Part of High Road, or Route 71, in Berlin is closed because high tension lines are down.
The road is closed between Reservoir Road and Chamberlain Highway and Eversource is at the scene.
No injuries are reported.
It’s not what brought the wires down.
Police have identified a man suspected of exposing himself to a female employee at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Milford on March 20, then committing a lewd act.
Police said the man originally went into the restroom of the Dunkin’ Donuts, at 367 Bridgeport Ave., but then walked up to the counter and masturbated in front of a female employee.
Police had been searching for him and have now identified Angel Rivera, 30, of Milford, as the suspect.
He has been charged with second-degree breach of peace and public indecency.
The employee said the same man was in the store two weeks earlier.
“He certainly wasn’t a regular in there. No one recognized (him) as being a regular patron, but they believe he was in there one time a couple weeks prior to the incident,” Officer Michael DeVito, of Milford Police, said.
The distraught worker who witnessed what happened did not want to talk on camera about what she experienced and customers at the shop on Wednesday were in disbelief about what happened.
Rivera was released on a promise to appear with a court date of June 7 in Milford Court
The U.S. military conducted a “defensive” airstrike against al Shabab militants in southern Somalia Thursday, according to Pentagon officials, NBC News reported.
More than a dozen al Shabab militants opened fire on U.S. military advisers and Ugandan soldiers who raided an illegal taxation checkpoint in rural Somalia. An MQ-9 Predator drone that was overhead conducted the airstrike very quickly.
American officials did not fire on al Shabab themselves, nor were the Americans ever fired at, officials said. Five militants were killed and two more were wounded.
The U.S. military, which was acting in an advise and assist capacity during the raid, has about 50 personnel supporting the African Union Mission in Somalia.
Get used to the phrase, “Made in New Haven.”
City officials rolled out a new campaign on Wednesday morning that is designed to promote locally made products.
One of the companies involved is Vespoli USA a factory in New Haven where a team of 40 employees builds world class racing shells by hand.
“We make them like Boeing makes the 787 aircraft, often the way Sikorski makes their helicopters,” CEO Mike Vespoli said.
The company primarily sells its narrow rowing boats to high school teams in the United States, but Vespoli said they are also popular in the international market.
“The Canadian Olympic team will be racing in our boat in the men’s four in Rio and we have 50 international medals to our credit,” he said.
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said the city hopes to attract more businesses to open in the Elm City.
“We have a new innovative culture here that are making things,” she said. “They’re entrepreneurs and we want to highlight that.”
Husband and wife Andrea Corazzini and Kiara Matos took a chance on New Haven five years ago after moving here from Venezuela and opened Whole G Café, a bakery specializing in Northern European breads.
“The reason why is because German breads are healthier,” Corazzini said. “They use lot of grains. They use whole grains and fruits and nuts.”
“My work stands out basically because of the color palette I use,” she said.
Vespoli says this "Made in New Haven" branding initiative is beneficial for both the city and its business community.
“We’re proud of the fact that we’re made in New Haven,” Vespoli said. “We’re proud of the fact we’re made in the USA.”
A Hartford teenager is facing charges after police say he assaulted an elderly man in the middle of the street.
The attack on Sigourney Street in Hartford a few weeks ago was caught on camera and while police are still investigating, they say it lines up with the so-called knockout game.
The victim, William Prude, 66 of Hartford, said he was waving to his neighbor when someone came up behind him.
“All I know is, it was just boom and I’m lying there in the middle of the street,” Prude said.
He said a teenager sucker punched him right outside of his home, then left him in the middle of a busy road.
Someone stopped to ask if he wanted to go to the hospital, but he declined and by that point, the suspect was gone, he said.
“They’re very lucky,” Deputy Chief Brian Foley, of the Hartford Police Department, said. “It’s on Sigourney Street and you saw him fall into the roadway. This could have worked out much worse.”
The video of the disturbing attack went viral at Hartford High School, where administrators helped police identify the 16-year-old they say is responsible.
Friends of the suspect told NBC Connecticut it was a dare.
“It was to get popular and make friends and stuff,” Juan Ruiz, of Hartford, said. “They made him do a bet to hit the old guy and the old guy was a random guy they just picked out.”
Attackers sucker punching unsuspecting victims for no reason is part of a disturbing trend that is often referred to as the knock out game.
While Prude does not understand why he was the target, he said he is thankful it wasn’t worse.
The suspect is facing several charges, including assault on an elderly person and disorderly conduct.
He was referred to juvenile court.
Hundreds of homeowners whose homes have crumbling foundations went to EO Smith High School in Mansfield on Wednesday night to get an update from Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Jonathan Harris and Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman.
