In Bensalem, Bucks County, the school district has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on some 500 surveillance cameras in and around its facilities.

But the township police director, Fred Harran, doesn't think they are enough.

He is pushing for preventative measures on another front. Harran wants Pennsylvania lawmakers to give greater access to police for information about students: grades, medical records, attendance history.

"The key is making sure that person gets identified before they grab that gun, before they get into the building," Harran said.

The longtime crime fighter thinks the federal privacy law protecting information of students under the age of 18 should be updated in light of the tragic cycle of school shootings that have devastated the nation.

"I’m not saying share it with NBC, but share it with us. If not us than who?" Harran said of student academic and health records protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

He believes no matter how effective cameras are, they won't be able to prevent school shootings. Still, privacy rights advocates including the ACLU of Pennsylvania are worried about the potential for overreach if FERPA ever was minimized.

"Granting police greater access to student records will actually get more kids into trouble who are not the potential school shooters," Harold Jordan of the ACLU said. "I think the harm is much greater than the benefit when it comes to granting police routine access in situations that are not emergencies."

Already in place are hundreds of cameras keep watch over the hallways and entrances to facilities in the Bensalem school district, and Val Ridge keeps watch over the cameras.

The former police officer who now is safety and security coordinator at the district often sits with her eyes on numerous closed-circuit video feeds spread over numerous monitors. It's the surveillance hub for the district, and one of the most advanced of its kind.

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"Any district that wants to see it, I want them to call," Ridge said in a recent interview.

In conjunction with the technology, the district also does active shooter and emergency drills to keep its students and staff mentally prepared.

Superintendent Sam Lee said Bensalem's technology and consistent preparation for dangerous situations have come about in an era of school shootings like Parkland, Florida, and Sante Fe, Texas.

"My heart goes out to them. I can't imagine it," Lee said. "That's why we do what we do, to keep it away from us."

One local police chief has an idea for keeping students safe in school: release their school records to police. He says access to records will help police prevent school shootings, but that idea has received plenty of backlash from people who say this would invade a student's privacy.

Immigrants in Philadelphia now make up a larger share of the city's population than at any point since 1940, and they defy stereotypes across economic, educational and cultural spectrums, according to a comprehensive new report by Pew's Philadelphia Research Initiative.

More than 232,000 foreign-born people currently call Philadelphia home, up nearly 70 percent since 2000, Pew found. If children of first-generation immigrants are included, the number jumps to more than 330,000 people.

These immigrants comprise nearly 15 percent of Philadelphia's total population and 19 percent of all workers, according to the report. The fastest-growing group of people born outside the United States came from Africa but the largest groups came from Asia and the Americas, including the Caribbean. 

They have become "a major driver of population growth" in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, according to the report's author, Tom Ginsberg. For every immigrant living in the city, two live in the region outside Philadelphia, the report said.

To read the full report and context from Pew, click here.

"The degree to which immigrants have fueled Philadelphia’s population resurgence is striking,” Ginsberg said. "By taking a closer look at this expanding demographic, Pew’s research shows the potential they have to shape the city’s economic and social landscape in ways that present both opportunities and challenges."

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney has repeatedly said the economic and cultural advantages of having a large immigrant population are reason enough to keep Philly as a sanctuary city. In touting the power of diversity, Kenney said that his own ancestry, which is Irish, was once viewed as problematic by U.S.-born citizens but is now considered commonplace. 

The battle over Philadelphia's status as a sanctuary city peaked Wednesday when a federal judge ruled against the White House's efforts to cut off grant money. In his opinion, U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson cited public remarks made by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump accusing immigrants of committing more crimes than native-born citizens.

Those statements “are inaccurate as applied to Philadelphia," Baylson said.

But the Department of Justice offered a different take in its response to the ruling, saying "is a victory for criminal aliens in Philadelphia, who can continue to commit crimes in the City knowing that its leadership will protect them from federal immigration officers whose job it is to hold them accountable and remove them from the country."

In its wide-ranging findings, the 39-page Pew report also offered insight into the economic influence of foreign-born residents. 

The median household income of immigrant families is almost $40,000, close to that of Philadelphians born in the United States. Meanwhile, the poverty rate among immigrants, about 24 percent, is actually slightly below that of native-born residents. However, the number of immigrants living in poverty is growing at a faster rate than native-born citizens.

