>> reporter: pure shock, you can hear it in her voice. we had the chance to talk to his grandson who was also devastated. just the whole belief is is why. why did this happen. they want this person caught as soon as possible. this has been the scene for the past 45 minutes or so. detectives here actively searching for clues. actively searching for this killer. we'll continue to be here throughout the night and if anything breaks, we'll bring that right to you. at 6:00 the biggest tax overhaul in a generation. sweeping changes tonight that will almost certainly impact you or your money. the house passed a major tax reform bill today. >> a procedure mess up will force them to vote again one

more time tomorrow. in the meantime, the senate is expected to pass the bill any minute now. a live look at the senate floor where a vote will happen this evening. then president trump will sign this bill into law before christmas. >> what does this mean for you? americans will receive a tax cut and families will now get a bigger child tax credit. but a new $10,000 cap on state and local property tax deductions could be painful if you own a home. >> the biggest winners of the tax overhaul are corporations and wall street. the biggest losers older and poor americans. and people in new jersey, a high tax, high income state. >> whether you own a home determines whether you win or lose. homeownership will have a major impact, especially like the city of philadelphia. keep in mind, the core of this tax plan is all about that corporate tax cut that is

intended to get companies adding jobs and increasing your pay. applause erupted on the floor of the house this afternoon as the first tax overhaul vote showed enough support to eventually move on to the senate. >> i don't feel good about it. >> reporter: this south philly homeowner is anxious. he's worried the changes won't spur the economic growth that's promised and shortfalls could bring cuts to the government assistance his disabled mother relies on. >> she doesn't get much. i fear that's something that will be lost in the future. >> reporter: across mayfield, the impacts in other ways too. up to this point, homeowners have been able to deduct all the tax money they paid to harrisburg and city hall leaving them with a smaller amount to send to the fetes. but not anymore. the plan includes a $10,000 limit on the deduction of state, local and property taxes.

that change hits high tax areas like philadelphia especially hard and philly cpa says it may impact the city's hot real estate market. that said, the plan lowers tax rates for each tax bracket and it doubles the standard deduction used by many middle and low-income families mostly folks with uncomplicated finances. there are implications for families. there's a bigger child tax credit. tlr changes to health care requirements. this is a bill that is so big, so complex, so lengthy even some of the lawmakers have not read it in full. live in south philadelphia, george spencer, nbc 10 news.

republican house members voted against the tax plan. this could hurt homeowners. the plan caps the deduction for state, local and property taxes at $10,000. many homeowners in the garden state pay far more than that in property taxes. one cpa says if you can pay part of next year's property taxes before 2017 comes to an end. we did some checking. not all counties allow you to prepay. check with your county's tax office. stay tuned for "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. he'll be breaking down the impact of the tax overhaul. that's coming up at 6:30. new at 6:00, the south jersey choir teach er is accuse of preying on one of his students for years. police think there could be more

victi victims. new jersey state police say he abused a boy he taught at the public elementary school. state police want to hear from anyone else who may have had inappropriate interactions with that suspect. developing now, police in three counties in two states are on the hunt for this man. he is stealing credit cards from places ranging from office parks to hospitals by pretending to be an employee. he's always wearing a penn state baseball hat and drives a gold or tan chevy tahoe. the search is happening innen montgomery county even in parts of maryland. new information about yesterday's deadly train crash in washington state. investigators want to know if the engineer was distracted by an employee in training. when the train flew off the tracks and on to the interstate below. three people were killed. dozens were hurt when the train derailed. officials say that train was traveling at 80 miles per hour on a stretch of track where the speed limit was 30.

we're learning more tonight about a crash that killed three people in burlington county. loved ones of 18-year-old xavier wells say he was behind the wheel of this suv when it slammed into a pole and burst into flames. state police say the car was stolen from route 206 and involved in a pursuit when it crashed. the family said they are not sure why he took the car and why he didn't pull over. a man doing yard work out front of his house in north philadelphia was hit by an suv this morning. you can see it up on the yard. neighbors say the suv in and a white car were speeding down the street. the suv lost control, jumped a curb and hit an 83-year-old man. the victim is expected to be okay. police have a person of interest in custody. turning to your first alert neighborhood weather and it's a 50-degree day today. just six days before christmas.

this is a live look at the museum of art on this mild evening. . if you're driving around tonight picking up last-minute holiday gift, you might not even need the heaviest coat. a live look from our campus camera. the warm weather we know it can't last too long. >> we know it's going to go away. glenn "hurricane" schwartz joins us with just how soon. >> it is going get cooler tomorrow. still nothing dramatic. that comes next week. folks skiing enjoying the colder weather that we had. they are going to be in better shape. 53 in philadelphia. 50 in potstown.

