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PA GOP Leader Accuses Teacher of Handing Out Liberal Fliers

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The chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party is accusing a teacher at a Philadelphia high school of circulating fliers with a liberal message to students.

Fliers urging students to vote were spotted inside Central High School in the Olney section of Philadelphia. The letter includes the messages, “VOTE to stop the Trump regime,” “VOTE because rich right-wingers want you to stay home,” and “VOTE to support Black Lives Matter.”

Val DiGiorgio, the chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania and an alumnus of Central High School, said he became aware of the fliers after another Central High School alumni brought them to his attention.

DiGiorgio contacted Philadelphia School District superintendent William Hite and urged him to investigate. DiGiorgio claimed the fliers were created by the head of the school’s Social Studies department.

“Political activity such as this is specifically prohibited by the employee handbook for the School District of Philadelphia, and as such, further investigation into the matter is warranted,” DiGiorgio wrote in a statement.

“As Chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, I am also concerned about the liberal indoctrination of students in public schools, which are meant to be an a-political place of learning, not a taxpayer-subsidized propaganda school.”

Officials with the Philadelphia school district told NBC10 they are investigating and working to determine if the head of the Social Studies department handed out the fliers and did so inside the building.

“The School District of Philadelphia has a policy that prohibits school property and time from being used for political purposes,” a school district spokesperson wrote. “We take this policy seriously and, as November 6 nears, we will remind our employees of this policy.”

NBC10 reached out to the teacher accused of circulating the fliers. He told us he could not comment until Thursday.


Deadly Drive-by Shooting Near Philly School

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A drive-by shooting left one man dead along Ridgeway Street in Philadelphia's Fox Chase neighborhood overnight. The man was found by paramedics around 10:45 Wednesday in front of Fox Chase Elementary. 

2 Boys Stabbed in North Philly

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Two teenage boys were stabbed along Broad Street in North Philadelphia Thursday morning.

Someone stabbed the 15 and 16 year olds at North Broad Street and West Allegheny Avenue around 7:15 a.m., Philadelphia Police said.

Police rushed both boys to the hospital. The 16-year-old was listed in critical condition while undergoing surgery for a stab wound to his abdomen while the 15-year-old was listed in stable condition with stab wounds to his left arm and left leg, investigators said.

Police didn’t initially reveal a motive. No weapon was recovered.

A witness said a group of young people were fighting near the entrance to the Allegheny Station of the Broad Street Line subway when the stabbing occurred.

The stabbing didn't cause SEPTA to make any changes to nearby bus or Broad Street Line services, a SEPTA spokesperson said.



Photo Credit: NBC10 - Rich Notaro

7 Ways to Save Money on Halloween Costumes

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Follow these tips to save money on this year’s Halloween costumes.

'I'd Like to Kill Her': NJ Police Chief Suspended for Threat

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The police chief of a northern New Jersey borough is fighting to keep his job following his suspension after recordings came to light of him saying he’d “like to kill” the former council president.

In the recordings, Englewood Cliffs Chief Michael Cioffi threatened to kill the now former council president Carrol McMorrow and also called her a derogatory name.

“She is one h--- of a b---h, let me tell you,” Cioffi is heard saying in the recordings, as well as “I’d like to kill her, but I can’t do that.”

Cioffi had to turn these recordings of himself over as part of a lawsuit deposition.

“I don't believe there's any reason that anybody should make a threat to anyone,” McMorrow tells NBC 4 New York.

However, what is occurring in this suburb is difficult even for lawyers to sort out. James Patuto, Cioffi’s attorney, boils the suspension down to small-town politics.

Patuto says that Cioffi is embarrassed of his comments.

“Whether or not it was rude or shouldn't have been said or should have been said it was a joke that was made under an awful lot of tension,” Patuto said.

However, McMorrow, a Republican, resigned effective Monday, saying she has had enough, while blaming the Democratic council majority for failing to back her up at last week’s special meeting.

