The Trump administration has reached a deal with Boeing for two new Air Force One planes, the White House said.
The deal is expected to total $3.9 billion in a contract that the White House said would save taxpayers more than $1.4 billion, NBC News reported.
Trump had threatened to nix the deal in December over its price tag.
An original estimate for the two new planes and their development program was more than $5 billion.
The Florida mother whose anguish was captured in a now-iconic photograph from the Parkland school shooting called comments made by a National Rifle Association spokeswoman at a conservative gathering over the weekend "despicable" and "vile."
Speaking to an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, D.C., NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch said journalists from the mainstream media "love mass shootings" because "crying white mothers are ratings gold."
"I’m not saying you love the tragedy, but you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold," Loesch said. "And notice that I said ‘crying white mothers’ because there are thousands of grieving black mothers in Chicago every weekend. Where’s the CNN town hall for Chicago?"
Cathi Rush's two sons are enrolled at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School and survived the Feb 14. mass shooting that left 17 people dead. She described the moments surrounding the photo that depicted the panic and fear felt by hundreds of parents as they waited for answers outside the school.
“We were just screaming and crying together. And I didn't know, I didn’t know about my children and I really hope that Dana from the NRA never has to experience that,” Rush told NBC 6.
She continued, "I mean, does she have no sympathy, no empathy at all. I truly believe that it's vile, it’s a wretched disgusting thing for her to say.”
Rush said she doesn't know whether Loesch's comments were about her photo because "there were lots of moms crying," but noted she hates that image because it forces her to relive the panic of not being able to find her sons every time she sees it.
She recalled racing to the high school when she learned about the shooting. Her 11th-grade son had evacuated but her younger son, who is ninth grade, was still inside the building. She later learned he had sheltered in place when they finally reunited several hours later.
Rush says both of her children will return to the school on Wednesday as classes resume for the first time since the mass shooting.
First lady Melania Trump cut ties with a senior adviser whose company was paid nearly $26 million by President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, the first lady’s office confirmed to NBC News.
Trump “severed the gratuitous services contract” with Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a spokeswoman said.
The move comes after reports that the inaugural committee led by Donald Trump's friend Tom Barrack paid a company called WIS Media Partners $25.8 million for "event production services."
Wolkoff, a former fashion executive and event planner best known for planning the Met Gala, founded the firm a month before President Trump's inauguration, The New York Times reported.
Hundreds of students at Cherry Hill High School East walked out Tuesday in protest of the suspension of a teacher who spoke out about school safety in the aftermath of the deadly Florida high school massacre.
Timothy Locke, a popular AP History teacher at the school, was suspended Thursday after he discussed security concerns in the wake of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
A petition requesting that Locke be reinstated was signed by 500 students. Some students also staged a protest in support of Locke at the school auditorium Monday and planned the walkout Tuesday.
“I absolutely thought something needed to be done in support of my history teacher,” said Justin Prechodko, the student who organized the petition. “This man just meant too much to me for me to sit down and watch this injustice happen.”
Hundreds of students walked out the front doors of the school around 8 a.m. Tuesday and began marching around the building. Some held up pieces of paper as they walked around campus but carefully avoided going off school grounds.
After about 15 minutes of marching, the group of students gathered in a large circle in the middle of the football field. After about five minutes gathered around the 50-yard line, the students began to walk around the track.
Around 8:35 a.m., the demonstration marched onto Kresson Road where people drove by. As they marched, the students chanted "free Mr. Locke."
The entire protest lasted a little more than an hour before students returned to their classrooms.
The demonstration took place despite some students claiming that the Cherry Hill High School East principal threatened to suspend them or cancel prom and the senior trip if they went through with the walkout.
“I think we’re allowed to have our own opinion,” said Angela Spiegel, another student.
Angry students and their parents voiced their concerns to Cherry Hill Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Joseph Meloche Monday night. Parents say they want better school security and they’ll support their kids taking a stand.
“They decide to walk out tomorrow as they did today, I support them,” said Melanie Wimmer, a mother of one of the students. “They get suspended, I support them.”
Meloche met with parents for around two hours and had urged students who felt the need to protest to do so inside the school gym rather than outdoors.
Parents of students also plan to attend a Board of Education Meeting Tuesday night to show their support for Locke.
Several colleges and universities, including Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania and Penn State told prospective students that peaceful protests against gun violence will not hurt their chances of being accepted.
About 2,100 students attend Cherry Hill East. NBC10 reached out to the principal and superintendent for comment but neither responded as of midday Tuesday.
