Northeast
Patriotic Rutgers, UNC students push back against anti-America, anti-Israel agitators: 'Seeing a movement'
After a show of patriotism on the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill campus earlier this week when students prevented an American flag from hitting the ground and sang the National Anthem, students at Rutgers University followed suit.
Rutgers students on Thursday waved American flags and chanted “USA!” amid anti-Israel protests on Voorhees Mall at the New Brunswick, New Jersey, university.
“Toward the latter half of their encampment yesterday, a handful of what I consider patriotic students went on campus and they obviously were chanting ‘USA!’ They sang the National Anthem,” Rutgers student Jeremy Li, class of 2025, told Fox News Digital on Friday. “They were probably standing up for American values, despite all the conflicting chaos that’s been happening on campus recently.”
RUTGERS STUDENTS COUNTER ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS ON CAMPUS BY WAVING AMERICAN FLAG, CHANTING ‘USA! USA!’
Li added that he thought the counter-protesters were “great to see.”
“We’re seeing a movement that started at UNC that I think hopefully will move across the country,” he told Fox News Digital.
“We’re seeing a movement that started at UNC that I think hopefully will move across the country.”
WATCH:
Li noted that because of the protests earlier this week, final exams were canceled on Thursday.
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY LIFTS SUSPENSION OF STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE CHAPTER, PLACES GROUP ON PROBATION
Rutgers University students display American flags. (Courtesy of Stephen Wallace)
A Jewish Rutgers student named Abbey told Fox News Digital that “it’s not right” for the school’s large Jewish student community “to feel unsafe while trying to take their finals.”
“I had a lot of friends here yesterday who were chanting ‘USA’ and ‘all for Israel,’ and I think that’s really beautiful because that’s what this country is all about,” Abbey said.
UNC STUDENT WHO DEFENDED AMERICAN FLAG FROM CAMPUS MOB ‘HONORED TO GIVE BACK TO THE NATION’
WATCH:
Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway called the decision “unprecedented” in a Thursday letter to the community.
“Several days ago, some people, including Rutgers students and individuals not from our community, set up tents on Voorhees Mall. The University has consistently taken steps to make clear to protesting organizations, including this group, our policies reflecting our commitment to free speech and the University’s thresholds for disruptive activity,” Holloway said. “Our strategy has been focused on de-escalation and yesterday, we met with a group of students representing the protest to discuss the need to ensure that their fellow students’ exam period was not disrupted.”
UNC FRATERNITY BROTHERS DEFEND REINSTATED AMERICAN FLAG FROM CAMPUS MOB WHO REPLACED WITH PALESTINIAN FLAG
Rutgers canceled final exams on Thursday due to disruptions from anti-Israel protesters. (© Alexander Lewis / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Overnight, however, Holloway said, “Students for Justice in Palestine called for a significant rally on the Voorhees Mall, coinciding with the beginning of the exam period, specifically intended to disrupt finals for our students. The protests ultimately disrupted 28 exams and impacted more than a thousand students.
“We value free speech and the right to protest, but it should not come at the cost of our students’ education and safety. We strive to balance these rights and maintain a safe and secure environment for our students to learn and succeed.”
POLICE AT UNC CHAPEL HILL DETAIN AT LEAST 30 ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS, CROWDS TRYING TO FORCE INTO BUILDINGS
UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on Tuesday. Anti-Israel agitators replaced the American flag with the Palestinian one during the demonstration. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)
On Tuesday, a photo of Chapel Hill students holding up an American flag amid campus protests went viral.
Protesters on the North Carolina quad on Tuesday removed and replaced the American flag with a Palestinian flag. Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts stepped in with law enforcement to return Old Glory to its original place.
When protesters attempted to take it down a second time, a group of students and fraternity members stepped in to keep it from touching the ground. Since then, a third party created a GoFundMe for the Chapel Hill students that raised more than $500,000 before the fundraiser was closed.
UNC has since erected a fence around the campus flag pole.
Noting the violence that has occurred on other campuses around the country, Li said he hopes what happened at UNC and now Rutgers will reverberate nationwide.
“Hopefully we’re going to see more and more students stand up to this nonsense that pro-Hamas students are putting up… We saw them at Columbia occupy buildings, destroy buildings, vandalize,” Li said.
By Friday, conservative students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison joined the counter-protest movement.
The school’s “Young Americans for Freedom” chapter joined forces with College Republicans of UW-Madison to send a message to the student protesters at Library Mall, local news station WMTV reported.
