rain from it by tomorrow afternoon. the heaviest of the rain starts tomorrow night. and so our first alert starts as the rain is getting heaviest. friday, 5:00 a.m. and then continues into saturday morning because the wind is going to be increasing after the heaviest rain is passed. this is a different kind of storm than what we've seen so far this season. all the other ones just move right on out of here real quickly. this one is going to hang around. 50 to 60-mile-an-hour wind gusts. it also may give us the strongest wind gusts of the winter. coastal flooding likely and heavy rain causing localized flooding. we have a few sprinkles in northern pennsylvania, way ahead of the main area moisture. this storm has not developed yet. it's going to wait until it hits the coastline until it really intensifies. as you can see with the future weather, we've got the wind coming in off the ocean. we have a full moon which adds

to the coastal flood threat. the heaviest rain adds to the coastal flood threat and those strong winds. more on the timing of all of this and how the rest of the weekend is going to turn out coming up. now to a call to action. dick's sporting goods says it will immediately stop selling assault-style rifles following the deadly school shooting in florida. tonight, the company is calling on lawmakers to make changes, too. the move comes as at least a dozen companies are pushing back against the nra. cutting ties with the gun rights group. the retailer has a number of stores in our region. there are 11 in southeastern pennsylvania. six in the south jersey shore area and three in delaware. stopping sales is just one of several changes the chain is making. nbc 10's cydney long is live in depford with more on what else the stores are doing and how shoppers are reacting. >> reporter: jackie, we can tell you, we got a lot of mixed

reaction today. wlin along with not selling some of the weapons you used to be able to get your hands on, now you have to be a couple years older to buy them. for the most part, customers we spoke to are on board. murdered inside their high school exactly two weeks ago today. and now dick's sports says it hears the cries of those florida families, students and staff loud and clear. when put on the spot -- >> yeah, i'm for them banning it and us sitting down and figuring out if we should be able to get anything. >> reporter: former police officer and father of four mike depoter, a strong believer in the second amendment. supports the retail chain's bold move to ban its sale of assault-style rive els and high capacity magazines and raising the firearm's purchase age from 18 to 21. >> i don't know if anybody really needs an assault rifle that isn't law enforcement or military. >> if these kids can be brave enough to do this, we should be brave enough to make a stand ourselves. >> reporter: within hours of the dick's ban, the ceo's letter is

visible beneath the gun case glass. even though a ban on certain assault guns has been on the books for years. >> i don't think that they should because that is up to the individual if you want to have an assault rifle. >> if dick's wants to ban it and they're willing to, whatever the consequences are, that's on them. that's fine. >> this is a complex issue. and we hope that congress on both sides will sit down with the intent of finding a solution. >> reporter: joe says lawmakers ought to consider regulations on ammunition. >> you can have 100 guns and no ammo. i have a car without any gas, i can't drive it. let the police sign off on a couple day wait to get your ammo. they can check you. if it's good, you get it if it's not good, you don't get it. >> reporter: this controversial rights issue also gaining momentum on social media. some say for every customer

lost, they hope that dick's chain gains ten of them. others as you can imagine are outraged saying they've been stripped of their rights but even those who disagree with the ban tell me it will not stop them from shopping here. i'm cydney long, nbc 10 news. still on guns here, new jersey lawmakers advanced a half dozen measures to enhance the already strict gun rules. one requires the seizure of firearms when a mental health professional determines that. the governor says he still has to review the measures. a congressman held a roundtable. students were asked to attend and join in on the open conversation about gun violence and how it impacts their lives. highland regional senior we spoke with says the thing to do now is to come together. >> we also need to help the students out. the students need to if they're being bullied, they need to be

helped. if there's something mental going on, there needs to be a lot of help on that student. and i think it's just us coming together and uniting. >> school administrators, chiefs of police and community leaders were also at the roundtable discussion. the gun debate was front and center today at a church in the poconos. they held a unique ceremony. the world peace and unification church east of scranton conducted a high-powered marriage blessing. the pastor urged his parishioners to bring their ar-15 rifles along with them. the guns were checked to ensure they were not loaded. and they were zip tied for everyone's safety. this church believes the ar-15 is a tool of peace. >> but i should also be able to protect my family and my community. and i don't think there's anything wrong with an ar-15 being used for that. >> protesters showed up to speak out against the ceremony. a nearby elementary school moved its classes to a different school because of the ceremony.

caught in the act. police say a parking authority employee swiped money from meters after breaking into an office in the borough of millburne and stealing the key. the meters are in upper darby. that's where miguel martinez-valle joins us. >> reporter: according to police, she worked in millburne and stole a key and took the coin box and ran off but not before being caught on camera by that surveillance video. >> my first message is stupidity rules the day. and the second thing is that, thank goodness that we were able to capture people who commit crime on video. more and more cases are solved that way. >> reporter: upper darby police say this surveillance video shows millbourne borough employee tiffany blockston breaking into the meters stealing coin boxes and putting them in her bag, walking away.

