can soon be on the menu in pennsylvania restaurants and bars. some lawmakers are betting that and other gambling changes will boost state revenue. others say it's a bad deal for seniors and schools. today, we'll hear from both sides. glenn's summer forecast, will we sizzle like last year, or will it rain more than usual? chief meteorologist glenn "hurricane" schwartz is here with some answers. don't miss his first alert summer outlook. and fact check, can workers thank president trump for a new coal mine in pennsylvania? the president thinks so. we'll tell you if our partners at factcheck.org agree. male announcer: "nbc10 @issue" starts now. erin: good morning to you, i'm erin coleman for "nbc10 @issue." lawmakers in pennsylvania are betting on slots, fantasy sports, and online gambling,

hoping the state will cash in, but not everyone agrees. and today, both sides sound off. among other changes to pennsylvania gaming laws, house bill 271 allows up to 40,000 slot-like gaming terminals, known as vgts, in bars, bowling alleys, and truck stops. the house of representatives passed the bill 102 to 89 with support from both republicans and democrats. with me now is pennsylvania state representative maria donatucci, and state representative mark mustio joined us from harrisburg. so, let's start out, why support this bill? what's in it for pennsylvanians? mark mustio: several years ago on the appropriations committee, we were tasked with finding non-broad-based tax revenue for the state. and currently in pennsylvania, there are anywhere between 25,000 and 40,000 illegal poker machines. and other states have legalized video gaming terminals in bars, taverns, restaurants, and clubs, illinois being the most recent,

and they're generating approximately $350 million a year to their general fund. so, i thought it would be a good opportunity to go investigate how they did it, what they did that they would like to improve upon, and could we possibly do it in pennsylvania. so, i've been working on this project for 3 years. and basically, it would enable those bars, restaurants, clubs with certain restrictions to put up to five video gaming terminals, which in essence are slot machines, in their locations, keeping in mind that many of the locations that we talk about already have these existing, but we would want to regulate them. in other words, they would be connected to a central server like our slot machines are at our casinos. payouts would be regulated much higher than they are now with these underground machines. they would be consistent with what the minimum payouts are with slot machines in pennsylvania, and it would generate revenue for local municipalities that they're housed in, and also the county.

so, in the case of philadelphia, they would not only get the county share, they would get the, you know, the city share as well. erin: so, you oppose this. why? maria donatucci: i oppose it because i don't think it's a good bet for philadelphia. we're going to have one-third of the machines here. we already have 17,000 establishments that they can go into. i don't know if it's going to hurt the middle-class and the poorer neighborhoods with this kind of gambling available. and i'm worried that it's going to cut into the money that the gaming casinos make and also our lottery. erin: so, you're saying it'll undercut already the things that we already have, and the lottery, which benefits older pennsylvanians. talk about how, in your opinion, that would be detrimental to the area. maria: well, it'd be detrimental because all the money that comes from the lottery goes to senior citizens.

there's rebates, there's pacenet. it helps them so much, and we're already finding a little bit of a deficit. and then when we look at illinois, we see that they had a 12% decrease once they put vgts, but chicago and cook county were allowed to opt out. in philadelphia, we were not allowed to opt out. nowhere in pennsylvania was allowed to opt out. so, we already see the detrimental that happened in illinois, and we're worried it's going to happen here in pennsylvania. erin: so, you've been doing your research. you've been--well, you have been talking about this, you and other lawmakers for some time. and what's the reaction that you have been hearing from your constituents? maria: a lot of people don't want it. they just came out with a harper poll, and they said that 60% of pennsylvanians do not want it. and you have to remember in philadelphia, we have a problem with stop-n-go's. they have our licenses, they're mostly convenience stores, and every one of them will be allowed to put vgts in them. mark: those are the same arguments that were made when we

voted on slot machines and casinos in 2004 when we passed it. those same arguments were made, and if you look at the timetable from when casinos were implemented in pennsylvania and now, lottery revenues have increased in excess of a billion dollars a year. so, the facts just don't bear that out. the facts don't bear that out in illinois. but anybody that doesn't want to see something take place is going to reach for a lot of arguments. and i've fought those battles and really delved into the specifics on the issues and the numbers. we've--they've thrown out a lot of things about illinois that just aren't factual. and, you know, they're saying--the commercials on tv now are saying that these slot machines are going to be going into nursing homes. well, that's just not true, it's not in the bill. and we try to put some things in the bill to help the city of philadelphia too. i mean, there--i know from talking to some of my colleagues, there's some issues with these what they're called

