president castro took questions from reporters which is a rare occurrence in the communist country. the white husband saouse had to negotiate. his answers were often combative. he will continue to push cuba on a path to democracy and human rights. >> i made it clear the united states will continue to speak up on behalf of democracy including the right of the cuban people to decide their own future. we'll speak out on behalf of universal human rights including freedom of speech and assembly and religion. >> america's growing relationship with cuba is benefiting local students. >> they started taking trips to the country. the lessons could bnt their local communities. >> reporter: back from cuba 48 hours ago rutgers university student gary met us for cuban coffee. in a word, he called his experience --

>> amazing. because all of the neat people that were there and all of the people who understand -- the resilience. >> reporter: he showed photos of his time in havana and a region nearby. >> we had to stay there because there was nothing else available for us. >> reporter: he and others forced to move to allow security to prepare for the presidential visit. he says he didn't sense a change. a farmer shared wishes for the discussions between cuba and the u.s. >> they want a whole foods, a home depot and amazon. >> that's what she told you. >> his advice, listen to the people. he was touched by their work ethic for little money or none at all in one village. >> people who are doing artwork, doing growing coffee, making coffee. kind of incentivize people so they give them breakfast and lunch. they work seven hour days.

>> he plans to share what he learned to commute urban farming as part of his project. >> the poverty that's there is very, very different. >> carmen says if trade sanctions are lifted it will bring opportunity to the poor and restore communication with cuban-americans here who have loved ones there. >> probably the most important thing is that fear, you are going to ease that fear that people live with. >> from camden, cydney long, "nbc 10 news." now among the issues some are hoping president obama addresses on his cuban visit, the return of u.s. fugitives hiding in cuba including one with a local connection. new jersey trooper werner forster was killed on a new jersey turnpike in 1973. his killer was convict add year later but escaped and successfully fled to cuba in 1984. joanne has been living in cuba ever since. she is at the top of new jersey's most wanted list.

the new jersey state police and fbi are offering a $2 million reward for her capture. >> now to the first alert weather. the wind blowing outside. the temperatures, though, dropping. glenn "hurricane" schwartz is joining us. >> spring started yesterday, but we could see temperatures below freezing later tonight, right? >> most of the area is going to be below freezing by daybreak and the poconos certainly. it's not that far above freezing now. lake wallenpaupack, a lot of clouds and some waves along the lake. the wind is so gusty right now. the temperatures are in the mid-40s to near 50. 37 in mount pocono. 44 in allentown. another one of the chillier spots. let's see how the wind gusts are doing. we were gusting over 30 last hour. still doing it. 38-mile-an-hour gust, in reading and also atlantic city from one

end of the area to the other. so it's going to take a while before that wind diminishes. the wind chill, 36 in allentown. 38 in lancaster and also in wilmington. so yeah, it's pretty chilly out there right now. it's not going to feel quite as cold tomorrow. and then we go up. tonight, though, it's going to be just windy enough to create a wind chill. by morning it's 33 in philadelphia. 27 is the way it feels and you can subtract several degrees for many of the suburbs. we'll see how much it warms up this week with the seven-day in a few minutes. >> we'll see you then. today philadelphia put out its welcome sign. four of the best teams in college basketball are headed here for the next two rounds of the ncaa tournament. games start at the wells fargo center friday. >> unfortunately villanova will not get to play in front of the hometown crowd but are still dancing headed to the sweet 16 in louisville.

nbc 10's tim furlong spoke with excited fans today. >> he joins us live from the wells fargo center. tournament time is upon us. >> reporter: how great has this been. the low seeds taking out the big guys, amazing. i suspect people are going to do soon what i'm going to do, booking flights and hotels for louisville to follow villanova. how pumped are students about the sweet 16. so pumped they can knock down a tomato pie in collegeville. and they are so pumped buying up anything blue and white. >> so we're excited and just getting merchandise on the sales floor and replenishing our biggest challenge for the week. >> the first game was played in that building. >> reporter: they are even talking hoops on the campus tour. could there be a better marketing tool. but what about students who want to go to the game in louisville?

