Northeast
Autumn leaf-peeping along New York's Hudson River 'chained' to American independence
Leisurely autumn leaf-peeping and the drama of American independence are linked together in a historical hunt along the Hudson River in New York.
The fall-tinted scenic drive could reveal remnants of an iron-clad testament to patriotism, American industrial spirit and the defiant derring-do of the upstart new nation.
Continental troops, under the orders of Gen. George Washington, linked an iron chain across the width of the Hudson River near West Point. It weighed 65 to 75 tons, according to multiple sources.
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The iron barrier was designed to keep the almighty British navy from controlling the critical waterway and severing rebellious New England from the rest of the American colonies.
“I would call the chain an engineering marvel for its time,” Dan Davis, senior education manager of the American Battlefield Trust in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital.
What has been preserved of the Great Chain is located at Trophy Point at West Point, N.Y. The display consists of 13 links of the chain (one for each original state), one swivel and one clevis. The signature “S curve” of the Hudson, which made West Point so defensible, is in the background. (Public domain)
“Not only was it an engineering marvel, it made West Point a nearly impenetrable position.”
Washington assigned Polish military engineer Col. Thaddeus Kosciusko to lead the chain gang and hang the iron links across the river.
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“The massive chain [was] made of 1,200 links of wrought iron, stretched 1,700 feet in length … and took forty men a total of four days to install,” according to the Albany Institute of History and Art.
Remnants of the chain and local iron foundries remain. They are hidden around the imposing cliffs and citadel towers of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and amid quaint riverside communities that glow in the natural wonder of the fire-hued Hudson River in autumn.
People walk through a park next to the Hudson River under a tree whose leaves have turned color on Oct. 25, 2020, in Cold Spring, N.Y. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
The earthworks that housed the western end of the chain is found at the end of a trail at West Point known by cadets as “Flirtation Walk.”
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Thirteen links of the chain hanging in a ring and flanked by two Revolutionary War cannons, create a prominent West Point landmark at Trophy Point. The site offers dramatic views up the Hudson River portrayed throughout the centuries in American art.
George Washington’s men hung a 65-ton chain across the Hudson River to project West Point during the American Revolution. Remnants of the chain offer an excuse for an autumn drive along the Hudson River. (Stephanie Keith/Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
A similar ring of remnants of the chain forms a landmark in the west-bank community of Newburgh, New York.
Signs point out the east end of the chain on Constitution Island in Cold Springs, New York.
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Remnants of a 65-ton iron chain that Gen. George Washington’s troops hung across the Hudson River during the American Revolution make for a colorful autumn leaf-peeping history hunt. (The New York Historical Society/Getty Images; Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital; Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
The charming colonial-era riverside village offers boutiques, bars, bakeries and bookshops and highlights the east-bank history of leaf peeping and history seeking.
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The town earned its name Cold Spring from Washington himself, according to a historical marker in the center of town.
“Just driving the area, you get a sense of the topography and geography of the terrain, the height of the mountains and hills and why West Point, and the chain protecting it, were so important,” said Davis.
The topography and autumn color may be best viewed from the top of Bear Mountain State Park, a hub of outdoor activities and natural wonders just south of West Point on the west bank of the Hudson River.
The rural appearance, idyllic images and small-town charms belie the history surrounding the region.
People ride on a jeep during a military car parade in Cold Spring, N.Y. Signs in the area point out the east end of the chain on Constitution Island. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
“From the earliest moments of the War for Independence, each side knew that the key to victory was the Hudson River,” David Levine wrote of “The Great Chain” for Hudson Valley magazine in 2018.
“The river separated the northeast from the rest of the country. If the British took control of the river, the head would be cut off from the body, and both sides knew what would follow,” Levine wrote.
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Maine
Elementary-aged student killed in school bus crash in southern Maine
A student was killed in a crash involving a school bus in southern Maine on Tuesday morning, officials say.
