A school bus lost its brakes and crashed Wednesday morning.
The driver had to swerve into a construction barrier on Route 202 near the intersection of i-95 around 9:30 a.m. when the bus lost its brakes, according to reports.
The bus was transporting 8th grade students from St. Mary Magdalen grade school to see a play at Salesianum High School at 1801 N. Broom St., Wilmington, according to authorities.
There are no reported injuries.
The students were loaded onto another bus.
Stay with NBC10 for more on this developing story.
Police have identified the person struck and killed by a car in Cherry Hill Tuesday night.
Police say Lisa Vitale, 26, was walking along the 1500 block of Haddonfield-Berlin Road when she was struck by a 2013 Kia Sorrento driven by a 49-year-old woman from Sewell.
The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with police. Vitale was pronounced dead once emergency crews arrived.
Click herefor more news from the South Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware area.
Are you ready for rides? Carnival games? How about homemade doughnuts? The annual Lower Providence Fireman’s Fair for 2014 has been announced. Mark your calendars for May 29 to June 7.
The fun-filled week for area residents almost didn’t happen with its current vendor. Thanks to the township’s supervisors, any possible glitches were cleared up at the board’s last meeting.
During the April session of the Lower Providence Township Board of Supervisors, the board agreed to extend the fair’s hours, despite local ordinances.
"Jason Sorgini and I attended the last meeting with the fire hall," said Supervisor Chairwoman Colleen Eckman. “They brought this forth to us, that the current fair vendor objected to attending the fair if it would be cut short. They had a big issue with that.”
Current rules within the township, which of course encompass the entire grounds of the fair, located behind the fire hall at 3199 Ridge Pike, state that all fairs must conclude by 10 p.m. The Lower Providence Fire Department asked that the township allow for an extension to that time limit to help both the carnival company and its own fundraising efforts.
Supervisor Patrick Duffy asked if the additional fair hours would create a problem for the Lower Providence Police Department (LPPD).
"Would the extra hour burden the police department or cause overtime?" he asked.
LPPD Chief Francis Carroll said that “staffing is built into the schedule” and the additional time would not financially impact the department.
Supervisor Sorgini noted that the hour may not seem significant to all, but would go a long way to help the fire department.
"The hour may not seem like a big deal,” he said. “But, that extra revenue brought in during the last hour is important. It is important to them in the grand scheme of things."
The board moved to allow for a waiver to the usual ordinance, and agreed to allow the Fireman’s Fair to run until 11 p.m. on Friday night of the fair week. All are welcome to attend the event, which open to the public, will run from May 29 to June 7.
“It is well worth the time,” said Township Manager Richard Gestrich. “It is a wonderful local affair, and the homemade doughnuts are wonderful.”
A large fire that burned through a corner Old City Philadelphia home left a traffic mess around the area for drivers and pedestrians today. Afternoon commuters in the area will be impacted as firefighters are still extinguishing hot spots six hours later.
The fire at the Suit Corner store at 3rd and Market Streets began shortly after 9 a.m. Firefighters had the fire under control at 10:37 p.m. but it's still not fully yet out as rush hour time approaches.
Market Street was closed from 2nd to 6th Street. 3rd Street was closed from Chestnut to Arch Streets with police tape blocking off not only the street but the sidewalk. The streets remained closed at 3 p.m.
Crews also used 5th and Market Streets as their staging area.
The best bet is to avoid the area entirely but if you need to get around the area; Front Street, 6th Street, Arch Street and Chestnut Street could be used as alternate routes.
SEPTA lines that service the area Including bus Routes 17, 21, 33, 42 and 48 terminated at 5th and Market. The Route 5 bus will terminate at 2nd and Arch Streets and SEPTA detoured the Route 57 bus around the area.
NASA and a private engineering firm enlisted the help of Philadelphia University students to create the next iteration of the space suit.
The School of Design and Engineering at Phila U created three cover layers for NASA's Z-2 space suit -- a prototype that will be tested in a vacuum chamber, said Dan Huot, a NASA spokesman.
"This will be the first time we have ever taken a suit designed for planetary exploration and put a person inside the vacuum chamber and then brought it down to full vacuum," Huot said.
