Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
Northeast
New Jersey high school allegedly banned yellow ribbons honoring Israeli hostages: 'Deeply offensive'
A New Jersey high school is accused of banning yellow ribbons, aimed at honoring Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas, at a club fair, a move critics described as “deeply offensive” and “blatant antisemitism.”
Fair Lawn High School also prohibited Israeli flags at the event, because administrators believed the flags were too political, some parents and the group StopAntisemitism allege, noting that members of the Muslim Student Association were permitted to display a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by men from parts of the Middle East, according to the New York Post.
The event, according to the report, was partly promoting a trip to Israel.
“What happened at Fair Lawn High School is an alarming case of hypocrisy and blatant antisemitism,” StopAntisemitism founder Liora Rez told the outlet. “This incident is nothing short of a direct violation of Jewish students’ rights to express their identity and humanitarian concerns.”
AMERICAN FATHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE ITAY CHEN PUSHES US, ISRAEL ON ‘PLAN B’ AS NEGOTIATIONS FALTER
A flag of Israel with a yellow ribbon added is seen near Frishman beach on October 03, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Getty Images)
Between 33% to 40% of the 35,000 residents in Fair Lawn are Jewish. Fair Lawn in Bergen County is located about 17 miles from New York City.
This comes a year after Hamas terrorists’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against Israel, which led to military retaliation from Israel and sparked a still-ongoing war in the Middle East. More than 250 people, including some Americans, were abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks. Many hostages have since been released, rescued or killed, while dozens are still held by Hamas.
One parent said the school district’s failure to address complaints about alleged antisemitism is not a new concern.
“The incident at Fair Lawn High School’s Club Fair is not an isolated event but part of a disturbing pattern of antisemitism that I and other parents have been battling for years,” Adi Vaxman, founder and president of Operation Israel, which provides humanitarian relief to Israel, told the New York Post.
“Despite numerous meetings with the board of education and the superintendent, promises of inclusion in anti-antisemitism efforts have gone unfulfilled,” added Vaxman, whose daughter Maya attends the school.
Vaxman continued: “The administrator’s claim that the yellow hostage ribbon — a humanitarian symbol calling for the release of innocent civilians abducted from their homes and held in subhuman conditions by Hamas — is ‘political’ is deeply offensive and unacceptable.”
ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF OCT. 7 ATTACKS ARRIVES WITH LASTING TRAUMA FOR ISRAELIS, AMERICAN JEWS: EXPERT
A bring them home necklace with a yellow ribbon pin during a tribute to the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, on October 6, 2024. (Getty Images)
Claiming a double standard, Vaxman said that the black-and-white keffiyeh, which she says is “a symbol of the armed resistance against Israelis,” was allowed to remain on display at the club event for hours.
“This glaring double standard exposes the bias of the school and the administrator in question,” she said. “It’s alarming that the school supports the Muslim Student Association identifying as Palestinian while censoring the Israeli flag for the Jewish Student Union. Israel is the world’s only Jewish state, naturally associated with Judaism and relevant to the [Jewish Student Union’s] advertised trip to Israel.”
Fair Lawn High Principal Paul Gorski released a statement defending the school’s response to ribbons and flags.
“We take pride in our Student Activities program as well as the leadership shown by both students and faculty,” Gorski wrote. “During this year’s event, both the Muslim Student Association and the Jewish Student Union were asked to adjust items that were not part of their original displays. Both groups received the same instruction and were treated equally.”
Gorski said no students were disciplined in connection with their participation at the club fair.
The Israeli flag with the yellow ribbon symbolizing solidarity with abductees in the camp set up by the families of the abductees, near Benjamin Netanyahu’s house, on August 13, 2024, in Jerusalem, Israel. (Getty Images)
The principal also said the high school participates in the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” initiative and that the school was “proudly recognized” with a Gold Star distinction from the group during a ceremony earlier this year.
“We condemn antisemitism and remain steadfast in our commitment to creating an inclusive community where hate is not tolerated,” he said. “When we return to school after being closed for the Jewish holidays, we will engage in dialogue with our students and community. Hate has no home at Fair Lawn High School.”
