Police are investigating an attempted robbery at Krauzser’s in West Haven.
Police responded to the shop at 111 Elm St. and police said the would-be robber implied he had a weapon, but did not show one, He went behind a counter, pushed a clerk and pulled him away from the counter, attempted to get cash and fled.
The store employee injured his hand.
Police released surveillance images and are looking for help to identify the person in the photos.
An employee of the Milford Public Schools was charged with possessing child pornography, the school said.
Douglas Mehan was arrested on Jan. 13 following an investigation that started in November 2016, police said.
Mehan was placed on administrative leave following the arrest.
"Based on the nature of the investigation, the employee was immediately placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the police department’s investigation," Milford Public Schools released in a statement.
Police said the 50-year-old uploaded videos of child pornography at his Milford residence on Bray Avenue.
The investigations conducted by the police and school officials found that the charges were not related to a student with the Milford school district, the school said.
Mehan's bond was set at $25,000.
A 3-year-old was found wandering in Wolcott on Thursday afternoon.
Police said they got a call just before 3 p.m. about a toddler in diaper wandering on Route 69/Wolcott Road.
By the time Wolcott police made it to the scene, the child was inside a home with his mother, police said.
Witness said they saw the mother come outside and grab the child on the roadway before police arrived.
It is not clear if the child was left unattended by the mother.
Police continue to investigate the incident.
The robbery suspect in an officer-involved shooting, who also rammed police cruisers in New Haven last fall, has been arrested.
On Sept. 6, Guilford police issued an alert about a robbery in their town, said they were looking for 50-year-old Kenneth Palmieri, of Branford, and provided a description of the vehicle he was in.
Soon after, New Haven police were dispatched to investigate a robbery at 55 Church St. and saw Palmieri as they were approaching and pursued him until the chase became too dangerous, police said.
Minutes later, police spotted him sitting in a car at the Church Street South housing project. As officers approached, Palmieri sped up and crashed into two of the cruisers, police said.
He was spotted doing drugs in the vehicle, police said.
One officer fired, hitting Palmieri in the arm and and he was brought to Yale-New Haven Hospital to be treated.
No officers were injured during the incident.
Palmier was charged with reckless endangerment, criminal attempt to commit assault, interfering with an officer and operating a vehicle under suspension.
A possible stand off is underway in New Britain.
Police are surrounding a multi-family home on 153 Grove Street and calling for someone to exit the home, NBC Connecticut crews on the scene said.
Grove Street is closed.
No other details were immediately available on this developing story.
A Silver Alert has been issued for a 62-year-old man with dementia in Bristol.
Brian Franczak is described as a 5'10" man, weighing about 140 pounds, with long white hair worn in ponytail and long beard, police said.
He was last seen at 11 a.m. wearing a gray sweatshirt, gray or black sweatpants and tan construction boots.
Police said Franczak walked away from 231 Stafford Avenue.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Bristol Police Department at (860) 584-3011.
Sometime before he's sworn in Friday, President-elect Donald Trump will sit down with the top military officers who control America's massive military arsenal and get "THE Briefing," the one that provides him with an understanding — and the tools — of how he would wage nuclear war.
According to those who have witnessed it previously, the briefing is both daunting and sobering, NBC News reported.
Trump will take control of more than 4,000 nuclear warheads.
The options for nuclear war, called courses of action, are contained in both the "Presidential Decision Handbook" which is handed off, as well as in other more detailed briefings that Trump will receive after the inauguration.
The quick-moving crook who brazenly stole a bucket of gold flakes worth nearly $1.6 million from an armored truck in Manhattan last fall has been nabbed in his native Ecuador, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation tell NBC 4 New York.
Authorities had been looking for Julio Nivelo since he was allegedly captured on surveillance video swiping the 86-pound bucket of gold off a truck on West 48th Street in September.
The hunt led police to Nivelo's residence in West New York, New Jersey, to Orlando, to Los Angeles before detectives from the major case squad headed to Ecuador. Nivelo was arrested there Thursday morning by federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations and The National Police of Ecuador.
