With just more than two weeks until Pope Francis makes his much-anticipated visit to Philadelphia, preparations are continuing around the city for his arrival -- the biggest event in the city's recent history.
On Thursday, the day after all 10,000 tickets for the Papal Mass on Benjamin Franklin Parkway were distributed in less than a minute, Mayor Nutter is expected to provide an update on Pope preparations at 2 p.m.
The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that a plane went down into the ocean off the coast of Atlantic City Thursday afternoon.
Officials with the FAA said the single-engine Mooney M20 aircraft reportedly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 20 miles southeast of Atlantic City about 2:45 Thursday.
The plane was on it's way to Atlantic City from Michigan.
There was no word on how many people were on board.
The sequel to “Mallrats”, titled “MallBrats”, will be filmed at Exton Square Mall in Exton, Pa, beginning in January.
Director Kevin Smith announced the big news Thursday morning via his Twitter account, saying “We found our MALL, ya’ll!”
PREIT, the real estate investment trust that currently owns the mall property, says officials are excited by the filming.
"If all goes according to plan, filming will start at Exton Square in January. We are thrilled at the prospect of hosting Kevin Smith, the actors, and crew, helping to bring jobs to the area, and creating social media & on-site events to celebrate the partnership," they said in a statement.
Michael Markman, president of BET Investments, previously told The Delco Times that Smith was considering filming at Granite Run Mall, but it was “just a matter of timing.” But then, Philly.com reported that Smith would not likely be filming at that location.
Now, though, the Chester County-area will get its fill of Mallrats.
Flames tore through the roof of a row home in the Olney section of Philadelphia Thursday night as firefighters worked to contain the blaze.
Officials said multiple medics were called to the scene of the fire burning near the intersection of North 6th Street and West Olney Avenue that started around 9:40.
It was placed under control about an hour later.
One firefighter suffered injuries.
Sen. Robert Menendez is again accusing federal prosecutors of misleading the grand jury that voted to indict bribery charges against him.
In another round of court filings, attorneys for New Jersey’s senior U.S. senator also asked a judge to throw out the case because, they claim, leaks to the press tainted the entire process.
Menendez has maintained he has had a long friendship with Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen and that his acceptance of free private jet trips never influenced him. Even if it did, his lawyers said it was not a crime.
"Defendant’s repeatedly quoted the Supreme Court’s language that using gifts to ‘influence’ a legislator … is not a crime," Menendez’s court filing stated.
Defense attorneys also attacked prosecutors for repeating "scandalous allegations" about child prostitution in their court papers, even though they said those allegations against the senator "proved baseless" and were part of an initial smear campaign by an anonymous tipster.
Two weeks ago, prosecutors filed their own set of papers saying they have "clear evidence" of a bribe scheme between Menendez and Melgen.
But Menendez argues grand jurors were never asked in advance if they had heard about the unsubstantiated child sex allegations and whether those inflammatory allegations would have affected any decision to indict on the separate bribery questions. That failure to ensure grand jury impartiality is one key argument the senator is making for dismissal.
Prosecutors said this grand jury was handled like any other.
Prosecutors in an earlier court filing said they had a duty to investigate allegations of child sex abuse. But Menendez lawyers blasted the Justice Department’s use of inflammatory language in their court brief, which included the claim that initial reports about use of prostitutes appeared to be "specific" and "corroborated."
Defense lawyers said since the entire investigation started based on an unfair "smear," the case needs to be thrown out.
Judge William Walls is expected hear more arguments next week.
Prosecutors have alleged Menendez accepted gifts, free vacations and campaign cash from Melgen, and that in exchange, Menendez used his office to try to help Melgen with officials handling a Medicare fraud investigation, as well as Melgen’s efforts to secure a port security deal worth tens of millions of dollars.
Melgen and Menendez have pleaded not guilty to the bribery-related counts. Melgen has been charged separately in Florida on Medicare fraud counts.
The hunt is on in New Jersey for a missing 100-pound tortoise named Sulley.
Sulley escaped his owners’ backyard over Labor Day weekend and was still missing Thursday, reports NJ.com.
The Pattenburg Volunteer Fire Company is leading the search for Sulley in the woods off Baptist Church Road with the help of K-9 officer Timmy, an 11-pound German Shepard, according to NJ.com.
