this breaking news overnight. fire leads to a building collapse in atlantic city. red cross teams are now in disaster mode to help the victims. the law enforcement community stunned by tragedy. the latest on the training exercise that killed a pennsylvania state trooper. and we're tracking showers on this early wednesday morning. a live look at center city from across the river. you can see some clouds out there. will you need the umbrella later today or will we see the sunshine again? that's a good question. good morning, everyone. this is "nbc 10 news today." i'm chris cato. and for the man who can answer those questions and many more, meteorologist bill henley is here with your first alert forecast. good morning, bill. >> good morning, chris. clouds are overhead and we are tracking light showers in the area this morning. there's not a lot to them.

everybody's seeing the cloud cover, including boathouse row, which is dry at this time. but check out the radar. you can see some scattered showers that are moving through south philadelphia into camden county and a few rain drops in the newark area this morning, but the steadier showers are farther to the north. the reading area has seen some brief periods of heavy downpours west of the city. now it's starting to taper off. and the showers, well, they're not going to last all day. a problem this morning, but not so much this afternoon, as we will get some breaks in the clouds. right now if you're heading out the door, 64 degrees in philadelphia. we will be in the lower 70s later today. we'll go through hour by hour when i come back. first, jillian mele has your traffic. good morning. >> good morning, bill. we're starting off with one accident this morning, out of new jersey, especially in clementon, white horse avenue between white horse pike and road. this is 95. once again, we have construction on the southbound side right by the commodore barry bridge, so

we have active construction, lane restrictions, but it's not causing any delays. yesterday morning this construction stayed out there a lot longer than it was supposed to, caused a big backup. so, that's something i will be watching for you this morning. heading to the ben franklin bridge, looking great in both directions. keep in mind, though, the westbound side, we still have that track rehab project, but so far, no delays there. chris? >> jillian, thanks. we're following this breaking news now out of atlantic city. fire jumped from store to store and to apartments above those stores overnight, leaving two families without a home this morning. now, the fire has been burning for about six hours on the 1100 block of atlantic avenue. that's just a few blocks away from the boardwalk here in atlantic city. nbc 10's katy zachry is on scene there monitoring the fire progress. katy, is this thing under control yet? >> reporter: well, chris, around 2:00 this morning, it looked to be under control, but then around 2:30, the flames resurged, and this is what firefighters in atlantic city have been battling for the last six hours. now, as bad as these flames look, it was much worse.

as we go to our video, this is around the height of the fire. it broke out just around 10:00 between pennsylvania and north carolina streets on atlantic avenue. firefighters rushed to the scene. we are six hours into them fighting this fire. now, we know from the fire chief that the fire started in a building that houses a sewing shop on the first floor and then apartments above. it's unclear how or why the fire began. flames spread quickly to the surrounding storefronts and apartments, primarily because of the wind, the direction, the chief says, is just blowing this fire to surrounding storefronts and apartments. and he said it's really adding fuel to the fire and really working against them. several families have been displaced. there have been no injuries to those families who lived in the apartments or to firefighters. we're going to stay on the scene and get new information. we are talking to the fire chief. and i'll have some comments from him coming up in about 25 minutes. reporting live in atlantic city, katy zachry, nbc 10 news.

looking for answers. that's what pennsylvania state police are doing this morning after the shooting death of a trooper during a training exercise in montgomery county. it happened yesterday at a gun range in conshohocken. nbc 10's jesse gary is live at the skippack state police barracks in swankzville where that trooper was stationed. jesse, i'm sure a lot of heavy hearts there this morning. >> reporter: chris, that is exactly right, and the only information coming from state police at this hour is that the fatal shot was fired, as you said, during a training exercise. let's go ahead, take a look at our video. late last night, the body of trooper david kedra was placed in a hearst and driven along with a motorcade from temple hospital in north philadelphia. the 26-year-old was shot in the chest yesterday afternoon at the county public safety training camp in conshohocken. investigators are trying to piece together exactly how the fatal shot was fired, but right now they have not released any findings. i'm going to go inside, check in with the officials here at the barracks, have an update for you coming up in the next hour. live in skippack township, montgomery county, jesse gary, nbc 10 news.

