The Fort Worth Police Department is still full of "Star Wars" geeks.

A rather elaborate video published to the department's official Facebook page Wednesday has Chewbacca being shown the ropes by a senior officer.

His first day on the job didn't go too well, as more than 500,000 people have witnessed in the 17 hours the video was first published.

"We know things have been tough for Chewbacca lately," the post read, referring to the latest "Force Awakens" film. "We hoped that we could find a place for him within our Department. Did it go well? You decide."

The Wookiee's fumbles included a routine traffic stop that, quite simply, escalated way too quickly and an alarming use of a bowcaster at a department gun range. As for the self-defense course? Well, you'll have to watch to see how that ended.

This isn't the first time Fort Worth PD geeked out on Star Wars. Stormtroopers played a central role in the department's recruitment video last year. That video now has more than 20 million views on Facebook.

The department has also shared a video of Darth Vader interviewing for a position.

Check out the full video here.

The Dow Jones industrial average hit another milestone Thursday, closing above 24,000 for the first time, CNBC reported.

It closed at 331.67-points, with United Technologies leading the way. The S&P 500 also reached an all-time high, advancing 0.8 percent.

The milestones come as the Senate closes in on a vote on a bill that would overhaul the tax code with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., becoming a key supporter of the bill. President Donald Trump has promised tax reform, and the stock market has been buoyed by expectations of lower corporate taxes since his election.

But Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, cautioned that lowering corporate taxes "would not be as big a boon to large companies as it would be to small companies."

While more than four in five Americans believe sexual harassment takes place in the workplace, only 9 percent of people who are employed believe it's a problem in their own office, according to a new NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll.

Less than half of men — 46 percent — said they have thought more about their own behavior with women since sexual misconduct scandals began dominating headlines in October. The poll found a sharp partisan divide in reactions to the news. About 68 percent of men who identified as Republican or leaning toward the party said they had not reflected on their own behavior or attitudes toward women. Among Democratic men, this response was 33 percent. 

Nearly 4,000 adults responded to the online survey between Monday and Wednesday. It's one of the first to measure attitudes since the string of revelations that started with Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Two-thirds of the respondents believed that incidents of sexual harassment are being reported more widely not because it is happening more often but because people are more willing to speaking up about it than before.

A former staffer of embattled Rep. John Conyers spoke publicly for the first time Thursday, revealing herself as the woman who reached a settlement with the Michigan Democrat after enduring what she said was repeated sexual harassment that included propositions for sex and invitations to hotel rooms.

Breaking from a nondisclosure agreement she said she is currently under, Marion Brown appeared on NBC's "Today" show to expose what she called "uncomfortable and very unprofessional" behavior by Conyers, who she worked for for 11 years.

"It was sexual harassment... violating my body, propositioning me, inviting me to hotels... He has touched me in different ways, and it was very uncomfortable and very unprofessional," Brown said with her lawyer, Lisa Bloom, by her side.

Conyers, who is 88 years old and the longest-serving member of the House, is accused by multiple former female staffers of sexual harassment. His lawyer said he is innocent and plans to fight the claims "tooth and nail," adding that the congressman has no plans to resign from Congress.

On Thursday, a political consultant said that Conyers had entered the hospital for a stress-related illness he attributed to the "media assault" on the congressman.

And the top leaders in Congress, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, called for Conyers to resign. Pelosi's call was a shift from her earlier statement that Conyers was an "icon" who deserved "due process."

Brown revealed herself as the woman who had reached a settlement with Conyers after alleging she was fired for rejecting his sexual advances. The 2015 settlement was first reported last week by Buzzfeed, which said Conyers paid more than $27,000 to a woman in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement.

Brown, who confirmed that she is currently under a non-disclosure agreement, detailed some of the sexual advances she said she experienced from Conyers in a Chicago hotel in 2005.

Conyers "invited me to the hotel and he has undressed, you know, down to his underwear," Brown told "Today's" Savannah Guthrie. "He asked me to satisfy him sexually. He pointed to areas, genital areas of his body, and asked me to touch it."

