A dump truck crashed into a Delaware County home Tuesday morning.
Luckily, no one was hurt when the truck went up on the lawn of a home along Garfield Road near Chew Road in Media, Pennsylvania around 7:45 a.m.
As SkyForce10 hovered overhead a short time later you could see the truck near the front of the home.
The exact extent of damage wasn’t clear but Pennsylvania State Police said the truck only "dinged" the house.
The man accused of opening fire at a Los Angeles International Airport security checkpoint, killing a Transportation Security Administration officer, is expected to plead guilty Tuesday in the November 2013 rampage.
Paul Ciancia will enter his plea to 11 felony counts stemming from the Nov. 1, 2013, shootings in the airport's Terminal 3, including the murder of TSA Officer Gerardo I. Hernandez. Three others were wounded when Ciancia, armed with a semiautomatic rifle and dozens of rounds of ammunition, continued firing rounds in the terminal before he was shot in the head and leg during a gun battle with airport police, according to authorities.
The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. PT in downtown Los Angeles.
Marshall McClain, director of the union that represents airport police officers, said he hoped Hernandez's family members would find some relief as a result of the plea.
"We hope the plea agreement will help Officer Gerardo Hernandez's family heal and brings some closure to them from this horrific tragedy," McClain said.
As part of the plea deal filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty, but the murder charge to which the 26-year-old Ciancia will plead carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Weapons charges carry another mandatory 60 years in prison, in addition to several years behind bars for other charges.
Federal prosecutors have cited Ciancia's "substantial planning and premeditation."
The New Jersey native, who had been living in the Sun Valley area of Los Angeles for about 18 months, purchased his weapon almost seven months prior to the attack and concealed it on the day of the shooting by tying two pieces of luggage together to create a carrying case, court papers show. According to the plea agreement, Ciancia sent text messages to his brother and sister while he was being driven to the airport on the morning of the attack. In one, he called himself a "patriot."
"I'm so sorry that I have to leave you pre-maturely, but it is for the greater good of humanity," he wrote to his brother. "This was the purpose I was brought here."
To his sister, Ciancia wrote that he had to "stand up to these tyrants," and asked her not to let the media distort his actions.
"There wasn't a terrorist attack on Nov. 1," he wrote. "There was a pissed off patriot trying to water the tree of liberty."
Witnesses to the shooting said the gunman asked them whether they worked for the TSA, and if they said no, he moved on.
After he shot Hernandez at a passenger ID checkpoint and the officer fell to the ground, Ciancia got on an escalator and headed into the terminal. When he saw Hernandez still moving, Ciancia went back and shot the officer repeatedly, prosecutors said.
Hernandez, a 39-year-old father with a teen son and daughter, was shot a total of 12 times.
Moving back into the terminal, Ciancia shot TSA Officers Tony Leroy Grigsby and James Maurice Speer, along with a traveler, Brian Ludmer, according to invesetigators.
Ciancia continued into terminal but was shot in the neck and leg during a gun battle with airport police. He spent two weeks recovering at a hospital before he was transferred to a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles, where he remains in custody.
A man used a sedan and a shovel to crush and beat a screaming woman to death, said Philadelphia Police.
Officers responded to reports of someone screaming along W Louden Street near N Franklin Street around 8:25 p.m. Saturday to find Joel Horton, 50, standing next to a 2012 Nissan Maxima, said investigators.
"The male repeatedly ran over the female with his vehicle and then retrieved a shovel from his trunk, and struck the female several times," said Philadelphia Police in a news release.
Doctors at Einstein Medical Center declared Adrienne Lindsay, 52, dead about an hour later.
On Tuesday, police announced murder charges against Horton.
Investigators didn’t reveal the relationship between Horton and Lindsay.
A 26-year-old New Jersey woman has mysteriously disappeared after a routine trip to her local coffee shop, her cellphone and laptop left behind in an office building about three miles away, police and family say.
