A retired couple wanted to get out of their timeshare that they purchased years ago. After a lack of results from a company they paid thousands for help, the couple contacted NBC10 Responds and Harry Hairston.

After receiving a kidney from his father as a toddler, a La Salle University student is receiving the same gift, this time from his mother 17 years later.

Kevin Brighter Jr. was two-years-old when he received his first kidney transplant in 2000. Now at the age of 19, he’s in need of another one.

Brighter Jr. went into kidney failure in December of last year. Since then he’s had to juggle being a full-time college student with attending three dialysis appointments a week.

“Every day mom or dad is always saying, ‘Don’t worry. You’ll get through this,’” Brighter Jr. said.

NBC10 was there in 2000 when Brighter Jr. received his first kidney transplant from his father, Kevin Brighter Sr., a Philadelphia police officer.

“Any parent that wouldn’t do anything like this for their son or any child is crazy in my mind,” Brighter Sr. told NBC10 17 years ago. “It’s all about how much I love him.”

Doctors predicted the kidney would last five to ten years. It ended up lasting 17 years however.

“We’ve done this with him since he was little,” Brighter’s mother, Maura Brighter, told NBC10. “You can feel sorry for yourself for a moment. You’ve got to pick up and keep moving on.”

Now that her son is in need of another kidney, Maura Brighter has decided to step in and give him hers.

“It was the best thing in the world when they said, ‘You have clearance,’” Maura Brighter said.

Brighter Jr. had a mixed reaction to the news.

“He was more upset for someone having to give him a kidney again more than he was for himself,” Brighter Sr. said. “I told him, I said, ‘Listen, this is probably one of the most rewarding experiences I ever had is giving a kidney to you.’”

Despite how difficult the process has been, the family says they feel lucky.

“I believe that the waiting list in this area is five to seven years for a kidney,” Maura Brighter said. “So, very thankful.”

Brighter Jr. said he’s thankful to be alive and that he’ll be able to carry a piece of both of his parents with him for life.

“I was thrilled that I was able to have a part of him working for 16 plus years,” Brighter Jr. said. “Now I’m looking forward to having a piece of my mom for hopefully another 16 plus years, at least.”

Brighter’s surgery is scheduled for May 16.

Less than a week after a caught on camera brawl left staff injured and some students in handcuffs, members of the Cheltenham High School community packed an auditorium to let their voices be heard.

A fight occurred at the school Wednesday morning that injured several staff members, including one who was knocked unconscious. While arrests were made in connection to the incident and the school vowed to increase security, many students remain concerned about safety. One of those students is Paige Kytzidis, the Cheltenham High School student council president.

“We have never gotten a reaction like this despite all the circumstances and all the altercations where, quite frankly, students have been injured, and no one has done anything,” Kytzidis said during a meeting Monday night that was prompted by the brawl.

Kytzidis, a senior at the school, said the Cheltenham School District had lingering problems well before Wednesday’s fight. She suggests more mental health and counseling services as well as a youth court to help with the ongoing issues.

“I feel like the students now feel like they've been listened to after being denied for years,” she said. [[421723513, C]]

Cheltenham School District Superintendent Wagner Marseille told the crowd that since the fight, the district has increased the number of safety officers, moved the assistant superintendent to the high school full time and increased meetings with mindfulness and cultural proficiency consultants.

“I’m hoping that he can show us as parents tangible results and not just show talk because the audience is here,” Tiffany Matthews, a parent of a student at the school, told NBC10.

Markee Terry told NBC10 his daughter, a junior at Cheltenham, was a victim in two fights but got in trouble both times, which he believes is unfair.

“As of now I don’t have a lot of confidence in the Cheltenham discipline system when it comes to doing right by who did what,” Terry said. “I’m putting my trust in you to leave my child here. I don’t think it’s right for her to come to you as a staff and you do nothing and then she gets in trouble, locked up and probation.”

Marseille also suggested a school focus group comprised of students, parents, teachers and staff.

