Today's Top Headlines

Thursday, September 18

Good morning Wypierdalaj,

On this Thursday morning, we're following news that ABC has pulled "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" off the air "indefinitely," as well as more on what led to Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield resigning from the ice cream company. Other headlines include Gov. Maura Healey blasting Donald Trump and RFK Jr. on vaccines as she issued new "evidence-based" guidance for Massachusetts. I'm Kaitlin McKinley Becker, and these are our top stories.

In a move that appeared to be a direct shot across the bow of the Trump administration and the CDC, the Healey administraton issued what it is calling “evidence-based COVID-19 vaccine guidance” on Wednesday.

The guidance recommends that children ages 6-23 months and all adults receive the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as those at higher risk for disease or exposure, those who are pregnant or lactating, and anyone with a compromised immune system.

The administration issued the guidance ahead of a scheduled meeting of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Thursday and Friday of this week to review data and vote on national vaccine recommendations. The state said it is announcing its guidance now – before ACIP issues its recommendations and before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finalizes their recommendations – to give Massachusetts residents “the best available science and the guidance of leading medical organizations.”

Happy Thursday!

Some of us started this day with a few spotty showers here and there in the Greater Boston.

The threat for rain will continue to diminish through the afternoon as an area of low pressure moves east. That’s not great news, though.

A teenager accused of planning a shooting at a Cape Cod school was released Wednesday after posting bail, officials said.

The 18-year-old, Ian Fotheringham, was found with a 3D printer that can produce a firearm, and had images of the deadly Columbine High School shooting on his phone, the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s Office said Friday. A search of his Falmouth home in August — prompted by a tip that he wanted to enact a school shooting — had found no illegal guns.

Fotheringham faced a charge of threatened use of a deadly weapon in a public building in Barnstable District Court on Friday and was ordered held until a dangerousness hearing Tuesday, prosecutors said. During that hearing a judge ruled he could be released by posting $2,500 bail to home confinement with GPS monitoring. He was released on Wednesday morning.

Jerry Greenfield, the co-founder of the beloved Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company, resigned because he was emotionally “torn apart” and felt “muzzled” by parent company Unilever, his co-founder Ben Cohen said.

Cohen shared Greenfield’s resignation announcement Tuesday on X.

In an open letter, Greenfield said that after 47 years, he was leaving the company with a “broken heart” and that parent company Unilever had “silenced” Ben & Jerry’s from openly campaigning for social causes it believes in.

The wife of a Salvadoran man says he was violently taken into custody by immigration officials on his way to work in Malden, Massachusetts, on Wednesday morning.

The incident occurred shortly before 6 a.m. in the area of 28 Kennedy Drive.

Leslie Perlera Gonzalez said she received a distressing call from her husband, Edgar Hernan Elias Escobar, shortly before 6 a.m. as he was heading to his construction job. She rushed to Kennedy Drive, where she said Elias Escobar was surrounded by immigration officers.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has been pulled off the air indefinitely by Disney’s ABC following the late-night host’s comments about the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Kimmel, during his opening monologue on Monday’s show, suggested that Tyler Robinson, who was accused of fatally shooting the conservative activist, was a supporter of President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again movement.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said during his monologue. “And in between the finger pointing, there was grieving on Friday. The White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this.”