Brown said she didn't know what to do and was frozen in that moment.

"I didn't want to lose my job. I didn't want to upset him," she said. "I just told him I had to leave and go somewhere else. I did tell him I was not going to do that and I did not feel comfortable."

Brown said she told Conyers' then-chief of staff, who she claimed agreed to talk to the congressman.

"I didn't see any change because it continued after that," Brown said. "But there was no other action formally."

Despite the continued harassment, Brown said she "endured it" because she "needed the income" to raise her kids.

A request for comment on Brown's statements was not immediately returned by Conyers' attorney.

Brown explained that she is "taking a risk" in speaking publicly after signing the confidentiality agreement and that she wants to "stand up for all the women in the workforce that are voiceless."

"Congressman Conyers came out and called me a liar basically," she said. "So I am here to say that I'm not a liar."

Brown didn't say whether she thought Conyers should resign. She said his political future is in the hands of his colleagues and the House Ethics Committee, which is investigating the sexual harassment claims. 

"All I want from the congressman is to acknowledge what he did and apologize... to me, for calling me a liar."

A woman whose dramatic rescue during Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys was caught on camera was killed this week in a hit-and-run collision, and now a man who fell in love with her while risking his life to help her is in deep mourning.

Rena Mondzioch was trapped in her home in Big Coppitt Key as the powerful Irma swept through in September.

"I was scared. I screamed to God, and I started to cry," Mondzioch told NBC 6 in an interview after her ordeal.

Two neighbors, including crocodile hunter Chris Guinto, heard the screams of Mondzioch, ran over to help her, breaking down her door as her roof was crumbling. The daring rescue was captured in a dramatic GoPro video.

"Everybody was saying that I was her angel — I didn't believe that. But, I think, she was just mine," a tearful Guinto says.

On Sunday, Mondzioch was struck by a hit-and-run driver after leaving work in Ramrod Key. The 42-year-old was riding a bicycle in a bike lane along the road on U.S. 1 near Mile Marker 27 when she was struck and killed.

Guinto said the best times of his life involved her. He said he started falling in love with Mondzioch and the two were planning for a new life.

"There's no words. There’s no words. Best times of my life –meeting her ... Irma, and we were together pretty much the entire time," Guinto said. "She was extremely strong, not just female, but person I ever met. We were gonna move, leave the Keys, start somewhere new, just to get away. Something, somewhere, didn't matter."

On Wednesday, Florida Highway Patrol officials said they likely had found the vehicle involved in the incident. Authorities were also questioning a person of interest.

"A tip was called into the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, who responded to Summerland Key to check out a sighting of the truck possibly involved in the fatal hit and run," FHP said in a statement. "A warrant was obtained and the vehicle has been impounded as part of this on-going homicide investigation."

FHP has described the suspect as a white male in his late 20s or early 30s.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers of the Florida Keys at 1-800-346-TIPS.

A man wanted in connection with arson at a house in West Haven in July was taken into custody in Alabama. The fire trapped a woman inside her home and she was hospitalized for several days.

U.S. marshals took 21-year-old Tyrese Perry into custody Wednesday morning in Eutaw, Alabama after he climbed out a back window of a home he was hiding out in, according to U.S. marshals.

Perry is suspected in connection with the fire at 339 Center St. on July 11 and was wanted for charges including arson in the first degree, assault in the second degree, home invasion and three counts of reckless endangerment in the first degree.

The fire broke out around 3 a.m. on July 11 and Fire Marshal Keith Flood said evidence showed ignitable liquids in the stairwell of the entryway of the two-family home.

The fire burned the stairs, trapping a woman on the second floor. She was rescued through a second-floor back window and taken to a hospital, where she remained for several days.

Authorities said Perry is also wanted in connection with a separate robbery investigation in New Haven. He is being held in Alabama pending extradition.

Thursday marks the official end of the 2017 hurricane season after leaving a path of death and destruction in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

The Atlantic Ocean had a total of 17 named storms, the ninth-most on record since 1851, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Ten of those storms became hurricanes, with six classified as major hurricanes.