stop-n-go's, i think, in that area. i'm not familiar with them, but the way they're described to me is not something that i'd want to have in my community. so, this legislation provides $3 million to hire liquor control enforcement officers to help that issue get resolved in the city of philadelphia. in addition, there's $2 million for the gun violence task force in philadelphia too. and we put restrictions on the location size. and also, if an entity, a location has had violations over the last 3 years of certain levels, that they're not able to put these machines in them as well. so, inspections will take place before they go in in the city of philadelphia if they're under--if the square footage is less than 1,000 feet. and they have to get approval from the gaming control board to be implemented in there. erin: supporters say we need the money.

pennsylvania needs the revenue, this is a good way to get more money flooding into the state. how do you respond to that? maria: i think they're overestimating it. when we went to the pennsylvania department of revenue, they told us that the first year over here ending '17, that is going to have a net deficit of, i think it's like a half a million dollars. but then next year, it has a net profit of $40 million. then the next year, it's $96 million. they're predicting $300 million to $500 million, and i don't see where they're getting that. erin: how much money are we talking about potentially? mark: well, when it's fully implemented, to the general fund, conservatively i would say $350 million. i would guesstimate in pennsylvania, since in illinois, vgts are not in the city of chicago, i would suspect we'd be at between $450 million and $500 million a year once fully implemented.

erin: you're saying that the machines are already in use on kind of an underground level, so any idea how much money you think that the state is losing out on? mark: well, right now, based on those machines, several hundred million dollars a year, and that's been going on for decades. i mean it's--you know, it was interesting, the day before we had the hearing on the legislation and the gaming committee, there was a raid in southwestern pennsylvania, where they captured well over 200 machines from various locations in the southwestern pennsylvania. so, they're out there, the state police have confiscated them. but again, it's something that we want to regulate and help not only the local businesses where they are, or where they will be placed, but also our local municipalities and our general fund. erin: supporters are also saying that a lot of these vgts, these machines, are already in use illegally unregulated.

this is a way to regulate the machines, bring in money, everybody wins. maria: i don't know if everybody wins. i really don't. i mean, they are illegal. somebody should be enforcing that if there is illegal machines anywhere. erin: what damage do you think that this bill could do to neighborhoods? you mean, you talked about a concentration in philadelphia, and we've also heard the argument an over-concentration in lower-income neighborhoods. what can happen with that? maria: i mean, we're actually trying to work on legislation to regulate these stop-n-go's. they're not illegal, they have manipulated the law. we worry that with this gambling coming in, it's going to manipulate the law even more. i don't want to see poor people losing their homes because it's so easy now to gamble, you can just walk down their street. there's no regulation to how close it can be to

a church or to a school. they don't have any of that in this bill. they don't even have surveillance cameras in part of this law the way casinos have to have them. and i have a problem with that because that also--not shows what goes on in there, but who's coming in. erin: supporters say, you know, "we have heard this argument, these arguments from the other side for years, even when the casinos wanted to come in. this is nothing new. we need to move forward." how do you respond? maria: okay, most of the operators are coming in from illinois and las vegas. they're using illinois, as i said earlier, as the model. they didn't follow the model completely. in illinois, they had a 12% decrease in the lottery. they had a 12% decrease in their harness racing, or their horse racing in general. two closed down. they had a 21% decline in their casino revenue, even though a new casino opened and they included that revenue.

so, i don't see it as a good thing. i'm afraid it's going to cannibalize the gambling we already have in the state. in bethlehem, mgm was supposed to come in. minute that they heard the rumor of vgts, they pulled out. up in adams county, a developer pulled out. so, i think it might be detrimental to the people who have already invested in our state. mark: again, those are the same arguments that were made, you know, with casinos. you know, we have casinos in some really nice areas of pennsylvania, and i'm told that there's, you know, some that probably aren't in the best neighborhoods as well. so, i think at the end of the day, regulating these types of activities that are already going on helps bring them out of the shadows, helps enforcement, and helps gather some revenue obviously that can fix some other issues that we have going on in some of these areas that you talk about. so, i think overall, it's a very positive thing.

