to drastically cut federal antiterrorism funds to new york city. i'm bill ritter. >> i'm liz cho. these cuts will hit hard the police and fire departments and the office of emergency management. >> all at a time where new york city remains a top target for terrorists. they want to cut the budget by half to $90 million. >> tonight the president is blasting senator schumer. eyewitness news reporter tim fleischer is in lower manhattan with our lead story tonight. >> the white house shot back very quickly. i'll have more on that in just a moment but city officials believe these proposed budget cuts could have a serious impact on the city. they stress this money is desperately needed to keep the city safe from terrorism. >> the nypd has successfully thwarted many, many terror plots directed at new york city. >> reporter: due in large measure to federal funding. city officials say it expands the necessary tactical force to patrol the streets to a

>> all the weapons are purchased brand new. the training they're receiving. a lot of this supported by the federal funding that we're at risk of potential losing. >> reporter: the president's proposed budget would cut that funding to the urban area security initiative from $600 million to $330 million nationwide. new york's funding would be cut from $180 million to $90 million. >> not cutting them 5% or 10%, but close to 50%, it makes no sense. >> reporter: federal and city officials also point out the city is one of the world's top terrorist targets. >> this is a time of increased threats. it's a time of more complex threats. therefore the tools we use to prevent terror are more necessary than ever. >> the necessary funding police officials say help to create and operate the highly sophisticated nypd. unconscionable and i'm just speaking about new york city. >> reporter: hundreds of

officers in special units are now strategicically working the city with new k-9 officers, portable radiation detection equipment and firepower. >> those 1300 officers, most of counterterrorism and the strategic response group to be out there on patrol. >> reporter: late today the white house was sharply critical of senator schumer's criticism of the cuts. >> senator schumer opposed the international agreement of iran, when it comes to funding for homeland security they're recognizing he's wrong this time too. >> with the white house's sharp response to the criticism, no doubt this is going to be a contentious battle. tim fleischer, channel 7 eyewitness news. police in brooklyn hope surveillance images will lead to an arrest for a predator who tried to kidnap a teenage girl. police say the suspect tried to lure a 14-year-old girl yesterday as she was walking

sheepshead bay. the man put his arm around her and wouldn't let go. the girl managed to pull her arm free. the man ran away. today a career criminal charged with knocking out and injuring a tourist with a sucker-punch. robert anderson now facing felony assault charges. cops say he shrugged a tourist monday. the victim being treated for a fractured skull. anderson's friend, 19-year-old theresa thorson charged with felony assault. a 32-year-old woman charged with murder in the strangling death of a 90-year-old man in new jersey. jocelyn dahta being held on 3/4s of a million dollars bail. a family found his body in an apartment in east orange. prosecutors releasing few details tonight, merely saying the two people knew each other. apple is promising to fight a judge's order to help the fbi hack in to the iphone of one of the shooters of the san bernardino massacre. that phone was used by syed

killed 14 people back in december. apple claims helping the fbi could undermine the privacy of tens of millions of other iphone users. eyewitness news reporter rob nelson is at the apple store with more. >> good evening. the apple store here in midtown is as busy as ever and soon enough the lawyers for apple could be busy as well in court fighting the federal government in a case putting security concerns against privacy concerns. >> reporter: a federal judge has basically ordered apple to create new software that would allow the government to unlock the cell phone of san bernardino shooter syed farook in the hopes of getting critical information about the case. information that would normally be protected by encryption. >> it's a fine line because you're talking about people's privacy now. >> reporter: calling the order a dangerous overreach, apple is vowing to fight this, believing

the safety of all americans because there's no guarantee the impact could be limited to the cell phones suspected in crimes. city leaders backed the federal government. >> going forward, we are increasingly blind for terrorism purposes and for general law enforcement purposes with the new devices. >> reporter: it's the same privacy versus security argument the country has grappled with so many times since 9/11. >> if there's suspicious activity or you're questioned for a terrorist attack, to make this country safe, i'm all for the government stepping in. >> they're in to everything. we have to have some privacy. >> there's a general feeling of distrust in the government. there's a general feeling that once we allow the government to do that, it will not end up there and we unfortunately head over the past year -- had over the past years too many breaches of the trust. >> reporter: he hopes the two sides can find a middle ground here but he also offered a sobering reality check for all

what happens with this case. >> if you don't want it to be public one day, please do not treat the internet as a vault. it's anything but a vault. >> a reminder to all of us that no matter what we do online in some way, in some form, it does live on forever. that's the digital age we live in. we should point out in the last few minutes the department of justice released a new statement about this case saying in part the judge's order and our request in this case do not require apple to redesign its products, to disable encryption or open content on the phone. in addition the judge's order and our request are tailored to this particular phone. some scholars believe this case could end up in the supreme court. rob nelson, channel 7 eyewitness news. now to vote 2016. a new national poll tonight showing a virtual tie between hillary clinton and bernie sanders.

