The monolithic One World Trade Center towers above Manhattan’s skyline and is currently the tallest building in New York City, ousting the Empire State Building’s short-lived spot at the top by 83 feet.

When the final pieces of the so-called Freedom Tower are installed in New York, it will replace Chicago’s Willis Tower and stake its claim as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at a symbolic 1,776 feet.

Thanks to bad weather, the installation of the pieces that would have made the new skyscraper taller than Willis Tower was delayed, giving the former “Sears Tower” another day in sun.

But for some Chicagoans, there are no hard feelings about losing this distinction.

“People want closure, people want to see this happen, so I don’t know that there is any grumbling,” said Dan Safarik, Editor at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an international arbiter based in Chicago. Safarik said he lost friends on Sept. 11.

Tallest U.S. Buildings

Source: CTBUH

The Council won’t call it the tallest until One World Trade is completed, Safarik says, which means it has to have electricity, water, a building skin and certified as occupiable. From there, members of the Council and stakeholders will submit documents to CTBUH and “as-builts” -- final blueprints that show how the building was built as opposed to how it was designed -- to help determine the structure's status.

The Council, whose measurement standards have been around for over 40 years, uses three different methods to determine the height of a structure: from the entrance to the architectural top, to the highest occupied floor or to the highest tip.

The architectural top measurement is the most commonly used, according to Safarik, and if the Council accepts the new spire as the architectural top, it will be the tallest building in the western hemisphere and third tallest in the world.

So far, here is how One World Trade Center stacks up:

Also Known As: 1WTC, Freedom Tower

Price Tag: $3.8 billion

Location: Adjacent to the World Trade Center Memorial, several blocks east of the Hudson River in the heart of the Financial District

Building Office Area: 3 Million Rental Square Feet

Height: 1,368 to the roof, 1,776 feet after the 408-foot-tall spire is completed

Total Floors: 109

Office Floors: 71 (20-90)

Antenna: A 408-foot mast that includes communications and maintenance equipment.

Sustainability: The building will use 30 percent less water than what is permitted by city codes for this type of building. Rain water that falls on the building site will be reclaimed for landscape irrigation

Elevators: One World Trade will boast the five fastest elevators in the Western Hemisphere, which will reach a top speed of 2,000 feet per minute. A trip to the top of the building will take less than four minutes.

Features: Restaurants, observation deck, 55,000 feet of retail space, connections to 13 subway lines and PATH communter trains to New Jersey.

Route 80 in North Branford was closed between the Big Y and Notch Hill Road, or Route 22, because a gas line ruptured, but it has reopened.

The Big Y is located at 1289 Foxon Road, which is Route 80.

Police said construction workers have been widening Route 80 and hit a gas line, causing the leak. 

There was no vehicle traffic on Route 80 between Cedar Lake and Branford Road, or Route 139. 

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A backpack left on a public transit bus in Milford has been determined to be harmless, according to Milford police

The public transportation bus was on Bridgeport Avenue near Seemans Lane around 7:50 a.m. when someone noticed the backpack and called police. Passengers were removed from the bus and nearby businesses were evacuated.

Roads near the bus were closed while the State Police Bomb Squad investigated.

Officers found personal effects inside the backpack and nothing else, police said.

Meadowside Elementary School at 80 Seemans Lane was placed in a lockout condition while police investigated the backpack, but that has since been lifted.

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With about 1 million members of the military expected to become civilians over the next five years, First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden are calling on the private sector to step up its hiring of veterans.
 
The two said they're encouraged by recent progress in reducing the unemployment rate among the latest generation of veterans. Obama told a White House gathering today that companies participating in a program to help veterans find work have hired or trained 290,000 veterans and military spouses, nearly tripling the original goal of the program with about eight months to spare.

Obama said Tuesday that the program called Joining Forces has also generated pledges from businesses to hire or train another 435,000 in the next five years.

Meanwhile, the jobless rate for those veterans who served after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks fell from 12.1 percent in 2011 to 9.9 percent last year.

But Obama said more help is needed, and she called on private companies to step up hiring to keep up with the demand that will occur as nearly 1 million members of the military become civilians in the next few years.

 "They are eager to work and determined to keep on serving their country,'' Obama and Biden said in an op-ed in Fortune. "All they need is a chance.''
 
The two were joined by their husbands, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, at the White House event Tuesday that focused on veterans and jobs.
 
Overall, the unemployment rate for veterans is actually lower than that for non-veterans. However, the nation's youngest veterans are the exception to that longstanding trend, with nearly one out of five under the age of 25 looking for a job. The unemployment rate was also in double-digits for those 25-34.
 