Vaxman, however, maintains that the school discriminated against Jewish students during the club fair.
“This selective application of rules further demonstrates the discriminatory treatment of Jewish students,” Vaxman said. “The school’s response is extremely disappointing and fails to address these core issues. Their participation in the ‘No Place for Hate’ initiative rings hollow when Jewish students face such blatant discrimination and intimidation in their school on a regular basis. We demand concrete actions, not empty platitudes, to combat antisemitism and ensure true equality for ‘all’ students.”
Read the full article from Here
Continue Reading
FALMOUTH — Standing in the apple orchard at Gilsland Farm, Chris Maher instantly recognized the woodchuck waddling across the grass 30 yards away.
“There’s Torch,” said Maher, needing neither her binoculars nor the telescope she had on hand to identify the tan marmot the size of a small cat. “And, oh, look, she’s got a pup with her.”
Trailing behind Torch was one of her several “pups” in her litter this year. Only 6 weeks old, the baby woodchuck was the size of a grapefruit, scurrying around under the watchful eye of its mother, who was nibbling clover flowers. Their burrow was just yards behind them, under the base of a tree stump.
Maher has been studying the woodchucks, also known as groundhogs, at Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm since 1998. A biology professor at the University of Southern Maine, her office is 10 minutes away in Portland.
Over the nearly 30 years of studying this population in Falmouth, she’s been answering longstanding questions about the species. Not whether they’ll see their shadow on Feb. 2, and not how much wood they could chuck if they could chuck wood, but how and why they behave the way they do.
“They’re basically a lot more social than people had thought they were,” she said.
Purchase this image
Woodchucks are one of six native marmot species in North America and the least social of them all. When Maher first started reading the scientific literature on the species in the 1980s and 1990s, it said that woodchucks were solitary and territorial — but some anecdotal reports also shared they were perhaps more social than previously thought.
When Maher moved to Maine in 1997 to work at USM after years studying the behaviors of other species, she decided the social lives of woodchucks were worth examining. With the permission of Maine Audubon, she started trapping and tagging the woodchucks at Gilsland Farm. It became the longest study of woodchucks ever conducted.
While there were once three dozen woodchucks on the property, now only eight adults have multiple burrows each in the many fields, orchard, peony bushes, parking lot and underneath Maine Audubon’s outdoor classroom. Maher’s workforce has declined as well, as her busy schedule as an interim dean at USM means she has less time for student assistance.
One of the eight and Torch’s adult daughter, named Tremont, also wandered under the apple trees. After she left her mother’s burrow, she moved in next door, digging burrows under the outdoor classroom and in a field of goldenrod.
“Born in the orchard, and basically never left home. The parallels with people are amusing,” said Maher.
With her handheld computer, which resembles a PIN pad in the grocery store checkout, Maher took a 15-minute sample of Torch’s behavior, hitting buttons every time Torch switched what she was doing. There are codes for when the woodchucks eat, groom themselves, dig, recline or are on alert.
Female woodchucks have a territory of about three-quarters of an acre. Maher’s research found that related female woodchucks will overlap their territory, previously thought to never happen. Mother and daughter, aunts and nieces, grandmother and granddaughter are all more tolerant of sharing space than unrelated woodchucks.
But sometimes they still need to take a stand. That morning, Tremont and Torch got into a fight, squeaking at and batting each other. With their familiar relationship bringing higher tolerance, it wasn’t a “knock-down, drag-out” brawl, said Maher, just “Torch being Torch.”
For the fight, Maher hits the button to indicate “other.”
Purchase this image
Maher knows that not everyone is a fan of woodchucks.
“People kind of run this gamut between ‘I hate woodchucks, because they eat my garden, or they dig under my shed.’ Or they love woodchucks — chances are, those people don’t have a garden,” she said.
Despite the woodchucks who keep eating the zucchini plant in her home garden, Maher maintains her affinity for the animals. Over the years, she’s trapped and tagged 630 Falmouth woodchucks.