Full vacuum simulates the lack of atmosphere found in outer space, according to NASA's website.
The three designs, known as Biomimicry, Technology and Trends in Society, are the second step in a decades-long process to reinvent the space suit.
"With any prototyping platform, you are building towards an end goal and our end goal is a suit that can be worn by an astronaut on Mars," he said.
A space suit last entered the stratosphere during the Apollo program in 1969.
Star gazers can vote on their favorite of the three designs, which were produced in collaboration with the Frederica, Del-based private engineering firm, ILC Dover, and a team of NASA engineers in Houston.
Technically the interiors of the suits are the same and the student-created cover layers are the only difference, Huot said.
ILC Dover tapped the local school for the job, citing the university's programs and positive experiences with alums who currently work for the firm.
"[They] weren't just a fashion-design house," said Doug Durney, ILC Dover's global marketing director. "They was some form of industrial design and fashion design in the same school."
"And then lastly once we met with them, it was pretty obvious to us that the professors were highly motivated and skilled," he said.
ILC Dover and Phila U do not have any other joint projects in the works at this time, but the engineering company would work with the school again in the future, Durney said.
NASA has a long-standing relationship with ILC Dover and together they upgraded the suit's interior from the previous Z-1 design.
"When you design a space suit, you design it 100 percent for function," Huot said. "You are designing the suit to keep an astronaut alive in space."
"This suit will have what is known as a hard upper torso and that is pretty integral part in space suits," Huot said. "It becomes the backbone. ...It is what you can attach the life support system to."
Astronauts put on the suit by stepping through a port in the back, another upgrade from the Z-1, Huot said.
Even though the students were not involved in the interior improvements, the portion they designed serves two crucial functions. It prevents the sensitive inner materials from incurring damage, while concealing NASA's intellectual property, Huot said.
Voting continues until 11:59 p.m. on April 15 and NASA plans to announce the winner by April 30th.
"Option B, Technology, has been winning pretty handily the entire time," Huot said.
ILC Dover and NASA will build a working prototype of the winning design by November.
Police are on the hunt for the gunmen involved in a shootout inside a Roosevelt Boulevard motel that was caught on surveillance video.
On March 31, at 12:28 a.m., police responded to a radio call for a shooting inside the Roosevelt Motor Inn at 7600 Roosevelt Boulevard in the Rhawnhurst section of the city.
An employee told police he heard gunshots coming from a hallway and then spotted an unidentified man running past the front desk armed with a handgun. The employee claimed the man fled through the parking lot and then south on the Boulevard.
Police recovered surveillance video showing two armed men running through hallways and shooting at each other.
Despite the shootout, police say they did not find anyone injured at the scene of the crime.
The first suspect is described as a man in his 20’s with dreadlocks wearing a black sweatshirt and black pants.
The second suspect is described as a man in his 30’s with a beard wearing a blue coat, jeans, white sneakers and a black skull cap.
If you have any information on the shooting, please call Philadelphia Police at 215-686-3153/3154
Firefighters spent hours battling an Old City blaze that destroyed a retail shop that had operated out of its location at the corner of 3rd and Market streets for 60 years.
The effects of the blaze that destroyed a 60-year-old retail store in Old City Wednesday reverberated throughout the business community in the historic neighborhood used to customer-filled shops on a spring day.
Sue McKee, the owner of Old City Flowers, closed the shop at 31 S. 3rd St. and ended the day's deliveries early as the smoke continued to drift past while firefighters battled hot spots throughout the day.
"As soon as we get these last deliveries out, I'm going to send the girls home," McKee said.
The inferno forced Center City Veterinary Hospital to cancel its appointments and send staff home.
The outgoing voicemail from Center City Vet tells pet owners, "It is Wednesday, April 9th and there has been a serious fire on the corner of Market and 3rd Street. For the benefit of the staff's health and safety, we are closed for the day."
No patients were staying in the hospital at the time and no surgeries were scheduled, making the evacuation easier, said Dana Byrnes, a nurse at the hospital.
"We're hoping everything clears out for tomorrow, but there was definitely quite a bit of smoke coming into the building that we were breathing," Byrnes said.
Restaurant owner Michael Stosic is also eager for the smoke to dissipate and the fire trucks to clear out.