Connecticut State Police are working with religious institutions to address concerns about what to do in an active shooter situation.
State police have had a program discussing safety during active shooter events in place since 2004. Last year religious institutions began requesting a program specifically touching on their unique aspects.
State police brought the information to a gathering of religious leaders at the Somers Congregational Church in Somers Monday night.
“We just want to make our church as safe as possible,” said Ellington Wesleyan Church Pastor Mike Voit.
About 100 people from several area churches filled the pews Tuesday night.
“It's all precaution, being prepared and hoping you never get to the point where you say boy I wish we had done something differently,” explained Somers Congregational Church Council Member Mark Marschall.
A shooting at a Texas church last year that killed 26 people left a lot of congregations wondering what to do. So Somers Congregational Church reached out to Connecticut State Police about the program that focuses on active shooter events at houses of worship.
“We practice fire drills on an ongoing basis and everyone responds appropriately we have to get to the point where we're responding to something like this as quickly and efficiently as possible and it all has to do with the planning and preparation,” said Lt. Robert Palmer, the State Police Training Academy’s commanding officer.
State police discussed the importance of coming up with a plan and reviewing it every year or two, to be familiar with the building and know where the exits are. When calling 911 in the case of an active shooter, State police say it’s critical to tell the dispatcher the exact location of the shooter if you know it.
Police also stressed the importance of knowing when and how to run, fight, or hide.
Those attending the presentation told NBC Connecticut it’s given them a lot of think about and a good start to a larger discussion for their own specific churches.
“We just need to have a better plan in place now it's unfortunate, but it's the reality that we're facing,” Voit said.
State police said they are giving at least two of the presentations at religious institutions per month, and that they’re not trying to scare anyone, they’re just trying to inform and hopefully empower people to think about things a little differently.
A 51-year-old man was stabbed and killed on Ivy Street in New Haven early Tuesday morning.
Police responded to reports of a stabbing at 12:14 a.m. and found Stanley Maurice McLellan lying the front yard. He’d been stabbed in the head during a fight with a man who had gone to the home to confront a resident, police said.
Police said they have interviewed the second person involved and he has not been charged.
The case remains under investigation.
Police are continuing to investigate.
New Yorkers are freaking out about a pair of subway performers who sound eerily like the Beatles.
Matt Whitlock, a former music writer, tweeted a video Sunday of the buskers performing "She Loves You" at a 14th Street subway station.
"One thing you have to do today is watch this video of Amiri and Rahiem Taylor covering the Beatles -- they sound exactly like Lennon/McCartney and it gives me serious chills," Whitlock wrote.
The video has been viewed more than 2 million times in less than two days, and retweeted over 41,000 times and liked 128,000 times.
"This can't be real," one stunned viewer commented. "That's dead on point."
"Creepy how they sound alike!" said another.
The resemblance was so uncanny that some doubted the performance was real.
"Sounds dubbed," said one skeptic, to which the performers -- a band calling themselves Blac Rabbit -- jumped into the conversation to say, "Lol wish we had the tech to dub ourselves out there!"
Identical twin brothers Amiri and Rahiem Taylor, from Bedford-Stuyvesant, say on their website that while they grew up surrounded by hip-hop, they had more exposure to pop, funk and soul from the '60s through the '80s. They taught themselves to play guitar and write songs based on the Beatles, learning from "arguably the greatest songwriting duo of all time," and the Taylor brothers now create what they call their own "psychedelic rock tunes."
They began busking to make some pocket money, and found a receptive audience on the subway with their Beatles covers. The brothers say they're continuing to perform on the subway while performing original music at venues across the city.
Stephen King and Russell Crowe are among the celebrities who have retweeted Whitlock's video of Blac Rabbit.
Route 15 southbound is closed near exit 90 in East Hartford because of a tractor-trailer crash, according to the state Department of Transportation.
It happened around 12:20 p.m.
Drivers should seek alternate routes and expect delays in the area.
More information was not immediately available.
West Haven police are searching for a suspect accused of burglarizing a local dry cleaner.
Police said the suspect entered Camero Cleaners at 441 Campbell Avenue sometime in the evening hours Sunday and stole several items. Police did not specify what was taken.
Anyone who recognizes the suspect or has other information on this crime should contact the West Haven Police Detective Division at 203-937-3905.
One person is dead and another seriously injured after a crash on Gunntown Road in Naugatuck Tuesday.
