Parents of children attending the Edwin Forrest Elementary School say their kids had two days of school with little to no instruction and -- for a period of time -- no heat, while the city was experiencing the lowest temperatures in decades.
The elementary school located in the northeast section of the city has two buildings. The main building houses 2nd through 5th grade classrooms, and the Primary Education Center (PEC) building houses the school's youngest students in pre-k through 2nd grade.
According to a Jan. 7 letter signed by the school's principal Camara Wilson, the school administration was aware that the heat was not working in the PEC building at approximately 6 a.m. yesterday morning, but did not notify parents until the end of the school day that afternoon.
Alyssa Domico, whose daughter attends first grade at the school, says she received the letter when she picked up her daughter from school yesterday. She's upset that the school did not inform parents of the problem right away.
"I dropped her off yesterday not knowing anything about the heat not working. I am furious that I sent my children to school yesterday -- one who is in the PEC building which had no heat for the past two days -- and I didn't get a phone call or anything informing me that there was no heat," Domico said. "It's -15 degrees outside, which means it's probably 30 degrees, if that, in the building and no one informs me. This situation is frustrating."
According to the letter, students in the PEC building were moved into classrooms in the main building where the heat was still working at around 9:30 a.m. yesterday; which means students may have spent as long as two hours in the cold PEC building.
Once students arrived in the main building, parents say they were placed in overcrowded classrooms and instead of having a full day of instruction, students watched movies for the remainder of the day.
"I picked her up and found out she spent the day in the big building watching movies," Domico said.
Parent Theresa Sperduto says her daughter, who attends second grade at the school, also watched movies during class time today.
Another parent, Deinna Davalos said she spoke with Wilson at length today and said he admitted that the situation could have been handled better.
"I was in the office on Tuesday when it was -17 degrees out and it was a mess for these kids, and parents and teachers," Davalos said.
"I spoke to the principal for about an hour and he did admit that he should have done more to let parents know about it, but he said that the School District was notified yesterday that there was no heat and they chose to keep the school open anyway."
Philadelphia School District spokesman Fernando Gallard says the District typically opts to keep students at school in order to not inconvenience parents who may be unable to pick their children up on short notice.
"That is unfortunately one of the things that occurs when you have to shut down a building, they don't get to have a full day of instruction," Gallard said. "But if we can provide a place for students to be housed, to be warmed, and to be fed, and to have some level of instruction, then we would prefer to do that."
As of this evening, parents said they were still unsure as to whether the heat would be fixed in time for tomorrow's classes because they had not received any updated communications from the principal.
According to Gallard, the school's broken furnace has been fixed.
"The repairs have been accomplished," he said. "It was a boiler that broke down at the 'little house' and that was finalized and repaired today, and will be fine for tomorrow."
The mother of a woman charged in the starvation death of a 3-year-old girl is speaking out several months after her daughter’s arrest.
Last September, 3-year-old Nathlayz Rivera was found unresponsive in the city’s West Oak Lane neighborhood. Authorities ruled her starvation death a homicide.
Police later took Rivera’s father, 30-year-old Carlos Rivera, into custody. Police say Rivera, 30, initially found his twin daughter, Nathlayz, unresponsive around midnight in the family's bug-infested home on the 7300 block of Sommers Road.
"Instead of going to police and the ambulance, he called the mother, who was over at a male friend's house," said Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark. "The mom and friend came to the house, took the baby, and transported her to the E.R. where she was pronounced. The medical examiner ruled this a homicide, manner of death, starvation."
(Pictured: Carlos Rivera, Carmen Ramirez)
Nathlayz only weighed 11 pounds at the time of her death, less than half the weight of the average 3-year-old.
The girl "had not seen a doctor in over a year, even with all the severe disabilities," said Clark.
Investigators say that the twin girl had a chronic disorder and was blind in one eye.
The mother, Carmen Ramirez, was later arrested. Ramirez, 27, and Rivera both face third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, criminal conspiracy and child endangerment charges, according to police.
The other Rivera children, ages 9, 8 and 7, along with Nathalyz's 3-year-old twin – were all placed with the Department of Human Services.
