People who showed up at a gas station in West Hartford to buy a phone that was advertised on the app Offer Up Thursday night became the victims of an attempted robbery when the sellers pulled guns on them and demanded money, according to police.

Police said they responded to the area of a gas station on South Quaker Lane at 7:10 p.m. Thursday after receiving reports of an attempted robbery and learned that three people, including two who had guns, had tried to rob the victims.

With help from a police dog from East Hartford, officers found one suspect as the person jumped from the first-floor window of the apartment building at 227 South Quaker Lane, police said.

Police then found the second suspect in the same apartment.

The robbery happened when the victims showed up to buy an iPhone that was advertised on the app Offer Up, police said. The sellers pulled guns on the victims and demanded money, police said. Then a fight broke out and the suspects ran away, police said.

Safarie Daniels, 18, was charged with first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, criminal attempt at larceny and the second degree and carrying a dangerous weapon. Bond was set at $100,000.

The other suspect is a juvenile.

Anyone with information is asked to call the West Hartford Police Department.

Part of Interstate 95 North is closed in Stonington after a tractor-trailer carrying 45,000 pounds of raw fish flipped over near exit 91.

Minor injuries are reported.

All lanes are closed, but traffic is using the shoulder. Expect delays.

Hamden police are investigating after receiving reports that two women approached a 10-year-old girl on separate occasions and offered her a ride. 

Police responded to Spring Glen School on Whitney Avenue Thursday after receiving a report and spoke with the principal and a 10-year-old girl. 

The girl said that a woman in a vehicle approached her as she was walking from her home to the bus stop, at the corner of Putnam Avenue and Clifford Street, and asked if she wanted a ride, police said. 

The girl said the woman had short hair and a “sweet voice.” 

Police said there was a similar incident four weeks earlier when a woman in what was described as a white van approached the girl at the same bus stop and asked if she wanted a ride. 

The 10-year-old could not identify the women and did not have any additional descriptions. 

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hamden Police Department Special Victims Unit at (203) 230-4040. 

The friend of a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student who was found dead in a Southern California park appeared nervous while speaking with authorities and had scratched up hands and dirt under his fingernails, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by a sheriff's investigator. 

Blaze Bernstein's body was found Tuesday, Jan. 9 after an extensive search through Borrego Park. Authorities said they were investigating his death as a homicide but would not say how he died.

The friend said he went with Bernstein to a neighborhood park in the city of Lake Forest on Jan. 2 to meet up with the victim's girlfriend but stayed in the car, the Orange County sheriff's investigator wrote in the document. The friend could not recall the girlfriend's last name or address.

He said he left about an hour later when Bernstein did not return to the vehicle or respond on social media. He alleged he returned to the park several hours later but could not find Bernstein.

Detectives noted the friend had dirt under his fingernails during the interview, to which he claimed was caused by a fall. Officials also saw that the friend had several cuts and scratches, but he claimed they stemmed from a “fight club” he was involved in.

"On their way out of sheriff's headquarters, [investigators] noticed every door [the friend] had to touch on the way out of the building he pulled his jacket over his hand to prevent his hand and fingers from touching any part of the doors he touched," according to the affidavit.

Family and friends attended a candlelit vigil on Wednesday, where mourners gathered to honor the teen’s memory.

"We thank God for this hard rain that exposed his grave," Bernstein’s grandfather said before he choked back tears.

Sheriffs said Bernstein’s body was found in brush near Foothill Ranch Park. Although officials would not say whether he was buried or not, they confirmed that Tuesday’s storm helped find his body. Officials did not comment on the cause of death.

Bernstein, who was visiting family in Orange County during his school break from University of Pennsylvania, was last seen about 11 p.m. on Jan. 2. He told relatives he was meeting up with his friends. He was reported missing the following day after his loved ones were unable to get in contact with him.

No suspects are in custody. Sheriffs will not go into detail on who received the search warrant nor have they publicly named a person of interest.