“This is not about being Republican or Democrat, this is about acceptable behavior and how to treat people and what's right and wrong,” she says.

For his part, Cioffi has filed a legal action to overturn his suspension.

Aside from Cioffi’s suspension, he is also facing criminal charges for not returning the borough-owned tape recorder he used to make the recordings.

The suspension is indefinite, until the charges against the chief can be adjudicated. The mayor has called for a special meeting of a divided council for Thursday morning concerning the matter.



Photo Credit: NBC 4 New York

$5M-a-Year Drug Ring Busted in Kensington; 57 Arrested

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More than 57 people have been arrested and charged with being part of a $5 million-per-year ring that piped drugs into the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, which has been so hard hit by drug sales and addiction that Philadelphia's mayor declared a disaster there Wednesday.

The people arrested are part of the Alameda Drug Trafficking Organization, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Thursday. They range from street dealers to people who controlled the enterprise, and they are charged with selling fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and other drugs.

Three of the drug organization's leaders face 689 drug and gun charges. The sweeps also seized almost 2 kilograms of cocaine, more than a kilogram of crack cocaine and almost 4 kilograms of heroin.

The investigation centered on the intersection of Kip and Cambria streets in Kensington, one of the epicenters of Philadelphia's drug crisis.

In the year that ended July 1, 2018, more than 300 people within a four-block radius of the intersection were hospitalized -- about 75 percent of those cases were overdoses. More than 700 people there were arrested in that same year.

In the larger neighborhood, the number of homeless people has doubled in a year, which city officials also say is a result of drug addiction.

The city has tried to help. Workers have cleaned out encampments, opened shelters and handed out doses of the overdose drug Naloxone to community groups.

But officials say it's a losing battle. "We certainly recognize that things have gotten worse, that the neighborhood is under siege," Brian Abernathy, Philadelphia's first deputy managing director, told Philly.com. "People are suffering. We have to do better, and we're exploring new approaches. We expect to have something soon."

Mayor Jim Kenney's executive order declaring a neighborhood disaster will allow the Office of Emergency Management to create an emergency operations center there, Philadelphia magazine reported. And it will create a task force -- which every city agency is required to assist when needed -- so that the problem can be addressed from multiple angles.

Community leaders praised Thursday's arrest as an important part of that effort.

"We work constantly to relieve our residents and neighborhoods of the stress, fear, and violence brought on and worsened by the opioid crisis," said Maria D. Quiñones Sánchez, who represents the neighborhood on City Council. "While our work is often behind the scenes, it is determined, and we will not stop,”



Photo Credit: Google Earth

Freshman's Test: How to Keep This Moderate Philly Suburb Red

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Pennsylvania's newly drawn 1st Congressional District, just north of Philadelphia, is nearly evenly split between Democratic and Republican voters. It's the kind of place where a moderate congressman like Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has, in the past, appealed to centrist voters of both parties.

But Fitzpatrick's vote in favor of the President Donald Trump's tax cut last winter didn't sit well with Jerry Middlemiss, a moderate Democrat from Yardley, the kind of voter he'll need to win over to eke out a win this November.

"I'm not pleased about that," said the semi-retired school counselor.

Fitzpatrick, a freshman member of the House, is well-liked enough in this district, whose partisan balance was spared despite a major redistricting that tilted other districts nearby and in the rest of Pennsylvania to the left. But he faces what many Republican incumbents across the country must deal with this year: independent voters and die-hard Democrats together eager for Congress to act as a check against the Trump administration.

This article, part 1 in a series, examines one of the key battleground races for control of the House of Representatives in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. Carried by grassroots momentum, Democrats must take 23 seats from Republicans to win the balance of power. They are contending with Republicans' experience, organization and an outspoken but polarizing president.

Middlemiss doesn't yet know much about Scott Wallace, the Democrat challenging Fitzpatrick, but he believes America should push the reset button on Congress.