Tammy Kim, who has no history of running away, was last seen near the Starbucks on Highway 23 in Franklin Borough at about 10 a.m. Thursday, according to police.
The Starbucks cafe was a favorite hangout for Kim, and she often worked on her computer there. Kim, who does not drive, was supposed to be picked up by her parents at around noon last Thursday, her mother told NBC 4 New York Monday.
Surveillance images show her apparently walking to a couple of nearby businesses, eventually making a three-mile journey south along Route 23.
Her laptop was found abandoned near the Sussex Bank corporate offices -- a mostly empty office building -- on Munsonhurst Road, police said. On the second floor of the building, in a room that's under renovation, police tracked her phone about 12 hours after she disappeared.
That's all they found, according to Franklin Borough Police Det. Nevin Mattessich. There was no sign of Kim or any kind of foul play.
Because Kim does not drive, two scenarios are dominating the list of possibilities, according to police: She suffered from some sort of medical episode and wandered into the woods in a rural area nearby, or she got into a car with somone.
But both are out of character for the aspiring teacher and artist, according to her family, who's now appealing to the public for help.
Her mother, Christine Kim, told NBC 4 her daughter is "an intelligent and hard-working and highly educated professional with many talents and a bright future."
Tammy has been "suffering from many health issues and side effects of the medications," her worried mother said.
"She is just sick and lost, and could be injured somewhere in need of being found," said Christine Kim.
Police say Tammy, who has a masters degree in fine art, has friends in New York City and Asbury Park, and that's where they're hoping people will see photos of her and contact police with any information.
She was last seen wearing a brown tee shirt and carrying a purse with the cartoon character Felix the Cat on it.
Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call the Franklin police at 973-827-7700.
Ahead of his visit to Philadelphia Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accidentally tweeted "Phillies."
Maybe he had the City of Brotherly Love’s beloved baseball team on his mind when he used the death of longtime conservative advocate Phyllis Schlafly to promote her new book about him. [[392436221, C, 573,132]]
"As a tribute to the late, great Phillies Schlafly, I hope everybody can go out and get her latest book, THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR TRUMP," tweeted Trump Tuesday morning.
He later deleted the tweet and resent it with the proper spelling of Schlafly’s first name. [[392464211, C]]
It didn't take long for the twitterverse to pick up on the mistake.[[392473151, C]]
Schlafly endorsed Trump earlier this year and he book – co-authored with Ed Martin and Brett M Decker, coincidentally was released Tuesday, a day after the 92-year-old lost her battle with cancer.
"Phyllis Schlafly is a conservative icon who led millions to action, reshaped the conservative movement, and fearlessly battled globalism and the 'kingmakers' on behalf of America's workers and families," Trump said in a statement Monday. "I was honored to spend time with her during this campaign."[[338107532, C]]
A public hearing on infrastructure issues including the $80 million sewer problem facing Cheltenham Township -- and possibly other Montgomery County towns -- will be held next week, a Pennsylvania lawmaker said Tuesday.
The hearing Sept. 15 will feature three panels made up of local and state speakers, "all of them experts on water and sewer infrastructure issues," state Rep. Steve McCarter, D-Cheltenham, said on his website.
The panelists were not identified in the release. McCarter's office did not respond to requests for comment.
"[The hearing will] offer an informative look into water and sewer infrastructure issues nationally, the problems we have here in Pennsylvania and potential solutions including a focus on green infrastructure and land use and investment decisions," McCarter said on his site.
Cheltenham faces a major overhaul to its sewer system, which local officials have been ordered to inspect as soon as possible by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Much of the system's two components, the township-owned pipes and sewer laterals on private properties that connect to the larger mains, are failing current state standards because of either age or capacity.
For the last decade, local officials have grappled with the expense of coming into compliance. NBC10.com first reported the massive cost facing taxpayers who will have to pay for the township main replacements and potentially the laterals on their properties.