He was arrested without incident after he sent the NYPD on a months-long search across the globe. It wasn't known when he would be extradited to New York to face charges. Police say they have recovered some of the money.
Nivelo is a convicted felon who is known to the NYPD as Luis Toledo, among other aliases. He's a career thief who's been arrested seven times and deported four times to Ecuador.
Surveillance video from the theft shows a man, allegedly Nivelo, loitering around the truck before one guard goes to make a pickup, and the other guard heads to the front seat to grab his cellphone. Those 20 seconds were long enough for the thief to strike: he goes to grab the 86-pound bucket and makes a run for it, though he clearly has difficulty maneuvering it.
The video shows the thief setting down the heavy bucket, putting it on his shoulder, then taking a breather. He takes another few steps and pauses again. The normally 10-minute walk takes him an hour. He then jumps into a van at 49th Street and Third Avenue.
Sarah Raskin and Beth Kerrigan unfurled their professionally made banner they will march with on Saturday, one day after Donald Trump takes the oath of office.
They helped to organize 5,000 women on 90 buses that will make the trip for the Women's March set to take place in the nation's capital.
“This is a very ad-hoc, grassroots coming together of people who just felt like they wanted to be involved in the march," said Raskin.
She views the march as a direct response to Trump, who was caught on tape years ago talking about grabbing a woman's genitals.
“I think it’s clear that many of the messages that came through in the election from the president-elect felt very alienating during the election and felt they were directly threatening women’s rights and liberties and equality.”
On the other end of the political spectrum is George Noujaim, a member of the Waterbury Republican Town Committee, who was packing up his car Thursday morning as he prepared to drive down to Washington D.C. for the festivities.
“It’s still surreal to me," Noujaim said. "Especially knowing in 24 hours, under 24 hours I’m going to be standing there with millions of people.”
Noujaim volunteered for Trump in Connecticut, where the Republican garnered just more than 40 percent of the vote. He was so actively involved that he helped to organize Trump's visit to Waterbury's Crosby High School in the days leading up to Connecticut's Presidential Primary. During that visit Noujaim met the then candidate, and he signed several signs, and even a Donald J. Trump Signature Collection necktie for Noujaim.
Noujaim said the visit remains vivid in his memory. "He’s was actually an idol of mine growing up, business-wise.”
When asked what he hopes to hear from Trump in his first address to the nation as president, he said, "How he’s going to make America great again. How he’s going to turn the country around.”
Sarah Raskin says she hopes the Women's March serves as a jumping off point for the next four years, and what the president-elect can expect.
“I think it’s a moment to organize, get ready to engage, fight anything that we might have to push against.”
Pilgrim Furniture’s seven day return policy is put in print, as is the Department of Consumer Protection’s statute, which restricts customers from returning bedding once it’s delivered to a home.
But Loretta Withington and her sister Doris told NBC Connecticut Responds they needed an exception, as life isn’t that simple.
After all, Doris Withington spends most of her days helping Loretta fight multiple sclerosis, and most of her nights helping them pay the bills.
“She’s been having trouble lifting her legs into the bed,” said Doris. “We have other sisters, [and] because I work nights, other sisters come over to help her get into the bed. And that’s basically the problem. We thought with the adjustable bed, she would get a better grip.”
In late November, Doris bought an adjustable bed from Pilgrim Furniture in Southington. As soon as it arrived, the Withingtons noticed the bed sat too low, so they asked for an adjustment.
“She was still having trouble getting into it,” said Doris. “And we decided it just wasn’t working out.”
Doris felt pressed against time, so she called Pilgrim within the seven day return window. She says a service manager told her they could not accept the mattress or its frame, citing Connecticut Public Act 0422, Section 21A-231, subsection 9, which says both units are bedding, since the box spring is attached to the frame.
Once bedding enters a home, it’s considered used. If a customer returns it, stores can only resell it as such.