>> if you knew you could get tickets would you do it? >> maybe. >> reporter: i think she thought i was going to surprise her but i can tell her and you tickets are available on stub hub and at reasonable prices but they are going up soon. if you can't get to louisville but want great live basketball do that here in philly. the wells fargo center is hosting four teams as well, unc and indiana meet in philly for the first time since 1981. back live, of course some of us remember, i was a kid but i thought it was so cool that i went to raleigh's basketball camp where guess what, jay wright was the assistant coach. he was a little scary looking up at him. he was super cool, we learned a ton. i think he is going to get it done in louisville. >> fingers crossed.

thanks, tim. you can count on nbc 10 and comcast sportsnet for complete coverage as villanova moves on. look for tim and john's live reports from louisville later this week. no one was seriously hurt after a car plowed into a camden county community center. sky force 10 was above the center in lawnside shortly after it happened. police are investigating what caused the accident. inspectors did show up on the scene and said everything was structural sound. >> police say the second suspect linked to a deadly shooting earlier this year, he turned himself in to police. on january 3 police say he and another man shot three people in north philadelphia. only one survived. one of the victims was found in a home on west wishart street. the other two were found at the intersection of wishart and front streets. ativia jackson is facing murder

charges. the 19-year-old was arrested on march 10. >> authorities in delaware county need help to find a person who left a dog for dead. a 6-month-old shepherd/pit bull mix was found with a lacerated neck at a home. she's been named cloverment she was left tied to a bannister with a cable wire for nearly a month before she chewed herself free. she was rushed to the spca. more surgeries are needed but she's doing okay. >> atlantic city is getting closer to going broke. its police officers have been warned that their next paycheck could be their last for a while. the police union president said he and a police operations supervisor advised officers at a weekend roll call that they might not be receiving checks for some time after friday. no official word has been given. the city deep in debt is in danger of running out of money

next month. >> you have to go couple weeks or months without getting paid that could be devastating to some of our members and their families. >> the police union president tells nbc 10 the city's officers will remain on the job and safety won't be compromised. >> water officials in philadelphia want to make an important point about the safety of the city's water telling us today philly is not flint. the ongoing crisis in flint has local officials re-evaluating our drinking water. and today they joined experts testifying before the council about the best way to prevent lead exposure from aging pipes and infrastructure. >> schools and facility managers of large buildings, particularly those built before the late 1980s should institute flushing programs, day care centers should undertake flushing programs to assure that water available to children had minimal contact with pipes. >> he recommends to flush the system, run the tap for 3 to 5

minutes, you make sure you get water from the main and not sitting in your pipes. >> forget the garden state. new jersey is slowly p.m.ing the pot hole state. according to our partners, transportation officials say about a quarter million pot holes are in need of repairs. a spokesperson says in the last two years ago they spent nearly $6 million on pot hole repairs. >> delaware officials broke ground on a new construction project aimed at preserving a wildlife refuge. the bridge will span the refuge. crews are expected to widen the channel with the hope of easing flooding in the area. >> it's a story that has people shaking heads. a fight between a father and the easter bunny. coming up, what led to this brawl at the mall.

nbc 10 takes a quloser look at the growing crisis of heroin addiction. why the problem is worse than ever and the new approach they are taking to end this epidemic. >> it could be the biggest moment of donald trump's presidential campaign. the speech he's giving tonight. why the expectations so high. ♪ i had an injury to my neck. it wasn't as serious injury it was a herniated disc. anything that could go wrong went wrong. i've been in the hospital twenty three times since. the bills started to pile up. i had nothing to give. we had nothing in the refrigerator. i would be dead and not sitting here right now if it wasn't for pond lehocky.