Anyone with information on Bernstein’s death is asked to contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Department at 714-647-7000.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health is addressing the intensifying flu season in the state after hundreds of hospitalizations and 15 deaths of residents who are 65 years old and older.

Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Raul Pino and state epidemiologist Dr. Matthew Carter held a news conference and Pino called the number of hospitalizations and deaths concerning. 

The flu outbreak is widespread in Connecticut, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fifteen people in Connecticut died from influenza between Aug. 27 and Jan. 6 and there have been 456 hospitalizations, according to state records. 

Carter said the CDC is predicting the peak of flu season to be in mid-February.

Influenza has been reported in all eight counties in Connecticut. 

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin forcefully rejected President Donald Trump’s denial that he used the word “s--thole” to describe African nations and also disparaged Haitians.

A former administrator at the Columbia University Teachers College and three students have been accused of running a financial aid kickback scheme that funneled more than $800,000 in stipends into their own pockets, according to law enforcement sources and a criminal complaint. 

Melanie Williams-Bethea -- who sources said was a financial aid director at the Teachers College until 2017 -- was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery and student aid fraud, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday. Three students, Annice Kpana, Carmen Canty and Kyla Thomas, were also arrested on bribery, conspiracy and fraud charges. All four were cuffed Thursday.

The complaint alleges that Williams-Bethea funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the three students between 2013 and 2017, inflating their cost-of-attendance figures on forms in years where they weren't enrolled in any courses so they could obtain large stipends. In turn, according to the complaint, they paid her back with kickbacks in tens of thousands of dollars -- sometimes including "love" or "Thank you!" in the memo line of personal checks.

The irregularities were discovered by administrators while they were reviewing financial aid disbursement last spring, according to Columbia University Teachers College. An internal investigation traced it all to a single staff member, and the college reported its findings to federal and state authorities.

"We take the matter of fraud and the misappropriation of College funds very seriously, and remain deeply distressed over the betrayal of trust in this matter," said James L. Gardner, associate vice president for development and external affairs at Teachers College, Columbia University. 

It wasn't immediately clear if the four women had attorneys who could comment on their behalfs.

The complaint alleges that Williams-Bethea got more than $350,000 in kickbacks over the course of the scheme. Kpana, meanwhile, took in an additional $300,000, after paying the former administrator. Canty netted about $150,000, while Canty got $35,000 after kickbacks.

According to the complaint, Kpana, Canty and Thomas were graduate students at Columbia for more than a decade but had not been taking classes since at least 2010. Still, Williams-Bethea approved cost-of-attendance forms for the students for as much as three times above the standard amount a graduate student might claim. 

The complaint also alleges that the three students were awarded stipends and scholarships from professors and administrators who later told investigators they had no idea who the students were and that the handwriting on forms approved by Williams-Bethea was not theirs.

Americans are living in partisan "bubbles" that worsen political divisions and reinforce biases, former President Barack Obama told David Letterman in a rare extended interview.

"One of the biggest challenges we have to our democracy is the degree to which we don’t share a common baseline of facts," Obama said as part of Letterman's new Netflix series, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction."

"What the Russians exploited but it was already here is we are operating in completely different information universes. If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet than you are if you listen to NPR," the 44th president said.

Suffield police have arrested a local man after an investigation into the care of three horses on his property. 

Police said they started investigating 56-year-old Robert Sumner, whose last known address was on South Street in Suffield, after receiving complaints and Suffield animal control officers conducted 22 spot check inspections. 

During those inspections, they found the three horses did not have sufficient, if any, food and water was either not provided to the horses or it was frozen over, police said. 

After a month-long investigation, police arrested Sumner around 6 p.m. on Jan. 4. He has been charged with animal cruelty and was released on a promise to appear in court on Jan. 16. 

Animal control officers are monitoring the horses’ well-being.

A man was shot and killed outside a gas station in New Haven early Friday morning.