“And I understood the mattress I would have to pay for,” said Doris. “But I didn’t understand the frame. We were told it would be able to be returned.”
That’s when Doris asked NBC Connecticut Responds for help. Shortly after contacting Pilgrim Furniture, a store manager contacted the Withingtons.
“He was really willing to work with me which was nice,” said Doris. “He wished that it had gone through him before it went through [NBC Connecticut], but the manager I spoke to was the service manager and she just kept repeating over and over again, ‘It’s part of the bedding, it’s part of the bedding, it can’t be returned.’”
The store manager told NBC Connecticut Responds it was clear to him, after speaking with Doris, that he didn’t want to add another burden, and he would make an exception.
Within days, he ordered a service crew to pick up Loretta’s bed, and gave Doris a full refund.
“We’re just happy,” said Doris.
The issue of whether Connecticut should install tolls on some of its most traveled highways is expected to be brought up again during the 2017 General Assembly's session.
“I think that we’re starting to finally realize that many of the legislators are seeing that it’s inevitable," said Tony Guerrera, the House Chairman of the Transportation Committee.
A panel assembled by Gov. Dannel Malloy in 2015 concluded that the best way for Connecticut to fund infrastructure improvements was with a new stream revenue, and tolls was one of those options.
Connecticut is one of 21 states without tolls on highways. Vermont and Rhode Island also don't have tolls.
Guerrera said if the state wants to build better highways, bridges, and ramps, then the only answer is more revenue, and tolls would collect money from out of state residents.
"It’s a fair system," Guerrera said. "You use the roads, you pay for the roads."
He said if lawmakers were to consider the installation of electronic tolls to state highways, then he would anticipate that a decrease in the state's gas tax would be its companion. He said it makes sense to raise revenue in a new through tolling, while decreasing the state's reliance on the at-the-pump tax of more than .37 cents per gallon.
“I don’t think we can phase it out completely, but I what I do think is that we can be one of the lowest in the United States," Guerrera said.
Someone has been going door-to-door in Meriden and leaving behind what fake yet legitimate looking delivery tags, police said.
The tags say “Final Attempt” and a phone number at the bottom to schedule a delivery.
But police said these stickers on the front doors of homes appear to be part of scheme going around in Meriden and other parts of the state.
“I had assumed we had missed a delivery. But it said 'final attempt' but we got no first or second,” Alison Canney of Meriden, said.
Police reported receiving a flood of complaints about the tags.
Officers said they could be a trick to get personal information or sell services by getting people to call the printed phone number.
“That’s pretty scary someone would come to my door and do that,” Canney said.
When NBC Connecticut called the number on the tag, the person who answered said they were with Solid Distribution Center and that a manager would call us back.
“Now we’re seeing a lot of people getting packages at their door so naturally this is a time scammers will hit your door with that sticker,” Lora Rae Anderson, Department of Consumer Protection, director of communications.
The Department of Consumer Protection said the first red flag is that the stickers in Meriden were not marked with a delivery company such as UPS or FedEx. The tag should also include a known website and a tracking number given during purchase, the agency said.
“They just want to get you on the phone so they can ask you for your hard-earned dollars and cents unfortunately,” Anderson said.
Police said residents should not call the number on the tag.
If you want to a file a state consumer complaint, you can contact the Department of Consumer Protection by calling (860) 713-6100 or (800) 842-2649 or email.
Republican Donald J. Trump, a businessman and former reality TV star, will be sworn in Friday as the 45th president of the United States.
It will cap an unlikely and historic rise for a man who has never before served in government. Taking the nation's highest office and with Republicans in both houses of Congress, Trump will get his chance to fulfill his campaign slogan to make America great again.
Hundreds of thousands of people have descended on Washington, D.C., to mark the occasion and millions more will tune in to watch all of the pomp — and a number of protests.
Officials estimate that 800,000 to 900,000 people will be present for Inauguration Day festivities, a celebration that takes over the city, closing roads and taxing the city's Metro transit system.