drug epidemics aren't new. >> experts on the front line of a new war on drugs say every other scourge pales in comparison to addiction that's taken root in recent years. >> now they are pivoting how they are fighting this. vince lattanzio is here with more. an important story. >> very important. after 42 years officials say the war on drugs that has been fought has failed. for the first time the they are working on a new plan. gary head of philly's dea says about 120 people die every day in the united states from drug-related causes. if this were a war he says those would be considered mass casualties. it estimates that addiction cost the united states more than $600 billion a year. in several decades he has seen many drug epidemics come and go

but heroin and opioid spreading and killing so many at alarming rates is by far the most far reaching he's seen. >> i've seen three major drug epidemics in my lifetime. one was the heroin epidemic of the 70s, post-vietnam which was bad and it was largely inner city confined to low income areas of the inner city. the second was the crack cocaine epidemic of the 80s. very violent crack, hugely addictive. and then the third is this epidemic. this epidemic dwarfs those because it has a feeder system that the other two didn't have. and that's the misuse and abuse of prescription opioids. >> in response to the epidemic the dea implement add new initiative called the 360 strategy. we traveled to learn about how

it works. it's one program that law enforcement is using to combat this problem. >> what's the dea doing that's different with this? >> well, what they say is that you know, they are enforcement. they will do the enforcement but they are going to now be doing a lot of community-related items, so they are going to focus on educating the community and working with community groups like the boys and girls club, to first and foremost find out how they can prevent more drug dealers coming back to the neighborhoods, and lock them up, and also do prevention. the prevention work has been lacking for years, and they are trying to get more people from becoming addicted before they start down this road. >> thanks. >> now vince and morgan and denise have been exploring the tragic world of addiction for the past five months, they will share the heartbreaking findings and what you can do to help in a special report airing tonight at 7:00 here on nbc 10 and after

the show join vince for a special live conversation he will answer your questions about the investigation. authorities say the prime suspect in the november paris attacks told investigators he was plotting more violence. the news comes as we get new video of the raid that led to his arrest last week. it shows a man suddenly leaving a building trying to run away and authorities firing at him. by the end of the operation, 26-year-old salah abdeslam was under arrest after four months on the run. another person was also taken into custody. an off-duty new jersey police officer is found shot to death this morning in his car. the car was parked outside of a closed movie theater complex in sayierville. the car was a personal vehicle, not a police cruiser. he suffered at least one gunshot wound and right now police haven't said if they are searching for a killer.

well, we're now officially into spring but it doesn't exactly feel like it. and at the shore they actually had some measurable snow last night. a couple of inches in parts of cape may county, monmouth county, burlington county, generally traces of snow or much lighter amounts elsewhere. we've got a chilly breeze everywhere during the day today. a big warm-up coming toward the middle of the week. the next rain chance coming before the week is out. we've had a fair amount of sunshine today, kind of a mix of sun and clouds. it's windy all day. 50 degrees now, 25-mile-an-hour wind gusting to 35 miles an hour. it's only 37 in mount pocono. 44 in allentown, 48 in trenton and mount holly. a warm spot at 50 degrees, at

this time of the afternoon at this time of the year, doesn't happen a whole lot. so today is definitely one of those with below average temperatures. on friday we were up to 64. but we had that cold weekend including the snow last night. and then 50 today, 55 tomorrow which is close to average. then we're start to go up with the temperatures by the middle of the week. the wind continues to come out of the west, the northwest, diminished a it wille bit in a couple of spots like pottstown, wildwood. allentown now less than 20 miles an hour. we're seeing signs of it starting to come down. remember, the sun doesn't go down until 7:00 so we'll take longer because of that for the wind to diminish. this is what it looked like 24 hours ago. as we were looking at rain. it changed over to snow, covering the whole area, but the darker blues right at the shore,

that's the indication of where the more significant snow fell. flurries in western pennsylvania not making it to the east and we're fairly dry across much of the rest of the country. that will be affecting us for the next couple of days too. it's going to stay dry. mostly clear during the night tonight as temperatures go down, even into the 20s and some of the colder suburbs. reading 30 degrees, 34 in philadelphia. it doesn't warm up a whole lot tomorrow. there's the mid-50s for you. and then it doesn't cool down so much tomorrow night. by wednesday morning we're near 50 degrees again. then look what happens. as we go into wednesday afternoon, got a couple spots near 70. lancaster and reading and trenton. right at 70, northeast philly close to it just about

everywhere else. yeah, i got the 7-0 in there for wednesday and it's likely to be at least that warm on thursday as well. it's not going to be a long lasting thing. mostly clear and cold with the wind diminishing, 32 for the low in philadelphia, 26 north and west. during the day tomorrow a mix of sun and clouds. it's not going to be as cold, not going to be as windy as today. temperatures in the mid-50s, close to average. but way above average on wednesday with the 70. 73 on thursday. some showers, thursday night and into friday morning. and then cooler air comes in. but not near as cold as what we're seeing now. so saturday, 60 degrees with sunshine, that's pretty nice. and easter sunday, it's pretty mild for easter and the showers may hold off until monday night. >> all good things must come to an end.

