trying to fix this water main, and they are making repairs and restoring water to people's home here on ashborn road. this is what it looked like this afternoon shortly after the water main burst. >> i came out to get my mail and all of a sudden i saw the burst tonight looked like a volcano. >> noise and then boom and there was water coming out like a fountain. a big fountain coming out. the water came out bursting from the tree. >> it took crews almost an hour to shut off the water. >> no water right now. >> it's going to be a while before they can get it back on? >> yes probably. >> now aqua america says that

ten homes are without water right now, that is until the repairs can be completed. but it could be into the evening hours dann cuellar, channel 6 "action news." >> thank you. developing tonight two children remain in the hospital after it was hit by a van. at broad and wyoming, one the kids is 2 years old and taken to the hospital in critical condition and the other is 4 years old and he is in stable condition tonight. the driver did stop and police are not filing charges. >> the trial is underway for the man accused of strangling a pediatrician, he told police he killed the woman because she questioned work she was doing in her home. david henry is live with the latest. >> it was a chilling random murder that made headlines

around the world. a young pediatrician and researchers killed in her own home allegedly by an exterminator turned executioner. >> it happened on this rowhouse and melissa called an exterminator to her home, 39-year-old jason smith police said strangled her and set her basement on fire. how smith allegedly left his victim hog tied and dead. and threw everything flammable within reach on her body and set it on fire. after being arrested, he gave a lengthy confession. he said she requested his work and he became enraged and

started choking her and she said please stop i'll do whatever you want. video surveillance showed smith leaving the house and getting into his pickup truck and only "action news" was there as police arrested smith and towed the truck away from levittown. >> during the hearing a year ago smith sobbed in court as his confession was read out loud. the judge ruled against the defense to have that confession thrown out and to have the graphic photos thrown out from the murder scene. the photos provoked tears from melissa's family and friends. >> they had no comment only to say they will talk about it when all of this is over. >> the only defense offered by smith's lawyer today was that the confession was coerced by the police. live at the criminal justice

center, david henry channel 6 "action news." >> david thank you. law enforcement in montgomery county rounded up nearly a dozen suspected dead beat parents today accused of being behind on child support payments equalling more than $50,000. "action news" reporter, katherine scott has the story from norristown. >> we tend to keep the pressure on. >> montgomery sheriff announced nine people were arrested overnight in a surprise sweep of suspected dead beat parents they were brought into the county courthouse in norristown to face a judge, one covered his face and the other was in his underwear. >> we brought clothes for him. the sheriffs deputies went out with the warrants in hand and a ninth person was arrested by police and one individual was found hiding in the closet. one was found with an ounce of marijuana and five prescription pills.

this raid was for parents that willingly refuse to pay child support, they earn a place on this based on the amount of money they owe or how hard it is to find them. the total amount owed by the nine was $66,000 representing nine children there were people on the list that weren't there this morning within the sheriff's department came knocking but they will not be forgotten. >> turn yourself in to our office before we come out drag you in or put your photo on the website. >> a link on the sheriff's department website at our website at 6abc.com. >> the mayor of baltimore is calling for a federal review of the city's police force in the wake of freddie gray's death today mayor stephanie rawlins-blakes asked them to investigate the police

department, after loretta lynch pledged to improve baltimore's police force. >> we have to get it right failure is not an option i will hold those accountable if change is not made. we cannot be timid in addressing this problem. >> also, today maryland's governor lifted the state of emergency for baltimore that means all 3,000 national guard troops have withdrawn from the city. here closer to home. the entire front wall of the home collapsed in south philadelphia overnight exposing everything inside. this is what it looked like after daylight on the 1400 block. the bricks krupabled just before 3:00 this morning and the home was vake antd and nobody was injured.