The boyfriend of a missing woman whose body was found in the trunk of her car has been indicted on murder charges.

Pedro Lora-Pena also faces a charge of desecrating human remains and two weapons counts in the indictment handed up by an Essex County grand jury. He's due to be arraigned on May 22.

The 42-year-old Belleville man is charged in the death of 41-year-old Diana Boggio, who had been reported missing in late January. The Belleville woman's body was found a few days later in a car parked on a Belleville street.

County prosecutors have said Lora-Pena admitted shooting Boggio three times when she wouldn't stop texting another man during a drive home from the Bronx, New York. They say the couple had dated for about a year.

Too much time spent on your phone or computer could cause changes to your physical and mental health.

A crash caused a hydrant to gush water onto a Philadelphia street near an elementary school.

It was unclear what led to the crash that left the hydrant broken and gushing water onto Richmond Street near Jenks Street in Bridesburg around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday.

It caused part of the street to buckle, fire dispatch said.

As SkyForce10 hovered overhead you could see the water shooting up from the ground. Expect traffic trouble in the area as cars slowly got past the scene. 

A receptionist at nearby Bridesburg Elementary School said school would open on time at 8:30 despite the gushing water.

An hour after the crash, water continued to shoot into the air, the broken hydrant on the sidewalk.

An escalator at the Secaucus NJ Transit station has been broken since last year, leading to crammed conditions and problems for disabled and elderly commuters, commuters say. 

“This is a joke — it’s been over a year,” commuter John Hetlyn said. “I myself am capable of using stairs and whatnot, but I notice a lot of times I have to spend extra time to show elderly people and people who need to find a way upstairs.”

The escalator is one of two at the Secaucus transfer station that have been out of commission for awhile now. 

A News 4 New York viewer sent photos of one of the escalators on Twitter, asking for help in getting it fixed. One photo shows commuters cramming into a line at the stairs beside the broken escalator. Another shows a sign that says escalators 1 and 18 are temporarily closed due to maintenance work. 

NJ Transit had posted that the escalators would be back and working by May 1, but that clearly hadn’t happened this week. The two escalators were out-of-order on Monday. The nearest working escalators were all the way at the end of the track.

Hetlyn said members of customer service giggled when he asked about the broken escalators. They told parts for the escalators aren’t easy to get.

NJ Transit said it’s been difficult to make swift repairs because the parts are hard to find. The agency said the two escalators and others are breaking because they’re outdoors and exposed to the elements.

“I don’t understand,” one commuter said. “It’s like you can go anywhere in the world from this station, they should fix the escalator — it should be like instant.”

Philadelphia-area-based ER doctor Basil Harris developed a medical decoder prototype that could make diagnosing conditions available to people at home and in just minutes.

Americans' life expectancy varies by nearly a generation across counties in the United States, according to a new study, from a high of 87 years in Colorado's ski country to a low of 66 years in southwest South Dakota, with other parts of the Dakotas, Appalachia and the Mississippi river basin close behind.

NBC News reported that obesity and diabetes could explain a big chunk of that 20-year difference, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association's JAMA Internal Medicine Monday.

Many studies have shown that where Americans live has a big effect on how long they live. But Dr. Christopher Murray's team at the University of Washington found that the disparity has increased by five years since 1980, when they looked at life expectancy and risk of death for each county across the U.S. from then until 2014.

"The magnitude of these disparities demands action, all the more urgently because inequalities will only increase further if recent trends are allowed to continue uncontested," the team wrote.

NASCAR came to Philadelphia Tuesday meaning street closures and photo opportunities around town.

The NASCAR Xfinity Philly Takeover brought seven race cars to city streets to promote upcoming race weekends at Dover International Speedway and Pocono Raceway in June.

To set up for the drive around town, Spring Garden Street, between Pennsylvania Avenue and Eakins Oval – near the Philadelphia Museum of Art where NFL Draft closures just ended – was closed from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Philadelphia police said in a news release. [[247269581, C]]

From the art museum area, the cars drove to the Comcast Center along Arch Street in Center City for a 10 a.m. rally. The race car parade continued from there.

