Lanes will be restricted on the Schuylkill Expressway Monday night and Tuesday night due to repair work on an overhead bridge.
Officials with the CSX Railroad will restrict I-76 between South Street and Grays Ferry Avenue Monday and Tuesday for overhead bridge repair.
One lane on I-76 westbound will be closed at that location from Monday at 10 p.m. to Tuesday at 5 a.m. One lane on I-76 eastbound at that same location will be closed from Tuesday at 10 p.m. to Wednesday at 5 a.m.
Drivers are advised to allow extra time when traveling through those areas during those times.
Also on NBC10.com:
Police have identified a man accused of raping and robbing a woman at knifepoint inside a vacant home in the Roxborough section of the city.
Edward Kappe, 46, was arrested on Saturday and charged with rape, aggravated assault, theft and other related offenses.
A woman, who did not want to be identified, told NBC10 she first spotted Kappe on Friday outside of a vacant home on the 400 block of Seville Street.
"He was here Friday afternoon," the woman said. "He was looking at the house. He asked me if anyone lived there and I told him it was for sale."
Investigators say Kappe then broke into the home and then lured a 32-year-old woman to the house on Saturday, shortly before noon.
When the woman arrived, police say Kappe held her at knifepoint, stole her keys and wallet and then raped her.
Police say the woman immediately reported the assault. Kappe was then found and arrested that same day shortly after 1 p.m.
Stay with NBC10.com for more details on this developing story.
Snow days have become aggravatingly routine this winter for people in the Tri-state area. And while kids may love waking up to the news that they don't have to go to school, snow days don't always mean no work for parents. On the contrary, some parents find themselves scrambling to find child care for their children before they begin their workday.
"My husband and I have to switch who calls out every other time," Jennifer Zimmermann-Pulcher posted on our Facebook page. "We have no family near us and usually daycare closes."
When we asked working parents how they handled snow days, we got a variety of answers and found some solutions more common than others.
Christopher Gianguilio, a single dad, said, "In cases like that my son either comes to work with me or stays at his grandparents."
"I take the day off work. I'm lucky," said Sarah Donza-Hughes. "I have a wonderful and understanding boss but I am sure that isnt the case for most."
"Panic!" said Renee Focht Burns. "I am a single working mother of 2 school aged kids.....It's been a very stressful winter!"
Sometimes employers themselves realize this added stress and include child care services in their employee benefits package.
Bright Horizons is one example of an employer-sponsored child care service. The company contracts their service to companies such as PNC Bank and Sunoco, Inc., which offer the drop-off care services to their employees.
Bright Horizons Communications Manager, Julie Kane says this winter, there has been a significant increase in back-up child care requests in Pennsylvania. In February alone, there were 87 requests for drop-off service compared to just 20 requests in February of 2013.
Another local employer who supplies child care service to its employees is The University of Pennsylvania. Specifically they have a snow day child care program that employees can use. They take children as young as 12 weeks and as old as 12 years at their Penn Children's Center located at 3126 Chestnut Street.
Human Resources Director of Quality of Worklife Programs, Marilyn Kraut explained this program was put into place in 1995 after the bad winter of 1994 so employees had the option of child care when schools were closed for snow.
"We've been down this road before," she said regarding this winter.
Parents who don't have the benefit of child care from their employers may face decisions that cost money. Eileen DiGiacomo felt the pinch today. She's a dental hygienist. "We don't have sick or vacation days. My husband went in and he works until I am told what my schedule looks like or if we cancel and then he comes home if I have patients to see. Today we cancelled and I lost a day's pay."
Lost wages, and sometimes lost time for working parents who have to use a vacation day to stay home. And the option of finding a sitter or day-care often means paying out of pocket, unless you've set your life up like Li Longo, who responded to our Facebook post today saying her kids just went to worth with her. "I started my own business and made it parent and child friendly. It is ridiculous that companies don't understand that our kids come first. So I started a company where they do."
For families who can't take their kids to work, can't find a sitter and have to hunt for another last-minute option, there are some child care organizations that will take care of kids on snow days. Play and Learn is one option. They have 12 locations in Montgomery County and charge $65 for a full day of care.
On snow days this winter, on average, they've taken care of 2-to-3 additional children at each of their facilities. In addition to the children they already have enrolled, they are equipped to handle between five to ten extra children on snow days. Executive Director of Play and Learn, Judith Cooper says they’ve never ran out of space.
A Philadelphia Police officer, who was shot outside his home early Sunday, was released from the hospital as police continue to search for the shooter.
Officials with the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania told NBC10 that Officer Robert Penn was released on Monday.
Penn, 46, was shot in the shoulder around 12:15 a.m. on Sunday as he got out of his car in the driveway behind his house on the 7300 block of Brentwood Road in the Overbrook Park section of the city, officials said. He lives in the home with his two children and wife, a lieutenant in the department.