The crash occurred around 7:30 a.m. near Edna Libby Elementary School in Standish, authorities said, and MSAD 6 School Superintendent Clay Gleason told News Center Maine it involved a student and a school bus.
Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce confirmed that an elementary school student was struck by an MSAD 6 school bus and died at the scene. He said Route 35 was shut down between Route 114 and Moody Road for the crash investigation.
MSAD 6 serves the towns of Buxton, Hollis, Limington, Standish, and Frye Island. Standish is a town with about 11,000 residents about 15 miles west of Portland.
The child who died was a student at Edna Libby Elementary School, the school district said. Joyce said only one student was on the bus at the time of the crash — the half-brother of the student who was killed.
“The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, along with other law enforcement agencies, will be reconstructing the accident, providing more information as we get it,” Joyce said. “What we do know now is we have a child that’s deceased. It’s tough anytime of the year, but not a good time of the year for a lot of families.”
Gleason said Edna Libby Elementary School planned to dismiss students at 11:30 a.m. to allow parents or caregivers to be with their children and for staff to receive support. All after school activities in the district were canceled, though the school day went on as scheduled in all other district schools.
“I have been in communication with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office and a full investigation will be forthcoming to determine how this tragic accident took place,” Gleason said in a message to the school community. “In this difficult time please keep those directly impacted in your thoughts – first and foremost the family of the student, as well as the students and staff of Edna Libby. Speculation or blame on social media is not productive or helpful and is disrespectful to the memory of the student and their family.”
Support services are being provided for the bus driver and the family, Joyce said.
No additional information has been released, but officials said they expect to have more to say later in the day.
Massachusetts
ICE agents are staking out local courthouses. As they’ve roamed the halls, Mass. court arrests tripled
Immigration enforcement agents have become a common fixture around courthouses in Massachusetts this year — plainclothes officers idle outside in black cars, chat with clerks and monitor hearings to find people to arrest.
While lawyers say U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has long apprehended immigrants at courthouses, the numbers have ballooned under the second Trump administration.
In the past, “You didn’t have a sense that immigration was always in the building. Now it’s like that’s the first thing you think about,” said public defender Antonio Vincenty.
The increased presence is not only in federal courts, but also at dozens of district courthouses in the state. Vincenty handles cases in East Boston, Chelsea and downtown Boston, and said he has had three clients arrested in court this year.
“We want those that commit crimes to be punished. I don’t think any criminal lawyer feels differently,” Vincenty said. “But we want the system to work. We want the system to live up to its rules — to treat people with fairness, to treat people with justice and due process.”
Courthouse arrests in Massachusetts have surged nearly three-fold over Trump’s first nine months in office, according to ICE data compiled by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California Berkeley School of Law.
A WBUR analysis of the data found 386 arrests at 46 courts across the state — including 147 at the federal courthouse in Boston — from January through mid-October. That’s up from 131 over the same period last year under the Biden administration.
And the latest data is almost certainly an undercount. In East Boston, for instance, ICE recorded only six courthouse arrests, while lawyers and immigration advocates report having seen far more.
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said ICE activity has impacted hundreds of cases prosecuted by his office — noting instances in which defendants got detained during proceedings, as well as times when victims and witnesses were afraid to cooperate because of agents’ presence.
“The ultimate concern is that it has a chilling effect on our ability to deliver public safety for victims and witnesses of crime,” Hayden said.
He acknowledged ICE has legal authority to operate in courts here, but, “Do I wish they would stay out of our courthouses?” he said. “Absolutely.”
“Do I wish they would stay out of our courthouses? … Absolutely.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden
Assistance for ICE in East Boston
With immigration enforcement mounting, the Massachusetts Trial Court released a policy in May on how court staff are to interact with ICE. Court officers must provide public information to agents when asked — as that information is available to the public — but they can’t initiate communication with ICE.
According to the court rules, agents can enter court lockups to take people into custody, but court staff cannot assist in, nor impede ICE arrests. That was put to the test on the afternoon of Nov. 21 in East Boston — in an alley behind the district court — after Alejandro Orrego Agudelo’s arraignment.