"If you are opposed to the current administration and the way the government has been run, you may want to make a change," Middlemiss said. "The more Democrats you can get in to balance out what's going on, I would do that."

Voters' desire for change in Washington could be enough to swing the district for Wallace, 66, a first-time candidate but longtime funder of progressive policies and organizations.

In Wallace, the Democrats have a wealthy, self-funded grandson of a former vice president to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wallace has worked as a lawyer and member of his family's powerful nonprofit, the Wallace Global Fund, whose mission is "to promote an informed and engaged citizenry, to fight injustice and to protect" the environment.

The family connection could also doom his chances in November, if Fitzpatrick is able to persuade voters that Wallace is too liberal for the centrist district.

The Global Fund, which has more than $110 million and funds dozens of liberal groups each year, has been the focus of Republican television ads for weeks already. 

One ad, paid for by the political action arm of the Republican National Congressional Committee, described Wallace as pro-population control and eager to tax families of five or more people, based on funding the Wallace charity handed out before the candidate became a board member. Another ad claims Wallace is anti-police because his charity gave to liberal news organization Democracy Now!, which has occasionally reported on convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal.

The claims in both ads have been rated as either "false" or "misleading" by media fact checkers. Still, they continue to air in the Philadelphia media market. Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick has slammed Wallace as too rich to represent the district's interests.

"My opponent is the most far-left extremist candidate that's ever run for office in this district," Fitzpatrick said in an interview with NBC10 Philadelphia. "Having been in Congress for a year and a half, I can tell you we have too many partisan ideologues and too many multimillionaires. Scott Wallace is both."

Wallace disputes that his politics are anything beyond progressive and said he's surprised Fitzpatrick went down the path of "mudslinging."

He's since begun running ads as well, promising to bring change to Washington, D.C., and reverse the national debt accrued by the Republican tax cuts.

"Any candidate expects their life's work to be put under a microscope, and yes, our foundation has been about three progressive issues: climate change, democracy and women's empowerment," Wallace said in an interview. "What I didn't expect and what has astonished me is that people would take our record, and distort it, and turn it into lies and in such bizarre ways."

Fitzpatrick, for his part, survived criticism two years ago when Democrats accused the former FBI agent of taking advantage of his family name by running for the congressional seat. His older brother, Mike, was the outgoing congressman representing the region; Brian won the election by 9 points.

Fitzpatrick cites his lifelong connection to the district and touts his freshman legislative record as proof that he represents the type of moderate approach to government that his constituents want.

Redistricting in Pennsylvania significantly changed the political landscape for many incumbents when the state Supreme Court remapped the state's 18 congressional districts this year, but Fitzpatrick's constituency remained nearly the same. His district changed in name, from the 8th District to the 1st, but only a small portion of its boundary shifted: a slice of Montgomery County to the west of Bucks County swapped for another slice.

While the remapping made Democrats far more competitive in some areas, especially in the Philadelphia suburbs, Fitzpatrick's district remained very diverse in its makeup of Republicans and Democrats, affluent and blue-collar workers, suburban homes and small farms.

"It's the most amazing place on the planet," Fitzpatrick said. "We're a microcosm of America."

Fitzpatrick points to centrist legislation he helped usher into law, including the Interdict Act, which gives border agents stronger technology to stop opioids from crossing the border, and the Children of Fallen Heroes Act, which provides educational support for kids of fallen first responders.

But he has also voted in line with Republicans on the biggest conservative agenda items of the last two years, Wallace argues, including the Trump tax cuts. In June, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that registered voters were less likely to support a candidate who backed the bill.

Both candidates had near identical campaign cash on hand as of the last required federal filings June 30: $1.7 million for Wallace and $1.65 million for Fitzpatrick. But Wallace had spent some $3.6 million compared to $800,000 for Fitzpatrick in the three months before. (The next Federal Election Commission reports won't be published for two weeks.)

