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Monday, 30-Sep-2013 15:17:30 EDT
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A three-alarm fire has broken out this afternoon at a historic building on Hancock Street in Quincy.
The fire was reported just before noon at 1170 Hancock St.
Everyone is out of the building, Quincy police said. The building, the Quincy Masonic Building, was built in 1926 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, according to the building’s website.
Authorities said people were doing work in the basement, where the fire may have started, and spread up through the ductwork.
“The fire is really strong,†said Howard Jacobs, the owner of Toodie’s Fine Jewelry, which is located directly across the street from the temple. “There are huge flames engulfing the roof and black, black smoke. There are huge clumps of ash on my doorsteps.â€
Jacobs said he saw four fire engines and three ambulances at the scene, and said he couldn’t count the number of firefighters.
“[Firefighters] are on the roof, and some went through the front door with a couple hoses,†Jacobs said. “There are firemen everywhere.â€
At around 1 p.m., all firefighters were ordered out of the building; firefighters continued to attack the blaze from outside.
TV station helicopter video footage showed firefighters atop aerial ladders pouring water on the orange flames, while black smoke billowed into the sky.
Greg Everett, owner of nearby Kenny’s Locks, said, “The roof is burning the most. It still seems fairly strong.â€
He said the walls of the building were granite and “I don’t think it’s going to burn through that.â€
The National Weather Service said the plume of smoke from the fire was so voluminous that hit had been picked up by weather radar.
The Patriot Ledger of Quincy reported July 20 that the building was up for sale for $3 million.
Sunday was all about "Breaking Bad" and bad breaks.
Or more specifically, a bad torn Achilles' tendon
The AMC show completed its run with a terrific final episode.
[No spoilers here.]
The Patriots rolled out to a 17-point lead before keeping us all entertained with a 30-27 victory over the Falcons at the Georgia Dome.
They are 4-0.
And the season appears to be over.
Or at least that's what you'll likely be hearing over the next few days.
Sunday's win was New England's most impressive regular-season road victory since a 39-26 win at Pittsburgh in Week 9 of the 2010 season. They finally pushed the offense beyond the "If we we only had Wes/Aaron/Brandon/Deion stage."
New England ran the ball effectively in the first half, giving Tom Brady endless prescious seconds to throw the ball and set up his play-action game. The battered Patriots' offensive line stood its ground, protecting their 36-year-old Golden Child from being sacked. Gisele's hubby was barely hit. There were no fumbles or interceptions.
Everyone got into the action on offense. Matthew Mulligan came from somewhere up in Maine, or the day labor pool at Home Depot, to catch a TD pass. LeGarrette Blount ran 47 yards for another score. Seven different players caught passes for New England. Well, make that eight if you count everyone's new favorite "dog" Aqib Talib .
While the "Breaking Bad" finale aired on AMC, Talib was one "Breaking Badass" on NBC.
It took a busted replay machine, a blown replay call, a non-holding call in the end zone, Butterfingers Sudfeld being unable to clutch a bouncing on-sides kick, Brady "pulling out early" on an errant fourth-down snap, injuries to Vince Wilfork and Aaron Dobson and Matt Ryan engineering a thrilling fourth quarter comeback to almost beat the Patriots.
Almost.
Nothing is fated to be easy for this team. Sunday night was just another example. Another win. Another heart-attack. No one ever said 4-0 was going to be easy.
The Wilfork injury was the ultimate bad break for the Patriots' defense. This team has become adept at filling holes and summoning the "next man up." Wilfork's hole is larger than most, but he was also being criticized earlier this season for not being the Vince of old. He had zero tackles and just three assists against the Bucs. Wilfork's presence often draws double and triple-teams, allowing the Rob Ninkovich es of the world to emerge as big-time players.
Big guy, bigger loss.
Perhaps Richard Seymour will come to the Hoodie's rescue?
It's hard to imagine just how much they'll miss Wilfork until he's gone. We had those same fears about Seymour, Tedy Bruschi , Willie McGinest and even Rodney Harrison . Not to mention Troy Brown .
The Patriots managed to persevere and reach, if not win, the Super Bowl following the departure of those other defensive stars.
[Here's our attempt to try, albeit feebly, to help mitigate the loss of Wilfork. In the Super Bowl XLVI loss to the Giants, he had just three of the team's 49 tackles. Now don't you feel better.]
One top of all this, we're hearing the Rob Gronkowski 's father and agent are pushing to keep the tight end out of the lineup until he's 100 percent healthy.
Sounds like Clay Buchholz has found a soul-mate in the NFL.
Bill Belichick was probably the only person on the planet who had Mulligan active in their fantasy or reality league this week.