the newcastle county police department held their annual police memorial ceremony here in minquadale, they held a wreath ceremony at the billing. >> this is the living flame memorial in frank rin square the only one that combined the police officers and firefighters that die in the line of duty, they added robert wilson and firefighter, lieutenant joyce craig to the memorial. officer damian stevenson talked about his partner's heroic efrlts. >> what he did i don't know if i could do that. i call him a hero, my hero. >> wilson was shot and killed while trying to stop a robbery at a video store. he died while battling a house fire. >> there is a trash site in philadelphia for pickup. the streets department announced

a plan today to get more trucks on the street to get the job done vernon odom is live with more on the story. vernon? >> good evening, salvation is indeed on the way the city blames the problem frankly on these, broken down trash trucks and beyond the eight year cycle of use, and the police commissioner is promising to have the problem in the rear view mirror by mid summer. soon to be back on the streets, but the city's fleet of trash compacters is at a low level to keep up the 97% collection rate, the streets department confirms the fleet is down 35% dropping collections city wide to 85%. the city controller is trashing the streets department. >> they have neglected this problem and we are wasting money in overtime and workers are working 10 hour days and the

workers don't even want the overtime and the city has a reputation of being a dirty city. >> they blame the recession and two bad winters in a row where the compacters were used for snow removal. the delivery of 30 newly purchased vehicles and 20 leased ones. we take our on time collection rate seriously and we hope to be back to 97% on time collection rate by mid summer. >> the overtime bill to catch up will by reduced now a second collection shift will be added. >> another vehicle to maintain our 97% collection rate and money in the budget to collect vehicles before they break down and cause additional problems in the future. >> an estimated 30000 philadelphian homes are depleted by the fleet and city hall claims it will be sorted out in

the three months. vernon odom, channel 6 "action news." >> all right thank you. it's wednesday night and lets get a check of the "action news" traffic report. >> midweek let go to matt pellman. >> getting over the hump rick and monica to me it looks like people want to get home, headed out of the city on the schuylkill expressway through this point at city avenue to the conshohocken curve 40 minute drive, just a lot of volume and slow conditions on westbound 76. the crash is on the way in the southbound lane of the boulevard. they are working on the water main break and the dam they were talking about in cheltenham for a while. ashmead is an alternate and you a crash on the northeast extension approaching landed dale taking out the left lane and speeds in the 20s through there. in east white land an overturned

truck accident so phoenixville pike is closed and sidly road gets you around it and dining under the stars ton and state street is shut down and shuttle buses on the 101 trolley. but that is a fun thing. >> thank you sir. >> more ahead on "action news" at 5:00, sir elton john challenges congress to change the history on aids. cecily? >> we are dealing with clouds and showers today temperature vds dropped into the 70s but i am tracking the return of summer like heat in the accuweather forecast. >> coming up in health check how a portable version of an artificial heart is keeping a local man alive until he can get a full transplant.

singer elton john asks lawmakers to continue the fight against aids, john said the aids epidemic is not over and they are critical in the efforts to end the disease, there is a window of opportunity before us a window through which we can see the ends of aids within my life time. we cannot afford to let the

window close. >> john is a british citizen, he came to america in the 60s, he warned a lack of help from the u.s. could open the door for aids to become a ruthless pandemic. >> tonight in health check a south jersey man left the hospital today very much alive without a human heart. >> ali gorman is live at the big board to explain how that is possible. >> michael law is the fourth person in pennsylvania and the second in our area to go home with a portable version of a totally artificial heart. law hugged his medical team at the university of pennsylvania and headed home to mount holly this afternoon and has battled congestive heart falt your since 1983 in march when he got very sick he went to get the

artificial heart, it replaces all but the upper portion of law's heart he has a much smaller power pack and the goal is to help law gets healthier until a human heart is available. >> want to get back to drumming at church and i play in two other jads grouped and fly remote voel airplanes. >> that portable pack is only in use for a few years last november a patient at temple was the first in our area to use one. and ucla's football teamed up with the department of defense for concussions and brain injuries, 27 players have volunteered to wear sensors in their helmets that will measure every hit. the information is transferred to a laptop and if the hit

transfers too high they tell them to check the player. that will help trainers spot if an athlete is not using proper technique or putting them at higher risk and the sensors will determine how all hits violent or not affect the brain. 15 colleges are involved in this study. a fun day at this buck county school 127 students at titus elementary had a color round as part of the i run for life program, they are training to run a 3 k later in doylestown. the first run for most of them. today their parents and teachers celebrate bid throwing powdered paint at them. sorry! i was day dreaming. about becoming a pastry chef? uh... yeah. specializing in custom cakes?