The two first ladies noted that the Obama administration has proposed a permanent extension of a tax break that Congress approved in late 2011. Employers get up to a $5,600 tax credit for hiring a veteran out of work for more than six months, or up to $9,600 for hiring a disabled veteran out of work for the same amount of time.  

They also said they had also been working with governors and state legislators to make it easier for veterans to apply their military experience when trying to get a professional license or credential at home. But, in the end, it's up to private companies to do the hiring.
 
"This is an all-hands-on-deck issue and we cannot rest until every single veteran and military spouse who is searching for a job has found one,'' the two wrote.
 
The emphasis on jobs for veterans gives the White House a chance to focus on an issue where there's been progress.  Meanwhile, lawmakers and veterans groups are focusing more attention on resolving a disability claims backlog for veterans that has gotten worse in recent years. Lawmakers from both parties have recently called on the president to get more involved and to set a clear plan for resolving claims more quickly, but they offered no specific recommendations on what changes are needed.

A man is seeking half a million dollars in damages after his flight from Philadelphia to the West Coast ended with him being detained for allegedly cursing at the crew and failing to flush a toilet.

Salvatore Bevivino, a manager for San Francisco, Calif.-based Genetech, claims he was unfairly detained following a Virgin America flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco on April 28.

According to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by NBC10.com, it was about an hour into the flight when Bevivino tried to order a soft drink directly through a flight attendant — instead of the plane's touch-screen entertainment system.

The attendant told the 52-year-old he needed to place his order through the touchscreen. Moments later, a second flight attendant came over to discuss the matter. Bevivino said he wished to order a drink directly through the flight attendant, like is done on other airlines, the lawsuit says.

A short time later, a third flight attendant brought over the man's requested soda.

According to a police report, Bevivino went to the toilet a few minutes after the alleged incident. He came back out some time later with a smile on his face while cursing to no one in particular, according to the report.

“(A flight attendant) passed by the restroom and saw that Bevivino left the door open and did not flush the toilet,” the report stated.

Once the flight landed, Bevivino was detained for his alleged actions.

• READ: Entire federal complaint

The pilot said that neither he nor his crew ever felt threatened by Bevivino, according to the police report.

In the lawsuit, Bevivino says he told the pilot that he didn’t curse at the crew during the dispute over ordering a drink directly. He also denies leaving the toilet unflushed.

After being detained for an unknown period of time, Bevivino was released by the San Francisco Police Department - Airport Division, according to a detention release certificate.

Bevivino is seeking damages for the embarrassment, humiliation, mortification, fright, shock, mental anguish and emotional distress he claims he felt during and after the incident.

Virgin America received the complaint last week. Spokesman Madhu Unnikrishnan told NBC10.com that "while we generally do not comment on ongoing litigation, we are aware of the incident in question, we have reviewed our internal crew reports and we are confident our teammates handled this matter appropriately."

A U.S. Army major and his wife are accused of torturing their three foster children for years, breaking their bones, force-feeding them hot sauce, denying them water and using one of their biological kids to guard the toilet bowls so the foster children couldn't try to quench their thirst, authorities said.

Carolyn Jackson, 35, was arrested Tuesday morning at the New Jersey home she shares with her husband; John Jackson, 37, who was based at the Picatinny Arsenal Installation in Morris County, surrendered to federal agents shortly after his wife's arrest, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said.

Both are charged in a 17-count indictment that includes conspiracy to endanger the welfare of a child, assault and more than a dozen counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The case is being prosecuted federally because the offenses were allegedly committed on a military base.

According to the indictment, the Jacksons engaged in a constant course of neglect and cruelty toward the three children they fostered and then adopted from August 2005 through April 2010 while they lived at Picatinny Arsenal. One of those children died in May 2008; the Jacksons are not charged in that child's death.

During the five years of abuse, the Jacksons allegedly told their three biological children not to report the physical assaults, saying the punishments and disciplinary techniques were meant to "train" the adopted children to behave. 

Prosecutors say the Jacksons allegedly physically assaulted their children with various objects, giving two of them broken bones. The couple then allegedly denied the injured children medical attention. 

On other occasions, the couple allegedly withheld food and water from their foster children, at times denying them water altogether, and beat the children when they were caught trying to sneak something to eat or drink.

In one case, the couple allegedly tasked one of their biological children with guarding the sinks and toilet bowls in their home on the military base to prevent one child from drinking water.

