tonight in philadelphia. two different cities but of one mind and one heart tonight. bigotry against blacks against jews against anyone unacceptable, and it's time to reclaim the soul of america. it is wednesday night and the big story on "action news," center city philadelphia where streets were filled by thousands of madger marchers and their me, philly is charlottesville. dann cuellar is there with the report. >> it culminated with a standing room only crowd inside united methodist church which spilled on to the streets. >> several thousand people from across the region showed up for the rally power. philly is charlottesville in the

wake of deadly violence last weekend. >> we are here to say that we don't support that. >> a number of people denouncing the president believing he didn't come out strong enough against white supremacists and natzis. >> i want him to persecute those people the same as any other terrorist. as the rally converged at the united methodist rally, organizers said this -- >> it's not just about natzis. >> most americans remember that

this was a group of people we had to go to war with. >> participants were reminded by at least one rabbi that neonatzis are a real threat. >> they would kill every person in this room. do you get that? no one here is safe from their hatred. >> organizers were standing in solidarity to condemn this evil. dann cuellar, "action news." >> this the view from chopper 6 over the frank rizzo sa statue. a group of black live matters statue demanding the frank rizzo statue be torn down. police held their ground in the face of an obscenity laced

tirade. so far there have been no arrests. we'll continue to bring you an update if things change. this the scene on the campus of the university of virginia. hundreds of people on the campus singing songs of peace. uva students and others want the world to know they reject what happened in their midst on saturday. >> earlier today, an enormous crowd pack td the theater in charlottesville to pay tribute to 32-year-old heathe heather h, the woman struck down when a man plowed down counter protesters. >> she loved people. she wanted equality. in this issue, the day of her

passing, she wanted to put down hate. >> i want to thank you, heather, for all of your passion, talks, smiles, for believing that this world can change, and trying to make that happen. >> they tried to kill my child to shut her up. guess what? you just magnified her. [applause ] >> and added heather's mother, this is the beginning of heather's legacy. president trump suffered a blow today when he dissolved two business parties. i believe the president should have been and still needs to be unambiguous on that point. you can find the latest on

charlottesville in our area and across the country on our free "6abc" app. >> new at 11:00 tonight, a former catholic school teacher has been released from jail after receiving four years for raping a child. a philadelphia judge freed him a decade early after questions about the accuser's truthfulness. rather than a new trial, he pled no contest and was sentenced to time served. >> there have been particularly deadly rip currents this year. the rush of water returning to the ocean creates narrow channels. if you are caught in one, swim parallel to the beach rather than fighting against the flow. fortunately the seas are expect

today come tomorrow as hurricane gert moves to the eastern seaboard. for more, here's cecily tynan. >> hurricane gert has strengthened, but it's moved so far away from land that it's almost out of view of our satellite. it's a category two hurricane racing toward the northeast at 37 miles per hour. it's more than 400-miles away from halifax. it continues to move away. today, it was high. it's over now. the seas now two to three feet. don't go swimming where and when life guards are not on duty. moderate risk improving as we move through the day tomorrow. right now, philadelphia 77 down from the high of 89-degrees. the warmest day since the second

day of august. dewpoints are high in the 60s in philadelphia, 70s to the south. that's the oh pressive air. that air moves in, in time for friday. the morning commute, not as widespread as this morning. temperatures in the 7 0s. i have more in the seven-day forecast. jim? >> thank you, cecily. a body has been in a home for an extended period of time. christie? >> neighbors say it was a family friend who asked police to do a welfare check. when officers arrived, the odor was a dead give away something wasn't right. >> we showed up at 3:00, for a wellness check.

