too much damage in our area. >> this is the live look at where radar is indicating storms are now, most of it off to sea already. lingering rain down near atlantic and cape may county. >> let's talk about what happened here. you guys said fast, that is the key word to this forecast. from 2:00 to 3:00, we went from no rain to rain moving through and out of berks and chester county. that was at 3:00 p.m. from 3:00 to 4, completely offshore. we went from nothing to the whole event moving out. on top of that, this was so quick moving that the steadiness of the storms outran the cold front. >> on saturday, we had the cold front right up with the storms. cold and warm air slammed into each other. for us, it was just a little too quick about areas in maryland saw tons of damage reports because of this system before it

hit our area. winds are an issue, and they were earlier on. we had wind gusts at 76 miles an hour. now at 28 mile per hour gusts. philadelphia 31 and 30 as well for atlantic city. we will remain windy, tonight, tomorrow, even for friday. temperatures are starting to decline, not by much. we were in the mid-70s earlier, 69 mt. holly, the focus now is really on the temperatures and the winds and how they will affect us the next several days, a closer look at that forecast coming up. >> in the meantime, new at 5:00 relief tonight for many people living near a south jersey prison. governor chris christie is saying he wants that facility closed. >> this comes less than a year after a man escaped from bayside prison's satellite facility, prompting a week long manhunt. >> this is the face of the man that sent shock waves across south jersey last may.

>> he escaped unnoticed from bayside correctional facility at ancora. homeowners locked their doors. for police -- >> stressful, concerning. >> and it cost some $200,000 in law enforcement overtime before buckle, who was days away from being paroled for robbery was captured. >> it's kind of like, everybody was worried about it, until the guy got found. >> we've made reducing prison population, a human rights issue. >> now, governor chrissy says bayside's satellite prison will shut its doors. it will shift 250 inmates to other new jersey doc facilities. with two escapes in 18 months, we went back to ask a nearby resident if she feels relieved? >> oh, gosh yes. thrilled. but sooner rather than later for everybody's sake. >> it's a win win for our town. >> george smith also used the

word thrilled. >> god forbid one of the escapees contact one of our residents and commits some kind of a crime, none of us want to see that happen. >> the prison, they've done something. they've done something to be where they are. >> new jersey's department of corrections couldn't answer the pressing question. >> when? >> when? >> they say declining prison population is making the satellite prison closure possible. new jersey will save 5 million in annual operating costs and corrections employees will not lose their jobs. from winslow, cydney long, nbc10 news. president donald trump says he and top congressional republicans are meeting to start the process. he met with gop house and senate leaders, the meeting follows the president's first address to a joint session of congress last night. reaction pouring in this afternoon, after that speech. the president laid out his plan

for the future of the country, and did it with a different tone. >> everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. every problem can be solved. but we can only get there together. we are one people with one destiny. >> the brash rhetoric of the campaign trail was left behind last night. tonight the question from both sides of the political aisle, will that speech translate into action. and in our next half hour, we fact check the president's speech. we'll look at the actual number of unemployed americans versus what the president says. and the cost of immigrants to taxpayers new at 5:30. mike pence had high marks for trump's speech today. he appeared on msnbc this morning. >> what the american people saw last night is the american president i serve with every day. broad shoulders, big heart, reaching out and focusing on the

future. >> mr. trump was directly involved in crafting that hour long speech. iraq could come off president trump's travel ban list. but six other countries will stay on it. stopping citizens of those countries from entering the u.s. an executive order could be signed in a few days. >> to a record day on wall street now, the major indexes posting their best day of the year about the rally came the day after the president cut taxes and pushed for other friendly policies. the dow finished the day up 21,000 points. pepsi is saying philadelphia's new soda tax is leading to layoffs. >> the company is cutting workers. philadelphia's soda tax went into effect in january to fund universal pre-k. it charges distributors 1.5 cents per ounce on sugary

