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Delaware VA Hospital Teams up With University

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As veterans in Delaware continue to receive services from the VA Hospital in Wilmington, some of those services will be expanding. As of Friday, the VA hospital teamed up with The University of Delaware, which will hopefully lead to more extensive research and better lives for the veterans.


NBC10 First Alert Weather: Let the Heat Begin!

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If you thought Fridays weather was hot, wait until you see the forecast for the weekend! A heat wave is headed our way and temperatures will soar into the 90s.

'Not One More' Fundraiser to Bring Awareness to Epidemic

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Friends and family of Darion Einsig have been grappling with how to honor him since the day he passed away after a suspected heroin overdose in February. 

Einsig, who was 22, grew up in Berks County. He was an accomplished athlete, an avid climber, and, perhaps his most proud accomplishment, a doting father.

People who loved Einsig have come together around Grayson, Einsig’s one-year-old son.

On a Sunday in July, Einsig’s friends will take another step to make Grayson’s future that much stronger, while also hoping to make a difference in their community.

“I just seem to be continually surprised and in awe of what people want to do,” Einsig’s mother, Kim Beck Einsig said, “truly, truly amazing across the board.”

Stephen Foster, a former friend of Einsig, got the initial idea for a golf fundraiser that would benefit Grayson’s college fund after a club he was involved with hosted a similar event. Then, with the help of other friends, the plan began to take shape.

“Grayson has brought a lot of us together,” Emily Larson, another of the organizers, said. “He’s carrying Darion’s legacy on, so we want Grayson to know how loved his dad was.”

Larson says that, for her, the event will hopefully serve as a talking point, too.

“At this day and age I think everybody knows somebody who is involved with addiction or battling addiction,” Larson said.

Foster says he hopes the event will not only raise money for Grayson, but will also be something that can serve the community as a whole.

“In the past year or so there’s been a lot of talk in the news about substance abuse,” Foster said. “A lot of people are affected by it especially in our community. So if we can have an event where it raises awareness for addiction as well as helping out Grayson, that’d be great.”

The friends say this is a way of not just helping Grayson and raising awareness of addiction, but also a way of remembering their lost friend.

“I miss him all the time,” Bryn O’Reilly, another organizer, said of Einsig. “It’s definitely been hard.”

Although the purpose behind the event is bittersweet, Beck Einsig says she’s amazed by the outpouring of support for her family and her grandson.

“It’s hard to put words down when somebody wants to do something like this for you,” Beck Einsig said. “It’s almost surreal. It’s touching, but also why it has to be done is heartbreaking.”

The event will be hosted on Sunday, July 16 from 1:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. The fundraiser will be open to the public, and participants can create teams using the event flyer. All proceeds will benefit Grayson's educational fund.




NBC10’s Digital Team spent nearly six months investigating the issue of opioid addiction in the Philadelphia region and beyond. They discovered a generation of addicted people and a public health and law enforcement system ill-equipped to save them. Lean more about "Generation Addicted."




Photo Credit: Kim Beck Einsig/Bryn O'Reilly

Special Olympics to Kick Off in Delaware

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Beaches in Delaware will surely be crowded this weekend, but the Special Olympics will draw out big crowds as well. The event will take place at the University of Delaware and highlight athletic abilities of all ages.

NBC10 Responds: Car Insurance Warning

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Have you checked your car insurance policy, making sure to pay attention to the details? NBC10's Harry Hairston says you should to make sure you avoid the troubles one consumer went through.

Philly Daycare Worker Caught on Camera Smacking Child

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A daycare worker was fired after surveillance video surfaced Friday showing her smacking aand pushing a child.

The Director of Olney Academy confirmed to NBC10 that the worker was immediately fired after the video surfaced on Facebook. In the video, the worker is seen approaching a small child, then swatting him.

Brianna Woods says she's glad the worker was fired. She says it's her 2-year-old son Noah seen falling in the video.

The teacher is then seen smacking the child in the back of the head causing the child to fall down, "I'm glad to hear she's been fired, but when I looked at the video myself I was wondering why she wasn't in cuffs."

