Taiyania Thompson was a bubbly 16-year-old who knew every song on the radio. Steven Slaughter, a 14-year-old, loved football and dreamed of playing professionally.

Both of the teenagers’ lives were cut short last month.

More than half of the homicide victims in Washington, D.C. so far this year have been under age 19, a News4 analysis of Metropolitan Police Department data shows. Five teenagers, one infant and five adults have been killed.

A 1-year-old girl who died of blunt force trauma is among the six young people declared homicide victims in the first month of 2018. The other five people -- four teenage boys and one teenage girl -- were shot to death.

MPD Patrol Chief Robert Contee said access to guns combined with the root causes of violence, including untreated mental health issues, are leading to the deaths of young people.

"In a lot of these cases, we have young people who are unable to resolve conflict. When you add a gun to that, you have a deadly situation," he said in an interview Thursday.

Four of the crimes occurred in Ward 7 and Ward 8, with two crimes in each ward. The two others occurred in Ward 4 and Ward 5.

James Colter, 17, was shot Dec. 9, 2016 in the 5000 block of Jay Street NE. He died of his injuries more than a year later, on Jan. 6. His death was ruled a homicide that police counted toward the 2018 total.

Paris Brown, 19, was shot and killed Jan. 10 in the 2400 block of Skyland Place SE.

Two days later, Davon Fisher, 17, died after he was shot in the 400 block of Riggs Road NE on Jan. 12. Two men were hurt in the same shooting, which occurred inside a home.

Another two days later, Steven Slaughter, 14, died after he was shot Jan. 14 in the 1700 block of Minnesota Avenue SE. The ninth-grader was walking home from a corner store with a friend. He was "the best kid ever," his mother said.

On Jan. 25, Taiyania Thompson, 16, was shot in the head  inside a home in the 1000 block of Mt. Olivet Road NE. She died three days later. Her boyfriend, 18-year-old Dekale Bowman, told a friend he accidentally shot the high school student, an arrest affidavit says. Bowman was charged with second-degree murder. Thompson was friendly and caring, and often visited her father’s grave. He died after he was shot when he was 17.

Rhythm Fields, a 1-year-old girl, was found dead in a home in the 5400 block of C Street SE on March 21, 2017. A medical examiner ruled she died of blunt force trauma, and the case was classified as a homicide on Jan. 29. Police have not announced an arrest.

Additionally, an investigation is underway into the death of a 17-year-old boy with special needs. Joevon Smith died on Jan. 29, nearly three weeks after he was attacked in a classroom at Ballou High School, in Southeast D.C. The cause of his death is still unclear, and the case is not a homicide.

A child even younger, 12-year-old Stormiyah Denson-Jackson, died on Jan. 23 of an apparent suicide at The SEED Public Charter School of Washington, also in Southeast D.C. Her mother told News4 she was bullied. The family members of other students said bullying is rampant at the school.

Overall, violent crime in D.C. dropped 22 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year, including a 14 percent reduction in homicides, Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Peter Newsham announced earlier this month.

There were 116 homicides in the city in 2017, and 71 percent of those cases were closed, Newsham said.

Contee, the MPD patrol chief, called for city residents to mentor and advocate for young people. The more interaction that adults can have with young people, the more they can identify and address the root causes of violence, he said.

Still, that might not be enough.

“Unfortunately, this won’t be the last time we see a violent incident involving a young person,” Contee said.

For the second year in a row, there is some disagreement in the ranks of weather-predicting groundhogs.

Chuckles, Connecticut's official groundhog, is predicting an early spring again this year. He did not see his shadow Friday morning during a ceremony at Lutz Children's Museum in Manchester.

Pennsylvania's famous Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter after seeing his shadow in Gobbler's Knob on Friday morning,

Who should you believe? We'd go with the NBC Connecticut First Alert weather team. You can get their forecasts all the time online and on our apps.

Just in time for the Super Bowl, three retired NFL linebackers are pleading with parents to keep younger children out of tackle football to avoid traumatic brain injuries.

The retired players, Nick Buoniconti, Harry Carson and Phil Villapiano, are recommending flag football for children under 14 as a way to protect their brains at a time when they are undergoing enormous growth.