Several living ex-presidents will be in attendance. Besides outgoing President Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are slated to attend, along with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
On Friday morning, Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence and their families will attend services at St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House, a precedent set by Franklin D. Roosevelt and followed by every president since.
The ceremony is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. ET, with a musical prelude.
Just after noon, Trump will take the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. Trump will then deliver his inaugural address.
Trump and Pence are slated to participate in the traditional inaugural parade at 3 p.m. ET, with forecasts showing cloudy skies and showers.
But the day will not be all pageantry and celebration, coming after an ugly presidential campaign and a contentious aftermath.
More than 60 House Democrats plan to boycott Trump's inauguration ceremony, an unprecedented break with the bipartisan tradition of celebrating the peaceful transfer of power. Among their reasons are Trump's treatment of women, minorities and the disabled during the campaign and alleged links between his team and Russia.
While Trump continues to lash out at critics and skirmished with the intelligence community on Twitter, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the inaugural address will offer a message of unity, describing it as “a very personal and sincere statement about his vision for the country.”
"He’ll discuss what it means to be an American, the challenges we face, the challenges the middle class face,” Spicer said Thursday.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters took to the streets in D.C., New York City and around the country, a prelude to what can be expected in a weekend of dissent. A "unity rally" outside Trump International Hotel in Manhattan received support from celebrities including Alec Baldwin, Michael Moore and Rosie Perez.
Donald Trump will be sworn in as the country's 45th president on Friday and thousands of his supporters from across the country will attend to witness the historic event. They hope his presidency will be the start of an American revival that will bring greater prosperity to the country.
The next day thousands of women, many dismayed by the president-elect's crude references to them and his embrace of policies they believe will hurt them and their families, will march in the capital. Many will wear pink hats with cat ears, in a reference to Trump's now famous statement that he could grab women "by the pussy."
Hear from some of those planning to attend.
Voices of men and women headed to D.C. for Trump's inauguration:
David J. Pelto Jr.
Pelto Jr., 35, will attend the inauguration with his two sons to witness history and what he called the return of "common sense" to the White House. For Pelto, who owns a truck and hauls oil, taxes are an enormous issue. At one point he owned several trucks until a drop in oil prices, and his business was further hurt by employment taxes he had to pay for drivers who worked for him, he said. "It costs on average 15 percent on top of an employee's wage," he said. "Depending on the state it can go much higher." Pelto, who lives in Arkansas, said that he hoped that entrepreneurs would benefit from the $1 trillion that President-elect Donald Trump has proposed spending on infrastructure. Pelto, who describes himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, also thinks the country should be less resistant to fracking. The increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma, which has been linked to wastewater disposal wells, do worry him, but he believes fracking is safe elsewhere. As far as green energy, "Why don't we allow what we have now to continue working for us while we grow slowly into green energy?"
Myke Shelby
Myke Shelby, the owner of the San Diego Harley-Davidson dealership, which has about 150 employees, is in Washington as part of the Bikers for Trump. He flew to Washington, but will be with other bikers protecting Donald Trump supporters headed to the Deplorables Inaugural Ball from protesters.
"I'm a veteran. I fought for their right to protest. Don't get me wrong. This country was born in a revolutionary war," said Shelby, 72. "But they don't have the right to be violent and to threaten harm."
For Shelby, regulations are a key issue — ones covering the environment and labor and those from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
"Regulations, they stifle business, but they catch us when we're not looking and we end up with big fines and big legal fees," he said.
OSHA regulations might have made sense when the administration was created, but they no longer protect workers the way they were meant to, he said.
"It's gotten to be an overbearing bureaucracy that forces us to do things that really don't make a lot of sense," he said.
Shelby, of San Diego, said he became a Trump supporter when he heard the President-elect talk about onerous regulations.
"I said 'Hello,'" he said. "Hallelujah, somebody gets it because I don't think too many politicians ever understood that."