The director of the day care told NBC10 they followed protocol by immediately notifying the child abuse hotline.

Woods has filed a police report.


The Heat is On!

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Summerlike weather moves in bringing a heatwave and possible near record temperatures into next week. NBC10 First Alert Chief meteorologist Glenn Hurricane Schwartz has your neighborhood forecast.

Trying to Stop Suicides as Social Media Explodes


Three Men Stabbed in Feltonville During Robbery

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Three victims were stabbed and seriously hurt during what Philadelphia detectives are investigating as a robbery that turned violent early Saturday. It occurred in the Feltonville neighborhood.

NBC10 First Alert: Perfect Weather Request? You Got It

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Sunny days are turning the dial up, starting Saturday when temperatures in land will reach the high 80s while the shore will be breezy and beautiful.

Trying to Stop Suicides as Social Media Explodes

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When Dese'Rae Stage interviews survivors of suicide attempts for a website she created, she asks herself a question news reporters may not always consider: How much did it hurt?

A survivor herself, she wants to be sure that readers of her website "Live Through This" come away with a real picture of suicide — no romance, no facile explanations and no inducements for others to kill themselves. Stage, 33, is encouraging people to survive.

"Because what we see on TV is, 'Oh I'm just going to take a nap forever and it's going to be peaceful,' and that's not the reality," she said. "And I'm like, 'Tell me what the reality looks like.'"

Mental health professionals have for decades warned that media can drive suicides, with studies pinpointing what kind of coverage can be deadly and journalists urged to follow reporting guidelines. But the influence that newspapers and television newscasts had in the past is being eclipsed by Facebook, YouTube and other popular sites. The enormous reach of social media has left mental health professionals even more worried about copycat suicides — or contagion, as it is called — and determined to confront the online world.

Most troubling today: young people live streaming their suicides.

The phenomenon of imitating well publicized suicides is sometimes called the "Werther effect," named for Goethe's 1774 novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther," which was banned in some European cities after it was published over fears it triggered an increase in deaths. "My friends….thought that they must transform poetry into reality, imitate a novel like this in real life and, in any case, shoot themselves," Goethe himself wrote about the cases.

"They were found dead with the book," said Madelyn Gould, a psychiatry professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

SUICIDE SUSCEPTIBILITY
More than 50 studies worldwide have shown that some types of news coverage can increase the likelihood of suicide for vulnerable people. That coverage includes explicit descriptions of the method, graphic headlines or images and repeated reports that glamorize a death, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says.

Young people appear to be particularly susceptible, according to some studies, with one finding that 15- to 19-year-olds exposed to a suicide had a relative risk two to four times higher than others. And celebrity suicides can be especially deadly. Marilyn Monroe's reportedly caused the suicide rate in the United States to jump 12 percent.

A Netflix series, "13 Reasons Why," is the most recent show to be criticized by mental health professionals who worry that it glorifies the suicide of a teenager who had been sexually assaulted and bullied. It tells her story through audio tapes in which she blames specific people for her death.

The National Association of School Psychologists warned in a statement: "Its powerful storytelling may lead impressionable viewers to romanticize the choices made by the characters and/or develop revenge fantasies."

Netflix added another "viewer warning card" to the show.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for those 10 to 35, a toll that has been rising each year since 2007. Gould and others cannot be certain that social media is contributing to the increase. New studies must first measure any effect. But Gould noted social media's influence, its large audience for sensational content and the danger that it could change norms about what is acceptable.

"Is there a possibility given the characteristics of some of the social media reports?" she asked. "Yes, it's certainly consistent that it might."

Researchers who have begun looking at the links between social media and suicide have already found that among middle school children, victims of cyber-bullying were almost two times as likely to attempt suicide than those who have not.

REPORTING GUIDELINES
Guidelines for reporting on suicides were drawn up after prevention specialists and public health officials held a national workshop in 1989 to help news reporters and others avoid sparking additional deaths. Now revised, they come with a list of do's and don'ts and suggestions for what information to avoid and what to include. Some studies show a decrease in suicides after guidelines are implemented.