chris? four minutes after 4:00. also happening today, this morning you're paying more if you're buying cigarettes in philadelphia. you'd also be supporting education if you're buying cigarettes in philadelphia. a $2-per-pack increase in the city's cigarette tax is now in effect. this is october 1st. that was enacted to help fill a budget gap for philadelphia schools. lawmakers say it will generate $49 million this school year alone, but smokers we talked to said they'll have to go elsewhere, outside of the city to buy their smokes. >> i'll have to go outside of the city lines to buy cigarettes and that's ridiculous also. >> to raise it $2 a crazy! >> reporter: it's going to put a dent in your purchases? >> oh, absolutely. >> now, the city's comptroller says the tax hike is only a band-aid and will not solve the budget crisis. he says tobacco tax collections in the city have dropped over the past year. also happening today, philadelphia mayor michael nutter will sign a bill that decriminalized marijuana possession. under the new law, if you're caught with 30 grams or less,

you'll face a $25 fine but no arrest and no criminal charge, just a citation. that new law will go into effect october 20th. you've been warned. and this morning you'll pay the price if you run a red light at certain intersections in abington, montgomery county. red light cameras have been up and running for two months now at three of that township's most dangerous intersections, and so far, violators have only received warnings, but the trial period ended at midnight. >> there is no money incentive for doing this strictly because it's going to make our most dangerous intersections safer, and from that standpoint, we're getting excellent feedback. >> the fine for running a red light there, $100. we have new information this morning in the case of a south jersey man accused in the 1979 murder of a boy in new york city. a defense psychologist says the suspect, pedro hernandez of maple shade, burlington county, likely did not understand his right to remain silent because he has the iq of someone with an

intellectual disability. prosecutors, though, are questioning those results, saying that hernandez couldn't see during the psychological testing because he didn't have his glasses. a judge is now deciding whether to allow hernandez's videotaped confession into the trial. in it, hernandez admitted to luring 6-year-old eataton pate a bodega, strangling him and dumping his body in the trash. the boy's body has never been found. hernandez pled not guilty. 4:07. the trial is set to begin for a bucks county doctor charged with having child pornography. police say quinton parker of levittown admitted to downloading videos and images of young girls performing sex acts. investigators say they tracked dozens of illegal files from his home computer. at the time, parker was a physician trainee with arhea health. a delaware county man accused of luring a woman through craigslist and then raping her is set to be arraigned in court today. police say kevin cornish attacked an 18-year-old philadelphia woman who responded

to an employment ad that he posted on craigslist. police believe he may have lured other victims as well. happening today, a former philadelphia police officer will be arraigned on charges that she forced her children to fight other kids and even participated in fights herself. last month, tameka gross was ordered held on charges including corruption of minors, assault and child endangerment. investigators say gross ordered her teenage son and daughter to fight other teens, even taking part in one of the fights herself at lincoln high school. gross was allegedly captured on video punching a 14-year-old girl in the face. after her arrest, she was fired by philadelphia police. now your nbc 10 first alert weather with meteorologist bill henley. >> we're tracking some showers this morning. the clouds are overhead. there are not a lot of showers, and the few showers that are out there are light this morning. you'll see a few rain drops this morning, but they become less likely later in the day. overall, we'll see more clouds than we did yesterday. that's going to help keep

temperatures cooler. lower 70s this afternoon. and speaking of chillier readings, this weekend we will be on the chill zone. here it is, the first day of october, and we've got some very light rain showers to start with, especially north and west. berks county is getting some showers in the reading area. the rest of the area, it's barely coming down, in parts of delaware and south jersey, really isolated stuff. and much of it is likely not even reaching the ground. future weather shows the threat of showers will still be around at 11:00 this morning, but it's a minimal threat. you'll see some off to the northeast and just offshore. inland a spot or two may be showing up, but we'll still have clouds and the temperatures will be cool, 66 degrees in philadelphia. allentown, 11:00 we'll be 64 degrees. and 67 degrees in dover. as we go into the afternoon, like yesterday, we'll get more breaks in the clouds. you get some sunshine, but the temperatures not going to go all that far. we'll warm into the upper 60s. that's at 6:00 after we peak in the low 70s this afternoon.

