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'Commonsense' proposal would strengthen homeowners' ability to boot squatters: 'It's insanity'

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'Commonsense' proposal would strengthen homeowners' ability to boot squatters: 'It's insanity'

A Republican lawmaker in Pennsylvania has proposed legislation addressing the nationwide squatting surge because homeowners find themselves legally powerless to remove unwanted trespassers from their properties.

Donna Scheuren, who represents the Pennsylvania House of Representatives’ 147th district, introduced the Homeowner Protection and Squatter Eviction Act earlier this month and says she was inspired in part by legislation in Florida recently signed into law eliminating squatters’ rights.

“With multiple, recent high-profile squatter incidents happening across the country, my office has received multiple calls and emails from constituents concerned about it happening in our community,” Scheuren said in a press release.

Scheuren told Fox News Digital squatters can “easily take advantage” of a variety of buildings in her district ranging from homes to barns to sheds to vacation homes and cabins, and she hopes to eliminate the red tape in the process.

DELAWARE MAN LOSES $125,000 PROPERTY TO SQUATTER NEIGHBOR AFTER TRYING TO REMOVE GOAT PEN SHE BUILT ON IT

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GOP Pennsylvania Rep. Donna Scheuren and a photo of damage caused by a Philadelphia squatter (Fox News Digital)

“I think eliminating all the red tape, such as having an owner go to court to prove the squatter is not a tenant, or that they never had a previous landlord relationship at some point, are some red tape steps that exist now. All of that is just gone, and the police can grab them, throw them out and reinstate the homeowner immediately, which is common sense and what needs to be done,” Scheuren told Fox News Digital.

In squatting situations across the country, homeowners who call police to report a squatter are often told there is nothing law enforcement can do since they do not have the authority to determine who is telling the truth in terms of property paperwork. 

Scheuren’s bill aims to change that by allowing municipal and state officers to immediately remove a squatter from a building if the homeowner signs an affidavit stating he or she lawfully owns the property.

HOMEOWNER ISSUES DIRE WARNING AFTER ‘SCARRING’ ORDEAL WITH SQUATTER: ‘IT COULD BE YOUR STORY TOMORROW’

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Chris Harte, 35, bought an investment property last year in northwest Philadelphia. After substantial renovations, he listed it for sale, only to have squatters break in. (Photos courtesy Chris Harte)

Fox News Digital has previously reported that homeowners face lengthy court delays and hurdles that can rack up substantial legal fees along with damage costs. Scheuren’s bill would alleviate that by increasing the penalty of damaging property and allowing homeowners to seek treble damages and attorneys fees through the civil courts. 

“Incidents such as a recent one in Philadelphia, where a homeowner paid squatters $1,200 to get them to leave because police would not remove the squatters, or in New York, where a woman was murdered by squatters when they bashed her head into the wall upon returning to her home after vacationing in Spain, are unacceptable and show the law needs to provide better protections for homeowners,” Scheuren said. 

“This legislation does just that, protecting the rights of lawful property owners, instead of the criminals who are breaking the law.”

PORTLAND FAMILY TERRORIZED BY FIRES SET BY HOMELESS SQUATTERS NEXT DOOR: ‘MY WIFE WAS SCREAMING’

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Venezuelan TikToker Leonal Moreno urged illegal immigrants to take over abandoned homes and invoke squatters’ rights.  (TikTok/Screenshot/Leonal Moreno)

Across the country, the squatting crisis has become intertwined with the illegal immigration crisis. Recently, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela bragged on TikTok about squatting and urged his followers to abuse the system to do the same.

Scheuren told Fox News Digital calls from her constituents came rolling in after that viral video, and her bill addresses the issue of illegal immigrant squatting by requiring law enforcement to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if a squatter is in the United States illegally and to comply with any detainers placed by ICE.

“We have to look out for homeowners before illegal or just criminal squatters. Doesn’t even have to be illegal immigrants,” Scheuren told Fox News Digital. “The fact that the criminal squatters seem to have a little bit more protection than the homeowners and the citizens of the country. It’s insanity.”

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Scheuren’s bill will have to make its way through the Democrat-controlled House in Pennsylvania, along with the GOP-controlled Senate, where a bill has also been introduced to eventually be signed by the commonwealth’s Democratic governor.

But Scheuren told Fox News Digital she was encouraged by Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman recently blasting squatters and saying they “have no rights.”

