i don't know how somebody could be so -- a little boy. just having fun. >> a local mom reacts after her

son with autism becomes the target of a nasty letter. good evening. >> bonnie found the letter outside her home. here it is. a neighbor verbally attacks her 3-year-old autistic son. keith jones sat down with the distraught mom who's trying to make sense of this whole ordeal. >> i don't care if it's the way you raised him or if he is retarded. >> reporter: hateful words. >> no one wants to hear him acting like a wild animal. >> reporter: hateful writing. >> scaring my normal children. >> can i have one? >> reporter: but in the eyes of 3-year-old ryan -- >> going to get you. >> reporter: -- this is life. >> you look like a moron walking all over you. >> reporter: his mother bonnie read every word. she found the letter wednesday. >> i sat there and blubbered like a little baby because it hurt. >> reporter: she still doesn't understand. 0 two of her three boys live with autism.

ryan also has pica leading him to eat non-food items. she has spina bifida. >> it hurt to the core to be told your son's retarded. >> reporter: she doesn't know who read the letter and posted a picture of it to facebook and that's when she discovered the silver lining. >> the outpour of people just loving my son and showing how much -- what a community is about. what neighborly is about. >> reporter: and that is enough for this mom to keep strong. in philadelphia, keith jones, nbc 10 news. turning to weather, clear but cold. this is the scene as people took an evening stroll near 2nd and market in old city tonight. >> let's hit the latest on the freeze warning. glenn, cold out there. >> oh yeah. some places in the 30s already. and many other parts of the area

are going to be there by morning. looks nice out there and kind of chilly this time of the year. we got the clearing late this afternoon. sunshine, that helped us out with the temperature early but it allows the temperature to drop. more efficiently at night. so there's a freeze warning until 8:00 a.m. for some of the northern and western portions of our area. burks, lehigh, northampton counties, upper bucks county. some places are going to be getting near 32 degrees. allentown is already at 38. 41 in lancaster. 45 in mt. holly. it's kind of warm in millville. that's an indication of wind still up there. the wind is going to be the big issue, the question is to how cold we get tonight. we'll see how low it goes and when it warms up, back to the 70s with the 7-day in a few minutes. >> all right. now the latest developments on the verizon labor dispute.

40,000 employees set to strike tomorrow morning. two communications communication work earlss of america represen the workers from massachusetts to virginia. the unions says verizon wants to freeze pensions, make layoffs easier and rely more on contract workers. verizon says that's health care issues to be addressed saying it has thousands of nonunion workers trained and ready to fill in. a packed house as a public hearing in hunting park tonight. both sides of the soda tax battle made the voices heard. those against the tax say jobs could be online. those in favor say the money can be used to invest in our city's future. >> nbc 10's aundrea cline-thomas was there. >> reporter: they did agree on one thing and that's that the city needs to spend more money

on children and where they disagree is on how to pay for it. >> you see corporations that you're taxing, soda. i sigh families that have bills, that have mortgages. >> reporter: pleas from a standing room only crowd over the proposed soda tax giving council members plenty to consider. >> i know there's jobs lost and also more jobs gained because we'll have a better educated system of this new generation coming up. >> reporter: mayor kenny proposed taxing distributors 3 cents per ounce to raise money for an initiative like universal pre-k, community schools and revitalizing recreation centers. >> has to be a better, fairer, way, predictable and sustainable way to fund the programs. >> reporter: it is a tax many of the communities fear is passed down to them, another hit they say to the already stretched

wallets. still the mayor hopes forms help the pitch. >> i think that council is hearing from folks. not just the billionaire soda guys but the regular people in the street and the neighborhood. >> reporter: it's tough to deny that the children need the services but many city council members yet to express that they agree on how to pay for them. >> we have the people coming out telling about the personal stories, we'll have an impact on the decision. >> reporter: details on the next community forum not released but the public plenty of opportunities to testify on the budget right here at city hall. reporting live in center city, aundrea cline-thomas, nbc 10 news. new at 11:00 it's not what parents and students wanted to hear. the school board is closing two bucks county elementary schools. >> keep your word. that's what you were voted in office for. please keep your constituents happy. >> despite pleas from parents,

the board voted to close lower south hampton elementary as well as olver heckman elementary. both schools will close at the end of the school year over a budget concern. next year students will be sent to other schools in the district. medical marijuana in pennsylvania's now one step closer to becoming reality because late today the state senate passed a medical marijuana bill for the second time in a year. the bill would make it available to patients who suffer from specific illnesses like cancer and chronic pain. tonight i sat down with state senator rafferty running for state attorney general saying this is a big step for pennsylvania. >> this is a big step to make medical marijuana available to those people where there's already been proven cases that this is relieving their seizures, relieving their pain, their stress. >> the measure now heads back to the house for tweaks. supporters hope the bill will be on the governor's desk by the end of the week.