she used a stolen key to get into parking meters across town and take the coin boxes. this was caught on security camera by local businesses, which led to her arrest. >> so we charged her with theft. >> reporter: police say she hit about 20 meters, got away with about $500 cash but $1500 if you count the price of the coin boxes. shop owner s s in the area say judging from what they're paying for parking, they are surprised she didn't get away with more. >> we always put meters in the quarters every day. we're getting tickets out to here and now someone comes and takes the money from the meters? that's pretty crazy. [ no audio ] >> apologize for the audio problem right there. to this now. this surveillance video may be the key to solving an early morning shooting in allentown.

it left two men dead and a third man hurt. this was at the airport road plaza gas station around 1:00 in the morning. video from a business next door shows a man wearing a denim jacket hopping the fence. later, a denim jacket was found covered in blood on the property. police are testing the jacket for any clues. a former justice department official under president obama has been tapped to be a first assistant district attorney for philadelphia. robert listenbey. he says he wants to make philadelphia's justice system fairer and more effective. today a charity group helped bail out nine people in philadelphia who otherwise could not afford it. the philadelphia community bail fund spent about $25,000. some had been in jail for months and feared losing their jobs and other benefits. the goal is to bring attention to cash bail system. critics say it unfairly targets the poor who have not been

convicted of a crime. >> nobody should be in jail because they can't afford to pay for their freedom when somebody nels their same position would already be home. >> it cost taxpayers about $130 per day to house the detainee in jail. jury deliberations in the federal corruption trial of allentown's mayor pawlousky will resume tomorrow. prosecutors accuse pawlawski of rigging contracts that went to businesses that support his political campaigns. he's facing fraud, bribery, extortion and also lying to the fbi. new at 6:00 -- encouraging words for residents against an offshore drilling site at the jersey shore. u.s. representative chris smith tweeted that he and another lawmaker met with the secretary of the interior to talk about the proposal. the meeting was encouraging and that if the proposal for new jersey is not already off the table, it soon will be.

the impact of unpaid bills. the error that left a nurse left with a surprise medical bill could happen to anyone. how to protect your family coming up at 6:00. we've got dangerous winds and flooding in the future. tracking a major coastal storm that's going to impact our region for at least two, possibly three days. i'll break down the timing of the storm and what you can expect where you live.

new at 6:00 -- nbc 10 responds continues erasing medical debt. tonight, we're revealing the ways that unpaid doctors bills can impact all parts of your financial life. as of tonight, nbc 10 viewers have donated enough money to forgive $250,000 of medical debt here in our region. >> it's part of nbc 10 responds biggest initiative yet. the nbc universal-owned television stations, as you know, george, they are helping to wipe out medical debt across the cannot, including $2 million of debt from our area. george, tell us what's going on with this. how this big payoff can have multiple benefits. >> for so many people in our region, burdenned by overdue medical bills, the impacts are twofield. it's not just the dollar amount

you owe but how it can impact your credit score and give rise to lawsuits. >> working from her home office, jean is her family's bread winner and er nurse for decades. she's now in medical billing. but even she is facing a $1,200 bill for medical lab work that feels unmanageable. >> it's a big bite. i don't think anybody has an extra $1200. >> reporter: in izzy's case that bill started with a mistake by her doctor's office. she's trying to get it corrected but for now the debt sits unpaid for weeks going on months and she's worried about her credit report. the financial record used by banks to determine eligibility for everything from car loans to mortgages. >> it could impact that i have a $1200 debt that i didn't pay that i didn't know that i had. >> medical debt, obviously, is one major thing that harms people's credit reports.

>> reporter: for years, medical debt could show up on your credit report as soon as it was reported unpaid. but as of last fall, an important change for consumers. you now have a six-month grace period to resolve medical debt before it appears as past due on your credit report. he encourages patients to use that extra time to double check their bills. >> scrutinize every single thing to make sure that, a, that that is definitely a line item that you owe for or, b, that, you know, that your health insurer is holding their end of the bargain. >> reporter: unpaid medical debt can give rise to lawsuits from creditors looking to collect. the amount of time they have to file lawsuits varies by state. just three years in delaware. four in pennsylvania. and six in new jersey. but even after that statute of limitations passes, bill collectors may still harass you to pay. so izzy, the medical billing specialist and now medical

debtor, recommends that you are diligent from the start. >> just be aware and check your bills. check everything that you get. >> reporter: for this initiative, nbc universal has partnered with rit medical debt, a non-profit that buys medical debt out of collections and then forgives it. but it's a random and anonymous process so you cannot sign up to receive a portion of nbc's payoff. only you will know if your debt has been forgiven if you receive one of these yellow envelopes with the logo in your mailbox. >> we know our viewers have already come through in a big way. $2,500 they've donated which helps relieve a quarter million dollars worth of this debt. we're hoping they'll still continue to come through. >> all the nbc universal stations across the country are taking part in this push. we want to make insusure philly well represented. visit nbc10.com. click on the link for this story where you'll find the link to donate. $25 as a donation could end up