cooler weather ahead, too. a look at the weekend when i come back. all right 10 minutes after 4:00. now let's get a jump on traffic this early wednesday morning. nbc 10 first alert traffic reporter jillian mele has a look at any slowdowns out there. hopefully not a lot of those at this time. >> not a lot of slowdowns on the majors. we have an accident out of clementon, white horse avenue, between white horse pike and berlin road. that's the only accident of the morning so far, but we are following multiple spots of construction, including some on 95 southbound near the commodore barry bridge. we also have construction on 422 westbound right at trooper. the right lane is blocked on the westbound side, so keep that in mind. yesterday that didn't cause any slowdowns and we don't have any out there so far today. this is 76 right at spring garden street. you can see on the highway both directions looking great. keep in mind we have that construction out there, though, at on the and off-ramps in that area. chris? more questions for the secret service this morning. next, how did a man with a gun and three criminal convictions end up sharing an elevator with the president?

plus, shot down. a south jersey man took action when he saw something strange hovering above his neighbor's house.

4:13. let's take you back live to the scene of the breaking news we followed overnight and into the morning now in atlantic city. you can see the flames sparking back up there on top of this building. this has been a problem going on for several hours now after this fire broke out late last night. these buildings house several buildings. also, the upper floors house apartments. thankfully, everyone got out of those apartments safely, though. several families are affected by this. and you can see just how big the flames were earlier this morning when we shot this video. this was around 1:00 a.m. this

morning. firefighters have the major flames out, but they're still trying to douse the hotspots. again, businesses, buildings housing at least three businesses on atlantic avenue in atlantic city, still burning this morning. several families displaced by that fire. we'll have a live report from katy zachry later. from our delaware bureau this morning, a 2-year-old boy is still in critical condition after shooting himself in the head. new castle county police say yesterday morning, that boy found a loaded gun inside his home and shot himself. police say his mother was at home at the time. the toddler is in the hospital and his family -- we spoke to one of his brothers last night, and they're hoping he makes a full recovery. >> he's doing good. he's better. he's in icu right now. he just went over to icu, so. he's getting better right now. >> the delaware attorney general's office is reviewing this case to determine if charges will be filed. 4:14 now. accused white house fence jumper omar gonzalez will be back in court today. investigators say gonzalez is the man who ran across the white

house lawn and into the white house on september 19th, making it all the way to the east room before being subdued. if convicted, he faces a maximum of ten years in prison. now, his dash across the white house, of course, has been captured on video and has prompted major questions about white house security. secret service director julia pierson had to go before congress yesterday to testify about the breach of security. she conceded there were multiple failures by the secret service. in spite of that lapse, though, pierson testified "the president is safe today." lawmakers from both parties are calling for an independent review of what went wrong on that day. now, at the same time, the secret service acknowledges there is another investigation into a security incident involving the president. a number of published reports say last month at the cdc in atlanta, president obama was in an elevator with an armed security contractor who has three criminal convictions on his record. that is a violation of secret service protocol. agents interviewed that security guard after he refused to stop

taking cell phone video of the president. they determined the man was not a threat. stopping isis. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will meet with president obama at the white house today to discuss a number of topics, including the fight against isis. those two leaders will focus their meeting on the international effort to take down isis in iraq and syria. air strikes in iraq have been targeting isis since last month. the u.s. and allied arab nations want strikes in neighboring syria last week. the two leaders will also discuss peace talks with palestinians and the status of iran's nuclear program. on to decision 2014 now. the second debate in the pennsylvania governors race is set for later this morning in philadelphia. and a new poll shows that race is tightening. you're looking now at the first debate between republican incumbent tom corbett and democratic challenger tom wolf. that was held last week in hershey. wolf attacked corbett's record in office, while the governor accused the york businessman of not giving specifics on his taxes.

