Emergency responders cleared the IRS building in Philadelphia’s University City Wednesday morning after a powder was found.

Philadelphia firefighters could be seen responding to the facility at Market Street and Schuylkill Avenue around 8:30 a.m. after Philadelphia Police said someone discovered a powder in some cubicles on the third floor.

Homeland Security responded and the building -- which is across the street from busy 30th Street Station -- was cleared as precaution, said police.

As SkyForce10 hovered overhead, you could see people gathering outside for a few minutes before returning to the building after being given the all clear.

No one was hurt and the powder turned out to not be dangerous, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector of Homeland Security Joe Sullivan said. [[413834503, C]]

No word on the type of powder that caused the scare, which lasted less than 30 minutes.

NBC10’s celebration of Black History Month continues with a trailblazing Delaware congresswoman. NBC10’S Tracy Davidson spoke to Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester about how she made history.

South Jersey-based Burlington Coat Factory is reportedly the latest retailer to quietly remove Ivanka Trump's line of products from its website.

Multiple reports say roughly a dozen items from the First Daughter's brand disappeared from the Burlington, New Jersey, company's online offerings on Friday, though it is unclear if its brick-and-mortar locations are still selling them.

The retailer has yet to issue a news release related to any decisions made on its offerings.

To read the full article, click here. 

For more business news, visit Philadelphia Business Journal.

The Powerball jackpot has risen to an estimated $310 million ahead of Wednesday's drawing.

That's the biggest jackpot since 20 company co-workers in Tennessee took home a combined $420.9 million right after Thanksgiving. 

There hasn't been a jackpot winner in 2017, according to a list maintained on the game's website. It's been a year and a month since three winning tickets were sold for a $1.59 billion jackpot. 

The odds of winning the grand prize are pretty slim, according to the game's website: 1 in 292,201,338.

Wednesday's pot has a cash value of $189.3 million. The $310 million would be paid out over an annuity.

A Montgomery County Catholic school early education teacher remained behind bars Wednesday, suspended from his job, after being charged with multiple child sex assault counts.

A judge arraigned Michael Barbee, 32, of Yeadon, Pennsylvania on Saturday with involuntary deviate sexual  intercourse with a minor under 16 years old, aggravated indecent assault of a minor under 13 years old, unlawful contact with a minor and related charges. The charges date to Feb. 7, online court records said.

Barbee teaches at Saint Francis of Assisi School’s Early Learning Center in Norristown, Pennsylvania. The school referred NBC10’s calls to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The Saint Francis Parish placed Barbee on administrative leave Friday after learning of the criminal investigation, archdiocesan spokesman Kenneth Gavin told NBC10.

“Over the course of the weekend, Mr. Barbee was subsequently arrested by the Norristown Police Department and charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a minor and other related charges,” Gavin said.

Gavin told NBC10 that the parish shared information on the arrest with early learning center families, parish school families and religious education families affiliated with the parish.

“These charges are serious and disturbing,” Gavin said. “The Archdiocese is cooperating fully with law enforcement regarding this matter and remains fervently committed to preventing child abuse as well as protecting the children and young people entrusted to its care.”

Barbee had no teaching duties at the actual parish school, only at the early education center, which is located in a separate building on the same grounds, Gavin said.

Prior to be being hired in the fall of 2015, Barbee passed background checks and had no previous indications of abuse, Gavin said.

The archdiocese referred questions about the nature of the abuse to Norristown police.

Norristown police didn’t immediately return NBC10’s calls for further comment on the allegations.

Barbee remained jailed Wednesday on $750,000 bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

The archdiocese urged anyone with information about sexual abuse allegations to contact the Victim Assistance Office of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia at 1-888-800-8780 or philavac@archphila.org.

Anyone with more information about Barbee is asked to contact Norristown police at 610-270-0977.

The Southern Poverty Law Center reported an increase in U.S. hate groups in 2016—the second year in a row the number has risen.

The total number of organizations considered hate groups by the SPLC rose from 892 in 2015 to 917 in 2016. 

The number of anti-Muslim hate groups saw the greatest rise, ticking up to 101 from 34 in 2015, according to the annual census of hate groups by the SPLC.

President Donald Trump's election and rhetoric during the campaign is, in part, responsible for this rise of anti-Muslim hate groups, according to the report. 

"The increase in anti-Muslim hate was fueled by Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, including his campaign pledge to bar Muslims from entering the United States, as well as anger over terrorist attacks such as the June massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando," the SPLC wrote. 