Video taken by an immigration advocate in East Boston and shared with WBUR showed Orrego on the ground — shirtless, barefoot and shackled. Orrego cried out for help as two agents in black hoodies and blue jeans struggled to control him.
A crowd began to form, and a court officer in a white shirt and court badge helped the agents subdue the 27-year-old. At one point, the officer helped shove him into the back of a black SUV.
A woman in the crowd shouted: “Where are you taking him? He was released in court.”
One of the agents responded: “He needs to go to immigration court.”
Sandy Wright, a volunteer with the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, was off camera, challenging the second court officer: “Who do you work for? Are you Trial Court? I thought you’re not supposed to be cooperating with ICE.”
In the video, a second court officer stood before the crowd with her hand up, signaling the crowd to stop, and made a phone call: “This is East Boston district court, we need assistance from Boston Police Department. We have ICE here collecting somebody and we have a large crowd.”
Nine Boston police officers arrived on the scene that day. The police report said Orrego was “violently resisting the agent.” The video showed him struggling, with his hands and feet cuffed.
Orrego was in court facing charges that included assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest, as well as malicious destruction of property and disturbing the peace. He’d been arrested that morning after a neighbor called police to report an altercation with him. A communication with court officials shared with WBUR says ICE had a “detainer” to take him into custody.
But the incident represented a violation of the Massachusetts Trial Court’s policy not to help in an ICE arrest, according to Trial Court spokeswoman Jennifer Donahue.
She said in a statement, “Measures are being taken to address this violation.”
Donahue said the East Boston incident prompted the Court’s security leadership to meet with court officers across the state to reinforce its policy to neither help nor impede ICE arrests. She would not say if anyone has been disciplined for the violation.
The Executive Office of the Trial Court declined requests to interview Chief Justice of the Trial Court Heidi Brieger, who oversees all departments, and Trial Court Administrator Thomas Ambrosino.
Some scoff at measures that limit collaboration between court staff and ICE.
Retired ICE agent Albert Orlowski worked in immigration enforcement for more than two decades. He questioned how court officers could stand by while federal agents struggle to apprehend someone who’s resisting.
“Law enforcement agencies should cooperate with each other,” Orlowski said. “Assisting another officer — that’s called professional courtesy.”
The rationale for courthouse arrests is clear, Orlowski explained: It’s an obvious place to find people facing criminal charges, and it’s safer than most locations, as suspects typically have had to pass through metal detectors.
“It’s so much easier to arrest somebody from a courthouse — when they’re in a controlled environment — than it is to arrest somebody out on the street,” Orlowski said.
Spokespeople for Boston-area ICE and the Department of Homeland Security in Washington D.C. did not respond to requests for comment.
Evading ICE at courthouses
In a separate incident at East Boston District Court in late November, an 18-year-old high school student appeared for a summons. WBUR is referring to him by his middle name, Josué, as he fears retaliation by ICE.
Josué said the judge first heard the cases of non-Latinos, then called matters involving Latinos, all of whom spoke Spanish and required an interpreter. That’s when ICE agents showed up.
Local advocates outside the courthouse that day said ICE arrested at least two people during the proceedings. Josué said as he waited for his case to be called, he could hear the commotion and it was clear people were being grabbed as they left the court. He said he was afraid the agents would arrest him.
“For sure,” he said in Spanish. “But thank God, no.”
Josué said he’s undocumented and has been in the U.S. since he was 15.
When he walked out of the courthouse, Josué said the agents were distracted detaining someone else, and he managed to get into a car waiting around the block. Now he’s trying to keep his head down — he wants to finish high school, and not think too much about getting sent back to Honduras.
“God willing, that won’t happen,” he said.
ICE reported the highest number of Massachusetts district court arrests in Lynn, Woburn, Framingham and Waltham. At the Waltham District Court, west of Boston, an auto repair shop has a front row seat on the action.