"It's devastating. I have nothing," Janet Johnson, of Vernon, said.
Failing foundations are impacting hundreds of homeowners in Hartford, Tolland, and Windham counties and some experts fear the number is more likely in the thousands.
When Johnson discovered the problem several years ago, an engineer told her it could be fixed, she said.
"I spent $40,000 on putting two new walls in," Johnson said. "My third structural engineer told me that will fail eventually."
Johnson is one of 220 homeowners who have filed a complaint with the state and the state launched a multi-agency investigation after the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters brought the issue to light in July.
That's when Johnson realized she wasn't alone.
"Somebody has to help us," Johnson said.
Harris said progress has been made, but he can understand why people wouldn't think it was enough.
Two companies connected to the state investigation, JJ Mottes and Becker Construction, signed an agreement with the state this week to stop selling the aggregate from Becker's Quarry in Willington for residential foundations until June of next year.
"What they did admit, they'd never admitted before, which is pyrrhotite is a common denominator, that it plays a role," Harris said.
JJ Mottes and Becker Construction "continue to believe this is an issue of improper installation and not materials."
At Wednesday night's meeting, state officials asked again for patience from an impatient crowd.
"We're giving as much information as possible without blowing the integrity of the investigation," Harris said.
The state continues to ask affected homeowners to come forward.
State police, as well as Environmental Conservation Police, are searching for a hiker in Kent who has been missing since Wednesday night.
Campers at a site on the Appalachian Trail in Kent saw a woman put down her backpack and walk away last night and she had not returned as of daylight, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Environmental Conservation Police, State Police and both K9 units are searching for the woman, according to DEEP.
State police are taking the lead in the investigation.
A child reported missing in Florida and her mother have been found in Enfield, Connecticut.
Ten-year-old Emma Mischaud was reported missing from the West Palm Cove Apartments in Bradenton, Florida.
She and her mother, Suzanne Knight, 46, are safe, police said.
Details on what triggered the missing person alert are not clear, but police said there was a miscommunication in Florida and the could not elaborate.
There is no criminal aspect and the case has been resolved, police said.
A student brought an unknown substance to Windsor Locks High School, which led to an evacuation on Thursday.
Windsor Locks First selectman Chris Kervick said the high school went into safety protocol procedures and students were brought onto the football field after an unknown substance was discovered.
The student involved has been taken into custody, Kervick said.
Students were being held on the football field as DEEP tested the unknown substance but the students were allowed to leave just after 4 p.m.
As British Prime Minister David Cameron gathered world leaders in London Thursday for a summit aimed at cracking down on corruption, investigative journalists, activists and authors are conducting group tours through the city to shed a light on where the world's rich and powerful stash their billions.
Welcome to the Kleptocracy Tour.
Organized by anti-corruption campaigner Roman Borisovich, the tour shines a light on how money routed through secret off-shore accounts are then laundered through London’s booming property market.
"This is a place where a company can come, buy a luxurious piece of property, and just put down the name of its director without telling us who is behind it," he said.
Two more Connecticut residents have tested positive for the Zika virus, including a pregnant woman, according to the Department of Public Health.
The pregnant woman is nine weeks along and traveled to the Dominican Republic in late April. She became ill on April 28.
The non-pregnant woman returned from Puerto Rico in April and developed a rash on April 29, according to DPH.
“As we head into the summer travel months, it is very important for travelers to Zika affected areas to take precautions to avoid mosquito bites. This is particularly critical for pregnant women or women planning to become pregnant, who should postpone travel to these areas if at all possible,” cautioned DPH Commissioner Dr. Raul Pino.
Both women and their doctors have been informed of the diagnoses, DPH said.
According to the DPH, 6 out of 252 patients tested for Zika in Connecticut have had positive results.
In March, a 17-year-old from Danbury was the first pregnant Connecticut woman to find out she had contracted the Zika virus. She found out she was pregnant in March while, visiting her fiance in Hondouras. She said she is, "in a state of shock", since finding out the news.
A replacement worker for Verizon is facing drunken driving and assault and battery charges after he hit a picketing Verizon worker and a police officer with his pickup truck in Westborough, Massachusetts, on Thursday, police said.
George A. Pulling, 55, of Ohio, is charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (vehicle), 4th-offense driving under the influence of alcohol and operating a motor vehicle without a license. Authorities initially said he was from Florida.
Westborough police said they were assisting with a labor dispute involving picketing Verizon workers and replacement workers staying at the Extended Stay Hotel at 180 East Main St. around 8:20 a.m. Thursday.
Verizon workers in several states have been striking since contract talks broke down in mid-April. They have been without a contract since Aug. 1, 2015.