On Wednesday, NBC10 spoke with Carmen’s mother and Nathalyz’s grandmother Marisa Rivera. Rivera told NBC10 that her granddaughter was always skinny but that she never had a reason to be overly concerned.
“She was always skinny so we did approach the doctor and asked them,” Rivera said. “At one point I did go to St. Christopher and I asked the doctor the same thing, if they were concerned about her weight. They told us no, they weren’t concerned. If they weren’t concerned then why should we be?”
Marisa says the last time she saw her granddaughter alive was during a graduation party over the summer.
“The last time I saw her was on June 29,” Rivera said. “She was the same, thin like always. I don’t know who didn’t feed her but the only thing I can tell you is that Carmen wasn’t home the last two months. She was home with the dad.”
Marisa claims that during her granddaughter’s last months, her daughter prevented her from seeing her.
“I was always pushed aside because of the way I was,” Marisa said. “I didn’t like things that my kids did. They do things that I don’t agree with and because I don’t agree with them, they forbid me from seeing their kids.”
In spite of everything, Marisa says she doesn’t believe her daughter starved Nathalyz to death. She also expressed sorrow that she wasn’t there to help her other grandchildren.
“I’d go beyond anything and anybody to save my grandkids,” she said while in tears. “Now it’s too late. Now it’s too late to do something about it.”
A preliminary hearing for Rivera and Ramirez originally scheduled for Wednesday was cancelled and rescheduled for a later date.
More people move out of New Jersey than anywhere else.
That’s the conclusion of a recent moving company study that found that New Jersey leads the nation for the third time in the past four years in people moving away from the state.
The findings in the 37th annual United Van Lines Migration Study found that there were 64 percent more people moving outbound of the Garden State than moving inbound.
The study tracks the company’s customers’ movements during the year to arrive at the results.
“As the nation’s largest household goods mover, United’s shipment data illustrates national state-to-state migration trends,” said United Van Lines vice president Carl Walter. “… through our study are able to identify the states that are attracting or losing residents.”
And New Jersey’s not alone in the Northeast as states like New York (61 percent), West Virginia (60 percent), Connecticut (59 percent) and Massachusetts (56 percent) also landed in the list of top outbound states.
Pennsylvania and Delaware however were balanced with a nearly identical amount of resident departing and arriving, according to the study.
As for states seeing an increase of residents, Oregon was top (even though they did lose Eagles coach Chip Kelly) with a 61 percent inbound rate. The District of Columbia (57 percent) is the closets place to our area with a high inbound rate.
A Dachshund jetted off a plane at Newark Airport Wednesday and led crews on an hourlong tarmac chase before its owner was let off her flight to collect the pup, according to a report.
The dog dashed off a Lufthansa flight as it was being loaded onto the plane about 7:30 p.m., the New York Post reports.
The wiener dog ran across runways for nearly an hour before authorities could corner the animal by a fence.
Emergency crews weren’t able to get hold of the cornered pup named Henry, so officials got the dog’s owner off the flight and brought her to the area where her pet was hunkered down, the Post reports.
Once Henry saw his Mercer County, N.J., owner, he ran into her arms.
It’s not known whether the escape caused any delays.
A candlelight vigil is planned for the boy who was struck and killed by a school bus Monday morning.
Churches and community members in Waterford Township organized the vigil, which will take place Friday at 8:30 p.m. at the corner of Lake Drive and Aqua Lane in Atco, N.J., to honor 6-year-old Edmond Boch IV, according to a Facebook post on the Waterford Speaks page.
The memorial's location is just a short distance away from where Boch died Monday morning.
The boy was at the bus stop across the street from his home on Aqua Lane shortly before 8:30 a.m. when his bus arrived. Boch's parents say he walked in front of the stopped bus towards the passenger side as he normally does. This time however it was pouring rain, which may be why the driver apparently did not see him.
The bus began to drive off as Boch was walking and the boy was struck and killed.
His father, Edmond Boch III, had left for work shortly before the accident occurred.
"Basically all I want to say to parents is make sure you go home and hug your kids tonight," Boch III told NBC10. "You don't know if they are gonna be there tomorrow or not."