In addition to the number on its metal ear tag, each woodchuck also gets a name, which helps her students remember them. Each year, there’s a theme: cars, cartoon characters, musical instruments and colleges. This year, she’s thinking it will be sports teams, in honor of the World Cup.
Now she’s attempting to trap and tag the pups born this year, including those of Tremont, who was born three years ago when the naming convention was Maine towns and had four pups this year.
Maher set four traps at right angles around the entrance of one of Tremont’s burrows, smearing a dab of Hannaford’s smooth peanut butter on the pressure plate that will trigger the trap to close if stepped on. Apple slices she dropped inside the metal grate increase the temptation.
Between the traps, Maher shoved wooden shingles to make a fence. Adult woodchucks will get creative trying to escape, as evidenced by tooth marks on the wood. Catching the pups is easier.
“They’re naive,” she said.
” data-image-caption=”<p>University of Southern Maine biology professor Chris Maher sets four traps around a woodchuck burrow in the Pond Meadow at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth on Monday, June 15, 2026. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)
” data-large-file=”https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?w=780″ height=”683″ width=”1024″ alt=”” class=”wp-image-7669140″ srcset=”https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg 3000w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=780,520 780w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=400,267 400w” sizes=”auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”/><figcaption>University of Southern Maine biology professor Chris Maher sets four traps around a woodchuck burrow in the Pond Meadow at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth on Monday, June 15, 2026. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)<span class=)
Purchase this image
Once a pup is caught, she’ll weigh it, take a hair sample, give it a numbered ear tag and paint a distinct mark on it with Revlon black hair dye, so she can recognize it from a distance.
Keeping track of which of these squirrely animals are related for 28 years, as well as what they’re doing and where they’re going, is no small feat. Maher’s logbook is filled with decades of notes on trappings and re-trappings of the hundreds of animals.
“Long-term studies are really valuable,” said Daniel Blumstein, a biology professor at University of California Los Angeles who studies yellow-bellied marmots. “Having decades of information gives us a whole different way of thinking about what’s going on.”
In addition to changing understandings of their social behavior, Maher has conducted numerous other studies across the course of the project, including the variation in woodchuck personalities, tracking their movement with radio transmitters, testing their paternity using DNA from hair samples and seeing if they pay attention to the alarm calls of other animals (turns out, woodchucks care what chipmunks have to say).
She’s also seen their lineages unfold across generations, such as with the woodchuck named Bonnie.
Maher first caught Bonnie in 1998. She lived for 12 years, twice the average woodchuck lifespan, until she disappeared. Her legacy living onwards, as having trapped and tagged her offspring, and her offspring’s offspring, Maher was able to track Bonnie’s bloodline for seven generations until it died out in 2018.
Maher wondered what exactly happened to Bonnie. The answer was unearthed in 2021, when Maine Audubon tore down the pavilion that her burrow had been under. Curled up underneath was the mummified body of Bonnie, identifiable by the tag still in her ear.
” data-image-caption=”<p>University of Southern Maine biology professor Chris Maher has recorded notes on each woodchuck that she has trapped at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth. The next woodchuck that Maher trapps will be No. 631. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)
” data-large-file=”https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?w=780″ height=”683″ width=”1024″ alt=”” class=”wp-image-7669141″ srcset=”https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg 3000w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=780,520 780w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=400,267 400w” sizes=”auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”/><figcaption>University of Southern Maine biology professor Chris Maher has recorded notes on each woodchuck that she has trapped at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth. The next woodchuck that Maher trapps will be No. 631. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)<span class=)
Purchase this image
Maher keeps Bonnie’s mummy in her office in a plastic tote, occasionally taking her out when she gives talks about her research at libraries, to Girl Scout troops and Maine Audubon camps.
“It’s a highlight of the summer for many campers,” said Molly Woodring, who oversees day camp and other educational programs at Maine Audubon.
With additional assistance from a woodchuck puppet, Maher presents her research and what it’s like to be a wildlife biologist to campers each year, also often explaining what she’s doing to other curious visitors of Gilsland Farm who typically come out to birdwatch.
