National, Regional and Local News

[ti-amie]

The Boy Scouts HAVE $850MM?

Look...

[JazzNU]

The Boy Scouts HAVE $850MM?

Billions. Girl Scouts too. Don't know what to tell you, but yeah they do.

[JazzNU]

[ponchi101]

I hope the owners had major insurance. Otherwise, that is at a minimum a $300K loss.

[ti-amie]

I hope the owners had major insurance. Otherwise, that is at a minimum a $300K loss.

Insurance company: Here's your policy. You just have to sign and we're done.

Condo owner: What if my building, through negligence, collapses, I survive but my property is destroyed?

Insurance company: You're joking right? You've been watching too many weird movies. Sign here.

[JazzNU]

We were just having this discussion yesterday. How many buildings will get condemned after checks? Because if it's a lot, even more likely that insurance figures out a way to call this an act of God and not pay out much of anything if you don't have the correct rider.

Now, I also said, if any of these buildings are rental unit buildings, that's one thing, they have something to recoup and to sue for. These condo owners? We've already seen them giving plenty of detail, and as part owners of their buildings, the number of times they've voted to defer maintenance is not a good sign on recouping much of anything. And in that Surfside building, 2 bedroom condos were selling between $600-700k recently.

[ti-amie]

What will be interesting is if any of the owners were renting to other people or using their units as AirBNB residences. I also wonder if any of the missing are people in the above categories?

[JazzNU]

What will be interesting is if any of the owners were renting to other people or using their units as AirBNB residences.

Owner: "Well you were renting. Do you have renter's insurance?"

Renter: "Uh, no, but..."

Owner: "Then you're SOL."

That's about how that feels like it'll go to me

[MJ2004]

So this happened today about 15 minutes down I-95 from our current home, in the town we used to live in. We drove home from Maine today and witnessed the monster traffic jam in the opposite direction (holiday traffic headed towards Maine) after they re-opened the road. idjuts.

11 arrested from armed group of men claiming not to recognize laws after standoff
The men are 'claiming to be from a group that does not recognize our laws,' police in Wakefield said.

WAKEFIELD, Mass. -- Police arrested 11 from an armed group of men claiming to "not recognize our laws" after a standoff with police in Massachusetts that shut down a major highway during the busy holiday weekend and prompted shelter-in-place orders.

The bizarre incident played out Saturday morning after a state trooper saw a group of eight to 10 men in military-style uniforms refueling their vehicle on the side of 1-95 around 1:30 a.m. in Wakefield, about 10 miles north of Boston.

The men -- who carried tactical gear like body cameras and helmets and had long guns slung over their shoulders -- told the trooper they were on their way to Maine from Rhode Island for "training."

During the traffic stop, two arrests were made. The rest of the group, identifying themselves as "Moorish American Arms," fled into a wooded area. Nine were detained by 10:45 a.m. local time, and two more suspects were found in their vehicles.

All 11 suspects are expected to appear in district court Tuesday morning, Suffolk County District Attorney Marian Ryan said at a press briefing Saturday. Ryan said the individuals, all men, will appear on firearm and other charges.

The standoff shut down part of I-95 in Wakefield in both directions, prompting heavy traffic as people hit the road for the Fourth of July weekend. It remains partially closed.

Residents in Wakefield and nearby Reading were advised to lock their doors and shelter in place. Wakefield police said in its statement that no threats had been made but the men were considered armed and dangerous. No injuries or shots fired have been reported.

Massachusetts officials said the group claimed it "does not recognize our laws." ABC News is asking federal officials whether or not this group is known for extremism.

Mass State Police Col. Christopher Mason said the "self-professed leader" of the group wanted it to be known that they are not antigovernment.

"I think the investigation that follows from this interaction will provide us more insight into what their motivation, what their ideology is," Mason said.

In a video posted to social media Saturday morning, a man who did not give his name, but said he was from a group called Rise of the Moors, broadcast from Interstate 95 in Wakefield near exit 57.

"We are not antigovernment. We are not anti-police, we are not sovereign citizens, we're not Black identity extremists," said the man who appeared to be wearing military-style equipment. "As specified multiple times to the police that we are abiding by the peaceful journey laws of the United States."

The website for the group says they are "Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders."

The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies the Moorish sovereign citizen movement as a "collection of independent organizations and lone individuals" that "espouse an interpretation of sovereign doctrine that African Americans constitute an elite class within American society with special rights and privileges that convey on them a sovereign immunity placing them beyond federal and state authority."

It is unclear if the group in the Wakefield standoff follows this doctrine.

"Members of the Moorish sovereigns, called Moors, have come into conflict with federal and state authorities over their refusal to obey laws and government regulations. Recently, Moorish sovereign citizens have engaged in violent confrontations with law enforcement," according to the SPLC.

Last month, a Los Angeles man who identified himself as a Moorish sovereign was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, after locking himself inside a woman's home and declaring it his ancestral property.

The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.

[ponchi101]

You have to test the water. There has got to be something in the water that makes people this crazy.

[MJ2004]

In Massachusetts it would be more likely to be in the Dunkin' coffee.

[JazzNU]

These militias or whatever they want to call themselves are so very out of control. And of course our gun control laws don't help anything.


Two other random thoughts while reading this.

1) I didn't remember that Wakefield was in Suffolk County. Better that it will be handled there.

2) This could be the most non-violent, non-scary thing that happened, and I'd still want them punished unless it was for a supremely good cause. There's a special place in hell for causing a traffic jam on I-95 at anytime, let alone on a holiday weekend, like it needs help with that.


@MJ, hope you had a good trip to Maine.

[Suliso]

Do I understand correctly that this time for a change the weirdos were black dudes?

[JazzNU]

Do I understand correctly that this time for a change the weirdos were black dudes?

From what I've seen, the most accurate description thus far is that they aren't white and most likely brown. They are apparently calling themselves Moors and their look appears to follow that if the photos circulating on social media are accurate (zero guarantee on that).

[MJ2004]

I didn't remember that Wakefield was in Suffolk County. Better that it will be handled there.

@MJ, hope you had a good trip to Maine.

Wakefield is in Middlesex County. It was a mistake in the article - Marian Ryan is the Middlesex County, not Suffolk County, DA.

Thanks Jazz, we had a nice week up in the St. George peninsula. Given this morning's jam (we rented from Sat-Sat), holiday headaches in general, and next week's weather forecast, sooo glad we went last week and not this coming week.