drinks. the tax has cut sales by 40% in philadelphia. the head of the teamsters union which represents the workers says that figure is accurate. >> most of our companies have lost between 40 and 50% of their business between january 1st and the end of february. that's an incredible amount of revenue, that's lost. >> philadelphia city leaders are questioning pepsi's decision to cut jobs, pointing to the company's profits. they say pepsi has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in efforts to kill the soda tax. >> to a developing story, a tough loss for sixers fans at the wells fargo center. >> the team gave us an update on joel embiid's help. >> john clark joining us once again. with bad news on embiid's injury. worse than first thought, for sure. >> this is really tough news for sixers fans. joel embiid is out for the rest of the season. he missed his first two seasons in the nba with a broken bone in

his foot. now it's his knee. he has a torn meniscus that is getting worse. he was on his way to being the nba's rookie of the year. sixers fans were filling up the wells fargo center to see him. the sixers did an mri on his knee monday. the torn meniscus is more pronounced now, and surgery is a possibility. they're looking into everything. joel will have only played 31 games in his first three nba seasons. the sixers number one overall pick last year, ben simmons is missing his entire first season. things keep getting worse from the sixers. we'll hear from brett brown coming up at 6:20. >> thank you, john. a former secret service agent assigned to the white house, pleaded guilty today for trying to have sex with a 14-year-old girl. he communicated online with officers posing as a 14-year-old

gi girl. he's been fired from his job with the secret service. a burlington county child brought marijuana to her elementary school, and now her mother is charged with drug possession. yesterday, florence township police responded to roebling elementary after the student turned over a container of pot to a teacher. the child's mom told police the marijuana was hers. police in camden county are looking for a man who was caught on video slowing a cat in the air. they were alerted to this video after it turned up on social media. it may have happened in centreville or east camden. if you think you recognize this guy right here, call police. new jersey lieutenant governor hit a major milestone in her quest to become governor of the garden state. she reached the $430,000 needed to qualify for public matching funds. she's among a handful of

candidates competing to succeed chris christie. straight ahead at 5:00, take a look at this video. this is no hollywood movie, the end to this high speed chase, next. veterans in pain tonight. the viral pictures causing an uproar toward the va. and oprah for president in 2020. what the media mogul is now saying about a possible run for the white house. i'm ted greenberg live in cape may county. details next in a live report on nbc10 news at 5:00.

♪ trading-in or selling your car, truck or suv? webuyanycar.com takes the hassle out of selling in just 3 easy steps. one, get your free online valuation. two, drive to your local car buying center. and three, walk out with your check in as little as 30 minutes ! so don't wait...get your free online valuation now at webuyanycar.com. ♪find out how much your car is worth at webuyanycar.com♪

check this video out. it looks like something straight out of a hollywood movie. the man driving that struck was an inmate who stole it and led them on a high speed chase. the truck was sent flying through the air many the man was rearrested. did the widow of the orlando nightclub gunman help him carry out the attack? a federal judge in california said evidence showing she helped is debatable and ordered her release from jail pending trial. she's charged with aiding her husband, omar mateen and lying

to investigators after the shooting that killed 49 people. she's pleaded not guilty. seven police officers are charged with federal racketeering. the officers are members of the city's gun trace task force. they are accused of robbing victims and lying on paperwork. they called the officer's actions an abuse of power. >> to weather problems. deadly tornados tore through illinois last night. six twisters were reported. damaging more than 50 houses in one small town alone. check out this intense lightning from last night. >> what a light show there. you can see the results of those fierce storms, swollen creeks and heavily damaged homes in that area. >> high winds knocked this mobil home on its side in kentucky. no one inside at the time. one garage ripped completely off its foundation. we found some damage from

this afternoon's storm in our area. >> jersey shore bureau reporter ted greenberg joins us from cape may county. ted? >> reporter: erin and jim, we've been finding that damage here in dennis township. you can see this tree, it was ripped out of the ground by fierce winds that tore through here this afternoon, i'm told that the tree first hit this out building. hit the roof here, then it came crashing down in the yard, and then some of the branches can you see right here, they went through this window, broke the window. so we have quite a bit of a mess here in the yard of the mcdonagh family on main street in dennis township. and jack mcdonagh, you were here when the storm came through, tell us what it was like. >> me and my mom were looking through this window here in the greenhouse. and winds started coming in, shaking the doors.