Fueled by warmer than normal ocean temperatures and ideal wind conditions, September  had more days with major hurricanes spinning and more overall hurricane energy expelled than any month on record, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

Harvey, the first major hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in a dozen years, set a new U.S. record for rainfall. Irma followed, hammering Florida and Puerto Rico with fierce winds that made it the strongest hurricane ever recorded outside the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico. Then Maria pounded Puerto Rico, further crippling it.

But more intense storms are what scientists expect to see as the planet's climate changes because warmer ocean water is fuel for hurricanes. And they say it is important to better understand this current intense period to save lives and prevent worse future destruction.

Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb said it would be "foolish" for policymakers to ignore the data. "We may not have as much data as we would like, but we have enough to aggressively invest in a variety of defenses for coastal communities," she said in an email. "We face a triple threat of rising seas, stronger winds, and literally off-the-charts rainfall totals."

The Atlantic hurricane season was more intense than normal in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2016. The 2005 season, which included Katrina, Rita and Wilma, was so active forecasters ran out of names for storms.

This year's hurricane season also broke another record: it was the costliest.

The combined tab from hurricanes Harvey and Irma is expected to hit $200 billion, according to a preliminary estimate from Moody's Analytics. Hurricane Maria is likely to cause between $45 billion and $95 billion worth of damage in Puerto Rico, Moody's reported. The previous record of $211.2 billion was set in 2005.

State police are investigating an armed robbery Wednesday night at the Bestway gas station in Jewett City.

The armed robbery was at the Bestway gas station at 211 North Main St. at 6:11 p.m. Wednesday and the store clerk reported that a man pointed a black gun at the clerk, demanded the money from the cash register and fled with the crash, state police said.

The robber went south on North Main Street and no injuries were reported. 

The suspect was described as 5-feet-10 and heavy. He was wearing a red bandanna on his face and a dark-colored hoodie.

Troopers and State Police K9 teams searched the area but did not find the robber. Eastern District Major Crime responded to the scene and assumed the investigation.

Anyone with information about the armed robbery or the robber is asked to call detectives at 860-848-6500 or text TIP711 with any information to 274637.

NBC Connecticut on Thursday unveiled Snow Monster, its new state-of-the-art weather vehicle.

This one-of-a-kind Jeep Wrangler 4x4 will take to the roads of Connecticut immediately, gathering and delivering meteorological data to bring local viewers the most accurate weather information when they need it the most. One feature that sets Snow Monster apart from the competition is its ground temperature sensor, which will provide important data relating to winter road conditions. The timing is perfect as we head into the volatile and changeable weather conditions of the winter months.

“Building on our reputation of being a weather innovator, we are raising the bar again with Snow Monster,” said Susan Tully, General Manager and President, NBC Connecticut. “The technology on board combined with our skilled meteorologists will give our viewers the best weather information in the market.”

Snow Monster is loaded with 9 onboard high definition cameras, offering spectacular 360 degree angles of weather and road conditions. During every weather event known to New England, Snow Monster can go anywhere with its 4 wheel drive capability, off-road shocks and beefed up suspension. Expertly designed by NBC Connecticut Technical Manager Jack Kane, it is the only local weather vehicle equipped with a ground temperature sensor, the device also used by the Connecticut Department of Transportation when assessing road conditions.

Like its predecessor First Alert 1, Snow Monster can measure barometric pressure, wind direction, wind speed, wind chill, air pressure, relative humidity and more. Delivering accurate weather information and forecasts is taken up a notch with new technology. The addition of customized tools for enhanced weather data gathering and telestration capability allows First Alert meteorologists to better illustrate weather conditions in towns all over Connecticut.

“Snow Monster is an incredible addition to our First Alert Weather team,” said Ryan Hanrahan, NBC Connecticut’s Chief Meteorologist.”This truck is a first of its kind in the country and the market and will revolutionize the way we cover winter weather.”

Knowing how important weather is to local viewers and their families especially during the winter months, Snow Monster will embark on an extended tour of schools and communities around the state, giving viewers a firsthand look at the vehicle that will help meteorologists bring them the most accurate forecast in Connecticut.