paying $2,500 in original debt. if you do receive one of those yellow envelopes in the mail, we definitely would like to hear from you. >> george spencer. also on nbc 10 news at 11:00, be there for a sort of reunion decades in the making. a woman wrote to nbc 10 looking for information on the mother she never knew. her mother died just days after doing an interview with nbc 10. our lauren mayk is bringing them together in a virtual way for a very emotional story. >> how much did you wonder about her growing up? >> every day of my life. >> sharday yates is about to see her mother for the first time in video we found in the nbc 10 archives. >> i love my baby. when i was pregnant, my baby was my second chance to start over. >> that's sharday in her mother's arms. she was 5 months old then. her mother was about the age sharday is now when she'll see

her mother for the first time. >> oh, my god. >> the mother she never knew tonight on nbc 10 news at 11:00. now your nbc 10 first alert weather. >> we've had some great weather over the last couple of days, but we're ending the week with a pretty big ocean storm here. the flerirst alert for the enti area. 5:00 a.m. friday to saturday morning. it's got multiple features to this storm. the wind may be the biggest and most important and the most dangerous in this particular case. 50 to 60-mile-an-hour gusts. also coastal flooding threat. localized flooding. a lot going on with this storm. it's not just going to zip through like all the rest of the ones have done this winter. downed trees and powerlines possible with this. coastal roads flooded at times of high tide. we have a full moon making this worse and heavy rain makes it

worse as well. plus snow on the back side of this thing. heavy snow in the no poconos. this is the moisture moving our way but the storm itself is not really going to intensify until it gets offshore. temperatures in the 50s throughout the area now except right at the coast and in the poconos. we got to 61 degrees today. one low pressure area develops around cleveland. the other one offshore. and the problem is we got all this east wind that builds up the tides and in addition to the full moon, that makes it worse. here's the heavier rain coming in thursday night and into friday morning. so here we are with that strong northeast wind. heavy rain. snow starting to fall in the poconos as the colder air comes in on the back end of this storm and the cold air could cause a change over all the way down through other parts of our area. would be a wet snow and melt

like the previous cases. but it is possible and that storm is going to be a monster right offshore and cause all kinds of travel delays toward the northeast. and nobody is going to want to go out on a cruise ship in this kind of storm. the wind kind of calm friday morning but look at that. by 4:00, afternoon rush, gusting up to 50 miles an hour. at least in parts of the area, according to this particular computer model. into friday evening, potential gusts up to 50, especially toward the shore. lewis might end up with the biggest gust out of the entire area and also 1 to 2 inches of rain. i'm john clark. who do the eagles think deserves more money on their team? interesting. plus we hear from doug pederson. did lebron james come to philly to check out schools as he heads to an uncertain summer?

that is next.

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because for a limited time, you'll pay the 75 mbps price and get 150 mbps internet. so, double your speed and save today. that's speed on sale up to 1 gig. act now to get on america's largest gig-speed network. call today. this is sports desk brought to you by xfinity. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. >> i'm john clark doug pederson and howie roseman spoke at the nfl combine today. remember brandon graham said he'd like to have his contract rework forward more money. howie today said brandon deserves more money. howie said they'd like keep all their good players but that they'll have some tough decisions to make. they'd like to keep nick foles as backup quarterback but doug pederson admitted you never know. doug has seen replays of the super bowl.

>> i've done that about four times now. not that i've -- searching for it, but it's on. and so i go back through the game and it's just like, did we win? you know, one of those things. we did win. we had a chance to kind of get through that week after, and then we're energized and jazzed up for the season. >> they really did win. the sixers will be bringing back iliasova and to make room they're waiving booker. philly wants lebron james. does lebron love philly back? listen to nbc sports philadelphia. lebron checking out philly? >> prior to going out to l.a., he was out here. listen, apparently doesn't take that long to check out schools, but from my good sources, my very reliable sources, lebron was looking at private schools on the main line. >> that is a hot scoop. phillies lost this afternoon.

i'm john clark. >> makes you go, hmm. >> should be good. >> all right, john clark. coming up on nbc 10 news at 11:00, an nbc 10 investigation you have to see. >> a police officer accused of sexually assaulting women while on duty. >> i'm not crying because i'm scared. i'm crying because i'm mad. because tohe took advantage of e situation. an x-rated elevator encounter. and the red flags the city ignored. we're finding out who dropped the ball in an nbc 10 investigation tonight at 11:00. ♪ we buy any car dot com ♪

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we've got this coastal storm started. the rain is generally thursday afternoon. it's heaviest thursday night and friday morning. the wind is highest later friday and friday evening. that could cause the most problems and then coastal flooding on top of that. so tammie will have an update coming up at 11:00.

>> major storm. all right, glenn. that's our news. i'm jim rosenfield. >> i'm jacqueline london. we'll see you back here at 11:00 tonight. tonight, the bombshell resignation at the white house. hope hicks, president trump's longest serving aide, stepping down just a day after she admitted to congress that she tells white lies for the president. taking a stand on guns. one of the nation's largest sports retailers will no longer sell assault-style weapons. and it's not stopping there. while president trump calls for a comprehensive guns bill. and accuses senators of being afraid of the nra. parkland students return to school for the first time since the massacre. under heavy police presence. haunted by memories, but standing strong together. a warning for travelers if you think some of those vacation deals on popular discount websites like groupon are too good to be true, you may be right. and