They made their appeal as a new study found evidence of degenerative brain disease in four teenagers who had suffered sports-related head injuries before they died. Autopsies of their brains showed early evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the disease increasingly being diagnosed in football players, even without signs of a concussion, according to the study’s lead investigator, Dr. Lee Goldstein. 

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“It’s not about concussions,” said Goldstein, an associate professor of psychiatry at Boston University’s School of Medicine and a researcher at the university’s CTE Center. “It’s about hits to the head causing CTE and the only way to prevent CTE is to prevent the hits.”

The linebackers appeared with Goldstein to launch the “Flag Football Under 14” campaign on behalf of the Concussion Legacy Foundation at a news conference in New York two weeks ago.

“There are benefits to tackle football, but you could learn those benefits in four years of high school football,” said Chris Nowinski, a co-founder of the foundation and Boston University’s CTE Center. “You don’t need 13 years of banging your head before you’re 18.”

The Pop Warner youth football league and the NFL, which had long denied a link between football and CTE, responded by stressing what they have done to try to make the game safer. Pop Warner objected to what it called a ban on tackle football.

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“While we certainly appreciate the work of researchers looking to advance the conversation on player safety we do not agree banning football for young people is the answer,” a spokesman, Brian Heffron, said in a statement. “Millions of young people have played Pop Warner football for nearly 90 years and have grown up to be healthy, successful adults contributing to society in so many ways. We think the life lessons, experiences and memories from playing this great team sport far outweigh the risks.”

Parents are worried about brain injuries. In a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll just released Friday morning, 48 percent of Americans said that they would encourage their child to play a different sport than football, up 8 percentage points from four years ago.

An earlier poll, done by the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Center for Public Opinion in July 2106, found that four out of five American adults do not believe tackle football is appropriate for children under age 14. That included 72 percent of the men surveyed.

Buoniconti, a Hall of Fame middle linebacker and a two-time Super Bowl winner in 14 seasons with the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins, has been diagnosed with dementia and likely has CTE. He said he regretted starting youth tackle football at age 9, which he called all risk with no reward. Now in a wheelchair, he struggled to express himself.

“I used to be eloquent as a speaker,” he said. “I can’t even tell you how I feel now.”

He and Villapiano, a linebacker with the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills, plan to donate their brains for research. Buoniconti’s son, Marc, paralyzed while playing football more than 30 years ago, asked during an interview with The Miami Herald last year, “How do you field a team of kids under 18 years old, knowing there is a liability out there, and not feel responsible?”

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Carson said he would not allow his 8-year-old grandson, Kellen Carson-Gurley, to play tackle football. His 11-year-old nephew, Brandon Dowling, decided on his own to forgo the sport, he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. surgeon general should issue warnings to parents before they consent to their children participating, he said.

“Whenever I spend time with my grandkids we play, we have fun but it’s about golf, it’s about swimming, it’s about non-contact sports,” he said.

Carson, a Hall of Fame inside linebacker who played 13 seasons for the New York Giants, has depression and migraines and says he does not think as clearly as he used to. He would not have played football had he known about brain injuries, he said.

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Dr. Julian Bailes, chairman of the Pop Warner Medical Advisory Committee, argued that there was no scientific proof that tackle football was more dangerous than other activities. No cases of CTE have been discovered in someone who played only youth football, he said, and in the study of the 202 deceased football players, the two who played only youth football did not show signs of it.

“If you don’t have kids at football games or practice, they are not necessarily doing risk-aversive other activities,” he said.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation, which has been researching brain trauma since 2007, picked 14 as a cutoff for tackle football because of the dramatic changes children’s brains undergo between 8 and 13. Critics charge the age is arbitrary.

Dr. Robert Cantu, who created with foundation with Nowinski, responded: “Some of my colleagues quibble that the science has not determined which age is the right age, but they don’t seem to realize that health experts set age minimums for all sorts of activities like drinking, smoking and driving, and the science is never purely black and white.”

Nowinski also noted that not only are children’s brains maturing, but that their heads grow much faster than the rest of their bodies.

“Even though it looks like a pillow fight with children, the reality is when you put a center in a helmet, they’re hitting each other in the head just as hard as college football players,” he said. “It’s not how much energy they’re bringing to the hit, it’s that their head goes flying when you tap it.”