Twice since May, township officials have delayed the start of inspections of private laterals. Last month, the Board of Supervisors discussed the possibility of selling the township's sewer system and set a meeting Sept. 28 to again discuss inspections.
McCarter, who represents Cheltenham, Jenkintown, and Springfield, told NBC10.com in May that "inner-rim suburbs" -- those bordering metropolitan areas like Philadelphia -- across the state face similarly dire situations.
"Nobody wants to talk about what’s underground and out of site," McCarter said at the time. "But it’s going to cause a lot of consternation and disruption."
He also correctly predicted that the start of inspections, which then were slated to begin later this year in Cheltenham Village and Glenside, would be delayed.
"I think there’ll be some adjustments in terms of time as we go along," McCarter said.
Cheltenham supervisors have yet to formally approve the state-mandated inspections.
The Sept. 15 meeting will be 10 a.m. at Curtis Hall, 1250 Church Road in the Wyncote neighborhood. McCarter asked that those attending RSVP, though it is not required.
[[392513571, C]]
A Delaware County police officer shot on the job seven times earlier this summer has officially been cleared to return to duty, his police department said.
Folcroft Police Department tweeted Tuesday afternoon in news.
[[392521811, C]]
Officer Chris Dorman, 25, was shot in the neck, face, and shoulder after responding to a report of people smoking drugs in the rear of an apartment building on Elmwood Avenue near Folcroft Train Station back on June 24, 2016.
In his initial exchange with a police dispatcher, Dorman was heard shouting: "I'm shot in the face! I'm shot in the face!"
The alleged shooter, Donte Brooks Island, should have been behind bars at the time of the shooting, NBC10.com reported in June. He had stopped reporting to his parole officer, and his parole was actually scheduled to end the day after his shooting of Officer Dorman, according to court records. He also missed five scheduled drug tests. After his capture, Island was arraigned on attempted murder and other charges, and held on $1 million bail.
Dorman’s bulletproof vest stopped four bullets, which officials say ultimately saved his life. A bullet entered through the officer’s cheek and required surgery, but after just two months of recovery, Dorman is ready to hit the streets of Delaware County once again.
During his recovery, Dorman was honored by the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park and received numerous get well wishes, Facebook posts, and tweets, including a phone call from country singer Kenny Chesney. The call was an apology from music star for mistakenly telling fans at a concert in Camden that Dorman had died.
Only a few days after being released from the hospital in June, Dorman told NBC10 that he was “ready to get back to work.”
Friday, he will do just that.
How about we start with some of the nastier tweets?
pure fear mongering. Exploited emotions for ratings. Should be embarrassed.
Feel sorry for the the shore businesses who lost $$$ because this fraud chose ratings over scientific fact
anything to say 2 the shore merchants you crushed with your catastrophic warnings
what do you say to those who feel this has been overhyped and cost shore businesses money?
You hyped the whole weather situation at the jersey shore
So what is "hype"?
Merriam-Webster defines hype as: 1. Deception 2. Publicity; especially promotional publicity of an extravagant or contrived kind.
Hermine wasn’t hyped. The threat was real. The threat was for coastal flooding in parts of our region that could have been worse than Sandy. The threat was life-threatening. The threat was acknowledged by every meteorologist who knows anything about hurricanes. There wasn’t much disagreement on the threat.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) & National Weather Service used the term “life-threatening inundation” in their forecasts for our coastline. Their specific forecast for ocean levels from Atlantic City to Rehoboth Beach were literally at or above all-time record levels.
At one time or another, every computer model-from all over the world predicted a major storm taking a rare left turn and tracking dangerously close to the coast. It obviously wasn’t a repeat of Sandy -- not as large or tracking fast directly into the coast. But there were some scary similarities. The main difference was Hermine was threatening when coastal populations had swollen to beyond capacity due to the big holiday weekend. Sandy hit way after the summer season -- only a small fraction of the population of last weekend.