Police said 35-year-old Kenneth Cooper was shot outside of the entrance to the Exxon gas station and convenience store at 775 Whalley Avenue just after 3 a.m.

A woman who was with Cooper drove him to the hospital, where he died a short time later.

According to police, detectives are following strong leads in the case but they are asking anyone who may have information on this case to call them at (203) 946-6304.

Middletown Mayor Dan Drew has ended his campaign for governor.

Drew’s campaign said he and Liz Linehan have ended their campaign.

Drew’s Facebook page includes a statement about the decision.

“After discussions between us and with our families, we have decided to end our campaigns for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut. Ultimately it became very difficult to raise the required funds to qualify for public financing. Other campaigns are on their way, and we look forward to supporting the Democratic team,” the statement says.

Days after reports that a $9.6 million incentive package offered to Aetna to move its headquarters from Hartford to New York City was revoked CVS said it has no plans to move the company from Connecticut’s capital city.

Rhode Island-based CVS acquired Aetna in December and said in a statement that officials from the company were in Hartford yesterday and met with Mayor Luke Bronin.

“It is important to understand that while CVS Health will continue to be headquartered in Rhode Island, we also operate a number of large corporate hubs, or centers of excellence, in other states, including Arizona, Illinois and Texas. We have no plans to relocate Aetna’s operations from Hartford and, in fact, view Hartford as the future location of our center of excellence for the insurance business,” the statement from CVS says.

Gov. Dannel Malloy also issued a statement, saying he is “thrilled that CVS has confirmed that Aetna will continue to call Hartford home.”

“Today’s announcement confirms that Connecticut is a tremendous place to do business, with a talent pipeline and quality of life that are second-to-none. My administration will continue to work with CVS Health’s leadership team to ensure that their footprint in Hartford is maintained not only for the short-term, but in the long-run as well,” Malloy said in a statement.

President Donald Trump will, for the final time, waive sanctions against Iran, according to senior administration officials.

The move extends the life of an international nuclear accord that Trump disavowed three months ago, CNBC reported.

Trump will work with European partners on developing new triggers to strengthen the deal, which was enacted in 2015 by six world powers.

He will be open to remaining in the Iran deal only if he can secure that new agreement without a sunset clause, officials told CNBC.

Under the terms of the deal, the sitting president must suspend various sanctions every 120 to 180 days. Trump has called the accord the "worst deal ever," but he's declined to scrap it while Congress prepares legislation to modify the agreement.

Influenza is "in lots of places" right now and is peaking across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, NBC News reported.

"Flu is everywhere in the U.S. right now. There's lots of flu in lots of places," the CDC's Dr. Daniel Jernigan told reporters Friday in the agency's weekly update on the annual flu epidemic.

The virus is peaking at the same time across virtually the whole United States, making for a "very active" flu season, the CDC said.

Flu rates were about doubled this past week over the week before, the CDC said. The virus has already killed 20 children and is sending many people to hospitals and emergency rooms. Though the season is shaping up to be severe, it's so far not setting any records, Jernigan said.

Sam's Club members will be able to sign up for a special membership offer at their local BJ's.

On Thursday, Sam's Club announced it was closing 63 clubs by Jan. 26, including two Connecticut locations in Manchester and Orange. 

The only Connecticut location that remains on the company’s website is located at 3465 Berlin Turnpike in Newington.

BJ's said members can sign up for a special membership offer at any local store or online. It is not clear when the special offer is. 

The closings will affected 155 Sam's Club employees in Orange and 151 employees in Manchester.

BJ's said they have recieved a number of inquires from Sam's Clubs employees and said they are hiring. People interested in applying can go to BJ's careers site or visit their local store.

A spokesperson for Walmart, which owns Sam’s Club, said customers memberships stay active and the company expects most people will continue to shop at another location. She also said most of the items people regularly shop for will also be available online.

"A member may always request a refund of their membership at any time. We are making every effort to reach out to all members who regularly shop at a closing club to let them know about their options," a statement from the company says.