The Jacksons are also accused of using food as punishment, allegedly forcing their foster children to consume large amounts of red pepper flakes, hot sauce or raw onion. They also allegedly forced one child to ingest substances with excessive amounts of salt while being deprived of water, which caused a life-threatening condition.

At one point, prosecutors say a family friend told John Jackson that one of the children had reported the abuse in the household. Jackson then told his wife, who allegedly beat the child with a belt. 

Authorities say the Jacksons gave officials false medical histories or blamed the injuries on the adoptive children's biological mother when questioned.

The Jacksons appeared in federal court in Newark Tuesday and were temporarily denied bail. Attorney information wasn't immediately available for the husband and a lawyer for the wife did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

All of the children are in the custody of the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

“Carolyn and John Jackson are charged with unimaginable cruelty to children they were trusted to protect," Fishman said in a statement. “The crimes alleged should not happen to any child, anywhere, and it is deeply disturbing that they would happen on a military installation. Along with the FBI, we will continue to seek justice for our communities' most vulnerable victims.”

A 50-year-old woman was arrested Monday night after police say she put two bottles of orange juice — which they say were filled with rubbing alcohol — on a refrigerator shelf at a Starbucks in California.

San Jose police took Ramineh Behbehanian into custody on an attempted murder charge, because the orange juice she had removed from her bag and put in the fridge contained what police said were lethal quantities of isopropyl alcohol. She is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.

Behbehanian has no criminal record in Santa Clara County, according to court records. Late Tuesday, sources confirmed for NBC Bay Area that Behbehanian is a pharmacist working for a company owned by Johnson and Johnson.

Authorities are still not sure why she would have allegedly mixed rubbing alcohol with some orange juice in the afternoon, left the bottles in the refrigerated section alongside some yogurt and milk and left the store about 3:30 p.m. local time.

"Why would she do such a thing?" Chris Africa said, standing outside the Starbucks on Tuesday morning. "Was she trying to poison us?"

An alert customer standing behind her in line spotted her taking out her own bottles of juice from a green Starbucks bag and putting them in the refrigerator section. He also noticed a toxic smell. The woman left, but a Starbucks employee got her license plate number.

"A lot of people out there may have seen something and probably dismissed it," San Jose Police Sgt. Jason Dwyer said. "But I believe that person saved lives by doing that."

The San Jose Fire Department responded to the scene, retrieved the bottles and tested the contents with hazardous materials equipment.

It turned out the bottles were filled with orange juice and rubbing alcohol.

On Tuesday morning, customer Brent Breyer said he was a little "apprehensive" about what had happened at his usual Starbucks. He said he often brings his young daughter, who routinely grabs for items in the refrigerated section.

Police were able to track Behbehanian down at her home. Why she may have committed the acts she is accused of is unclear.

A Starbucks spokesperson told the NBC Bay Area that the company destroyed all the other juices in the store out of an abundance of caution and had all other stores in Bay Area check their juice seals. 

All checked out OK.

Bridgeport police are asking for help from the public to find a 14-year-old Bridgeport girl who was last seen last Sunday, April 21.

Paris Monet Jordan was last seen wearing dark blue jeans, a brown shirt, brown a leather coat, black sneakers and might be wearing a ball cap. 

She has tattoos, including shooting stars on her lower back and a heart with a crown and the initials DMJ on her left shoulder, according to a Silver Alert.  

Police said she smokes Newport Box and is left handed.

This is an active case with The Bridgeport Police Youth Bureau. 

If you have information about Paris’ whereabouts, call the Bridgeport Police Department at 203-576-7671 and Detective John Burke at 203-581-5183 or email John.Burke@Bridgeportct.gov.

Police in Vernon have not yet determined whose remains were found last month in woods off West Street found a skull by an old landfill, but they are not any of three local girls and women reported missing, police said on Tuesday.

A man who was walking in the area found a skull and detectives scoured the dense property with cadaver dogs, recovering a "significant amount of evidence."

There were no DNA matches in the Combined DNA Index System, and criminalists from the state forensic lab have ruled out that the remains are of Lisa White, Janice Pockett or Debra Spickler, according to a news release from police. 

Lisa White, who lived near the site, vanished in 1974 when she was 13.

Janice Pockett, of Tolland, was last seen in July of 1973.

Debra Spickler was visiting family in Vernon when she disappeared in July 1968.

Police are continuing to try and identify the remains.

No one was hurt, but several Quinnipiac University students were a bit alarmed when they heard a loud boom on the campus on Tuesday afternoon.

It was caused by a boiler implosion underneath the Lender School of Business, which houses the schools of business and communication, just before 3 p.m., according to school officials and Tweets from the school.