“With the pressure and hopefully the media putting more attention on it and then bringing it to the forefront that now even one of our senators wants to see Harrisburg legislate on this issue, I have renewed enthusiasm that we might be able to get something done,” Scheuren said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office declined to say whether he would sign either bill if they reached his desk, saying, “We are reviewing this proposal as it moves through the legislative process.”

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Vermont

Vermont high school sports scores, results, stats for Saturday, Jan. 10

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Vermont high school sports scores, results, stats for Saturday, Jan. 10


The 2025-2026 Vermont high school winter season has begun. See below for scores, schedules and game details (statistical leaders, game notes) from basketball, hockey, gymnastics, wrestling, Nordic/Alpine skiing and other winter sports.

TO REPORT SCORES

Coaches or team representatives are asked to report results ASAP after games by emailing sports@burlingtonfreepress.com. Please submit with a name/contact number.

Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.

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Contact Judith Altneu at JAltneu@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.

SATURDAY’S H.S. GAMES

Girls basketball 

Games at 12:30 p.m. unless noted

Missisquoi 50, Winooski 49

M: Kelsey Paradee 14 points. Aurora King 13 points.

W: Taraji Bradley 18 points. Moo July Htoo 14 points.

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Note: King hit the game winner at the buzzer to give the Thunderbirds the win.

Enosburg at Colchester

Mount Abraham at Middlebury

Danville at Williamstown, 4 p.m. 

Boys basketball

Games at 2:30 p.m. unless noted

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Hazen 65, Vergennes 60

H: Jameson Lamarre 22 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists. Sullivan Laflam 17 points. Ethan Gann 10 points, 6 rebounds.

V: Theo Elzinga 15 points, 12 rebounds. Cohen Howell 15 points. Ryan Wright 11 points.

Lake Region at Missisquoi, 1:00 p.m.

BFA-Fairfax at Danville

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Stowe at Richford

Oxbow at Blue Mountain

Northfield at Williamstown, 7 p.m.

Watch Vermont high school games on NFHS Network

Girls hockey

Burlington/Colchester at Chittenden Charge, 2:20 p.m.

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Brattleboro at U-32, 2:30 p.m. 

BFA-St. Albans at Essex, 3 p.m. 

Burr and Burton at Stowe, 4:15 p.m. 

Hartford at Rutland, 4:30 p.m. 

Kingdom Blades at Rice, 4:35 p.m. 

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Harwood at Woodstock, 5:15 p.m. 

Spaulding at Missisquoi, 5:30 p.m. 

Boys hockey

BFA-St. Albans at Essex, 5 p.m.

Rice at Champlain Valley, 6:50 p.m.

Mount Mansfield at Burr and Burton, 5 p.m.

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U-32 at Colchester, 4:50 p.m.

Stowe at Brattleboro, 4:45 p.m.

Middlebury at Saranac, NY

Milton at Missisquoi, 8 p.m.

Burlington at Hartford, 2 p.m.

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St. Johnsbury at Woodstock, 7:15 p.m.

MONDAY’S H.S. GAMES

Girls basketball 

Games at 7 p.m. unless noted

Spaulding at Lyndon, 6:30 p.m. 

BFA-Fairfax at Twinfield/Cabot

Milton at Enosburg

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Winooski at Danville

Boys basketball

Games at 7 p.m. unless noted

BFA-St. Albans at Burlington

Thetford at Peoples

St. Johnsbury at Champlain Valley

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Montpelier at Harwood

Essex at South Burlington

Rice at Mount Mansfield

(Subject to change)





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Northeast

Brown University shooting videos show awareness and planning, experts say

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Brown University shooting videos show awareness and planning, experts say

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Federal investigators are continuing to piece together the December shootings that killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor, leaving nine others wounded, authorities said.

Authorities on Tuesday released transcripts of videos they say were recorded by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the man responsible for the Brown University mass shooting and the killing of an MIT physicist.

Two Brown students, Ella Cook, 19, and Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed in the Dec. 13 shooting on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus, and nine other people were wounded, authorities said. Just two days later, Nuno Loureiro, a professor at MIT, was killed in Brookline, Mass.

As of the latest update, eight of the students injured at Brown had been released from the hospital, while one person remained hospitalized.