Naugatuck police said the two-car crash happened near the intersection with Towantic Hill Road around 11:15 a.m. One of the drivers pronounced dead on scene. The second driver was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
Neither driver has been identified. There were no passengers in either car.
The Naugatuck Valley Regional Accident Reconstruction Unit is investigating. The road will be closed for hours. Drivers should avoid the area.
Sally’s Apizza in New Haven is reopening Wednesday and celebrating by offering free pizza.
Members of the team of Lineage Hospitality, which acquired the famous local pizza shop, as well as the sons of the founder of Sally’s, will be giving free pizza to the first 80 tables to be seated Wednesday, starting at 3 p.m., when the doors open at 237 Wooster St.
Sally’s has been on Wooster Street or New Haven’s “Little Italy,” since 1938.
Lineage Hospitality acquired the restaurant from the Consiglio family in December 2017 and has plans to expand the local pizza shop across the country.
A statement from Lineage Hospitality says members of the Consiglio family will remain with the restaurant indefinitely to help lead the next phase of its evolution and they will work with Lineage Hospitality to manage operations and preserve the family’s proprietary recipes and baking techniques.
“My family has spent a lifetime building Sally’s into a strong restaurant business, and we look forward to seeing our pizza being brought to many more people,” Bobby Consiglio, son of Sal Consiglio, who founded the restaurant 80 years ago, said in a statement. “We are very excited to bring a passionate investor group like Lineage Hospitality on board and help them share the Sally’s eating experience nationally.”
Staples High School in Westport has been dismissed early out of "an abundance of caution" due to some information uncovered during the school day, according to school officials.
Staples High School was dismissed at 1:15 p.m. Tuesday after students and staff were asked to shelter in place. Afterschool activities were also canceled.
Officials have released few details about what prompted the lockdown and early dismissal at the school but said there's no known threat and promised more information later.
Police, as well as local and school officials, will be holding a news conference at 4 p.m. to provide updates on the incident and investigation.
A 24-year-old Vernon man is accused of sending an email that said he was going to be the next school shooter and has been arrested, according to state police.
State police said they began investigating when a Connecticut television news station contacted them after receiving an emailed tip from 24-year-old Oscar Rodriguez, of Rockville, around 9 p.m. Monday that said he was going to be the next school shooter. No school was specifically mentioned, according to state police.
Vernon police said no direct threat was made to Vernon schools, but investigators have been in touch with Vernon school officials to make them aware of the situation.
“This person did not pose a credible threat to any Vernon School. The Vernon Police and School officials work collaboratively to ensure the safety and security of all students and staff,” Supt. Joseph Macary said in a statement.
Police said they always take threats like this very seriously and investigate.
“This is a situation where the threat wasn’t credible, but nonetheless it’s still a crime. It’s still certainly a threatening incident and certainly a breach of peace and anytime these incidents occur they are going to be investigated completely, whether it is the state police or local police department because it is certainly something we take very serious,” Sgt. Eric Haglund, of Connecticut State Police, said.
Police arrested Rodriguez at his apartment on Prospect Street after an incident that prompted an evacuation of the building and response from the fire department.
Officials said Rodriguez tried to fill the home with natural gas. No one was hurt and police did not find any weapons when they searched Rodriguez’s residence.
He was taken into custody and has been charged with first-degree threatening and breach of peace, threatening. Vernon police said they are still investigating and expect to file more charges.
Bond was set at $250,000. Rodriguez was unable to post bond and is due in court today.
This is one of several arrests police have made in several towns after investigating threatening messages in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead.
Police urge anyone who sees or hears anything suspicious to report it.
“We want anybody that sees anything suspicious or hears anything or overhear something or sees something that any reference of that sort of behavior to certainly contact us -- your local police department, the state police department. If you’re a student, let your parents know or let administration know at the school because again it is something that we do take very serious and we are going to put the effort to making sure that we determine who it is,” Haglund said.
An 87-year-old woman and her 90-year-old husband were found dead in their home on Phillips Drive in Watertown Tuesday morning and police said this appears to be a murder-suicide.
Officers responded to a report of gunshots coming from the home around 7:20 a.m. after a family member called authorities to report them, officials said.
Inside the home, police found 90-year-old John Walton Jr. and his 87-year-old wife, Irene Walton, dead in a bathroom. Both suffered gunshot wounds, police said.
The husband and wife were both battling serious medical issues, according to police, who had never been called to respond to the home before.
