New Hampshire
‘A day I will never forget’: Massive shark crashes bachelorette party off NH coast
For bride-to-be Morgan Irons, her bachelorette party started out as a picture-perfect escape on the open water, but it quickly became a personal tribute to the 50th anniversary of “Jaws” as she came face-to-face with her deepest fear.
“Any type of open water, I just am very fearful,” Irons said.
To celebrate, Irons’ future sister-in-law, Colby Taylor, planned a surprise bachelorette cruise around the picturesque Isle of Shoals, promising a relaxing day of whale watching.
“I’ve never seen a shark. My dad’s been a lobsterman his whole life, I’ve always been on the boat, I’ve never seen a shark in these waters, you have nothing to be worried about,” Taylor recalled assuring her.
That assurance quickly evaporated, according to RJ Lincoln, the ship’s first mate.
“All the gals are out back having a fun time, and all of the sudden, we hear Colby scream,” Lincoln said.
“Colby goes, ‘I see a fin!’ And we all look and everybody’s like, ‘Oh, no, that’s a bird, that’s a sunfish.’ And she’s like, ‘No, that’s a fin!’ And my heart starts racing,” Irons said.
The bride’s last sail before the veil quickly evoked images of the iconic 1975 movie.
Filmed right here in Massachusetts, the summer blockbuster became a classic American movie.
“We were quoting ‘Jaws’ going out into the ocean, so maybe we manifested the sharks? I’m not sure we meant to,” Taylor said.
As Taylor captured the sharks on camera, Irons sought refuge at the back of the boat. The group, about 15 miles offshore, ultimately spotted not one, but two sharks.
“We looked down and then this monstrosity, it looked prehistoric, like a dinosaur coming out from underneath. It was just this massive, massive body,” Taylor said.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC) confirmed they were basking sharks, a species known to migrate to these waters around this time of year. As the second-largest shark species, outgrown only by the whale shark, they can reach lengths of up to 40 feet, though most adults average between 20 and 30 feet. Their immense size often leads to them being mistaken for great white sharks, particularly in Massachusetts waters.
Actor Richard Dreyfuss was back on the Vineyard 50 years after helping to create a Hollywood phenomenon: Jaws.
However, these gentle giants are filter-feeders and harmless to humans, according to the AWSC. They’re commonly seen swimming near the surface with their dorsal fin protruding, mouths wide open as they filter plankton using bristle-like gill rakers.
RJ Lincoln, despite his extensive time on the water, still found the sighting remarkable.
“To be honest, that’s the biggest basking shark I’ve ever seen. It was like 25 or 30 feet,” Lincoln said.
“It was the topic of conversation for the rest of the night,” Taylor said.
“Definitely a day I will never forget. That is for sure,” Irons added.
New Hampshire
More businesses would be exempt from a key state tax under a proposal heading to Ayotte’s desk
The New Hampshire House and Senate stopped shy of cutting a major state business tax outright Thursday, but did pass a plan to lift the tax’s filing threshold, and spend $2.5 million to lift Medicaid provider rates at state nursing homes.
“What you have before you is a bill that will protect our nursing homes, and protect our small businesses,” said Republican Sen. Tim Lang of Sanbornton.
Under the bill, the threshold on the state business and enterprise tax would be lifted from $297,000 to $400,000, a move GOP leaders expect will exempt about 4,000 small businesses from having to pay the tax.
The bill’s inclusion of money to boost provider rates for nursing homes was a policy the Senate prioritized, and its inclusion in the bill earned the plan some Democratic support. But that evaporated when Republicans in the House pushed to add a trigger to the bill to automatically reduce the rate of the tax when collections from the levy far exceeded estimates.
“The rate cuts are reckless and irresponsible and would potentially cost hundreds of millions of dollars in the future,” said Sen. Cindy Rosenwald of Nashua.
Under the plan, the tax rate, which now stands at 0.55%, would automatically drop by .005% anytime collections on the tax surpassed estimates by $100 million until the rate of the levy reached 0.25%, equivalent to the rate when the tax was created in 1993. Any reduction would also require the state’s Rainy Day Fund to hold a strong balance.
Cutting business taxes has been a focus for GOP leaders in Concord for years, and they’ve dropped the rate of the Business Enterprise Tax four times since 2016.
Lebanon and Israel provisionally agreed in Washington to a new ceasefire Wednesday. But hours later Israel continued attacks and the militant group Hezbollah said it rejected any ceasefire that did not start with the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory.
The fighting appeared to jettison immediate prospects of a wider ceasefire between the United States and Iran. Iran has said it will not agree to a ceasefire with the U.S. and Israel unless there is one in Lebanon.
UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping operation for Lebanon, announced Thursday that one of its peacekeepers had been killed and others wounded when mortars hit their position near Marjayoun in southeastern Lebanon.
A U.N. source said the mortars appeared to have come from Hezbollah. The attack came as Israel and Lebanon were negotiating a ceasefire in Washington. The person asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. Hezbollah has been targeting Israeli army installations in the vicinity.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Esmail Qaani was quoted by Iranian state media Thursday saying that Israel must withdraw to pre-war positions as the first step in a ceasefire with Lebanon. Before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Israel held five positions across the border in Lebanon. It now occupies large parts of the south of the country.
The U.S. does not speak directly to Hezbollah, which it classifies as a terrorist organization. Lebanon’s negotiations in Washington were carried out without direct inclusion of the Iran-backed group.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that the ceasefire would come into force within 24 hours of all concerned parties approving it, especially Hezbollah.
A Hezbollah official told NPR that Hezbollah officially informed the Lebanese president that it would not accept any ceasefire that did not begin with the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon.
The official asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said Israel was demanding the creation of what it called a de-militarized zone within Lebanon while being able to continue attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah. He said Israel would not be withdrawing from the south.
Jawad Rizkallah contributed reporting from Beirut.
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