now, the latest poll from mercy hurst university in erie shows wolf's lead on corbett is now down to 15 points. a poll from franklin & marshall college last week had the gap at 21 points. now, after this morning's debate in philadelphia, a final debate will take place one week from today, october 8th, near pittsburgh. then voters will go to the polls on november 4th. election day is now just 34 days away. and a coalition of students, parents and other supporters of philadelphia schools will hold a rally just before this morning's gubernatorial debate in philadelphia. that's set for 7:30 a.m. in spring garden. they're calling on corbett and wolf to invest more money in schools and less in prison. the coalition has been knocking on doors asking people to sign a pledge to vote for candidates who are committed to funding public education. now your nbc 10 first alert weather with meteorologist bill henley. >> keeping a watch for some showers this morning. we certainly have plenty of clouds. as far as rainfall, it's really light and scattered.

65 degrees in philadelphia. reporting some light rain at the airport. 81% humidity. 65 at the airport. look at the 50s for chester springs and north and west. they had a lot of fog yesterday. it has not repeated yet. it's in central pennsylvania this morning, but we'll be on the lookout for it just in case, as the humidity is still high. also for delaware. 60s right now. 60s for vineland. 63 degrees at cape may harbor. we will see 70s this afternoon. but we're starting off with plenty of clouds. some breaks in the clouds to be expected this afternoon after a gray start this morning. any showers should be tapering off. just a slight chance of a shower developing this afternoon. the radar shows mainly the showers are off to the north and east. the heavier downpours that were brief in western berks county have fizzled this morning. and there you can see just a few rain drops just move past the airport, south philadelphia. so, forecast for today is calling for a few sprinkles this

morning and then breaks of sunshine this afternoon. we'll be in the 70s today. the weekend, though, looking chillier. the wind picks up. rain ends first thing on saturday morning. we'll see clearing skies saturday afternoon. the breeze will still be here on sunday, 64 degrees. we've got the full seven-day forecast, show you how long that cooler weather will last, coming up in the next half hour. >> all right, bill. almost 20 minutes after 4:00 now. let's get an update on traffic. nbc 10's first alert traffic reporter jillian mele has a look at any problems out there. jillian? >> good morning to you, chris. you at home as well. this accident in clementon is sticking with us for now. white horse avenue just between white horse pike and berlin road. heading up to riverton right now, we have some construction that we're following on the southbound side of route 130 between church road and union avenue. we do have two lanes restricted in that area, so just keep that in mind. into pennsylvania, we have two spots of construction that i'm following. 422 westbound at trooper, we have the right lane blocked there. we also have lane restrictions on 95 southbound right near the commodore barry bridge, but we are not reporting any delays in both of those areas.

so, that's the good news of the situation. the blue route is quiet right now both directions. take this full. this is 476 right at mid-county. you can see it is a quiet commute right now on the blue route. chris. love over hate. later today, a community is taking action after a gay couple was attacked. plus, up in flames. plans for a big fire at this popular park. we'll tell you about the pesky problem the fire is being set to combat. and we should remind you now, voting going on now for the "high school blitz game of the week." your choices -- st. joseph of hammonton against vineland, cardinal o'hara and archbishop carroll or bishop shanahan and west chester henderson. vote for your favorite team by going to nbc10.com or our facebook page. you can also call or text your one-time vote to 610-624-4111. and of course, the game that gets the most votes will be featured as our "game of the week" on "the high school blitz" with jillian mele and john clark, saturday at 7:00 p.m. right here on nbc 10.