John Hikel
Hikel, 58, a former New Hampshire legislator and the longtime owner of an auto-repair business in Manchester, said he had supported Donald Trump since meeting him three months before the president-elect decided to run. "He had never been elected to an elected office before and he wasn't an attorney and that was my minimum," Hikel said. He said he wanted to see fewer regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency and the IRS, among agencies, particularly those governing clean air, which he said he thought were too stringent. "When Mr. Trump talked to me about trimming all of these agencies, I couldn't agree more," he said. Hikel said he was looking forward to a manufacturing revival under Trump, whom he viewed as a strong-willed leader. "More and more (customers) are coming into my shop not being able to spend $100 or $200 or $300 even to fix their vehicles," he said. "People are living paycheck to paycheck. I know they have for a long time but that's a problem that our government has handed down to us."
Erin Sullivan
Sullivan, 20, a junior at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, voted for the first time in November and she picked President-elect Donald Trump. The country needs a revival, and Trump's tax and immigration policies and his ideas for creating more jobs in America will help rebuild the country, Sullivan said. An example: his urging automobile manufacturers to build cars in the United States and not in Mexico or elsewhere, she said. "Trump is really focusing on the American dream, and looking at the people who worked really hard and sometimes don't necessarily have a voice," she said. As a young woman, she found his lewd comment about grabbing women to be disgusting, but thought everyone at some point was bound to say something stupid. In his favor, Trump hired women for spots in his campaign, among them SMU alumna Hope Hicks as his director of strategic communications, she said. Sullivan, who is from Wilton, Connecticut, will attend the inauguration with other students from SMU and will volunteer at the Texas State Society's Black Tie and Boots Ball.
Austin Yang
Yang, 14, a student at La Jolla Country Day School in La Jolla, California, will attend the inauguration with a group of schoolmates. "It's such an important event in our American government," he said. Too young to vote, Yang nonetheless had a preferred candidate, Donald Trump. "We thought that Trump would be better toward the Chinese," said Yang, whose mother was born in China. Trump instead threatened a trade war with China over the value of its currency. "The exact opposite of what we thought would happen," Yang said. "I'm not very happy with it but I guess we can only deal with it now since he's our president." Yang, who expects to study medicine, remains hopeful that Trump will moderate his views once he meets with Chinese officials.
Joseph Locke
Locke, 21, works in construction, attends Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts full time and will soon start classes at the Massachusetts state reserve police academy with the goal of joining a town police force. He believes that Trump will ensure the military is better prepared to defend the country and cut back spending to tackle the country's debt. "Seeing it from a businessman's perspective where you can see where you can make cuts and not have detriment to the country," he said. Locke ran a Trump campaign office in his hometown Easton, Massachusetts, where he organized volunteers making phone calls and as part of the Bridgewater State University's College Republicans, he reached out to college students. "He didn't seem just like a regular politician," he said of Trump. "I like that he actually says what he feels and what he thinks."
The day after Trump's inauguration, thousands of women are expected on the Mall for the Women's March on Washington.
Voices of women headed to D.C. for the women's march:
Krista Suh
When Krista Suh, one of the originators of "The Pussyhat Project" steps out for the Women's March on Washington on Saturday, she will likely be surrounded by the handiwork of women from across the country: pink cat-eared hats, a rebuke to Donald Trump over his comment that he grabs women "by the pussy."
Women from coast to coast knitted hats for themselves, friends and neighbors and sent them to Washington for other women to wear, even if they cannot be there.
"But it’s about so much more than Trump using the word," Suh, 29, said. "It's about us reclaiming the word."
She said that she had always been ambitious about the project, which she began with her friend Jayna Zweiman, but was taken aback by the feelings it sparked.
"I just wasn’t prepared for the emotional depth of this project — the notes that accompanied the hats have made me cry and the people who have reached out to me saying that this project has lifted them out of the grief and depression," she said. "That I didn't anticipate and that's been really humbling."