“We just want to show the school and all of the protestors that are here doing it illegally, that there is a way to voice your opinion, there is a way to exercise your First Amendment, but within the laws,” said Harrison Wells, chairman of Young Americans for Freedom.
Wells told WMTV that protests should be done peacefully and legally.
“I don’t think anyone should be going to school where there’s violence where there’s outbreaks,” he said. “I think this could all be solved if these groups just followed the laws and follow the rules. I don’t think they would need to bring in police. Why would they if you’re following the laws?”
Fox News’ Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
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Connecticut is taking a step to make sure workers are paid fairly.
On June 30, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed Public Act 26-17, which enables the State Comptroller to issue a stop work order and withhold state funds to contractors that are not properly paying their employees.
The bill was signed on the construction site for Greeneville Elementary School, which is one of the four new elementary schools being built in Norwich. The State of Connecticut is reimbursing the city for 80% of the project, and the law applies to “any place where the state is making a payment,” Lamont said.
Wage theft can take many forms
It matters because wage theft can take many forms, from money taken from base pay, to money not given in benefits, Kimberly Glassman, director of compliance and government affairs for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478, said.
Local 478 also has a presence in the Norwich school building project, with 10 to 20 union members working at each site daily, Glassman said.
What do state leaders think of the Greeneville site’s progress?
Lamont is impressed with how quickly the work is going.
“They told me that the walls went up in the last two weeks, so a lot of progress is happening,” he said.
During the bill signing, Norwich Mayor Swarnjit Singh touted the importance of using union labor and the value of project labor agreements.
“We are on time and on budget,” he said.
After the bill signing, Singh said its possible the Greeneville School building could be complete as soon as the first quarter of 2027, he said.
“They’re not wasting any time,” Singh said.
State Rep. Derrel Wilson attended the original Greeneville School as a kid, and still lives in Greeneville. He was credited as being one of the driving forces for getting the workers bill passed.
“It’s exciting seeing this revitalization for our neighborhood, seeing active construction and watching individuals rebuild our community,” Wilson said.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts dad on ‘adventure of a lifetime’ left fighting for his life in Fiji after noticing bug bite
A trip of a lifetime quickly turned into an unimaginable nightmare for a Massachusetts father who is fighting for his life halfway across the world after being bitten by a bug.
Scott and Claire Winslow always dreamt of sailing across the South Pacific with their family — and in April, they were finally able to turn their dream into a reality when they embarked on an “adventure of a lifetime” to enjoy their retirement, according to an online fundraiser.
But just weeks into the three-month sailing voyage, Scott noticed what appeared to be a bug bite and his health rapidly deteriorated, WBZ-TV reported.
His condition worsened for nearly two weeks while at sea alongside his nephew, and by the time their ship made it to land in Fiji, he was so weak that he was unable to walk.
The father-of-three was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors discovered the severity of his infection.
“By the time they got to a doctor, he was so sick,” Scott’s daughter Lisa Babbin told the outlet.
Scott was then transferred from a private hospital to the Intensive Care Unit at Lautoka Hospital on Vitu Levu, the main island of Fiji, where his wife Claire was heartbreakingly told to “prepare for the worst.”
The retiree remains critically ill on a ventilator, battling septic shock and organ failure.
The infection has spread to Scott’s lungs and gallbladder and his kidneys are functioning at “a fraction of their normal capacity,” the GoFundMe page says.
It’s still unclear how the infection started — whether by the insect bite, an infected wound or something else, according to the dad’s family.
While doctors are doing everything they can, Scott’s critical condition requires greater care than the local hospital can manage, according to his daughter.
“Every hour counts for my father,” Babbin said.
The family has secured a bed for the critically ill father at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Mass., but doesn’t know if they will be able to afford to fly him back to the United States for better care.
“All we need is a medflight, that’s the only thing we need to get him home,” Babbin said. “Medflights are not cheap.”
A special medical flight from Fiji to Boston — which is over 8,000 miles in distance — could set the family back a staggering $250,000, according to the outlet.
In addition to the fundraiser, the Winslow family has applied for a US government loan to help with the astronomical costs of flying Scott home as well as the foreign medical bills that are adding up without medical insurance coverage.
Scott is a “hardworking, loyal, generous” man, “always willing to lend a hand,” relatives wrote on the fundraising page.
“He has spent a lifetime helping others, supporting his family, and being there whenever someone needed him.”
While Scott’s family “remain hopeful and continue to pray” for his recovery, “they are also facing the overwhelming financial burden that comes with a catastrophic medical emergency overseas,” the fundraiser says.
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