in this case talking about gas prices. how much they have gone up in the last few weeks. plus, they make our favorite soups, cereal and yogurt. information about some of general mill's products on the box.

get ready for a little pain at the pump. >> after weeks of shelling out less than two bucks a gallon prices are going up. the average price jumped by 17 cents the past two weeks. higher demand for gas nationwide and a bump in crude oil prices are to blame. here as always the cheapest place is in new jersey, drivers shelling out about $1.71. in delaware paying about $1.87 and the average in the philly area is $2.04. >> general mills says it will begin labeling its products nationwide that contain gmo's to comply with a law set to go into effect in vermont. the maker of cheerios, progresso soups and yogurts says it's impractical to label products for one state. the labeling will begin on products over the next several weeks. so what are genetically modified organisms.

the fda says it's been in the food supply, most of the corn and soybean crop are genetically modified. it means it was altered in a lab in some way to make the plants more robust or resistant to disease, for example, they had the same safety requirements that apply to non-ge foods. opponents have thrown about every attack at him. nothing seems to hurt donald trump. >> hillary clinton took her latest shot. >> as he is neutral on monday, pro israel on tuesday and who knows what on wednesday because everything is negotiable. >> how clinton is using the crisis in the middle east to take down trump next on nbc 10 new at 5.

i've done a lot of winning i mean, give me a break on super tuesday i won four out of five and did the really well in ohio. if i would have had two more days in ohio i would have won it. >> donald trump says he is more confident than ever that he will be the next president of the united states. in a few minutes he is expected to give what could be one of the most important speeches of his campaign so far. trump is in washington, d.c. right now where he is duelling with hillary clinton in rival speeches about israel. >> steve has details from

washington. >> reporter: donald trump went to a private session near the u.s. capitol trying to rebuild relations with republican insiders. last time trump tried was september. since then he's won the most primaries and delegates by savaging republican leaders. with trump today were his few congressional supporters. former lawmakers newt gingrich and bob lishingston. >> come in and get behind donald trump and let's have a victory this time around. >> reporter: trump later said the same thing warning his party's establishment. >> if people want to be smart they should embrace this movement. if they don't want to be smart do what they are doing now and the republicans are going to go down to a massive loss. >> reporter: he speaks at the pro israel organization where there is worry about trump's demeanor. >> get him out of here. get him out. >> reporter: his call to ban muslims, calling mexicans criminals. >> in those nine months all i heard is hatred. and i don't want to listen

anymore. >> reporter: the rabbi with others planned to walk out. this morning hillary clinton slammed trump for waffling on israel. >> yes, we need steady hands. not a president who says he's neutral on monday, pro israel on tuesday, and who knows what on wednesday because everything is negotiable. >> reporter: sounding like a preview of the fall campaign. steve handelsman, "nbc 10 news." for the latest on what all of the candidates said in washington watch lester holt tonight at 6:30 here on nbc 10. here at home now, police make an arrest in connection to a church burglary in northeast philadelphia, they picked up sarah higgins yesterday. investigators think that she's the woman in this surveillance video that we showed you earlier this month, police say it shows a woman stealing cash from the martha church and school on

academy road in february. fire investigators are trying to determine what caused this row home fire. sky force 10 was above as heavy smoke poured out of the home near broad street and erie avenue. firefighters were able to get the fire under control quickly. no one was hurt. an update on weather. we're seeing mild temperatures but another freezing night is on the way. >> glenn "hurricane" schwartz is joining us. spring started yesterday, then the whacky snow, now freezing temperatures. >> yeah. eventually it's going to be feeling like spring. i guarantee it. it's not going to be happening tonight or tomorrow morning. starting to feel a little more like spring and then a lot more by wednesday. we've had a mix of sun and clouds during the day today. and a lot of wind and below average temperatures making it feel like it's not quite spring.