Manuel Arias owns the shop across from the courthouse. He recounted seeing at least a dozen ICE arrests over the last few months as people left in cars or on foot. Arias said his staff filmed a number of the arrests, but they’ve become so commonplace that the mechanics stopped taking video.
“The way people have been grabbed has been savage,” Arias said in Spanish. Often, multiple agents grabbed a single person, he said.
In one case, a man bolted from the courthouse, he recalled, then ran across a busy intersection and got away.
Video from Arias, reviewed by WBUR, showed an agent giving chase, then giving up after the man jumps over a guardrail.
Calls for more restrictions on ICE activity in courthouses
In front of the Waltham courthouse steps, there are signs taped to lampposts: “ICE took our neighbor from this spot.”
“Unfortunately our courthouse has become an ICE trap,” said Jonathan Paz, founder of a group called Fuerza Community Defense Network, which monitors ICE activity in the city.
The group’s volunteers have witnessed dozens of ICE arrests in Waltham, Paz said. And in his view, the court system is bolstering the work of agents.
“Why [are] our taxpayer dollars, here in Massachusetts, being used to facilitate and better carry out these arrests in our courthouse?” Paz said.
“It’s remarkable to see just how complicit this whole system is.”
This week, the 32-year-old Waltham resident announced he’s running for Congress. He’s among those calling on the state to put more limits on ICE activity at courthouses.
Paz said he’s waiting for the Trial Court — or the Legislature, or the governor or the attorney general — to keep ICE from interfering with people’s legal proceedings. They can’t stop agents from being on court property, but they can take steps to help people have their day in court without fear of being arrested.
ICE’s policy on courthouse arrests dictates that agents must observe local laws. Some states require agents to present judicial warrants; Massachusetts requires only a form known as a detainer, signed by an ICE officer.
State Sen. Lydia Edwards, of East Boston, co-chairs the Legislature’s judiciary committee. She said she’s in contact with court officials about the spate of ICE arrests, and is considering whether to propose rules requiring agents to present a warrant signed by a judge. A similar initiative was recently enacted in Illinois, as well as in Connecticut.
“While we require a civil detainer, I think it’s worth us talking to the courts about what it means to require a judicial warrant,” Edwards said.
Edwards said any solution — even a state law — should have buy-in from court officials if it’s going to be properly implemented.
Another suggestion, she said, is to broaden access to remote hearings. Not having to go to a courthouse means ICE can’t arrest you there.
“I would love nothing more than for our courts to be a welcoming, safe place for justice, regardless of your immigration status,” she said. “That’s what I want.”
WBUR’s Patrick Madden contributed to this story.
New Hampshire
N.H. wildlife officials caution against feeding deer in winter – The Boston Globe
Deer have evolved to survive the stark winter months, with adaptations like a warm winter coat and stores of body fat they can use for extra energy. The animals also reduce their activity and food intake to conserve energy and migrate to a forested shelter called a deer yard, which can provide some protection from the elements.
“Although people may feel badly for deer and want to help, the Fish and Game Department would like to remind the public to never feed deer as it may actually harm them,” said Becky Fuda, the deer project leader at New Hampshire Fish and Game.
In 2015, 12 deer were found dead around a feeding site in South Hampton, after they were given food they could not digest, according to Fish and Game.
Microorganisms in the deer’s stomach help them to digest food. The natural diet of deer gradually changes with the seasons, and the microorganisms also change over the course of a few weeks to help them digest different foods.
But a sudden shift from a high-fiber woody diet to a high-carbohydrate diet offered by humans can disrupt the deer’s stomach chemistry, making deer less able to digest food, and releasing toxins.
And Fuda said feeding can have other negative consequences for deer, like increased risk of getting hit by a car and increased risk of disease transmission.
“Fish and Game strongly discourages the practice,” she said.
There are about 100,000 white-tailed deer in New Hampshire, according to an estimate from Fish and Game.
This story appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, a free newsletter focused on New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles elsewhere. To receive it via email Monday through Friday, sign up here.
Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
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