Police have arrested the owner of Stony Brook Bar and Restaurant in Stratford and a bartender who are accused of selling cocaine from the bar. 

Police said the bar owner, 58-year-old Angelo Recine, of Bridgeport, and the bartender, 51-year-old Laurie Herb, of Stratford, were accused of selling cocaine from the bar at 825 Success Ave. in Stratford. 

Police said they searched the bar as well as Recine and Herb’s homes and cocaine was found both at Recine’s home and inside the bar. 

Recine was charged with three counts of sales of cocaine and one count of operating a drug factory. 

Herb was charged with four counts of sales of cocaine. 

Recine posted $25,000 in bond and Herb posted a $10,000 bond. Each is due in Bridgeport Court on Oct. 20. 

Police said detectives seized cocaine packaged for sale, $3500, items used for preparing and packaging narcotics for street sale and suspected cocaine. 

A 47-year-old Willimantic woman was seriously injured when she was struck by a car in Windham Sunday night, according to Connecticut State Police.

Police said the woman was either walking in the road or crossing when she was hit on Windham Road (Route 32) near Old Windham Road around 9:30 p.m. She was rushed to Backus Hospital and later airlifted to Hartford Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Police could not immediately identify the woman because she had no identification, but she has now been identified as Laurie Ann Mckelvey, 47, of Willimantic. 

Police said her brother identified her at Hartford Hospital.

In a news interview and a speech in Pennsylvania, President Donald Trump misleadingly suggested that rising stock value could reduce the national debt. One budget expert told us that notion was “just silly.”

In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, Trump noted that the country’s debt rose by $10 trillion under President Barack Obama and that since he took office, stock values have increased by $5.2 trillion. So, he said, “maybe in a sense we’re reducing debt.”

Trump on Fox News, Oct. 11: The country — we took it over and owed over 20 trillion. As you know the last eight years, they borrowed more than it did in the whole history of our country. So they borrowed more than $10 trillion, right? And yet, we picked up 5.2 trillion just in the stock market. Possibly picked up the whole thing in terms of the first nine months, in terms of value. So you could say, in one sense, we’re really increasing values. And maybe in a sense we’re reducing debt. But we’re very honored by it. And we’re very, very happy with what’s happening on Wall Street.

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Trump made similar comments during a speech on tax reform in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that same day.

Trump in Harrisburg, Oct. 11: And very proudly, just in the stock market alone, we have increased our economic worth by $5.2 trillion dollars. That’s right since Election Day — $5.2 trillion.

Think about that. That’s a quarter of the $20 trillion that we owe. So we’ve already — but listen to this because we’ve doubled — in the last eight years of the previous administration, the debt doubled, so that in eight years our debt — literally hundreds of years of debt — doubled in eight years to $20 trillion.

But since the election on November 8th, I’ve increased the value of your U.S. assets by more than the $20 trillion that we currently owe. You haven’t heard those numbers.

Trump is right that the federal debt increased under Obama.

Total public debt outstanding rose from $10.6 trillion to $19.9 trillion, an increase of $9.3 trillion. That includes all the money that the government owes to itself, including the Social Security trust funds. Under Obama, the federal debt held by the public grew from $6.3 trillion to $14.4 trillion, an $8.1 trillion increase, or a little more than 128 percent over Obama’s eight years.

The debt continues to rise under Trump. The debt held by the public is now at $14.7 trillion, and the total debt is at $20.4 trillion.

It’s also true that the stock market has been making steady gains.

Since Trump took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 15.9 percent to 22,872 at the close on Oct. 11. Trump takes credit for the rise in the stock market dating back to his election last November — and an argument can be made for a “Trump Rally” that many attribute at least partly to investor optimism that the president-elect would, once in office, cut taxes and regulation as promised. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock average rose nearly 6 percent between Election Day and Obama’s last day in office.

The White House said Trump arrived at the $5.2 trillion figure by looking at the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index. (A single point in the Wilshire 5000 represents about $1.15 billion in index market value, and the Wilshire index grew by 4,439 between Nov. 8, 2016, and Oct. 12. That translates to $5.1 trillion growth in market value since Election Day.)

But Trump’s suggestion that stock value somehow reduces the national debt is misleading.

“It’s nonsense,” Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Government, told us.

