burkett is there with those that don't have tickets. she is with folks that have tickets. >> on her iphone. >> reporter: we were lucky enough to get tickets and get in here. sir, do you know if he is coming soon. >> i was told he is by the apple store. >> he is by the apple store. i don't think he is buying anything, though. we are so excited with all these folks. they are waiting and waiting for hours. they say they wouldn't miss this for the world. we will be sure to get it as it comes by. we are on an iphone like everyone else so pardon our signal. but these folks are very, very excited. they greeted the mayor, senator schumer, governor cuomo. you can see security hopefully fanning through here it is about to hatch. here you see all these folks trying to get a glimpse. we are hoping you are sticking with this. people came from across the country, across the world to see this. people visiting new york, getting tickets in here. >> stacey unless you grow about 8 inches, we will keep talking to you but it looks like you froze in your pic

burkett is on the upper west side with more. n.j. >> reporter: diana, the pope made it clear weeks ago, he doesn't want fences. he doesn't want to be protected from the people. he wants to reach out and embrace them. the secret service is in charge. they have the last word. they insisted on all of this. >> i don't think it will be that tragic here, do you? >> reporter: keep calm and carry on. it may be the new motto for the people that live and work in the shadow of central park. how are you doing in there in againsts don't make happy worse. >> be patient. new yorkers. >> reporter: the park and the neighborhood surrounding it looks and feels like a demilitarized zone. the west drive of the park is lined with interlocking barricades where the pope will great thousands of followers late friday afternoon. on the perimeter, an eight-foot fence will seal off the southern third of the fence off limits to anyone that does not have a ticket to see the pope. the park closure takes effect at 5:00 a.m. friday along with bus routes that wil

burkett, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> n.j., you are to right. the long list of activities follow a big second day now here in the united states with a holland tunnel new york city welcome we have for the pope. in a span of 12 hours the 78- year-old pope gave a historic speech before congress before heading to new york, flew to j.f.k. where he was greeted by hundreds and then, of course, got into the popemobile, welcomed by thousands on 5th avenue, thousands of cheering people. finally a packed prayer at st. patrick's cathedral. after all that, he he probably is awake. he usually gets up at 4:30 in the morning. he is at the residence of the papal nuncio on the upper east side. look at all the street closures, the grid you can see throughout the area. of course being closed tomorrow morning around this town house that the pope has been spending the night at, eyewitness news reporter dray clark is following continuing our coverage. he is on the east side outside of the residence of the papal nuncio. good morning, dray. >> good morning, lori. securi

burkett is in midtown with the story. >> reporter: that's the point. the pope says he doesn't want to be protected from the crowds. he wants to reach out and embrace them. you can imagine the security challenge that represents here in the heart of america's largest city. so, tonight, the vatican is speaking out for the first time. late this afternoon, nypd detectives huddled with agents of the u.s. secret service outside of st. patrick's cathedral. others ran through a series of scenarios at police headquarters. nypd officials say protecting pope francis will be one of the most monumental challenges in the modern history of policing. vatican officials are concerned but not about the pope's safety. >> how much the security will influence if people go out in the street to see him. >> reporter: the pope's u.n. ambassador said francis made his wishes clear. he wants to greet the crowds on 5th avenue and in central park. but he says the secret service wants to build a wall down 5th avenue and require admission tickets to the park. at a news conference, the

burkett, channel 7 eyewitness news. >>> a quick look at wall street. a big rally. the dow soared 390 points. nasdaq up 128 and s&p 500 picked up 48. >>> as we continue with "eyewitness news at 6:00" for this tuesday night. hillary clinton continues to fall in the opinion polls. was the private e-mail server she used as secretary of state a mistake? an exclusive interview with david muir she talks about that. david joins us next. >> a frightening water landing for a pilot on long island. he lands in a bay, flips the >>> decline in opinion polls continuing for hillary clinton. >> check out the latest numbers. a monmouth university poll of democrats show 42% support mrs. clinton. that is a drop of 10 points or 20% federal reserve r from last month. vice president biden is at 22%. bernie sanders at 20%. >>> in new hampshire, sanders is leading clinton by 9 full points. the slow drip of news about her private e-mail server doesn't exactly help credibility. >> she is aware of the polls and sitting down with david muir. he is here with a preview. >> likely sitting down wi

