cousins because he was drunk. and a sigh of relief for new jersey governor chris christie as the state probe clears his name in the bridge 68 scandal. >> now the details students in burlington county new jersey have a different kind of christmas wish this year, to save their school. they wrote letters today at saint paul's in burlington city asking santa to skip the presents and send them cash. that's because without a quarter million dollars by next month these kids have learned their school will be closing. new jersey correspondent nora muchanic live in our new jersey news room with more on the school's fight to stay opened. nora. >> reporter: hi, mon today. kids are asking not just for divine intervention but some help from the guy in the red suit, too. now, like so many parochial schools in our area saint paul's is on the chopping block. if they don't raise this money soon they'll be forced to close. saint paul's school in burlington city is fighting for its life. the diocese of trenton and saint katherine drexel parish

can no longer support saint paul's and if the school can't raise $250,000 by january 15th it will have to close in june. >> lost registrations and the economy, things happen but we really feel that if he we were to be able to exist for at least a few more years with some subsidies and some extra money, we would be able to turn this around. >> it's devastating to know this could happen but i think we can actually do it because there's so many people who just love this school. >> reporter: saint paul's was started back in 1870 and now has 164 students from prek to eighth grade. tuition here is $4,100 a year. but that doesn't cover operating costs. so now the push is on to raise a quarter million dollars in just over a month. >> we're trying to reach those people beyond the doors right here so that we're not tapping the same people who are already donating. >> reporter: the school is selling wristband and planning dances and beef and beer dinners, a variety of events to appeal to the community for help. >> many other schools have raised way more than that in like two weeks.

so, i have faith and hope that we can do it. >> reporter: students are doing their part signing pledges to santa claus giving up some of their christmas presents if he or others will donate the money instead to the save saint paul's school fund. >> he probably knows about our school closing, so i think he may give us some money to donate to the school. >> reporter: you think he'll help out. >> yes. >> it's a big deal because a lot of people, you know, want presents for christmas and have a lot of stuff that they need and want. >> reporter: if it means they have to tell santa, santa, i don't want that lego toy or i don't want that robot toy this year, they're okay with that because this place is a gift to them every day. >> reporter: now, the principal tells me $25,000 has been raised so far and with god and santa on their side, rick, they may just pull this off. live in our new jersey news room, i'm nora muchanic, channel6 "action news." >> all right, nora, thank you. in other news tonight

philadelphia police are looking for three men who posed as water department workers to rob an elderly man. officers responded to the 600 block of adams avenue in cress centerville before noon today. investigators say one of the suspect distracted the victim while the other two rifled through the. they left with about a thousand dollars. the victim wasn't injured. one person was rushed to the hospital after this early morning house fire in west philadelphia. smoke poured out of the row home here on the unit block of south conestoga street around 4:00 a.m. flames spread to the second floor melting the roof of the porch. the fire was placed under control in about a half hour. no word on a cause or the condition of the person who was hospitalized. >> a delaware jury has unanimously recommended the death penalty for one of two gang members convicted in a soccer tournament murder. a judge will be making the final sentencing decision in the case of 38-year-old otis phillips. he and 23-year-old jeffrey phillips were convicted in the 200012 murder of herman curry, the 47-year-old father was

killed when gunfire erupted during an eden park soccer tournament. 16-year-old player alexandra kamoro was also killed. faster a delaware county two-year-old who shot himself in the head has been charged. anthony graves turned himself into new castle county police yesterday. on september 30th the child got his hands on a loaded gun and managed to pull the trigger. the little boy is expected to be released later this month. graves is charged with unlawfully permitting a minor access to a gun and felony child endangerment. at the "action news" big board it's sentencing day for a man accused of driving under the influence and then killing two teenagers. joshua malgram pleaded guilty to an auto crash that killed the girls. the girls were cousins and with the room filled with loved ones it was an emotional day inside the cape may courthouse. >> i would like to say to josh

that i forgive you. i forgive you not because you deserve it but i deserve peace. >> reporter: tears from all parties involved today as the victim's sister told the man responsible for their loss that she for gives him. 33-year-old joshua malgram was seen wiping away his tears as he listened to heart felt testimony from grieving family members and the room was filled with emotion as a video montage arranged to music about the young girls played out in the courtroom. in july 2012 the girls were walking to buy ice cream when malgram struck them with his ford bronco. it happened on bayshore road in the green creek section of middle township, new jersey. authorities say his blood alcohol contender was twice the legal limit and that he was also impaired from prescription drugs. in a plea deal malgram was sentenced today to 18 grevers prison. he also read an emotional apology to the family.