The PVFC said Thursday on Facebook that Timmy lost the tortoise’s scent, meaning he may have burrowed into the ground or entered water.
Anyone who may have seen Sulley is asked to contact Chief Dan VanFossen at 908-930-2558.
A group of cloistered nuns has been working overtime in the kitchen to help Philadelphia church officials prepare for Pope Francis' visit, baking 100,000 communion hosts for his public Mass.
Religious sisters at the suburban Monastery of St. Clare put in extra shifts for about two months to fill the order, which represents a portion of the wafers that will be offered at the outdoor service on Sept. 27. Up to 1.5 million pilgrims are expected to attend.
"We're very excited," said Sister Anne Bartol. "It is a very special work for us, and we take very good care — extra care — with how we make them."
As an enclosed community, the Roman Catholic nuns known as Poor Clares don't leave the monastery except for medical reasons. They support themselves financially in part by making hosts, also called altar breads, for about 200 customers across the U.S. and Canada.
The three-hour baking sessions begin around 8:30 a.m. Flour and water are mixed into batter, which is then poured onto a griddle embossed with religious iconography. It bakes for a couple of minutes, emerging as a flat sheet stamped with designs.
After spending time in a humidifier to add moisture — otherwise the bread will shatter when cut — the sheets are placed in a machine that punches out dozens of disc-shaped wafers. The hosts are later inspected, counted, bagged, packaged and sent.
Sisters usually make about 125,000 wafers per month using their immaculate and affectionately nicknamed ovens Raphael, Maddalena, Vincent and Benny. (The humidifiers are Archangel and El Rey.) A bag of 500 small hosts costs about $5, plus shipping and handling.
It seems fitting the Poor Clares, an order founded more than 800 years ago, would be asked to help with the pontiff's visit. St. Clare was the first female follower of St. Francis of Assisi, the namesake of Pope Francis.
Though some nuns dedicate their lives to active ministry and charity work, Poor Clares lead what is known as the contemplative life. The 13 sisters who reside at the monastery in Langhorne, about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia, devote themselves to prayer.
Sister Jean Therese Rossignol entered the community two decades ago after having "always felt the desire to become a religious sister." She had previously worked in the business office of a Maine newspaper and later looked into life as a missionary in Africa. While there, she felt called to return to the U.S. to live a contemplative life.
Yet the Poor Clares aren't entirely secluded. They conduct business via email, maintain a website, and allow the public to visit their chapel. And the sisters say the Philadelphia archbishop has given them a temporary reprieve from their vow of enclosure, permitting them to attend the Mass where their bread will spiritually nourish the faithful.
"We're very much looking forward to being there, to seeing (Pope Francis) in person, and to being together with everyone," Rossignol said.
Fire broke out overnight at a longtime Delaware County scrap yard in the shadow of PPL.
Luckily no one was hurt in the Friday morning blaze at Ben and Sam’s Scrap yard along Yarnell Street near W 2nd Street in Chester, Pennsylvania. The yard is near the home of the Philadelphia Union.
Firefighters called a second alarm as they battled not only flames but rough terrain at the scrap yard that has been there for around 60 years.
Flames spread to the roof of a building at the yard before firefighters got the flames under control.
A child pornography raid turned deadly at a Delaware County home Friday morning.
The FBI responded to a home on Highland Avenue near 6th Street in Chester to execute a search warrant around 6 a.m., said Chester Police Commissioner Joseph Bail.
Police said the FBI went to the home specifically to execute a search warrant related to a child porn ring, FBI sources told NBC10's Monique Braxton.
"As they executed the search warrant, shots were fired," said Bail.
One of the four people in the home was shot and killed during the exchange of gunfire, said authorities.
As SkyForce10 hovered overhead you could see local and federal investigators responding to the home and a neighboring home before eventually taking a man from the home and into a waiting police car. Investigators questioned that man, a woman and a third person taken from the home. The relationship between the people in the home wasn't immediately clear.
Neighbors were surprised by the sound of gunshots coming from the home where they said the residents mostly kept to themselves.
The home had a sophisticated security system, said authorities. The home was one of three raided Friday as part of the federal inquiry.
The FBI and Delaware County special prosecutors will investigate the incident, said Bail.