Separate overnight shootings in Philadelphia left one man dead and another critically wounded, police said.
About 10:50 p.m., police said a man was shot at 51st and Reno streets in West Philadelphia. That victim, whom police did not identify, was taken to Presbyterian Medical Center, where he remained in critical condition Monday morning.
A few hours later, another man was shot to death across the city, this time on Marston Street near Huntingdon in North Philadelphia, police said.
In that shooting, a man was found with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police are continuing to investigate both shootings. No arrests have been reported.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is making an appearance at a youth shelter in Philadelphia on Monday to make a push for a bill that would provide an additional $40 million in federal funding to combat youth homelessness.
Casey, who represents Pennsylvania, will be joined by Project HOME's Sister Mary Scullion and others who work with homeless youth at Youth Emergency Services' Teen Shelter, on Fairmount Avenue near 16th Street in Philadelphia, to call for more funding for youth programs Monday afternoon. The appropriations bill, if passed, would increase funding for resources for homeless youth including transitional and permanent housing.
NBC10's digital team recently published an in-depth investigation on the issues around homeless youth in Philadelphia through the eyes of more than a dozen teens and young adults who are currently or have been homeless. Watch and read the Faces of Homeless Youth here.
In a January 2014 count of homeless people across the United States, nearly 200,000 youth up to age 24 were found. In Philadelphia alone, more than 600 homeless youth were found in a January 2015 count. Experts, however, say those numbers are likely low estimates of how many young people are homeless.
Philadelphia Police confiscated 25 ATVs and dirt bikes as well as six cars during a citywide crackdown that resulted in two arrests and three citations Sunday.
Philadelphia Police Capt. George Kappe made the announcement during a press conference Sunday afternoon. Kappe said it was part of an ongoing initiative from the police to crack down on ATV and dirt bike riders on city streets.
“This is an ongoing initiative that the Philadelphia Police Department has been undertaking for quite some time,” Kappe said.
Kappe also said police focused on drag racing, citing three people who were allegedly involved and impounding six cars. Two dirt bike riders were also arrested after police determined they were riding stolen vehicles.
During the press conference, Kappe referenced several accidents earlier in the year involving ATVs and drag racing.
“We only have to look back a couple months ago where several people lost their lives in a drag racing incident up in Northeast Philadelphia,” he said. “Before that in April of this year a male lost his life driving his ATV. And then in West Philadelphia a teenager was seriously injured when two ATVs, one he was driving on, collided.”
Kappe also spoke directly to those who continue to ride ATVs and dirt bikes or participate in drag racing.
“Your ATVs, your bikes and your cars are going to be confiscated,” he said. “For the dirt bikes and ATV, you’re not getting them back.”
While Kappe said the owners of drag racing cars will have a chance to get their vehicles back he also said they could face hundreds of dollars in fines.
Whole Foods Market has recalled curry chicken salad and deli pasta salad sold at stores in several East Coast states because of possible Listeria contamination.
The recalled salads had a "sell by" date of Oct. 23, according to the market's recall notice, and were sold in stores between Oct. 18 and Oct. 22. Whole Foods said no illnesses have been reported as a result.
The affected products were sold at stores in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, according to Whole Foods.
Listeria infection can be deadly for young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems. In healthy people, it can cause high fever, headaches, nausea, aches, abdominal pain and diarrhea. It can also cause stillbirth and miscarriages if contracted by pregnant women.
Whole Foods has published a list of all affected products here.
Customers who have any of the products can bring their receipts back to the store for a refund.
A company that uses genomic analysis technology to get information on the contents of food has found an unusual additive in a very small percentage of hot dogs: human DNA.
The report found 2 percent of 345 hot dogs and sausages sampled contained human DNA, which was classified as a "non-harmful contaminant," according to Clear Food, the company behind the test. Two-thirds of the samples that tested positive for human DNA were vegetarian products, and 10 percent of vegetarian products tested contained traces of meat, the study found.
Clear Food found about 14 percent of hot dogs tested to be "problematic in some way." In its report, Clear Food defined "problematic" products as having substitute ingredients or hygienic issues.
Clear Food's report doesn't specify how human DNA ended up in the products or which brands were affected. Its founders said the test, which covered food from 75 brands purchased at 10 retailers, doesn't identify where the DNA came from, but is aimed at promoting better food quality.
"We cannot actually say the source of the DNA," Clear Food co-founder Sasan Amini said.
More than 100 years ago, Sinclair's "The Jungle" claimed that unsanitary meatpacking plants allowed human body parts to make their way into meat products, spurring spurred some of America's meat inspection and food quality laws.
But Andrew L. Milkowski, an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin specializing in meat science and muscle biology, cautioned that the human DNA in Clear Foods' study may have simply been a result of regular handling or imperfect lab procedures.
"There are a whole lot of technical questions that I would ask about this. Did they really have good laboratory practices and avoid cross-contamination?" Milkowski wondered. "With this type of technology, it's key, because you’re amplifying tiny, tiny amounts of DNA."
Asked about the study's methodology, Amini said that each sample was processed twice, in duplicate, and that any unexpected results they found were checked again with the original sample.
Clear Food identified other problems with the samples, including meat ingredients found in the food but not listed on labels, an absence of advertised ingredients and meat products in vegetarian items, the report describes. Milkowski, however, said he'd like to know more about Clear Food's methodology.