and then all of a sudden just heard a loud crash and branches came through and smashed the glass. >> came right through the window? >> yeah. >> the storm was pretty fast, though, right? >> yeah, it was extremely fast. >> probably in the course of three minutes it came and went. it was -- all my farm animals are freaking out and stuff. >> came through quickly, but was fierce. >> we're glad you guys are okay. we've been seeing a lot of wires down in the area. i checked with atlantic city electric before we got on the area. more than 1300 outages in dennis township. ted greenberg, nbc10 news. from today's storms to the potential for snow later on this week. >> what? >> yeah. >> let's go to krysta for a look at our temperature drop. it's a big one. >> there is a lot of change in the next few days that we expect. here's a live look outside ocean city new jersey. this is a live picture, it's

updating pretty frequently. can you see there's rough water from the strong winds. they had gusts up to 60 miles an hour, just an hour ago in that area. radar and satellite shows us the storms are long gone. as expected this was quick moving. you heard from this young man, maybe three minutes he noticed the gusts in this area. this was a quick line, it didn't do a ton of damage. the areas you did see, it was going to be powerful with those gusts. gusts up to 76 miles per hour at dover air force base. we pull this out, and while our rain is gone, there's a lot of rain down to our south, if you go to the southeast, still some severe thunderstorm activity there. some of this rain may come to the southern portions of our viewing zone as we go into tonight. take a look at the hour by hour forecast, the clouds still linger, they've been thinning, we have some peaks of sun, notice the green you see here, it's clipping parts of sussex county, cape may county. 7:00 p.m., we may see pockets of

some heavier showers moving by. and then otherwise, this clears out and we're left with more sunshine for your thursday forecast. cooler air starts to filter in as a cold front finally passes. while we are clear, temperatures will not be nearly as high as they were today when we made it into the 70s. 47 for schwenksville. 40 for reading. gusts up to 40. still windy as we go through your thursday. 49 your temperature in robbinsville. voorhees at 51. low 50s as well along the jersey shore. same deal for delaware. newark and dover at 50 degrees, plenty of son to dry up any rain or puddles you may see in your front yard from those passing strong storms we just saw. let's take a look at the pattern change, that's the next big

focus. we cool down rapidly thursday. we'll have highs in the 40s. we'll have this cool air going into friday. the winds also have changed direction from what we're currently dealing with, which are winds coming from the southwest. the windses are coming from the northwest. we know what happens when the winds come from the northwest. we are cooler and start to pull in the snow potential. we go into your morning hours, around 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. the whites, the pinks, the snow and mix that we start do forecast passing through parts of our viewing area, especially the southern half of our viewing zone with the winds still strong on friday. we'll feel very cold, and there's a chance of light snow, that will start to thin out as we get into the afternoon, by 8:00 p.m., most of us have dried out. there's a chance we will go from thunderstorms to snowy weather. your weekend forecast, we stay cold this weekend. we're dry mostly sunny on saturday.

that's one of the warmer numbers, 39, new jersey, delaware, look at the lehigh valley, 31. these are your high temperatures for the day, today we didn't even see temperatures in the 30s, sunday will be in the 40s, barely warming up, closer to the average of 47 in philadelphia, 45 degrees, 42 for the suburbs and also those mid-40s, jersey, the shore and delaware. take a look at the extended forecast. we hit 70s today, we're at 50 tomorrow and windy. we're at 41 friday, and windy, and then you see saturday the 30s before we start to pick those temperatures back up into e. week. the snip right there, philadelphia's navy yard has a new tenant. the u.s. headquarters of the british biotech company adaptimmune. they're expected to create 200 new jobs by the end of the year.

radnor township hosted a job fair today. dozens of people turned out at the police department building. the township has several full, part time and seasonal positions. everything from parks and tree maintenance to health inspectors and much more. new castle county, people are trying to get people to stop saying the r word. they joined with special olympics delaware to sign a banner. nearly 150 schools are taking part in the campaign. it's aimed at ending the use of the derogatory word. pictures going viral. that happens all the time, these are disturbing. two veterans waiting for hours for medical attention at a north carolina veteran's hospital. >> they were taken at the veterans hospital in durham, the photos show one man on the floor. and another on a wheelchair, struggling in pain for at least three hours while waiting to be seen by a doctor. the couple who shot the photo says it was tough to watch.