Suh, a screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles, knew the minute she heard about the Women's March that she would attend and quickly thought about what sign could she hold up or what could she wear.
"Honestly I was willing to strip naked for this," she said.
But then she considered Washington's colder temperatures and settled on a hat — the cat ears to give it a distinctive silhouette. Her knitting teacher named it with her comment: "It's the pussy power hat."
Kica Matos
Matos, 50, plans join the Women’s March on Washington the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration to show her 11-year-old son what is possible in a democracy. A former deputy mayor in New Haven, Connecticut, she wants to impress on him that he should be an engaged citizen, that he can participate in peaceful protests and fight for what he believes in. Matos, the director of immigration at The Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C., said she feared that Trump's election would undermine advances made in racial justice, immigrant rights and women's rights. His campaign, with attacks on immigrants, Muslims and people of color, brought out the worst in many Americans, she said. Of her son, she said, "I want him to believe that we are better as Americans and that we should always strive for a world that respects others, regardless of difference," she said. "And to me this march, the idea of women from all walks of life coming together in solidarity and in support of a better, more just world is incredibly appealing."
Laura Noe
Noe, 50, will participate in the Women's March on Washington, the first she has ever gone to, because she believes the country must re-think its values. Americans are becoming insulated and isolated, mean and judgmental and are losing the ability to empathize with others, she said. "It becomes an us and them, black and white, win lose," she said. After her divorce, she sold her home so that she and her son could travel and see first-hand how other people lived. "We're all about our stuff, buying and buying, consuming and gobbling up," she said. "I decided I wanted to spend my time and money on experiences." Noe, who owns a marketing and communications company in Branford, Connecticut, wrote about their trips to France, the Czech Republic, Morocco and Turkey in "Travels With My Son: Journeys of the Heart." She is now writing about her brother, Ed, who became homeless, was diagnosed with mental illness and after many years is getting treatment. They celebrated Thanksgiving together for the first time in 17 years.
Chloe Wagner, Morenike Fabiyi
Wagner and Fabiyi, both 16 and juniors at Francis W. Parker High School in Chicago, worked with the Illinois chapter of the Women's March on Washington and Chicago Women Take Action to put together a group of teenagers from their school to attend the march. They call their organization the Illinois Youth Chapter. Wagner is particularly concerned with LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights; Fabiyi is focused on immigration rights and education reform. Wagner said that after Trump's win, she at first felt powerless. "There wasn't anything happening for a few days and then all of a sudden we just came back full force and that's when we really starting getting passionate about bringing Illinois Youth to Washington," she said. Fabiyi said that she also felt lost but quickly realized that she needed to do something. "I can't just be mad and sad and complain about it all the time," she said. Wagner said one of the goals of the march was to tell the Trump administration that "we will not be walked over, and we will fight for all rights we are given under the Constitution." Said Fabiyi, "Just because I can't vote yet doesn't mean that my voice shouldn't be heard."
Alexandra Goutnova
Goutnova, 15 and a student at La Jolla Country Day School in California, will be attending both the inauguration and the Women's March on Washington though she does not support President-elect Donald Trump. "I'm very passionate about women's rights," she said. Goutnova, who moved to the United States from Russia three years ago and who plans to attend law school, is bothered by comments Trump has made about women and by his denial of climate change. "It is a proven scientific fact that this is happening and this is happening right now," she said. "So the fact that our president is not willing to deal with it I think is absurd." Americans compared to Russians are more accepting, about LGBTQ rights, for example, she said. She said she is terrified that the United States will change. "Coming from Russia, I've seen the difference of how it can be in a bad way," she said. "And I'm just scared to see that happen to the U.S."
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On Friday, Donald Trump will deliver his highly anticipated inaugural address, likely one of the most important speeches of his life so far. In order to make it a compelling and convincing message, he will have to rely on the very thing that has turned his opponents away from him: his unique way with words.