>> i know nothing brings them back. there isn't a day that goes by. i pray every night before court that the family has strength to look at me because i'm in the room with them am i. a monster. >> he was convicted on first degree aggravated manslaughter charges and as part of the plea deal under the new jersey's no early release act he will have to serve 85 percent of the 18 year term or 15 and a third years before he's eligible for parole. rick. >> all right, sharrie thank you. philadelphia police have a clear picture of the knife wheeling man wanted for robbing a 7-eleven yesterday. this is video of the suspect taken inside the store on the 1300 block of market street. the man walked right behind the counter pulled a knife and demanded money from the clerk. he got away with an undisclosed amount of cash. if you recognize this suspect, philadelphia police want to hear from you. a philadelphia area native has been chosen to be the nation's next secretary of

defense. president obama introduced ashton carter as his pick during a press conference today. carter who grew up in abington is expected to be easily confirmed by congress. he is a yale and oxford grad who most recently served as the deputy secretary at the defense department. but he has a diverse resume including a background as a medieval historian and scientist. >> he's also a physicist which means that he's one of the few people who actually understand how many of our defense systems work. >> good afternoon. >> carter would replace chuck hagel who stepped down last week. hagel in an unusual move close not attend today's announcement. coming up tonight at 6:00 we'll have local reaction to carter's nomination. >> new jersey governor chris christie's been cleared of wrongdoing in the so-called bridgegate scandal. a state probe shows no evidence that christie had knowledge of politically motivated lane closures on the george washington bridge. investigators did find that two aides acted with little

regard for public safety when they ordered the gridlock as revenge against the mayor of fort lee. christie fired bridget kelly and david wild stein and has denied involvement. >> time for another check of the highways and by ways on a friday night. >> let's see how it's rolling out there with matt. hi, matt. >> speaking of gridlock, good evening once again, rick and monica, you know we have this crash on 42 southbound by 55 that i talked about last time around. since then there was another accident on 42 by 295. that's why you're seeing this huge northbound backlog now on 42 headed up toward the walt whitman bridge. we're hearing a couple of the lanes are blocked in each direction on 42. so, also if you're coming south headed to cape may for christmas parade weekend like i will be in a little bit, you're facing a huge jam coming off the walt whitman bridge. also we have a parade tonight in somers point. shore road closed for a couple hours and there's one in lindenwold blocking portions of clues landing road, 30 the white horse pike among others. back to the accidents in chester county it's a long slow crawl on the westbound side of the 30 bypass from 202

out to this point at 282 where the crash is taking out the right lane. we still have big delays on 95 in delco. northbound side from namaans road up to the blue route and southbound on 95 at the blue route another crash is blocking a lane. lots to watch out for this evening but have a good weekend, rick. >> what parade matt real quick. >> cape may christmas parade in cape may. >> have fun. have a great weekend. >> you too. >> with very deserved pomp and circumstance the in the line of duty law enforcement and firefighters memorial was dedicate dad in atlantic city. along with the bronze statues the ceremony unveiled two granite pedestals symbolizing the world trade center's twin towers. it pays tribute to those who rose up in the line of duty on that tragic september day. >> still ahead on "action news," worse than originally thought the hacking at sony pictures has reportedly put some movie stars at risk for identity theft. we'll explain. >> and jayson werth headed to the big house. we'll tell you about the jail sentence he just earned for a summer speeding ticket. melissa.

>> and rick we do have some moisture on the move. light rain across the delaware and lehigh valleys but there's more wet weather to come for the start of our weekend. details coming up with the "action news" forecast. >> all right, melissa thank you. those stories and much more. first a holiday message from overseas. >> ♪ >> hey this is captain fill richardson here in africa. i want to say merry christmas to my amazing daughter in cherry hill, new jersey, hannah. merry christmas and i love you very much. >> ♪

>> the cyber attack at sony pictures resulted in more than just the leak of movies. personal information of employees including stars has been breached as well. that reportedly includes social security numbers, salaries and passwords of more than 47,000 current and former staffers. a data security firm found much of the information was duplicated making it easier for the hackers to access. >> well, no one will be charged in the hazing scandal that led to the cancellation of central bucks west football season. bucks county d.a. david heckler announced today his office did not receive enough

evidence to support legal action. the final two game of the season were canceled following allegations of rookie initiations at a picnic in august. head coach brian hensel was removed from his post. he is still a teacher at the school. looks like former philly jayson werth is headed to jail. he's been convicted of reckless driving sentenced to 10 days behind bars. a state trooper says werth was speeding at 105 miles per hour when he pulled him over in july in virginia. the speed limit was 55. werth has the option of appealing his conviction. is set to start. >> jamie apody live in the sports center with the latest on a big game for the eagles sunday. jamie. >> yeah, guys it's huge eagles getting set to face the seahawks and shady mccoy getting set to make history. he needs just 48 yards to become the eagles all time leading rusher. now shady did not practice today for personal reasons not sure what those reasons are. nothing that will stop him from playing on sunday. what a tough matchup this will be, the defending super bowl

