New Jersey

Did Bruce Springsteen, Cher, Joni Mitchell and dozens of other celebrities each buy the small diner where they ate for free while struggling and now feed free meals to 120 homeless people every day? No, that's not true: 54 virtually identical stories mentioning those and other names were published by a network of foreign websites and Facebook pages. There were…

Did an exit poll show that 92% of California voters thought Proposition 50 was a ballot measure to impeach President Trump? No, that's not true: The claim originated from a post on a satiric X account on which the original poster of the 92% claim repeatedly made it clear he was being sarcastic. There is no publicly available exit poll…

Did retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz publicly promise to "blow his brains out on live TV" if Zohran Mamdani wins the 2025 mayoral election in New York City? No, that's not true: Dershowitz denied that on his social media account. A search for the origins of the image showing the purported quote led to a summer 2025 story…

Has a New Jersey supermarket shuttered its windows ever since Nov. 1, 2025 when SNAP payments were cut off? No, that's not true: The store had not, at the time this was written, closed because of a delay in the dispersal of SNAP benefits during the government shutdown. The store manager told Lead Stories they have been open during their…

Do flight logs show that the man who anonymously donated $130 million to pay American soldiers during the October 2025 U.S. government shutdown flew on Jeffrey Epstein's Lolita Express plane? No, that's not true: The flight log page cited in social media posts making the claim does show that Paul Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, flew with Epstein…

Did the woman, now known as "Phillies Karen", lose her job as an administrator at the Hammonton New Jersey Public School District after a viral video showed a confrontation over a home-run ball? No, that's not true: Posts falsely identified the woman in the video as an administrator in Hammonton School District. The school published a statement on Facebook stating…

Was a George Floyd statue located at the National Mall or the "Smithsonian Institute" in Washington, D.C., dismantled and "put in storage"? No, that's not true: The rumor that resurfaced on the internet in August 2025 came from the self-described "network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery". The image accompanying the claim showed a George Floyd statue in Newark, New Jersey.…

Did a viral image showing a pile of bricks capture a scene in Los Angeles during anti-ICE protests in June 2025? No, that's not true: The photo was taken on the opposite coast of this country, thousands of miles away. The bricks in question were stacked up in New Jersey for construction work, as confirmed by local reporting. The claim…

Did the International Federation of Football (FIFA) move the World Cup 2026 from the United States because of President Trump's strict immigration policies? No, this is not true: As of June 4, 2025, FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, have not announced any changes to the hosting arrangement for the tournament, which will be held for the first time in…

Did American Idol winner Jamal Roberts turn down a Tesla ad from Elon Musk in an upcoming music video? No, that's not true: A viral article about such a rejection did not name any verifiable sources or offer any quotes to back that up. It also claimed there had been a "media frenzy" about the issue but no media outlets…