burkett has more. >> reporter: president obama said today the era of might makes right is over. that order and stability in the world cannot be imposed by any one nation. so his speech here today was both a warning and a challenge. president obama confronted the russian president today head on, determined to convince world leaders that brutality in syria will not solve everything. >> when a dictator absoluteliers tens of thousands thousands of his own people, that is not just a matter of one nation's internal affairs. it breeds human suffering on an order of magnitude that affects us all. >> reporter: mr. obama insisted the russian strategy, to provide political and military support to syria's dictator will create greater instability, not less. >> assad reacted to peaceful protests by escalating repression and killing. >> reporter: russian president vladimir putin clearly disagrees. >> we think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the syrian government and its armed forces -- terrorism face to face. >> reporter: the disagreement between the world's two greatest

burkett continues our coverage. he is on the upper west side today. n.j. >> reporter: central park west and the side streets are one big no parking zone. get a look at this. the nypd began towing cars first thing this morning. 48 hours before pope francis sets foot on manhattan island, the city is already getting serious. >> you got the popemobile to get around, you know what i'm saying? i don't. >> reporter: her man thomas is worried. he is not alone. tow trucks began clearing the side streets on both sides of central park as well as central park west, south of 72nd street. the papal motorcade requires extraordinary security and worshippers want to see pope francis. but millions of new yorkers >> it will be wall to wall human beings. hopefully they enjoy themselves and have a good time and meet the pope or wave to the pope while i'm underground on the subway getting to where i have to go. >> reporter: the first real impact will be felt in midtown where francis will lead an evening prayer service at st. patrick's after arriving in lower manhattan by h

burkett in the morris park section with the latest. >> the city has released a list of the towers. we'll have a map of the towers in a moment. all are being disinfected, if they've not been disinfected already. yes, there is concern here in the bronx because people in the bronx thought they were done with legionnaires' disease. >> reporter: beneath the cooling towers in morris park, residents are feeling vulnerable tonight. from the local chase bank to einstein medical college, even layman high school. seven locations in all, all in the same general area. all with cooling towers testing positive for legionella. >> i never even heard of that. that's crazy. >> it makes you feel like you can't stay in your own neighborhood or go to a hospital in your own neighborhood. >> reporter: health officials have struggled to identify the source since last week. after local emergency rooms and later tested positive for legionnaires' disease. nine remain hospitalized tonight. the youngest is 45. and each had an underlying medical condition. but health officials say each of the towers had been dis

burkett. >> reporter: cecelia leon was shocked at how easy it was. police say this is the thief, stepping through cecelia's front gate and helping himself to two packages just delivered to her doorstep. he stuffs them in to a bag and calmly walks away. >> i was kind of outraged. i thought who is this guy? and how comfortable he looked doing this, he was very at ease just going house to house and taking stuff. >> reporter: she says a neighbor later saw the thief opening the packages and dump ing one of them containing a book in to a trash can. the other package was a bathing suit. >> he apparently saw this guy walking down the house to house looking for packages to steal. >> kept your bathing suit and threw away the book. >> yes. >> reporter: cecelia is hoping someone recognizes the thief, the sooner the better. when we showed the video to her next door neighbor, she recognized the man right away. i was walking my dog. i saw him coming up the block. he saw me look at him and turned right back and went toward the avenue. >> reporter: monty attard says

burkett as well. a little inconvenience for some people that live in the area. for new york period when it comes to traffic or just their way of life but we have to keep in mind that the pope will be here for a little less than 40 hours. an accommodation that most of we will have much more from lower manhattan at ground zero later in the newscast. shirleen, ken, back to you. >> lori, thank you so much. we will check back with you later in the show. >>> with the pope's visit comes a lot of street closures. the mass occurring last night and he has another mass today. it will take a miracle to maneuver around manhattan today. a total of 83 blocks of streets will be closed at the same time. >> heather o'rourke has what you need to know and a lot of people want to know. >> shirleen and ken we have a map to show you of the closures on the upper west side of manhattan. you have 77th through 61st street closed down. 77th through 66th closed between columbus avenue and central park west. 65th close closed as well. central park west is closed down. we will head to the map

burkett is in mineola with more on the repairs. n.j. >> reporter: sade, we are seeing the first eastbound trains out of penn station that

burkett, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> thank you, n.j. >>> let's get back to washington. right now the pope is meeting with the homeless outside the saint patrick's church just beginning. he will bless a statue of a homeless person then he will serve about 300 homeless people. part of 65 programs throughout the area of washington where they get served by catholic charities. the pope's visit coming at a time when the district is committed to tackling homelessness. shirleen, back to you. >> all right, david. >>> security is tight in new york as we saw with n.j. both mayor de blasio and police commissioner bratton say the planning was seamless. jim hoffer is live in central park with that part of the story. jamaica? >> reporter: game time for the nypd, secret service and the fbi. all of the months of planning, endless hours of emergency drills and it comes down to about 39 hours during which time from land, see and the air it will be about protecting the pope. hours away from the pope's arrival in the heart of manhattan is barricaded fenced in and closed off. a security post