There added that there were no domestic issues.
John Walton was a former member of the Watertown Town Council and was an active member of the Watertown Police Commission until his death. He and his wife lived in the Watertown home for several years.
Police said they are still investigating and awaiting autopsy results from the chief medical examiner.
The U.S. intelligence community developed substantial evidence that state websites or voter registration systems in seven states were compromised by Russian-backed covert operatives prior to the 2016 election — but never told the states involved, according to multiple U.S. officials.
Top-secret intelligence requested by President Barack Obama in his last weeks in office identified seven states where analysts — synthesizing months of work — had reason to believe Russian operatives had compromised state websites or databases.
Three senior intelligence officials told NBC News that the intelligence community believed the states as of January 2017 were Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin.
The officials say systems in the seven states were compromised in a variety of ways, with some breaches more serious than others, from entry into state websites to penetration of actual voter registration databases.
NBC News reached out to all seven states that were compromised, as well as 14 additional states the Department of Homeland Security says were probed during the 2016 election.
To this day, six of the seven states deny they were breached, based on their own cyber investigations.
Nearly a dozen people, including several Marines, at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall fell ill Tuesday after they opened a suspicious letter containing an unknown substance.
A gunnery sergeant opened a letter and showed it to a superior, a Pentagon official told NBC News. The two then began to feel ill. A colonel decided to evacuate a building.
Eleven people reported feeling ill and three people were taken to the hospital after the letter was opened in an administrative building, Arlington Fire said on Twitter.
The Marines affected reported itchy hands and face and bloody noses, a Marine official said. It is unclear how many people suffered from those symptoms.
The hospitalized people are in stable condition, Arlington Fire said on Twitter.
A large number of police and medics responded to the Northern Virginia military base, which is near the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. Local HAZMAT teams and the FBI were on the scene.
Information was not available immediately on what the unknown substance could be. Officials were set to speak with reporters Tuesday evening.
Stay with News4 for more details on this developing story.
With a significant number of ticks in the southeastern part of the state, a public health department in New London formed a task force to help protect those in the community who are most vulnerable.
New London County comes in third for the number of reported Lyme disease cases out of the eight counties in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Public Health's data from 2016.
Ledge Light Health District serves as the local health department for East Lyme, Groton, Ledyard, New London, Old Lyme, Waterford, Stonington and North Stonington.
“All the towns in Ledge Light Health District’s jurisdiction, except for Groton and New London, have rates [of tick-borne diseases in humans] that are higher than the state average,” Epidemiologist Russell Melmed said.
Old Lyme, Waterford and Stonington top the list within Ledge Light’s jurisdiction, he added.
It’s why the health district formed a task force with local health workers, school officials, municipal leaders, landscapers, senior center staff and more to target the most vulnerable populations. Those are children, the elderly and people who spend a lot of time outside, according to Melmed. The task force is about increasing awareness, protection and education.
“The nurses always see the children with ticks and unfortunately we see so many that I don’t even hear about it anymore,” Leah Hendricks, the nurse supervisor for the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut, said.
Hendriks overseas the nurses at Groton, New London, Waterford and East Lyme schools. Being part of the task force, she hopes to give her nurses the most up-to-date research and provide more education for parents and teachers.
When the weather is above 45 degrees, ticks can be out biting, Melmed said.
That warmer weather also means Leighann Kuenn’s kids are crawling, running and swinging outside.
“Ticks are like my scariest thing. We are lucky enough not to get any ticks last year,” Kuenn, who lives in Stonington, said.
Kuenn never had Lyme disease but has taken precaution ever since she got bit when she was younger.
“I got bit by a Lyme tick when I was younger and ever since then I’ve just been super scared of them,” she said, adding she hopes more education about tick protection through this task force helps.
Melmed said 2017 was a very active tick season in Connecticut, but the official numbers have not been released.
The task force is meeting again April and Melmed said they plan to meet every month for the next several months to put a plan in place to educate the public about tick safety.
There is perhaps more consensus, albeit very quiet in the State Capitol, surrounding the need to save money at the local level
With some surprise, the state’s cities and towns lobbying arm is now helping to lead the conversation surrounding shared services.
Joe DeLong, the Executive Director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, says he knows any conversation about sharing services, or regionalism, will be met with severe hesitation.
It’s called the land of steady habits for a reason,” he said.
While cities and towns, as well as organized labor at least recognize the need for some reforms, the issue is on how to go about it.