“There is no relationship between the national debt and the value of the stock market, which is the total value of a selection of stocks owned by individuals and being held abroad,” Goldwein said. “It’s just silly. They are totally different economic indicators.”

Those sentiments were echoed by political economist Greg Valliere of Horizon Investments to CNNMoney.

“The stock market’s gains have virtually nothing to do with the size of the national debt, which continues to rise because government spending far exceeds government receipts,” Valliere said. “A higher stock market encourages consumers and companies to spend more, which helps the overall economy. But it’s absurd to contend that the national debt has fallen because of this.”

Indeed, if Trump’s premise were accurate, the debt would have fallen significantly under Obama — because the rise in stock market value didn’t start with Trump’s election.

The S&P 500 index more than doubled — rising by 166 percent — under Obama. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 138 percent. And yet, as we said earlier, debt soared under Obama.

The White House referred us to an Oct. 12 interview that White House Legislative Director Marc Short gave to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Short was asked whether a booming stock market would reduce the national debt, as the president suggested. He said it would, because a “booming stock market means that people are continuing to pay more taxes and dividends, so there are additional resources coming in to the Treasury.”

Short added that the country needs to “address its spending habit” but that “the booming stock market does help generate more revenue that can help pay down the debt.”

High stock values can be an indicator of faster economic growth, Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told us, but not always.

And higher stock value should translate to moderately higher revenues from capital gains taxes and retirement account withdrawals, he said, but those increased revenues would never be equivalent to the debt. For starters, only 20 to 25 cents of every dollar from capital gains is taxed, Goldwein said. And, it is only taxed when the stocks are sold, not when they are held. So the amount of tax revenue the government gets from that is a tiny fraction of the overall value of stocks.

In its own fact-check of Trump’s comments, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget notes: “Last year, capital gains taxes accounted for only 4 percent of total federal revenue – even a record jump in capital gains next year would only reduce further borrowing by about $50 billion, which is less than a tenth of what we are projected to borrow next year.”

And, Goldwein said, those increased revenues are already accounted for in the Congressional Budget Office’s deficit projections.

The CBO reported that the federal government ran a budget deficit of $668 billion in fiscal year 2017, which ended Sept. 30. That was about $25 billion less than the CBO projected in June, “largely because outlays were less than CBO anticipated.”

A CBO analysis of Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2018 estimated that while Trump proposed significant spending cuts, the cumulative deficit over the 2018 to 2027 period would total $6.8 trillion (even as the deficits would decline as a percentage of GDP from 3.6 percent in 2017 to 2.6 percent at the end of the period).

In other words, the debt under Trump’s proposed budget would not be as high as projected under current law, but it would still grow. (We should note that Congress has not yet passed a spending plan for fiscal 2018.)

That Trump budget plan includes $1.9 trillion less in spending on health care in anticipation of a repeal and replace of the Affordable Care Act — which hasn’t happened yet.

The president’s budget also assumes deficit neutral tax reform, which the Trump administration and Republican leaders are not proposing. An analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, for example, concluded the latest iteration of the tax plan would add $2.2 trillion to the debt.

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney told CNN, “If we simply look at this as being deficit-neutral [tax plan], you’re never going to get the type of tax reform and tax reductions that you need to get to sustain 3 percent economic growth.”

Trump is right that the stock market has been soaring — a trend that began several years ago, but that has been even more pronounced since Trump’s election. But those stock gains are not reducing the ever-growing national debt. At best, the additional tax revenues may contribute to slowing the debt’s growth.

FactCheck.org is a non-partisan non-profit organization that will hold candidates and key figures accountable during the 2016 presidential campaign. FactCheck.org will check facts of speeches, advertisements and more for NBC. 

A 17-year-old male was struck by a school bus in Meriden on Friday, police said. 

LifeStar responded to the scene after the boy was hit by Platt High School around 2:30 p.m.

Coe Avenue is blocked off at various intersections. 

It is not clear if the boy was a student. 

No other information was immediately available. NBC Connecticut is working to get more details. 

New Britain police are investigating after a girl reported that a man forced her into a vehicle in the area of 1755 Stanley St. around 8:30 p.m. Thursday and asked her to perform a sexual act on him.

She told authorities she was able to get out of the car and run to a friend’s house for help, according to police.

The man identified himself to the victim as “Edwin” and police said he was described as heavyset, with short brown hair, brown eyes and a pencil-thin beard.