To press home its point that youth tackle football is not only dangerous but unnecessary, the foundation put together a roster of top players who did not play until high school, a list that included Carson. According to the foundation, that list includes Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Lawrence Taylor and Tom Brady.

Limiting children to flag football is among the responses to the increasing number of football players diagnosed with CTE, with such symptoms as depression, memory loss and dementia. Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau was found to have had CTE after his suicide in 2012. New England Patriots  tight end Aaron Hernandez, who last year at 27 killed himself in prison as he was serving a life sentence for murder, had the most severe case of CTE ever found in someone his age, according to Dr. Ann McKee, a director at Boston University's CTE Center.

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Previously seen in boxers, CTE was first identified in football players by Dr. Bennet Omalu, beginning with former Pittsburgh Steelers player Mike Webster in 2002. Omalu says children who play tackle football are damaging their brains.

“It's just a fact,” he said.

Some lawmakers are trying to ban tackle football for children altogether. Last week in Illinois, Democratic state Rep. Carol Sente proposed prohibiting children younger than 12 from playing. New York Democratic Assemblyman Michael Benedetto has been trying to get a similar measure passed.

The new study, which was published in the journal Brain, examined the brains of four teenage athletes who had received closed head injuries one, two, 10 and 128 days before their deaths. Two died of suicide. Damage to the brain of one of the teenagers, a 17-year-old, qualified as early-stage CTE. Two of the brains had an abnormal accumulation of tau protein, which in CTE, forms clumps that spread slowly through the brain and kill brain cells.

“This is really, very profoundly disturbing,” Goldstein said.

The brains of four athletes of the same age who had not had recent head injuries did not show the same pathological changes, the research found.

The NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, said of the study: ”As highlighted in this recent study, repetitive hits to the head have been consistently implicated as a cause of CTE by this research group. How and why exactly this manifests, who is at risk, and why—these are questions that we as researchers and clinicians are working to answer.”

Earlier, McKee found CTE in the brains of 177 of 202 football players at all levels, and in 110 of 111 men who played in the NFL before they died. They ranged in age from 23 to 89 and had played in every position, from linemen to punters.

And another study released by researchers at the CTE Center in September found an association between participation in youth tackle football before the age of 12 and impaired mood and behavior later in life. Those who played tackle football before age 12 had twice the risk of apathy or acting out and three times the risk of depression, according to the study. The higher risk was independent of how long the 214 participants had played football, the number of concussions they had or whether they played through high school, college or professionally. The researchers said they chose age 12 as the cutoff because in boys, the brain undergoes key maturation between 10 and 12.

Researchers are still trying to determine how prevalent CTE is. They can detect it now only through autopsies — though they are working on identifying it in the living — and the brains donated for research did not represent a random sample. McKee has said that although researchers do not know the incidence among football players, that they could find as many cases as they have shows it is much more common than previously realized.

Dr. Robert Stern, the director of clinical research at the CTE Center, said that it was important to understand concussions, to diagnose them and keep children off the field when they have them. But if the disease is associated not with the big hits to the head, but to the routine sub-concussive hits, that is not enough, he said. 

“Reducing concussions, or changing how tackling is done to avoid the big hits, is not going to get rid of the fundamental part of the game — which is getting your head hit, either directly with the helmet across the line of scrimmage or falling on the ground or getting by hit by a tackle and falling on the ground,”  he said.

All of those things are part of every play, they are the nature of tackle football, he said.

The NFL and USA Football, the governing body of youth football, promote a NFL-funded program called Heads Up Football, which aims to reduce concussions by teaching safer tackling drills. The organizations said in July 2016 that the program had reduced concussions by about 30 percent and injuries by 76 percent, though a review by The New York Times found no demonstrable effect on concussions and less effect on injuries overall. USA Football responded that it had relied on preliminary data that had not been updated but later issued a statement standing behind the program.

The Pop Warner football league also has eliminated kickoffs, reduced the amount of contact time to 25 percent of practices, banned full-speed, head-on blocking or tacking drills where players are lined up more than three yards apart and removes players with head injuries or suspected concussions from the field. Its Hill Country Pop Warner League in Texas participated in a USA Football pilot program called Rookie Tackle, a transitional program between flag football and 11-player tackle football.

