fitness20 minutes agoExperts Love These Exercise Trampolines for a Low-Impact Workout That Still Gets Your Heart Pumping
-
Movie Reviews32 minutes agoTouch Me – Movie Review | Dark Comedy Alien Body Horror | Heaven of Horror
-
World44 minutes agoLithuania Says It Broke Up Russian Sabotage and Murder Plots
-
News50 minutes agoSchumer and Platner Talk After Mills Suspends Her Campaign
-
Politics56 minutes agoTakeaways From Hegseth’s Second Day of Testimony on the Iran War