He was driving a green BMW with tinted windows and police said it might have a breathalyzer ignition locking system.

New Britain police will be stepping up patrols in the Stanley Street area and they ask anyone with information to call the New Britain Police Department at 860-826-3131.

Anonymous tips can be left on the tip line at 860-826-3199 or submitted online.

Erich Pearson looked out on blackened tubs of tall marijuana plants that only last week were beginning to be harvested. His crop now either fouled by toxic smoke and ash or scorched completely by the the raging wildfires that have devastated Northern California.

"Unless it’s metal, it’s not here,” said Pearson, the co-founder and CEO of SPARC (San Francisco Patient and Resource Center), while surveying the landscape. “It’s pretty devastating.”

His farm in the Sonoma County town of Glen Ellen produces cannabis for four marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco, Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

The harvest season was in full swing and many cannabis farmers like Pearson had just began to pick their crops when frenetic winds whipped through Sonoma Valley, charring entire neighborhoods and leveling family farms and vineyards.

Pearson said three homes on the property were destroyed, displacing eight people. Large sprawling barns that the business used for drying cannabis plants burned to the ground, leaving only their tin roofs as evidence of what had stood there.

Plants that didn’t burn entirely were covered in ash — absorbing the thick smoky air that clung to everything.

"With ash and soot and black on it," Pearson said it’s not likely to continue to grow after this."

Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, said Thursday that at least seven farms had been destroyed, and he expected the number to rise as residents who evacuated the area returned home and surveyed their land.

Grower organizations say the losses to the state’s estimated $21 million cannabis industry are likely to be staggering. Sonoma County alone is home to thousands of grow sites, and the region includes some of the state’s most prominent cannabis operations.

And unlike other agricultural producers affected by the wildfires, cannabis farmers face an even bigger challenge: lack of crop insurance.

"Since hemp is classified as a prohibited substance under federal law, it is not eligible for federal crop insurance," Heather Manzano, acting administrator of the Risk Management Agency, said in a statement. The agency oversees government insurance for farmers.

They also don't have access to traditional banking services, including loans, and operate on a cash basis.

If the area receives any federal aid, marijuana farmers won't have access to that either. The cost to rebuild will be entirely out of pocket. Pearson notes that for a lot of small farmers who've invested their life savings into their business, "it will be all gone."

Pearson said since the fire, he and his crew have spent the majority of their time helping impacted neighbors save pets and livestock.

"Taking care of everything from koi fish to horses," he said.

The California Growers Association, meanwhile, is raising funds through the donations site YouCaring specifically to help growers in California who have been affected by the fire and may have no recourse.

Pearson said his team of workers was beginning to turn its attention back to its own farm, where logs and piles of ash continued to smolder.

While most of the crops were un-salvageable, Pearson said, there was a possibility some could be made into oils. Still, he expected the company would have to lay off at least some of its 22-member workforce.

"You keep going," Pearson said. "And that’s all you can do."

The wife and daughter of Aaron Hernandez have dropped their CTE lawsuit against the NFL and the New England Patriots and plan to re-file it Monday in another court.

The "notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice" was filed Friday in federal court in Boston. The family's lawyers told NBC Boston they are expanding the suit and plan to re-file Monday in Suffolk Superior Court because the issues involved in the complaint are state and not federal in nature.

The lawsuit was filed last month after a brain study showed the former Patriots tight end suffered from a "severe case" of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Experts said it was the most severe case of CTE they had ever seen in someone his age. The suit claimed the team and the league deprived 4-year-old Avielle Hernandez of the companionship of her father.

The NFL said last month that it would "vigorously" contest the lawsuit, saying it would face "significant legal issues from the start.

League spokesman Joe Lockhart said "any attempt to paint Aaron Hernandez as a victim" is wrong.

Hernandez had Stage 3 out of 4 CTE, usually found in a 67-year-old man. Boston University officials who examined his brain said he also had early brain atrophy and perforations in a central membrane. CTE can be caused by repeated head trauma and leads to symptoms like violent mood swings, depression and other cognitive difficulties.

Hernandez killed himself in April in the jail cell where he was serving a life-without-parole sentence for a 2013 murder. His death came just hours before the Patriots visited the White House to celebrate their latest Super Bowl victory.

Soon after his prison suicide in April, Hernandez's family decided they wanted his brain to be studied by the Boston University Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center.