shows clinton with 44%, sanders with 42%. clinton way ahead with people over 65 and among nonwhites. sanders pulling higher in honesty and trust worthiness. ms. clinton appeared wit mother of sandra bland. bland was arrested after a traffic stop in texas this year. she was later found hanging in her jail cell. she had hung herself. her death ruled a suicide. >> we owe it to them to reform police practices to make sure no other young woman like sandra bland is pulled out of a car for no good reason and thrown in to a jail where she is found dead. >> as for bernie sanders, he spent a little less time in the public eye today. last night in georgia a huge rally was held. among the people speaking, the rapper killer mike. as for republicans, a poll out today shows a big shift on that side. have a look at that.

national poll puts ted cruz in the top spot among national voters. he and donald trump are only two points apart, putting them in a statistical dead heat. in south carolina they're at each other's throats. ahead of this weekend's primary election. cruz fired up over trump's threats that he will sue over a campaign ad. >> donald, i would encourage you if you want to file a lawsuit claiming this ad as defamation, file a lawsuit. >> there's a lot of dishonesty in politics. i will tell you. tremendous dishonesty. these people, some of them we're running against, in particular senator cruz, he'll say anything. >> a big boost for marco rubio who has been in the number three spot. today he received a high profile endorsement from south carolina governor nikki haley. pope francis now wrapping up his trip to mexico with a politically charged visit to the u.s. border for a huge open air

these are live pictures from the stadium in juarez. focusing on violence, exploitation and immigration and migration. nearby is el paso, texas where an estimated 30,000 people are gathered at the sun bowl for a simulcast of the ceremony. taking a quick look right now at wall street where stocks rallied today. dow was up 257 points. nasdaq picked up 98. and the s&p 500 gained 31. as we continue with eyewitness news at 6:00, a warning about threatening phone calls from con artists who claim to be from the irs. those calls could cost you big bucks. >> one local county has a big incentive for you to pay off your outstanding parking tickets. >> if you love baseball, you'll love what rob powers has in sports.

the accuweather center. the chill is back. no big storms to worry about. feels like 30 degrees. the freezing wind chills are with us overnight in to early tomorrow morning. i do everything on the internet. but, it's kind of slow. my friends say i should get fios because it's the fastest. i just downloaded 600 photos in 60 seconds. that's seriously better. (husband) we're out of 2%! i wonder what else could be better around here? (husband) i heard that. switching to better internet is now easier than ever. only fios has the fastest internet available, with uploads up to 5x faster than cable. get 100 meg upload and download speeds. plus tv and phone for just $69.99 a month online with no annual contract.

a warning about a tax scam increasingly targeting new yorkers.

from con artists telling people they need to pay and if they don't right now, they'll be arrested. >> nearly $30 million. >> here's stacey sager. >> i got all upset. because they really scare you. they really scare you. >> reporter: thousands have now gotten the calls, many of them seniors in what's now being called the biggest impersonation scam in irs history. this sound familiar? >> you'll be in a lot of trouble. >> if we didn't take care of paying the money we owed the government that we were going to be in big trouble and they were going to come and they were going to arrest us. >> do you know your nearest walmart store? >> reporter: in many cases the threatening callers direct people here to walmart where they can then wire money. senator chuck schumer calls the scammers bottom crawlers preying on the vulnerable. >> this is hard earned dollars. sometimes it's people's social security money. sometimes it's half their paycheck.

and once they use the money order it's not traceable. >> reporter: so far the results have been disastrous. more than 5,000 victims sending nearly $30 million to the scammers and so the aarp shares this reminder. >> the irs is not going to call you and ask you to give them a credit card or debit card over the phone. >> reporter: for walmart, they do have small warning signs like these. senator schumer wants to see these signs instead. he'd also like walmart workers to give people a verbal warning. >> they can say that's a scam. >> reporter: people we talked to today didn't fall for the scam. but they are hoping awareness spares others from becoming victims. in westbury, stacey sager, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> by the way, walmart tells us it does have procedures in place to protect consumers from financial scams but it says it's also taking additional steps to inform customers about scamming claiming to be irs agents.

help, go to our website, abc7ny. a welcome surprise tonight for many drivers on long island with outstanding traffic tickets. a random act of kindness traffic ticket amnesty program. those who were issued tickets in 2014 can now pay their fines without affecting their credit. violations can be paid online at the county's website. they called themselves the god squad and their titles at first seemed like the first line of a joke. a jewish rabbi and catholic priest walk in to an abc studio. tom hartman and mark gelman both from long island, fixtures on good morning america and friends of eyewitness news, preaching not so much about religion but how all of us should treat each

tom died from complications of parkinson's disease. we miss him very much. i've invited rabbi gelman to be on sunday morning at 11:00 and he's agreed. >> that will be a pulf show and a great conversation and great tribute. -- a wonderful show. amy freeze who is in for lee goldberg tonight joins us with

feels like an awful long time that we haven't had to talk about snow or rain or freezing temperatures. nice and calm today. >> no headaches over any big storms. that's for sure. we do have a little bit of a chill around here. we'll put up with that for 48 hours then we get a little taste of spring. right now temperatures are dropping. hopefully you got a little peak of the sunshine because underneath the bright sun it felt good today. clouds took over and temperatures are already going in to the mid 30s for much of the area. down in lower manhattan,