>> shaky, trembling. and he was asking for help. he was getting pretty desperate. >> seeing that was absolutely horrible, and to see very little attention paid to it. >> one employee has been removed from patient care until an internal investigation is complete. next, the blame game for the oscars messup, the two people who will never be a part of the show again. and also, kelly anne conway explains why her feet were up on the couch inside the oval office. her take on the social media uproar. gamers and scientists, the skills competition straight ahead.

we'll check back in with them. they're watching the potential for snow on friday. the weather caused delays at philadelphia international philadelphia this afternoon. what also caused confusion, american airlines started a new boarding process. instead of being split into four groups. if you have preferred boarding, that will remain the same order. the fallout from the notorious flub at the oscars continues. >> the president of the academy said, the two accountants responsible for the best possible mistake will never work at the oscars again. is that a surprise? steve harvey said he knows how they feel. >> no one wants that -- i wore

it for a year. i'm glad it's not just me. >> you may recall harvey had a blundser of his own, when he read the wrong name as the winner of the miss universe pageant. spending time with second graders today. ted read, wacky wednesday by dr. seuss to the kids. it's all part of read across america week. and also celebrates the joys of reading. it's ash wednesday. bishop dennis sullivan resided over ash wednesday mass. people received ashes on their foreheads marked in the sign of the cross, to remind them to turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel. coming up next, victims telling their stories. >> a handyman is accused of being a sex predator. what two of his alleged victims are saying tonight.

a rash of armed robberies across cell phone stores. next the surveillance pictures is that would help catch new suspects.

did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back? say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet that's 10 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to internet speeds up to 150 mbps. and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business.

it's one of the worst cases of sexual abuse, prosecutors in

bucks county say they have ever seen. >> william thomas was arrested after they found thousands of pieces of evidence indicating he sexually abused children for decades. two women are speaking out. as deanna durante tells us, they want other victims to hear from them too. >> i'm a victim of william thomas. >> they are known in court papers as js and jm. >> my sister and i were baby sat by a welcoming man. >> the man who would baby-sit them, william thomas. these pictures show how he has aged over the decades. taking pictures of them and luring him to his trailer. police found his archives of the hundreds of children he has molested and raped. >> children are so young and innocent. and nobody deserves something like this. >> evidence shows his list of

victims dates back 30 to 40 years. six have come forward, including these two women. >> doing things to us we had no idea were wrong at the time. >> they were toddlers at the time, they have struggled for years of the aftermath they want others to come forward and get help. >> i was being taken add vantage of by a grown adult child molester. anyone else who was abused by this man, please stand up, you will be heard. if i can encourage one person to stand up, i think what i've come here to do, i've done my job. >> police continue to go over boxes and boxes of evidence trying to figure out who these other victims may be. in jamison bucks county. deanna durante, nbc10 news.

to the forecast now. get ready for a big change to the weather. the rain cooled things off a bit. we're in for a drastic drop. >> crystal tracked the storm as it moved off the coast. >> these 70 degree days over for a while? >> we're looking at a huge drop over the next several days, today we end um hitting 74 degrees in philadelphia. records were tied. now take a look, clouds all the rain and thunderstorms. they are out of here, and we are tracking clearing conditions as we move forward. what's interesting is how quickly this system broke apart. look at the damage reports. i've turned off everything except for downed trees. maryland all over the place, seeing trees that were down. we get into our area.