Neurolinguistic experts tell NBC News Trump’s style may have the persuasive ability to bring Americans together. He appeals to feelings and emotions, and he meanders between thoughts, allowing listeners to fill in the gaps as they choose.
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But, just as effectively, he uses uncomplicated messages, such as “make America great again” and “crooked Hillary.” Regardless of their veracity, they stick in people’s minds because of their simplicity. If he keeps saying it, one neuroscience professor said, “it becomes it.” That type of language is powerful, even more so when paired with negative ideas.
One thing Trump will need to do Friday morning, something he has yet to do, is speak in greater detail. That will help him to bring in a wider audience as he takes on his official leadership role.
Rescuers found eight people alive inside a Italian hotel that was buried under an avalanche, Italy's Civil Protection Agency confirmed to NBC News Friday.
It was wasn't immediately clear whether the survivors had been removed from the Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola. They had been trapped for more than 40 hours.
“We always hoped to find someone alive. The fact we found people alive after so many hours give us even more hope," said Titti Postiglione of the Civil Protection Agency.
Up to 30 people, including an unspecified number of children, were reported missing after an avalanche buried the four-star hotel on Wednesday.
At least one Southwest flight full of women flying to Washington for Saturday's women's march lit up with pink lights in the cabin in apparent solidarity with the passengers.
"When your Southwest flight crew celebrate a plane full of kicka-- women and men going to the Women's March by lighting it up!! #lit #womensmarchonwashington #lovetrumpshate," passenger Krystal Parrish wrote on Instagram with a picture of the light pink hues.
In a statement, Southwest Airlines said the lighting was not a company-wide initiative, but that crews on flights sometimes adjust lighting based on passengers aboard.
"Some of our aircraft are equipped with mood lighting and while this was not a company-wide initiative, at times, our flight crews will adjust the lighting for a customer or group of customers traveling on their flight," the statement said. "For example, in October, one of our Flight Crews changed the lighting to honor a breast cancer survivor on board their flight."
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to converge on the National Mall for the Women's March on Washington.
March organizers said in a mission statement posted to their website that participants will unite to end violence and promote rights for women, LGBT people, workers, people of color, people with disabilities and immigrants.
"The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us," the site says.
Bikers for Trump roared through the D.C. area Thursday with a message they want to share with America this inauguration weekend.
The bikers gathered in Woodbridge, Virginia, Thursday morning and rolled north on Interstate 95, crossing the Key Bridge into Georgetown on their motorcycles.
They also stopped at Arlington National Cemetery to honor the men and women some of them served with in the military, people who made the ultimate sacrifice in service for their country.
Their message is unity, said John Caycelo of Dumfries, Virginia.
“That's what our country needs right now – unity,” he said.
They brought the Trump Unity Bridge from Michigan and drove the Trumpmobile from Florida. Its owners, who are from Finland, said it’s made from 43 different cars.
“This was converted to a Trumpmobile because we all in Florida and Florida was one of the toughest states to be won,” owner Pastor Martti Falck said.
A rider from Brazil who now lives in Arlington and became a U.S. citizen said immigration is the reason she rides for Trump.
"I am an immigrant myself, and for me to get all the papers that I needed to become a citizen was a very hard process," Leticia Stanley said. "And I did it the right way. And there are a lot of immigrants that do not do that ... They come here illegally and I do not agree with that."
The bikers anticipate they will encounter anti-Trump protests during the inauguration.
"As long as it's peaceful, the biker community is here to see a peaceful transition of power," said R.C. Pittman of Florida Bikers for Trump.
Bikers for Trump said protesters expected to demonstrate against the new president have nothing to fear as long as they're peaceful.
“The First Amendment guarantees them the right to protest,” Pittman said. “It guarantees them the right to say anything they want to say. It doesn't give the right to get violent.”
Bikers for Trump will hold a rally on Inauguration Day along the parade route and end the day with a Bikers Ball.
They said they want to be considered a voting block political candidates will have to deal with for years to come.