"Nobody wants to sit next to a big firetruck with the smoke," said Stosic, who runs Sto's Bar at 236 Market St.
Sidewalk seats were empty as firefighters continued to spray water on remaining hot spots.
"I don't know how long it takes to do the cleanup," Stosic said. "But as long as it's out there, it's certainly going to affect the business."
Despite their frustration, the business owners are keeping the blaze that decimated Suit Corner in perspective.
"You just keep going and keep believing in yourself and your business," Stosic said. "And the neighborhood."
The teen suspect in the Pittsburgh high school stabbings was charged as an adult and identified as 16-year-old Alex Hribal. Check out video of police leading the teen away in handcuffs.
The photo shows a John Hancock signature after the Constitution. As any history buff will tell you however, John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.
Workers at the Constitution Center were quick to point this out, albeit in a humorous way, on their Twitter account.
Charles Reilly, 45, of Pine Hill, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to official misconduct, endangering the welfare of a child and attempted endangering the welfare of a child.
Reilly admitted to engaging in inappropriate sexual communications with 17 male Pine Hill Middle School students from 2006 to 2011. The victims ranged in age from 12 to 16 years old.
Officials say Reilly asked the students to bring semen-stained tissues to school so that he could make art projects with them. A Camden County Police detective posed as one of Reilly's students online during the investigation and the conversations they had led to the attempted endangering charge.
In addition to teaching and coaching soccer, Reilly was also a member of the borough council in Pine Hill, but he resigned soon after his arrest last year.
Reilly is scheduled for sentencing on July 18 and is expected to receive a term of 15 years incarceration, five years of which he would have to serve before being eligible for parole.
Reilly will also undergo a psychological evaluation.
A manhunt is underway for the person police believe shot and killed one man and critically wounded another late Wednesday night.
The double shooting happened just before midnight on the 5000 block of F Street in the city's Feltonville section.
A 28-year-old man was shot once in the eye and died and a 27-year-old man was shot in the elbow, side and back. He is at Temple Hospital in critical condition.
Both men were shot in a second floor bedroom of the F Street home.
Police found drugs at the scene and believe that could be the motive for the shooting.
"We believe that this double shooting-homicide is possibly drug-related due to the fact that we found a large amount of what appears to be heroin, packaged on a table," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.
Officials tell NBC10 that the man that was injured in the shooting was able to talk to police and identify the shooter.
Those who knew the victims, say that the alleged shooter is well-known by family and friends.
A 65-year-old New Jersey man is accused of attempting to lure children to his car and exposing himself to women, prosecutors say.
Police had been looking for the suspect after several attempted lurings were reported in Bergen County towns in recent weeks.
Prosecutors say the suspect made sexually explicit comments on Tuesday to an adult in Palisades Park who took down his license plate number. After police located him, authorities noted that he resembled the composite sketch of a suspect who tried to lure two Leonia girls to his car last month.
He is charged with those lurings as well as other occasions of making sexually explicit comments to women. In one of those cases, he allegedly exposed himself to a woman.
The suspect is charged with four counts of luring, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, three counts of harassment and one count of lewdness.
A man laying on the ground bleeding was robbed by his shooter, said police.
The victim, a 30-year-old man, was leaving a bar on H and Cayuga streets in Juniata when he was approached by an armed man who demanded money, according to authorities.
Police say the suspect opened fire, shooting the victim six times. He is in critical condition.
The shooter went through the victim's pockets as he was on the ground bleeding, officials told NBC10.
If you have any information on the shooting, please call Philadelphia Police.
It was way back in 1961 when Lola Borden was named the valedictorian of Wildwood High School. Little did Borden know that she would start a family tradition that would continue a half a century later.
Borden’s granddaughter Kirby Thornton was named the Wildwood High valedictorian in 2011. Now in 2014, 17-year-old Shelby Thornton is following the footsteps of her older sister and grandmother.
“I’m so proud I could burst!” Borden said.
Kirby Thornton is also proud of her younger sister, but she isn’t surprised.
“I never doubted that Shelby would graduate in the top of her class and be valedictorian,” Kirby said. “Since day one of her freshman year, she worked very hard and always put her schoolwork first. I knew her dedication and work ethic, and I knew that she would be very successful throughout high school.”