This game cannot be completely discounted or negated because of the loss of Wilfork, who was lost early in the game. The Patriots still managed to keep Ryan off balance until his Manning-to-Manningham-esque completion to Julio Jones late in the fourth quarter. The Falcons went 1-for-6 in the red zone, thanks in large part to the Patriots defense. They even got Atlanta to flinch early in the game, passing up on a sure field goal by going for it and failing on a 4th-and-2 from the New England 7.
The only player completely indispensable on this roster is Brady. The Patriots are still a deep playoff contender without No. 75 plugging up the middle. They'd be 8-8 without No. 12, and that's only because they're off to a 4-0 start.
Brady lost about three-fourths of his offense before the season and has managed to scrape together a 4-0 start. Does anyone think Peyton Manning or Alex Smith would be 4-0 in Denver if he had the likes of Mulligan, Dobson, Zach Sudfeld , Julian Edelman , Kenbrell Thompkins and Josh Boyce as the primary targets on his radar screen?
Give Manning that lineup card and he'd hope into his Buick and drive off into early retirement.
The Patriots had to make two plays to win Sunday's game.
On offense, the signature play of the night, if not the season, was Brady's completion to Thompkins on 3rd-and-19 to start the fourth quarter. The Patriots were pinned deep on their own 12. Brady spread the field and found Thompkins with a missile over the middle for 26 yards.
A 15-yard penalty at end of the play left the ball at Atlanta's 47 yard line. Blount ran off the left guard and carried the ball into the end zone on the next play putting New England ahead 27-13.
Defensively, Aqib Talib saved the best for last, breaking up Ryan's last pass attempt to Roddy White in the end zone with the Falcons facing 4th-and-7 on New England's 10.
The Patriots have reached 4-0 this season using their running game, a stout defense, making defensive plays when they had to be made, limiting turnovers, giving Brady time to throw the ball and not trying to put up 55 points a game through the air. In short, they're winning in ways we're not accustomed to seeing in the past nine years.
Of course, it's been that long since they won a Super Bowl.
Don't forget to visit our Obnoxious Boston Fan blog. As always, let us know what you think. Post your thoughts here, on our Obnoxious Boston Fan Facebook page, on Twitter @realOBF or e-mail me at obnoxiousbost onfan@hotmail.com.
Wilfork was injured on the Falcons' first drive of the game and had to be carted to the locker room. It was reported he had suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon and could be out for the rest of the season. Head coach Bill Belichick, in a conference call Monday morning, would not confirm any of the reports.
“I really don’t have a lot of information,” he said. “We got back late last night; I know they’re going to look at [Vince] and do some tests this morning… I really don’t know much right now, I haven’t had a chance to meet with our medical people and I don’t even know what they have done yet.”
The 10-year veteran and team captain has been a staple of the Patriots’ defense for the past decade, making the Pro Bowl five times. Wilfork is the only remaining Patriot from any of the Super Bowl championship teams besides quarterback Tom Brady.
Belichick knows what a big loss it would be if Wilfork cannot play.
“[Vince is] an outstanding player,” he said. “He gives us great leadership, is a strong contributor on and off the field, in the locker room, and everything else … Obviously if he’s not there then everybody [will have to] pull a little bit more weight on their end.”
One player who had to step in and try to fill Wilfork’s shoes was rookie Joe Vellano, who had a sack on Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan. Vellano came in as an undrafted rookie and made the team out of training camp, getting opportunities to play in the preseason and making the most of them.
“Joe's a hard working kid,” Belichick said. “He was a productive player in college; he played a lot of spots at Maryland: he played end, he played tackle, [and] he played some on nose … He’s got good instincts, kind of has a nose for the ball and a good feel for what’s going on.
“[There are] a lot of things he has improved [upon] in terms of technique and recognition and reaction and all that. He’s still got a long way to go, but [he’s] definitely making progress. He works hard every day: he’s usually the first one on, last one off the field or close to it, [and] puts in a lot of time trying to get better at the things he needs to work on and that’s helping.”
A bright spot on the Patriots’ defense has been the play of cornerback Aqib Talib. He recorded his fourth interception of the year on Sunday, and has made many key defensive plays this season, including Sunday's breakup of an attempted touchdown pass to Roddy White on fourth and 7 from the Patriots’ 10 yard line that would have tied the game with half a minute to play.
“Aqib has done a good job for us,” Belichick said. “[He’s a] smart player, good communicator, really competes hard, [and he] really competes well every day in practice, competes well on the field [in] whatever he’s asked to do, [whether it be] man coverage, zone coverage, tacking, [or] special teams, whatever it is he really works hard and competes hard … He’s one of our offseason award winners. He’s put in a lot of work and has had some good results.”
The Patriots were given the day off on Monday, but will re-group on Tuesday to begin preparations for their Week 5 matchup against the Bengals in Cincinnati.