State officials originally refused to release the brain because it was part of the ongoing investigation into Hernandez's death, but later agreed to release it after his lawyer accused them of holding the brain illegally.

Baez said at the time that the family hoped Hernandez's brain could be examined to help future athletes and to shed any more light on his client's death. A recent study conducted by Boston University found CTE in the brains of 110 of the 111 brains of former NFL players that were tested.

Hernandez, 27, was serving a life sentence for murder and was acquitted in two other killings just days before he hanged himself with a bed sheet attached to his cell window at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, in the early morning hours of April 19.

Hernandez blocked access to his cell from the inside by jamming cardboard into the door tracks, investigators said. They also said there were no signs of a struggle and Hernandez was alone at the time of the hanging.

His Bible was found marked with blood at John 3:16, a verse that describes eternal life for those who believe in God. The verse name was also written in blood on the wall and in pen on his forehead.

A star for the University of Florida when it won the 2008 title, Hernandez dropped to the fourth round of the NFL draft because of trouble in college that included a failed drug test and a bar fight. His name had also come up in an investigation into a shooting.

In three seasons with the Patriots, Hernandez joined Rob Gronkowski to form one of the most potent tight end duos in NFL history. In 2011, his second season, Hernandez caught 79 passes for 910 yards and seven touchdowns to help the team reach the Super Bowl, and he was rewarded with a $40 million contract.

But the Patriots released him in 2013, shortly after he was arrested in the killing of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee. Hernandez was convicted and sentenced to life in prison; the conviction was voided because he died before his appeals were exhausted, though that decision is itself being appealed.

SUICIDE PREVENTION HELP: The National Suicide Prevention Hotline (1-800-273-8255) is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The mother of an 8-year-old boy who died after an intentionally set fire engulfed a Meriden home last year has been arrested. 

Eight-year-old Elijah Ziolkowski was killed in the fire and his 40-year-old mother, Karin Ziolkowski, was in critical condition after the fire on Nov. 14, 2016, according to police.

On Friday, Meriden police said the mother has been charged with murder and arson. She was arrested in North Carolina where she had been living since the fire. 

Police said the boy's death was ruled homicidal asphyxia which happened prior to the fire being set. 

In 2016, firefighters found the mother and son inside a burning home while responding to the fire at 7:17 a.m. The boy died while the mother was in the ICU for a few days in critical condition. 

Ziolkowski's bond was set at $1,000,000. 

Elijah Ziolkowski was a third-grade student at the Israel Putnam School.

Enza Adamcewicz, the principal of the school, said Elijah was at the school since kindergarten and the news that he died in the fire was devastating.

"Bubbly kid. You know, loves Star Wars, Legos. ... You know, a normal 8-year-old boy," Adamcewicz said. "He was very social. ... Everybody knew him, knew of him. Big personality and he will be greatly missed."

In the light of recent tragedies, a Canton man said he'd had enough when he recently came across the word "EVIL" painted in Collinsville.

With some help, he made a change and it's brought a small community even closer.

It's a word that popped up and cast a shadow over those who passed by a well-traveled area near the popular brick pump house. The building has been painted on over and over again but this time had the word "EVIL" on it.

Local resident Tim Brown said with everything going on in the world lately, it pained him to see it.

"I was worked up and hurt, honestly. It was depressing. It was a bit much and to make that big of a statement on the building that so many people see on the trail system here and driving by," Brown said.

Brown knew he couldn't let it stand, so he drove to Larsen Ace Hardware. When he revealed what he planned to do, the shop gave him the paint for free.

"I can see why Tim was here, what he wanted, and I'm like, 'Yeah, I will take care of you.' It was that simple,"  Larsen Ace Hardware general manager Andy Dylag said. "We're all local here. We live nearby, our kids go to school here, the kids graduated here, so we're always helping local folks out."

With buckets in hand, Brown painted away the word "EVIL" one brush stroke at a time and in its place he wrote the word "LOVE." He hoped it would lift spirits, and for one local family it already has.

"I think he did a wonderful job. It makes a lot of difference when you're sitting on the bench," Canton resident Karen Macbeth said.

The bench Macbeth is talking about was donated by her mother in memory of her father and nephew who died about six years ago. The family spends a lot of time there making sure it's kept in good condition. The bench faces that brick building, so seeing evil transformed into love means a lot.