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jetblue airways is partnering with a company to send flights from new york to cuba cuba the non-stop flight travels to the airport and the move comes as the u.s. and cuba moves to normalize relations, the flights are set to take off

starting in july. coming up at 11:00 a special report here is a preview. >> if are you mad at comcast are you certainly not alone. the "action news" troubleshooters get more complaints against comcast than any other company, we are hard at work gets refunds and credits to customers that are owed them. what is comcast doing to try to transform their customer service? it's coming up tonight on "action news" at 11:00. a long time delaware plumbing business has step in the online retail business speakman has operated in the wilmington area since 1969, it made the heavenly shower at the westin hotel since 1989 and now they are at the hotels

nationwide and now they have launched a website complete with an online store.

time for accuweather at the "action news" big board cecily tynan is here and the one time break from the heat sounds like it's over and back in the heat tomorrow with more sunshine and

today we are dealing with clouds and some showers but nothing organized. north of quakertown around allentown we are seeing light shower activity it's all moving down to the south and east, no lightning strikes associated with this. it has an impact on temperatures only 66 reading 64 with winds out of the east, a lot cooler than yesterday yesterday's high is 85 so far 77 degrees in philadelphia and the high is 74 and millville 73 and closer to the shore the ocean temperature in the 50s and the temperature along the beaches only in the low 60s, dunl scan live, a wider view shows storms near state college, if you look at the way it's moving, all the storms are moving towards washington, d.c. and baltimore they will be missing us and in the meantime the focus of severe weather tonight across the plain

states, tornado watches lining up ahead of what could be a severe outbreak of tornadoes already six reports in kansas city and oklahoma i have a live chopper view scanning the skies northwest of oklahoma city and the dark clouds are developing and it will be an active night across the plain states with a lot of tornadoes back at home tonight is the first night when the sunsets at 8:00, and the sun will set at 8:00 or after 8:00 until august 13th. the sun returns tomorrow and a lot of clouds and it stays warm but not as warm as last night. the morning low is 65 degrees and the low overnight is 57 and millville 52 and wilmington 56 and cape may 53 degrees, future tracker showing we are up to 60 degrees and heading through the day good amount of sunshine afternoon high about 80 in

philadelphia it will feel like summer begun and temperatures will climb as we head through the weekend. the five-day at 5:00, showing tomorrow pleasantly warm and humidity is low with a high of 80 degrees on friday we bump it up to 85 degrees and the same on saturday for the aberdeen dad vail regatta, could see a late day thunderstorm on sunday 87 degrees and we are tracking rain for monday and cooler temperatures in the exclusive accuweather seven-day forecast adam has that in about 25 minutes. more to come on "action news" at 5:00, firefighters come to the resz cue of a dog that became trapped down a 12 foodt well but that is not end of the story. those stories and more when "action news" comes right back.

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assaulted a woman in fishtown. and a firefighter is taken to the hospital following this fire fight in south jersey today and an ambitious plan to rid the neighborhoods of blight and dangerous buildings. and philadelphia police continue to search for a sexual predator who targeted a young woman walking down a kensington street. it's a minivan and the sketch of the attackers they believe he abducted and sexual assaulted a 21-year-old woman last week. chad pradelli is live with the latest. >> reporter: monica, this was a frightening abduction and sexual assault that has the community on edge and police asking for the public's help. >> this needs to stop happening it's ridiculous. >> unease and anger and fear just some of the emotion expressed on the 2100 block of

east york after a man that looks like this pulled up and kidnapped and raped a woman. >> i typically bicycle at the time it happened and it infuriates me that is going on. >> people need to start fighting back, what if it is your sister or mother or daughter it's a disgrace. >> the woman was walking to work when the suspect pulled up and acting like he was on his cell phone walking into a house on york. >> the victim didn't think anything was out of place and then walking by the male he turns and produces a handgun and orders her into a nearby van that was right there. he sexual assaults her and then dropped her off at boston and almond street in fishtown. it's a 1990s blue minivan