USA Football announced last year that it was introducing the new format, with smaller teams and smaller fields, among other changes.

Whether a child plays youth tackle football should be an individual choice, said Bailes of the Pop Warner Medical Advisory Committee. What would it take to convince him otherwise? In particular, evidence that safety measures that Pop Warner has implemented are not effective and the discovery of CTE in someone who had played only youth football, he said.

“There’s no convincing science that says kids shouldn’t play football if they want to,” he said.

Children playing organized tackle football is a relatively new phenomenon, Stern and others said. According to the Pop Warner football website, teams exploded across the United States in the 1960s, so that there were 3,000 teams by the end of the decade. Today, there are more than 5,000 teams. It started a flag football program in 1983, originally designed for teams on a tight budget.

Another flag football program was begun by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who did not play tackle football until high school and whose sons play flag football. He and his marketing agent Chris Stuart, introduced a co-ed league called “Football ’N’ America,” in New Orleans, Carmel Valley, California, Nashville, Tennessee, and three other cities. It expects to expand to 20 to 25 markets, Stuart said.

Brees told The Times Picayune that not only was he uncomfortable with his children playing tackle football until middle school or older but he saw the flag football league as a chance to save the game.

The existence of flag football leagues is important if advocates expect to move more children into flag football, public health experts say.

“We know that even under the best of circumstances, our capacity to make a difference in changing behavior is relatively limited,” said Sandro Galea, the dean of the Boston University School of Public Health.

“If we’re serious about people having less exposure to head injury in the context of football, frankly what we need to do is not tell people to do something different, we need to change the danger itself and the danger itself is football and head injury,” he said.

Matthew Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, notes that American society has upended its behavior as far as smoking, wearing seat belts and driving while drinking. He said he thought the United States was on the cusp of transformation again.

“The intensity of discussion, the breadth of the discussion, the increased awareness, all of which has happened all in the last five years,” he said. “You can never predict where things are going but we are in the early stages of something that shows every sign of a fundamental change.”

An article in USA Today last year noted that while there has been a steady drop overall in participation, in some areas of the country, in the South in particular, it is holding steady or even growing. Florida added 1,252 more boys playing 11-man football this year than last, the newspaper noted.

Daniel Durbin, a professor at the Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media and Society at the University of Southern California, said that the NFL has been most concerned with protecting its brand. The talk around the NFL used to be about the Super Bowl, now it is about concussions and brain damage, he said.

“Regardless of the state of research, it just seems to me it is common sense to not drop a young kid off at a field and have them put a big helmet and face mask on that makes them a bobble head and not feel pain when they hit their head, and say, 'Go at it,'” Stern said.

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On Thursday, LGBTQ advocates launched a campaign to pressure Amazon not to set up its second headquarters in a states that don’t have protections for LGBTQ people, NBC News reported.

Of the 20 cities on Amazon’s list of finalists, eleven — Atlanta, Austin, Columbus, Dallas, Indianapolis, Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, and Northern Virginia — are located in states that currently have no legal protections against firing someone, denying them housing or refusing them service because they are LGBTQ.

"The goal of this campaign is for Amazon to abide by its own values of diversity and equality, and not reward cities that are anti-LGBT," Conor Gaughan, manager of the "No Gay? No Way!" campaign, told NBC OUT. "Amazon has always been a great ally for LGBTQ issues, and we hope this gives them a chance to be a leader. With their huge platform, they can send the signal that if you want business in your state, you can’t discriminate."

Amazon has not yet responded to NBC News' request for comment.

For Sarah Charlow, buying her dream car became a huge nightmare.

Last June, Charlow purchased a Mini Cooper from a used car dealership and had it checked by a mechanic before the purchase, but the Branford resident had no idea she would run into so many problems with her new car.

Charlow said the manufacturer offered a 10-year extended warranty for up to 120,000 miles due to a known issue with the fuel pump.

In November, she took the car in when the check engine light came on and the fix was covered under warranty.

Then about a month later, the light came on again. This time, the dealership pinpointed the fuel pump as the cause.

By that time, Sarah was 1,500 miles over the warranty coverage.

She believed if the issue had been diagnosed during the first visit, she would have been within the required mileage.