and once we got the legislation out of the house, which we did, now it becomes a real issue. had we not gotten it out of the house, then we're really not here talking about anything. so, now it gives all of us the opportunity to make the legislation better, better for our communities. and i think some of those discussions are taking place right now. erin: so, what happens next? what is the next step? and what do you think the senate's going to do? maria: i'm not sure yet, i know they're looking at it, i'm hearing rumors. i don't know if they're going to be negotiating it. i don't know if they're going to carve out the vgts. we're all waiting back to see what happens. mark: we're talking about, you know, you know, what options may be available to make it more palatable for some of the senators to vote for, what may make it a little bit more palatable or more beneficial financially for some of the local municipalities. erin: steamy, hot, and humid, or wet and wild? what can we expect from the weather this summer? don't make your big outdoor plans until you've heard glenn's summer weather outlook. that's just ahead.

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erin: vacation season is in full swing, and nothing beats time off on a sunny day, right? remember last year? it was a scorcher with intense heat and little rain. nbc10's glenn "hurricane" schwartz has a look back. glenn schwartz: not many of these last summer. it was very dry overall. a drought in the spring, and then it was drier than normal here every month from june to september. as is often the case in dry summers, it was also hot, real hot. in july and august, more than half of the days hit at least 90 degrees. and we had unusually long heat waves in both july and august. hot, dry summers often lead to the best weather at the shore, and we had a lot of great weather weekends last summer. great for business too. not this time. erin: not this time.

nbc10 chief meteorologist glenn "hurricane" schwartz with me now, thanks for being here. all right, we said intense heat last year, so can we expect more of that this summer? glenn: well, there's going to be obviously some intense heat. we've already had a half-dozen days in the 90s already. but i don't expect it to be as intense as last year. so last year, we had well over 50 days of 90 degrees or higher. this year, i don't expect 30 to maybe as much as 40. that's still above normal, so i'm still expecting a hotter than normal summer. but last summer was exceptionally dry too. and so, the drier the ground is, the more it can heat up. so, they kind of balance out. the more rain you get, the cooler it gets. so, i expect this to be a wetter summer, a much wetter summer than last year too. erin: but still hot. well, hurricane season just started, federal forecasters predicting up to 17 named storms,

4 of them could be major. what is your take on that, why? glenn: yeah, well, the greatest correlation with hurricanes is with what happens in the pacific ocean, called el niño or la niña. now, when you have the opposite of el niño, la niña, the cool water in the pacific, you get more hurricanes in the tropical atlantic. when you get an el niño, you expect a less active hurricane season. so, months ago, we were in a weak el niño, and it looked like it was getting stronger. and so, there were some predictions for an inactive hurricane season as a result. well, now all of a sudden, el niño's kind of disappeared. and so, we're back to normal. and the ocean temperatures, they're also a factor, and they are very high out in the eastern atlantic and part of the caribbean. so, that too is sometimes correlated

with above normal activity. erin: so, how is that all going to impact us? i mean, what does this mean for us? glenn: well, we've gone through a lot of years without hits, direct hits in the united states, of hurricanes, especially major hurricanes. now, sandy weakened from a hurricane, so that's, let's put that off to the side now, so that the patterns are a little bit more favorable for at least threats toward the east coast of the united states at some point this summer. there's one company that is actually predicting three hurricanes hitting the united states this summer. and they claim that they were the ones that got the forecast for sandy right when a lot of the computer models were saying it was going to go out to sea, so i'm very curious to see how that forecast does.

erin: all right, so i guess we'll just have to wait and see how this whole thing plays out. glenn: yeah, even if you get an inactive season, you know, five or six of them, all it takes is one to come into your area to make it a bad hurricane season, so that's why we tell people to be prepared for any kind of hurricane season because one could cause all the damage in the world, or 20 of them could all miss. erin: all right, getting back to the summer outlook, a little selfish here, but if you're planning a big backyard barbecue, a big party, when's the best time to do it? glenn: yeah, yeah. well, generally in the morning. but what happened last year, a lot of people complained about the heat, and farmers were complaining about it being dry, but there were so many great beach weekends. it seemed like every weekend was great at the shore. well, we're not in that kind of pattern anymore. we've already seen a little bit of that, where it's not ideal weekends.