The 19th District officer had just finished his shift and was in plain clothes when he was shot, police said.
The bullet struck Penn, a 24-year veteran of the force, in the shoulder and exited his back, police said. He was rushed by police cruiser to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where he was treated before his release on Monday.
Penn told detectives an unidentified man, approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall and wearing all black clothing, walked up to him, muttered a few words and then fired, according to investigators.
No arrests have been made in the shooting, but police have interviewed several possible witnesses, officials said.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 215.686.TIPS.
On one of the coldest mornings of the year, fire forced a family out of their Delaware County home as crews battling the blaze were forced to get creative to stay warm.
Flames broke out around 2:30 a.m. in the attic of a home along the 2700 block of Price Street in Chester, Pa. forcing a couple and their child into the sub-freezing temperatures.
Firefighters that responded to the scene faced added challenges with temperatures hovering in the lower teens.
“Some of my men (behind the home) the water that’s actually hitting them is icing up,” said Chester Fire Battalion Chief Charles Hopkins. “Most of the guys over there, their gear is iced up, their helmets are iced up so we have to keep rotating crews in and out to keep them from getting hypothermia.”
No injuries were reported.
Firefighters were able to battle back the flames and by 4 a.m. a sheet of ice had formed where the fire burned minutes earlier.
Fire investigation crews were called in to determine a specific cause but firefighters said the fire didn’t appear suspicious.
Tuesday, March 4, is National Pancake Day and to honor the pancake, IHOP is dishing them out for free!
From 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., get to any International House of Pancakes and they’ll give you a short stack of buttermilk pancakes for free – well, if you feel like being generous (and you should), you can make a donation to support the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals or another designated local charity.
Since the primarily pancake restaurant began giving out free pancakes in 2006, they've raised more than $13 million in support of various charities.
The Route 30 Bypass eastbound in Caln Township is open as of 11:30 a.m. this morning
It had been closed following a fatal car accident shortly after 9:00 a.m.
The Chester County accident involved one vehicle and resulted in one fatality. No other injuries were reported.
The accident occured on Route 30 west of Reeceville Road and between Route 82.
PATCO passengers took to social media to express frustration with the transportation agency this morning.
A Philadelphia bound train was stopped at Ferry Avenue due to a lighting problem, according to a PATCO tweet at 9:08 a.m., which stated service was delayed for 20 minutes in both directions.
The issue was with "lights on the inside of the train," said PATCO spokesman Tim Ireland.
There was a problem with the emergency lights inside the train, he said. Passengers had to leave the train at Ferry Avenue and wait until another train picked them up.
Ironically, the tweet prior to the delay notice said: "PATCO is running its normal Tuesday-Thursday schedule today 3/4/14."
A Twitter account called @PATCOWatchers is tweeting real-time information about PATCO's service to keep riders informed and to provide feedback to PATCO.
A real-life version of the video game Frogger is taking place on the roads surrounding the Upper Roxborough Reservoir in Philadelphia as thousands of toads make the annual migration to the water, to mate.
And the most dangerous predator they face along the way is on four wheels.
Cars driven down Port Royal Avenue and Hagys Mill Road in Roxborough threaten to kill the migrating toads every spring. That is why a team of volunteers with The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education comes to the rescue each year with The Toad Detour.
The Toad Detour sets up barricades around the reservoir to keep cars from running over the creatures. That means that the volunteers must stand by the barricades and explain to any drivers what the detour is all about.
"We don’t want to prevent anyone from going to church," explained Claire Morgan, who coordinates the volunteers. The hope is that drivers are okay with the slight inconvenience for the sake of nature. If that's not enough incentive, maybe it helps to remember that toads do their part at reducing the fly and mosquitoes populations.
Morgan held a volunteer orientation on Saturday at The Schuylkill Center, which included a family-friendly presentation about the toads’ migration habits during the spring and early summer months.
The Schuylkill Center has a permit to put up the barricades from March 1st until June 30th, however, they wait to start The Toad Detour until they actually witness toads starting to make their way to the water.
Morgan said, "they move at their own pace," so while they are in the middle of crossing the street they now don't have to deal with being run over while the barricades are up.
The barricades are usually in place only between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. This time allows for thousands of toads to safely migrate each year. After 9 p.m., there is less danger because fewer cars are on the road.
American toads, the most common in this area, migrate to a body of water to mate and breed. They have been making the trek to the Upper Roxborough Reservoir for years.
Morgan played the very high pitch mating call of the male toads for the volunteers to hear during her presentation. It sounded a lot different than the deep croaking and ribbit sounds people normally associate with toads and frogs.