temperatures in the 40s to near 50 now. wind gusts over 30 miles an hour. in parts of the area. 38 miles an hour in atlantic city. making it feel like it's 36 in allentown. in the afternoon. it's going to feel like it's in the 20s, even in philadelphia as we go through the night tonight and first thing tomorrow morning. you're going to need coats to start off. by wednesday, could put coats away. we'll see for how long with the seven-day in a few minutes. >> it looks like philadelphia's moving closer to opening its first community schools. members of the kenney administration discussed their plans. the idea of community schools is that they not only teach children but offer resources like police substations that help the neighborhood. according to our partners mayor jim kenney plans to implement the community model in five to seven schools by september. each would have programs tailored to the needs of the

neighborhood. the schools will be prodigsnal, not charters. >> help is on the way for homeless people in philadelphia. the federal government is giving the city $28 million in grant money to be split between 86 programs and help provide a place for more than 2000 homeless residents. last year's homeless population was in excess of 1500. lawmakers in the city of ramping up the problem of homeless youth. the council has scheduled a series of herings for later this spring. the digital team shed light on this and its special, the faces of homeless youth. our web teen spent months and brought you real life stories with kids without aba(lace to call home. >> ham is back on the menu for hundreds in neat. the giant food corporation donated hams today.

the local store managers then employees helped back up the donated hams. >> you want to make sure that delaware has access to a hot and healthy feel so they can celebrate with their families. >> it's the 22nd year that giant partnered with the delaware food bank. >> officials in delaware trying to get a head start on fending off mosquitoes, crews are expected to be in spring. they hope to cover about 10,000 for us. the mild winter could lead to an unusually large number of biting adult mosquitoes by next month. >> he doesn't look like your average police officer but a 7-year-old is read the serve. congratulations. [ applause ] >> a south jersey police department made this young boy's dream come true as he fights a

serious illness. a brawl at the maul, how this erupted.

a camden county 7-year-old is the newest member of the gloucester township police department. >> his name is officer liam lindsay. flashing lights and a giant row of officers welcomed him for his first day on the job. the kindergartner was sworn in and he got right to work learning how to use the department's bomb defusing robot, then spent time working with canine arrow. there he is. today he told us what he loves most about police. >> because they catch the villains and stuff. >> they catch the villains? >> you like catching bad guys?

>> and i like the canines. >> whether 7 or 57, you take this job to help people. i think we did that today. >> liam spent the last 2 1/2 years fighting leukemia so when he showed interest in police work a resource officer and school nurse helped make this happen for him. >> love that story. for many of us twitter has become a part of our every day lives. >> twitter turns 10 years old. can you believe it. see how the networking site dock you wanted some of the historic events of the last decade. >> well, cool start for the first week of spring but a big warm-up is on the way. plus what you can expect for the easter weekend in my exclusive nbc 10 first alert forecast.

we have breaking news for commuters. if you are a family member waiting, a car flipped over in new jersey heading toward the delaware memorial bridge. this is a live look at the backup from one of our traffic cameras, you can see there are several lanes of traffic here backed up stretching several miles. if you are heading that direction give yourself extra time or consider the commodore barry bridge. >> twitter turns 10 years old today. #happy birthday. the 140-character format a mainstay of discourse. impacting politics to culture to entertainment and in between. as of the end of 2015, twitter had more than 320 million active users. first ever tweet from the co-founder just on the "today" show the other day. he tweeted out setting up my twitter on this day in 2006. since then twitter exploded. >> the site has been highlighting some of the memorable events from around the

world like january 2009 when janice tweeted this with the caption, there's a plane on the hudson. i'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. crazy. she was referring to the u.s. air jet that crash landed on the hudson river in new york. >> may of 2011 we read this. helicopter hovering above abad abad. the i.t. consultant didn't know it but he was witnessing the u.s. navy s.e.a.l. raid where osama bin laden was killed. apple today. >> unlike most events this one featured comments from the company's president on a legal battle. mark barger has the details. >> we did not expect to be in this position at odds with our own government. >> reporter: apple's battle with the government, tim cook