So, Charlow called the car company, and an agent told her Mini Cooper had to diagnose the problem itself. She ended up driving to and from Mini Cooper’s location several times an hour each way and spent nearly $1,300 on diagnostic charges and repairs.

Mini Cooper eventually denied her claim because she was over the mileage limit.

NBC Connecticut contacted Mini USA on her behalf. Charlow said a representative from the company called her and said they would refund her the cost of repairs: $1,284.

NBC Connecticut reached out to Mini USA for comment and are waiting to hear back.

Charlow told said she is expecting to get a check next week.

The flu season continues as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received reports of additional child and adults deaths in the last week while the federal health agency also announced it had seen higher numbers of hospitalizations than before and said the flu season could continue into the next several weeks, NBC News reported.

The CDC said the 15 additional pediatric deaths bringing the total to 53 deaths this flu season. There have higher hospitalizations, 51.4 percent, the CDC saw higher than ever numbers in senior adults and children under the age of 5, NBC News reported.

The agency said a typical flu season could last 16 weeks but it last between 11-20 weeks and the CDC expect the season to continue over the next several weeks.

President Donald Trump has declassified in full a classified memo on the Russia investigation written by Republicans who accuse the FBI of abusive surveillance tactics in the early stages of its probe, Trump said Friday. 

FBI and Department of Justice officials say the document is misleading and could jeopardize national security, while Democrats call the memo an attempt by Republicans to distract attention from the investigation into Russian meddling in the election that sent Trump to the White House.

Here is the complete memo released Friday.

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Gov. Dannel Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman congratulated the Connecticut athletes competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

“We are incredibly proud to have a group of talented, powerful, and determined athletes from Connecticut representing our nation on an international stage in one of the most prominent sporting events in the world,” Malloy wrote in a statement. “Although the games might be taking place on the other side of the globe, you can bet that there will be a vocal contingent of supporters in Connecticut cheering on our hometown stars. We congratulate all of the athletes on their impressive accomplishments and wish them the best of luck in the coming days.”

There are eight Connecticut natives competing in Pyeongchang, ranging in age from 20 to 32. Their names, sports and towns are as follows:

Zach Donohue – Figure Skating – Madison
Mac Bohonnon –Freestyle Skiing – Madison
Kiley McKinnon – Freestyle Skiing – Madison
Mark Arcobello – Ice Hockey – Milford
Emily Sweeney – Luge – Suffield
Tucker West – Luge - Ridgefield
Lindsey Jacobellis – Snowboarding – Roxbury
Julia Marino – Snowboarding – Westport

Some have already competed at in previous Olympic Games, while others are first-time Olympians.

“These athletes have shown amazing commitment and dedication to their sports – Connecticut couldn’t be prouder of them,” Wyman wrote. “It’s a lot of responsibility to represent your nation overseas, but we know they will do a great job and enjoy the adventure. We are rooting for all of them and look forward to welcoming them home.”

For more on the 2018 Winter Olympics, click here.

I-395 south has reopened after a serious crash near exit 37B in Killingly.

The South Killingly Fire Department reported that multiple people were trapped and that LifeStar was requested.

No other details were immediately available.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has confirmed to the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters that the death of 29-year-old Hartford man has been ruled a homicide, the city’s third in 2018.

Kemar Bennet was injured in a stabbing during an incident at the Sunset Café at 3229 Main Street this past Saturday around 2 a.m.

After the attack, Bennet left the scene in a vehicle with several passengers and crashed his vehicle further down the street. Police said witnesses reported that Bennett had passed out at the wheel before the crash.

Bennet was rushed to Hartford Hospital with critical injuries and was pronounced dead Tuesday.

The OCME says the cause of Bennet’s death was “complication of stab wounds to torso and left lower extremity.”

The rear driver-side passenger was taken to Saint Francis Hospital with injuries including a fractured skull and brain swelling, while another passenger suffered a broken femur. Two other passengers suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Police said surveillance cameras captured footage of the fight between Bennet and a suspect outside the Sunset Café. The suspect fled the area before police arrived and at last check has not been identified.

The Troubleshooters obtained information on Bennet’s autopsy in cooperation with the blog wethepeoplehartford.blogspot.com.

The Bristol Police Department hse issued a silver alert for missing 13-year-old Evelyn Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was last seen by her mother at 6:00 p.m. on Feb. 1 at their home on 293 Farmington Ave.

