There’s a “force” congressional leaders might have missed while battling over funding.
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Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) used his position as Speaker of the House to have some fun with a social media push by Philadelphia Police where they took a virtual lightsaber to anyone looking to spoil the plot of The Force Awakens -- the first film in the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy.
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The "omnibus" Ryan referred to is a trillion-dollar spending bill that requires one vote but combines several measures.
It doesn't appear that Ryan has any real plan to lump any "Star Wars" measures into the already packed bill and instead was having a little fun with all the Star Wars hype.
While the police department was also playful in its social media posts, the fear of movie spoilers has become a big concern among "Star Wars" fans, even prompting a Google Chrome extension that warns Internet users of plot-revealing details.
An armed robbery led to the lockdown of a Main Line high school and at least one suburban Philadelphia college Thursday morning.
Radnor Township High School and nearby Radnor Elementary School were put on lockdown around 10:15 a.m. “as a result of a robbery that took place on King of Prussia Road,” said a message posted to the Radnor Township School District website.
“All other schools in the area are in similar lockdown,” said the district. “In a Level 1 Lockdown, exterior doors are locked with no one permitted to enter or exit and classes in both schools continue in as normal a fashion as possible. The police will inform us when we are able to lift the lockdown and we will provide updated information when it becomes available.”
Police said the incident began with an armed robbery along Pine Tree Road – about 1.5 miles from Radnor High – where a man in a work truck pointed a gun at a man and tried to rob him.
Cabrini College, which is near the site of the armed robbery urged students and staff to stay inside.
Cabrini lifted its lockdown shortly after 11 a.m. and resumed finals. Radnor schools lifted its lockdown around the same time.
No word yet on any arrests.
Boston Marathon bombing survivor Kevin White of Bolton, Massachusetts, died last weekend.
White's brother posted a message on Facebook saying that White "passed away from a sudden illness" over the weekend.
White, 37, died unexpectedly at his residence in Boston over the weekend, according to his obituary. He had successfully completed two Boston Marathons and was in training to run in his third.
A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Holy Trinity Parish-St. Francis Xavier in Bolton.
White attended the 2013 Boston marathon as a spectator, according to the Telegram & Gazette. He was standing close to the finish line and suffered two concussions and a perforated eardrum in the bombings. His father and mother were also badly injured.
The family is asking that memorial contributions be made in White's memory to the Greg Hill Foundation, P.O. Box 103, Hopkinton, MA 01748.
Animal control officials and police rescued at least four dozen cats from a hoarder's Pitman, New Jersey home Thursday afternoon.
Officials with the New Jersey SPCA began removing felines from a house on the 100 block of 6th Avenue around 2 p.m. Thursday, a county spokeswoman said.
At least 40 cats were removed, but the spokeswoman says crews are still going through the house. Pitman police said the animals were being hoarded.
The cats will be taken to the Pitman Animal Hospital to be evaluated by veterinarians. The animal ages and conditions were not immediately known.
Once deemed healthy, the felines will be put up for adoption through the county animal shelter in Clayton.
SPCA officers continue to investigate and there's no word on whether charges will be filed against the animals' owner.
Anyone interested in adopting the rescued cats can pre-apply through the Gloucester County Animal Shelter's website.
The shelter also made a plea for supplies to help care for these and other animals. Officials are looking for donations of cleaning supplies, food, toys and bones and blankets, among other items. People wishing to make donations can call 856.881.2828.
A New Jersey state trooper was killed in a devastating one-car crash along a rural Salem County, New Jersey road Thursday.
Trooper Eli McCarson was responding to a domestic dispute call in Quinton Township around 10:45 a.m. when he steered off Quinton-Alloway Road near Route 49, state police said.
The cruiser collided with a electric pole and the impact destroyed the front-end and bent the doors trapping the 30-year-old trooper inside. Once rescuers were able to remove McCarson, they took him to nearby Salem Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
"This is a tragic loss for us, made even worse during this holiday season, but I know our troopers will not flinch," State Police Colonel Rick Fuentes said in a statement.
The medical examiner will make a determination on an exact cause of death. What led to the crash remains under investigation.
McCarson graduated from the state police academy in February. He was assigned to the Woodstown station and was from Washington Township.
He leaves behind a wife. The couple married in September.
State regulators have shut down a North Philadelphia day care the day after a baby was found unresponsive in the facility and later died.
The license for Sisters Childcare Center at 3539 Germantown Avenue was removed under an emergency order Thursday afternoon, a spokeswoman with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services said.
Officials are working to contact families about the closure and plan to be outside the day care Friday to help parents make new accommodations.
The removal comes a little more than a day after a 10-month-old girl stopped breathing at the day care center. A source told NBC10 Wednesday a family member showed up to the facility to check on the girl and found day care employees performing CPR on her. She was taken to nearby Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead.
Officials have not said what led to the child's death.
The center was operating under a provisional license following a state inspection that found a number of violations including a lack of training for some and, at times, a lack of enough staff to adequately supervise all the children at the facility. Some were corrected immediately, but not all.
The center had until December 26 to correct the issues before the provisional license expired.
You can check state records to see the inspection history of your child's day care. Instructions are on the Pennsylvania's Promise for Children website.
Dozens of women in Camden and Gloucester counties have fallen victim to a band of purse-snatching thieves and police are asking people to be more aware of their surroundings especially when shopping alone.
The thieves have been praying on people at shopping centers in Gloucester Township and Washington Township, police tell NBC10.
The most recent incident happened in broad daylight Friday outside Wal-Mart in Washington Township. Surveillance video captured a man followed the shopper to her car and grabbed her purse out of her cart as she was putting purchases into her trunk.
Police were able to capture the alleged crook, identified as 25-year-old Joe White, and arrest him. Two other people have been arrested, but police say there are multiple groups of thieves taking part in the ring.
"You can see three to four in a car at time and as soon as they get to a shopping center, two get out and they are on the hunt," said Capt. Steve Rolando with Washington Township Police.
Authorities have officers working undercover to catch the other ring participants. In the meantime though, police are asking shoppers keep a close watch on their belongings.
A man is in critical condition after he was stabbed numerous times during an attack outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia late Thursday.
The 44-year-old victim was stabbed just before 11 p.m. in a tunnel along N. 13th Street just above Arch Street, police told NBC10. The street-level tunnel runs under the convention hall. There were no events scheduled there Thursday evening.
“At this time, we have at least one very good witness who saw clearly what happened and the witness even tried to intervene until the witness saw that the perpetrators were actually using knives to stab this individual,” Chief Inspector Scott Small said.
The man was rushed to nearby Hahnemann University Hospital where he is listed in critical condition, police said. Investigators said he was stabbed in the head and torso.
Two suspects -- ages 30 and 45 -- are in police custody and are being interviewed by detectives.
Police say a 5-inch folding knife was found at the scene and a box cutter was found in the 45-year-old’s possession.
The suspects have been charged with aggravated assault.
A motive in the stabbing attack was not immediately known.