We are reopening our Lender School of Business Center after a boiler implosion. Fire officials have determined the building to be safe.

— QuinnipiacUniversity (@QuinnipiacU) April 30, 2013

Emergency crews responded and the building has been reopened.  

There was no structural damage, school officials said.
 

JetBlue has added daily nonstop service from Bradley International Airport to Fort Myers and Tampa, starting on Oct. 24, according to the Connecticut Airport Authority. 

“Bradley passengers will soon be able to select from six different warm weather JetBlue locations – as of October 24th, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and West Palm Beach will all be available.  We will continue to seek additional service enhancements for our customers throughout the region,” Mary Ellen Jones, chair of the CAA, said in a statement.

Bradley is offering coupons for a free day of parking in select lots, with some restrictions. The coupon expires on Sept. 15. Click here for more.
 

Two Wesleyan public safety officers have been fired and are being investigated by police after allegedly viewing and recording a female student in her residence.

In a written statement, the university said that upon learning of the "illicit activity"  the two officers were immediately terminated.

"The violation of a student's private life by those charged with protecting our students is an intolerable breach of trust," the university said the statement.

The university also says that the two former employees are cooperating with police.

Police and staff from the university's Student Affairs office have been in contact with the victim and are offering their support.

The university reminds students that there are resources available to them at the Health Services offices and online at www.wesleyan.edu/healthservices/sexaulassault

A New Britain Police car was involved in a serious crash with a  vehicle in the area of Broad St. and Washington St. tonight.

According to police, the officer in the vehicle was responding to reports of shots fired when he collided with another vehicle.

The officer's vehicle flipped over onto the driver's side. The officer was able to pull himself from the vehicle with the help of a responding officer.

The officer was transported to Hartford Hospital. He was alert and concious on the scene. The driver of the other vehicle, a female, was transported to St. Francis

The accident reconstruction team is on the scene and the road remains closed.

Federal agents raided four brothels in New York and arrested 13 people in an alleged sex trafficking and prostitution ring dating back to 2008, prosecutors announced Tuesday. 

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the suspects exploited dozens of women, trafficking some from Mexico to New York, to force them to work as sex slaves.

NBC 4 New York cameras captured the raid on one of the brothels in Yonkers Tuesday. Search warrants were also executed at brothels in Queens, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh. 

The criminal complaint alleges the suspects lured women to the U.S. by engaging them in romantic relationships and promising a better life in New York. Once they arrived, the victims were forced to work as prostitutes under "abhorrent conditions," often subjected to abuse and threatened with harm to them and their family members.

In a typical day, a Mexican sex trafficking victim in New York had sexual intercourse with 20 to 30 customers, with each customer usually paying about $30 to $35 for 15 minutes of sex, according to authorities. 

Of that money, half typically went to either the driver who took the victim to the client or to the residential brothel where the woman worked. The other half went to the victim, who was then typically forced to turn over all the money to the trafficker.

The suspects charged Tuesday had different roles in the sex trafficking ring, from operating brothels, driving victims to clients or brothels, and dispatching drivers, to recruiting and overseeing the women forced to work as prostitutes, according to the complaint. 

Two of the 13 suspects were already in federal custody on illegal reentry charges; another was arrested in Delaware. The rest were arrested in New York and appeared in the Manhattan federal court Tuesday afternoon. 

Workers for the medical examiner's office began sifting soil Monday for possible human remains at a site near the World Trade Center where a chunk of airplane debris believed to have come from one of the 9/11 hijacked jetliners was found.

The aircraft part has been identified as a piece from a 767 wing, officials said Monday. NBC 4 New York, which first reported the finding in an alley near ground zero last week, has also learned the answer to the mystery of a rope that was found intertwined in the part — according to a law enforcement official, a detective who responded to the original call about the part last week tried to move it with a rope.

Authorities on Friday had said the rope might have indicated the part was lowered into the alley, but have since interviewed everyone who had contact with the part last week and have now answered that question. The official tells NBC 4 New York that the detective found the rope nearby and was trying to move the part to find a serial number or other identifying mark.

The NYPD also said Monday that a Boeing technician has confirmed that the 5-foot part is a trailing edge flap actuation support structure.

"It is believed to be from one of the two aircraft destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, but it could not be determined which one," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

On Sept. 11, American Airlines flight 11 hit the north tower at 8:46 a.m., and United flight 175 hit the south tower at 9:03 a.m. A FEMA graphic below shows that all the other plane parts in the immediate area were from flight 175.