Bristol Police say she is described as a 13-year-old girl with brownish red hair, 5'2" tall, and weighs 160 pounds.

A picture has not been provided at this time.

If you have any information you're asked to call Bristol Police at (860)584-3011.

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Friday after a stronger-than-expected jobs report sent interest rates higher, with major indexes on track for their worst weekly performance in two years, CNBC reported.

The Dow was down 665.75 points at the closing bell, with the 30-stock index falling below 26,000 to its lowest point since Jan. 16.

"The key for the market today is rising interest rates," said Mike Baele, managing director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. "The old adage is: 'Bull markets don't die of old age, they are killed by higher interest rates.' That looms large." 

The Federal Reserve has forecast three rate hikes for 2018, though market observers thought it was now possible the Fed could raise rates four times this year.

Months after Hurricanes Maria and Irma struck, the island of Puerto Rico is still picking up the pieces, and many residents remain without electricity.

A group of linemen from the Norwich Public Utilities was sent down to help, and they’re already making a difference.

More than 4 months after the storms, about 30 percent of the island remains without power, according to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

Crews from NPU are trying make that percentage go down.

And when the lights come back on, it’s reason to celebrate.

This video we’re about to show really puts into perspective what it means when the lights finally come back on.

About than a week and half ago a two-man line crew from NPU packed their bags to head to Puerto Rico.

They went to the island as part of the American Public Power Association's mutual aid effort to help the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority in its restoration efforts.

NPU is working with Sacramento Municipal Utility Division, or “SMUD,” in Carolina, Puerto Rico.

In video provided to NBC Connecticut by SMUD, you see the work crews have been doing this week is well-appreciated.

It was all celebration when the lights went back on. Neighbors of the “Calle San Fernando” neighborhood in Carolina had been without power for 133 days.

And as people in their homes realized their power was back, the joy and relief was evident, and also emotional.

NPU officials say they see moments like this almost every day in storm- ravaged Puerto Rico.

As for these neighbors – they were no doubt thankful for what crews have been doing on the island.

“Thank you! Thank you very much! God bless you!” one woman can be heard calling in the video.

A spokesperson with NPU says their mutual aid efforts are a source of enormous pride. They’re glad that they can be there to help.

East Hartford Police Department K9 Casus has received body armor thanks to a donation from a non-profit group.

The pup received a bullet and stab protective vest which was donated from the non-profit organization Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. The vest was sponsored by Protectors of Animals of East Hartford.

Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. is a charity in Massachusetts. Their mission is to provide bullet and stab protective vests and other gear for dogs in law enforcement.

"Very special thanks go to the generosity and efforts of Vested Interest in K9's Incorporated, and Protectors of Animals of East Hartford," East Hartford Police Chief Scott Sansom said in a statement. "Safety is our top priority, not only for the public, but for our officers as well, which includes our K9s."

K9 Casus Belli joined the East Hartford Police Department Patrol Division in June 2015. During his past three years, he and his handler Officer Todd Mona have received multiple awards and recognition for their success.

Mona said in a statement, "To Vested Interest In K9s, Incorporated, Protectors of Animals of East Hartford, and to all those who helped raise the funds for this body armor, K9 Casus Belli and I thank you. We're forever grateful for your generosity."

Southington’s Board of Education is considering instituting a pair of furlough days that could make a significant dent in the system’s $2 million budget shortfall.

The issue of furloughs was brought to the attention of teachers in the Southington Education Association. The group’s president sent a memo to all members, which was obtained by NBC Connecticut, informing them of the possible furlough days.

Southington’s Superintendent, Tim Connellan, said he and the board have targeted Feb. 20 as a possible furlough day that would have minimal impact on the classroom, since it’s a planned professional development day when children will not be in school.

The memo sent by union leadership to members ruled out that date, saying, “Taking a February 20 furlough day is not feasible given such a short timeframe to understand the needs of our members, rapidly changing information regarding state funding and local budget allocations, as well as coordinating our actions with other bargaining units in town.”

Connellan told NBC Connecticut that he was hoping to “keep negotiations informal,” rather than negotiate furloughs out in the open. He did say he had no control over the decision by SEA leadership to send out a message to members.