"It's much, much nicer, and that's, I think, our whole country needs that kind of positivity," Macbeth said.

With tens of thousands of views on Brown's video of him painting over "EVIL" with "LOVE," it's clear to see a simple act has made a big difference.

Rick Grenis and his bride Bonnie Frazier spent the past year or so planning the wedding of their dreams in wine country. Come last weekend, the finishing touches were sealed in place and the enthusiastic couple was settling in for a week of relaxation, counting down the days before their "big day."

But then the wildfires ignited. Raging infernos ripped across the North Bay, leveling homes and forcing thousands of people to flee for their lives. More than two dozen people have perished as a result of the calamitous firestorm.

Hours after the blazes took off out of control, Grenis and Frazier received a phone call. It was their wedding planning company. The owner of the business lost her home to the flames. The couple's primary wedding planner had her home left in a heap of smoldering rubble.

The stream of unfortunate news wasn't over. The couple later learned that their coveted venue near Healdsburg was closed indefinitely due to the imminent danger presented by the unpredictable blazes.

"We were pretty distraught," Grenis said. "We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know the status of anything. We were in shock."

Monday — the day after the fires started — was filled with devastation and mourning for the nearly newlyweds. A year of planning had been wiped away in a matter of hours.

But the ferocity of the flames, thickness of smoke and overall feelings of despair were not going to stop them from saying "I do."

"Come Tuesday, we kind of stepped into gear," Grenis said. "Bonnie mourned for about a day and then the rest of the week she just kicked a--. Our apartment became central command."

Grenis and Frazier weren’t alone in their efforts. Family, friends and vendors chipped in however they could to make sure the wedding would go on. Even the wedding planners from the wine country-based company "Run Away With Me" pressed forward.

"Our wedding planners lost their homes and they’re still out there driving around looking at venues for us," Grenis said. "That’s so unbelievable."

Billy Grenis, Rick’s brother, was in New York when he found about the circumstances unfolding on the West Coast. He hopped on social media, sending out pleas for help, asking anyone if they had any advice or knew of venues that could accommodate the couple in need.

"It was just unbelievable to see the outreach of friends, families, people I know, people I don’t know on Twitter suggesting ways to help," Billy said. "People I hadn’t talked to in awhile were texting me suggestions and ideas."

Billy himself even took a few shots in the dark. He and some friends tweeted at Oracle Arena, the Oakland Coliseum and Levi’s Stadium, wondering if the sports complexes could perhaps open their doors for a wedding in just a matter of days. He was taken aback when he received a response from Levi’s Stadium. That response came with an offer to host. 

"It was really amazing that they, on such short notice, put me in contact with their event planning team and said, 'Normally we plan these things in advance, but given the situation, we want to help out in anyway we can,'" Billy said.

The offer on the table from Levi's Stadium came just as Billy boarded a flight from the East Coast to the Bay Area. When he arrived, he learned that his brother and soon-to-be sister-and-law had also come across another potential break.

Pulling off a wedding at Levi’s Stadium in such a short amount of time eventually wouldn’t pan out, but a location in Marin County — much more suitable for the couple’s wine country wedding wishes — was discovered.

The venue in Novato agreed to host the ceremony despite the short-term notice and granted permission to the couple to bring in outside vendors, even though that’s not usually allowed. The venue was finalized on Thursday. Over the course of the next several hours, offers of assistance continued to flow.

Restaurants in San Francisco waived late and large group fees so that the wedding guests could be fed. Vendors such as chefs and musicians, who had been gearing up to serve and entertain at the Healdsburg venue, graciously agreed to move to the new wedding location. The wedding planners found a local florist up for the eleventh hour job. A guest from New York even got his hands on face masks and transported them across the country to make sure everyone would be protected from the smoke choking Northern California.

"I told Bonnie, I said, 'At least it’s white. It matches your gown," Grenis said before the wedding. "Trying to find a little bit of humor in this situation."

A jam-packed week full of nearly every emotion possible came to its magical end Friday evening. Grenis and Frazier tied the knot surrounded by their closest family and friends. The wedding planners who had everything stripped away from them days before were right there at the venue to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Grenis and Frazier’s dream wedding didn’t necessarily pan out as they had hoped. But, as Grenis said, what did end up transpiring reminded them that not everything in life goes as planned and that sometimes people just have to "roll with the punches," a motto that they went back to throughout the chaotic week.

