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A Ben & Jerry’s ice cream store in Florida hosted a "Free Scoop and Banned Book Day" to benefit a nonprofit that fights against what it calls the banning of books in the Sunshine State.

"Help us promote Foundation 451 in their fight against fascism by ensuring equal educational opportunities for ALL children," the Melbourne, Florida, store wrote on Facebook promoting the April 3 event, which featured free ice cream.

A business sign hangs over the entrance to a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop in the Old Town section of Alexandria, Virginia. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Ben & Jerry’s Melbourne, Florida, location hosted a “Free Scoop and Banned Book Day” highlighting books deemed inappropriate for children. (Ben & Jerry’s Melbourne, Foundation 451 / LIFESTYLOGY /TMX / Fox News)

A girl holds a “banned book” during Ben & Jerry’s “Free Scoop and Banned Book Day” event April 3. (Ben & Jerry’s Melbourne, Foundation 451 / LIFESTYLOGY /TMX / Fox News)

Photos taken from the event show tables full of books, and several rainbow-colored shelves. 

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"@GovRonDeSantis denies access to important books. Our Scoop Shop in Melbourne, FL is making sure the people still have access to them," Ben & Jerry's official Twitter page posted.

A family holds a number of “banned books” at a Ben & Jerry’s event highlight restricted books in Florida’s public schools. (Ben & Jerry’s Melbourne, Foundation 451 / LIFESTYLOGY /TMX / Fox News)

Teens hold “banned books” at the Florida ice cream shop. (Ben & Jerry’s Melbourne, Foundation 451 / LIFESTYLOGY /TMX / Fox News)

In the images, people can be seen picking up "banned" books that touch on themes of race, gender and sexuality, and African American history.

Some of the titles include George M. Johnson's "We Are Not Broken," a memoir about Black boyhood; Art Spieglman's "Maus," a graphic novel about the Holocaust; "Miss Rita, Mystery Reader," about a child whose dad is a drag queen; and Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."

Ben & Jerry’s Melbourne, Florida location features stacks of “banned books.” (Ben & Jerry’s Melbourne, Foundation 451 / LIFESTYLOGY /TMX / Fox News)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has countered the narrative of "banned" books in the state by calling it a "book ban hoax" and a "false narrative" promoted by the media and the left. 

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"Today, Governor DeSantis disabused the media’s false narratives surrounding Florida’s educational standards," DeSantis' Press Secretary Bryan Griffin previously told Fox News Digital. "Florida doesn’t ‘ban books’, but pornography is prohibited in schools and CRT will not be utilized as educational material."  

"Florida teaches African American history, but we will not allow the subject to become a vehicle for agenda-driven political advocacy. And most importantly, as the governor noted, ‘[T]hese are false narratives—that is important—but it’s a false narrative in service of trying to use the schools for an inappropriate purpose,’" Griffin continued.

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Last year, DeSantis signed into law two bills that addressed educational materials used in schools. The first, HB 7, otherwise known as the "Stop W.O.K.E." Act, and HB 1557, named the Parental Rights in Education Act. 

Boys pose with ‘banned books’ outside of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop in Melbourne, Florida. (Ben & Jerry’s Melbourne, Foundation 451 / LIFESTYLOGY /TMX / Fox News)

Both bills address the presence of materials in the classroom or on school property and restrict content deemed inappropriate on grounds of race, sexuality, gender and depictions of violence.

"There are no books banned in Florida. Any adult can buy any publication they want," Griffin said. 

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The Ben & Jerry's event raised $1,700 for Foundation 451, which distributes and promotes challenged books.

Ben & Jerry's did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

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Politics

Canada’s new prime minister once said Bitcoin had ‘serious deficiencies’

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March 10, 2025

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Canada’s new prime minister once said Bitcoin had ‘serious deficiencies’

Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, once said recreating a virtual global gold standard like Bitcoin “would be a criminal act of monetary amnesia.”

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Sports

Bell rings up first Cup 3-race win streak since ’21

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1 hour ago

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March 10, 2025

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Bell rings up first Cup 3-race win streak since '21

  • Associated Press

Mar 9, 2025, 08:17 PM ET

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Christopher Bell became the first NASCAR Cup Series driver to win three straight races in the NextGen car, holding off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin by 0.049 seconds to win the second-closest race in Phoenix Raceway history Sunday.

Bell started 11th in the 312-mile race after winning at Atlanta and Circuit of America the previous two weeks. The JGR driver took the lead out of the pits on a caution and stayed out front on two late restarts to become the first driver to win three straight races since Kyle Larson in 2021.

The second restart led to some tense moments between Bell and Hamlin — enough to make their team owner feel a bit queasy.

