Northeast
GOP rep sounds alarm over Dems 'inciting far-left activists' after private luncheon protest turns physical
EXCLUSIVE: A disruption over the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts turned physical after protesters crashed an event in a red New York district, prompting a Republican lawmaker to raise concerns over Democratic efforts to “organize protests” in GOP districts.
Protesters disrupted a private luncheon hosted by the Rockland Business Association on Thursday, targeting one of the speakers, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., over Republican efforts to cut federal spending.
A video obtained by Fox News Digital shows the protesters, who had bought tickets to the event, screaming, “Lawless Lawler” while holding up a sign that read, “Elon’s Puppet” in an apparent reference to cost-cutting efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The disruption quickly turned physical as the protesters wrestled with the event attendees, who were trying to put an end to the disruption.
Lawler’s team, responding to the protest, pointed to comments by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., where he said that Democrats were sending people to Republican districts to oppose their policies and make them “face the consequences.”
CHAOS ERUPTS AT GOP LAWMAKER’S TOWN HALL AFTER LEFT-WING GROUPS PROMOTE PROTESTS
Protesters disrupted a private luncheon hosted by the Rockland Business Association. (Office of Congressman Mike Lawler)
“We are mobilizing in New York. We have people going to the Republican districts and going after these Republicans who are voting for this and forcing them to either change their vote or face the consequences,” Schumer said during a recent interview with PBS. “This is a long, relentless fight that we fight every day. And I am confident that we will bring Trump’s popularity, numbers and strength down if we keep at it, and keep at it, and keep at it.”
Ciro Riccardi, communications director for Lawler, told Fox News Digital, “It’s outrageous that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is inciting far-left activists to harass and intimidate Republican members of Congress.”
“Yesterday, he appeared on PBS and declared: ‘We are mobilizing in NY. We have people going to the Republican districts, going after Republicans who vote for this & forcing them to change their vote or face consequences.’ Earlier that day, a bipartisan Rockland Business Association luncheon was violently disrupted by protesters, including known provocateur Walter Masterson from Brooklyn,” Riccardi said in a statement.
Lawler, a Republican from New York, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross)
“They assaulted multiple seniors in the process of reading from scripted remarks on their phones. Are these the kinds of ‘consequences’ Schumer is endorsing?” Riccardi told Fox.
Lawler, in a repost of Schumer’s interview on X, said that “in other words, @SenSchumer admits that he is coordinating with far-left activists and groups like Indivisible to organize protests and gaslight folks.”
The protest is one of several disruptions at congressional events this week.
Schumer is seen in Washington on March 14, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu)
A town hall hosted by Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., was disrupted by protesters who heckled for over an hour during the congressman’s event.
Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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Northeast
Maine state budget vote descends into debate over trans athletes and Laurel Libby's censure
The Maine state legislature voted on its biannual budget Thursday night, but the session was delayed by a prolonged debate over transgender athlete inclusion and the censure of Republican Rep. Laurel Libby.
Libby, who was censured by Maine’s Democratic majority and Speaker Ryan Fecteau for a social media post identifying an underage trans athlete, proposed several amendments to the state’s budget via a loophole in the state legislative policy.
Libby submitted 10 floor amendments to the budget Tuesday before the deadline to do so, which isn’t prevented by a censure. So, Libby was permitted to speak and present those amendments during Thursday’s session. One of those amendments was not related to the budget, but was a proposal to keep trans athletes out of girls sports.
However, when Libby did speak to present her amendments, multiple Democrats protested, instigating a debate with Republican representatives.
“During that floor amendment presentation process, there ended up being a floor debate … between the Republicans and Democrats regarding my censure. So, there was essentially a second vote regarding the censure, reaffirming the Democrats’ commitment to silencing my voice and my vote,” Libby said.
The Maine State House at dawn, Jan. 3, 2024, in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
In addition to Libby’s proposal to ban trans athletes from girls sports, she proposed multiple budget bills that would have lowered taxes and government spending. These proposals included a repeal of a tax on solar energy, a repeal of free community college and a repeal of a recent 1% payroll tax.
But Libby’s amendments were not even considered, and Democrats moved to have the amendments indefinitely postponed.
TRUMP ADMIN RESPONDS TO MAINE’S RELUCTANCE TO BAN TRANS ATHLETES FROM GIRLS SPORTS
“I was not able to speak to them, to advocate for them and push for the benefit that they would bring to Maine people,” Libby said.