Outside groups have tilted the other way, pouring more than $2 million to oppose Wallace and $430,000 to support Fitzpatrick, at least an order of magnitude greater than the outside support Wallace has gotten, according to ProPublica's election data tracker.

The only independent public poll for the race, conducted in May and released June 4 by the Monmouth University Polling Institute, found what most people expected — a negligible one-point spread between Fitzpatrick and Wallace.

Charlie Gerow, a Republican political consultant well-versed in Pennsylvania politics, told NBC10 in August that confidence among Republican strategists remained high for Fitzpatrick to hold onto the seat. But he said the party would likely see a net loss of seats overall in the state.

In a sign of angst for many Republicans, Gerow said that despite optimism for Fitzpatrick's chances, the race was proving "more of a tussle than he would like." 

The race has become a virtual dead heat as it heads into the home stretch, according to the Cook Political Report, which moved the district from "Lean Republican" to "Toss-Up" in late September.

In changing the Fitzpatrick-Wallace showdown to that "who knows" designation, the political website's House editor, David Wasserman, wrote: "Both parties are seeing Republicans' numbers continuing to erode in professional suburbs, and some in the GOP fear they still haven't hit rock bottom."

To Wallace, the district is a must-win if Democrats hope to win the House, and that's why he decided to leave philanthropic life and run to win it.

"There's a reason you're seeing vast amounts of money from super PACs outside [supporting Fitzpatrick]. They know what we know. Whoever wins this district wins the House," he said.


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Beyond The Walls Summit

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Social justice reform is a popular topic of discussion. A special summit is being held to take a closer look into mass incarceration and other issues within the criminal justice system. 


Hit-and-Run Driver Strikes Woman on Side of Busy Road

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A driver struck a Delaware woman along a Pennsylvania road then left her for dead.

Jannie Lee Smallwood was struck and killed Wednesday night around 9:50 as she walked along the shoulder of northbound U.S. Route 202 near Pyle Road in Concord Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania State Police said.

Police believe a 2007 to 2011 white Ford Edge, most likely SEL or Limited Class, struck the 28-year-old Wilmington woman. The driver then fled the scene, which is just north of the Delaware line.

The impact likely caused damage to the SUV’s passenger side mirror and passenger side headlight area, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact state police in Media at 484-840-1000.



Photo Credit: NBC10

Man Arrested in NJ Paintball Attack That 'Traumatized' Boy

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An attacker who shot a 14-year-old New Jersey boy at close range with a paintball gun has been arrested, prosecutors said. 

Edwin Perez, 21, of Paterson, turned himself into police on Thursday, the Passaic Couty Prosecutor's Office said. 

The teen went to answer the door at his Paterson home on Monday night when he was hit with paintballs nearly two dozen times.

He was taken to a local hospital by ambulance, where he was treated for painful bruises and welts that covered his body.

Photos shared with NBC 4 New York by the boy's mother showed a number of welts on his legs. 

The boy’s mother told News 4 the boy was “traumatized” and suffering panic attacks as a result of the ambush.

Perez faces charges including aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said. 

He's expected to appear in court on Thursday, and could face five to 10 years in prison on the aggravated assault charge, according to prosecutors. 

Prosecutors didn't say whether Perez knew the teen or provide a motive for the attack.



Photo Credit: Passaic County Prosecutor's Office

How Philly Is Growing Into Pot Research Capital of U.S.

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From hemp-based tampons to cannabis-infused butter, innovators are zeroing in on Philadelphia's growing cannabiz potential. 

Several competed Wednesday for a $10,000 prize at Thomas Jefferson University's CannaVation event, which attracted marijuana entrepreneurs from all over the continent.

The winner, Canadian pharmacist Kit Poon, developed screening software to help physicians comb through a database of cannabis and find the right strain for their patients.

That a Canadian pharmacist chose Philadelphia to pitch his cannabiz idea speaks to the city’s fertile research economy.