“I do think, like in the context of the sanctuary, and in the context of her work, (woodchucks) do become really fascinating and lovable,” said Woodring.
As she starts this season’s pup tagging, Maher is also considering winding down her project. She turned 63 on Thursday — a day she wished she could have spent with the woodchucks, but was packed full of meetings.
In a year she’ll be on sabbatical, where she’ll write up more findings and is hoping to write a popular science book about woodchucks and her life studying them. Retirement is not too far off, and it doesn’t look like anyone else will be taking over the reins of the study.
“It will be hard to not keep coming out here,” she said. “By then, it will be 30 years of stories.”
While Maher may soon reduce her time observing Falmouth’s woodchucks, the woodchucks will remain — with evidence of their contribution to science still visible for at least another generation.
“Animals with tags will still be running around for a little while,” said Maher.
Local News
The annual lottery is for standard white Massachusetts passenger license plates.
The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles announced on Monday it is now taking applications for the 2026 Annual Low Number Plate Lottery.
The annual lottery is for standard white Massachusetts passenger license plates. Winners and alternate winners will be selected using an electronic random number generator and notified by mail no later than Sept. 15.
To be eligible, an applicant must be a current Massachusetts resident with an active, state registered and insured passenger motor vehicle. They must also have a state-issued driver’s license or ID in good standing.
You can apply through Aug. 14 at the myRMV Online Service Center.
While there’s no cost to enter, “applicants selected in the lottery will be required to pay the special plate fee in addition to the applicable standard vehicle registration fee,” the RMV said.
Commercial vehicles and motorcycles will not be accepted as applicants. MassDOT workers and contract employees and their immediate family members are ineligible to participate, the RMV said.
PORTSMOUTH — Serving approximately 500 LGBTQ+ youth across the state, the nonprofit New Hampshire Outright has increased its programming by 25% over the past year.
Portsmouth Pride, the organization’s largest annual event, is set for Saturday, June 20, with roughly 5,000 people expected to attend the parade and events in the city throughout the weekend.
“We are serving more young people and families than ever before. Our impact is just growing day by day, year over year in terms of folks we’re able to serve and advocate for,” said Heidi Carrington Heath, NH Outright’s executive director.
The parade will step off at Pleasant Street around 12:30 p.m. Saturday, then loop through downtown to Strawbery Banke Museum, where the mainstage will host drag performances and musical acts from 1 to 5 p.m.
Heath, LGBTQ+ advocates oppose several bills before NH Gov. Kelly Ayotte
The moment is not without its challenges for the LGBTQ+ community. Heath pointed to three bills in the New Hampshire legislature that have her and other LGBTQ+ advocates around the state concerned.
The first, Senate Bill 552, awaits possible approval from New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte. The New Hampshire House of Representatives and Senate both approved the bill, sponsored by three Senate Republicans, which proposes to separate people by their biological sex in certain places, including bathrooms, locker rooms, involuntary detention facilities and sporting events.
Critics of the latest bathroom bill initiative oppose its implications for transgender youth and adults across the state, if it were to be signed into law by Ayotte. Both Ayotte and prior New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed restroom-focused bills in the past.
“We really pride ourselves on individuality and individual freedom,” Heath said. “I want us to return to those Granite State values in a variety of arenas. There is a very real cost to our kids to watching the people whose job it should be to protect you to debate your personhood in public.”
Ayotte faces another Republican bill – SB 430 – opposed by LGBTQ+ leaders in the state.
The bill, amended and adopted in both the state House and Senate, would require New Hampshire teachers and school employees to “honestly and completely” answer written requests from parents and legal guardians about their children.
The language of the bill does not directly address the LGBTQ+ community, but opponents worry that teachers may be forced to disclose a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation. If it becomes law, the mandate would take effect in New Hampshire’s schools Jan. 1.