Police and officials from the city medical examiner's office were on scene Monday to sift the soil under the part for lost human remains. Officials said the part will be removed when that process is complete -- likely on Wednesday.

The part was found wedged between two buildings in a very narrow alley only about 18 inches wide between the rear of 50 Murray St. and back of 51 Park Place, the site where a mosque and community center has been proposed three blocks from ground zero.

The part bears a "Boeing" stamp, followed by a series of numbers.

The NYPD said the landing gear was found after surveyors hired by the property owner inspecting the rear of 51 Park Place called police on Wednesday. 

The rubble from the 9/11 attack was cleared from the 16-acre site by the spring of 2002. Other debris, including human remains, has been found scattered outside the site, including on a rooftop and in a manhole, in years since.

The Board of Education voted in favor of putting police officers in Milford schools Tuesday night.

In addition to going ahead with the program, the Board voted in favor of allocating $150,000 from an energy savings account to pay for the officers.

City leaders and security experts spent the night trying to explain the benefits of adding officers to Milford schools

"They've certainly made a good point as far as why we should have them in schools," said Cathy Berni, Milford mom of 4, who likes the idea of school resource officers. She was concerned about the $300,000 price tag. "Something has got to give somewhere so what are you taking away? And that's what concerns me."

It's a concern law enforcement officials and experts tried to ease at Tuesday's Board of Education Meeting.  "To an SRO that school is their beat where they go in in the morning and leave at night," said Daniel Berstein, a forensic scientist.

Milford Police Chief Keith Mello talked about these school resource officers as men in uniform and as the school's first line of defense.  "We don't want to waste those 5 valuable minutes. We know what five minutes means," Mello said. "Whether the firearm is behind the coat or the firearm is exposed we don't look at police officers as creating cultures of guns."

Jonathan Law High School Principal Fran Thompson supports the idea.  "We have the opportunity to bring someone in who can make our schools their home base," Thompson added.

But many parents are still upset that a discussion about officers in school wasn't brought up earlier.

"Show me the money where's it coming from? What are we losing?" said Berni.

Gun Barrel City is a town living up to its name.

The Gun Barrel City Council unanimously passed on Tuesday night a nonbinding resolution that urges the town's 5,000-plus residents to buy a firearm if they don't already own one as a way to show support for the Second Amendment.

In a phone interview Tuesday night, Mayor Paul Eaton told NBC 5 that he came up with the idea of drafting the resolution in response to the national debate over stricter gun control laws after the December mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., school.

Other council members supported the resolution, and the measure passed without opposition Tuesday night.

While several Texas sheriff's departments and some municipalities have openly said that any federal gun control legislation would not be enforced in their corners of Texas, this is the first time a city has encouraged residents to arm themselves in opposition to the proposed legislation.

Connecticut State Police are asking for help from the public to find a 16-year-old Danbury girl who was last seen Tuesday near Hayestown Ave..

Julia Wild has blonde hair and brown eyes. She is 5-feet-8 and weighs 125 pounds, according to the Silver Alert.

She was last seen wearing a dark top and blue jeans.

If you have any information on Julia Wild's whereabouts, contact CT State Police Troop A at 203-267-2200.
 

The foreman of the Guilford Transfer Station and an employee have been arrested, accused of taking more than $4,000 in cash from town dump.

Frank Cole, 56, the foreman who has worked at the transfer station for 17 years, and Philip Hunt, 41, a 15-year employee of the transfer station, have been charged with second-degree larceny.

Cole is the primary employee who handles the cash, checks and transfer station deposits, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Police began investigating in January when a resident approached the First Selectman and reported having "reliable information" that some employees of the Guilford/Madison transfer station were pocketing money, according to a news release from the First Selectman's office.

State police provided surveillance equipment in February,  but the surveillance was haulted for a brief time after a fire at the transfer station in March, the affidavit says, and two cameras were added in April.

Police said Hunt was seen taking cash from the register and throwing away weigh ticket receipts.

Cole and Hunt were arrested on Monday night.

Cole was released on a $50,000 bond and will be arraigned May 7. His attorney said Cole is a honest, good guy.

Hunt was held on a $50,000 bond and arraigned on Tuesday in New Haven, when he was released on a promise to appear.

Officials said prior charges have been filed against Hunt. In 1993, a risk of injury charge was filed. Other charges were filed in 1997. It is not clear what those were for.

The transfer station policy has been changed as a result of the case and cash will not be accepted at the transfer station, effective May 6. Other forms of payment will be accepted.

The Public Works Department and the Finance Department are performing transfer station operations.