Asked about a rise of anti-semitism and racism in the U.S. at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump did not offer specifics about how he'll work to curtail it. 

Instead, he pointed out that he has Jewish relatives, including his daughter, and said, "we're going to have peace in this country."

Mark Potok, an editor of the report called 2016, "an unprecedented year for hate."

“The country saw a resurgence of white nationalism that imperils the racial progress we’ve made, along with the rise of a president whose policies reflect the values of white nationalists," Potok said in a statement. 

The report also notes that an increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes coincided with the increase of these hate groups. 

The SPLC pointed to the latest FBI statistics, gathered in 2015, that showed hate crimes against Muslims increased by 67 percent. 

A gunman shot and killed a teenager along a South Philadelphia street midday Wednesday.

Gunfire rang out on S Bancroft Street near Tasker Street around 11:45 a.m. leaving a 17-year-old shot twice in his back, Philadelphia police said.

Officers rushed the boy to Penn Presbyterian Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead a short time later, police said.

As SkyForce10 hovered overhead, you could see investigators searching for clues. Police didn’t immediately reveal a motive for the killing.

A New Jersey police department arrested an Atlantic City police officer Monday on assault charges.

The Atlantic City Police Department's Internal Affairs Section charged fellow officer Dayton Brown, of Galloway Township, for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.

A tip from a caller led to Brown's arrest when they notified the Internal Affairs Section that a woman had been assaulted by the 44-year-old and was being treated at an areal hospital. 

Galloway Township Police also participated in the investigation.

Brown, a 10-year veteran of the Atlantic City Police Department, has been suspended without pay.

Metallica fans rejoice! The legendary heavy metal band is coming to Philadelphia this summer as part of their North American tour, "WorldWired."

Band members James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo will be performing songs from their latest album "Hardwired... to Self-Destruct" at Lincoln Financial Field on May 12. 

Heavy metal bands Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat will open for Metallica during the 25-date tour.

Tickets will be available for the general public 10 a.m. Friday via Tickemaster.

Buyers will get the option of digital download or physical copy of "Hardwired... to Self-Destruct" with the purchase of each ticket. 

For two months now, parents and officials of Lower Merion schools have waited for a court ruling on this year’s tax increase.

The wait is proving as hard as any eventual fallout for those on both sides. Social media attacks have ramped up and a group of parents called Save LMSD even erected the billboard along Lancaster Avenue earlier this month.

Drivers heading east at Anderson Avenue get a quick glimpse of six children holding their hands over the mouths accompanied by the words: “Save Our Schools. Save Our Community.”

This being Lower Merion Township, there are indeed a group of parents arguing for higher taxes. On their website, they tout being 2,743 strong -- and counting.

They are pitted against a group of taxpayers who sued successfully last fall that the school district disingenuously raised taxes above a state-mandated limit. The tax opposition leader is a longtime township resident and lawyer, Arthur Wolk, who told the appeals court Dec. 15 that he “in fact, represents 20,000 taxpayers.” He was referring to all tax-paying property owners.

Some argue that the eventual ruling by a panel of three Commonwealth Court judges could decide how much power local school districts have to tax and spend.

But maybe, if we’re lucky, the ruling will shine some light on a state education system that pretends to put limits on local school spending. The state’s supposed cap on local tax increases is actually about as strong as the tape you would run through at the end of a marathon.

In Lower Merion's case, the school board raised taxes 4.4 percent last June. That’s 2 percent above a 2.4-percent cap that the state Department of Education put in place for Lower Merion around this time last year.

Like one-third of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts, Lower Merion received approval to circumvent the state cap. Lower Merion’s superintendent, Robert Copeland, has argued that unprecedented student population growth and rising pension costs have contributed to the need for higher taxes.

But there is no clear evidence that the state does any real vetting of a school district’s finances before rubber stamping the exception approvals. Take what Springfield Township’s school finance chief, Ken King, told me last fall.

“All you have to do is complete the form. That’s it. We don’t use exemptions. We don’t like to use them. But you start the budget process in October with very little known. There are a lot of things outside our control. Just to be safe, we file for exemptions,” King said.

While Springfield may not use the exceptions, plenty of other schools do -- like Lower Merion.

And if King’s right, then why does the state bother putting a limit on how much Lower Merion schools can raise each year?

