An 11-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother operating a lemonade stand in Boston got a brutal lesson in urban lawlessness Wednesday afternoon when a pair of juvenile suspects robbed them at gunpoint. It was roughly 4:44 p.m. when the suspects first appeared, casing the stand with multiple walk-bys before finally approaching the children and asking ...
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A 12-year-old boy and his 11-year-old sister were traumatized by two thugs who robbed their lemonade stand after threatening them with a gun, according to the kids' father.David Byrne said his two children were selling lemonade in their south Boston neighborhood when they were approached by two juveniles at 4:40 p.m. on Wednesday.'This is appalling; this is grotesque. This is something that should not happen to young kids.'The juveniles said they wanted to buy lemonade but walked away after claiming they didn't have any money. A few minutes later they returned, and one flashed a black gun in his waistband."My kids immediately just put their hands up and said, 'Take whatever you want.' So, I'm proud of my kids for that, and I'm proud of them for basically protecting each other but also being smart in that bad situation," Byrne said to WBZ-TV.The juveniles allegedly took all of the cash that the children had earned and fled on foot."This is appalling; this is grotesque. This is something that should not happen to young kids," the father said to WHDH-TV. "Can't have a gun and can't be robbing lemonade stands. It's as easy as that," he added.He went on to say that the children were sad and a little bit disturbed by what happened.Boston police said they were searching for the juveniles and that no arrests had been made. They did release video and images of suspects they believed to be the juveniles responsible for the armed robbery. RELATED: Video captures man walking up to kids' lemonade stand and running away after snatching their money Boston Police Dept. Residents of the neighborhood expressed their shock at the incident."It's awful and scary and definitely something you don't want to come home to after a night. It's disappointing. I didn't expect it on our street," Suzanna Ruotolo said.RELATED: Sponsor pulls out of Boise Pride Festival after outrage over 'Drag Kid' show with children as young as 11 years old Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn said the residents were getting together to make sure the lemonade stand would reopen with the support of the community."Let's show them how much love and support the Southie community has for them. It is also our understanding that 50% of proceeds will be donated to a local organization working to prevent gun violence," Flynn said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
The mayor of a Pennsylvania borough defended his use of the N-word during a confrontation with children and young adults at a local park — despite outrage from local parents.Daniel Berard, a registered Republican and mayor of Northumberland, Pennsylvania, told Raw Story via a phone call about an April 17 incident at the Second Street Playground where he said he gave the group a “lawful order” to leave the park.In a video of the incident viewed by Raw Story, Berard uses the N-word after the parkgoers repeatedly called him the N-word and other insults.“Didn't you hear the disrespect and sour treatment that these juveniles treated me with?” Berard asked Raw Story.“It's self-explanatory, and when they called me N—, they called me on the film at least four times, and off the film in the beginning they called me that multiple times. Multiple times. And my response to them is, ‘I'm not your N—.’”Berard used the racial slur again while speaking with Raw Story.“It's a despicable, despiteful (sic), disrespectful word to say to anyone, and these kids didn't know me, and they were swinging that word … like it's part of their vocabulary, and my response to them was, ‘I'm not your N-word.’ That's what I said,” Berard said.Tara Phelan, a mother of a 13-year-old biracial son who was present during the incident, said her son told her the mayor said to the group, “You N— have been told you are not allowed to be at this park once it's dark.”Phelan, a 46-year-old full-time caretaker in Northumberland, said Berard made the comment unprompted and “was using the hard ‘R,’” causing her son to come home upset.He was a mess,” Phelan, who is white, said of her son, who is half-Black. “He just was in disbelief. There was a lot of fear there.” Tara Phelan (second from right), one of the parents speaking out against the mayor of Northumberland, Pennsylvania, with her family (Photo courtesy of Tara Phelan)Berard told Raw Story the claim that he was unprovoked was a "lie." The beginning of the incident was not captured on video. "I used the hard 'R.' They used the 'ga,'" Berard said."Same word, just spoken a different way, and they can claim all they want I said this awful word to them unprovoked, but that’s simply not true."Berard said he "did not know what color they were — did not matter to me" about the parkgoers he interacted with on April 17.Phelan and other residents addressed the incident at a Northumberland Borough Council meeting on May 5 but were disappointed by the mayor’s response, which Phelan called “very smug.”“I was hoping that the response would be that he would issue some kind of a public apology and try and do better, or step down if he's not going to serve all of the members of this community,” Phelan said.Angela Jodon, a 31-year-old Northumberland mother who works in human services, attended the Council meeting and spoke up about the incident after she said her 13-year-old daughter was chased the day before by a man calling her the N-word.“There's some words that you're just not allowed to say, and it's pretty well universally understood that is not a word people say, and [the mayor] was saying it with a hard ‘er’,” Jodon, who is Black, told Raw Story after she saw the video of the incident.