Follow Snow Monster on Twitter @SnowMonsterCT.

A New Haven father of three who was scheduled to be deported to his native Ecuador today has sought sanctuary in a New Haven church to avoid deportation. 

Nelson Pinos, a 43-year-old father of 5-year-old Brandon, 12-year-old Arlly and 15-year-old Kelly, said he came to the United States in 1992 for a better life and is the sole provider for his family.

For the last 15 years, he worked in the same factory until he was recently let go because of his undocumented status.

On Wednesday night, the Board of Immigration Appeal denied his emergency stay requests, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Pinos has decided to take sanctuary in the First and Summerfield United Methodist Church in New Haven and he's asking federal immigration agents to allow him to stay in the United States.

"I just want to ask them for an opportunity to review my case and give me a chance to be here," he said.

Immigration officials said Pinos will be considered an immigration fugitive if he does not follow the deportation order by midnight and he will be arrested when ICE officials encounter him. 

Pinos contacted Unidad Latina en Accion, a New Haven-based organization that fights for human rights in the immigrant community for help.

"The decision to take Sanctuary is not an easy one. Nelson has decided to leave his work and his freedom behind to stay with his family. The New Haven community stands by his decision," Jesus Morales, an activist with Unidad Latina en Accion, said in a statement.

"What good is deporting a father of three? None. This man has lived and worked in the community for decades. This is what Trump's immigration policy is about: separating families, terrorizing communities, and traumatizing children," Jon Jairo Lugo, another ULA organizer, said in a statement.

Pinos’ family members collected more than 500 names on a petition in hopes of swaying ICE agents to stop the deportation. On Thursday morning, they walked into the federal building in Hartford in hopes of delivering them but were told the cards had to be mailed instead.

"I wanted her to take it personally. If we do mail it, how do we know if she actually looked at them," Kelly Pinos said after emerging from the federal building.

As Nelson Pinos sought sanctuary in the church several supporters gathered outside the federal building in protest of plans to send him back to Ecuador.

"There's been a lot of occasions that we just want to give up, but there's strength within us and we're going to keep fighting," Nelson's wife. Elsa Calle, said.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro issued a statement Thursday, saying “(t)he Trump administration is once again carrying out their heartless immigration policy by threatening to deport Nelson Pinos Gonzalez,” who she said “works hard, pays his taxes, takes care of his partner and three children, and has no criminal record.”

“President Trump said repeatedly that his administration would target dangerous criminals and felons. Instead, his administration has focused on tearing apart families like Mr. Gonzalez’s—especially those who have been cooperating with ICE. That is counterproductive to his stated mission, and it is cruel,” DeLauro said in a statement.

She is calling on Congress must take up “comprehensive immigration reform that secures our border, protects Americans workers, and, crucially, creates a path to citizenship for the law-abiding,” but said “(d)eporting productive members of our communities that have lived in our nation for decades is inconsistent with our values as a nation, and our laws need to reflect that.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a statement, saying a federal immigration judge issued a final order of removal for Pinos in 2015.

“As a measure of discretion, Mr. Pinos-Gonzalez has not been placed in ICE custody, but does check in periodically at an ICE office. He has provided proof he intends to comply with his removal order,” the statement from ICE says. “Should he fail to depart as scheduled, he will be listed as an immigration fugitive and arrested when encountered, at which time ICE will carry out his removal.”

ICE said that if Pinos does not follow the deportation order by midnight, he will be considered an immigration fugitive and be arrested when encountered.

A Florida police officer who was caught on video punching a drunken woman during a University of Miami football game in early November has been cleared of any wrongdoing.

The Miami-Dade Police Department said Detective Douglas Ross' supervisors found the 18-year veteran's actions were within departmental rules.

Video of the Nov. 4 incident showed Miami fan Bridget Freitas, a 30-year-old nurse, slap Ross as he and several officers tried to carry her out of the stands at the Hard Rock Stadium during the Hurricanes' win over Virginia Tech. 