As is often the case in the state offices of Pennsylvania’s education apparatus, the answer might be somewhere in the cauldron of bureaucracy. But it sure isn’t easy to figure out.

A DOE spokeswoman said “the Department used its electronic, web-based data-reporting system, the Referendum Exception System (RES), to receive and approve referendum exceptions. … The electronic system automatically calculates a school district’s allowable exceptions.”

In other words, a computer does the work.

An NBC10.com analysis found the number of districts receiving approval, 178 this school year, is on the rise.

And who really can blame them? The system is designed to be bypassed.

Worth noting: There is another way to increase taxes instead of the state’s computerized rubber stamp.

State law says school boards can also put a new tax hike to a referendum of all local voters.

But, hey, who wants to go through that trouble?

Brian X. McCrone’s columns appear each Wednesday in NBC10.com’s Montgomery County News section. In addition to the columns, McCrone and his colleagues at NBC10.com and NBC10 provide daily news and feature stories on Montco. Reach out to him at brian.mccrone@nbcuni.com or (610)668-5540.

A new initiative to protect and assist some of Philadelphia’s most vulnerable residents has formed with the support of The Philadelphia Bar Association.

A number of non-profit legal aid organizations have joined the City of Philadelphia and the association to form ‘Take Action Philly’ (TAP) -- an initiative bringing together local public and private sector lawyers and community members for discussions focusing on a range of issues facing residents of Philadelphia.

The first TAP Meeting will bring up President Trump’s executive order banning immigrants from seven countries as well as state and federal legislation to defund sanctuary cities. The meetings will help educate Philadelphia’s legal community about the anticipated impact of policy decisions, as well as discuss clear ways they can help the community.

“The outpouring of calls and emails I’ve received from Philadelphians asking how they can stand up for their immigrant neighbors has been incredibly heartening,” Mayor Jim Kenney said. “This convening will ensure we are coordinating our efforts to put up the best possible plan of action for the immigrants of Philadelphia, and I thank the Bar for taking the lead in organizing this group.”

The first meeting will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. on Feb. 24 in the Millennium Hall at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel. The event is open and free to everyone as there will be information on how residents without legal expertise can take action. Online registration is required.

“Acting together, we can design solutions that can truly make a difference in the lives of many,” Philadelphia Chancellor Deborah R. Gross said. “Join us and take action to be part of our community’s response to state and federal policy decisions.”

Some of the partnering organizations of TAP include the ACLU of Pennsylvania, American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the Mazzoni Center among others. For more information, visit PhiladelphiaBar.org.

Police arrested two Atlantic City 911 operators who are accused of buying and selling drugs while on duty.

Shekeia Wade, 32, of Galloway Township, New Jersey and Jennifer Dalton, 42, of Atlantic City, were both arrested and charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Wade is also charged with possession with the intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance and possession with the intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance within 500 feet of a public zone.

Both women worked as 911 operators for the Atlantic City Communications Bureau. Wade allegedly sold oxycodone to Dalton while they were both on duty. Dalton was a shift operator at the time, investigators said.

Wade and Dalton were both suspended without pay. Two other women, who have not been criminally charged, were also suspended without pay.

Both Wade and Dalton were released on a summons with future court dates.

Police say at this point they’re unsure if the two women also used the drugs while on duty and the investigation is ongoing. If you have any information on the suspects, please call the Atlantic City Police Department Special Investigations Section at 609-347-5858. You can also text anonymously to TIP411 (847411). Begin the text with ACPD.

NBC10's Cydney Long sits down with New Jersey Senator Diane Allen to discuss her retirement, after not seeking relection, and how Chris Christie saved her life.

A Philadelphia dance school is getting some attention after videos highlighting their “Daddy Daughter Valentine’s Day Ballet Class” went viral.

Philadelphia Dance Center in the city's Torresdale neighborhood invited dads to partake in a ballet class with their kids on Valentine's Day.

And these fathers didn't disappoint their tiny dancers. Videos posted on the school's Facebook page shows dads pliéing and leaping across the floor, with little-to-no ballet skill. Several fathers even donned tutus, which made for hilarious pirouettes.

"I CAN'T THANK THESE GENTLEMAN ENOUGH FOR MAKING THIS DAY SO VERY SPECIAL!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY," the dance center wrote on Facebook.

By Wednesday evening, the three videos had garnered over 10 million views. 