"What makes a wedding great isn’t the small details and all the different activities," he said. "It’s the people who are there and the energy they bring. It’s not about how much money or how perfectly everything went, but how well everyone takes it."

Billy applauded the couple for "just the composure that they held" throughout the ordeal. The couple's resolve and an all-hands-on-deck effort turned a nightmarish situation into a moment in time that those involved will likely never forget.

"It’s just amazing to see that despite many bad things happening in this situation and others, there’s just so many good people out there, people that are willing to help and make this day special," Billy said.

Fire officials are investigating after a former school was damaged by fire overnight.

Officials said the fire department was called to 120 Park Street, the former O’Connell school, around 1 a.m. Saturday. When firefighters arrived they found a large fire that took several hours to bring under control. No injuries were reported.

The structure suffered significant damage.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Anyone with information should contact the Bristol Police Department at 860-584-3000.

Groton Utility crews are off to St. Thomas to help put up new power poles. Much of the island remains without power weeks after it was hit by Hurricane Maria.

The first crew headed out Sunday. They took trucks to Fort Lauderdale and placed them on barges to the island. The crew will then travel to Miami and then fly out to St. Thomas.

“They are down there all broken,” Jeff Lyon said.

For Groton Utilities lineman Jeff Lyon, returning to the U.S. Virgin Islands to repair downed power poles is more than just a job but a civic duty.

“I can remember all of the corrugated metal from the roofs of the houses twisted right around the poles,” Lyon said.

Lyon was last in the Virgin Islands more than two decades ago and recalls the devastation a hurricane can have on an island and the challenges of working on different terrain.

“The roads are small, we’ve got big equipment here and sometimes we're going to have to break down our trucks to let the traffic through so that's a problem down there,” Lyon said.

“We figure we’ll put up one pole an hour so it's 14 poles a day that's what we're going to target at,” Brian Roche said.

Brian Roche, Manager of Engineering and Lyon are part of a 40 plus member crew including Norwich Public Utilities, heading to St. Thomas. They’ll be working double time seven days a week, to bring the island back to light.

“It will be a great feeling when that happens,” Roche said.

“They're taking the small community of about 13,000 customers that we have here in Connecticut and they're going bring it down there to two or three million right down in the Virgin Islands,” said Manager of Operations Randall Surprenant.

For this hardworking crew, the hours are backed by heart and the desire to give power back to the people in St. Thomas.

“I love throwing the cut out at the end of the day and watch the neighborhoods come back up with lights and people coming out running to the side of the street and wave to you it's crazy it's great,” Lyon said.

The first crew will be working for about three weeks on the island then, Groton Utilities will start to rotate other crews for the next several months.

A 26-year-old man is in critical condition after being shot in Hartford Saturday.

Police said the shooting happened at 35 Whitmore Street. The victim was rushed to Hartford Hospital where he remains in critical condition.

The investigation is ongoing.

No other details were immediately available.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Thousands of people tied up their laces Saturday morning for the 24th annual Greater Hartford Marathon.

They’re not only getting fit, they’re also raising money for charity.

The Greater Hartford Marathon Foundation is actually a charitable organization.

There are 19 official charities associated with the marathon and each of the 10,000 participants chose one to support.

Eversource has sponsored the event for the past four years.

"It’s just such a great event. You see behind us all the people and all the excitement in the community and for Eversource it’s important we give back to the community. We have 100 volunteers, almost 250 runners," said Craig Hallstrom, Eversource electric operations president.

With so many runners and spectators, security is a top priority.

Organizers say extra security measures were put in place in light of recent events in Las Vegas.

Without going into detail, they say a 60-member security team developed a special safety plan for this event.

There are road closures in place. In Hartford, Capitol Avenue, Park Street, and Pearl are among the areas where traffic will be restricted. For a map, click here. 

The first direct flight from San Juan since Hurricane Maria struck arrived in Connecticut Friday afternoon. Resources were on hand from state and other organizations to help them meet their needs.

The sold-out flight arrived at approximately 2:45 p.m. with about 245 people.

It’s just one of many flights making its way over the coming weeks. There will be two flights a week until conditions improve and the state said they are preparing for an influx of people making their way to Connecticut from the island.