Ultimately, the budget that passed did not include any Republican input. The Maine House approved the $11.3 billion spending plan by a 74-67 vote along party lines. The Senate passed it 18-17 with two Democrats joining Republicans in opposition.
Libby was censured Feb. 25 because of a social media post of hers that identified a minor by name with a photo. Libby’s post pointed out that a transgender track and field athlete had taken first place at a Maine girls pole vault competition after the athlete competed as a boy just one year earlier.
“It’s a remarkable double standard as there are public photos of this individual in many places, on social media and even some posted by his school. And, so, yes, this post went viral, but this was an individual who participated in a public event, who publicly stood on a podium and accepted a championship medal that rightfully belonged to the girls standing on the second-place spot,” Libby previously told Fox News Digital.
Libby filed a lawsuit against Fecteau and Maine House Clerk Robert Hunt, which seeks to have her voting and speaking rights restored.
Libby represents more than 9,000 constituents in Maine’s House District 90, and six of them have signed onto the lawsuit as plaintiffs because the censure has prevented her from carrying out other legislative actions to serve those constituents.
“The speaker’s actions did not just disenfranchise me but disenfranchised the thousands of constituents that I represent, and that’s the bigger picture here; the fact that the speaker, in his eyes, retaliated against me because he doesn’t like what I have to say,” Libby previously told Fox News Digital.
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Road salt is leaching into the reservoirs that hold New York City’s tap water and could make some of it unhealthy to drink by the turn of the century, according to a new study commissioned by city environmental officials.
The study, released last week by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, found that while salt was edging upward throughout New York’s vast watershed, it was especially pronounced in the New Croton Reservoir, just north of the city.
In that supply, which provides about 10 percent of the city’s drinking water, levels of chloride — a chemical found in salt and an indicator of salinity — tripled over the last 30 years.
If the trend continues, drinking water from the New Croton Reservoir may not meet current safety standards by 2108, according to the report.
While road salt is a main driver of salinity levels in drinking water throughout the United States, other contributing factors include wastewater treatment plant discharges and agriculture, according to the report. Elevated salt levels in fresh water can contribute to health issues like high blood pressure and can also damage the ecosystem, the study said.
Reducing salinity levels throughout New York City’s water system should start with more prudent use of road salt, said Rohit T. Aggarwala, the head of the environmental protection department, which manages the water supply and commissioned the report.
“We just need people who operate roads to start realizing that this is a chemical that we are adding to our environment, and we have to take that seriously,” Mr. Aggarwala said.
Road salt is cheap and plentiful, but it is also dangerous for the environment and corrosive for infrastructure.
In general, local municipalities, and often the state’s Department of Transportation, make the decision to use salt on roadways — a crucial safety measure that melts ice.
“We understand that there is a delicate balance between protecting the environment and maintaining safe highways for motorists,” said Joseph Morrissey, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation. The department minimizes salt usage, Mr. Morrissey said, with methods that include adhering to prescribed application rates, calibrating equipment throughout the winter, training drivers on best practices and using brine, a liquid version of salt that is less concentrated but more expensive.
Officials are focused on curbing the use of salt, while continuing to explore other affordable alternatives, like beet juice — which lessens salt’s corrosive qualities when mixed with brine — and sand, which does not melt ice but provides traction.
Recently, Pete Harckham, a Democratic state senator who represents parts of Westchester County and the Hudson Valley, introduced legislation to create a city and state task force that would explore the issue. “We’ve got to use this as a teachable moment and rethink how we do things,” Mr. Harckham said.
New York City’s pristine tap water is a source of pride among residents and local leaders. Most of it, about 90 percent, comes from rural areas in the Catskill Mountains, a range that extends more than 125 miles north of New York City. It represents the largest unfiltered water supply in the United States.
The remaining 10 percent from the New Croton Reservoir, a collection of 11 smaller reservoirs and three lakes, is filtered, but not for chloride. New Croton is in Westchester County, a relatively dense suburban area, which offers less of an opportunity for the natural environment to absorb runoff from salt on the road. In the less populated Catskills, more vacant land surrounds the water supply, and there have been only marginal increases of chloride levels, Mr. Aggarwala explained.