But it wasn’t just the dads who were in on the fun — the center also invited moms to get their groove on during hip-hop dance classes on Valentine's Day eve and Wednesday.

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“It really is a family environment and we wanted to share what we do in class with the parents who come to watch them,” studio owner, Tom McIntyre said. “It was great to teach the parents what their kids learn.”

A MILD FEBRUARY
So far, so good. It’s been a fairly mild February, with only a handful of snowy or rainy days.

Of the first 15 days of February, all but four have hit above average high temperatures in Philadelphia. In fact, more days have hit the 50s or 60s—five days! That’s one third of our month in Philadelphia, so far.

Temperatures have even broken records for warmth. Just last week, February 8, Philadelphia set a new record high. The airport hit 66 degrees in the afternoon. Other towns like Atlantic City, Wilmington, and Allentown all broke records as well. This weekend, near record warmth hits the region again.

FIRST, A COOL AND WINDY FORECAST
Thursday is set to see cooler temperatures than Wednesday brought. Wednesday topped out in the low 50s across portions of Philadelphia. But a cold front passage in the evening ushered in cooler air and gusty conditions.
Thursday will see gusts up to 40 mph across the Tri-state area. The winds will make the low-40 highs feel more like the low 30s, and that’s in the afternoon! Thursday morning, temperatures will feel like the upper teens and low 20s in the counties surrounding Philly.

Take a look at the temperature anomaly forecast map from one computer model for Thursday afternoon. The blues indicate colder than average temperatures, the reds show off warmer than average temperatures.

Courtesy: Tropicaltidbits.com

The area won’t be much lower than average, but it will feel a lot cooler. The average high this time of year in Philadelphia is 44 degrees.

A QUICK WARM UP FOR THE WEEKEND
The cooler temperatures won’t last long. Here’s the temperature anomaly forecast map for Friday afternoon, and below that, the map by Sunday afternoon (18z is 1 p.m. our time).

Temperatures will climb to the mid 40s Friday (with lighter winds, so no issue with the “wind chill factor”). By Saturday, Philadelphia is forecast to hit 60 and by Sunday? The NBC10 First Alert weather team is expecting a high of 65 in Philly!  The record for warmth on Sunday is 68 degrees, so not quite record-breaking, but close!

On top of that, it will be dry. Mostly sunny conditions are in the forecast across the region for both days.

Why the BIG jump in temperatures? It is, in fact, still February. Well, you can thank our friend “high pressure.” It’s often referred to as a dome by meteorologists—an area where active weather (like rain or snow) stays out, and temperatures can climb.

Even next Monday is looking warm, sticking to the upper 50s and low 60s around the I-95 corridor!

More on the next chance of rain (hint: it’s a while away) coming up later this week!

Get the latest weather forecast and weather alerts HERE.

Women who were incarcerated are turning their lives around thanks to the non-profit Mothers in Charge. NBC10's Aundrea Cline-Thomas tells us about the program that's giving them a second chance.

Spring Training is in full effect for the Philadelphia Phillies. CSNPhilly's John Clark has the details on the warm weather.

How will the federal hiring freeze can impact Philadelphia's tourism sites? NBC10's Erin Coleman investigates.

A man is in the hospital after he was shot several times by police officers during a traffic stop in the West Oak Lane section of Philadelphia Wednesday night.

Police say officers stopped the unidentified man’s vehicle on 21st Street and Chelten Avenue at 8:34 p.m. During the stop, the man allegedly pointed a gun at the officers. The officers opened fire and struck the man several times. He was taken to the Einstein Medical Center where he is currently in critical condition.

Police say they recovered the man’s gun at the scene. They continue to investigate the incident.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

A driver was arrested after he struck a husband and wife who were riding their bikes in Gloucester County, New Jersey Wednesday afternoon, according to investigators.

Susan Kinnan, 57, and her husband John Kinnan, Jr., 62, both of Pittsgrove, New Jersey, were riding bicycles on the southbound shoulder of Delsea Drive in Franklin Township when they were struck by a 2013 Hyundai Elantra. Susan Kinnan was airlifted to the Cooper Medical Center where she is in critical condition. Her husband was taken by ambulance to Cooper and is in stable condition.

The driver of the Elantra, identified by police as Emilio Ortega III, 41, of Monroeville, New Jersey, stopped at the scene. Ortega was arrested and charged with two counts of assault by auto and possession of a controlled dangerous substance.

The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office and Franklin Township Police continue to investigate the incident.