A mother and her son were injured in a fire in North Philadelphia Friday morning, one was reported in critical condition by fire officials.

Fire officials say the adult son was able to escape the blaze and was found face-down outside the home. The mother was rescued from inside the home.

Both were taken to Temple hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

The fire broke out along the 200 block of West Tioga Street around 5.

Skyforce10 was overhead as the mother was taken away on a stretcher.

Officials said the fire spread to adjacent homes and displaced at least two people.

Red Paw Emergency Relief Team was on the scene to assist with displaced pets.

Police were on the hunt for two armed robbers who they said stormed a Bucks County home and pistol whipped a resident before taking off with several electronic devices and money early Friday morning. 

Two masked men armed with handguns entered the home at South Limekiln Pike and New Jersey Avenue in Chalfont at approximately 3 a.m., according to police. 

The robbers allegedly demanded money and asked the victims repeatedly for drugs and cash, police said. 

Police said Four adults were home when the invasion occured and one of the victims was pistol whipped. The other three adults were not hurt in the attack. 

The men took off with two cell phones, wallets and a small safe before fleeing the residence by foot south on Limekiln Pike. 

The suspects were described as men approximately 5-foot-10 with a heavy to medium build. Both were last seen wearing dark sweatshirts and masks. 

The Chalfont Police Department has requested a K9 unit to assist in the investigation. 

If you have any information on this incident, please contact the Chalfont Police Department at 215-348-3524.

Police searched for an armed suspect who shot and killed a man inside a doorway of a Delaware County apartment building early Friday morning.

The incident occurred around 1 a.m. inside an apartment building located on the 400 block of Main Street in Darby Borough, according to police. 

Authorities were unsure if the gunman was still inside the building and forced residents outside as a safety precaution, police said.

Residents kept safe in a SEPTA trolley following the incident, according police. 

The victim died on the scene, police said. 

Anyone with information regarding the investigation is asked to contact Darby Borough Police Department at 610-586-1100. 

With one of the premiere collegiate rowing competitions back on the Schuylkill River again, one of the city's major thoroughfares will be closed for most of the weekend.

A 1-1/2 mile stretch of Kelly Drive including Boathouse Row was closed Thursday morning and will remain closed between Strawberry Mansion Drive and Fountain Green Drive until the regatta wraps up around 8 p.m. Saturday.

Entrance to the regatta zone is by permit only, and all other traffic will be detoured onto other routes including Strawberry Mansion, Fountain Green and Reservoir Drives.

Detour signs should be posted but be sure to plan extra time for navigating the area this weekend.

Expect potential delays on other Schuylkill River arteries like the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) and the Martin Luther King Drive over the next few days.

Thousands of students are gearing up to make their mark on the world as new graduates at Temple University's commencement ceremony Friday. 

More than 9,000 students are graduating.

The class of 2015 represents 72 different countries and 44 states.

Nearly three quarters of grads from Pennsylvania.

Best of all, almost 29 percent of the Pennsylvania grads hail from the City of Brotherly Love.

In line with commencement ceremony tradition, Temple is awarding its honorary degree recipients to three guest speakers. 

This year, Temple is honoring two of their very own alumni including 68' College of Liberal Arts grad Malcolm Hoenlein and 98' School of Media Communications grad Kevin Negandhi. James Joo-Jin Kim, a doctor of business, is also receiving the award. 

The main Temple commencement is set to begin today at 10 a.m. Liacouris Center at 1776 N. Broad Street. 

If you can't make the ceremony, check out the commencement live stream here. 

With the 2014-15 school year starting to wrap up, thousands of local college students will be taking the last step in their journey in the next couple weeks, and the traffic implications are not to be taken lightly.

An already traffic-filled city will see a huge influx of joyous friends and family, here to celebrate graduation and partake in commencement ceremonies. However, many of these ceremonies will be held in the city, potentially causing major traffic delays and parking issues.

The graduation season begins on Friday morning with Temple University. Multiple ceremonies will be held in the Liacouras Center on Broad Street throughout the day, while other commencements will be taking place at McGonigle Hall, at Broad and Montgomery Avenue, and at the Temple Performing Arts Center, also located on Broad Street. With designated parking lots located at surrounding blocks in every direction, the area should be avoided for both midday and evening travel.

While Temple is by far the largest university in the city, it is the only large school with ceremonies this upcoming weekend. In just over a week, St. Joseph’s, La Salle, University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia University will all be hosting graduation services within Philadelphia.

St. Joe’s graduate students will be having their commencement on Saturday May 15, at 9 a.m. on the Maguire campus at City Ave. Undergraduate students will be walking that afternoon at the same location. Parking will be mostly on campus, but traffic will likely be heavy on both sides of Route 1 and in the surrounding Bala Cynwyd/Wynnefield area for most of the day.