Jefferson’s Lambert Center for the Study of Medicinal Cannabis and Hemp is a leading research institution that happens to have deep pockets. It is also one of five Philadelphia-based research centers certified by the state to study pot.

“Entrepreneurs, when they’re approaching this fertile ground for innovation, will find Philly and this corridor very attractive,” Rose Ritts, Jefferson executive vice president and chief innovation officer, said.

The thinking among industry leaders is that science can lessen the taboo surrounding cannabis. But the only way to conduct scientific research is to secure approval from the federal government, which still considers the plant a Schedule 1 drug.

As a result, cannabis maintains a kind of mythical status within the research world. Its therapeutic properties remain largely untapped yet acquiring it legally is harder than buying it on the street.

This hasn’t prevented entrepreneurs, like Poon, from joining the green rush. Instead, investors and researchers are teaming up throughout the region to create their own partnerships that skirt federal prohibitions.

Last month, the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine joined Jefferson, Temple, Drexel and Penn universities in securing Academic Clinical Research Center permits from the state Department of Health, which oversees Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program. The certification enables these institutions to research programs and study data collected at medical cannabis dispensaries.

However, none of these centers can study the actual plant, including organic material grown in Pennsylvania by licensed cultivators.

The only plant available for research comes from the University of Mississippi. To access it, researchers must navigate a complex bureaucratic web involving multiple federal agencies starting with the FDA and ending with the DEA.

There is no timeline for studies to be approved by the federal government, and very few trial studies have been conducted in the United States to date.

Many investors fear the country is quickly falling behind international competitors.

“Medical innovation and clinical research is being stymied by our own laws,” Lindy Snider, cannabis entrepreneur and daughter of former Flyers owner Ed Snider, said. “Until the law is changed, there is always going to be a ceiling.”

Poking holes in the ceiling remains the only recourse for hungry innovators.

Earlier this year, Jefferson launched the mmj.org initiative, which collects data from 100,000 registered medical marijuana patients throughout the country. Many of these patients suffer from chronic pain and were prescribed opioids. The first big question is whether their quality of life can be improved by using cannabis-based treatment.

“You’ve got 30 states that allow it to be used for a medical condition and, for the most part, we have very little medical guidance,” Dr. Charles V. Pollack, director of Jefferson’s Lambert Center, said. “We are trying to close the scientific gap.

At Temple’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Sara Jane Ward received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study cannabis-based treatment for neuropathic pain and traumatic injuries. In her research, Ward doesn't use tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, which produces a high and is difficult to acquire legally.

Instead, she uses synthetic cannabidiol created in Doylestown by bio-pharmaceutical company Kannalife Sciences.

One of these compounds, KLS-13019, has been shown to prevent chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, which causes the chronic and debilitating pain associated with cancer treatment.

“You need the evidence otherwise no one will believe you,” Kannalife spokesman Thoma Kikis said. “Science leads the way.”

The lack of science is what prompted Canadian pharmacist Kit Poon to develop the software pitched at Jefferson. He was inspired by a patient with epilepsy whose neurologist recommended cannabis but offered little additional guidance. A novice to the plant, she consulted the Internet and cold-called a marijuana grower. It took her three weeks to receive the medication.

Poon’s software, he said, could help patients like her navigate the seemingly endless world of cannabis products.

“If you’re a cancer patient and you’re looking for cannabis to alleviate some of that chronic pain for end of life care, you really don’t have three weeks to research and figure things out,” Poon said.

Researchers at Penn Medicine have already dedicated several years to studying how cannabis could help epilepsy.

Dr. Frances Jensen, chair of neurology at Penn Medicine, forged a close relationship with a family from Texas whose child died from a rare form of epilepsy in 2016. The only relief the little girl found during her short life came after her parents discovered hemp oil.

Jensen’s team is looking at the brains of epileptic mice to see how they react to cannabidiol. She never meant to study cannabis, but the family’s experience provided strong anecdotal evidence, Jensen said.