The attorney for Shayanna Jenkins today accused Bristol County prosecutors of using “abusive’’ legal tactics in an effort to pressure Jenkins into providing information against her boyfriend, Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots player who is accused of orchestrating the murder of Odin L. Lloyd this June.
Jenkins, who has a child with Hernandez and who began dating him when both were high school students in Bristol, Conn., was indicted last week by a Bristol County grand jury on a single count of perjury.
Under state law, since Jenkins is accused of perjury in a capital case, she faces a possible sentence of up to life in prison.
“The government actions in this case are abusive and overreaching,’’ said Janice Bassil, a veteran Boston criminal defense attorney representing Jenkins. “I don’t believe they have sufficient evidence’’ to charge Jackson with perjury.
Hernandez, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and gun charges, allegedly summoned two friends from his hometown of Bristol, Conn., to Massachusetts in the hours before Lloyd was found shot to death in a North Attleborough industrial park.
Those two men, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, are both now charged with being accessories after the fact to Lloyd’s murder.
Bassil said that Jenkins — who has not faced any criminal charges until her indictment last Friday — is now being targeted because of her connection to Hernandez.
“I believe they are just simply trying to add pressure,’’ said Bassil. “They are trying to pressure her, but perhaps they are also trying to pressure him [Hernandez] through her.’’
Bassil said she has not seen the indictment, and was not informed her client had been charged by Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter, whose office is investigating the Lloyd murder.
Instead, she said, she learned about it because she follows Sutter on Twitter.
“I think it would be more appropriate to notify counsel rather than to release it on Twitter,’’ Bassil said.
Bassil said her client testified before a Bristol County grand jury for two days. Nothing her client said, Bassil insisted, supports accusing Jenkins of perjury in a capital case.
“There is a famous saying, a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich,’’ said Bassil. “ I look forward to challenging this in court. I really do. If a grand jury is supposed to protect citizens from overreaching prosecutors, then there is a lot of work to be done here.’’
Bassil said Jackson is tentatively slated to be arraigned in Bristol Superior Court in Fall River on Oct. 15.
Also today, Hernandez’s cousin Tanya Singleton is slated to be arraigned in the same court on a charge of conspiracy to commit accessory after the fact of Lloyd’s murder.
The indictments of Singleton, Jenkins, and Ortiz were disclosed Friday by Sutter’s office. Ortiz had previously faced gun charges stemming from the investigation.
Prosecutors have alleged that Hernandez, 23, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and several gun charges, orchestrated Lloyd’s June 17 killing after the two had a disagreement in a Boston nightclub in June.
The Globe reported in August that prosecutors were investigating a phone call and text message Hernandez allegedly sent to Jenkins on June 18 instructing her to“get rid of†firearms he allegedly stashed in the basement of their home.
Video from the home monitoring system shows Jenkins carrying a large, heavy object consistent with the shape of a lock box or safe to a car, leaving Hernandez’s home and driving toward Landry Avenue in North Attleborough.
She returned 35 minutes later without the large object. Police have not found the .45-caliber weapon used to kill Lloyd, but on June 19 they found a .22-caliber handgun along Landry Avenue. Police said the weapon appeared to have been “recently discarded.â€
Those photos stored on your smartphone could be worth a few bucks. We’ve all seen breaking news reports featuring photos and videos shot by passing amateurs. But even everyday snapshots can be of value; magazines and advertising companies often buy “stock” photos to decorate their pages.
A Boston software startup called Supshot wants to help smartphone owners cash in on these opportunities, by uniting photo buyers and sellers in an online marketplace. “It’s a platform to sell your photos and videos to any interested buyer,” said co-founder Azeem Khan.
Supshot has created a free app for Apple Inc. iPhones and iPads. It gives users an easy way to upload interesting photos and videos to the company’s cloud service, where interested parties can look them over and decide whether to buy. Before accepting the photo, the Supshot app lets the user choose a licensing plan for selling rights to reproduce the image. You can choose an open license that lets anybody reproduce the image for free. Or you can charge flat fees of $15 or $30 per photo. There’s also a custom option where you can demand a bigger payout for a photo or video that you consider especially valuable. Supshot plans to make money by taking 30 percent of whatever a seller receives.
Meanwhile, Supshot is peddling the service to news outlets and publishing houses. The company plans to open an online marketplace where businesses can purchase uploaded photos. Companies will also be able to post “assignments,” offering to pay a certain amount of money for photographs of specific events.
Supshot will have lots of competition. There are already several online markets for smartphone photographers, including Snapwire, Scoopshot and Rawporter. Khan is unfazed; he figures that the horde of competing services proves there’s a lucrative market for amateur photos, and he thinks Supshot can become the dominant player.