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Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts released this image showing the man identified in the deadly shootings of Brown University students in Rhode Island and a professor from MIT. (Justice Department)

BROWN UNIVERSITY SHOOTER CONFESSED IN VIDEOS TO PLANNING ATTACK FOR LONG TIME, SHOWED NO REMORSE: DOJ

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, investigators executed a federal search warrant on Dec. 18 at a storage facility used by Neves Valente, a Portuguese national. The FBI recovered an electronic device containing several short videos recorded after the shootings. Transcripts of those videos, translated from Portuguese to English, were released Tuesday.

In the recordings, prosecutors said Neves Valente admitted he had been planning the Brown shooting for a long time and said Brown was his intended target. Authorities said he did not provide a motive for targeting Brown students or the MIT professor.

Investigators said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced the gun used in the shootings as part of the investigation.

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Officials have not publicly released details about the weapon’s origin or purchase history. Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI for comment.

Split image showing Brown University victims Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, alongside MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who was killed. (Instagram/elinacoutlakis/GoFundMe/Jake Belcher for MIT)

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Josh Schirard, a former tactical emergency response director at the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting and director of Byrna Law Enforcement, said the transcripts confirm responsibility for the attack but offer little clarity about why it occurred.

“He understood what he did. He understood that he had a why behind it,” Schirard said. “He just didn’t opine on why that was.”

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Schirard said the shooter rejected ideological explanations and denied being mentally ill.

Investigators tow away the Nissan Sentra used by Brown University shooter Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, Salem, N.H., Thursday, Dec. 19, 2025. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

EVIDENCE SHOWS DEADLY BROWN, MIT SHOOTINGS MAY BE LINKED, SOURCES SAY: REPORT

“He even says, ‘I’m not mentally ill. I am very sane, and I did this knowing what I was doing,’” Schirard said.

“He talks about how killing those people was hard,” Schirard said, adding that the shooter said he envied people who could do so “without difficulty.”

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A split image shows Claudio Neves-Valente, identified as the Brown University gunman, wearing the same jacket as a man identified earlier as a person of interest in the case. (Providence Police Department)

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An autopsy previously found Neves Valente died by suicide two days before his body was discovered in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.

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Authorities said they do not believe there is any ongoing public safety threat associated with the shootings and that additional updates will be provided.

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Boston, MA

Boston woman flummoxed after rat makes a home in stroller she left on porch

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Boston woman flummoxed after rat makes a home in stroller she left on porch


Local News

Boston Reddit did not mince words when it came to the best way of evicting this brazen stroller squatter.

A Boston woman is dealing with an unwelcome tenant on her front porch — a rat that has turned a baby stroller into a cozy winter hideaway.

The woman shared her ordeal Thursday on the r/Boston subreddit, explaining that she had left her stroller, complete with a muff, on her second-floor porch. When she checked on it later, she discovered a rat had moved in.

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“I stupidly left our stroller with a muff out on the porch,” she wrote. “Today I found a big rat is nested in there. I can’t see clearly, but it seems it has chewed up the muff lining and is using the filling for a nest.”

The woman said she’s called a few pest control companies, but instead of offering immediate removal, they just tried to sell her a long-term bait boxing service. 

“…Which is fine, but I urgently need someone to just safely remove the rat and the nest so I can clean or dispose of the stroller if needed,” she wrote, adding that she couldn’t secure a next-day appointment and felt Monday was too far away.

Turning to Reddit for advice, the woman asked whether she should attempt to remove the rat herself, saying she was worried about being bitten or contracting a disease. “Which professional can I call?” she asked.

Redditors reacted with a mix of humor and practical advice. The top comment began, “Sounds like it’s their porch now,” before offering an elaborate plan involving a bucket trap and joking that the rat could then “go on to be a Michelin star chef at a French restaurant,” a nod to the 2007 film “Ratatouille.”

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Others suggested she evict the rat by vigorously shaking the stroller or whacking it with a broom, while many urged her to cut her losses entirely and throw the stroller out.

“I honestly wouldn’t ever use it for a small child after a rat had been cribbed up there,” one commenter wrote.

Pest control experts generally advise against handling rats without professional help. According to Terminix, rodents can become aggressive and scratch when threatened and may carry diseases such as hantavirus and leptospirosis.

“When it comes to getting rid of a rat’s nest in the house, DIY treatments won’t cut it,” the company warns on its website.

Boston has been grappling with heightened rat activity in recent years, prompting a citywide rodent action plan known as BRAP. City officials urge residents to “see something, squeak something!” and report rodent activity to 311. Officials said response teams are typically dispatched within one to two days.

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Morgan Rousseau is a freelance writer for Boston.com, where she reports on a variety of local and regional news.





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