The website reportingonsuicide.org recommends against sensational headlines, prominent placement, photographs or videos of the place or manner of death or grieving friends and memorials. Do not describe a suicide as inexplicable or without warning. Do not refer to epidemics of suicides or skyrocketing numbers. Do not disclose what is in a suicide note. And do not refer to a suicide as "successful" or "unsuccessful."

Journalists are urged instead to present information about the death in a non-sensational way and to report on suicide as a public health issue. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 90 percent of people who died by suicide had shown signs of mental disorders or engaged in substance abuse. Most people exhibit early warning signs. Include those signs and information about what to do.

Most suicide cases involve a fairly short window of decision-making and action, so you want to "avoid giving people an easy and impulsive answer," said Bruce Shapiro, the executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

"If you are establishing barriers, whether physical or informational, you're going to save lives," he said.

New research by Thomas Niederkrotenthaler of the Medical University of Vienna and others suggests that the opposite effect could be true as well: that articles about survival and treatment can reduce the number of suicides. It too has a name drawn from the arts, the Papageno effect, for the character in Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute," who after losing his love, plans to kill himself but is dissuaded by three boys.

"The possible role of media reports in preventing suicide may make it worthwhile for journalists of both traditional and online news platforms to follow media guidelines on the reporting of suicide," Niederkrotenthaler wrote in a 2010 study.

The guidelines sometimes are not heeded. Stage, an advocate, speaker and photographer whose website features profiles of suicide survivors, says she has been interviewed multiple times, and in all cases reporters wanted to know how she had tried to kill herself. Her efforts to dissuade them from including what she thought were too many details failed, she said.

"I don't think the perspective on method is going to change," she said. "I think we're just reporting on this and that is a piece of the story. I think it becomes about how it's reported on."

If someone Stage is interviewing for her website tells her that he or she overdosed on pills, for example, she will include that information, but ask about the pain.

"Letting people know how painful it is is just going to change perspectives and that could maybe help," she said.

Stage remains convinced guidelines can save lives, and recently worked with Ohio's Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to develop a set for its website. Journalists can change perspectives, she said.

"Social media makes it more difficult because obviously we're all rubberneckers, and we want the clicks, and so we look for the clicks in those headlines and in the details and the methods," she said. "And that's what people share, so how do we neutralize it?"

'PEOPLE WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT'
The guidelines can present a dilemma to journalists, used to ferreting out information and presenting it in as dramatic way as possible. Deciding how to cover suicides is an ethically challenging issue that vexes every newsroom, from the smallest local newspaper to national news organizations, said Shapiro with Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism.

"We don't like it when well intentioned health specialists tell us what we should do," he said. "We want to make our own choices as a profession."

Daniel J. Reidenberg, who wrote the guidelines on reportingonsuicide.org, said that a drawback of earlier versions was the source: exclusively mental health, suicide prevention experts, scientists and researchers. He turned to reporters, editors and news directors for the current version.

Today, social media can easily circumvent traditional media reporting. A news article that might have remained local can now quickly go viral and be seen worldwide. 
Message boards and forums can spread information about how to die by suicide. Unregulated online pharmacies outside of the United States can provide the means.

In recognition of social media's new role, Reidenberg has added a separate website for bloggers, bloggingonsuicide.org, that recommends checking comments regularly, taking action against rude or derogatory comments, avoiding arguments in the comments section and paying attention to suicide threats.

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA CAN DO TO HELP
For mental health professionals such as Gould, the focus now is as much on sites like Facebook and YouTube.

When a 12-year-old from Georgia livestreamed her suicide on an app called Live.me, it was shared on YouTube and Facebook. YouTube took the video down but it remained on Facebook for nearly two weeks, even after police officials asked it be removed, according to The Washington Post.

Then in January, a 14-year-old South Florida girl in foster care killed herself on Facebook Live. 

In a statement, Facebook, which has more than 1.8 billion users, said that it was saddened by such deaths and that it was working with organizations around the world to provide help for people in distress.

"Our teams work around the clock to review content that is being reported by users and we have systems in place to ensure that time sensitive content is dealt with quickly," it said.

If someone violates its standards, it wants to interrupt streams as quickly as possible and it will notify law enforcement of a threat that requires an emergency response, it said.