All hourly employees at the two locations will be terminated effective March 16 and all management employees at the two facilities will be terminated on April 13.

All the employees will have the opportunity to apply for open positions at Sam’s Clubs or Walmart facilities, according to the company.

The father of Sherin Mathews, the 3-year-old girl adopted from India and found deceased in a culvert near the family’s Richardson home, was indicted Friday on a capital murder charge.

"We can't go into details, but based on that autopsy report, we were able to determine that we can seek capital murder for this case," Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said at a news conference announcing the indictment.

Wesley Mathews, the toddler's 37-year-old adoptive father, was also indicted by a Dallas County grand jury on charges of abandoning a child and tampering with evidence.

Sherin's body was found Oct. 26, more than two weeks after Wesley Mathews had reported her missing. Wesley Mathews initially told police Sherin disappeared after he punished her by sending her out in the night to stand by a tree near the home.

The father later changed his story to police and said that his daughter choked after he "physically assisted" her in drinking milk. He told investigators that he then moved her body from the home and planned to go back later and give her a proper burial.

The Medical Examiner's office ruled last week the toddler died of "homicidal violence."

Prosecutors are not revealing what else they may know about how the little girl was killed.

"The evidence is still unfolding in this case. We don't want anything to jeopardize this case. We think that we have a great case, we plan to pursue this case vigorously, and we don’t want anything to hamper it in any kind of way," Johnson said.

Wesley Mathews was initially arrested on a felony charge of injury to a child with intent to commit serious bodily injury. He remains jailed on $1 million bond. His wife, Sini Mathews, is also in jail, held on $100,000 bond for child endangerment/abandoning for allegedly leaving Sherin home alone while she, her husband their other daughter went to dinner on Oct. 6, the night before Wesley reported Sherin missing.

In a statement Friday afternoon, Mitchell Nolte and Gregg Gibbs, attorneys for Sini Mathews, said:

"The indictments handed down today by a Dallas County Grand Jury confirm what we have previously stated. Sini Mathews had nothing to do with the tragic death of Sherin Mathews."

Rafael De La Garza, attorney for Wesley Mathews, told NBC 5 that he does not have a statement at this time.

Grand Jury Referral on Capital Murder Charge

Grand Jury Referral on Tampering With a Corpse

Grand Jury Referral on Injury to a Child

Grand Jury Referral on Abandoning of a Child (Wesley Mathews)

Grand Jury Referral on Abandoning of a Child (Sini Mathews)

An emergency meeting called by Senator Richard Blumenthal brought Hartford city leaders and local agencies together to talk about housing needs of displaced Puerto Rican families.

Eight families in Hartford who were relocated from Puerto Rico after devasting hurricanes months ago may lose housing assistance from FEMA. 

The meeting happened, inside the Capital Region Education Council’s (CREC) Puerto Rican Relief Center in Hartford, which has served about 1,300 families who’ve moved to Connecticut from the island.

"There is a list still of a handful of families that tomorrow, do not have a place to stay," Aura Alvarado, the CREC director of communications and community relations said.

Alvarado has been helping run the relief center on Vandyke Avenue.

FEMA has not extended the families Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) past January 13. The TSA program is one of several short-term housing options that allows eligible applicants to shelter in a hotel or motel for a limited period of time before finding longer-term housing.

"We’ve been working with those groups to- number one- try to provide case management, try to make sure that each of those families gets on a path to housing in the immediate term. Hopefully in the pipeline to more stable housing," Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said. "We’ve also continued to advocate in partnership with our federal partners like Senator Blumenthal and the Governor’s Office to push FEMA to extend that transitional shelter assistance."

Blumenthal said he wrote a letter to the head of FEMA on Friday to request for an 18-month extension of the TSA program.

"The threat of evicting people from temporary shelter is unconscionable and cruel. We know that there are at least 125 families here that are literally fearful," Blumenthal said. 