Still, questions remain regarding the safety and efficacy of cannabis to treat epilepsy and other disorders. The only way to get answers, however, is continued research.



Photo Credit: Getty Images/fStop, File

Democrats Blast FBI Kavanaugh Report

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After an FBI investigation into Brett Kavanaugh's past was finalized, Democrats are blasting the report for not including key witnesses, including Kavanaugh himself. The first vote in Kavanaugh's potential confirmation could come on Friday.

Woman in NJ Identified as Mom Missing for 6 Months

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The mystery of a lost, disoriented woman found sitting on a bench in New Jersey Tuesday has been solved, thanks to tips that poured in to a local police department after it put out a plea on Facebook asking for help identifying her. 

Norwood Police say the woman was born and raised in Philadelphia, and has a husband in Arizona. She had been missing for months, and a Norwood public works crew found her sitting on a bench on Livingston Street Tuesday. 

The woman, who appeared neatly dressed but very confused, told police she'd gotten into a car accident in Washington state around a year ago, and had walked to New Jersey from the west coast, police said. She referred to herself as a veteran who may have served in Bosnia.

"She wasn't giving us the full story," said Norwood Police Chief Jeffrey Krapels. "She didn't remember her name, she didn't know where she is, and when she does talk, she just talks about her service in various wars."

Then late Thursday afternoon, detectives started figuring out the mystery. 

The woman, who is not being named in deference to the family, has one daughter in Philadelphia and another in Nebraska. Both called police in Norwood after learning of their Facebook post. The woman had been missing for six months. 

"I always turn it around, how would you feel if you were missing a loved one," said Krapels. "You would do all you can to get them back home, that's all."

The daughters will fly into New Jersey Friday to pick up their mother, who had been hospitalized at New Bridge Medical Center. 



Photo Credit: Norwood Police Department

First Alert Weather: High Temps to Come

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We could see some cool temperatures this weekend, but that won't last long before high, warm temperatures come back. NBC10 Chief meteorologist Tammie Souza has your forecast.

NASCAR Helping Paraplegics Drive Again

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NASCAR is helping people who thought they would never drive again get back behind the wheel. The group of paraplegics and quadraplegics were helped by NASCAR and a team of neurosurgeons to have the opportunity.


Deadline to Register to Vote Approaching

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As the deadline to register to vote is quickly approaching, activists are out and about making sure you're registered.

Ocean Rescues, Warm Weather Prompt Warning

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 Summer-like weather and warm water keep luring people into the unguarded ocean. After 5 people were rescued in four days, police are taking a tougher stand. 

 

Sexual Assault Victim Not Lured on Tinder, Police Say

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A woman sexually assaulted in an apartment complex parking lot in Montgomery County on Monday night was attacked by an acquaintance not someone she met on Tinder, police said Thursday.

The 19-year-old victim intially told police she had met her assailant through the dating app.

"The complainant’s initial report to Police generated a great deal of community fear and concern that there was a sexual predator out in the community assaulting women," police said in a statement. "This investigation has shown that this is not a public safety issue and the community is not in danger."

She told police that she was attacked by an unknown man in the Lynnwood Gardens apartments around 7:30 p.m. in the Elkins Park area of Cheltenham Township.

The sexual assault took place in a secluded parking lot behind garages, police said.

Police said the woman “was lured to the area” in a statement.

Cheltenham Police Detectives are continuing to investigate. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact them at 215-885-1600 x499.

Mail Dumped on the Side of the Road

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Boxes of mail were dumped on the side of the road in New Jersey, and now residents are trying to figure out who let this happen. NBC10's Cydney Long explains.

2 Teens Struck, 1 Dead in Shooting Outside Philly Gas Station

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Two teens were struck, one died after a shooting outside a gas station in Philadelphia Thursday evening. Police said they believe it was a targeted attack.



Photo Credit: NBC10
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