Last fall, the city temporarily relied on the Croton reservoir for more of its drinking water when half the Catskills supply went offline for repairs to a major aqueduct. An unexpected drought halted the repairs.
Should salinity levels continue to rise in the Croton reservoir, the city could lose a valuable resource, Mr. Aggarwala said.
“One of New York’s greatest strengths is the fact that we have so many different sources of water, 19 reservoirs,” he said. “If we lose the Croton system, that just makes New York City’s water supply much less resilient, and that makes it much less reliable.”
For several suburban towns that draw water directly from smaller reservoirs that feed into the New Croton, the salinity levels are more of an immediate concern. Somers, Yorktown and the City of Peekskill, all in Westchester, draw water from one of those smaller reservoirs, the Amawalk, where chloride levels could exceed safety standards in about 30 years, the study said.
“While I was alarmed by the report, I was not surprised in any way, because we’ve been dealing with this for some years now,” said Mr. Harckham, who represents many of these towns.
Several private wells in the area have had to be taken offline because of salinity levels, he said.
Methods that can help with over-salting roads, Mr. Harckham said, include thermal devices that can take a road’s temperature, to avoid unnecessary applications.
The solution, Mr. Harckham said, “is an equation of knowledge, technology, best practices and money.”
The Celtics got back in the win column, beating the Kings 113-95 on Monday in Sacramento. They won their sixth straight game to get to 53-19 while the Kings dropped to 35-36.
But Celtics fans who missed the late-night game will keep a close eye on Jayson Tatum’s injury status going forward. The C’s star had to leave midway through the third quarter due to a left ankle injury. He didn’t return to the game as he was in clear pain immediately after turning that ankle.
Boston was at relatively solid health heading into the game as it returned Jaylen Brown to the lineup for the first time in more than a week. So the C’s started with Tatum, Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Kristaps Porzingis, though they missed a pair of rotation players.
The Celtics got off to a slow start as the Kings built a nine-point lead. But they locked in starting in the second quarter. The C’s cruised in control in the second half, creating their own 22-point lead, as they didn’t let the Kings to mount a comeback.
Tatum finished with 25 points, seven rebounds and eight assists even though he had an early exit. Payton Pritchard finished with 22 points while Kristaps Porzingis also continues to make an impact as he had 16 points and eight rebounds. Domantas Sabonis had 16 points and 17 rebounds while DeMar DeRozan posted 20 points and 10 assists.
The Celtics continue their six-game road trip by taking on the Suns at 10 p.m. Wednesday in Phoenix coming up next. Here are four takeaways from Boston’s win over Sacramento:
Injury status: The image of Tatum writhing on the ground grabbing at his left ankle was an immediate scary sight for Celtics fans. Tatum rose and hit the 3-pointer, but Sabonis entered his landing space on the contest. The foul was quickly upgraded to a flagrant foul as the league outlawed dangerous closeouts for a reason. Tatum walked gingerly and slowly after getting up off the court to head to the C’s bench. But after he shot his free throws, he immediately went to the locker room to get evaluated. Considering the playoffs are just a month away, the Celtics will be cautious with their All-Star and his ankle going forward.
Starter minutes: The Celtics got to open Monday’s game with their preferred starting lineup, though that’s been a mixed bag throughout the season. Boston got off to another slow start, though it dug out of the deficit quickly. Still, it’s been tough for the C’s to get continuity with their starting group. Considering Tatum just hurt his ankle, there are only so many games to continue building that chemistry. But on the flip side, making sure they’re fully healthy is the priority with the playoffs so close.
Rookie continues to shine: The Celtics were without Al Horford and Sam Hauser, so there were again rotation minutes available. Baylor Scheierman continues to produce when his number is called and that was again the case Monday. He had a nifty pass to Pritchard after a steal in the first half where he made the behind-the-back assist. Scheierman’s activity level is also noticeable whenever he’s on the court, looking like a different player compared to the beginning of the season. Those are all positive developments for the Celtics as he finished Monday with nine points and seven rebounds.
Midway through trip: The Celtics still have three more games left away from home, but they just keep picking up road victories. After Monday’s win, they’re now 29-7 on the road compared to 24-12 at home. That road win percentage, for now, is the best in franchise history. So while there have been some struggles at TD Garden, the Celtics look comfortable playing in front of road crowds. Though it also helps that C’s fans take over some road arenas.
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