champs playing really good football. huge game when it comes to a chance at a first rounds bye in the playoffs. first two weeks we've seen the birds play great and awful. they're favored by one in this game but they know it's a true test. >> really good team and not just team-wise but good players offense, defense and special teams, they're really sound and we've showed that we can be that team as well, just in our own way so hopefully we bring our best in all three phases. >> it's all about how we do together and if something goes wrong how the other phase picks up the other two phases. >> so who will be the difference maker in this game? according to our expert ron jaworski it's a guy that's been an unsung hero this entire season. >> ♪ >> lesean mccoy is always a key. the eagles want to run the football. but i think there's another key in the back field. that's darren sproles. we all know about the secondary in the seattle seahawks, they're very good, they shut you down, they cover and they hit. i think the eagles get a

favorable matchup with darren sproles. he's so versatile. he could run the ball out of the back field. he can catch the ball out of the back field. you can line him up wider out on the wing. he's that moving chess piece that you like to have 'cause i think the good matchup the favorable matchup for the eagles will be against the seattle line backers so that means darren sproles could have a big game. >> we will have you covered for the key nfc matchup. first we'll preview a game on eagles game day kickoff at 11:30 a.m. sunday. keep it here for a wrap up at 11:35:00 p.m. sunday right here on channel since. your official eagles station. now it's not very often we get to say this but tonight the sixers will try to make it two in a row. that's right the sixers hosting the thunder tonight. sam hinkie brett brown basking in the glow of the team's first victory. tonight a winning streak may be hard to come by. thunder of kevin durant. you have to think wednesday's win will help their

confidence. brett brown paid a visit to our station today. >> i think it can can help a lot. weaver been within five points on 11 out of our 18 games in fourth periods. we've only been punched a few times. and you know how we close out games, how we learn how to win games, that's always the challenge with any team but it's highlighted with a bunch of 20-year-olds and so i think, you know, doing that the other night will put us in good shape. >> this is not exactly the hindenburg disaster but check out what happened at the pacers trailblazers game. the ford blimp crashed into the stands. no one was hurt. workers tried to should have it out the exit and clearly it was too big for that and got stuck. hope those fans didn't pay too much for those obstructed view streets. that's sports. back to someone who is full of hot air, rick williams. >> okay, all right. i'll get you back jamie. thank you very much. an undefeated football team from philadelphia is heading to disney world. these youngsters are members of the northwest raiders pop

warner football team and they are the pride of germantown. the action cam was there as they left this afternoon to compete for a national title in orlando. the teammates had a wonderful undefeated season but the hope is that this entire experience will elevate their lives beyond football. good luck. >> ♪ look what i've got. when you get verizon fios, you get beautiful hd picture quality, super fast internet, and america's most reliable network. so you won't miss a second of that movie, that game they love, or those moments with family. can we sleep over? please! come on! see why fios is rated number one in customer satisfaction and hd picture quality based on customer satisfaction studies. call today and make your house, the house. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v

where you have 3 ways to become a millionaire. first, win the top prize of up to 25 million dollars when you match all the draw numbers. or win 1 million dollars when you match all the club numbers. or you could win up to one million dollars as a contestant on the exciting new tv game show in las vegas. play the monopoly millionaires' club game today. there could be more million dollar prizes than any lottery game in us history. the pennsylvania lottery. benefits older pennsylvanians every day. it'll come from my kitchen. the biggest surprise this season won't come from an upset, try our new philly cheesesteak pizza. a large for $12. add a red kettle cookie for $6 and a portion of the proceeds go to the salvation army. better ingredients. better pizza papa john's.

>> holidays can mean safety concerns with tree lights or candles adding new concerns to your home. today the philadelphia fire department stages annual demonstrations showing the right way to handle a live tree. firefighters distributed tree tags like this one throughout the city urging you to water your tree daily and not to out the candles make sure. >> if you're going to go shopping this year for a tree you may want to wait sunday instead of saturday. >> sunday would be a good day and saturday early. otherwise saturday night we're tracking heavy rain. we'll show you what's going on storm tracker 6 live double scan radar showing you that we've got some moisture in and around philadelphia so we're going a little tighter you can see that moisture in south jersey down across our south and west and to our north and west as well, north and west of that 95 corridor so along route 222 getting close to allentown. if you're to the north of hamburg on i-78 we've got that light but steady rainfall and you notice mixed precipitation to the west of pottsville.

