first, the count down is on to christmas, but that doesn't mean it feels like it outside. nbc 10 here in delaware where we caught people enjoying mild temperatures. one guy wearing shorts today. it's going to keep warming up as we inch closer to the holiday. we could also see showers. nbc 10 first alert weather tracking rain as well. good evening, everyone, i'm gji rosenfield. we mark the official start to winter as we shatter records. we could see temperatures in the 70s this week, right? >> absolutely. we're talking about christmas eve. we set a record last year on christmas eve, that was for 64. we're going way above that this year. we have cloudy skies right now. the temperature jumped into the 50s today. after a chilly weekend. but those temperatures are just about exactly average for this time of the year. it felt really cold, didn't it?

because our bodies have adjusted to this warmer climate, at least temporary climate. 56 today. 60 tomorrow. and then up from there. it's 40 in mount pocono. and 40s else where across the north western portion of the area. a few showers in central pennsylvania, more of that is on the way. more on the timing of the rain and how warm it is going to get with the seven day in a few minutes. last minute bracers are embracing today's weather. one of the spots where people are checking off the items from their holiday shopping lists. as you can see they have three days to get it all done. tim furlong is live for us in north wilmington. >> reporter: it feels colder

because we're used to it. we did see a dude in shorts and a tee shirt a few minutes ago. people are packing places like this because it's warmer than it is. people don't seem to mind having to walk outside at plaza like this. the weather is affecting buying habits. >> nice weather has made it hahopha hoppy holiday for them. thal malls in the big shopping complexes it's good. for local shops, the stores along main streets everywhere are popular. >> there's multiple places to shop. i can get a unique gift compared to the mall. >> the nicer than typical weather has been huge for wooden wheels bike shop. they tune up the bikes and they sell them quick. this at a time when bike sales aren't always great. because people who get a bike as a gift will actually be able to

go out and ride them. bikes are rolling out of the store. >> our black friday is in the spring. this is just a bonus, for sure. >> this is not to say you shouldn't hit the big stores. there are extra cashiers on hand. and stores like kohl's have widely expanded hours. there's still time to find last minute gifts. >> the lines are long but people are family. everybody's in the same boat. we know we have to get it done and get home and spend time with our families. >> and yes, be patient. plazas like this, we've seen some inattentive driving in the parking lots. we're getting to the point where we're at the deadline to order things online. the actual stores will get more crowded as the week goes on. as glenn said, the walk from your car to the parking lot to the store, it's going to get warmer as the week goes on. that's a good thing, especially when it's not usually like this. we're live, tim furlong, nbc 10 news. thanks. that time to rush around nbc 10 at center city at this post office today.

for what's expected to be the busiest delivery day for the year for the postal service. the agency was protected to handle 30 million items today alone. if you haven't shipped your gifts yet, the postal service says you can use priority mail express on wednesday to get them delivered on time. if you still have some christmas shopping to do be sure to check out the nbc 10 app for a holiday gift guide. you can find out which stores are offering extended hours and also get weather updates to help you plan ahead. we're following two developing stories right now. philadelphia police are investigating after a body was found at this motel. police say the body of a 75-year-old man was found with a piece of cloth wraps around his neck at the rodeway inn this afternoon. we'll keep you updated as soon as any information comes in. >> [ bleep ]. >> whoa! >> septa has suspended the bus

driver in this video. you see the driver approach the woman standing in the center aisle of the bus and appears to show him throw water in her face. police say speed was a factor in a crash that took the lives of three people. the car they were in slammed into a truck. police say the driver and passengers were killed. a third passenger hasn't been identified yet. police are telling us speed was the major factor. >> a good time to remind, don't exceed the speed limit anywhere. highway, city streets, it's not a good combination. >> the victims' family has been in the news before. her mother kim was kill bied byr father in the 1990s when she was a little girl. three fire company members

are facing charges for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars. among them a mother and daughter. the nbc 10 investigators have been telling you about claims of missing money at the fire company. nbc 10 investigative reporter harry hairston live for us. only one of the suspects in custody so far? >> reporter: what we're hearing officially from the police so far is one suspect is in custody. a few moments ago i did talk to the president, the current president of the fire company. he tells me he had a phone call from the other two did call to say they are here, that they did turn themselves in. we'll continue to check that out and make sure that information is accurate. i want to let you know, this is not just a story, it's all about you and your tax dollars. that company got state tax dollars, your money that they were allegedly stealing. police arrested the former fire chief gary bryce this morning at his home.

