Northeast
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.
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Maine
Mother’s Day brings boom in flower sales across Maine
It wouldn’t be Mother’s Day without a stop at the florist.
According to Fox Business, about 154 million flowers are sold during the week of Mother’s Day. So it’s safe to say it was a busy day for stores like Estabrook’s Maine Garden Center and Nursery.
Plenty of families stopped by to pick out flowers on Sunday, looking to choose the perfect bouquet for their moms.
“I think Mother’s Day is tradition, you know, and so it’s great to see families here. We have a lot of new families that have come today for the first time with their young children and their mother. Watching the young kids and seeing how excited they are—their eyes light up at all the beautiful flowers,” Tom Estabrook, president of Estabrook’s, said.
Estabrook says Mother’s Day tends to be a great kickoff to the spring season.
Massachusetts
Life Care Center of Raynham earns deficiency‑free state inspection
Life Care Center of Raynham has received a deficiency‑free inspection result from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, a distinction awarded to a small share of the state’s licensed nursing homes, according to a community announcement.
The inspection was conducted as part of the state’s routine, unannounced nursing home survey process overseen by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. These comprehensive, multi‑day inspections evaluate multiple aspects of facility operations, including staffing levels, quality of care, medication management, cleanliness, food service and resident rights.
State survey records show that Life Care Center of Raynham met required standards during its most recent standard survey, with no deficiencies cited, based on publicly available state data.
The announcement states that fewer than 8% of Massachusetts nursing homes achieve deficiency‑free survey results. That figure could not be independently verified through state or federal data and is attributed to the announcement.
In addition to the state survey outcome, the facility is listed as a five‑star provider for quality measures on the federal Medicare Care Compare website. The five‑star quality measure rating reflects above‑average performance compared with other nursing homes nationwide, according to federal rating methodology.
Officials said the inspection results reflect ongoing compliance with state and federal standards designed to protect resident health and safety. According to the announcement, the outcome is attributed to staff performance and internal quality practices.
This story was created by Dave DeMille, ddemille@gannett.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
New Hampshire
Building back history: Program trains young people to help preserve NH’s landmarks
New Hampshire is full of historic homes, barns and churches that are at risk of falling apart. These structures often need a contractor who understands historic building techniques like timber framing or slate roofing, but there’s a shortage of people who know how to do that work. Advocates fear that gap could mean many historic buildings falling into decay or eventually disappearing.
“Whether it be stonework or blacksmithing, timber framing, window glazing, wooden shingles – all these trades are in demand,” stone mason Kevin Fife said. “But there’s less and less people that do it.”
Fife is one of the people who volunteers for a program that is trying to train more young people for careers in these historic trades. The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance’s Career Exploration in the Old Building Trades is a week-long program where high school students can spend their winter or spring break learning these skills hands-on.
Joshua Adams,17, signed up for the workshops during New Hampshire schools’ vacation week last month. He took Fife’s workshop on how to build a dry stack stone wall, meaning one without mortar or cement holding the stones together.
“I wasn’t really too sure about this one,” he said. “But I’m having a wonderful time here with the stone wall building.”
Joshua is in the construction program at the Concord Regional Technical Center where he learns electrical installation, plumbing and welding, but he’d never learned about some of these historic trades. He was interested in a barn repair class he took, where he learned about old-school timber framing and how buildings were once constructed without nails – just wooden pegs keeping the beams together.
He said he expect that learning these kinds of historic building skills could line him up for a lot of jobs.
“Around here, especially in places like New Hampshire and New England, there’s so much historical stuff,” Joshua said. “I used to go to historical places, museums, with my grandfather all the time. There was just so much work to be done, but I think people just aren’t pursuing it.”
Regional industry surveys show young people aren’t joining the historic trades workforce nearly as fast as tradespeople are retiring. That means the people who still do this work often have years-long waitlists for clients, which could lead to some people deciding that repair work isn’t worth the wait.
“That can mean loss of old windows, loss of old plaster, loss of an old porch that really gives the building its character,” Jennifer Goodman, executive director of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, said. “On another level, we can see that there could be demolitions and total loss of buildings if there aren’t enough people around to do this work.”
The Canterbury Shaker Village is one of the places that will be hiring the next generation of tradespeople. The village was settled in the 1700s by followers of the Christian Shaker movement. The structures across the village – now a museum – date back centuries and are in constant need of maintenance.
To build the preservation workforce, the Preservation Alliance workshops are open to not only construction and carpentry students, but also people who are new to the building industry entirely.
Rowan McGrath, 18, said he knew how to use a drill, but not much more about construction. A computer engineering student at Concord Regional Tech Center, he is attending the spring workshops to give him career options in the future.
“AI: it’s a big thing that’s going to probably take over tech,” Rowan said. “So [with these skills] I have something I can rely on as a backup, and it makes pretty good money.”
Fife, the stone mason, said this line of work is rewarding. He’s made a career of maintaining the stone structures people put together centuries ago. He grew up in Canterbury, and his family goes back generations here.
“I like to do it the traditional way because that’s a part of our ancestry, our heritage, and that’s why people come to New England,” Fife said. “It’s just more fitting.”
If there are enough people who can do the work, they can keep history standing a bit longer.
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