then a second car and third dar. >car.suddenly it was the scene a suspicious death investigation. a man was slowly decomposing in his family delaware county home. >> finding out one of the brothers died and had been in the house over two weeks, kind of shocked. >> "action news" was there as detectives put on hazmat sites and opened the windows to the home. two brothers in their 50s live in the home. >> i was pulling out and the one brother waved at me which was weird because they are not very social. he waved and i waved back and we left. that was the last time he saw the younger of the two brothers alive. a woman walked by smelling a

foul odor but never expected it was the neighbor rotting. there is no indication of foul play. >> it's sad because the other brother will have to live somewhere else now. he can't take care of himself. >> nainors describe the other brother as having mental health issues. he was taken to hospital for a mental health evaluation. the cause of death is under investigation. jim? >> thank you, christie. >> police in the lehigh valley are investigating a murder eight years ago. the suspect is the nephew of famed heavyweight champ larry holmes. his family says he's innocent

but prosecutors say the case against him is strong. >> hundreds of people came to the norristown park for a show of solidarity for a woman that was attacked there this month. runners along the course where a woman was assaulted on august 1st. still to come on "action news" tonight, the search for five missing sold evers after a black hawk goes down. disturbing details from a government report about younger people being affected by deadly heroin overdoses. brief young boys and girls save a woman from a burning home. cecily? >> the sunshine returned along with typical august warmth. the high, 89-degrees. three degrees above normal. i'm tracking more heat and humidity as well as storms on

the way. we'll see what it means for the weekend in the seven-day forecast. >> ducis rogers with the phillies taking on the padres and we have the winning powerball numbers for $430 million when "action news"

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citizens bank student loans, >> we return live to center city philadelphia. we can see the line of police standing in front of the frank rizzo statue across from philadelphia city hall. the protesters have dispersed. they are gone. they were demanding the city take down the statue of the late former mayor. this is a punctuation mark for a larger peaceful demonstration

and march, thousands expressing brotherhood with charlottesville. >> messages of love, peace and solidarity are the way to overcome hatred. several took the stand against neonatzis in charlottesville. it drew 100 people or more. organizers say the invited people were from various communities targeted by hateful ideology. >> there was a silent vigil maple avenue stretching to church road in pennsauken. parentsbrought their children for a night of mourning and healing. delaware county felt compelled to vote for the resolution

denouncing naugh not natziism am and sent the me message to president trump. >> there is new information about a man that urinated on a religious site. >> the black hawk helicopter in hawaii went down during a training exercise. rescue crews and the local fire department are on the scene. so far they found parts of a fuse lawmg and helmet. crew members are unaccounted for. >> a flight from boston to

charleston north carolina today, a second such instance involving jetblue this week. the crew members smelled smoke in the cabin. it turned out to be nail polish remover. >> health check at 11:00, the opioid epidemic is not just killing adults, there is an alarming spike among teenagers. in 2015, a reversal with deadly opioid overdoses jumping 20%. the cdc says all of them were unintentional. heroin and fentanyl were the top offenders. from the new jersey news room, governor christie says no deal to offshore oil drilling.

they are opposed to industrialization of the jersey coastline. they say it will be bad for the ecosystem and state's $44 billion tourism industry. a federal appeal's court in philadelphia is upholding a ruling that sides with the army core of engineers on the margate project. it resumed yesterday following a temporary halt to remediate ponding from heavy rain. >> four young people were honored for saving a woman from her burning home. they were recognized at the commissioner meeting tonight. they were at a playground in june when they spotted smoke coming from the house. they knocked on the door awakening a college student

sleep inside. she was able to escape without injury. >> let's get the forecast from cecily tynan. >> a quiet night out there tonight. a little bit of a haze out there tonight. not as much as last night. last night we had oh pressive humidity. now in philadelphia, they flip today the 60s, a sunset posted from buck's county. we saw a good amount of sunshine today. temperatures rose to the upper 80s. we see the dog days of august here. took a while but we have temperatures above normal for most of the next week. ooppressive humidity friday and friday night, i expect storms to roll in. some of them could be strong to severe. right now, it's warm out there. philadelphia, 77. allentown, 71. cape may, 76 and wilmington, 72. satellite 6 showing a big