Ross reacted to the slap, hitting Freitas in the head with his right fist. According to the arrest report, Freitas had been arguing with other fans and was "using profanity in a loud, boisterous manner" when officers arrived. She was charged with felony battery on a police officer and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

Miami-Dade police Director Juan Perez acknowledged it didn't look good, but said officers don't distinguish between males and females when throwing a punch.

In August, President Donald Trump promised to bring North Korea "fire and fury" if the nation continued to threaten the United States.

But three months later, North Korea demonstrated with a missile it fired higher and longer than ever that it can likely bring fire and fury of its own to any part of the United States.

Tuesday's missile test was the latest provocation from Kim Jong Un, who has repeatedly ignored Trump's harshly worded warnings and forged on with his nuclear missile program. Trump's rhetoric has clearly not worked as a deterrent, experts say, and has pushed his goal of denuclearizing North Korea even further out of his reach.

"This missile test should throw that into sharp relief for the president: Your approach isn't working, they're going to keep doing this and it would be up to him to find a different way," said Eric Gomez, a missile defense and East Asian policy expert at the Cato Institute. 

The intercontinental ballistic missile soared higher than any previous test, about 2,800 miles above the ground, according to South Korea's military — roughly 10 times the altitude of the space station. Hours after the test, North Korea’s state media claimed it was a new type of missile with a "super-large heavy warhead" capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

Some nuclear proliferation experts are taking that claim seriously. A different trajectory would give the missile a range of about 13,000 km, according to an estimate from the Union of Concerned Scientists. That puts every part of the U.S. mainland in reach, Gomez said, even if the missile were carrying a nuclear warhead.

"We will take care of it," Trump said Tuesday after the test. "It is a situation that we will handle."

But Trump has promised to react in the past, and it hasn't stopped Kim from advancing his missile technologies. That's included four tests since the "fire and fury" comment on Aug. 8, when North Korea was reported to have developed a nuclear weapon small enough to fit atop a missile.

"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," the president said at the time. "They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before."

Two days later, Trump took to social media to let North Korea know that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded" in case North Korea were to act "unwisely."

Trump has also touted sanctions that the United Nations placed on North Korea at the United States' urging; he tweeted that more were likely to come Wednesday, but that did not come to pass. Trump's put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move that comes with more U.S. sanctions. And he's continued to threaten Kim, who he began calling "Rocket Man" in September.

"Rocket man is on a suicide mission," the president said at the United Nations that month. "The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."

The insults haven't only come from Trump. After the U.N. speech, Kim called him a "frightened dog" and "a mentally deranged U.S. dotard."

But Trump's language puts America's standing in the world at risk if it won't follow through, and so far Trump hasn't, according to Richard K. Betts, director of the International Security Policy program in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

"Trump's bellicose rhetoric risks damaging U.S. credibility, since he should not follow through on threats to use force against North Korean provocations that fall short of actually attacking us or South Korea," Betts said in an email.

The White House didn't respond to requests for comment on this story.

While the implications of war with North Korea may now include a nuclear strike on the U.S., they've always included the prospect of hundreds of thousands of people dying in South Korea, where millions live within range of the heavily armed border with the North. That has complicated any strategy to deal with Kim and his predecessors.

On Wednesday, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said, "We have never sought war with North Korea, and still today we do not seek it. If war does come, it will be because of continued acts of aggression like we witnessed yesterday."

Trump’s threats didn't come with a diplomatic strategy that could have defused tensions, said the experts who spoke to NBC. They also make it less likely for the regime to come back to the negotiating table down the line.

"It helps North Korea perpetuate the perception that there’s an outside threat that they can use domestically and internally to help continue to develop their nuclear weapons," said Lisa Collins, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It gives them an excuse to continue with their nuclear weapons."

If it doesn't change course, North Korea will likely continue to face more and more sanctions, Collins said, as "the countries in the region — South Korea, Japan, the U.S. — will continue to try and contain and manage the situation [to] show that there are consequences to North Korea’s actions."

But consistently ratcheting up sanctions as part of Trump's "maximum pressure" strategy brings problems of its own. Gomez noted that it's become harder for the U.S. to lift sanctions in the event that North Korea begins negotiating.