Four police officers were assisting the replacement workers as they drove through a picket line of about 80 people. A pickup truck operated by Pulling was being escorted through the line, as picketers yelled and screamed at him.
Pulling then accelerated while in the middle of the picketers and ended up with one of those picketers — Joseph Rooney, 47, of Roslindale — on the hood of the truck, police said.
Pulling continued onto the ramp leading onto Route 9 west, where he finally stopped, causing Rooney to be tossed onto the road, according to police. Rooney was treated at the scene by paramedics and transported to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
One of the assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon charges was for allegedly hitting Rooney and the other was for allegedly hitting one of the police officers with the mirror on his truck.
Police said Pulling is expected to be arraigned in Westborough District Court on Thursday. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Immigration activists protested the meeting between presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and GOP officials on Capitol Hill Thursday, NBC News reported.
The activists carried a coffin symbolizing the death of the party. But they also presented taco salads bought at a U.S. Senate cafeteria to GOP Senate members.
The salads mocked Donald Trump’s “taco bowl” tweet from May 5. Trump tweeted a photo of himself in front of a taco bowl with the comment “I love Hispanics” on Cinco de Mayo.
The protesters followed with a stop at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office and distributed the taco bowls to about a dozen GOP House and Senate members who are supporting Trump.
The next time you sit on a bench at Ocean Beach Park in New London, you could be sitting on trash – but in a good way.
Twenty-seven students in New London’s Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School 7th Grade Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) program have been working on a semester-long project to raise awareness about how much trash we create in our communities and what happens to marine life when trash ends up in our waters.
Along with school teachers, New England Science & Sailing (NESS) Foundation educators, and the NESS SEA AmeriCorps members, students built a bench comprised of Ecobricks.
An Ecobrick is created by just two materials: a used plastic bottle and large quantities of dry trash. Trash is packed into the plastic bottle to make it hard like a brick, which can then be used to make a variety of structures, such as benches and even buildings.
Collectively, the students managed to cut the school's breakfast trash in half and stuffed almost 400 water bottles with 100 pieces of trash each. It’s expected that this bench will be a landmark at Ocean Beach Park for years to come.
Carlie Trent, the 9-year-old Tennessee girl who was allegedly kidnapped by her uncle last week, has been found, police said Thursday.
Her uncle, 57-year-old Gary Simpson, is in police custody, Josh Devine, a spokesman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, confirmed to NBC News.
It was not immediately clear where and how police found Simpson and the girl, who were missing since May 4. That's when Simpson — an uncle by marriage who previously had custody of Carlie and her younger sister — picked the girl up from an elementary school in Rogersville, authorities say.
A 30-year-old man faces five felony charges that accuse him of beating a University of Kansas woman he met on Tinder and holding her captive for five days, NBC News reported.
Shane Steven Allen is in custody at the Douglas County Jail on $100,000 pending a June 24 hearing on one count of kidnapping and four counts of aggravated battery, according to jail records and the county district attorney’s office.
Allen kidnapped the 20-year-old woman on April 12, according to the charges. That night, he accused the woman of flirting with one of his friends and punched her in the eye, knocked her to the ground and beat her, the arrest affidavit said.
Allen would not let the woman go home and returned her to her sorority on April 18, according to police.
A New Haven dad is accused of beating his 5-month-old son after the infant became fussy in the car, police said.
Aaron Lamson, of New Haven, was arrested on one count of third-degree assault and risk of injury to a minor.
On Tuesday, New Haven detectives launched an investigation after the infant was brought to the hospital with a black eye, scratches and a bruise the shape of a hand print on his face, according to police.
Police said Lamson dropped off the baby's mother at work and had the baby and their dog in the car with him while he waited for her to get out of work.
Lamson told police that his son was crying and refusing his bottle when the dog got out of the car and had to be chased. According to police, Lamson was frustrated when he got back into the car with a crying baby and the dog started drinking his ice tea.
The 23-year-old allegedly, "couldn't take the crying anymore", and slapped the baby with an open hand, according to New Haven Police. He told police he didn't think the hit was "forceful".
Prior to confessing to officers, Lamson told the baby's mother that the child may have been injured while sitting in the car seat, according to police.
Police said when they first confronted Lamson, he fabricated a story about driving the baby to Shelton to meet up with his brother and even accused his brother of being the one to harm the baby, New Haven Police said.
New Haven Police said they were contacted by a doctor and DCF staff member at Yale-New Haven Pediatric Hospital.
It is not clear when Lamson is expected to appear in court.
A Hartford City Councilwoman posted on Facebook earlier this week that a police officer who helps people is rare in the city of Hartford and she is defending the comment that has sparked several angry responses.
The post was in reference to a ceremony at city hall in which a police officer was recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty.