difference from yesterday, high pressure in control of our weather. that brought us all of the sunshine. there is a system lurking to the midwest. first a warm front tomorrow and then a cold front friday. tomorrow, 86-degrees, mixture of sun and clouds. as the warm front push ts in late in the day, stray thunderstorms, most of the day rain free. that front will bring back oh pressive humidity. we are back in the tropical air mass, dewpoints in the mid 70s, 87 friday. the cold front move in late friday and that likely brings us a round of gusting thunderstorms and the potential for severe weather. down the shore tomorrow, a moderate risk of rip currents. listen to the life guards, don't swim when they are not on duty. atlantic city, 80.

bethany, 83. a lot of people planning for monday. we have a partial solar eclipse here, beginning 1:21 in the afternoon. the max, 79.9% at 2:44 in the afternoon and ends by 4:01. the sky won't be darkening a lot here. 20% of the sup is still bright as 60,000 full moons. if you have a safe viewer, the shape of the sun will change dramatically. sky conditions look good. the exclusive accuweather forecast, late day thunderstorm, widespread friday. 85 saturday, 90, then 88 on sunday. monday, solar eclipse looking nice. nothing more than a few fair weather clouds, 89 tuesday, more high with a high of 90. wednesday, a threat of

thunderstorms. so many asked me about the eclipse. a bit of cloud cover looks good. it's not dark here. even in totality, it's twilight. you need safe glasses. >> protect the eyes. >> they are off loading thousands of pounds of cargo that landed at the international space station today including a freezer containing ice cream to celebrate an astronaut's 50th birthday next month. the main run was to deliver equipment for 250 upcoming science experiments.

>> so we are all congratulating the channel6 softball team on a spectacular season that came down to the wire tonight, round two of the playoffs in upper

darby. they came so close losing 9-5 to our friends in media. an amazing season for channel6 falling just short tonight. phillies fell -- well not just short today. >> we had more hits than the phillies, i promise you that. the game was bittersweet. phillies lost in offence with just three base hits. 24-year-old pi vet ta strikes out in the first inning. ten strikeouts in the game against st. louis in june. he topped that today, career high 11k on the afternoon. he makes a couple of mistakes. here's one in the fourth inning. single to left field. san diego is up 1-o.

later in the inning, two on. hung up between first and second base, myers is on third, beats the throw home. steals second, third and home all in the same inning. they'll be in san francisco tomorrow night. >> eagles test tomorrow night, the buffalo bills will be in town. if you are hoping to see carson wentz in game two, keep hoping. doug pederson says wentz will pay a series, maybe two. >> he's been building chemistry with the white owls. alshon jeffery has been limited in camp. >> seems a long time coming. i'm not sure if he will play or not. hopefully, he does and we'll get the chemistry, the relationship out on the field in live situations. >> still ahead in sports,

>> if philadelphia soul are getting ready for the arena bowl. it will be their fourth appearance in the past six years. today the champ visited "6abc." >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen, we have the philadelphia soul take over the news room. >> a crowd of large players hung

out in the news room. co-owner ron worth is pumped. >> to defend the championship is tremendous. it's one game. we play a good team in tampa. we think we'll win the football game. bring it on. >> mark your calendars. the arena bowl, august 26th, a week from saturday, "6abc" will block the contest. the game starts at 7:00. ceremonial first pitch at fenway park tonight. a fan got the honor. watch and say a prayer for the photographer. that will change your week. even the fan had to cringe seeing where the pitch ended up. my goodness. >> are you okay? >> they sell things to protect you there.

finally, a photographic mural traces the history of gardening in west philadelphia. it looks at what the future might hold. it's located at the university high school well known for the greenhouse and community garden. "jimmy kimmel live" live next followed by "nightline" music from midland. "action news" continues at 4:30 with pamela edwards. now for cecily tynan, ducis rogers and the entire "action news" team, i'm jim gardner. have a good night tonight.