Cities and towns argue they need the state to pass a law allowing them to make changes to collective bargaining agreements with municipal employees to allow for sharing agreements. Organized labor disagrees, and says management always has the right to make changes, so long as bargaining unit employees have protections.
“Management has the right to assign work and we collectively bargain to negotiate the impact of that,” said Lori Pelletier, with the Connecticut AFL-CIO. “If municipalities want to regionalize services, they can, we just have the right to bargain the impact of those negotiations.”
CCM, with its member cities and towns, says such a move to regional cooperation would require a law.
“It’s very hard to do a service sharing arrangement when you have multiple bargaining units involved and they’re all negotiating from a completely different position.”
Rep. Tom Delnicki helped with setting up a shared animal shelter among South Windsor, Manchester, and East Hartford. He says there are some places that would not be difficult for cities and towns to share.
“You have to identify that low-hanging fruit,” Delnicki advised. “You should start with a few towns, like 3 or 4, and then if one isn’t willing to cooperate, then move on without them.”
“Cooperation,” Delnicki said, is the operative word.
DeLong acknowledges it might take a while for Connecticut to even consider a form of government like counties or even shared services. He says, “we’re not reinventing the wheel here. All we have to do is look at other states.”
He did concede, it could be a long fight toward cities and towns truly sharing services at any point in the future.
“I think that doing anything different in Connecticut from the way that it’s been done for the last 100 years is a political war, it doesn’t matter what the issue is.”
Gov. Dannel Malloy’s nominee to lead the state’s highest court barely survived an even 20-20 vote in the Judiciary Committee following a marathon of repetitious questions about his record, recusals, and decisions on critical issues like the death penalty.
The even vote led to an “unfavorable,” report out of the committee to the full General Assembly.
While that comes as a blow, it does not signal a failure. The biggest obstacle could be the announced recusal of Sen. Gayle Slossberg one of the critical 18 votes needed for Democrats to force a tiebreaking vote by the Lieutenant Governor to approve McDonald’s nomination.
Democrats harshly criticized Republicans for their tone and questions during the more than 12 hour hearing that ended Tuesday morning.
They even accused Republicans of being anti-gay, troubled by the prospect of McDonald become the first openly gay Chief Justice of any state in the country.
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, a Democrat, said, “If you look at the educational qualifications if you look at his ability to be a jurist, Andrew McDonald is qualified. I think what happened yesterday is some are making issues to cover what they really feel.”
Sen. Bob Duff didn’t hide his theory that Republicans aren’t comfortable with an openly gay Chief Justice.
“Maybe they don’t like his lifestyle, they don’t like him personally,” Duff said. “But to vote against somebody who is eminently qualified to the chief justice of the state supreme court is terrible and they should be ashamed of that.”
Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano called the comments, “ridiculous,” and said he is reviewing McDonald’s credentials carefully. He says he hasn’t yet made a decision on whether to confirm his former Senate colleague. He also said onlookers need to be wary that just because someone is from a particular party, that doesn’t mean they’re going to vote a particular way.
He said, “There’s an assumption that all of the Democrats are going to vote for Senator or Justice McDonald and there was this assumption that all Republicans were going to vote against Senator McDonald and I don’t think either assumption is an accurate statement at this time.”
No Republican voted to send his nomination to the full General Assembly from either the House nor the Senate.
Governor Malloy released a statement in support of McDonald, chiding opposition to his appointment, saying, “These antics undermine the integrity of our process – a process that should be based on an objective analysis of issues and facts. They would also impact the behavior of Connecticut judges who would now live in fear of a partisan legislature intent on distorting their positions through a political lens.”
Rep. Themis Klarides said her concerns lie with his decisions on when he decided to recuse himself and when he did not. McDonald said he had sat out more than 80 cases since he started on the Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 2013.
When asked if she would prefer to see he next governor make the pick, in a similar fashion to the tactics used by Republicans in the US Senate when then-President Barack Obama made his final appointment to the Supreme Court, Klarides said her answer was a predictable one.
Klarides said, “If you’re talking straight politics, would I prefer to have a Republican governor next time around and have that governor appoint a chief justice? Yes. But if you’re talking about what is within everybody’s right. If I was in his position now, I would want to make a chief justice that was my pick.”
A person was shot near the YMCA in New Haven, police said.
Police said there was a report of shots fired near the Ralphola Taylor Community Center YMCA on Stratford Avenue.
The victim sustained non-life threatening injuries after being shot in the buttocks and hand.
No other information was immediately available.