Facebook promoted new suicide prevention tools in March, including making it easier to get help during a Facebook Live video and also via Messenger. Anyone who wants will be able to connect on Messenger with such organizations as the Crisis Text Line and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Facebook also plans to use artificial intelligence to identify suicidal posts.

And it announced it would hire 3,000 more people to help police harmful posts, among them livestreamed suicides.

"These reviewers will also help us get better at removing things we don't allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation," Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post

For all the potential dangers on social media, Reidenberg and others argue its advantages outweigh its risks. Google has changed its algorithm so that the first site brought up by a search for "suicide" is one offering help, he noted. Young people looking for help can find it online — on Facebook and other sites, in chat rooms and on the Crisis Text Line by typing 741741.

Liz Mitchell, a 39-year-old teacher's aide in Illinois, said the Crisis Text Line allowed her to reach out for help without alerting her family, whom she did not confide in. She found the counselors to be open and willing to listen, understanding, she said.

"That was super helpful," said Mitchell, who said she had tried to kill herself five times, the last in 2014.

Her first hospitalization occurred when she was 11. When she was last hospitalized, she started taking antidepressants. Now after years of struggling-she is doing well and has gotten the help she needed, she said.

"That was the turning point," she said.

"Social media is a wonderful thing," Reidenberg said. "The advancements have helped save people's lives. It doesn't mean that it's not without its challenges but it is where people are interacting and it's where they're spending their lives today."

That was true for Ashley Shoemaker, a 29-year-old who works overnight in the freight department of a grocery store in Portland, Oregon.

She said an online friend became worried after she signed off with a sad post one night and persisted until he was able to reach her at 2 a.m.

"He kept me on the phone for eight hours," she said.

Shoemaker had called a suicide hotline once before. But for Shoemaker and her contemporaries, social media has become the place to seek help, where anonymity can better allow them to admit to feeling suicidal.

"When you're that far down, and you feel that hopeless and sad that you want to die, the last you want to do is hurt the people around you," said Shoemaker, who said she has depression. "You already feel like a big enough burden. To have to look a parent in the eye and say 'I want to die,' no good parent is going to react well to that. They're going to freak."

On social media, she said, "You feel safer reaching out."



Photo Credit: Facebook
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Toddler Struck by Hit-and-Run Vehicle in Philly

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A toddler is in the hospital after he was struck by a vehicle that fled the scene in Philadelphia Saturday afternoon.

The 2-year-old boy was on the 1000 block of Alcott Street at 2:14 p.m. when he was struck by a light blue Toyota Highlander with tinted windows.

Police say the driver of the striking vehicle fled the scene. Several civilians in the area tried to follow the hit-and-run vehicle but the driver lost them in the area of Cheltenham Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard, police said. No arrests have been made.

The boy was taken to St. Christopher’s Hospital where he is currently in stable condition.



Photo Credit: Google Maps

How to Watch the 2017 Belmont Stakes LIVE

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The 149th running of the Belmont Stakes, the last leg of the Triple Crown, is on Saturday, beginning at 6:37 p.m. ET on NBC10 Philadelphia.

Coverage of the race began at 5 p.m. ET and you can watch it all live at home or on the go via NBC Live.

You can live stream the Belmont Stakes on NBC10.com on your desktop or laptop computer or your mobile device by clicking on this link (http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/live). You can also watch the coverage on our free app -- download it from iTunes here or from Google Play here. All you need is your TV service provider’s username and password.

What is a TV service provider?
A TV service provider is a company you pay to get your television service, such as a cable, satellite or a telecommunications company.

Why am I being asked to sign in?

TV service providers play a key role in delivering our content through emerging technology platforms, like the web and mobile devices. It's through the support of pay TV service providers that we're able to bring live as well as on demand entertainment and news shows to subscribers at no additional cost.

Do I have to create a new account?

If you already have a username and password from your TV service provider, you do not need to create a new account — just verify your account information. If you have not previously set up an account with your provider, you'll need to create a new account. Please contact your TV service provider to learn more. If you're not currently a customer with a TV service provider, you'll need to become one to access the full range of NBC programming.