medical marijuana is already legal in delaware and new jersey. pennsylvania's one step closer to toughening the child sex awe bus laws. today, lawmakers approved a bill to change the age limit for people abused as children to bring civil lawsuits. from age 30 to age 50. it applies retroactively so past abuse victims can sue. the legislation also eliminates the statute of limitations in certain future criminal cases. a man is in the hospital tonight after he was shot during a carjacking in north philadelphia. the gunman shot the victim in the neck just before 5:00 p.m. at norther and american streets. the victim in stable condition tonight. police recovered the truck and still searching for a suspect. in decision 2016, it is official. ted cruz can appear on the republican presidential primary ballot in the garden state. today, a judge ruled the senator meets the requirements to be

president. several people challenged whether cruz was a naturalized citizen because he was not born on u.s. soil. cruz was born in canada to a cuban father and an american mother. the decision now goes to the state's lieutenant governor who can accept, reject or modify the ruling. cruz's republican rival donald trump was in pennsylvania today. he spoke to supporters here at this rally in pittsburgh ahead of the state's april 26th primary. it was trump's first visit to the state since he announced he was running for president but before pennsylvania voters head to the polls trump's home state of new york holds its primary. right now, he has a double digit lead there. and hillary clinton also has a sizable lead in the empire state on the democratic side. a new poll has clinton ahead of bernie sanders among likely democratic primary voters by 14 points. clinton has 55% to sanders 41%. new yorkers head to the polls a week from today. and the following week voters in our area will do the

same. pennsylvania and delaware hold the primary elections april 26th. remembering a local legend. today, we learned there will be a public remoirl for philadelphia flyers founder ed snider. the details are not finalized yet. the tributes continue to pour in. lisa walsh called a local radio station to say snider didn't know her and he touched her family. her son was 6 years old becoming part of the ed snider youth hockey foundation. >> i could never thank him enough. i really couldn't. my son could have easily, you know, become a victim of the streets and, you know, got into the wrong crowd. >> matthew is now 11. lisa walsh says she's happy her son could be part of snider's legacy. philadelphia police are on

the hunt tonight for the thief who stole two mausoleum doors in fairmont park. similar to the ones you see in this picture. investigators say someone took the doors early yesterday morning. and take a look at this. new surveillance video shows two robbers breaking in montgomery county crawling there through the wall. and once they got inside, they tried to break into the steel casing of the machine. apparently going after scrap metal but they were unsuccessful. new information tonight on a an american airlines co. pilot of our area police say intended to fly drunk. john maguire scheduled to be arraigned next month in romulus, michigan. maguire was removed from a detroit to philadelphia flight before takeoff on march 26th. this is video showing his arrest. police say he had a blood alcohol level twice the legal

limit. maguire is from chadsford and charged with operating an aircraft under the influence. this is no place! >> tensions rise at a new york airport. why this woman unleashed a verbal assault on an airline worker. how crews managed to find a 72-year-old woman missing for nine days in the arizona wilderness. get ready to feel the freeze. how long it's going to last and when you can expect to see a big warm-up. details ahead.