this is right about the time the system started to fall apart. we lucked out in this situation. everywhere else, free and clear, aside from some periods of heavy rain. very good news for the region. the bulk of the storm ran a little too fast. here a look at the gusts, we're going to stay windy. we have gusts at 31 miles per hour. we're going to see the winds dip just a tad tonight. we'll pick right back up tomorrow. gusts for the last couple hours, gusts around 20 miles per hour, that's around midnight, look as we get into tomorrow. right back up gusts around 40 miles per hour. it's very windy tomorrow, those winds will be ushering in cooler air, take a look at tomorrow's

planner, we don't see much climbing at all here, philadelphia at 7:00 a.m., 45. noon, 46. 4:00 p.m., only 47 degrees. we see very cool in comparison to what we saw today and the last several days. 47, that's close to the average high temperature for the beginning of march. we'll talk about the rest of your neighborhoods, temperatures for your thursday and into the weekend coming up. >> oprah win friday could be seeking a run for the presidency. president trump's win has her rethinking her decision not to run. win friday says she now believes having government experience isn't necessary for the top job. here's a look at some of the other stories making headlines. county by county, across our region today. the electric carmaker wants to make luxury sedan and cross-overs that cost more than

$100,000. the philadelphia museum of art unveiled a landmark exhibit on the watercolor movement in america. the most comprehensive loan exhibit for the museum in more than 40 years. it includes more than 170 works throughout the country. you can see it for the next three months. they're moving forward with the concord campus. the new council gave the school final approvals for the new 41 acre campus in brandywine. they hope to begin hosting students by next september. hundreds of young scientists from our area came together to create and compete. students from 50 southeastern pennsylvania middle and eastern high schools, competed in the signs owe limb pea add events. students took part in construction, robotics and automation challenges. teams brainstorm ways to build more efficient water powered

rockets and air powered cars. >> it gets you excited about doing your job every day again. seeing the different ideas they come up with, and how meticulous they can be. >> some of the experiments didn't work out as planned. the students say that's okay, they'll take what they've learned and head back to the drawing board. way to go. >> next at 5:00, how twitter plans to crack down on mate filled messages. did the president stray away from some of the facts last night? the answer next. a student scare on campus. what this man is accused of doing that had women at a local college worried.

twitser now says it will work to i.d. and shut down abusive accounts on its own, even if no one reports them. it's an attempt to protect users from hate and harassment. the nfl draft will come to philadelphia next month. right now, the eyes of the football world are on indianapolis, for day one of the nfl scouting combine. that's where teams go to check out the athletes and action and narrow down their list of potential draft picks. >> this league is all about players. i learned this a lot time ago, players win championships and we pick the best available. get the best available and try

to upgrade our roster that way. more on what the eagles are looking for coming up at 6:00. today the white house counselor to the president explained why she had her feet up on the couch in the oval office. the pictures generated a storm of controversy. she was asked to take a picture from a specific angle, and she sat on the couch with her legs folded under her. she didn't mean any disrespect to the oval office. we all the felt the bumps in philly's road, and some say they seem to be getting worse. >> the nbc ten investigators dig into the route of our problem. tonight at 11:00, george spencer, finds out who's responsible for the holes, and what the city promises to two to patch things up. still ahead at 5:00, the

president stayed on script for most of his speech last night. tonight we check the facts on immigration and the unemployment rate. following those storms, we get a good dose of winter again, we're tracking much cooler air, how about a little snow heading our direction. the updates after the break.

fios is not cable. we're wired differently. maybe that's why we've been ranked highest in customer satisfaction by jd power 4 years in a row.

and now you can love fios too. get our best offer of the year. 150 meg internet with equal upload and download speeds, tv and phone. all for $79.99 per month, for the first year with a two-year agreement. plus get hbo for a year and free multi-room dvr service for two years. go to getfios.com or call 1.888.get.fios get the best. get fios.

the president delivered an hour long speech to congress and the nation last night. >> did the president make any mistakes? our partners at factcheck.org combed through his speech. >> america has spent approximately $6 trillion in the middle east. all the while our infrastructure at home is crumbling. with the 6 trillion dollars we could have rebuilt our country twice. and maybe even three times. >> $6 trillion? not quite. the united states has spent an estimated $1.7 trillion on war related activities since 9/11. according to the department of defense. where did the $6 trillion figure come from. >> there is a report that looks at the long term costs which include includes medical and disability payments for veterans. that gets into the territory of the number that donald trump was