Also graduating on Saturday are students from Philadelphia University. The school, whose campus is in East Falls, will be using the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Arch Street in Center City. Certain parking lots will be reserved for those attending the ceremony, but traffic around City Hall and Reading Terminal Market may be more congested than usual.

On Sunday, La Salle students will head to McCarthy Stadium on campus for commencement. Parking on campus is limited, so the Ogontz and Olney sections of the city near Broad Street will be backed up most of the afternoon.

Festivities at the University of Pennsylvania will occur on Monday, May 18, at historic Franklin Field, located at the corner of 33rd and South Streets. Parking is sparsely available in various areas between 31st and 40th Streets east to west and Market and Walnut Streets north to south. The school explicitly recommended taking public transportation due to the naturally high level of traffic and the school’s proximity to 30th Street Station.

The schools have generally spread out their ceremonies over many days, so the entire city will not be bogged down with traffic at the same time. But these adjustments should be kept in mind when planning travel in or around Philadelphia in the coming weeks.

A Philadelphia woman is accused of walking out of a restaurant without paying her bill — for the eighth time!

Janeen Thomas has been charged with theft after restaurant workers say she neglected to pay her bill Tuesday night at the vegan eatery Vedge on Locust Street.

Thomas enjoyed three long island ice teas and a full-course meal, according to the restaurant. She then allegedly told wait staff she was going outside to smoke, but never returned. 

Tuesday's incident isn't the first time Thomas has been arrested for ditching her bill. Since February, Thomas has avoided paying her bill at least seven times. 

“I think she’s extremely opportunistic," Philadelphia resident Monica Antonucci said. "I think we live in an age where people can conscious just about everything they want.” 

Police cautioned Center City restaurants to remain on the lookout for Thomas with a social media post warning of her habit. 

"Unfortunately, it's not a victimless crime. We're actually losing money to wait on that table," restaurant manager Matt Deutsch said. "You're paying to wait on that table."

Thomas was jailed in lieu of $35,000.  

At least one person was trapped and rescued in a six car accident in King of Prussia Friday afternoon.

The force of the crash flipped two cars at the intersection of Allendale Road and Keebler Road around 3 p.m.

The intersection is just north of King of Prussia Mall and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Several people were hurt, according to police. None of the injuries was life-threatening.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

A Bucks County man was hit and killed after his car broke down Friday on Street Road.

The victim had his flashers on and the hood of his 2014 Honda was up on the shoulder of the road, just before the intersection of Gravel Hill Road in Southampton Township.

A dump truck hit 58-year-old Pavlo Zinovi as he walked around his car into the lane of oncoming traffic, according to police.

Zinovi, who is from Warminster, was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 11 a.m.

Street Road was shut down until 3:15 p.m. while accident investigators worked at the scene.

A large fire that broke out Thursday and consumed hundreds of acres of a South Jersey forest is now fully contained, according Tom Gerber of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. 

Forest fire crews got the upper hand on the blaze that destroyed 710 acres of Wharton State Forest in Burlington County, New Jersey just before 6 p.m. Friday.

Flames first sparked Thursday afternoon and quickly spread. Firefighters had the fire 50-percent contained by late last evening and a dozen people battled the flames overnight. 

While no homes or businesses were destroyed by the blaze, flames crept within feet of the historic Grace Baptist Church as firefighters surrounded the wood building — built in 1808 — with foam to prevent the fire from spreading. 

Officials issued an air quality warning and advise that people avoid outdoor camping in the area as smoke is continue to rise over the next couple days.

Authorities said the fire is believed to have started from a person, but they not could not yet say whether it was accidental or intentional.

Moms celebrating Mother’s Day this year will include a growing cohort: women who at age 40-plus found themselves changing their kid's diapers for the first time. 

“I’ve had my social life and I’ve gone to the festivals and I’ve traveled the world,” said Marcy Fein, who gave birth to her first child at 41. "...And now I love learning the songs to 'Thomas the Train' and getting on the floor and being with him because that’s what I’ve always wanted." 

Even as the overall birth rate in the United States remains at an all-time low, births among women in their late 30s and 40s are on the rise. The first birth rate among women ages 40 to 44 has increased steadily since the 1980s, more than doubling between 1990 and 2012, according to data analyzed by the National Center for Health Statistics. The rate of first-time motherhood among women 35 to 39 has also grown dramatically.

Dr. Nancy Gaba, who heads the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said at least half of her patients are having their first child after 35, a greater number than when she started practicing in 1997. In fact, D.C. has the highest birth rate among women 35 to 49 of all U.S. states, according to government data. 

While advancements in fertility treatments have enabled more women to conceive and give birth to healthy babies later in life, Gaba believes broader shifts in society are also a major factor in the trend.

“It used to be that women were expected to have their first baby like my mother did, at 21,” said Gaba, who had her own son just before she turned 35. “Often women are delaying childbearing because it is perfectly acceptable for them to pursue other interests first, like their career and their education.”