After the adult toads have mated, they eventually go back across the street to their original habitats. Several weeks later, toadlets as big as a dime make their journey back across the street, joining their parents.
Part of the excitement each year is the challenge of counting the toads. Volunteers get a bucket and a tally sheet that they use to tally the number of toadlets they find, both alive and dead.
Toads can lay anywhere between 4,000 and 20,000 eggs.
"That’s a lot of tadpoles," said Morgan.
She explained to the prospective volunteers and Toad Detour veterans that some of the best counters are children and sometimes they are as young as four years old. They have an advantage because they're closer to the ground.
The toads will make their first commute at night when the temperature is above 50 degrees, and the ground is a little moist. When they do emerge, The Toad Detour volunteers will be ready. Volunteers sign up for shifts ahead of time. However, The Toad Detour’s facebook page alerts volunteers to any toad activity spotted around the Schuylkill Center’s grounds.
All ages are encouraged to volunteer to protect the toads and even a few Girl Scout Troops have already signed up to help the cause. People and organizations interested in volunteering can find out more at The Schuylkill Center website and the Toad Detour facebook page.
People in one local state could lose some weight -- Delaware came is the third-most obese state in the country.
A Gallup Well-Being poll released Tuesday found that 34.3 percent of Delaware’s population is obese -- coming in only behind West Virginia (34.4 percent) and Mississippi (35.4 percent) for being obese.
New Jersey and Pennsylvania wound up in the middle with 28.2 percent of Pennsylvanians very fat and 24.9 percent of New Jerseyans coming in as obese.
Overall, 27.1 percent of the 178,072 Americans taking part in the telephone survey were obese. The report took into account the respondents’ self-reported height and weight to determine obesity -- meaning those people have a body-mass index of 30 or higher.
The overall weight of Americans has gone up in recent years. According to Gallup, 25.5 percent of Americans were obese when the survey was first administered in 2008. That number rose to 26.6 percent in 2010 before dropping to 26.1 percent in 2011 then growing again to 26.2 percent in 2012.
Montana was the least obese state in 2013 with just 19.6 percent of people being obese with Colorado (20.4) and Nevada (21.1) rounding out the Top 3.
Interestingly the survey found that the amount of overweight Americans (having a BMI of 25 to 29.9) has steadily declined each year from 36.7 percent in 2008 to 35.7 percent last year.
A man accused of killing a pregnant mother and her young daughter before torching their Bucks County home is due in court Tuesday afternoon.
Marcel Emmanuel Johnson of Levittown, Pa. is set to have a preliminary hearing in Magisterial Court in Bucks County on charges including criminal homicide, homicide of an unborn child, arson and weapons possession, according to court records.
Johnson, 21, has remained behind bars without bail following his November arrest.
Ebony Talley, 22, and her 4-year-old daughter R'Mani Rankins were found dead inside an apartment complex in Bristol Township, Pa. on Nov. 25 following a fire. Friends and family say Talley was five months pregnant at the time of her death.
The fire broke out at the Avalon Court Apartment Complex on the 3500 block of Bristol Oxford Valley Road -- not far from the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Firefighters controlled the blaze shortly after.
Officials soon discovered the bodies of Talley and R'Mani, who were staying with a friend inside the complex. Talley was pronounced dead at the scene. R'Mani was taken to the hospital where she later died.
According to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office, someone stabbed both Talley and her daughter and set a fire to cover it up.
Prosecutors in Bucks County say that DNA evidence found at the scene linked Johnson to the deaths.
"It's too fast," said Marquis Johnson, a friend of the victims. "It sounds fishy. It sounds like they were set up or something like that."
According to an affidavit, Johnson was the last person at the scene with Talley and her daughter before their deaths.
Emergency crews were on the scene of a small school van accident in Bucks County, Pa.
SkyForce10 was live over Mechanicsville and Dunksferry roads in Bensalem where police say a school van was sideswiped.
Officials say there were children in the van at the time of the accident, however, no injuries have been reported.
Neighbors and passersby took to Twitter to share images from the scene of an explosion at a New Jersey housing development. The fatal explosion occurred on Crocket Lane in Ewing Township. A loud boom was heard at 12:50 p.m. A woman's body was recovered later in the afternoon by fire investigators.
Another seven people were injured, 5 PSE&G workers and two contractors.
“I was sitting and watching television and I heard a big bang, a really big bang. I went outside and drove up the street," said neighbor Josh Forst.
"It was a big shaking feeling. The windows were shattered on every house on the street.”
Forst got in his car and drove a quarter of a mile to the scene to see what exactly had happened. To his surprise, the scene was more horrific than he could have imagined. He witnessed fire coming from a home in his development. Crews battle the blaze, which could be seen from SkyForce10.
There is no official word on what caused the explosion although PSE&G said that workers were repairing a utility line.