42 on thursday before we start going back up on friday. then by saturday, maybe back to 60 again. as we go through the night tonight, it doesn't cool off a whole lot. a great night to go out shopping. you're not going to need the heavy coat or umbrella. not going to need the winter boots. and then as we head into the morning hours, it's not all that cold to start off the day. that's the beginning of the small cooldown. all new at 6:00, curing blindness and making history. the fda approved a gene therapy developed at the university of pennsylvania. this therapy significantly improves the eyesight of patients with a mutated gene that causes blindness. this is the first time the fda approved such a therapy for the treatment of a genetic disease. in delaware county tonight, police are looking for four suspects who jumped an amazon

driver as she was delivering packages. it happened last night in darby township. the driver says the suspect is had a gun and several of her delivery boxes. if you haven't mailed out christmas cards, you're officially running late. a busy day at the post office. they are going to deliver 3 billion pieces of mail and o 200 million packages this week. with their dead line for standard mail that needs to get to its destination by christmas, that said if your mail isn't going too far, you might be okay getting it out first thing tomorrow. i would say send it express to guarantee it get there is before christmas. tomorrow is the dead line for priority mail. the dead line for the higher tier express mail is friday. if you still have gift. s to ship, you still have time to get it done. tap the app to see all the last-minute shipping dead lines.

an annual tradition of give. ing back continues. nick's bar and grill is serving free christmas dinners to veterans. that includes a turkey and all the trimmings. bar regulars volunteer to give out the meals. they have been doing this for the last decade. >> a lot of smiling faces today in straw bberry mansion as some philadelphia kids got an early christmas gift. city council president teamed up to deliver bikes to the deserving students at the academic plus school. up next new at 6:00, tragedies tradition for a local family tonight. how their own story of loss inspires them to spread joy on the highway this christmas. and later, defensive struggles. the eagles know they need to improve to go anywhere in the playoffs. one key to making it happen, coming up in sports.

the owner of this house is making clark griz wald proud. look at those holiday decorations. no word on how many decorations he has on the lawn, but it doesn't look like he could fit

many more. a a lot of people stop and marvel at it and take a lot of pictures. oh my goodness. new at 6:00, a local family is delivering holiday cheer to people who spend long days and nights on the road. >> they are handing out care packages to the men and women who keep america moving, the truckers. tim furlong shows us their inspiration. >> reporter: it's a busy time at their house. >> these are all gift bags that we have already prepared. >> reporter: crystal and her daughters prepare gift bags for truckers. her husband was killed in 2011 and every year since on the saturday before christmas, crystal ask her daughters carmen's crew go out and give care packages to the truckers at the i-95 travel plaza. this is video from 2014. >> we want to make sure when they are away from their families, stuff like that, especially near the holidays, they are appreciated, loved.

>> reporter: if carmen was here with his family, he would love this project. >> he cared so much for everybody. >> reporter: he would also probably love seeing how much this truck stop tradition has grown. it was just chrrystal and the girls at the start. this year students from concorde high school helped pack the bags. the school choir will be carolling saturday inside the travel plaza. it will be nice for truck ers and travelers and a way for carmen's crew to remember their trucker who once again won't be home for christmas. >> we hope to just keep his memory alive and make him proud while we do things. >> reporter: tim furlong, nbc 10 news. >> they will be inside the i-95 travel plaza from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. saturday if you want to stop by. let's turn to your first alert neighborhood weather. a perfect evening out there to hang out outside with the reign

deer. >> comfortable at the river rink tonight. you're looking live there right now. a lot of people out skating. definitely don't have to bundle up too much. >> let's bring in meteorologist glenn "hurricane" schwartz. we know this warm weather can't last much longer. two days from the official start of winter. >> it's definitely going to be cooling down, but not too dramatic of a cooldown this week. next week is a dramatic cooldown. and we have really good conditions for shopping over the rest of the week. it's got rain coming. sunday we cool down. then we get even colder for christmas day. there's still a a chance of a white christmas less that be a week ahead of time. we rarely get to say that. 53 degrees in philadelphia now.

south jersey, we still have many places in the 50s. but it's down to 48 degrees. pittsburgh grove and bridgeton at 48 degrees. it's going to be more like the 40s tomorrow afternoon. we're not going to be seeing these 50s. nothing on the radar and satellite close wi. we have a lot of moisture down in texas and up to arkansas. tomorrow temperatures will be down. it's not that cold to start. but the temperatures aren't to go up a whole lot. allentown at 42 for the high. robinsville at 42. wildwood at 45.