burkett is live at jamaica station with the very latest. n.j. >> reporter: that's right, jamaica station the main hub of the l.i.r.r. where trains are moving in and out of manhattan. the nation's busiest commuter railroad is back up and running at this hour, but the delays, residual delays are colossal. the average delay is 90 minutes, shirleen. for hours this morning, you could not get in and out of manhattan at all. a power supply problem apparently cut power to the vast network of switches and signals that controls train traffic through the east river tunnels. you can't get in or out of manhattan on the l.i.r.r. without going through those tunnels and without functioning switches, you cannot run the volume of trains that tens of thousands of commuters depend upon to get them to work. unable to get in manhattan on the l.i.r.r., they jammed the subways, the buses and the roads. railroad technicians are still working on the problems. those problems, i'm told, are largely resolved but there are residual delays throughout the system as they t

burkett is live at penn station. n.j. >> reporter: good news and bad news. the good news is, of course, the system is up and running and commuters are heading home tonight. the bad news is that this is a fragile temporary fix. the railroad hasn't isolated the problem. so, yes, it could happen again. commuters packed penn station for the evening rush hour trains hoping the power could hold up long enough to get them home despite the temporary fix the mta spokesman was making no promises. >> if something were to go wrong with the temporary fix until we get a permanent fix we may need to resort to canceling and providing trains, use atlantic terminal, hunters terminal and others out of manhattan. >> reporter: the trains were moving this afternoon with few if any residual delays. this scene was far different this morning when tens of thousands of commuters jammed the platforms in jamaica where the trains from nassau and suffolk counties were forced to terminate. railroad officials said a major power disruption knocked out the vast network of signals and switches

burkett with reaction to this temporary year of mercy. >> he's doing, in pie opinion, a better job of bringing everybody together. >> reporter: many catholics praised pope francis today for reaching out. no longer will women need to seek forgiveness from their bishop, he said. instead, local parish priests have, quote, the discretion to absolve of the sin of abortion, end quote. the pope's directive will make the path to forgiveness less formal and more accessible to women who seek it. father harrington of the brooklyn diocese says its greatest impact will be in less developed nations. >> in the united states this directive is not going to change much in terms of our pastoral practice but in places like nigeria, it's have a dramatic impact on the lives of women there. >> reporter: this is the president of catholics for choice. >> about come to church no matter where you are as opposed to these are the lists or reasons why you need to stay out. he's not about creating a leaner or meaner church. he's about embracing a bigger idea. >> reporter: the pope was quick to point out the church

burkett, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> thank you, n.j. >>> and with this heat getting stuck in a commuter nightmare, no fun. we are creeping closer to labor day and it is still -- it still feels like mid-july right now. today is the fourth day in our area where temperatures were 90 degrees or above. meteorologist lee goldberg outside on manhattan's upper west side with your exclusive accuweather forecast. when are we going to get relief, lee? >> it is going to be friday. definitely can see it's starting to get to people a little bit. last couple of days not so much. today is hotter, the humidity is up even though temperatures aren't too far from yesterday. the humidity has crept up. it's sticky outside right now. temperatures over central park, 89 degrees, there are some thunderstorms that are just to our west but that's where they stay. there's the relief over eastern canada with thundershowers but they may not even reach us during the afternoon hours tomorrow and we wait to the relief late thursday night into friday. this is day four of the heatwave and it's going on five. the heat will

burkett, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> n.j., thank you. >>> from long island to new jersey, fast action against the high school football player seen on videotape bashing an opponent with a helmet. the player from linden lill permanently kicked off the -- high school permanently kicked off the team and suspended from school. anthony johnson is the story for us. >> reporter: we are outside the imacculata football practice. they are just wrapping up the practice. we saw a number of the players including number 73. he is the one seen on the video that very disturbing video that many people across the country have now had an opportunity to see as you can see and they are now walking off the field. he has talked to a number of friends inside the school. they are playing a game against baskin ridge this weekend and he is ready to go. the imacculata spartans are going through the drills as they prepare for the game on the 17th. the one person on the field in full pads, number 73, is in the spotlight for not reacting to what happened in this video this past weekend when his helmet was ripped off

