Weird, I did not add those list tags at the front, nor at the end.
In fact, I kept deleting the ones at the end (didn't notice the ones at the front at the time) and it kept adding the tags back in automatically.
Furthermore, once I save, I can see the end tags showing up in the text, but I don't see the beginning tags - they are invisible to me. That is why I didn't notice them at first.
However, it seems if I remove them all, they don't come back...
very strange....