pledging to protect customers' data and privacy. >> this impacts all of us. and we will not shrink from this responsibility. >> the comments come on the eve of a california showdown in federal court over the fbi's demand that apple assist in unlocking the iphone of one of the san bernardino killers. >> both sides are protecting their interests and in a way protecting the country, each has their principles and each is defending them. >> tuesdays have been the day that apple reserve forward announcements, moving it up a day allowed making the case for principle and products. >> we're calling it the iphone se. >> including a new phone with many of the features in its larger iphone 6. >> lots of people don't like the bigger phones, they want a lower price. >> the new one starts at 399. a smaller 9.7 inch ipad pro and new bands for the apple watch. >> it's the happy fun stuff before the serious.

>> that serious turn comes in court tuesday. mark barger, nbc news. the country's two biggest daily fantasy sport sites are no longer taking bets in new york. they agreed to stop through november to give lawmakers time to determine whether the contests are legal. the companies insist fantasy sports of games of skill but state officials they are online gambling sites which are illegal in new york. >> this is a decisive and important victory for the rule of law in new york state, no company or individual no matter how powerful or well financed is above the law. >> by the way, this does not affect separate cases of alleged false advertising against draft king, kings and fanduel. comcast is an investor in fan duel. >> how sweet it is for my alma mater villanova. >> i know.

i know. >> the wildcats headed to the sweet 16. >> it is exciting. danny pommells joins us. they have something to prove. >> they are excited. villanova back on campus. they travel to louisville tomorrow to prepare for the game against miami thursday night. some of the players took the court but no formal practice was held. it was a day for game film, rest and recovery. the players happy to get over the hump past the first weekend but they are motivated to continue on the road to the final four as long as they can. >> we're glad to be back, we're ready to work. we know it's not just about getting out of the first weekend. it's about a bigger goal and that's just our next step to the goal is on thursday. >> next day, next game. most important is against miami because we're playing in it. so we just take it next game at a time and hopefully carry our momentum that we created. >> a business approach.

that's how i've been treating things all year. this is the next game, miami is extremely experienced so it's going to be a battle. >> we'll hear from the master of the fist pump at 6:00. back to you. >> like you said, rival tiger woods. >> he was into it. you saw that from ear to ear. >> lots to be happy about. thank you. count on nbc 10 and comcast sportsnet for complete coverage as villanova moves on. look for tim furlong and john clark's live reports later this week. this is a sure sign of spring. the cherry blossoms beginning to bloom. gorgeous for a jog out at merion station, montgomery county. even the birds enjoying themselves today. a lot of folks going to be enjoying themselves a couple

days when it gets back up to 70 degrees. all right. we've got a chilly breeze today. not exactly feel like spring but we have a big warm-up coming this week and we do have rain before the week is out. a mix of sun and clouds. 50 degrees the wind 25 gusting to 35 miles an hour. it's going to be warmer than it was this time yesterday. the high temperature today, 51 degrees, tomorrow 55. then wednesday, 70, thursday 73. that's a big jump. and the temperature generally in the 40s. chester springs 45. washington township 45. 43 in quakertown. 44 in coatesville. 43 in blue bell. these temperatures are pretty low. the average high is 54 for this time of the year. so, the temperature is way below that. plus we have wind on top of it.

so we have a sustained wind at 25 miles an hour in philadelphia. 29 miles an hour in wilmington. doesn't even include the gusts. a few snow flurries in northwest pennsylvania, not coming this way. i want to show you how dry much of the country is, so we're definitely going to be dry for at least a couple of days here. as you go through the night tonight, temperatures dropping below the freezing mark. just about everywhere. then going up into the mid-50s during the day tomorrow. tomorrow night is when we really see and feel the difference because it's not going to cool down very much tomorrow night. setting us up for a warm day. you saw that 70 showing up, philadelphia, reading, lancaster, northeast philly, trenton. it's not going to be near 70 at the shore. because of the wind coming in off of that cooler ocean.