talking about. >> because the $6 trillion hasn't been spent yet, it's not accurate to say it could have been spent on rebuilding our country. to jobs. >> 94 million americans are out of the labor force. >> the number is accurate, but the statement is misleading. >> for the vast majority of those people are retirees, students, stay at home parents, people who said they didn't want a job. >> the actual number of people who are officially unemployed who say they want a job and are looking for work is 7.6 million. president trump said his administration would work with members of both parties to provide clean air and clean water. just hours before the speech, the president made a move that says something different. >> he signed an executive order that would roll back a clean

water rule, the mississippi river or the chesapeake bay. >> there have also been reports that trump administration officials are considering cutting the epa's budget by 24%. and perhaps 20% of its workforce. i'm denise nakano for nbc10 news. police are trying to track down a man they say is exposing himself to students at the university of delaware. this is the man they're looking for, 62-year-old donald maxwell. a student saw him standing naked and committing a lewd act on campus just after midnight. 20 minutes later, two students reported a similar incident. officers were able to identify maxwell through the car he was driving. spewing giant fountains of lava in the sky. mt. aetna started erupting monday and showed no signs of

stopping today. authorities say the lava poses no danger to the small towns along the mountain's slopes. that's a rare sight. the fast moving storm moved quickly through our region. a live look right now at cape may county. nbc10 first alert meteorologist crystal klein joins us now. >> this is another one. thunderstorms were in the forecast today, chances of snow by the end of the week. here's a live look outside philadelphia, you can see this is from philly looking over into new jersey. kind of gray, but it is dry at this point, we are no longer tracking rain in philly or anywhere in our viewing area, we've dried out already, the line moved through very quickly. we're talking from 2 to 4, and it was gone, the whole thing, we did see some of our strong wind gusts south, and areas like sussex county.

but again, everything is out now, except for some trees that are down across those areas. we've got clearing ahead, and still some spotty storms, even down the south, you see some thunderstorms that are moving through. it may affect our area as we go overnight, most of this would be limited to the southern zones and not nearly as strong as what we saw earlier today. here's the hour by hour forecast, the clouds are still in place at 5:30. as we go through, right around 7:00 p.m., some of those showers are trying to pass by. most of us staying dry here. a few spotty showers may move by in the overnight hours. midnight to 1:00 a.m. small thunderstorms may pop up, not severe thunderstorms down near kent and cape may counties. that's what we're looking at as we go through 1:00 a.m. we continue to track long and we see these clearing conditions for thursday. 9:00 a.m. and the rest of the day, sunny conditions. the temperatures are not going

to be nearly as high as they were today where we capped out in the 70s over much of the area. for tomorrow, your forecast highs in berks county, 47 in reading, and 44 in bethlehem, also, the mid-40s for easton. can you note the icons showing off the mix of clouds and sun, heavy on the sun. 47 for phoenixville, west chester at 47, upper 40s for new town in the suburbs. for philadelphia, right around 50 degrees. pretty much across the board. now, let's go to new jersey. our jersey neighborhoods in the upper 40s to low 50s. the shore also going to see temperatures right near 50 degrees. avalon at 49. gallo way township you're at 50 for the forecast high tomorrow. low 50s as well, rehoboth beach at 51. these temperatures are a cooldown from the 6 os and 70s of today. they're more average for the beginning of march. winds will make it feel cooler

as well. winds about 15 to 25 miles per hour, gusts up to 40 miles per hour possible as we go through the afternoon. then you got the weekend. still windy on friday, and look at the drop in temperatures that keeps going. only 40s on friday across the board. lehigh valley only getting up to 38 degrees, those are snowflakes you see in the icons, we have the potential mostly in the morning, for some light snow, especially for philly, delaware and south jersey. we'll dry out saturday. temperatures only get to highs in the 30s. 31 the lehigh valley, 31 for delaware, 37 in philadelphia. a little pickup, but still cool. 47 philly, rather 45 on your sunday. we're also at 45 for south jersey, the shore, and delaware for sunday afternoon. on the extended ten day on 10. 41 on your friday, 37 saturday,

like i just pointed out is the big drop, windy conditions thursday and friday. finally the winds dying down for your weekend as we go into your next workweek, we see a pickup in temperatures, 60 monday, and 62 tuesday. showers for your tuesday, by wednesday, we are windy and cooling off yet again. >> crystal, thank you. the company behind the popular messaging app snap chat will price its public offering at $17 a share. that's the largest ipo since facebook went public in 2012. the company is expected to start trading tomorrow. thieves targeting cell phone stores. >> how police plan to bring this crime spree to an end. the mayor's got game. the trick shot he's pulling off with the harlem globetrotters. you have to see that. fios in the house!