burkett is live on the upper west side with how some of the people closest to the action are reacting today. n.j. >> reporter: that's right, sade, 67th street and central park west, you can see the huge 8-foot fence is in place, tow trucks are standing by to tow cars. police officers massing akatrina the street, an nypd -- amassing across the street, an nypd command post. it's beginning to look and feel like a military zone with fences and barricades everywhere you turn. we took a drive in the park that the pope is going to take and you can already see the beginning of all of the security measures, the precautions taking place. the barricades lined the drive but despite the barriers, people are still able to use the park, neighbors are out enjoying the day and tourists are making the best of things before the southern third of the park gets shut down on friday morning. the closure will take effect at 5:00 a.m. friday, very important to note that. 59th street to 81st street from the east side all the way over to the west side. we found a couple from long island enjoying the park today

burkett with details. >> reporter: two global superpowers, two very different strategies on syria and the middle east. both the russian and u.s. president are expected to meet here within the hour but at the moment there appears to be very little common ground. president obama took his case directly to the united nations general assembly today. global problems, he said, require global solutions. >> when a terrorist group gv beheads captives, slaughters the innocent and enslaves, it is an assault on all our humanity. >> reporter: the president portrayed the crisis in syria, the instability, the refugees and the blood shed in stark terms. the resolution he insisted begins with a change of leadership in damascus. >> we must recognize there cannot be after so much blood shed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo. >> reporter: but the russians are backing syria's dictator ba cher al-assad -- bashar al- assad with political and military support to battle isis militants and today russian president vladimir putin called for a world war ii era military collision against -- coalit

burkett at the match ran down, snapped a photo for twitter. nj is everywhere. murray is out 18 grand slam tournaments at least in the quarterfinals but anderson wins this one. thank you, nj. >> you're laughing but murray i'm giving you a gallon of bp gas. because you're my best friend. i'm giving you a gallon of bp gas. because you're my best friend. why are you giving me a gallon of... because you're my best friend. i'm giving you a gallon of bp gas. because you're my best... get gas rewards for three friends and even one for yourself. when you sign up for bp driver rewards. >>> join the conversation on facebook, twitter, and instagram using #abc7ny. you can also follow all of us here. that's the news for now. i'm sade baderinwa. >> and i'm bill ritter. thanks for watching. jimmy kimmel is next.

greg burkett a three run homer and the yankees beat the toronto blue jays six to four last night to move closer to the blue jays. new york within 2.5 games of first-place toronto. teams meet for the final time this season tonight. jake arrieta 33 hitter last night to become the first pitcher in the major leagues to reach 20 wins and the cubs beat the brewers for nothing. arrieta retired 14 in a row at one point admitting for the sky. the magic number make in its first postseason in in seven years dropped to three. chicago cubs manager joe madden is known for wild sense to keep things alive. last night i was no exception. you are wondering why you're looking at a flamingo. before the cubs played the milwaukee brewers yesterday, madden had a small petting zoo set up for the players to enjoy with their families. of course he brought the flamingo to his pregame media briefing. the flamingo named warren showed off in front of reporters and was good luck for the cubs because they won the game. lauren: and historic visit from pope francis. nicole: the pope had intimated that the white house a c

burkett is live outside the united nations with that. >> reporter: truly historic speech, a speech that might be remembered as one of the most important speeches given at the united nations, not simply because of who gave the speech or what he said in the speech but because of the times in which he gave the speech. all three of those factors coming together to make this a landmark address. it was not a stern speech but the pope cast the world in stark engrave terms. used over and over again in his speech. he is concerned. among human rights is an environmental right. human life is sacred but all life is sacred he said. he condemned what he called a culture of waste, destruction of the environment poses a grave risk to he called for nuclear disarmament quoting pope paul the 6th saying mankind has the means to save the world and destroy it. he expressed support for the iranian nuclear agreement in the hope that it paves the way to greater stability in the middle east. one of his most important themes was economic and social justice, that government has a responsibility to ensure all of th

people people do that against burkett got to speak for the course this morning because her sister-in-law, justice o'connor had decided that she should. after the justices voted at the conference to admit women, the most senior justice in the majority or the chief justice if he is in the majority gets to assign the opinion to anyone who agrees with the majority. he assigned it to the senior women's sandra day o'connor but she wouldn't take it. she knew who had labored at the supreme court for the american civil liberties union from 1971 to 1980 to get the court to call when any law. on the decision they justices do not reap their whole opinion which can offer pages. that morning they this morning they chose to include in the summer reading a reference to justice o'connor's 1982 decision the opinion from 15 years before with the closely divided court and had laid down the rules that states may not close the entrance based on the notions concerning the role and ability of male and female. she lifted her eyes from her test and paused in the meeting the glance of her sister-in-law from across