investigators say bryce lived here with the former fire company president, betty and her daughter, lauren. the former treasurer all three are charged with taking your tax dollars for their personal use. >> lauren was writing checks to her mother betty, for over $9,000 worth of checks that are unsubstantiated, undocumented. >> reporter: the district attorney tells us lauren also wrote checks to bryce in the amount of $8,000. he says betty even went to the bank to embezzle fire company money. >> the mother, betty went to the bank and was able to withdrawal approximately $20,000. >> reporter: i spoke with current fire company president maurice clark about the allegations. your reaction? >> i wanted the chips to fall where they may. we wanted this thing to come to

a head. >> reporter: investigators tell us what actually happened to the missing money is still a mystery. >> we can't determine even after interviewing individuals, including the suspects themselves as to what this money was being utilized for. >> reporter: now, the district attorney also tells us that the investigation is far from over. he says there will probably be no more arrests but he could link some more of the missing money to these three suspects. he also tells us there's an ongoing investigation with the borough itself. reporting live, harry hairston. a pennsylvania supreme court justice at the center of a pornographic e-mail scandal was emotional as he took the stand in his defense today. we were in easton as the justice aiken arrived for his hearing. it will determine whether he should be suspended while he is investigated. he's accused of exchanging lewd

e-mails to friends. >> we're here at the request to the court. we're here to answer what they want us to answer. i trust you'll all hear it. i trust you'll fairly report it. >> the scandal surfaced after the attorney general released more than a thousand of aiken's e-mails. cain claims her legal troubles started when she released those e-mails. cain is facing federal perjury charges. turning to the budget battle. the governor is threatening to veto a short term emergency spending package backed by the house gop. the governor's threat comes after most republicans rejected crucial pieces of a bipartisan budget deal to raise taxes to increase school aid and shrink a deficit. pennsylvania and illinois are the only two states still fighting over a budget for the fiscal year that began july first. seven parents of philadelphia public school students are celebrating a victory in their lawsuit against

the pennsylvania department of education. they say the department acknowledged curriculum deficiencies in four philadelphia schools. education advocates say more work needs to be done. >> that is a situation that has to be a wake up call for every entity within the school system. it's one that was led by parents, it's got to be picked up by our city leadership and by our civic leaders and ultimately by our colleagues in harrisburg. the department has ordered the school district to create corrective action plans within 45 days. the district responded to today's developments with a statement. it says in part the findings highlight an issue that plagues all philadelphia public schools. a lack of resources due to reductions in revenues from the commonwealth of pennsylvania. new safety technology that could have prevented the deadly amtrak train derailment in port richmond last spring now in place on the tracks between philadelphia and new york. positive train control or ptc was activated over the weekend.

it automatically slows a train that's moving too fast or is in danger of detrailing. it's along place along amtrak's entire northeast corridor. that derailment killed eight people, 200 others were hurt. the train was going more than twice the speed limit. railroad companies have a december 31st dead line to install tpc on their tracks. low cost hotels will soon have the eyes of the law on them at the jersey shore. we'll have more on the police initiative coming up. plus, making history, we're going to tell you just how young pennsylvania's newest sitting judge is. glenn? i'm tracking a big warmup just in time for the start of winter. i'll tell you what you can expect for christmas in my first

i feel like it shouldn't have took something like this. for them to want to step up and do something about what's going on around here. >> that young woman calling out a jersey shore police department after the murder of her teenager city. it's been a week after her body was found and nobody's been charged with her murder. now middle township police are taking action. they're set to start a new crime fighting unit. we explain why it will zero in on low cost motels. >> reporter: it's been one week to the day since police discovered missing teenager's body in the crawl space of a nearby home. >> it eats away at you in a sense. >> reporter: as loved ones await

answers and for someone to be charged with murder. the police chief says it's a wakeup call and time to put a stop to offenders. police suspects have been charged with crimes unrelated to her death. >> we need to figure out why. >> reporter: police tell us charles mosley was accused of sexually assaulting her before she died. two more gave information to police about angstadt. they will use an undercoverer detective will focus on these hotels. >> if you engage in criminal activity in rio grande, we will find you and arrest you. >> reporter: he knows state and

social service funding to these motels is part of the attraction. >> i feel like it shouldn't have took something like this for them to want to step up and do something about what's going on around here. >> reporter: bradley and her family will bury nicole tomorrow. >> nothing will ever fill the gap that we will have inside of us from now on. >> reporter: she hopes the new police initiative will save another life. nbc 10 news. meet pennsylvania's youngest sitting judge. today greg scott was sworn in as district judge in the 38th julsh district. he's 28 years old. he's the first african-american district judge in montgomery county. we've already set some