and there may be some weekends that are a little even worse than not ideal, but we cannot expect the repeat of those incredible weekends, one after another after another like we had last year. erin: so, we just have to watch your forecast every night. glenn: that's right, we go out to 10 days, so there's always a weekend in our forecast. erin: absolutely, all right, glenn hurricane schwartz, thanks for being here with us. next, we are fact checking president trump. is he right when he takes credit for a pennsylvania coal mine? find out when we come right back.

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erin: putting coal miners back to work, president donald trump points to pennsylvania as proof that he's doing just that. but our partners at factcheck.org say trump had nothing to do with the new coal mine that's up and running near pittsburgh. nbc10's keith jones has the story. keith jones: president donald trump in early june, on the road and taking credit for the opening of the corsa

coal company's new deep mine in southwestern pennsylvania. donald trump: we're opening a big coal mine, you know about that, one in pennsylvania. it's actually a new mine. that hadn't happened in a long time, folks. but we're putting the people--we're putting the miners back to work. keith: what did the president have to do with the opening? nothing according to factcheck.org. construction of the mine began in september, 2 months before the election. robert farley: so, trump's efforts to ease regulation on the coal mining industry had nothing to do with the decision to develop this mine. keith: industry experts tell factcheck.org the new mine, which is expected to create as many as 100 jobs, is not evidence of a resurgence in coal mining. it's producing a particular type of coal that's used to make steel. experts say there's been a surge in demand for this type of coal because of production problems overseas. the vast majority of coal produced in the united states is called thermal coal. robert: and it's the kind of coal that's used to generate electricity. the consumption of that kind of coal has dropped nearly 20% over

the last few years, and it's contributed to the loss of tens of thousands of coal mining jobs. keith: according to experts, a surge in cheap natural gas and competition from renewables like solar energy are the main reasons coal production is declining. to a smaller extent, says factcheck.org, federal regulations have hurt the coal mining industry. robert: however, a recent columbia university analysis found that even in a best-case scenario, trump's efforts to ease these regulations would perhaps stem the decline in production of coal, but that there wouldn't be a return to the level of coal mining jobs that we saw even just a few years ago. keith: keith jones, nbc10 news. erin: now, a recent report from the non-profit institute of energy economics and financial analysis also predicts a dim future for jobs in coal mining. researchers say by next year, more than 50 coal fire

generating units and electricity plants across the country will either be closed, scaled back, or converted to natural gas. at ikea, we believe that everything you need should be within reach. in an affordable dream kitchen that works as hard as you do. save up to 15% at the ikea kitchen event.

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in an affordable dream kitchen that works as hard as you do. save up to 15% at the ikea kitchen event. erin: if you're active duty in the military, listen up, you and your family can visit nearly 20 museums in philadelphia for free. the offer through blue star families holds from now until labor day. the list includes the african american museum, the barnes foundation, national constitution center, the national museum of american jewish history, and the philadelphia museum of art. for a complete list of the free philadelphia museums, just go to the nbc10 app. well, that's it for this edition of "nbc10 @issue." i'm erin coleman, thank you for joining us. and to all you dads out there, happy father's day. and before we say goodbye, a special shout out to my dad, evrod coleman. got to love those shots from the 70s. happy father's day. ♪

you know you're -whenwatching televisionl, that is educational and informational. "the more you know" on nbc. -all across america, people are dedicating their lives to giving back. -you're gonna make me cry. [ laughs ] -from executive producer, blair underwood, this is "give." [ cheers and applause ] -thank you so much. -each week on "give" blair... -[ cheering ] -jenna bush hager, or one of their celebrity friends drop in on two small but mighty charities that are making a big impact. -can you believe that, from the pit to the palace? -they'll discover what makes these charities so effective and what they each need to do even more good. -good boy. -working with some of the world's greatest givers, our celebrity ambassadors will have to make tough decisions on how to distribute grant funding between the two charities