The Board of Education is considering a second furlough day that would be the reduction of the school year from 181 days to 180, and the union memo did not oppose that possibility outright.

One furlough day would save the school district $255,000, so two furloughs would lead to more than $500,000, more than a quarter of the projected budget shortfall.

Superintendent Connellan described the savings as “significant.” Without the savings, Connellan said he could not rule out layoffs.

The union memo addressed the possibility of layoffs, saying the group hoped to avoid them. The memo concluded, saying, We hope that the town of Southington lives up to its name, "the city of progress," by funding its school system without making drastic cuts to programs and staff, adversely affecting the lives of town employees, parents and the children of this community.

House Republicans and their allies have long argued that the House memo released Friday would demonstrate that the Trump-Russia investigation had its roots in an FBI fraud.

But the Republican memo doesn’t support that theory, even if everything alleged in it is true. (And Democrats, the FBI and the Justice Department insist that much in the memo is deeply misleading.)

Before the memo was released, House Republicans said it would show that the entire investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller was based on an improper act: a reliance by the FBI on a tainted dossier, funded by Democrats and written by a former British intelligence operative.

Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton, a right-wing activist cited on Twitter Friday by President Trump, has called the Mueller investigation the “fruit of the poison tree” that “needs to be shut down.” The poisonous tree legal metaphor means, essentially, that if the government obtains evidence from illegal acts, it can’t use that evidence to prosecute somebody.

But now that the memo is out, such arguments have been called deeply into question.

Groundhog Day featured Punxsutawney Phil predicting six more weeks of winter, while Connecticut's groundhog, Chuckles, didn't see his shadow and predicted an early spring. 

Groundhogs aren't the only animals in Connecticut that have weather predicting abilities. 

Have you ever heard of Scramble the duck? Scramble lives in Eastford with its parents, Paul and Julia, and its siblings, Benjamin, Micah and Isaac.

This year, Scramble predicted six more weeks of winter.

Julia Torcellini tells NBC Connecticut that Scramble has predicted the past three winters correctly and also has the ability to predict the Super Bowl winner.

Scramble has predicted the Patriots as this year's Super Bowl winner. Julia went on to say that, "Scramble doesn't like birds of prey", according to Torcellini. 

You can catch the Super Bowl right here on NBC Connecticut this Sunday.

The Federal Reserve said Friday it is restricting Wells Fargo's size in response to "widespread consumer abuses."

As a result, Wells Fargo plans to replace three directors by April and a fourth by the end of the year, CNBC reported.

Shares of the bank fell more than 2 percent in after-hours trading.

Interstate 84 west and east in West Hartford and Farmington are shut down following serious crashes on Friday night. 

State police said I-84 westbound is closed after a multi-vehicle rollover crash that involved ejection and entrapment. Occupants were transported to the hospital and one person is seriously injured but details are not clear. 

A second multi-vehicle crash shut down I-84 eastbound between exits 39 and 39A in Farmington.

Drivers are asked to avoid the area.

No other information was immediately availabe for this developing story. 

A former assistant track coach and student teacher at Conard High School in West Hartford has been accused of sexually assaulting a student, according to the New Britain Police Department.

Police said 22-year-old Taylor Boncal is accused of having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old West Hartford High School student while she was employed by the district. According to police, Boncal lived in New Britain at the time and the West Hartford school system alerted New Britain police when they learned of the allegations.

According to Dr. Andrew Morrow, assistant superintendent for administration in West Hartford, Boncal was an assistant track coach at Conard High School from December 2017 until she was terminated in January 2018.

Morrow said the school was notified of the alleged relationship by a parent, and school officials immediately notified police.

Conard Principal Julio Duarte sent a letter home to parents informing them of the allegations. He wrote, in part:

"As educators, we are entrusted to protect and educate all of our students and know there are certain boundaries that can never be crossed. Also, we will not tolerate any behavior that compromises the safety or well-being of our students. I hope you will not let the misconduct of this one individual cast a shadow over all of our staff members who demonstrate their commitment to our students every day."

The letter also stated that the incident did not happen on campus.

The investigation began on Jan. 12 and Boncal turned herself in to police on Thursday. She is charged with three counts of second-degree sexual assault.

No other details were immediately available. Check back for updates.