"He gave me a hug and kiss and said, 'I'll see you later, I love you dad,'" Boch III said. "Next thing you know I got a phone call that he was hit by a bus. I come driving down the road and he's lying on the ground dead."
According to witnesses, the bus driver, didn't initially realize he had struck the boy.
"The driver absolutely didn't know," said Jennifer Cummings. "He was in shock too."
The driver, who has not yet been identified, was questioned by police. Toxicology tests were also performed. Officials with the school district say the driver is a substitute bus driver who has worked with Hillman's Bus Company for 25 years.
Boch IV was a first grade student at Atco Elementary School. The school is providing counseling services for students as police continue to investigate the accident and the family continues to cope with their loss.
"I want him back," Boch III said while in tears. "I want him home. I want him in our arms. I want to play with him at night. I want to do his homework with him."
On Tuesday, Dan Hillman, owner of Hillman's Bus Company, released a statement on the boy's death.
"This was a tragic accident," Hillman wrote. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and the entire community."
Hillman also told NBC10 that both the company and the bus driver are cooperating fully with the investigation.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a darling of the Republican Party and often presumed presidential candidate for 2016, was apologetic as he spoke publicly for the first time since evidence surfaced that his administration may have caused massive traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge to enact political revenge.
"I come out here today to apologize to the people of New Jersey. I apologize to the people of Fort Lee," the governor said during a press conference on Thursday. “I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team."
Speaking to a room packed full of local and national media at the N.J. State Capitol in Trenton, N.J., the 51-year-old says the actions of his staff were “showed a lack of respect for the people of our government and the people they serve."
Immediately after the apology, Christie announced that he fired Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly -- the staff member who allegedly orchestrated the lane closures at the bridge last September.
"I terminated her employment because she lied to me,” he said."There’s no justification for that behavior. There’s no justification to ever lie to a governor."
Christie said he did not have any knowledge of the lane closure plan and was lied to when he asked staffers whether his office had any involvement in the situation.
The governor said he planned to have one-on-one discussions with his senior staff to try and uncover any additional information he does not yet know.
Christie also distanced himself from his campaign manager Bill Stepien. Stepien discussed the lane closures by email with Wildstein.
The governor said he was "disturbed by the tone and behavior and attitude and the callous indifference" of the correspondence Stepien exchanged. Christie said Stepien would not take over as head of the New Jersey Republican Party and would no longer consult for the Republican Governor's Association.
Christie planned to travel to Fort Lee on Thursday afternoon and personally apologize to the town’s mayor and people.
However, Sokolich asked Christie not to come because an apology today would be "premature."
"Based on what has happened it would appear an apology today is premature," he said. He said he is appreciative of the governor's swift action.
"I do appreciate it though. I would rather he not waste the gas," he said, adding that should the governor come, the town would welcome him with open arms.
Despite the mayor's comments, Christie said he still planned to go and apologize directly to the people.
THE CLOSURE
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reduced the local lanes of the George Washington Bridge from three lanes to one heading from Fort Lee, N.J. into Manhattan on Sept. 9, 2013. Port authority officials said the unannounced lane closures were part of a traffic study.
The closures lasted for four days and the resulting jam backed up traffic into the North Jersey town – wreaking havoc on families trying to take children to school and even slowing down the town’s emergency medical response.
Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, said the lane closures were payback for him refusing to endorse Christie’s re-election campaign. The governor has touted his bipartisanship in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Christie denied that he or any of his staff was involved and chalked the charges up to political posturing.
Christie said he gave his staff an hour before that press conference to let him know of any involvement by the administration in the lane closures. Receiving no responses, he denied and joked about the accusations, he said.
"I was blindsided," he said on Thursday. The governor added that he only found out about his administration's involvement after seeing the published communications in media reports on Wednesday morning.
Two Port Authority staffers resigned in the wake of the flap and a state inquiry was launched. One of the staffers who resigned was David Wildstein, a childhood friend of Christie and governor appointee to the Port Authority, who worked as the Director of Interstate Capital Projects.
The New Jersey Assembly Committee on Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities subpoenaed Wildstein’s email and text correspondence. On Wednesday, those messages were released to news outlets, giving weight to Sokolich’s claims and potentially linking the Christie Administration to the fiasco.
