I-95 Standoff Suspects Sue MA, Judge, Police For $70M: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Wednesday, July 28. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Hannaford supermarkets is recalling a variety of bakery items made with McCormick's spice, which is currently part of a national voluntary recall.
• A 19-year-old Lowell man was arrested twice and charged with driving under the influence in New Hampshire early Wednesday morning.
• Blaming the ongoing nurses strike, leaders at the for-profit St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester will begin cutting back services on Monday. The union for the striking nurses says it's a ploy.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

The Rhode Island-based group at the center of a standoff on Interstate 95 in Massachusetts earlier this month is suing the state of Massachusetts, state police, a judge and several others in federal court. The Rise of the Moors members are seeking $70 million in damages.

The group filed the lawsuit July 20, claiming state police discriminated against members of the group the night of July 3. The group members were heavily armed, and the incident quickly turned into a standoff involving more than 200 police officers.

According to court documents, the group accused state police and the other defendants of "defamation and discrimination of national origin and deprivation of rights under color of law."

Read the full story.

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Wednesday's Other Top Stories

Salmonella recall: Hannaford supermarkets is recalling a variety of bakery items made with McCormick's spice, which is currently part of a national voluntary recall. According to Hannaford, as a result of the spice company's voluntary recall, it's recalling a variety of baked goods that use this particular spice as an ingredient. This includes the grocery chain's pepperoni party bread and classic asiago focaccia. The affected goods, which are all listed below, were purchased in stores between June 22 and June 27.

One night, two OUIs for Lowell man: A 19-year-old Lowell man was arrested twice and charged with driving under the influence in New Hampshire early Wednesday morning, according to the Pelham Police Department. Officers said Anthony Ou of Lowell walked into the lobby of the Pelham Police Department at 6:03 a.m. Wednesday. He told the dispatcher that he was arrested earlier in the night and requested his property back. One of the officers became suspicious because his department had not arrested anyone that night. That officer then spoke with Ou and learned that he had been arrested and charged with DUI in Hudson, New Hampshire after a crash in that town around 1 a.m.

Union says hospital's cuts are a ploy: Blaming the ongoing nurses strike, leaders at the for-profit St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester will begin cutting back services on Monday, officials announced Wednesday. The Massachusetts Nurses Association responded to the move by calling it an intimidation tactic, and highlighting that St. Vincent's parent company, Dallas-based Tenet Health, earned some $120 million in profit in the second quarter — including a $24 million federal stimulus payment.

HazMat sends 12 firefighters to hospital: All 12 firefighters have been released from the hospital after suffering chemical burns while responding to a hazmat incident in Cambridge early Wednesday morning. Firefighters say they responded to a report of smoke coming from a vacant apartment on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge around 12:50 a.m.

Eat fresh: Patch's 2021 Massachusetts Farmers Market Guide

Picture This

X marks the spot: Stonehenge, they are not. But the enormous "X" structures Cummings Properties put up in Beverly did cause some conversation on the North Shore as people wondered where they came from and what they do signify. Cummings revealed to Patch that what they call their "Iron Butterflies" are intended to represent the Najavo culture's interpretation of the monarch butterfly as a symbol of "joy and resurgence," the Hopi people's reverence of butterflies as a sign of "future abundance and health," how they are a Japanese symbol of longevity and how in African culture butterflies are considered sources of resurgence and transformation.

They Said It

"They were the first first responders. They were heroes. They were absolute heroes."

• Paul Veneto, 62, of Braintree, who is pushing an airline beverage cart from Boston to ground zero to honor his colleagues who died when United Flight 175 was flown into the World Trade Center's south tower in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

In Case You Missed It

Prison for ex-cop in eBay case: A former police officer and eBay executive will spend almosttwo years in federal prison and pay more than $15,000 for his role in an intimidation plot focused on a Natick couple, according to court records. Philip Cooke was one of several former eBay employees charged in the scheme, which targeted a Natick husband and wife who published a newsletter that covered ecommerce. The scheme involved "anonymous and profane demands that the couple stop reporting about eBay; the publication of their home address on Twitter and threats to visit them there; the delivery of live insects and a funeral wreath; Craigslist posts inviting all comers to sexual encounters at their home; a black van that followed the husband as he drove around Natick, and so much more," federal prosecutors described in court documents.

By The Numbers

$5,000: The amount Kevin Gu of Hopkinton received after being named one of five National Student Poets. In addition to the award, the poets will serve as "literary ambassadors" who will work in their respective geographic regions on projects, workshops and readings. The five winners were selected from a pool of more than 19,000 students who applied for the Scholastic awards. Awards jurors included former U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and such fellow poets as Camille Rankine and Edward Hirsch.