The diversity of immigrants in Philadelphia is on full display in their education levels:

-- About three in 10 adult immigrants have college degrees, a slightly higher share than U.S.-born residents.

-- About three in 10 adult immigrants had what the report describes as "little schooling," which is a significantly higher share than among natives.

In other sectors of the economy, like the labor force, immigrant involvement grew since 2000. As of 2016, there were 140,000, or about 19 percent, in the civilian labor force. That's up from 11 percent at the turn of the century.

And like the effects of immigrants on the city's overall population growth during the last two decades, foreign-born residents accounted for most of the labor force growth over that time period, the report found.

In Philadelphia, they increased by around 66,000, or 89 percent, while natives in the labor force rose by around 28,000, or just 5 percent," the report said of increased numbers of working immigrants. "In the suburbs, immigrant workers grew at a similar pace while natives in the labor force actually decreased in number."

Much of the data used in the report is based on Census figures, including the American Community Survey. Other sources include a poll conducted by Pew in 2016 and federal agencies.

A school bus with dozens of children on board overturned on the New Jersey Turnpike near the Goethals Bridge Thursday afternoon, backing up traffic for at least a mile as emergency response crews attended to the crash. 

Chopper 4 over the scene in Elizabeth shows a tipped-over bus by the on-ramp to the bridge going toward Staten Island around 4 p.m.; an emergency exit door was flipped open on the top-facing side of the bus.

The area is a heavy merge point for vehicles, including trucks and buses.  

State police say 40 people were on board the bus; four students and one adult had minor injuries. 

The bus was carrying students from Yeshiva Mevakshei Hashem in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn. 

A boy on board the bus, Shraga Strong, recounted the impact to reporters: "I didn't know what was happening. The middle kids went flying down to the end, and the whole bus was turned over." 

There was a heavy emergency response at the scene, with multiple ambulances and fire trucks stopped on the highway. The response backed up traffic as the evening rush was getting underway. 

A school board member on the bus said the students were eager to help each other in the immediate aftermath of the crash. 

"You know, it's something we try to work on very hard at school. At the end of the day, we try to be there for each other. If we're there for each other, we can pull together in a crisis," he said. "The kids were running around to see if anyone was hurt: 'Can I help you?' The kids knew exactly how to open the emergency doors and windows." 

There's a threat of rain in the morning, but the 2018 Pride Parade and Festival should stay dry.

A South Jersey family is hoping for justice as a trial began in the shooting death of an 8-year-old girl. The child was caught in crossfire in 2016 and was shot in the head.

A seven-year-old was left on his school bus for the second time in two weeks, and now police are investigating. That bus driver is now in custody.

While a major construction project in Ocean City was designed to reduce flooding, the ongoing project is causing major waves of frustration for residents. The work was scheduled to be done by Memorial Day, and now residents and beach-goers are wondering what caused the delay.

Philadelphia to decide whether the longtime historic home of the Boys and Girls Club in Germantown will be able to modernize or preserve the building.

Sunday's devastating volcano eruption in Guatemala has now cost more than 100 people their lives. The effects are being felt in the Philadelphia region as people wait for word from loved ones and organizations look to help.

A home at Almond Street and Lehigh Avenue in Philadelphia's Port Richmond neighborhood went up in flames Friday morning. A man could be seen being rescued.

In a case that even police recognized as ironic, officers on the Jersey shore caught a loose pig they said was looking for donuts and coffee.

Police in Neptune Township said they got a call about a loose pig near the Dunkin' Donuts at Route 33 and Route 35 over the holiday weekend. In a Facebook post, the department said it found the pig running “hog-wild”

“Yes, we at the Neptune Township Police Department are well aware of the irony, but this is the truth,” the police department said in a Facebook post.

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The department said that an officer was able to “catch the well-fed hog and take him into custody for questioning and to provide him with a job application as our new mascot” before taking him to the Monmouth County SPCA.

The department said the pig’s owner owner picked up the hog, which the Garden State cops had fittingly decided to name “Pork Roll.”

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Philadelphia will decide whether the Germantown Boys and Girls Club will be given historical significance, or will be able to go through with more modern renovations.