but it will be pretty close to 70 elsewhere. and then thursday similar story, may even be warmer on thursday. we cooled down a little bit but the cold air, the real cold air can't quite make it. there we go through easter sunday. still mild. next week a different story. some of this colder air will start to come down. may take till the middle of next week. that's a colder pattern. so it's not going to stay warm once it gets warm. in the middle of the week. mostly clear and cold with the wind diminishing. 26 north and west. and tomorrow temperatures up a little. the wind down. significantly. so it will feel more comfortable. mid-50s for the high. of course no precipitation. dry on wednesday, too, near 70. 73 thursday, we may see showers thursday night into friday

morning. and we do not cool down a whole lot. so it's a mild weekend, especially easter sunday. the rain may hold off until sunday night so most of the easter activities looking good. >> thank you. lester holt joins us live from havana, cuba. >> good earning, lester. >> good evening, both of you. ahead for us extraordinary day here in havana as presidents castro and obama meet, they engage in a colorful give and twak reporters, we'll talk about an easier way to get an affordable loan based on your future potential. we'll explain. and we're going to hear about the sexist comments stirring up controversy in the tennis world on a very busy monday here from havana when we see you shortly. >> look forward to it. thanks. see you at 6:30. it's an important milestone for the parents of young children. >> one family will remember their trip to see the easter

bunny for a different reason. what led to this fight between a father and the easter bunny. next on "nbc 10 news" at 6. >> then coming up, bit by a rattlesnake. tonight nbc 10 talks to the animal control officers whose job it was to capture the deadly snake.

>>. >> we're following more breaking news a. jury awarded hulk hogan $25 million in punitive damages over the release of his sex tape on top of the $115 million last week. gawkers lawyers pleaded that the verdict was already debilitating before today's decision. hogan's attorney said jurors sent a message to deter this from happening again. well, it wasn't pretty when fists started flying when the easter bunny and an angry father at a mall. a shopper took this phone video of the bunny brawl at the newport center in jersey city. >> parents are none too pleased that the fight happened in front of kids. >> reporter: there is a innew easter bunny at the mall. hoping for a kinder gentler bunny after seeing the video showing the melee last night. >> i was disappointed to see

that is going on here. especially around kids. >> this is cell phone video of the easter bunny brawling with a parent and the ensuing chaos when mall security tried to break it up. >> got to have patience for a job like that. dealing with kids. get all different type of personalities. you got to control yourself. >> reporter: officials say it started with a bunny and a 1-year-old girl getting ready to take a picture. the 1-year-old slipped and fell. her father was not happy and started to verbally and physically attack the man in the costume. he fought back. mall security tried to hold the bunny back but he broke free, then came back stripping more of his costume off and going in for another swing at the father. >> i think they should do a good job of vetting it out in terms of people applying for this. you want to be secure and safe. >> reporter: the company that runs the event said this in a statement today. we will continue to investigate this incident and take

appropriate action. in the meantime, we are cooperating with the police department and have assigned other employees to fill the role of bunny. >> i'm sure the security's going to be up today but you're confident there won't be a repeat incident. >> well, i hope not. >> that was ida siegel reporting. so far police have not charged anyone. coming up next, we have breaking news in new jersey. the crisis in atlantic city is about to shut down city hall. what this means for police officers who serve and protect the city. why parents were arrested for what happened inside and outside of their house.

we have breaking news just in. in the past 45 minutes, atlantic city announced it will close city hall. it is starting april 8. that's less than three weeks away. it will remain closed until may and listen to this. employees will not be paid while city hall is closed that includes the police officers. nbc 10 reporter ted greenberg is looking into the possible furloughs. what have you learned? >> keith, this is the statement that we just got from atlantic city mayor who spent the day in trenton meeting with state officials about the resort's financial crisis, unless the situation is somehow averted

those police officers will soon be protecting the city without pay. >> we want to make sure that our members aren't taken off guard. >> reporter: be prepared, the unofficial warning atlantic city's police union president and the supervisor delivered to officers at a weekend roll call, if they stop getting paid. >> we do have to go couple weeks or months without getting paid, that could be devastating to some of our members and their families. >> reporter: the city deep in debt is in danger of going broke next month, late this afternoon the mayor announced city hall will close starting april 8 at 4:30 p.m. and remain closed until at least may 2 unless other solutions are found. during the closure period, no city employees will be paid. >> it's sad that we can't come to some sort of compromise. >> reporter: drawn out