“I was ready to upchuck,” JGR Racing owner Joe Gibbs said.

Bell became the fourth driver in Cup Series history to win three times in the first four races — and the first since Kevin Harvick in 2018. The last Cup Series driver to win four straight races was Jimmie Johnson in 2007.

“We’ve had four races this year, put ourselves in position in all four and managed to win three, which is a pretty remarkable batting average — something that will be hard to maintain, I believe,” Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens said.

The Phoenix race was the first since Richmond last year to give teams two sets of option tires. The option red tires have much better grip, but start to fall off after about 35 laps, creating an added strategic element.

A handful of racers went to the red tires early — Joey Logano and Ryan Preece among them — and it paid off with runs to the lead before they fell back.

Bell was among those who had a set of red tires left for the final stretch and used it to his advantage, pulling away from Hamlin on a restart with 17 laps left.

Hamlin pulled alongside Bell over the final two laps after the last restart and the two bumped a couple of times before rounding into the final two turns. Bell barely stayed ahead of Hamlin, crossing the checkered flag with a wobble for his 12th career Cup Series win. He led 105 laps.

“It worked out about as opposite as I could have drawn it up in my head,” Bell said. “But the races that are contested like that, looking back, are the ones that mean the most to you.”

Said Hamlin: “I kind of had position on the 20, but I knew he was going to ship it in there. We just kind of ran out of race track there.”

Larson finished third, Josh Berry fourth and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.

Katherine Legge, who became the first woman to race on the Cup Series since Danica Patrick at the Daytona 500 seven years ago, didn’t get off to a great start and finished 30th.

Fighting a tight car, Legge got loose coming out of Turn 2 and spun her No. 78 Chevrolet, forcing her to make a pit stop. She dropped to the back of the field and had a hard time making up ground before bumping another car and spinning again on Lap 215, taking out Daniel Suarez with her.

“We made some changes to the car overnight and they were awful,” Legge said. “I was just hanging on to it.”

Logano, who started on the front row in his first race at Phoenix Raceway since capturing his third Cup Series at the track last fall, fell to the back of the field after a mistake on an early restart.

Trying to get a jump on Byron, Logano barely dipped his No. 22 Ford below the yellow line at the start/finish. NASCAR officials reviewed the restart and forced the Team Penske driver to take a pass through on pit road as the entire field passed him on the track.

“No way,” Logano said on his radio. “That’s freakin’ ridiculous.”

Logano twice surged to the lead after switching to the red tires, but started falling back on the primary tires following a restart. He finished 13th.

Preece took an early gamble by going to the red option tires and it paid off with a run from 33rd to third. The RFK Racing driver dropped back as the tires wore off, but went red again following a caution with about 90 laps left and surged into the lead.

Preece went back to the primary tires with 42 laps to go and started dropping back, finishing 15th.

The series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend.

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Technology

Bitcoin falls over 5% as volatility continues after Trump’s bitcoin reserve plan

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2 hours ago

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March 10, 2025

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Bitcoin falls over 5% as volatility continues after Trump's bitcoin reserve plan

Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Bitcoin fell on Monday as volatility in the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency continues following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to create a strategic bitcoin reserve for the United States.

Bitcoin was trading at $81,712, down over 5% but off earlier lows, at 9:42 a.m. Singapore time, according to Coin Metrics.

The reserve will be funded by coins that have been seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases and there are no plans for the U.S. government to buy more bitcoin. After the strategic reserve announcement last Thursday, crypto prices declined as investors were disappointed it wasn’t a more aggressive program.

Other cryptocurrency prices also dropped on Monday. Both ether and XRP were down about 7.5% at around 9:43 a.m. Singapore time.

Some investors, however, said the move to establish a reserve was bullish in the long-term.

“I absolutely think the market has this wrong,” Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday. “The market is short-term disappointed” that the government didn’t say it was immediately going to start acquiring 100,000 or 200,000 bitcoin, he added.

Hougan pointed towards comments on X from White House Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks, who said the U.S. would look for “budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin, provided that those strategies have no incremental costs on American taxpayers.”

“I think the right question to ask is: did this executive order make it more likely that in the future, bitcoin will be a geopolitically important currency or asset? Will other governments look to follow the U.S.’s lead and build their own strategic reserve? And to me, the answer to that is emphatically yes,” Hougan said.

“The reason that questions matters is that’s the question that determines if bitcoin is $80,000 a coin or $1 million a coin.”

Hougan called the decline in crypto prices a “short-term setback.”

“I think the market will soon find its footing and realize that actually this is incredibly bullish long term for this asset and for crypto as a whole,” he said.

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