elmo's got the moves. sesame street live let's dance has abby elmo and cookie monster dancing with you and your family! sesame street live let's dance playing liacouras center this weekend! tickets on sale now! narendorsed katie mcgintyent obama afor us senate? nt biden because she's a "champion for working families." katie mcginty will take on the republicans

and protect social security and medicare. and mcginty will work for equal pay for women - because families depend on it. for the april 26th democratic primary, president obama supports katie mcginty. katie: i'm katie mcginty and i approve this message, because it's your turn to get ahead. i could have driven there in the four hours i'm waiting here. >> that's a mother's anger boiling over at new york's laguardia airport. the newly discovered cell phone video shows the woman unleashing the fury. it's all over a 12-hour flight

delay that ruined the family's vacation last month. they were trying to fly from laguardia to miami but their jet was diverted here to philadelphia because of high winds. police were called in to calm things down. no screaming but a woman stranded in the arizona wilderness for nine days found a creative way to get the attention of rescuers. 72-year-old ann rogers gathered twigs and branches to spell help there for passing helicopters. rogers car ran out of gas on an indian reservation on march 31st. thanks to her sign she was rescued on saturday. she's expected to be okay. fighting the cycle of addiction. today nbc 10 brought awareness to the drug problem in our area with a town hall discussion. some of the country's top officials and the drug czar took part in today's event at the national constitution center. it stemmed from the generation addicted special and a team of

reporters spent six months investigating the heroin epidemic. we spoke to a local advocate saying the stigma needs to stop now. >> people need to know that addiction is a disease and they have to stop shaming the person who has it and the stigma has to stop and only do that by raising awareness, having events like this. >> we have a role to play and hearing kind of a hope and that there are things that we can do to help end this epidemic. >> federal and local officials say the heroin problem is biggest drug crisis we have in the country right now. and don't miss generation addicted and nbc 10 digital exclusive taking a hard look at the heroin epidemic available now on the nbc 10 app and nbc 10.com. there's that music. the countdown to the olympics is on. we are just about 114 days away from the start of the summer games in rio de janeiro, brazil. there's no doubt a lot of local

athletes going for gold come august. >> tonight, a gold medalist returned to the south jersey high school in style. take a look. nbc 10 and winslow toupgs as the crowd gave it up for him. he shared the secrets on conditioning, training and nutrition. he is the defending champion and will be in rio in summer and even though he's busy, he loves nights like this. >> i know that there are a lot of young men and women walking the hallways now with aspirations to be extremely successful, at the olympic level or just in other employment opportunities and so i want to give them a tangible piece of my success and let them know that anything is possible if you work hard. >> afterward he signed autographs and took pictures with students there. nbc 10 is your home for the olympics in rio.

count us for coverage leading up to the games and all the action coming up in august. well, what a difference between the morning and the afternoon from rain to sunshine. and in the same day. now tonight the cold air's coming in. we have got freeze warnings for parts of the area. we have a stretch of dry days ahead. good time to wash the car because it's not going to rain for a while. the 70s, yeah, they're going to be returning and going to take a few days for that to happen. right now, the temperature continues to go down, 49 degrees. but there's still too much wind for freezing temperatures in most of the area. it's 11 degrees colder than it was at this time last night. remember over the weekend, really cold. 43 on saturday. 50 sunday. and 69 yesterday. 63 for the high today. and then tomorrow and thursday little bit below average.

it's going to take several days before we get warm again. it's in the mid to upper 40s across much of the area now. 45 in wrightstown and north and west only places in the 30s or from allentown northward and that's because the wind is stirring things up and not allowing the cold air to settle to the ground. and as you can see, 44 in coatsville, 45 in oxford. 42 atlantic city airport so we'll watch and see if those winds do die down overnight. certainly diminished. it was 15 to 20 miles per hour at 6:00. now it's more like 5 to 10 miles per hour so places that see that wind die down are going to see those temperatures get close to the freezing mark. there's some of the northern and western areas, not everybody's going to see temperatures reaching 32 but there will be a few places. as we go through the night, a lot of places in the 30s. that's for sure. even philadelphia in the 30s. 32 in allentown and redding. by 6:00 a.m., it's going to be

very close call for the freezing mark there. but as we go through the day tomorrow, temperatures are in the 50s and then it gets even colder tomorrow night because of the truly calm winds. 38 for low in philadelphia. 32 north and west. during the night tonight, with just enough wind to prevent a widespread freeze. sunny and cool tomorrow. highs in the upper 50s. not much wind. cool for this time of the year. cool side the rest of the week. saturday start it is warm-up and watch what happens sunday. 72 degrees. 78 on monday. how's that compare to the past weekend? >> much better, thanks, glenn. make way for duck lings. they fell into a storm drain. police and firefighters came out and fortunately they were able to save the little guys. the ducklings are being taken care of at a wildlife refuge

tonight. john? >> flyers players are mononorring ed snider with the playoff run and hearing from them and alumni tonight remembering ed and doing it all for the phillies. that is next. are you sick of harrisburg politicians

like steve santarsiero,

who will say or do anything to advance his career? he claims he wrote pennsylvania's gun safety law. but the truth is he didn't. there is no law requiring universal background checks for all gun purchases. his campaign even bragged that he passed 54 bills. in fact, 7 years in harrisburg, steve santarsiero has never passed a single bill into law. i'm shaughnessy naughton. i approve this message because i am not a career politician.