A representative with Journey Home Project, a group that has also been working on the housing issue with displaced Puerto Rican families, said they have noticed the biggest thing families need is help with rent.

Blumenthal said next Tuesday he plans to take the concerns discussed in Friday’s meeting to a judiciary committee hearing with the Secretary of Homeland Security, which has jurisdiction over FEMA.

A career intelligence analyst who is an expert in hostage policy stood before President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last fall to brief him on the impending release of a family long held in Pakistan under uncertain circumstances.

It was her first time meeting the president, and when she was done briefing, he had a question for her, NBC News reported.

"Where are you from?" the president asked, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the exchange.

New York, she replied.

Trump was unsatisfied and asked again, the officials said. Referring to the president's hometown, she offered that she, too, was from Manhattan. But that's not what the president was after.

He wanted to know where "your people" are from, according to the officials, who spoke under condition of anonymity due to the nature of the internal discussions.

After the analyst revealed that her parents are Korean, Trump turned to an adviser in the room and seemed to suggest her ethnicity should determine her career path, asking why the "pretty Korean lady" isn't negotiating with North Korea on his administration's behalf, the officials said.

CT Lottery announced the second CT Super Draw drawing will be on Jan. 16.

The second drawing will take place that Tuesday at 11:00 a.m.

The CT Lottery will honor winning tickets from both this drawing and the Jan. 1 drawing.

"Please note that a small number of players may win in both drawings on a single ticket. If you happen to be one of these lucky players, you must either mail your ticket into Lottery headquarters to claim your prize or come to Lottery headquarters. CT Lottery headquarters is located at 777 Brook Street in Rocky Hill. Players who win in both drawings on a single ticket will not be able to cash their ticket at retail locations," CT Lottery said in a statement.

Last week, two CT Lottery employees were put on administrative leave pending the investigation into the Super Draw error. 

On New Year's Day, the lottery announced that a second drawing for the Super Draw will take place after 100,000 ticket numbers were not included in the drawing because of a human error.

“Due to an error in the range of tickets eligible for the Super Draw drawing, a second drawing will take place shortly,” the CT Lottery posted on its website.

On Jan. 5, the CT Lottery apologized for the mistake, explained what happened and said two employees were put on paid leave pending the investigation. 

"We apologize that the January 1, 2018 CT Super Draw drawing did not go as planned. Although there were many layers of protection and security in place, human error occurred, despite multiple practice drawings. The incorrect ticket range was entered into the Random Number Generator, the machine that draws the winning numbers. The ticket number range sold was 100,001 – 314,601. The ticket number range was incorrectly entered as 100,001 – 214,601. As a result, any ticket numbers above 214,601 were not included in the January 1, 2018 drawing," CT Lottery said on its website.

Anyone who bought a ticket is urged to hold onto them because all tickets sold are eligible to win. The tickets cost $10.

Tickets went on sale Sunday, Oct. 15 and were sold until they ran out or until 2 a.m. on Monday, whenever came first.

Cashing in of the tickets has been temporarily suspended while the CT Lottery Corporation works to conduct an additional drawing. Please check the Lottery’s website for updated information as it becomes available.

Anyone who may have discarded their ticket should send an email to the CT Lottery and they will investigate the claim. 

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, announced Friday that they will donate $33 million to help young undocumented immigrants who had obtained DACA status to pay for college, NBC News reported.

Bezos, whose father came to the U.S. from Cuba, said the donation will help fund the college tuition of a thousand young immigrants who are now pursing higher education.

“My dad came to the U.S. when he was 16 as part of Operation Pedro Pan,” Bezos said in a press release, referring to an early 1960s program by the Roman Catholic Church and the U.S. government that brought 14,000 children from Cuba without their parents after Fidel Castro's communist government took power.

“He landed in this country alone and unable to speak English. With a lot of grit and determination — and the help of some remarkable organizations in Delaware — my dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways. MacKenzie and I are honored to be able to help today’s dreamers by funding these scholarships,” stated Bezos.