Starting at noon, the auto parade will “proceed south on 17th Street to Market Street, east on Market to City Hall, and around the south side of City Hall to Juniper Street,” police said. “Once stopped on South Penn Square, a ceremony/demonstration will take place with City Representatives. When completed, three vehicles will proceed into the 1300 block of Market Street for a photo op. The (processional) will then depart City Hall and travel north on Juniper to JFK Boulevard and west on JFK Boulevard to Broad Street, where they will stop for another brief demonstration. Once completed, the package will continue west on JFK Boulevard, stopping along the north curb lane in front of the Comcast Center for the final photo opportunity.”

The city planned to have police along the route to ensure safety and divert any traffic.

Xfinity is part of Comcast, the parent company of NBC10.

Nearly two years after a Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia leaving eight people dead and hundreds hurt, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has decided not to press criminal charges.

On May 12, 2015 a speeding Northeast Regional train jumped a sharp curve in the city's Port Richmond neighborhood late that night.

The train broke apart after leaving the rails at more than 100 mph. Some cars overturned, others sliced through steel electrical structures and one was crushed like a aluminum can. Four of the passengers killed were ejected from the train.

Federal investigators said the train was traveling at twice the speed limit as it prepared to turn north toward New York City following a stop at 30th Street Station.

"The evidence indicates that the derailment was caused by the engineer operating the train far in excess of the speed limit," a release from the DA's office said.

"However, we cannot conclude that the evidence rises to the high level necessary to charge the engineer or anyone else with a criminal offense," the statement continued. "We have no evidence that the engineer acted with criminal 'intent' or criminal 'knowledge' within the special meaning of those terms under Pennsylvania law for purposes of criminal charges. Nor do we believe there is sufficient evidence to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, criminal recklessness, which would be the only other basis for criminal liability."

Engineer Brandon Bostain lost his bearings after a rock hit the windshield of another train, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled. Bostain told investigators he didn't remember the derailment.

DA Seth Williams' office said that Pennsylvania law that criminal recklessness as when someone "consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk."

They said they found no evidence of the engineer "consciously" disregarding laws.

Miguel Medrano, a North Philly bodega owner for the past 20 years, says it has never been as difficult to keep his business afloat as it has been since the soda tax came into effect this past January.

"There are many people who have sold their businesses because the situation is unsustainable," Medrano said.

Some 18,000 letters and petitions echoing Medrano's sentiments were delivered by the Ax the Bev Tax Coalition Monday to members of City Council, in advance of a hearing of the city's 2018 budget. The coalition, which includes representatives of the beverage industry, maintains that the tax on soft drinks is an attack against local businesses.

"This tax has been particularly hard on stores like ours, wich operate in neighborhoods that are very close to the suburbs," said Sean McMenamin, President of McMenamin Family ShopRites, which owns two supermarkets in the Far Northeast in the press release of the coalition.

In a press release the coalition states that the tax impacts the prices of 3,000 products including iced teas, energy drinks, flavored waters and some milk substitutes.

Councilwoman María Quiñones Sánchez, who represents City Council District 7,  said that she believes there are other ways to raise money for the pre-K education the soda tax is earmarked to fund. "We are working on initiatives to help supermarkets in neighborhoods," she said. "I have been consistent during the past 10 years in City Council saying that small businesses are the ones that generate jobs in some neighborhoods, and they must be protected."

"What many customers do is that they go to nearby businesses to buy the merchandise," Medrano said. He added that after the implementation of the soda tax he has lost about $200 a day in sales.

Mayor Jim Kenney's spokesperson, Lauren Hitt, said in a written statement that "While it's impossible to verify the authenticity of these signatures, we do know that thousands of Philadelphians are already benefiting from this tax."

"There are nearly 2,000 children in free, quality pre-K," Hitt added, "over 250 new jobs in early education; and 4,500 public school students in community schools. These numbers would be even greater if the soda industry wasn't continuing to pursue a lawsuit against the city even after the court of common pleas dismissed their charges in entirety."