What is our mission as meteorologists?
We are not talking about a science like astronomy, where we can predict to the minute when the next eclipse will start and finish, and to the mile about which areas will see it. This is weather forecasting, which everyone knows is not an exact science. The science has improved steadily in the 40-plus years I’ve been forecasting, but chaos theory says that we can never be perfect.
So, when a life-threatening storm approaches on one of the busiest weekends of summer, what do we do? When the official forecast from the well-respected NHC predicts record coastal flooding, what do we say? Are we “hyping” the storm by relaying these statements? Of course not. It’s called “communication," and it is our responsibility to do it. And we need to communicate it at the same level of concern NHC does. If we don’t, we are being reckless and irresponsible.
What happened to Hermine?
Hermine was a headache to predict even before it became Hermine. The tropical wave originated off the coast of Africa Aug. 18, as the historical peak of hurricane season began. It struggled in its path across the Atlantic, often being predicted to strengthen into a tropical storm, but not doing so until it reached the Gulf of Mexico. It reached hurricane strength in the Northern Gulf before making landfall in the Florida Panhandle.
The future track looked like a threat to our part of the coast even before it made landfall. The forecast from the world-renowned European Model on Wednesday, Aug. 31, showed a potential future disaster: a hurricane tracking a mere 50 miles off of Cape May by Sunday morning.
The purple area (winds at 5000 feet of 74 to 92 mph) of maximum winds covered virtually ALL of NJ and DE, and even extended west of Philadelphia. Winds would be less at the ground-but not much less. Worse, it had Hermine stalling in the area for days, which would build up the seas to a point where record flooding would be possible in some areas.
The consensus was that Hermine would track about 150 miles off the East Coast, then stall, and then start curving back toward the coast. Their “cone of uncertainty” extended from the Jersey shore itself out to about 300 miles offshore. It turned out that Hermine tracked up to 370 miles offshore! It went SO far east that even a strong and rare left turn days later still didn’t bring the storm as close to the coast as the NHC prediction had.
Predicting a hurricane to stall or dramatically change course is, by far, the hardest part of the job. This means that the storm is entering an area with very weak (or changing) “steering currents." These currents are winds thousands of feet up. My former boss at NHC, Dr. Neil Frank used to say: “Hurricanes move along like logs in a river. But, in this case, the rivers MOVE." Modern computer models are much better at predicting these changing rivers, but….
In this case, even a 100 mile error in the forecast track was critical (even 50 miles would be important). So, precision was needed in the hardest part of the track forecast. Unlike with Sandy, the timing of the left turn was off. And that changed everything. Hermine was able to continue tracking east into the Atlantic farther and farther as the stall or turn was delayed. Even moving only 10 mph, a one day delay would mean a 240 mile error to the east. That’s exactly what happened.
Talking about 'uncertainty'
We know hurricane track forecasts won’t be perfect. We know the forecast of this particular storm was tough due to the unusual movement. But we also know that being “wishy-washy” in forecasts causes people to tend to NOT take action. Does the public want forecasts that say: “Well, the hurricane could track this way and lead to a life-threatening situation. Or it could track farther east, and we’ll end up with a nice weekend”?
What would people do if a meteorologist said that? Probably nothing. And if the worst happened, we would have failed as both meteorologists and communicators. Our mission of “protecting life and property” would be ignored.
The governors of New Jersey and Delaware did exactly the right thing by issuing a state of emergency. The consequences of not doing that, and have the storm merely do as predicted could have ended up tragically. And we in the local meteorological world also did the right things, even though they turned out wrong. As one of the rare tweets said:
This reminds me of the saying from one of my former colleagues at NHC many decades ago. He called it "The Meteorologist’s Motto":
“I forecast with great trepidation, and for that I have no regrets. Because when I’m right no one remembers, and when I’m wrong, no one forgets.”