37 degrees with a northwest wind over 8 miles per hour. a chill will be with us as temperatures have dropped 15 to 20 degrees from where they were last night. if you were scooting around yesterday in the neighborhood and you left the scarf or gloves at home, get it all back. collect all your good winter stuff because we've got the chills right now below freezing in a lot of locations. you're going to be waking up to feels like temperatures between 15 to 19 degrees. we'll have enough cold around here that you'll want to be bundled up. isolated snow shower possible till 11:00 tonight. temperatures are going to go subfreezing across the board. ahead near 60 degrees. right here, you don't even have to go to spring training for it. first up on the accutrack, combined with the snow, you can see snow showers over scranton. not a big deal with the snow that's coming in but worthy of a mention. i think they'll fall apart on 287.

overnight tonight, winds will be breezy. feel like early in the morning the upper teens. then we'll start to feel like the 20s by the afternoon, evening hours. we still got the breezy conditions all day tomorrow. friday winds settle just a bit. temperatures still slightly shy, 40 degrees. teens in the suburbs, 20s in the city. definitely chilly. temperature could get up to 37 but still going to feel like the freezing point or a little bit below that. by friday we lose the wind. i think that feels better. saturday and sunday, 57 bit of a breeze on saturday with 57. going to feel good. lose the wind on sunday. we're at 52. a little spring fling extending in to early next week monday. sunny to start then we'll focus on this coastal storm that's coming tuesday in to wednesday.

a lot to watch for over the coming days. until then we've got practically florida weather by the weekend. >> kinda. >> what a great segway. rob powers up next with sports in florida. >> can't wait. we've been talking baseball for weeks but this week it all gets going. straight ahead, the national league champs report for duty. we'll for the mets now that they were so close.

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the headline, rob powers and laura behnke reporting for spring training tomorrow.

laura behnke live from yankee camp starting tomorrow. met pitchers and catchers reported to port st. lucie today. tomorrow. take a look, a lot of the fellas have been there for a while getting back in the flow, the flow that took the mets all the way to the world series. >> just being able to start from that position as opposed to where we've been the last couple years, that's a great feeling and i think one of the reasons there's so much excitement about the team. the nba schedule picks up after the all star break tomorrow. knicks and nets play each other friday. knicks got back to work today at the training facility. lost 10 of their last 11 games before the all star break. plenty of work on. trade deadline, 3:00 tomorrow. >> i haven't been hearing anything. the guys on the team seem like they haven't been hearing anything. got a good practice today. that's all.

another week to hire a general manager. he did refute reports that he's offered the job to sean marx. there were rumblings last night that if offered, he may take a pass on the nets. the nets showed off their brand new facility today. the hospital for special surgery training center. 70,000 square feet of a warehouse in sunset park. the nets are now 100% apart of brooklyn. >> i hope the players will really love it and make it your own. >> this is going to have to be an energizing, amazing place to practice and it's going to be something you'll cherish as part of your experience as a net. rangers get back on the ice tonight. tonight captain ryan mcdonagh will play against the blackhawks. he's missed four straight with

rangers 8-0-2 in their last 10 home games. one of the best teams in the nhl knowing the pressure is on to win. >> we want to be one of the teams that people say they can win the cup. but that has to be in the back of our heads. in the front of our heads has to be what we need to do today. good college basketball games tonight with the nba break still on. we'll take our hoops where we can get them. here's the liberty university soar team. we've all seen this stuff. they're always cool, usually predictable. until -- wait for it. i'm guessing this was not part of the routine. >> wow. >> you didn't know what you were going to get there. you showed the winner of the westminster dog show. low hanging fruit. here's the star of the show.

darn it, he's going to keep on trying. he and his human sam are from rochester. sam says dario is a silly dog who just likes to have fun. the crowd loved them. here's the kicker though. the treats, by the way, they're in the other pocket. >> that's why he didn't win. [ laughter ] that's a sports story. time to take a look at some of the stories we're working on for eyewitness news at 11:00. >> tonight a deadly soccer match. a referee shot dead after ejecting a player. also a dog that spent two might stuck in a 14-foot sinkhole finally rescued. we'll tell you how the dog's owners found her. plus with oil prices falling, we'll tell you how to get out of your overpriced heating oil contract. all coming up tonight at 11:00. >> tell me before the show so i can get out of it right now. that's it for us. thanks for watching. i'm bill ritter.

tonight breaking news tonight. the new national poll. is donald trump no longer the front-runner? also, late today, the south carolina surprise. just three days before the high stakes republican primary, the major endorsement. could it sway the race? governor haley is not for donald trump. also developing, the fbi standoff with apple. after the terror attack in san bernardino, the fbi desperate to break into the gunman's iphone. a judge now demanding apple help the fbi. under fire. the two officers trying to arrest this man. he pulls out a gun. their quick action in the moments that follow. the alleged imposter accused of posing as a doctor for more examining patients. the sting right here tonight. and, lucky couple. winning hundreds of millions,