cool down a little bit. a little more thursday. then we start jumping back up. the best chance for any kind of precipitation on friday would be in the lehigh valley. could be a little bit of light rain either in the morning or later in the day. and most of the rest of the area is dry for the rest of the week. but we have winter returning. the arctic front coming in. it's not going to be here friday. close enough so we have warm air surging up and a lot of rain especially saturday night. the front goes through, cools us down sunday, maybe dries us out and not get a lot of sunshine sunday. then the front stalls a little bit and that will allow moisture to come up and leave some computer models are suggesting some light snow for part of the area for christmas day itself. very rare event is here. saturday it's warm and wet. sunday it's colder.

monday is the coldest of the christmas holiday. and then it gets colder than that as we go into next week. we have some frigid air coming down from the arctic. it's just going to be brutal across the upper midwest. temperatures way below zero there. we're going to get a piece of that coming in toward the middle of next week. so you can see the showers friday night, especially on saturday when it's mild. then we cool down a little bit sunday. a little bit more on monday. a chance of light snow. then we have brutally cold weather next wednesday and thursday setting us up for snow late next week. that's when it's most likely. i'm john clark. coming up, why joel embiid is not playing again for the sixers and one eagle wants the team to play with a sense of urgency. that's next.

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i'm john clark from nbc sports philadelphia. the eagles can clinch homefield throughout the playoffs. the birds defense really needs to play better at this point. the last two games the birds d has given up 70 points. defensive coordinator jim schwartz said they need more urgency. sometimes when you're 12-2, maybe you don't have that same sense of urgency. >> say you're 7-5. there's already that urgency and you're in the moment maybe a little bit. there's some lessons to be

learned from it. some of our younger guys, maybe some guys that haven't been in a position like this before. >> carson wentz is back at the complex. he's helping out nick foles. he's coach carson now. take a look at nick. e he stepped in and threw for four touchdowns and did not commit a turnover against the giants. he managed to game well is and played with poise. >> nick is sneaky athletic in his own way. but nick is like the point guard. i'm sure he can deal the basketball now. guy you see him joke iing arounn practice giving no look passes and stuff like that. throwing the ball behind his back with accuracy. he just has that nfl quarterback that is extremely talented. >> for the sixers, joel embiid will not play tonight. his back is still bothering him. sixers are now 1-5 without joel.

they lost without him last night. ben simmons could have tied it up, but he couldn't get it done. he was 1 assist short of a triple-double. brett brown is hoping he starts developing his shot. >> i want him taking more rise up jump shots. i don't care if he makes him. 15-foot jump shot. it needs to happen. >> i need to start doing that. that's the next step in big an elite player. >> gotta practice that shot. we'll see if he does tonight. that's tonight at 11:00. >> he's so young. he'll get it. >> he's good. he's good. coming up tonight at 11:00, paying for prescriptions. >> why you can save money by going to a different pharmacy. why it pays to shop around tonight at 11:00.

darlene: i'm thankful to be able to help people in crisis. vanessa: i'm thankful that addiction is treatable, and that help is available. christie: new jersey is experiencing a heroin epidemic fueled by opioid painkillers. but if you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, i want you to know: we are here for you. this holiday season, choose help. call 844 reach nj or visit reachnj.gov.

a live look at the slopes at camelback mountain tonight. a mild night out there. they probably don't need the heavy coats. they can be out there in the sweaters. >> they would like cold weather to get natural snow. they are going to be happy next week. you might not be. >> i know, i know. >> they are going to be happy. it gets cooler tomorrow. still nothing brutal. that warms right back up. by saturday we're up near 60. then the rain comes in. then we go back down. by christmas day, it's chilly with a chance of a little light snow. then it gets really cold next week and that sets us up for a chance of snow with a cold ground. >> it will stay with us for awhile. >> thanks for watching here at 6:00. i'm jim rosenfield. >> and i'm jacqueline london. up next is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. get out tonight and we'll see

you back here at 11:00. breaking news tonight on your taxes. biggest tax overhaul in a generation being passed by gop controlled congress. changes that will affect every american family. but there is word now of a surprise snag. late news from investigators at scene of train disaster. why going way too fast? 80 miles per hour in 30 miles per hour zone? >> another crash, packed tourist bus overturns. consumer alert about cheaper prescription drugs. >> $600 to $500, $200 to $34.99. how you can save big.