that will move into areas of the poconos later tonight. we'll slow you a cluster of activity across areas of south jersey from salem eastward into millville and even for kent and new castle counties there in delaware. we've got a little bit of light rain. it is staged it's moving on through. more moisture moves in as we get into saturday night and some of that will be heavy at times. temperatures for the most part are above the freezing mark. the exception the poconos it's 29 degrees there and that's where we had that winter weather advisory that will stay up until 1 o'clock in the morning during the overnight hours. elsewhere it's 44 in the city, line in beach haven and 37 degrees outside to the west in lancaster. satellitesatellite 6 along withn radar shows you lots of clouds, that moisture the first batch moving on through and you do notice that mixed precipitation across northern pa. you move off to the west and we've got more moisture on the move through the ohio valley. the area of low pressure however that we're tracking is moving out of missouri and this area of low pressure will track to the south of us, move through the virginias as we get into saturday and that's going to bring the heavy rain our way. future tracker 6 showing you

7:30 this evening lots of clouds around and yeah, you do have to allow for a little bit of mist and drizzle, some light steady rain across areas north and west of that 95 corridor really can't rule it out anywhere. you notice as we advance this as we get into 10 o'clock in the morning on saturday it's mostly cloudy, a little bit of light precip but the heaviest stays off to our north and west until we watch that plume of moisture come in from the southwest to northeast direction as we get into 3 o'clock in the afternoon, so everyone will be locked in. it's a bit of a soaking start to our saturday as we do have that moisture overhead. the good news we'll start to clear out as we get into the overnight hours saturday night into sunday and a better half as we get into sunday for the weekend. so, future tracker rainfall showing you we could find anywhere from a half inch in dover to more than an inch of precipitation there in the poconos as we get into the rest of tonight. and you follow that into saturday as well. we'll clear outer just in time for the eagles playing their game at the linc as they take on the seahawks on sunday. kickoff around 4:25. the air temperature for kickoff around 43 degrees.

once we get into the fourth quarter in the upper 30's with wind chills in the middle 30's. that stiff north to northeasterly wind at 12 to 25 miles per hour. the call from accuweather for the rest of tonight cloudy and damp light rain and drizzle dropping down to 41 in the city, 35 in the suburbs. the exclusive accuweather 7-day forecast showing you some drizzle in the mourning tomorrow, afternoon steady rain. high temperature 55. on sunday we'll dry out so that's the better half of the weekend but wind chills in the 30's then. high temperature sunday 46. it will be a bright day. on monday mostly cloudy and at 42, tuesday that rain threat, a nor'easter that we're tracking so a possible coastal storm on the way. flooding threat is a concern and some snow in the poconos. we'll keep you posted on the track of that of the storm system next week guys. thanks guys. >> thank you. is it a ahead of the weather at 6abc.com. you can find the latest like live radar and the hourly forecast. it's all at 6abc.com/weather.

>> (whistleblowing). >> bordentown's olde city hall has been found in a train lovers paradise. dozens of model trains in every size are set to chug around intricate lay outs with hand painted scenery miniature towns sounds and lights. the holiday train show attracts thousands of visitors each sea season. >> how cute. right now jim gardner and the "action news" news team standing by with these stories at 6:00 fire that destroyed a police officer's home. >> the latest on the condition of beanie sigel and the search for the gunny gunman. >> a graduate of abington high school is nominated as the for the entire "action news" team i'm monica malpass.

have a great weekend. >> good night. over 20 years 31 million students started college, but didn't complete a degree for lots of reasons at devry university we believe there are also lots of reasons to finish so we help you maximize qualifying credits you've already earned so you can graduate sooner and get on to a great career because whatever kept you from finishing before...

all that matters is your reason to do it now. see more reasons to finish and get started at devry.edu. >> ♪ >> "action news." delaware valley's leading news program. with ducis rodgers, meteorologist cecily tynan and jim gardner. >> ♪ >> friday night, it's a change of plans for the taj mahal casino in atlantic city and police find the vehicle they believe killed a young woman during a hit and run. but the big story on "action news" tonight is the fire at the home of a limerick township police officer. it is now a case of arson. a neighbor took this cell phone video of the flames attacking the home of detective ernie morris early yesterday on commons drive in

lower pottsgrove. today police arrested the officer's neighbor 52-year-old donna krupp and charged her with setting the blaze. live at the house tonight is "action news" reporter chad pradelli. chad what's the latest information on this? >> reporter: jim, investigators say there were ongoing tensions between detective morris and krupp. state police say this entire crime was caught on surveillance camera. they say krupp who lives right there in that yellow house was seen on video walking across that lawn walking up to the front porch and lighting christmas ornaments on fire. the fire quickly engulfed the front porch. this is video recorded by a neighbor before firefighters arrived early yesterday morning. and state police say it's just a few minutes after neighbor donna krupp intentionally set the fire. >> who would have thought that, you know, somebody living that close to you could do something that drastic and that is just horrible, despicable. >> it's tragic.