probably a dodge or chrysler. >> he knows the area and knows where to go and how to get around. he is either from the area or works in the area. >> this girl is going to be really mentally messed up now and it's such a shame this doesn't need to happen. >> and detectives tell me they have no leads if you need to look at the suspect sketch or the minivan go to 6abc.com. chad pradelli channel 6 "action news." >> thank you. there is now a $10,000 reward for information on the shooting of a little 8-year-old girl who may have been the victim of road rage, curry is at the hospital since saturday night's shooting in west philadelphia they say that the family double parked their car outside of their own home but someone sitting in a black sedan behind their car fired a gunshot

and hit the little girl in the head. chopper 6 hd over the 2700 block of south broad street in hamilton township this afternoon as firefighters put out this garage fire, the flames destroyed the structure and part of the grounds, we are told that the firefighter was take and to the hospital with possible exposure to chemicals stored in the garage and nobody else was hurt and the cause is under investigation. >> detectives are searching for the man that robbed the family dollar store. the suspect walked in back on april 22nd and waited in line and acted as if he was purchasing something when the cashier opened the register the thief jumped over the counter and grabbed cash, and on his way out of the story yelled nobody move or i'll kill you.

a driver is expected to make a full recovery after crash on a ramp on 295 in newport this afternoon. it happened on the westbound lanes to 295 north and the driver hit a guardrail and trapped the female driver until crews could cut her out. she was take and to christiana care hospital. charges are pending in this crash. >> city leaders are taking action to bring down vacant warehouses across the area, they are an eye sore and officials say they are a safety risk. eva pilgram is live at hunting park with more on this plan. >> reporter: sharrie, old warehouses like this one here at 8th and rising sun left empty for years how have become safety issues for their neighborhoods, the city rolled out a plan to take them down. >> gloria johnson lived across

the street from this empty warehouse for years now. >> i don't want to see kids get hurt or go up in flames again the next time maybe we won't be so lucky. >> you never know when it will collapse, we could be walking by with our grandchildren and someone could get hurt. >> neighbors have been complaining about the building for more than a decade. city leader as noun that this building will be coming down. >> we are proud of our history and heritage but like many big cities in our part of the country, we have many old buildings and in many instances no longer serve our needs and some have fall and into disrepair and sometimes dangerously so. >> the floors become unbearable to load, so when there is a fire and the firemen try to approach the fire from the roof or floor level, because of fire and deterioration of the floor they

collapse and that is how you lose first responders. >> they announced a partnership with the fire department to do joint inspections that partnership comes with $5.5 million in new funding and the idea is to expedite the process for problem spots. >> i am so glad. >> it's about time i'm going to miss it but it's about time. >> they are taking down this building here, they will have to take it apart by hand, brick by brick before they can bring in some equipment, to take down the lower two stories as well. we are live in hunting park, eva pilgram channel 6 "action news.." >> change is coming thank you. new jersey supreme court is

retro actively requiring -- the u.s. supreme court ruled a search warrant is needed in case of emergency cases a gloucester county man arrested for drunk driving appealed to have his blood results thrown out. one camden county fire department is trying to reunite a little dog that it rescued with its rightful owner the dog was pulled from a 12 foot abandoned well, firefighters say they are not sure how long the dog was down there and they have released this video in the hopes of finding the dog's home, if you have any ideas call the waterford township police we have information about it on 6abc.com. a delaware county teen got a big honor today from local

lawmakers, kylie mccann organizered a training seminar for her fellow students her dad is a paramedic, she organized it after her dad told her about a child that was saved by cpr. nice work. >> good for her. time for an update on the highways on a wednesday night. >> lets go to matt pellman. >> rolling slowly on the blue route, northbound side to mid county because the northeast extension is still extra crowded from northeast to landsdale and speeds to the 30s and 40s versus the low 20s last time around that is progress. if you are progressing into norristown, look for a wreck at 220 at the dannehower bridge and 295 we got good news from