Wildstein is scheduled to testify, under oath, before the committee at noon at the Statehouse. His attorney filed a motion to quash that subpoena, but a state judge denied that filing.
THE MESSAGES
It was on Aug. 13, 2013, three weeks before the closure, when Christie Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly supposedly sent an email to Wildstein eluding to put a plan to shut down part of the heavily-traveled bridge into action.
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” the alleged message from Kelly read.
Moments later, Wildstein replied: “Got it.”
Weeks later, on Sept. 7, 2013, Wildstein emailed Kelly again about Fort Lee.
“I will call you Monday AM to let you know how Fort Lee goes,” the email read.
On Sept. 10, 2013, the second day of closures, a string of text messages between Wildstein and an unknown recipient focuses on the frustration of Fort Lee mayor Sokolich. Wildstein, in this conversation and several others, supposedly refers to him as the ‘Serbian’
THE AFTERMATH
Christie, known for his brash political style, said he was "blindsided" by the revelations and that despite his reputation, that he is "not a bully" who would go after a politician who did not support him.
Kelly has not commented on the controversy. Christie says he has not seen or spoken with her since the story broke.
Wildstein and his former co-worker Bill Baroni have both hired attorneys.
In addition to the state investigation into whether any laws were broken, a federal agency is also looking into the matter. The Department of Justice has received a request to launch an investigation into whether any federal laws were broken, federal officials tell NBC News.
"The Port Authority Office of Inspector General has referred the matter to us, and our office is reviewing it to determine whether a federal law was implicated," a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
U.S. Senators from New Jersey Cory Booker and Robert Menendez both called the allegations “troubling” and say they plan to monitor the investigation.
“In the Senate's Commerce Committee, we have asked the Transportation Department for information to get to the bottom of the lane closures. I am awaiting and will evaluate additional facts," Booker, a Democrat said.
Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.
A red car -- possibly a convertible -- speeding towards the airport.
That's what is seen in video released by Philadelphia Police Thursday as they work to find the driver responsible for a deadly hit-and-run.
Invesitgators say 60-year-old Leslie Smith was crossing Island Avenue at the intersection of Lindbergh Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia around 6:15 p.m. Monday when he was struck and killed by a car going south on Island Avenue.
After striking Smith, the striking vehicle did not stop and fled the scene, traveling southbound towards the airport, according to police.
Smith died from his injuries at the scene.
Police describe the striking vehicle as a red, possibly two-door sedan with a black top and the passenger side wheel cover missing. The car likely will have front, hood and windshield damage, according to invesitgators.
If you have any information on the vehicle’s whereabouts, please call the Accident Investigation Division at 215-685-3180.
A search for a missing man brought a large amount of rescue personnel out onto the ice today.
Various agencies responded to the icy waters off N Dorset Avenue in Ventnor, N.J. Thursday morning.
Ventnor City Police told NBC10.com's Ted Greenberg that a search began for a missing man last night. During that search K-9s followed the man’s scent to Ski Beach on the bay side of Dorset Avenue in the Jersey Shore resort town.
This morning the search began on the frozen bay. Shortly after 11 a.m., a New Jersey State Police team dive team wearing wet suits could be seen using a raft to search the icy bay.
Police didn’t identify the missing man.
Police responded after the roof of a suburban Philadelphia building under construction collapsed onto a subcontractor this morning pinning him under the rubble for about one hour.
The roof fell in at a commerical construction site along Heritage Center Drive in Furlong, Bucks County, Pa. around 8:45 a.m. Thursday.
A large portion of the wood framing of the building appeared to have collapse in and crushed the lower extremities of the subcontractor.
The subcontractor slipped in and out of conscioussness, according to paramedics.
Just before 10 a.m. crews pulled the man from the rubble, placed him on a stretcher and slowly moved him down a ladder and into a waiting ambulance. The man was rushed to Temple University Hospital.
As SkyForce10 hovered overhead, firefighters could be seen using multiple ladders and a crane to rescue the man.
The cause of the collapse wasn’t clear.
Students attending the Thomas G. Morton Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia were dismissed from school early today due to issues with the school's heating system.