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Pennsylvania lawmakers want to make it easier for school bus drivers and crossing guards to administer potentially life-saving medications without fear of being sued.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed House Bill 224 Tuesday.

The bill amends "the Public School Code to provide civil immunity to school bus drivers and crossing guards who administer an epinephrine auto-injector, or EpiPen, to a student who experiences an allergic reaction," Bill sponsor Rep. Justin Simmons, R-Lehigh/Montgomery/Northampton, said in a news release.

"It is extremely gratifying to finally get this legislation across the finish line, and I’m sure the families of children with allergies across the Commonwealth feel the same way I do," Simmons said. 

Senator Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, sponsored companion legislation in the state Senate:

"This legislation aims to help more children who suffer from allergic reactions receive the benefit of this emergency treatment by granting Good Samaritan civil immunity to school bus drivers and crossing guards who, with the proper training, may administer epinephrine auto-injectors," Browne said.

The bill doesn’t mandate that school districts or school bus operators enact an EpiPen policy, but allows for policies to be enacted without the fear of civil litigation, Simmons said. Bus drivers or crossing guards will need to complete a state Department of Health training program and meet school district policies to administer an epi-pen in case of emergency.

The bill now heads to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk.

Experts say crooks are using Mother’s Day to trick consumers into phony deals. NBC10’s Harry Hairston and the NBC10 Responds Team show you how to avoid these scams.

Philadelphia Gas Works is seeking a rate increase that would impact half a million natural gas customers. The average homeowner would pay at least ten dollars more a month. NBC10 Investigative Reporter George Spencer was there as customers weighed in.

A new smartphone app aims to help Delaware visitors and residents find fun events and activities right in their area. The Delaware Tourism Office and State parks announced during a news conference Tuesday their new partnership with GeoSwap, a location-based mobile app.

GeoSwap was created by students in the University of Delaware Horn Program in Entrepreneurship. UD students Jason Bamford, Jordan Gonzalez and Keith Doggett said they came up with the idea for the app while in their dorms more than two years ago.

“High-quality, reliable information is essential to making GeoSwap worthwhile for its users,” Bamford said. “By partnering with Visit Delaware and State Parks, we can ensure that here in the state. We have worked to create a viable product, and it’s very gratifying to have these state agencies get behind us and show their support in this way.”

The app engages and encourages users to visit locations and share their experiences by navigating them to fun events and activities in their immediate area, including water parks, beaches, skating rinks, farmers markets, and places for bike riding. Geo pins with the Visit Delaware and State Parks logos were added to the app due to the new partnership. The pins will help visitors and residents identify locations and events.

“This is a great example of higher education, a small business and state government working together,” Delaware Governor John Carney said. “The partnership shows how innovation drives tourism in the state and how entrepreneurship plays an essential role in the new economy in Delaware.”

The partnership is the latest accomplishment for the GeoSwap creators. The app came in first place at Hen Hatch, the University of Delaware’s startup funding competition. It was also a finalist in April at e-Fest, a business plan competition.

“The efforts of these young entrepreneurs are truly impressive,” Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware) said. “As Delaware Labor Secretary and now as a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, I’ve seen how educational opportunities, like the ones provided at UD, can enable students to succeed in a competitive economy.”

The GeoSwap app is available for free on iPhones and Androids.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed legislation inspired by former "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi to cap what state public universities can pay speakers.

The Republican signed the legislation on Monday. He says the new law is essentially symbolic since institutions largely use student activity fees.

Christie says the new law brings attention to rising tuition costs and heavy student loan debt.

The new law caps the amount of state money that can be spent on speakers at $10,000.

Republican Assemblyman John DiMaio said he was inspired to write the legislation after Snooki was paid $32,000 in student fees to speak at a Rutgers student event in 2011.

Musician and actor Steven Van Zandt is being paid $35,000 to speak at Rutgers' commencement Sunday. Rutgers says the money comes from its beverage contract.