Shelby credits her older sister with helping her achieve her goal.
“She graduated as valedictorian and that is when I knew I had to do it too,” Shelby said. “I definitely look up to her.”
According to Principal Christopher Armstrong, while siblings at Wildwood High have been named valedictorians before, of the 108 graduating classes, it’s the first time that a grandmother and her two granddaughters have all earned the honor.
“Having known the family forever, what an exciting accomplishment this is for them,” said Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano. “It does not surprise me in the least, having known Lola and what a wonderful person she is. And to have passed on the mantle of being a valedictorian to her granddaughters speaks volumes of the commitment this family has to education.”
The classroom isn’t the only place Shelby excels in. She also participated in soccer, track, cheerleading, choir and the National Honor Society. Shelby will continue to display her many talents when she attends Rowan University in the Fall, where she plans to major in Psychology and minor in Spanish. Ultimately, she hopes to one day work for the FBI.
“Education is the key to success,” Shelby said. “It gives you a sense of confidence and honor. It gives you purpose. You have to be here so you might as well try your best. It’s all hard work. It’s definitely worth it.”
This story was co-published with The Denver Post's The Cannabist
I walked through clouds of marijuana smoke Friday night to get to the Denver Nuggets basketball game. The sweet smell lingering in the air reminded me less of a family event and more of the time I saw AC/DC on "The Razor's Edge" tour at the old McNichols Sports Arena.
I grew up in Colorado, but it's been a while since I lived in the state. When I returned for a recent conference, I found that a place settled by the Gold Rush is now mad about reefer. In 2012, Colorado voters became the first in the nation to approve recreational pot use. The good times rolled out Jan. 1, when stores started selling it.
I've never tried pot, but I graduated from the University of Colorado 2014 Boulder, which is famous for its annual "4/20" public pot parties. At CU, you can practically get a contact high walking to class. But I saw more public pot use in my two-day visit to Lower Downtown Denver than in years spent at Boulder.
It's supposed to be illegal to smoke or consume pot in public. But then the day after the game, while jogging down the Speer Boulevard bike path, I passed a guy lounging under a tree lavishing his affections on a joint.
Anyone over 21 can walk into a dispensary and load up on bud, marijuana baked goods and candy.
The presence of legal pot right outside our hotel made people giddy at the conference I attended 2014 a meeting of the Association of Health Care Journalists. At a reception, one woman passed a friend gummy bears infused with THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient in pot.
And then there was a friend of mine at the conference 2014 I'll call him "Dude" because he shared his story on condition I didn't name him. He had a bad reaction after eating too many marijuana gummy bears.
There's a running debate about whether pot should be legal for recreational use, but the Colorado experiment is rapidly unfolding, and it could help determine whether other states follow or shy away. (Washington voters also have approved recreational marijuana, and the state expects to begin licensing retailers in July.)
Two things stand out after my visit.
First, legal pot is attracting new and possibly naïve users 2014 creating risks that some don't bargain for. Second, the public health system's desire to protect people may be well-intentioned, but regulation and efforts to track the health effects have a ways to go.
Dude had only smoked pot twice in his life, about 25 years ago, but he got curious and tried some pot gummy bears from a shop called the LoDo Wellness Center. Other than being infused with THC they looked and tasted like ordinary candy. Dude and his buddy paid $20 for a pack of 10.
Dude ate a bear before dinner but felt nothing. So he popped another during the meal. Nada. Ripoff, he assumed. So he ate a few more 2014 five total, he said 2014 but still felt nothing. He fell asleep in his hotel room at 11 p.m.
Two hours later, Dude awoke feeling like he was on a roller coaster. His entire body tingled, and he was light headed. He tried to stand, but his left leg was so numb he couldn't walk to the bathroom. His pounding heart strained his rib cage as waves of euphoria and anxiety washed over him.
He was terrified.
Was this the high? An overdose? A heart attack? A stroke?
Totally debilitated, Dude thought about calling an ambulance but feared ending up in the E.R. or a police station. So he stayed put, guzzled water, pulled a blanket over his head and clutched a pillow. The symptoms lasted two hours, but it took a full day to feel normal again.