The heating problem and 12:30 p.m. early dismissal were announced on the Philadelphia School District's website and twitter account this morning.
In the midst of record cold temperatures, the District has seen heating problems at several of its schools.
This week, as temperatures reached single digits, students attending Thomas Edison High School in North Philadelphia were instructed to stay home on Monday and Tuesday due to flood damage from a bursted pipe in the school's building.
On Tuesday, students were sent home from Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School in North Philadelphia due to low heat issues.
Yesterday, we reported heating problems at Edwin Forrest Elementary School, where parents said their children were shuffled between two buildings and placed in overcrowded classrooms on two of the coldest days the city has seen in decades.
Some teachers took to Twitter today to show just how cold some of the city's school buildings have gotten. One twitter user tweeted a photo of a classroom thermostat hovering at a mere 58-degrees.
Another chilly day in #phillyeducation. My classroom is again 58 degrees. pic.twitter.com/xj552NESCH
— Stephanie (@adoptdogs1) January 8, 2014
According to Philadelphia School District spokesman Fernando Gallard, the District takes special precautions to avoid problems during extreme weather conditions.
Gallard says the heat in school buildings is turned down in the evening and on weekends to conserve energy, but the District also instructs its building engineers to arrive earlier on mornings when temperatures are extremely low to allow the buildings more time to heat up before students arrive.
As of this morning, the furnace at Forrest Elementary is reported to be working again and students have returned to their usual classrooms. Parents say the building was much warmer this morning.
Gallard said he could not confirm when the heat at the Morton school would be repaired but PSD spokesman Raven Hill said it would likely be fixed in time for students to return to school tomorrow.
"We closed due to a sporadic lack of heat in different sections of the school. Although the entire building is not without heat, we needed to shut the heating system down to fix the problem, which required that we dismiss students early," Hill said. "We anticipate that students will be able to return to school tomorrow."
An ice jam in the Delaware River is forcing water on to area roadways in an unusual winter overflow reminiscent of the January 1996 flood that led tens of thousands to evacuate throughout the mid-Atlantic region and damaged the State House Annex in Trenton.
"The ice jam and flooding is a big question mark," said NBC10 First Alert Meterologist Bill Henley.
For now, the Delaware Valley can enjoy a slight warm up from the record-breaking cold temperatures that hit the region earlier in the week.
Temperatures passed the freezing mark Thursday and will rise to a high of 44 degrees Friday with a chance of rain showers.
The mercury will soar Saturday, hitting highs in the low 60s with a high likelihood of precipitation.
And if the rains are heavy, it could cause even more problems in flood-prone areas.
"If the ice jam is still in place on Saturday night and we get heavy rain, it is impossible to predict how bad the flooding is going to be," said Ray Kruzdlo, a senior service hydrologist with the National Weather Service.
Water levels are already falling upstream and they are expected to drop in Trenton soon, Kruzdlo said. Normally that would be a good sign, but the ice jam complicates matters.
Water has been flowing downstream so far despite the blockage the ice creates, Kruzdlo said.
But we don't know what restrictions the ice jam will cause when the storm passes through this weekend, he said.
"It is a wait-and-see game with these things," he said. "Jams are very erratic."
Regardless of the inches that fall, officials doubt flooding will be as severe as the area experienced in January 1996.
"In 1996 we had a different set of circumstances," said Clarke Rupert, spokesman for the Delaware River Basin Commission. "There was a combination of a lot of snow on the ground, heavy rains and really warm temperatures."
"Back in the 1996 flood, there were much larger ice jam issues up and down the Delaware River," he said.
This time around the mile-long ice jam stretches from the area about a half-mile south of the Route 1 bridge to just past the Calhoun Street bridge, Kruzdlo said.
It stretches from bank to bank -- which is an average distance of about 900 feet wide at that point. In some areas, the ice pieces were pushing out of the river and onto the riverbank.
"It's not one solid sheet of ice across the top, you can see that it's many large chunks and it just goes...as far as the eye can see to the north," said SkyForce10 photojournalist Jeremy Haas while looking at the jam from the air.
The Coast Guard sent boats upstream Thursday to break up the ice jam and help loosen any restrictions preventing water from flowing downstream.