"Would it be difficult for us to reward that behavior by removing those sanctions?" he said, adding that there isn't much focus on what the U.S. would do to reward North Korea if it were cooperative.

Gomez suggested that China — which Trump has courted as an ally in deterring North Korea from further developing nuclear weapons — could play good cop to the United States' bad cop, as it's able to offer rewards for opening dialogue that the U.S. can't.

But he added that China has different goals from the U.S., and would not likely provide the kind of solution that the U.S. wants to see.

And Trump noted in a tweet on Thursday that an envoy China sent to North Korea "seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man."

All the likely solutions the experts envisioned will come short of denuclearization. They range from a moratorium on further tests to relying on missile defense.

Trump's ideal solution of denuclearizing North Korea is simply not realistic, said Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, an associate professor of political science at Tufts University. And Trump's recent decision to again designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism further dimmed prospects for negotiations.

"The best possible outcome for the United States at this late stage of the North Korean proliferation crisis would be some type of moratorium on additional ICBM tests," Taliaferro said. "Such a negotiated settlement is unlikely."

The president could instead decide to rely on deterrence and countermeasures to prevent the U.S. from entering a devastating war, Gomez said, anticipating that U.S. missile defense will be strengthened so that Trump "can stay ahead of the problem and not feel like we have to go to war." 

Betts also sees deterrence as the only solution for North Korea, just as it was against the Soviet Union.

"This is not a situation where we can have confidence, but one that may be handled adequately," Betts said. "Welcome to a world more dangerous than optimists expected after the Cold War."

White House work orders obtained by News4 include reports of mice and roaches in the West Wing and requests for a new toilet seat for the Oval Office bathroom and a decorator for H.R. McMaster. 

White House officials submitted hundreds of requests in 2017 for repairs, equipment and pest control to building administrators with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which helps manage maintenance needs in the West Wing and East Wing of the White House.

Maintenance workers were asked over the past two years to respond to reports of mice infiltrating the White House Navy mess food service area and the White House Situation Room. There were also at least four reported cockroach infestations on the grounds and a complaint of ants in the White House chief of staff’s office.

Some of the projects appear large in scope. Some appear quite small. The work orders show a request to replace the toilet seat in the Oval Office in late January, and specifies the project be completed “after hours please.”

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer requested new furniture and pictures hung in his office shortly after inauguration, according to the records.

The work orders submitted in 2017 are similar in number to those made in 2016 during the final year of the Obama administration, according to News4’s review of federal records.

The documents show a quick flurry of requests made shortly after Inauguration Day and indicate some were specifically made by high-ranking officials in the White House. The records offer a rare glimpse into the granular work required to maintain a major government facility.

The hundreds of work orders reviewed by News4 reveal the wide scope of requests received by the Public Buildings Service, ranging from heating system repairs to furniture moves to pest control. A request to repair a door release button in the White House Situation Room was made soon after a request to install new draperies in the first lady’s second-floor East Wing office, which specifically sought an “overall effect of the room being taller.”

The GSA’s Public Building Service manages building maintenance and repairs for about 9,000 federal government facilities, including at least 31 in the District of Columbia. The portfolio of buildings includes federal courthouses, headquarters for federal agencies and high-profile sections of the White House, including the Oval Office, Brady Press Briefing Room and East Wing.

One work order asks federal maintenance workers to refinish the legs of two “Martha Washington chairs,” which sit in front of the fireplace in Vice President Mike Pence’s West Wing office. The order recommends the work be completed in mid-April, during a week in which the vice president was traveling abroad.

A later work order asks maintenance crews to install a DirecTV satellite DVR and TV system in the vice president’s office.

“It’s an enormous job. GSA is assigned to manage that job,” said former GSA Inspector General Brian Miller, whose office formally monitored the agency’s performance. “GSA hires contractors and subcontractors for the [maintenance] work. Then the agency must watch over the contractors." 

Miller and another former GSA official said White House work orders are delicate and tricky to handle because the complex is a historic site. Milller said even wallpaper and paints must be protected and handled with special care.