Volunteers with the American Red Cross, United Way and Salvation Army were at the airport ready to help those arriving.

For those coming from hurricane-ravaged areas, such as Puerto Rico, whether they’re already here or heading this way, Governor Malloy is asking them to call United Way’s 211 center.

“Whether its housing questions, food and clothing questions, mental health needs, physical health needs the place right now to turn in Connecticut is 211,” he said.

“Immediately you’ll hear a message which asks you to hit prompt 5, number 5 in order to go straight to the front of the line,” said Rick Porth, United Way of Connecticut CEO.

So far the 211 center has received about 225 calls related to families from Puerto Rico who need help.

For every call received, United Way will report back to the state on the nature of the call to see what they can do to help them. Porth said many of those calls are requests for basic needs like clothing, housing, and food.

For anyone who has collected items for the island and has not found a way to send the items, the state is not assisting in sending them. However, Porth said you can call 211. There’s a possibility those items can be used to assist families seeking refuge in Connecticut.

Multiple departments responded to a Westport neighborhood Saturday morning to track down a suspect who fled from police during a traffic stop, according to Westport police.

Police said the incident began when an officer pulled over a vehicle near 35 Bridge Street. At one point, the officer ordered the suspect out of the car, and the suspect took off on foot, dropping a gun as he fled.

The suspect escaped when the officer stopped to pick up the gun, which was dropped near an apartment complex. Police, concerned the suspect may have another weapon, established a perimeter and warned residents they were searching for a possibly armed suspect in the area. K9 teams responded to assist in the search.

Eventually the suspect, who has not been publicly identified, was found hiding in a shed in a backyard on Keyser Road. He suffered injuries from a K9 and was treated for minor injuries.

Police said there is no longer a threat to the community. The investigation is ongoing.

An 8-year-old girl suffered fatal injuries Saturday after falling two stories from a cruise ship at PortMiami Saturday, Miami-Dade Police Department said.

During the debarkation process on board the Carnival Glory at around 8:15 a.m., the girl fell from a balcony in the ship’s interior atrium to the lower deck.

Carnival Cruise Line released the following statement regarding the incident:

"The ship's medical team responded immediately and the child was transported to the ship's medical center. She was subsequently transferred via ambulance to a local hospital. The ship's command immediately contacted Miami-Dade Police Department which is on site. Our most heartfelt care and concern is with the family at this very difficult time."

The girl was transported to Ryder Trauma Center in extremely critical condition where she later died, according to Miami Fire-Rescue.

This is a developing incident; check back with NBC 6 for updates.

Waterford police are warning potential renters of a Craigslist scam regarding a property in New London.

According to police, someone posted a Craigslist advertisement for a home for rent at 75 Ledyard Street in New London. When potential renters contacted the phone number posted in the ad, the person instructed renters to send money via Western Union to secure the house.

The owner of the property, who lives in Waterford, is not renting the home and the ad a scam.

Police offered the following tips for negotiating deals on Craigslist or other online transactions:

• Do not extend payment to anyone you have not met in person.
• Beware offers involving shipping - deal with locals you can meet in person.
• Never wire funds (e.g. Western Union) - anyone who asks you to is a scammer.
• Don't accept cashier/certified checks or money orders - banks cash fake checks, then hold you responsible.
• Transactions are between users only, no third party provides a "guarantee".
• Never give out financial info (bank account, social security, paypal account, etc).
• Do not rent or purchase sight-unseen—that amazing "deal" may not exist.
• Refuse background/credit checks until you have met landlord/employer in person.

A similar Craigslist scam was reported in Groton this past summer. If you believe you may be a victim of Craigslist fraud, contact local police.

A decades-old investigation in Georgia into the murder of a black man in 1983 culminated in the arrest of five white people on Friday, including two law enforcement officers charged with hindering the probe, officials said.

Some witnesses confessed they lived with knowledge about the case for years, but were afraid to come forward, Spalding County Sheriff Darrell Dix said.

“There is no doubt in the minds of all investigators involved that the crime was racially motivated and that if the crime happened today it would be prosecuted as a hate crime,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

The body of Timothy Coggins, 23, was found on Oct. 9, 1983, in a grassy area near power lines in the community of Sunnyside, about 30 miles south of downtown Atlanta. He had been “brutally murdered” and his body had signs of trauma, the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.