penndot. in delco everything is finished after two years at the route 1 bridge that construction project finally wrapped up. elsewhere in delco it's dining under the stars so state street is closed. rick and monica back over to you. >> thank you. more to come on "action news" tonight, do you remember the controversy surrounding the new england patriots and the underinflated footballs nfl investigators finally commented today on deflate-gate and jeff skversky has the details. and there was an annual event in center city philadelphia today. >> showers north and west of philadelphia and all of them remain to the south this evening and let you know if there is any needed rain in the forecast. >> thank you. a florida woman is thanking a

local pizza restaurant from saving her from a life-threatening situation. i'll have the latest when "action news" comes right back.

there's over two hundred thousand students in philadelphia. jim kenney and tony williams are fighting over public schools versus charters. i think they're both wrong...it's making sure they all get a good education. teachers should have their contracts respected. they also should be held accountable. and it's wrong philadelphia gets less school funding than other parts of pennsylvania. i'll work with harrisburg to change that. but if they refuse i'll take them to federal court. as mayor i'll do what's right for them.

a mother's quick thinking is

credited for saving her life and the life of her children. they were held hostage when they placed an order for pizza on her cell phone. on the electronic ticket was a message. on the top it said get 911 help and on the bottom it read hostage. the order came from a desperate mom held at knife point by her boyfriend nickerson unable to place the phone call with her boyfriend listening, at some point she convinced him the kids needed to eat and use her phone to use the pizza hut app. >> the boyfriend never knew about it until he saw us coming around the corner. >> mom and the three children

made it out safely and nickerson surrendered peacefully and this started over an argument about nickerson's drug use. >> thank you sharrie. turning to sports tonight a former philadelphia eagle is taking aim at chip kelly. jeff skversky is live in the sports center with more. >> lasean mccoy running his mouth, perhaps still upset about being traded to buffalo taking a shot at chip kelly in espn magazine. we know he is upset about the trade to the bills. but he told the magazine he

wants full control, he got rid of all the good players and the black players fastest. here is what ron jaworsky thinking. >> it's just noise when a team lets a player go they are disgruntled when they lead, and now shady gets a chance to go to buffalo and show what he can do all the other stuff off the field is nothing more than a guy that is just a little bit disgruntled and a lot of noise i read nothing into that, i evaluate my players how they perform on the field and the coach how they perform on the field not what they say after they leave the team. when a guy gets traded or cut he is not going to say nice things. >> will be interesting when mccoy returns to the linc with the bills come december.

remember that whole deplate gate with brady and the patriots, they reveal that it's probable that tom brady was at least aware that the game balls were deflated in the game in january and it's unlikely that a locker room attendant would deflate the balls without brady's approval. the nfl new decide whether to discipline the super bowl champ. >> chase utley is back on the bench, the second base man has the worst average in baseball, he is batting just .103, he is trying to get him out of the worst start of his career. the phils try no bounce back after an ugly 9-0 loss last night. and a sneak peek of a story we are bringing up at 6:00, a 10-year-old eagles fan a cancer survivor was getting picked on

at school and to lift his spirits they invited him to the practice facility. >> meet darren sprawls and the guys. >> i got to see them practice and got signatures and it was really cool. >> sounds it coming up at 6:00 we'll take you inside of dominic's visit and the players say they were inspired by a 10-year-old kid. >> thank you jeff. mayor michael nutter showing love to the philadelphia freedom. in honor of the team's 40th anniversary and the team was owned by tennis great billy jean king. it was created on this date back in 1975 and presented mayor nutter with a special freedom jersey. and people in the overbrook section got a taste of the real world, they hosted this career day here and two former philadelphia basketball players

spoke to students about their careers and how sports influenced them and they heard from a mercedes dealer and got an up close and personal look at some very nice vehicles.