The former agency official said the GSA has staff on site at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House, because of the high volume of maintenance requests the agency receives.

“They are old buildings,” Miller said. “Any of us who have old houses know old houses need a lot of work.”

A large portion of these work orders are completed by contractors, who are hired and overseen by the Public Building Service, according to an agency spokesperson. The work crews include small businesses who perform maintenance work in the Washington, D.C. region, including those considered “small disadvantaged business contractors.” Small disadvantaged businesses are those operated by lower-income individuals who are attempting to start up or grow small contracting companies.

The GSA receives its White House maintenance requests through an online database system shared by other federal agencies, including NASA and the U.S. Department of Education. The database is hosted at www.max.gov, but is accessible only for registered users.

Agency records indicate the GSA spends as much as $100,000 a year in maintenance costs for White House repairs, based on an estimate of $2.13 per square foot in annual maintenance costs for GSA buildings in Washington, D.C.

Connecticut State Police are searching for a suspect who robbed the Bestway gas station in Jewett City Wednesday.

Police said around 6:11 p.m. a male suspect entered the store at 211 North Main Street, pulled a handgun and demanded money from the register. The clerk complied and the suspect left on foot heated south on North Main Street. No injuries were reported.

The suspect is described as around 5-foot-10 with a heavy build. He was wearing red bandanna on his face and a dark-colored hoodie.

Easter District Major Crime detectives are investigating. Anyone with information or who recognizes the suspect should contact detectives at 860-848-6500 or text TIP711 with any information to 274637. All tips will remain confidential.

Three people were taken to the hospital after a car struck a Department of Transportation dump truck on Interstate 84 Thursday.

Connecticut State Police said the DOT truck was parked on I-84 westbound near exit 71 in a marked DOT work zone. A car traveling in the center lane moved into the right lane and hit the truck. The car then rolled onto its side and the driver had to be extricated.

The driver was taken to Hartford Hospital for evaluation. Two DOT workers inside the truck were taken to Rockville General Hospital for evaluation.

The highway was closed while crews worked to clear the accident, but has since reopened. The crash remains under investigation.

A Glastonbury woman who is accused of abusing a Chihuahua appeared in court Thursday to answer to cruelty to animals charges, the day after she was transported from the parking lot of the courthouse because she needed medical assistance, and she is due back in court next month.

Police arrested 25-year-old Lindsay Anderson, 25, after officers responding to a home on Sherman Road Nov. 14 to investigate a report of an intoxicated woman beating a dog and officers found a Chihuahua with a swollen eye, a cut to the sternum, bruises on the belly and joints and possible burn marks.

According to police, Anderson admitted to throwing the dog against a wall as hard as she could.

She was supposed to appear in Manchester Superior Court on Wednesday, but judicial marshals found her in the parking lot in need of medical assistance and an ambulance transported her, according to a court clerk.

On Thursday, Anderson fought through tears during her court appearance.

Jessica Rubin, a volunteer attorney and advocate for justice in animal cruelty cases, asked the judge to remove animals inside Anderson’s home.

“Public sentiment is an animal should be cared for and so if there's an animal that hasn't received appropriate care, our goal is to do what's best for that animal,” she said.

In 2012, Anderson was arrested at the same address, accused of biting her mother and throwing the family dog. Police said she was intoxicated at the time. Court records show guilty findings of third-degree assault and interfering with an emergency call. A jail sentence was suspended and she was placed on probation for two years.

NBC Connecticut went to Anderson’s house after the court appearance, but there was no answer.

Anderson was assigned a public defender today and will be back in court Dec. 22.

In 2012, Anderson was arrested at the same home, accused of biting her mother and throwing the family dog while she was drunk. Court records show she pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and interfering with an emergency call. Her jail sentence was suspended and she was placed on probation for two years.

Police have made a second arrest in the robbery and shooting at a Stratford bar that injured a bartender on Nov. 14.

Jachim Brown, 30, of Bridgeport, has been arrested and charged with robbery in the first degree, assault in the first degree, threatening in the first degree. criminal possession of a pistol/revolver, criminal possession of ammunition and carrying a firearm without a permit, according to police.