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it is 4:23. maybe you've heard of this gentleman. singer neil diamond. i think i just defended the tracy davidson neil diamond fan club. he's going to kick off his tour in the lehigh valley, performing at the ppl center in allentown on february 27th, then we'll hope he'll hit the stage at the wells fargo center on march 15th. tickets go on sale october 13th. the new ppl center, by the way, is a state-of-the-art arena in allentown. it seats more than 10,000 people for concerts and is also home to the flyers minor league team, the phantoms. happening later today, a

rally in bucks county for lesbi lesbian, gay, and bisexual and transgender rights. the rally will be held at the county courthouse in doylestown. this follows the arrest of three suspects from bucks county, accused of attacking and beating a gay couple in philadelphia. rally organizers are calling for new lgbt hate crime legislation out of harrisburg. and here are those three suspects we just mentioned. kevin herringan, philip williams and kaitlt kathryn knott from t attack in center city last month. police say the three suspects are seen on video moments before the assault. they're accused of asking the two victims about their relationship and then punching and beating them. one man had his jaw broken. defense attorneys, though, say the fight was mutual and was not motivated by sexual orientation. well, a cape may county man is under arrest for shooting a remote-controlled drone out of the sky. police say russell percenti shot

down that drone as it flew over a neighbor's house on seashore road. the owner of the drone says he was trying to take photographs of his friend's home that's under construction. police have not said why he shot the drone. and the new jersey institute of technology is about to begin testing drones in november at the coast guard training center in cape may. the college is working to develop drone technology for better communication during storms and other catastrophic events. and people in this area may see some smoke from a popular park in the coming weeks. don't worry, these flames are not an accident. they're going to be part of a prescribed burn used to help improve habitats at the park. the fire at valley forge national historic park will begin as early as next week, depending on weather conditions. the area to be burned is an 18-acre meadow south of yellow springs road near the park's southwest boundary. the project is aimed at reducing invasive plant species at the park. visitor facilities, trails and roads will remain open

throughout the prescribed burn. traffic on yellow springs road, though, may experience some delays. the burn is not expected to last any longer than one day. the park is coordinating the burn with staff from the mid-atlantic fire management area. now your nbc 10 first alert weather. >> cape may is dry this morning but running a little bit cooler. that's beach avenue with clouds overhead, 61 degrees right now in cape may county. meantime, it's 64 here at nbc 10 at 4:26. jillian mele has traffic this morning. hey, jillian. >> good morning, bill. you know the roads are dry, and for the most part, they are clear. this is a live look at center city, philadelphia. the vine street expressway is dry both directions the entire length of the way. i can't say the same for 95, though. i'm following some construction. i'll take you to that in a few minutes. and i'm katy zachry live in atlantic city where homes and businesses have been destroyed because of a fast-moving fire. firefighters are approaching the seventh hour that they've been attacking it, and there are still flames.

i'll tell you what the fire chief says is the toughest obstacle, coming up. and all new at 4:30, a warning to women at a local park after an attempted robbery and rape on one of the trails.

new from overnight, a building fire and collapse in atlantic city. crews are still working to put out the flames. attacked on the trail. police are looking for a man who they say tried to rape and rob a woman at a philadelphia park. and a live look outside. this is cape may. we are in for a cloudy start this morning, some showers moving through. good morning. this is "nbc 10 news today." i'm tracy davidson. >> and i'm chris cato. let's find out if those showers are out of here and we'll have more sunshine today. meteorologist bill henley is standing by with that.

bill? >> good morning, chris. we're starting off with lots of clouds and a few scattered light showers. there's really not much to them, but they are out there. you can see the clouds, clearly. this is a live view from the comcast building in center city. the temperatures have dropped down into the 60s this morning. it's running about the same as yesterday. and as far as rain is concerned, you can see a few spots in burlington county. as far as philadelphia's concerned, we did have a few showers that moved through. those have since dried out. showers in burlington county and the newark area are not going to last long. there were heavier downpours in western berks county overnight, but those are quickly fizzling. still a few rain drops for reading right now and 63 degrees. no sign of the thick fog we had yesterday morning, but still a possibility of some areas will see some fog in central pennsylvania, getting the fog this morning. a few sprinkles to start with. clouds start to thin out as we go through the morning. 64 degrees at 9:00, up to 68 degrees at lunchtime