Dude's experience and the open pot use I saw made me wonder about public health aspect of legalization. I called some experts to find out if there have been safety problems, how pot and gummy bears are being regulated and whether consumers are being educated about the risks.
The foods with pot 2014 typically baked goods but also sodas, candies and even lasagna and pizza 2014 cause the most unpredictable highs because the effects aren't immediate and potency varies, I learned.
In the case of gummy bears, one is considered a single serving. But Dude kept eating them because he didn't feel anything.
Haley Andrews, manager of the LoDo Wellness Center, said about half the shop's customers are marijuana novices, so the staff takes time to educate everyone who buys. Users should start with one 10 mg gummy bear, she said, and never consume more than 20 mg at a time.
Andrews said the gummy bear bottle's label listed the number of 10 mg servings inside and advises users to consume with caution because the product had not been tested for contaminants or potency. There is no mention of a delayed response, she said.
Dude said his buddy held onto the package so he never looked at it. He claims no one at the shop gave him any warnings about the gummy bears.
There were signs in the shop about how the different strains of pot would make users feel 2014 "calm" or "excited" 2014 but Dude said he saw no displays with advice for novice users, how many gummy bears are too many, or warnings about a delayed response.
Andrews said the staff makes every effort to ensure people use the products safely, but that it's possible Dude somehow slipped through the cracks.
Generally, using too much pot isn't life-threatening. But a reaction like Dude's could contribute to a heart attack or stroke for someone who has health problems, said Dr. Tista Ghosh of the Colorado Department of Public Health. She said recreational pot has been unexpectedly popular with the older crowd.
"There's a lot we don't know," Ghosh said. "I feel like in some ways we're like tobacco 50 years ago. More research needs to be done on this from the public health and individual health perspective."
Looking back on it, Dude said he was glad to be in his hotel room when the reaction hit him and not in a place where he could endanger others. According to reports in the Denver Post, pot use has contributed to car crashes and the recent death of a Wyoming college student, who on a spring break visit to Denver, began acting strangely and jumped from a fourth-floor hotel balcony.
Though ruled an accident, a coroner's report said "marijuana intoxication" from eating several pot cookies was a significant contributor to the 19-year-old's death, the Post reported.
Children are especially at risk. It's illegal to make candy or fruit-flavored cigarettes in the United States, but pot candies and cookies in Colorado have been some of the best-selling products. Although the packaging is child-proof, it doesn't stop kids once it's open.
Dr. Andrew Monte, a medical toxicologist at the University of Colorado Medical School and Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, didn't have hard numbers but estimated that there is a poison control call every few days about a child accidentally eating marijuana products.
There also are reports from emergency room doctors, though no official numbers yet, of children showing up to hospitals in extreme states of drowsiness after accidentally consuming THC products, Monte said. Some end up getting expensive diagnostic work-ups like CT scans and spinal taps, he said.
"What kid doesn't want a brownie or a gummy bear?" Monte said.
So far there are no mandatory tests of the potency or purity of recreational pot or THC food products, but they are scheduled to roll out in the coming months under the rules to implement the new law.
The process is more complicated than it would be in other cases because state regulators have not been able to rely on the federal health agencies. The federal government deems marijuana an illegal substance, so it's not participating in the oversight, Ghosh said.
Ghosh said the Colorado regulators have had to start some things from scratch, including finding labs that can be certified to test pot products.
Michael Elliott, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, which represents marijuana centers, growers, and infused products manufacturers in Colorado, said there are clean kitchen standards in place now, and licensing of facilities, financial disclosures, security and more.
He said the industry is committed to robust regulation.
Elliott, Ghosh and Monte agree that more needs to be done to educate consumers.
The state has put up a website with information about the law and advice for parents and is running a "Drive High, Get a DUI" campaign, efforts that Elliott says are supported by the marijuana industry.
Included on the website is a page titled "Using Too Much?" aimed at people like Dude.
Public health also depends on people using common sense. My friend Dude is a smart guy, but he knows he was a dumb consumer when he gobbled the pot gummy bears. Now, he regrets assuming that because marijuana was legal nothing could go wrong.
"I was ignorant about the whole thing," he told me later. "I am embarrassed to admit that I just ate the gummy bears because it seemed like fun.