He was held at court on a $500,000 bond.

Police said the person who committed the robbery went into BAR, on Main Street around 7 p.m. that night and demanded money. The bartender handed over the money and was shot once in the abdomen, according to police. Customers were in the bar during the robbery and shooting.

The bartender was sent to Bridgeport Hospital and required surgery.

Police previously arrested 33-year-old Eric Chambers, of Bridgeport, who has been charged with robbery in the first degree and he is being held on a $250,000 bond. He is due in court on Dec. 6. 

A jury on Thursday found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty in the death of Kate Steinle, a case that sparked a nationwide debate on immigration. Garcia Zarate, a Mexican man who was in the United States illegally, shot Steinle on a San Francisco pier in 2015.

Garcia Zarate was found guilty of illegal firearms possession, which carries a sentence of 16 months to three years.

"I'm relieved," Public Defender Jeff Adachi said after the verdict reading, adding that evidence in the case played a big role in not-guilty verdict. "There was a lot of misinformation and bad publicity."

Defense attorney Matt Gonzalez added: "The verdict does not diminish in any way the awful tragedy" the Steinle family went through.

Prosecutors said the verdict was not what they had hoped for, but they respect the decision. 

"Both sides fought very hard," prosecutor Alex Bastian said. "This is really about the Steinle family."

The jury of six men and six women started deliberations last Tuesday and considered dueling arguments that Garcia Zarate was either a hapless, homeless man who killed Steinle in a freak accident or a calculated murderer intent on playing a sick game.

Jurors during deliberations considered first-degree murder, second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. 

Steinle was walking with her father and a family friend on a sunny day in July 2015 when she was shot, collapsing into her father’s arms. Garcia Zarate had been released from the San Francisco jail about three months before the shooting, despite a request by federal immigration authorities to detain him for deportation. He had been deported five times before.

Steinle’s death put San Francisco and its "sanctuary city" policy in the spotlight, as Democrats and Republicans lashed out at city officials for refusing to cooperate with federal deportation efforts.

During the presidential race, then-candidate Donald Trump cited the killing as a reason to toughen U.S. immigration policies.

Trump later signed an executive order to cut funding from cities that limit cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities, a policy that a federal judge in San Francisco permanently blocked Monday.

But the politics of immigration were not allowed to come up in the monthlong trial.

"Many people have criticized this case, including the attorney general of the U.S., the president and the vice president," Gonzalez said. "Let me remind them that they're themselves under investigation by special prosecution in Washington, D.C."

The semi-automatic handgun used to kill Steinle was stolen from a federal Bureau of Land Management ranger a week before the shooting.

Holiday joy was in the air Thursday night at the annual New Haven Tree Lighting.

NBC Connecticut is proud to be connecting you to joy with this holiday event.

The youth choir from Our Lady of Victory Youth Choir in West Haven performed to the crowd after winning the NBC CT Choral Contest. During the contest, the choir received nearly 5,000 votes of the almost 10,000 cast online. The choir was led by director Ed Perez.

Of course, Santa greeted children to hear their holiday wishes.

NBC Connecticut’s Snow Monster also made an appearance. While the verdict is still out on whether we’ll have a White Christmas, Snow Monster is ready to go with nine cameras, top of the line technology and the ability to drive in volatile weather conditions.

The centerpiece of the evening, the tree, arrived on the green in late October. It was cut from Elizabeth LaPointe’s yard in Branford earlier that morning. The 65-foot-tall Norway Spruce weighs more than 10,000 pounds and had been on her Branford property for more than 50 years.

This was the first year there was no limit on the number of lights on the trees – the city used LED lights which use a lot less energy. In the end, 30,000 LED bulbs glowed brightly when the switch was turned, showering the green with holiday cheer.

Throughout the holiday season, residents and visitors will be able to enjoy special events in New Haven, including laser light shows, ice carvings, and carriage rides. 

NBC Connecticut is proud to be the exclusive television media partner of the winter festivities in New Haven.