time for the accuweather forecast with adam joseph in with clouds and cooler temperatures as promised. >> but as we come into the weekend we dry things out and heat things up. looking live on double scan radar, splashes of green here

and there especially to the north and west of philadelphia as we close in closer around buck county to doylestown and new hope along 202, a couple of hits of rain drops on your windshield and the northeast extension as you work north of landsdale and quakertown and the southeastern corner of berks county and the southern part of lehigh county getting more rain as well. but not enough to soak the ground, 77 today and 6 degrees above normal despite we dropped off from 85 which we saw to days in a row yesterday and the day before the record 90 degrees set back in 1984. and the sunsets after 8:00 between now and suggest 17th. 68 in chestnut hill and 74 in south philadelphia, a big jump in temperature from northeast philly to the southern section

of the county and 74 in wilmington and 73 in millville and to the north it's cooler in the 60s, a healthy amount of clouds and scattered showers and temperatures at the shore seeing temperatures in the 60s, because of wind coming off the cold atlantic. and a few showers north of philadelphia and some sunshine toward delaware and southern new jersey and storms firing up west of washington and the storms remain to the south and west of this particular system. a nasty storm lifting to the heartland and the northern plains, you can see the stripe of red boxes and in fact tornado warnings parts of oklahoma and kansas, the storms are cooking up there and that system remains to the west of the weekend, we are kind of in the dry here the next few days. lots of clouds and it stays mild in the suburbs and 57 in center

city and a decent amount of clouds around and as we get into the afternoon the clouds fall apart as the easterly wind takes over and the sunshine rushes and that helps temperatures warm above average tomorrow at 80 degrees, the exclusive accuweather seven-day forecast 80 tomorrow and we jump it back up to 85 friday and saturday and a touch humid as well for the aberdeen dad vail regatta, a summer feeling and mothers day 87 degrees and the normal should be only 72 and the warm of the mothers day in 24 years the warmest was 90 degrees in 1991 and then still sweltering here on monday 87 with humidity and our next chance for any wide chance of thunderstorms or widespread storms and 85 and back to normal on wednesday.

so the warm weather is here to stay for almost the whole seven-day forecast. as storms and showers pop up, check 6abc.com/weather get the updates forecast and weather warnings and live storm tracker 6 radar. swoop stole the show at an annual event the market flower market for childrens charities the eagles mascot was on hand posing for pictures if you didn't get a chance to make it out today the market continues tomorrow. a good night to get cozy in front of the steve for laughs and drama on an all new prime time. at 8:00, "the middle" and then at 8:30 the goldbergs and 9:30 blackish and nashville at 10:00.

these colorful creations are lining the walls of a hospital in trenton. they held their annual art show today made possible by the children and centers cares program. >> very pretty. jim gardner and the "action news" news team is standing by with these stories next at 6:00. the democratic race for philadelphia mayor tonight is heating up. and a water main burst in the streets of cheltenham. have you rented your place for the summer? there are still some available. i'm nora muchanic with a look at what is out there. for cecily tynan adam joseph jaime apody monica malpass, i'm rick williams, have a nice evening.

"action news" delaware valley's leading news program. with ducis rogers, meteorologist, cecily tynan, and jim gardner. wednesday night and a chester county massage therapist is under arrest accused of self you'll assaulting a client and a van strikes to children in the logan section of philadelphia, but the big story on "action news" tonight is a new controversy that exploded today in the democratic race for philadelphia mayor the issue came out of last night's debate here at channel 6 when anthony williams said he would give police commissioner charles ramsey the boot if he wins, that set off mayor michael nutter today who held nothing back in blasting williams. >> "action news" reporter john

rawlins live outside of city hall. john, it would appear that we have fire works in this campaign. >> interesting a stinging rebuke from the mayor who is across not running, he is preparing to leave office next year but directed at two men that would like his job. >> it came at the memorial service for police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty. against those critical of those against charles ramsey and stop and frisk. >> you want to make a political foint in this environment i have to speak out. >> during the mayoral primary debate, street and williams said they would not retain ramsey because how stop and frisk was used in minority communities. >> ramsey is out of here. >> they have to be