dave this fios party is da bomb! fo shizzle! it's tv totally ahead of its time. yo, let me check that. oh snap. that x1 voice remote is crunk! and it lets me search with the sound of my voice. what should i watch? things have come a long way since you got fios. [nervously laughs] what's fios? fios has fallen behind. don't fall with it. xfinity x1 will change the way you experience tv.

i'm on it.ar does weathertech go to protect your vehicle? ♪ ♪ ♪ weathertech. made right, in america

mass at the cathedral basilica in philly. lent lasts for 40 days leading

up to easter. lester holt joining us now for the nbc studios coming up. >> ahead for us tonight, reaction from last night's presidential address, and a deeper look at the issue both parties seem to support. another infrastructure, we'll take a sober iing look at the mistake. we have some important news about your 401(k) when we see you coming up this evening on nbc nightly news. >> see you at 6:30. >> to this now, employees tied up by brazen cell phone thieves. >> a region wide task force is trying to stop them. randy gillen hal reports. cameras capture these two men about to hold up a verizen store. they used zip ties on an employee. a few weeks later, similar

suspects robbing this at&t store across the river in warren county, new jersey. >> that's what you usually do at a bank or somewhere. >> customers spooked. employees were held hostage. >> tied them up, took them in the back. >> brian works at a beer distributor. >> cell phones, ipads, whatever they can take and cell. whatever. >> here in bethlehem township. armed mentor into this at&t store, chasing after workers who tried to escape. >> one guy tried running out the back. they grabbed him, shoved them both in the bathroom. and locked the door on them. >> in each case, the suspects got away with the electronics and so far nobody has been caught. now, police and prosecutors from across the region are forming a task force, they'll also look into whether the murder of a local verizon employee a few months back could be connected to this crime spree. >> authorities from three counties are meeting every day

on this case. customers say it's all so unsettling. >> i think it's unnecessary, i don't think somebody should lose a life over a phone. >> randy gyllenhaal, nbc10 news. >> nbc10 news at 6:00 is next. coming up at 6:00 local lawmakers who don't always agree with the president are reaching out to work with him on one issue tonight. the bipartisan offer they're extending new at 6:00. also new at 6:00, racist conviction, why the naacp is alleging bias on the deadly building collapse on market street. believe it or not. we're in the 70s with record warmth today. i'm tracking those changes next.

the fight over philadelphia's soda tax is bubbling. pepsi announced it's eliminating up to 100 jobs as it deals with paying that tax. the city is fighting back, saying it's new pre-k program has created more than 250 jobs. good evening, i'm jacqueline london. >> the city says the soda industry is literally holding jobs hostage by announcing these layoffs. >> rosemary connors is breaking down the carbonated debate tonight. >> the fallout over

philadelphia's soda and sugary drink tax took a new turn today with the announcement that pepsi will lay off 80 to 100 local employees. the head of the teamsters union, which represents the workers calls it inevitable. >> when sales go down, the companies can't sustain the loss, and -- >> by phone, i reached the head of the union, who insists sales are down 40 to 50% since january year over year. >> were sales off breyer to this tax going into effect? >> well, there has been a decline in sales due to people changing their tastes. >> so was it possible that the company was going to lay off these workers anyway, with or without the soda tax? >> absolutely not. >> pre-k facilities are reaping

the benefits of the soda tax. there are 10 new hires. >> many of them have been home prior, and they're excited not to have to wait until they're five to go to kindergarten. they're doing a lot of socialization too. >> reporter: the mayor's office released a statement that reads in part the soda industry sunk to a new low today. they're literally holding hostage the jobs of hardworking people in their battle to overturn the tax no specifics as to which jobs would be cut and when people would get their pink slip slips i'm rosemary connors, nbc10 news plp. >> today's rain and winds bringing down a tree in this yard branches broke several windows too.