“They just want to be kids,” Heath said of LGBTQ+ youth. “That is the gift of the work we do at New Hampshire Outright. We allow them to do that. They are navigating this in every arena of their life, out in their world, at school, etc. They just want to be kids. I want that for them, too. I really do.”
In addition, Republican Senate Bill 434, a book challenging measure, sits on Ayotte’s desk.
“No later than November 1, 2027, each local school board shall adopt a procedure to be used to address complaints submitted by parents or guardians alleging that material that is harmful to minors, age-inappropriate, or otherwise offensive or inappropriate for use in the child’s school,” the House and Senate-passed bill reads.
Complaints would be filed with the superintendent of a school district or a designee, per the bill.
What events are being held before and after Portsmouth Pride?
Before the Pride parade, from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, attendees will be welcomed at the John Paul Jones House in Portsmouth to make flags and buttons for the event.
New this year, a ticketed New Hampshire Outright Pride after party with appetizers, drinks and dancing will be hosted by The Hawthorn, a Jewell Court events center, from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday.
The weekend’s closing event — a ticketed drag brunch at the Music Hall Lounge in collaboration with Gather and New Hampshire Outright — will be held Sunday, June 21 at 10 a.m. The drag brunch is for ages 21 and older.
Ahead of Portsmouth Pride, Heath reported New Hampshire Outright has already led or assisted in organizing nine events this year throughout the New Hampshire and Maine Seacoast region.
“We are so excited about this weekend,” Heath said. “Pride is a protest. Pride is a celebration. We are just looking forward to welcoming the community to celebrate with us at Pride and showing up big, particularly for showing young people that their identity is their superpower.”
Want to get married? Ordained minister plans to marry LGBTQ+ couples after Portsmouth Pride
Rollinsford resident Jen Walton is the daughter of a gay woman. Throughout Walton’s upbringing, she experienced taunts and isolation at school as her mother hid parts of her identity from the public eye.
Some of Walton’s earliest memories are of attending Pride parades with her mother. Now an ordained minister, Walton plans to offer 10-minute wedding ceremonies following the Portsmouth Pride parade Saturday afternoon, an idea that took shape in recent days.
“I would love to just marry as many people as I can,” Walton said.
Walton, friend and fellow ordained minister Katie Brochu and friends will station themselves at the Prescott Park fountain Saturday afternoon following the Portsmouth Pride Parade.
Couples need to bring identification, a marriage license and $20 to be approved for an impromptu Pride park wedding, according to Walton.
Three different wedding ceremony styles will be offered to couples looking to tie the knot. Walton and her friends will be on hand from 1 to 5 p.m. as the Portsmouth Pride mainstage performances occur simultaneously nearby.
“We’re really all supposed to be in this together,” Walton said. “You learn from a very young age that people are individuals and not everybody is going to think, feel and believe the same thing. For me, it’s super important that I’m an ally. I’ve said it for years and years and I’ll say it for years and years, because it’s hard.”
The event is not sanctioned by New Hampshire Outright but has Heath’s and the organization’s full backing.
“It never ceases to amaze me and bring me joy the things that people want to do around Pride month,” Heath said.
All proceeds will be split evenly between New Hampshire Outright and the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ suicide prevention nonprofit.
-
Idaho37 seconds agoIdaho Targets Japanese Beetle in Caldwell to Protect Agriculture
-
Illinois4 minutes agoPedestrian fatally struck by Metra train in Palatine, Illinois
-
Indiana9 minutes agoMan dies after near east side apartment shooting
-
Iowa16 minutes agoIowa man injured in 3-vehicle crash on I-35 near Albert Lea
-
Kentucky19 minutes agoDemetrus Liggins disputes Fayette County board’s claim he resigned, attorneys allege misconduct
-
Kansas19 minutes agoWhere to watch St. Louis Cardinals vs Kansas City Royals: TV channel, start time, streaming for June 19
-
Louisiana31 minutes agoAfter redistricting battles, Southern gathers for Juneteenth celebration: ‘Continue the fight’
-
Maine34 minutes agoWhat a Maine researcher has learned studying woodchucks for nearly 3 decades