Councilwoman RJo Winch posted a photo of the officer on Monday night and wrote, “A rare sighting. An officer who helps. Congratulations.”
The post generated several angry reactions and the Hartford police chief plans to address the Facebook comment, police said on Wednesday morning.
Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley, the spokesman for the department, has sent out several Tweets since this morning with photos of police providing assistance or doing positive things with the hashtag #HPDOfficersHelping.
"We object to this type of comment," Hartford Police Chief James Rovella told NBC Connecticut. "Those comments are unsettling. They're obviously under-informed and it has a negative impact on the morale of any police officer."
“The chief knows my number and when he’s upset about anything I say he can come to me and have a conversation,” Winch said.
She told NBC Connecticut that she is standing by the post.
“I was expressing my feeling about the individual officer who had done right things inside City Hall and if he’s upset about it, then more of his officers need to be the same. They need to do community service, they need to work for the residents who employ them,” Winch said.
She said she feels too many police officers aren’t helping people and many can do more to help.
“They can be upset but the reality is, we have more issues with police officers not doing what’s right than police offers who do, so those who do things that are right they should be celebrated for the things that they do,” she said.
When asked if she really thinks that a police officer helping people is a rare sighting in Hartford, she said that is what she thinks.
“I think it’s absolutely a rare sighting in Hartford. I mean, look at our statistics like who gets arrested in crimes in Hartford and how police sometimes excite things that sometimes should not be excited,” she said.
Winch had said she no plans to take down the post but later on Thursday she put up a revised version:
The meeting between presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan was closed to the media but there were four things the high-profile visit showed, according to NBC News.
Ryan and Trump have real differences and the speaker still won't publicly endorse the real estate mogul.
The difference are about tone and policy. Ryan did not spell out what those differences are but he does not support Trump's proposals for a Mexico border wall or a temporary ban on Muslims.
The impasse between Ryan and Trump might be over by election day and Ryan hinted at what he might say if he endorses Trump later this year. The real estate mogul, the speaker noted, won an overwhelming number of votes in the primary process.
Finally, no matter what Congressional Republicans do with Trump, Democrats will try to cast them as the "party of Trump."
Authorities confirm a suspect is in custody after two police officers were shot early Friday morning in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Ian MacPherson, 32, of Manchester, was apprehended around 5 a.m. and charged with two counts of attempted capital murder, the office of Attorney General Joseph Foster announced.
Both officers are expected to survive the shooting — one was sent home from the hospital Friday, the other moved to Boston to continue his treatment closer to his family, authorities said.
The incident began around 2 a.m., when Manchester Police Officer Ryan Hardy saw a man who fit the description of the suspect in the robbery of a Shell gas station on Thursday. Hardy radioed in that he saw the suspect, then radioed again the he was shot, according to the attorney general's office. He was wounded in the face and torso.
That incident happened near the intersection of Second Street and Ferry Street about 30 minutes later.
Officer Matthew O'Connor saw the suspect on Rimmon Street near Putnam Street. When he told him to put his hands up, Foster's office says, the man shot O'Connor in the leg.
Officers returned fire, but the suspect fled into the woods. MacPherson was later taken into custody, authorities said. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
"There was a large volume of shots, possibly 10 to 12," Putnam Street resident Bob McKenna told necn. "Within a minute there were 15 cruisers... the street was covered."
"Police rolled up, had their guns drawn and told us to stay in the house and out of the windows for our safety," said Floyd Johnson, another area resident.
The massive manhunt forced people to stay inside their homes for hours.
"My mom came in and said 'get on the ground,'" said neighbor Breanna Violette. "There's police everywhere. They have guns."
By noon, police announced the area was safe - but they did not confirm an arrest for several more hours.
Hardy is in stable condition at a hospital in Boston, according to Foster. O'Connor was treated and released from a local hospital.
Before joining Manchester Police, Hardy served from 2012 to 2015 as an officer with the Derry Police Department.
"Hardy served the Town proudly and well," Derry Police Chief Edward B. Garone wrote in a statement. "He was highly regarded by his peers, supervisors and all members of the Derry Police Department. He is in our thoughts and prayers and we wish him a swift recovery."
During the investigation Friday morning, there was a heavy police presence in Manchester, with both Massachusetts and New Hampshire State Police helicopters seen circling overhead.
Police originally told residents of the area around Wayne, Putnam and Rimmon streets to shelter in place. That was lifted shortly after 10 a.m.
Schools on the west side of the city are closed Friday, according to the Manchester school system. Affected schools include Gossler Park Elementary, Northwest Elementary, Parker-Varney Elementary, Middle School at Parkside and West High School.