"No system is perfect, but supervision of meat products... that’s under USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service," he explained. "Ingredients that you can put into foods are vetted by USDA and FDA before you can even put them in, and mislabeling and misbranding is a serious federal offense."
Clear Food said many of the 75 brands tested, both large and small, scored well overall, according to the company's algorithm. The products were ranked based on how closely their actual contents matched their labels, the report explains.
Clear Food's top 10 major hot dog brands include:
The five highest-scoring hot dogs include:
According to the report, there is no correlation between the food company’s overall score and the cost of the hot dog, meaning pricier products are not necessarily higher quality.
Milkowski, for his part, said he's "skeptical" of the results. He noted that Clear Food's sample size is "extremely small" and may not represent national offerings.
"I would have to take this with a big grain of salt as to whether they have accuracy or not," he said of Clear Food.
Clear Food released the study as with 25 days to go in a Kickstarter campaign to fund a food-analysis system that would rate food products based on how close the food's genetics sequencing is to its ingredient list. The money will help pay for a run of 10 reports on different kinds of foods; the campaign was three-quarters of the way to its $100,000 goal on Monday.
"We think that consumers are ready for better food quality," and that the information in the report helps customers "insist on the best brands" at their supermarkets, co-founder Mahni Ghorashi said.
Hot dogs also made headlines Monday when the World Health Organization said processed meat, including hot dogs, may be cancer causing.
The full Clear Food report is available online.
Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of the story misstated the amount of human DNA found in vegetarian products in Clear Food's study.
NBC's Ari Mason and Asher Klein contributed to this report.
Philadelphia's homegrown band The Roots -- now Jimmy Fallon's house band on the Tonight Show -- were inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame on Monday.
The Roots' plaque was unveiled in front of the Kimmel Center on the Avenue of the Arts Monday morning, and a gala at 7 p.m. celebrated the band's induction into the Walk of Fame.
Jimmy Fallon attended the gala to formally induct The Roots. Questlove, the band's drummer, has been Fallon's music director since last year.
The Roots aren't the only Tonight Show band to grace Philadelphia's Walk of Fame. Philadelphia native Kevin Eubanks, Jay Leno's music director for nearly two decades, also has a plaque on the walk.
An overturned tractor trailer caused massive traffic backups in Camden County Monday afternoon.
The truck carrying the Dole logo overturned on the ramp from Route 42 to 295 NB in Bellmawr just before 12:30.
Traffic was backed-up as crews worked to clear the truck.
There were no reports of any injuries.
A 10-year-old child was killed and seven other people hurt, including five children, in a crash near a high school in New Jersey Monday, authorities said.
The 10-year-old and five other children were riding in a minivan that was hit by a sedan at West Ninth Street and Arlington Avenue in Plainfield at about 7:30 a.m., police said.
Chopper 4 footage from the scene, near Plainfield High School, showed the minivan rolled over on its side with debris scattered about. The other vehicle sat crashed in the intersection.
One woman who ran to help said she tried to turn the minivan upright and heard the children screaming. One child was able to get out of the vehicle on his own, she said, but she and other bystanders helped the rest of the children out.
Authorities said the 10-year-old died shortly after the crash. The other five children, whose ages weren't immediately available, were taken to the hospital with unknown injuries. The drivers of both of the vehicles were also taken to the hospital with varying injuries.
Witnesses said the driver of the minivan was picking up children in the area to take them to school.
No arrests have been made in the crash, which remains under investigation.
State police say the driver of a van carrying mattresses and box springs that fell to the New Jersey Turnpike and contributed to a deadly truck fire has been issued a summons.
Adam Abuhamoud, 26, of Linden, was cited for not having the mattresses properly secured to his vehicle. He is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 19 and wasn't available for comment Monday.
Kumar Dalip, of North Hollywood, California, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash Oct. 7, which occurred on the highway's western spur in Kearny. His tanker was carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline from a Linden refinery.
The 40-year-old man lost control of the tanker when he tried to avoid the bedding that had fallen fell off Abuhamoud's van and onto the road.
A black bear was spotted climbing a tree in the middle of a popular park in the center of one New Jersey town Monday morning.
Dozens of onlookers gawked as the black bear scaled a tree in the Morristown Green shortly after noon, apparently looking for a spot for an afternoon nap in the park, which is surrounded on all sides by streets.
The 247-pound bear hung out in the tree for a few hours before it was tranquilized by wildlife officials. It was transported to nearby state-owned forest land to be released.
Dozens of people near the Green posted photos to Instagram and other social media platforms with messages varying in tone from amusement to bewilderment.
"It's not everyday you get to see a sleeping bear chillin in a tree," wrote @cdestaquio.
"...meanwhile on the Morristown green, a bear catches a nap while the whole town watches," wrote @trvljnky.
The state Department of Environmental Preservation sent a biologist to the Green and was working with Morristown police to ensure the safety of the bear and spectators.
The Red Bull thief must be found.
Detectives are looking for a man they say stole a bag full of Red Bull from a Society Hill Wawa on 518 South 2nd Street on September 18, 2015.
He was captured on camera walking to the back of store, where police say he put several cans of Red Bull in his bag. The manager confronted him, but the alleged Red Bull bandit fled the store.
To view the video click here
Police are asking for the public's help to figure out who this guy is. You can submit a confidential tip via telephone, dial 215.686.TIPS (8477) or text a tip to PPD TIP or 773847.