Starting in December, you can start flying from Philadelphia to Florida's Gulf Coast on Spirit Airlines.

Despite coming from families without any history of higher education, these students know college is possible no matter who you are. They graduate from Parkway-Center City High School in Philadelphia on Friday.

Amid the recent reporting on suicides, including the deaths of TV host Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade, people are wondering how to help a friend who might be in crisis.

People who have survived their own suicide attempts say there are things others can do to help a person who might be at risk: ask and listen. And one psychiatrist adds that it's OK to talk to someone if they're having suicidal thoughts and the conversation won't magnify the idea, NBC News reported.

But one survivor and activist advises not to offer advice or try to cheer people up, because she says those who are struggling can't see the bigger picture being painted.

Also, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) not only offers instant access to help for people who are struggling with thoughts of dying, but it also offers help for people who care about them. If you are looking for help or are worried about someone else, call the hotline.

The future is officially here, two of the Philadelphia’s busiest intersections are now equipped with city’s first-ever bicycle traffic lights.

The signals were installed at 16th and Market streets and 20th Street and JFK Boulevard earlier this week. The new signals create a window of time for bikes to cross the intersection with pedestrians in addition to the traffic patterns they previously followed.

The new lights come a month after overnight construction began changing bikes lanes and street parking on Market and JFK. Both projects are backed by a comprehensive Vision Zero strategy that looks to eliminate traffic-related deaths by 2030.

The pilot bike lane program is also in the process of reducing the number of lanes on JFK and Market from four to three in an attempt to reduce speeding and weaving. The widened bike lane will hug the curb and the reduced lane will be used for street parking, creating a buffer between cyclists and moving cars.

A similar design has already been implemented along Chestnut Street in University City.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s involvement in the Vision Zero alliance has been a big factor in efforts towards rider safety.

Bicycle traffic lights have been popping up all across the United States in recent years. Denver, New York, San Francisco and Washington are some of the major cities to previously adopt this technology, according to the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NATCO). It is more common across Europe and in China.

As part of the Vision Zero initiative, the city is cracking down on the 12 percent of Philadelphia streets that account for 50 percent of traffic deaths and severe injuries.

Philadelphia has a higher traffic deaths per capita rate than Los Angeles, double the amount of New York, and triple the amount of Boston, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Bicycle traffic is one of the main factors leading to these issues throughout the city. As the Vision Zero group continues to advocate changes in traffic safety, the implementation of bicycle traffic lights is likely to spread throughout Philadelphia in coming months.

A pattern has emerged in the bizarre wave of window-rattling blasts that now jar residents awake at night in a rural part of northern Bucks County.

They always occur about 1 or 2 a.m. and on dry nights, never when it's raining, according to one resident of once-quiet Milford Township, the seeming epicenter of the mystery explosions.

"It just like comes out of nowhere. It’s the loudest thing you ever heard," the resident, who identified himself only as John, said in an interview Friday. "It’ll rattle your windows. If you didn’t know better, after you heard the first one, you’d think you’re in a war zone."

Two new blasts occurred in recent days, according to residents and authorities.

Federal experts with Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI last month joined in the effort to solve the riddle. State police, who have been trying to find the source of the ear-popping noises for weeks, have not said what they think may be the origin of the unusual disturbances.

The lack of information from investigators and the continued early morning booms have led to rampant speculation among the locals: from alien landings and meteor strikes to stolen military munitions.

The blasts have yet to leave anyone hurt, but John, the Milford resident, said this is no longer something to take lightly.

"I hope they find the person because someone is going to get hurt," he said. "A prank would be something that only happens every so often. This person is either crazy, or nuts. This person is going to hurt somebody."

The first blast was reported April 2 in the Quakertown area.

Each of the incidents over the last two months have occurred between the hours of 1 and 3:30 a.m., state police said May 30 in the first statement on their investigation.

A police spokesman said last month that he could not provide more details about the exact dates and locations of each blast. 

ATF Special Agent Charlene Hennessy confirmed two weeks ago that the bureau is aiding the state police and local police departments, including Springfield, Nockamixon and Richlandtown. She did immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.

Two men are accused of swiping more than $1 million in collectibles, art, electronics, jewelry and even taxidermied animals in a burglary spree that covered at least 50 homes from Philadelphia and to the northern and western suburbs.