How do I verify my TV service provider account? 
Select your TV service provider from the list. When asked, enter your account username and password; it's most likely the same information you use to log on to your account to pay your bill online. Don't forget to check "remember me" to avoid having to sign in each time you come back. 

What if I've forgotten my username or password?

Most TV service providers offer a simple way to retrieve or reset your password online. Please contact your provider to learn more.



Photo Credit: Getty Images

Adult, Child Struck by Vehicle in Port Richmond

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An adult and a child were struck by a vehicle in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia Saturday night.

The victims were on Aramingo Avenue and East Tioga Street shortly before 9 p.m. when they were hit by a vehicle, police said. Officials have not yet revealed their conditions.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

Motorcyclists Raise Awareness for Victims of Opioid Crisis

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Dozens of motorcyclists gathered in Skippack, Montgomery County Saturday to raise money and awareness for victims of the opioid overdose crisis impacting Pennsylvania. NBC10's Randy Gyllenhaal has the details.


Dad of Slain Girl Pushes for Law Holding Parents Responsible

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A South Jersey community and the father of a girl who was murdered by a teen boy more than four years ago are pushing for a law that would hold the parents of killers criminally liable.

Community members held a walk and press conference Saturday in Clayton, New Jersey to honor Autumn Pasquale and raise awareness for Autumn’s Law, proposed legislation that would make neglectful/abusive parents criminally liable when their children commit murder.

“If you can hold parents accountable for their kids being truant or you can hold parents accountable for breaking a window and they need to pay it back then why can’t you hold parents accountable for breaking people’s lives?” asked Jessica Gearhart, the organizer of Saturday’s event.

Pasquale was 12-years-old when her body was found stuffed in a recycling bin in Clayton, New Jersey back in October of 2012. Teen brothers Justin Robinson and Dante Robinson were both arrested and charged in her murder after police said they lured her into their home with the promise of trading bike parts and then choked her to death.

Justin Robinson was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2013 after admitting he strangled Pasquale but claimed he acted alone. Dante Robinson was released from a youth correctional facility after pleading guilty to obstruction in connection to Pasquale’s death. He was arrested again last month and charged in a home invasion.

After his daughter’s death, Anthony Pasquale began pushing for Autumn’s Law and created a petition on change.org. In his statement for the proposed law, Pasquale claims the Robinson brothers grew up in an abusive household in which they witnessed their father choke their mother and that they learned their violent behavior from their home environment.

“These parents, knowing their child(ren) already had serious mental disorders, exposed them to violence in the home,” he wrote. “It is no coincidence that my daughter’s cause of death was strangulation. The most influential person in Robinson’s life, his same sex parent, taught him that.”

Pasquale also wrote that he believes his daughter would likely still be alive if her killer had been properly raised.

“Parents/guardians who neglect, abuse, abandon or ignore the warning signs of their children’s propensity toward violence are direct contributors to their minor children’s murders,” he wrote. “If the minor who murdered my daughter was properly treated, parented, disciplined and supervised my daughter would probably be alive today.”

So far the petition for Autumn’s Law has gained more than 15,700 supporters.



Photo Credit: Facebook.com

NBC10 First Alert: Let the Heat Wave Begin

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The first of three days expected to climb into the mid to high 90s kicks off Sunday. We could approach triple digits by Tuesday.

Wacky Costumes of Oddyssey Half Marathon in Philly

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Several hundred runners are taking on a 13-mile race through Fairmount Park. The start in front of the Please Touch Museum is a place of colorful outfits.

Cosby Taking Stand Too Big a Risk: Legal Expert

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A "tight and concise" case presented by the prosecution in the first week of the trial of Bill Cosby puts pressure on the comedian's defense in the week ahead, according to Michael Donio, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge. Donio also said in an interview with NBC10 that he wouldn't be surprised if the trial ends in a plea deal.

Oddyssey Half Marathon Takes on the Heat

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Thousands of people braved the scorching temperatures at the Oddyssey Half Marathon. NBC10's Katy Zachry is in Fairmount Park with some helpful tips on how to keep cool.

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