burkett, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> thank you, n.j. a lot of people are crossing their fingers. >>> new information in the case of a new jersey high school football player caught on camera hitting an opponent with his helmet. we learned that the linden student has been permanently kicked off the team. this happened during a game friday night. the player ripped off the helmet of a player from imacculata high school, then hits him with the helmet. the student is in the process of being suspended and placed on home instruction pending the outside come of a criminal investigation. the player that did not retaliate had to receive ten stitches. >>> one of two-day care workers accused of force feeding and pushing children went before a judge. sarah dawber said she did nothing wrong. kristin thorne shared this video on total weighter leaving after the arraignment -- twitter leaving after the arraignment. >> reporter: sarah dawber's attorney says this is nothing more than a complaint brought forth by a disgruntled employee. sarah dawber went be

burkett is in mineola with the lead story. n.j. >> reporter: that's right. mineola station on long island where we have been watching the eastbound trains rolling this way out of penn station the last couple of hours. so, yes, commuters are getting home tonight. without a doubt, it's been a rough 24 hours on the l.i.r.r. the first trains began moving on the main line after 3:30 this afternoon, bill. because of the damage, they can only use one of the two tracks. so, for that reason, one third of the service out of penn station on the port jeff and ronkonkoma branches has been canceled and that's going to make for delayed and crowded

burkett joins us live from the u.n. with the latest details. n.j.? >> reporter: mr. obama said today the era of might makes right is over. that order and stability in the his speech today was both a warning and a challenge. president obama urged the world's most powerful nations to chart a new course. global problems, he said, require global solutions. >> no matter how powerful our military, how strong our economy, we understand the united states cannot solve the world's problems alone. >> reporter: mr. obama scolded russia, china and iran for acting to destabilize various regions of the world and in syria it liers cooperation and a change of leadership in damascus. >> there cannot be after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo. >> reporter: the president said the united states is prepared to lead by example pointing to the iranian nuclear agreement and normal relations with cuba. >> god willing now we will be able to offer more goods at better prices. think of the americans that lowered 9 flag over our embassy in havana, 1961, the yea

burkett has been there all day. >> he is outside, right outside the security zone. is that right, nj. >> reporter: that's right. you can see behind me the sand truck set up here. you can see the nypd canine dog. this is thunder. he is nine years old. he is a shiloh shepherd i'm told out here helping keep the city safe this week. >> we will interrupt you because the pope has just landed. that's what you are seeing on the right side of the screen. the pope landed. one of two helicopters. >> they fooled us with the two helicopters. at least one landed, landing at the heliport on wall street. as diana said, they will get out then motorcade their way, not with the popemobile but real motorcade and the pope that's why the fiat was at the landing strip. no limo for him. he will be in that car with three other people inside with him. >> n.j., fill us in on what is going on around the parade route. >> reporter: we are one block down and one block over from the cathedral but access has been limited the last several hours. you can see the officers are patrolling the checkpoint

burkett, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> we heard from the pope on twitter flying today. he quoted quote -- thank you to the cuban people, thank you from my heart. tweet came while the pope was 40,000 feet in the airplane. it was the first time that the pope has tweeted in the last few days. and we invite you to stay with eyewitness news and abc news for all the latest on the pope's trip to the u.s. you're going to see many of the major events right here only channel 7. and -- on channel 7. and you can read much more about the upcoming new york leg of his trip at our website. abcny7. he's on twitter. >> he's driving a fee cat. really not -- fiat. >>> we have more ahead on eyewitness news first at 4:00 including a summer camp counselor charged with assaulting children in new jersey. we'll tell you what's being done to protect the kids. >> and it looks like a scene from a movie, a car on fire goes flying into a store. hear from the owner who saw his building suddenly destroyed. >> and the cloud cover and the winds off the ocean keeping it on the cool side today but we have

what he said to me was when i took over here is burkett had no institution. there is nothing here to draw people here so he created those institutions. the more people moved into the city at its start a snowball effect and that was the way that he operated the city and during the time that he was here, much of what you see a round of the city is a beautiful result of him. .. >> the civil war museum, the pennsylvania national firemens' museum, harrisburg university. he created all of these institutions using a lot of these financial tricks, reinvesting that money back into the city that he was getting through the municipal bond market, most of it, with the lawyers and wall street that he was getting very, very cozy with. and they were more than willing to loan him this money even if a certain percentage of that money that was being loaned wasn't going to the project that it was originally loaned for. downtown harrisburg, second street, restaurant row, block after block of restaurants and bars. all of that was steven reed. people started coming back into the ci