5 stories to follow: July 19
Happy Friday. Finish off the week with a quick look at five stories to know about:
1. Heat wave nearing end; hot weather dangers: Forecasters expect the temperature in Philadelphia to reach 98 degrees today, which would tie Thursday's high for the hottest temperature of the summer thus far. The temperature is expected to top 90 again Saturday, with a predicted high of 94, but that should be the last day of the heat wave that's lasted all week. Temperatures in the high 80s are forecasted for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The hot temperatures this week have proved dangerous: A 57-year-old man died Thursday in Philadelphia's first heat-related death of the summer, a man with cerebral palsy drowned in a family pool in Gloucester County, and a 7-year-old boy is in critical condition after nearly drowning at a city recreation center in West Philly.
2. Girl's mother to be charged with murder: The mother of a 4-year-old Southwest Philadelphia girl who died after she was taken to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia bleeding from both ears and with bruises across her body is being charged with murder. Josephita Brown is scheduled to be arraigned this morning in Seanita's Tuesday death.
3. Sentencing in cold case slaying: A New Jersey man who walked into a police station and confessed earlier this year to the 1990 killing of 15-year-old Frederick Hart in Galloway Township is scheduled to be sentenced today. Steven Goff faces up to 30 years in prison after his June guilty plea.
4. Liberty Place protests: More testimony is expected today in the legal debate about whether a group from the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge can continue preaching in front of One Liberty Place. The owners of the Center City retail and residential have filed a lawsuit to try to bar the group -- known for ranting about gays, "whores," and "white devils" -- from protesting outside the building.
5. Dramatic video of building collapse: SEPTA has released a dramatic video that a bus surveillance camera captured of last month's deadly building collapse at 22nd and Market Streets.