“There is a version of the word we all know with the ‘A’ at the end, and it is used amongst people of color towards each other, but that is a word that is not allowed with the hard ‘er.’“Everybody knows that. Socially, it's unacceptable anymore, and it has been unacceptable for a very long time, and I believe because he's in a position of power, he felt like he could say it … it doesn't matter what context you're using it. It's offensive, and it's terrifying for people of color to hear the people that's representing them in the community saying that as well.”‘Unconscionable’Phelan said her son was on his way out of the park around 8:18 p.m. when the exchange with Berard happened. Her 20-year-old daughter was waiting to pick him up before his 8:30 p.m. curfew, and the children know “they have to be out of there by the time it gets dark,” she said.Jeramee Clark, a 20-year-old construction laborer from Sunbury, was present during the incident. He estimated about 20 people were present at the park, ages 13 to 20.Clark, who is Black, said he spoke with a police officer who “did tell us, as long as we're not disturbing the peace or anything, whatsoever, we're fine being there,” even after the park lights were on. Second Street Playground in Northumberland, Pennsylvania (Photo courtesy of Tara Phelan)Berard said part of his job is “to uphold the ordinances of the borough” and that the group told him they would still return after he asked them to leave. Berard said the parkgoers came back to play basketball, prompting him to call the police to tell them to leave.Clark disputed Berard’s account, noting that the mayor was in the alleyway during the exchange.
Oil prices have defied predictions of even bigger increases than we've seen — but the markets' shock absorbers could easily wear out later this summer unless the Strait of Hormuz opens soon, analysts warn.Why it matters: If the stockpiles run too low and oil prices surge, prices at the pump — which have been falling lately — could spike again as the midterm elections approach.And buffers against economically devastating shortages in major importing countries are also at risk.The latest: President Trump said Thursday that a deal with Iran is imminent, but the outlook changed so many times in the course of one day that it could easily change again.The oil markets seem to think it might happen, though, as oil is trading around its lowest levels in three months.The global benchmark Brent crude is trading at $87.94 this morning.Threat level: At some point, stockpiles will fall too low to keep easing the market, and other measures won't be able to offset the loss of barrels flowing through the strait.That point could be coming soon. A recent note from investment firm Macquarie estimates that if the strait is still closed on Labor Day, Brent crude prices could be $130-$150."If the war continues into 2027, prices of ~$200 may be needed to balance supply and demand," it projects.Oil and gas executives told the Washington Post that some inventories could be depleted within weeks.How it works: Storage can't go to zero. Sludgy oil at tank bottoms is not usable, pipelines need certain amounts to maintain function, and refineries need minimum stocks.State of play: U.S. stockpiles, both private and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, are dwindling fast. They're falling in a number of other nations, too."The world has been relying on inventories to kind of manage the supply disruption, but ... that can't last forever," Aaron Brady, a top analyst with the research and consulting firm S&P Global Energy, said in an interview.What they're saying: "If the strait is not reopened in, call it the next month or so, those inventories are going to get, we think, towards those minimum operating levels in the U.S., perhaps other places as well," Brady said."When that happens, you don't have that supply buffer, and that's a recipe for upward pressure on oil prices, including gasoline prices," he said.Veteran analyst Daniel Pickering of the investment firm Pickering Energy Partners, in the firm's latest video explainer, said U.S. storage could start to scrape operational minimums "toward the end" of summer.The big picture: Before the war, global oil inventories were rising as production grew faster than demand.It's one of the biggest reasons that while oil prices have soared, they have stopped well short of dire predictions of $150 per barrel or even much higher.Other buffers include China's import decline, Saudi Arabia and some other producers moving more through pipelines, some tankers getting through, and governments' use of strategic reserves.Zoom in: U.S. commercial crude storage levels fell by over 7 million barrels to 426.5 million the week ending June 5, per federal data.These commercial supplies are draining fast even as the Trump administration has provided the market with oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.The intrigue: One reason for the U.S. inventory decline is rising U.S. oil exports.They're going into a global market that needs barrels to help offset the Strait of Hormuz bottleneck.But Trump administration officials have said they're not considering restrictions on U.S. shipments abroad.Reality check: The global oil system has proven surprisingly flexible in the face of an unprecedented disruption, so it's hard for experts to know what's next with any precision.The bottom line: S&P Global Energy points out that inventories in the critical Midwest and Gulf Coast refining markets are currently at 351 million barrels.A "danger zone" starts when they get down to around 325 million, the firm estimates."As inventories drop below this threshold, the market becomes increasingly vulnerable to logistical bottlenecks and price spikes," the firm said in a note Thursday.Sign up here for Axios' Future of Energy newsletter.
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