As a 30-something in the early 2000s, Fein was focused on her teaching job and love of travel. While she always felt she was “born to be a mom,” she hadn’t yet found a partner with whom she wanted to start a family.

“I wanted to find the right guy I wanted to have kids and all that, but I wasn’t going to do it just because,” she said. “If it wasn't meant to be, that's fine.”

In 2004, that changed. An older couple she had met on a cruise years prior suggested she get together with their son during a trip to Washington, D.C. After several years of friendship and dating long-distance, they tied the knot at age 40.

A fertility specialist she saw at age 38 told her she would likely be unable to conceive, a prognosis Fein said “squashed my dreams.” But soon after their wedding, the couple was elated to learn that they were expecting. At 41, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Riley.

Fein, now pregnant with twins at 43, said having a child later has allowed her to approach parenthood with a sense of calm and purpose. Added life experience, including watching her friends stumble through parenting in earlier years, didn’t hurt.

“You may be tired, but you’re wiser,” she said.

First-time mothers who are older are likely to be more highly educated and better off financially than their younger parenting peers, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. The allure of hitting those benchmarks may have driven more women to hold off on starting a family, especially during the recession of the 2000s, experts say.

“People couldn’t afford to have children and they started realizing that the later they waited, the better off their children would be, in terms of their income,” said Elizabeth Gregory, a professor and author of “Ready: Why Women Are Embracing the New Later Motherhood.” 

Those benefits can be offset by other challenges and realities about becoming a first-time parent later in life. Playgroups and child classrooms, a typical source of support for new parents, may feature fewer people of a similar age and the window for having a second or third child is truncated. The needs of aging grandparents — and possibility that the child’s interactions with them will be limited — can create added stress.

“Not only can some grandparents not be helpful, but they themselves need help,” said Jocelyn Jane Cox, whose own mother was ill when she was pregnant with her first son at 39 and died on her son's first birthday.

Cox met her husband at 36 and married him at 37. They decided to try to start a family about a year later.

“I wasn't going to really freak out until it was 40,” said Cox, a figure skating coach and writer who chronicles her motherhood experience on her blog, The Home Tome. “I got in right under the wire in my mind.”

Even after becoming pregnant, the risks and potential complications that come with carrying a child at her age were top of mind. Fertility generally declines sharply after 35, as the potential for miscarriage, chromosomal abnormalities and issues with the mother’s health increase.

“We opted for all the tests and it was a real roller coaster,” Cox said. “I understand why they do it and I think it’s good, but it is very stressful because you’re concerned about what information you’re going to get back.”

Doctors say it’s important that women and their partners understand the realities of childbearing in later years so that they can make informed decisions and, ideally, a fertility plan for the future. Examples of successful later births among friends and in Hollywood, they say, have left some women with a false sense of the ease and feasibility of delaying childbirth.

“All they see is the beautiful Halle Berry with the beautiful baby at the end,” Gaba said, referring to the actress giving birth to a child at 47. “They don’t see all those other things that, just statistically speaking, may have come into play.”

For many, the wait and challenges faced by older mothers and fathers can elevate the parenting experience. Gregory said the mothers she has interviewed for her research approached parenthood with pleasure.

“They were consistent in that this was something they had chosen, something they had worked toward and they were very engaged in and very satisfied,” Gregory, director of the Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Houston, the said. “Basically they were a group of happy people.”

Cox, who plans to spend Mother’s Day buying flowers for the yard of her Nyack, New York, home, echoed that sentiment. She said life experience, confidence and opportunity to raise a child with a cool, supportive and full partner have made her parenting journey all the sweeter.

“It gets to feel like it might not happen or you might have to go to great lengths to make it happen,” she said. “So I think there can be more of a sense of gratitude.”

A new feature piece on ESPN's website reveals both sides of a college student's life in the months before her suicide in 2014.

Madison Holleran, a track athlete at the University of Pennsylvania, lost her life on January 17, 2014, after jumping from the roof of a parking garage in Philadelphia. The 19-year-old ran track for Penn. Holleran was troubled by the adjustment to life as a student athlete at an Ivy League school and also suffered from depression.

ESPN’s Kate Fagan put together a breathtaking piece comparing Holleran’s supposedly “perfect” life on Instagram and social media with her struggles that many of her friends and family did not notice at first.

"Other people battle depression for years," said Madison's sister Carli in the article. "With Madison, it feels like one day she was happy, the next she was sad and the day after she was gone."

Holleran's suicide was one of four deaths at Penn in just a few months, including another suicide. The school announced shortly after that they would expand hours and hire more people at their counseling center.

Since Holleran’s death, a petition for college suicide prevention was introduced by Edward Modica, one of Holleran’s teachers at Northern Highlands Regional High School in Bergen County, New Jersey.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline (1-800-273-8255) is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.