The 65-feet-long tugs encountered ice up to five-feet thick on the river about three miles south of Trenton, according to officials.
Large pieces of ice first bunched together in the water around Trenton, N.J. and Bucks County, Pa. on Wednesday as temperatures in the teens continued to make conditions ripe for freezing.
Water, displaced by the ice, spilled out of the Delaware and began to creep onto roadways and into structures.
The New Jersey Statehouse garage, some southbound lanes on Route 29 in Trenton, N.J. and Route 32 north in Yardley, Pa., closed Wednesday because of flooding and remain closed Thursday afternoon.
A overflow of water also rushed out onto Route 32 (River Road), in Lower Makefield Township, Pa. on Wednesday evening. The road is now closed between Black Rock Road and Trenton Avenue. Officials say the closure will be in effect until flood waters from the Delaware River have receded from the highway.
Worried that the flooding will get worse as the ice begins to melt with temperatures rising on Thursday, forecasters with the National Weather Service issued a Flood Warning for parts of Mercer County in N.J. and Bucks County in Pa. until 8 p.m. Friday
The NWS also extended a Flash Flood Watch for areas downstream from the ice jam -- including Philadelphia, Trenton, Moorestown, Mount Holly, Morrisville and Doylestown -- until Friday morning.
"When this ice jam breaks, there may be enough water behind the jam to cause flash flooding downstream," the NWS alert read.
Forecasters say the river is at 19.3 feet and fluctuating below the flood stage of 20 feet. The river is expected to fluctuate throughout the day.
About 30 miles downstream in Philadelphia, the Delaware was still dotted with large sheets and chunks of ice. However, the ice was not packed together like in the Trenton area.
An ice jam was also reported along the Lehigh River just downstream from the Old Glendon Bridge in Easton, Pa. The jam caused water and ice to cover parts of Lehigh Drive. The jam, which was still in place late Thursday morning, led officials to exten its flood warning for southcentral Northampton County. They warn all residents and businesses along the Lehigh River from the Old Glendon Bridge downstream to its confluence with the Delaware River to remain alert for "rapidly changing conditions" until the jam clears the area over the next few days.
The ice along the river is unstable and dangerous. Do not drive your vehicle into areas where the water covers the roadway. Also avoid touching, standing or going near the ice.
Get the latest weather alerts where ever you go with the NBC10 Weather App. Download it here for FREE.
A fall on the ice outside his home proved deadly for an area man.
Lauro Dutan of Allentown, Pa. slipped on the ice outside his home on the 100 block of Madison Street Sunday around 4:30 p.m. The force of the fall left the 46-year-old badly injured.
Following the fall, Dutan was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital where he died Wednesday night, according to Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim.
The county coroner’s office performed an autopsy on Dutan Thursday morning and Grim determined that Dutan died from injuries from an accidental fall.
Officials didn't reveal the exact injuries suffered by Dutan. Allentown Police said they were never called to the scene.
Click here for more news from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
A former Port Authority director, accused of ordering the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge as an act of political retaliation on behalf of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, is being held in contempt for failing to answer lawmakers' questions during an inquiry on Thursday.
David Wildstein, a Christie appointee to the Port Authority, worked as the Director of Interstate Capital Projects for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- the agency that runs the bridge.
Wildstein allegedly worked with a Christie Administration staffer to close local lanes of the span, which bridges Fort Lee, N.J., and Manhattan, N.Y., over the Hudson River. The lane closures, which lasted four days, from Sept. 9 to Sept. 12, 2013, appeared to be intended to punish a local Democratic mayor who did not back the Republican governor's re-election bid.
The New Jersey Assembly Committee on Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities launched an investigation and subpoenaed Wildstein’s email and text correspondence. On Wednesday, those messages were released to news outlets linking the Christie Administration to the fiasco.
The committee then subpoenaed Wildstein to testify. His attorney filed a motion to quash the subpoena, but a judge denied that motion.
After being sworn under oath at the committee meeting on Thursday, Wildstein immediately asserted his Fifth Amendment right.
Committee Chair John Wisniewski asked 15 questions about alleged correspondence between Wildstein and now former Christie Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly about the lane closures.