Leroy Boose of Willingboro, New Jersey, and Anthony McDaniels, of Philadelphia, have been jailed in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, since they were first arrested for four burglaries back in February.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said detectives trailing McDaniels witnessed the duo trying to rob a Lower Merion Township home.

The duo is now linked to 50 total heists: 38 in Montgomery County and six each in Delaware County and Philadelphia.

A lengthy multi-jurisdictional investigation linked the men to the other heists using cellphone data that placed the suspects at the scene of each burglary. There were also similarities between the heists including being carried out between in the evenings and that multiple houses being robbed on the same night, according to investigators.

Homes without the lights on or without a car in the driveway were targeted, investigators said.

“In most cases, bedrooms were ransacked, with jewelry taken and a homeowner’s own pillow case was used to carry the stolen goods,” the DA’s office said.

The task force then drew parallels to robberies from 2010, which led them to the suspects, investigators said.

On Friday, Boose and McDaniels were charged with 41 burglaries and two attempted burglaries related to this case. Boose’s bail was hiked to $3 million while McDaniels’ was increased to $2.75 million. McDaniels had no comment as he was led handcuffed into court Friday.

The DA’s office posted photos of more than 1,000 stolen items recovered from storage units in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in hopes that victims can claim their valuables. The items stolen include jewelry, electronics, antiques, clocks, musical instruments, G.I. Joe dolls, art and taxidermy items.

If you believe you were victimized or you recognize the stolen items, contact Lower Merion Police Officer Dwight Kondravy at dkondravy@lowermerion.org or 610-645-6234.

The culture, spirit and economic importance of Africa will bring hundreds of thousands of people to South Philadelphia in June for the Odunde Festival, the largest African festival in the nation.

Sunday, June 10, Odunde's big street festival will begin at 10 a.m. at 23rd and South streets. The festival features a marketplace loaded with vendors from selling merchandise from many African nations, the Caribbean and Brazil.  

At noon, the festival will hold a procession from 23rd and South streets to the Schuylkill River, where an offering of fruit and flowers is made to the Yoruba goddess of the river, Oshun.

But before the fun, the festival will focus on critical issues for African development. A delegation of African diplomats will meet with Gov. Tom Wolf and Harrisburg lawmakers on June 7, and Odunde will sponsor events on U.S. investment in Africa on June 8.

At 3 p.m. on June 8 the Global Interdependence Center will host its annual African Business Roundtable, featuring officials from Ghana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia, as well as U.S. and Pennsylvania officials.

On Saturday, a Philadelphia street will be renamed in honor of Odunde founder Lois Fernandez. And other festival events begin earlier in June. 

Here's Odunde's Complete 2018 Schedule

Note: Some events have sold out. Check the festival schedule for updates.

June 3 – I Am Bumi Brunch
11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Ms. Tootsies, 1312 South St., Philadelphia

June 4 – African Yoga
6 p.m., Art Sanctuary, 628 S. 16th St., Philadelphia

June 5 – My Story: Influential and Powerful People in Philadelphia Tell Their Stories of Success in Their Own Words.
5 p.m. to 8 p.m., African American Museum, 7th and Arch streets, Philadelphia
Registration required; click here to register.

June 6 – African Pottery Class
6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Expressive Hand Studio, 9th and Bainbridge streets

June 8 – African Business Roundtable
2 p.m. to 5 p.m. , Federal Reserve Bank, 6th and Arch streets, Philadelphia
Registration required; click here to register.

June 8 – VIP/Dignitaries Reception
5.30 p.m. to 8 p.m., African American Museum, 7th and Arch streets, Philadelphia

June 9 – Lois Fernandez Street Re-naming Ceremony
11 a.m., 23rd and South streets

June 10 – Odunde Festival
10 a.m. to 8 p.m., 23rd and South streets

The Odunde Festival offers a number of food trucks and other vendors along Grays Ferry Avenue and South Street. Entertainment and music stages can be found at the intersections of Grays Ferry Avenue and Fitzwater Street in addition to Grays Ferry Avenue and South Street. Porta-potties can be found at 24th and Bainbridge Street and at 21st and South Street.

For more information on the festival, click here.