hey, i'm john clark. the flyers on thursday will play the first game in the 50-year history of the franchise without its founder, ed snider. the first playoffs without ed. the flyers hit the ice today for the first practice since ed passed away yesterday. the flyers dedicating their

playoff run to him saying they've been playing for ed all along and want to end the flyers 41-year stanley cup draught in honor of their chairman. >> the playoff run is dedicated to him. you know? i'm sure every, everybody in philly know this is. >> he's done so much for this organization and for us to be in the position we are right now, have a position to kind of spreads surprises a lot of people. >> looking over us from up there. i mean, it's like, i said, well respected man and all he wanted was to win another cup. >> hopefully they can do that. remembering ed here at the wells fargo center. >> like to ask everybody to bow their heads and take a moment of silence and just remember mr. ed snider. >> former flyers players were there for an ed snider youth hockey foundation event tonight raising money for what ed called

his legacy saying the flyers are a family and ed believed once a flyer always a flyer. >> i saw him three weeks ago in california. went to visit and he called me aside. he said a lot of people know people for 50 years and don't work 50 years together. very, very, very touching to me. >> bernie said he was a gift to god. some of us call him dad. he was that fatherly figure, a young age and he was 33, 34 years old when we got here and everybody kind of grew together and he was just always there. phillies, howard against the lefty. another strong outing of an opener. more than six innings of scoreless baseball with defensive help here. second inning up the middle. phils with the shift on. feeling it. look at this great play. how impressed is ryan howard? take a look at this, yeah. 1-0. looks like a double play but the ball is jarred loose.

franco runs and reviewed. phillies win 3-0. another shutout. sixers just one game left tomorrow night against the bulls. tonight drake in attendance. hoping to say started from the bottom and now we're here. hopefully. kyle lowry like villanova drilling 3. sixers lose by what? yeah. 24. 122-98. we are right back after this.

joe sestak supports a plan that the new york timesfactreported makes cuts to social security benefits. and the plan raises the retirement age. it's true. the a.a.r.p. opposed the plan, citing dramatic cuts to medicare benefits. the plan sestak supports means higher out-of-pocket costs for millions on medicare. any way you spin it, the truth about sestak is gonna hurt. women vote is responsible for the content of this advertising.

in the last eight years, the fracking industry has spent over $40 million dollars on lobbying in pennsylvania. so it's no surprise that even though they've had over 4,000 violations, all they've ever gotten is just a slap on the wrist it's time for that change. i'm josh shapiro, and i'll hold the oil and gas companies criminally liable for poisoning our air and our drinking water. i'll be an attorney general who always works for you. democrat josh shapiro. he'll stand up for us.

this ii got to see my dad, die on national tv. they don't know what they took from us. people are dying. we need a president that's going to talk about it. i believe bernie sanders is a protestor. he's not scared to go up against the criminal justice system. he's not scared. that's why i'm for bernie. i'm bernie sanders and i approve this message. a cold night? >> not compared to the past weekend. >> it's all relative. >> last week we were in the 20s in parts of the area. so we do have a freeze warning in effect tonight. may be another one tomorrow night. you see the low in philadelphia, 38 tonight. 40 tomorrow night. but it's a bigger temperature

contrast tomorrow night so 40 in philadelphia, and maybe 30 in some of the suburbs and then the warm-up by sunday. >> thanks, glenn. >> thanks for joining us tonight. hope to see you tomorrow. good night. keep it simple. make every piece count. let other people know what you're made of. always be real. don't be fake, don't be artificial, but always be sweet. and of course, wear sunscreen. nature valley granola bars. no artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners. just good.

[ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon." tonight, join jimmy and his guests -- amy schumer, richard linklater, musical guest, zara larsson,