Wildstein invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to each of those questions.
Frustrated by the lack of answers, Wisniewski turned to Wildstein's attorney, Alan Zegas, to ask questions. But in each case, Zegas said he would advise his client not to answer the questions.
"What kind of perplexes me is that you’ve provided 907 pages of documents we’re asking questions on. It is not a mystery of as to where they came from. It is not a mystery as to whose name is on them," said Wisniewski. "So it would seem to me that the privilege that you’re asserting has already been waived in providing the documents."
Zegas disagreed, saying the Fifth Amendment applies to testimony and that the providing of subpoenaed documents does not mean his right was waived.
Incised by not having their questions answered, the committee voted to hold Wildstein in contempt. With the contempt vote, Wildstein could be charged with a misdemeanor.
Law enforcement is said to be reviewing the contempt filing.
READ MORE ABOUT BRIDGEGATE HERE
Need a late lunch? Philadelphia native and comedian Kevin Hart is hitting South Street Thursday afternoon.
Hart is starring in the comedy "Ride Along" and was in town for last night's premiere.
The actor brought along his co-star Ice Cube to hand out cheesesteaks at Jim's Steaks from 2:30 to 3 p.m.
"Ride Along" opens in theatres on January 17. Hart got his start at the Laff House Comedy Club in Philly.
Attention PHILADELPHIA me & @icecube will be giving out free cheesesteaks from 2:30 to 3pm at Jim's On 4th & south! We are in these streets
— Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) January 9, 2014
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Delaware State Police are looking for a man who tried to rob an 8-year-old at knifepoint.
It happened about 5:15 p.m. near the intersection of Scoth Pine Drive and Loblolly Pine Drive in Dover. Troopers say the boy was walking home from a friend's house on Scotch Pine Drive when a man wearing a ski mask and armed with a knife approached him.
The man said he would stab the boy if he didn't give him money. The boy turned to run and the robber lunged at him with the knife.
The boy was not hurt and ran home. The robber escaped in a white-colored work van with tinted windows.
Police are asking anyone with information about the suspect or the crime to contact Delaware State Police Troop 3.
If you've ever crossed a bridge, gone through a tunnel, or used any of New York and New Jersey's most traveled thoroughfares and transit systems, then -- whether you knew it or not -- you reaped the benefits of the Port Authority of New Jersey and New York.
The Port Authority of New Jersey and New York is the interstate agency that is responsible for maintaining and operating the two states' most frequented bridges, tunnels, airports, trailways, and facilities, and the World Trade Center. The purpose of the Port Authority is to protect and promote commerce in the Port District, the agency's designated area of jurisdiction which spans 25 miles of land and water between the two states, according to the agency's website.
From a financial standpoint, the Port Authority functions off of revenue generated from the tolls people pay to cross its bridges and tunnels, fares paid to its rail transit system, airport and the bus terminal fees, facility rental fees, and other paid services that the agency provides. In 2013, the Port Authority had a $2.57 billion operating budget that included nearly $1.5 million in revenue from tolls and fares alone.
All of that territory and money is governed by a 12-member Board of Commissioners who are appointed by the governors of each state. The Board of Commissioners is responsible for selecting and appointing an Executive Director that serves as the primary manager of all Port Authority operations.
Port Authority bylaws grant the executive director a number of powers, including the ability to authorize or approve, or reject bids and proposals for contracts, purchase orders or agreements according to what he or she deems to be in the best interest of the agency.
The Port Authority became the subject of national headlines this week as word that members of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's staff may have abused their powers to alter traffic on one of the agency's busiest crossings: the George Washington Bridge. Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly reportedly knew of a plan to shut down local lanes of traffic on the bridge as part of a political ploy against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolick.
It was Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye -- one of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's appointees to the Board -- who ordered bridge managers to undo the Sept. 9 bridge lane closures that the Port Authority later claimed were closed due to a traffic study.
The incident highlights the significance of the powers granted to those in charge of the agency, and what can happen when those powers are misused.
If you're still curious about just how much of N.J. and N.Y. territory is managed by the PA, check out this full list of Port Authority facilities:
Aviation
John F. Kennedy International Airport
LaGuardia Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport
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