records this december. we've got more coming and some of these are just going to be spectacular. amazing. memorab memorable. perhaps for decades. that's a big deal what's happening in this next week. we're going back into the 70s. we've hit the 70s a couple times this month. we're tracking rain, more than one day of it. it's not going to sfatop the temperature from rising, we're going to be smashing records for christmas eve. we have cloudy skies right now. it's 56. that's as warm as it's gotten today. that's 16 degrees warmer than it was yesterday. if it feels a lot warmer, you're right. and this is not the warmest day of the week. this is the coldest day of the week probably. what you saw over the weekend that seemed really cold, was just average. for december.

just imagine how much warmer it's going to be getting here. it's 47 in allentown, 48 in reading, southwest wind. warming things up, 54 in bluebell. 51 kent square. all of these places will be at record levels by thursday. it got up to 60 in lewis, delaware, too. here are the records for thursday. generally in the 60s. forecast generally in the 70s. philadelphia predicting it to be broken by 11 degrees. you break a record by a couple degrees, and it's significant. 11? that's practically unheard of. here are a few light showers on the way. more moisture back in kentucky that's going to becoming in as we head into tomorrow. you can see much of this in the morning hours and the midday. and then the temperature goes up. we get a little sunshine, it

will be even warmer than the 60 i have. tomorrow night it doesn't cool down very much. setting us up for warm wednesday. then an even warmer wednesday night. now, we've got a lot of rain coming here. look at this rain wednesday afternoon. the winds starts turning to the south. we'll have heavy rain and wednesday night we may set the record for christmas eve at midnight. philadelphia 42 north and west with a chance of showers late. more likely to occur during the morning, perhaps midday hours tomorrow. and then of course, it turns warmer. and then gets even warmer than that wednesday. close to record levels by evening. definite record on christmas eve. and even pretty warm christmas day. and the rest of christmas weekend, too. we have breaking news to tell you about. police are looking for this 9-year-old boy missing from south philadelphia.

his name is joshua mcclennen. he was last seen at mastery charter school. he was wearing a green puppy jacket, a gray shirt and blue pants. you're asked to call philadelphia police if you've seen this missing child. john clark. coming up we'll hear from the eagles defense bout how motivated they are. and will odell beckham miss the eagles game? about how motivated they are. and will odell beckham miss the eagles game?

hey i'm john clark. the eagles got blown up by the cardinals. the bird have given up 40 points twice this season at home. pretty bad. the eagles, they can still win the division if they win their last two games. saturday night against the redskins then at the giants in the final game. the birds still control their own destiny. t the eagles's defense is mad about giving up the game winning

drive. >> we're going to be fired up. everything is on the line. it's here at home. and, you know, we want to redeem ourselves from what we did tonight. >> we've got to take the next two games. it starts with washington. we can't look past that. it's everything we have. we will show up and we'll be there saturday night. >> they will show up. michael kendrick said the redskins got something coming to them. that's real bleep. let's hope he's right. chip kelly has not been swept in the division yet. the redskins have gotten out scored 183-110. they're a bad roan ted team. 77 yard touchdown, 153 total yards, he missed the first game against the eagles. he cannot wait to come back to ph philly saturday night with a chance to win the division.

>> the other guys in the lockerroom have been playing in big games like myself. we're excited about this opportunity. saturday night football, let's get it. >> redskins defensive tackle chris baker says he plans on celebrating in philly. on the giants' star receiverer beckham. he will be able to play in the final game against the eagles. he went back and forth with josh norman yesterday. he had three unnecessary roughness penalties. espn reports he was kind of unhinged before the game. some personnel had bats with them on the field and threatened him. that was crazy. the basketball haul of fame announced today allen iverson is eligible for the hall of fame. we'll have highlights at 11:00. i'm john clark, we're right back.

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keep going up. >> for all of here, i'm jim rosenfield, the news continues with nbc nightly news with lester holt. have a great evening. there is developing news about that horror on the vegas strip. the woman authorities say was behind the wheel. what she told police as she's accused of deliberately and repeatedly running down dozens of tourists, sending bodies flying through the air. six americans killed in a suicide attackn afghanistan where thousands of u.s. troops remain in harm's way a year after the end of the u.s. combat mission. hell no. that is the defiant response from hillary clinton's team to donald trump demand for an apology. it is getting ugly. gas prices tank. now below $2 a gallon nationwide as car dealers smash all-time records. what americans are buying. and awkward.