Newegg, an online California-based computer hardware and consumer electronics company, will begin collecting sales tax on sales made to people in Connecticut on July 1, 2018. 

Officials from the state Department of Revenue Services said the company previously did not collect sales tax in Connecticut. 

The state began billing Connecticut taxpayers for use tax due on the sale of taxable goods because sales tax had not been collected by the retailer. 

“This is exactly what we asked online retailers to do in the first place and I am glad Newegg has now agreed,” Department of Revenue Services Commissioner Kevin Sullivan said in a statement. “While DRS did offer Connecticut taxpayers a settlement opportunity to avoid two years of interest and penalty, we much prefer the simpler and fairer solution of retailers collecting the tax. While this does not affect use tax payments billed prior to March 7, 2018, DRS has ceased additional Newegg-related use tax collection efforts based on future Newegg compliance on and after July 1, 2018.” 

The use tax is the tax you are required to pay when you use a taxable good or service in Connecticut on which you did not pay sales tax to a retailer. 

The use tax is 6.35 percent for most goods and services, 7.75 percent for luxury items including jewelry with a sales price of more than $5,000 and most motor vehicles with a sales price of more than $50,000, 9.35 percent for the rental or leasing of a passenger motor vehicle for 30 consecutive days or less and 1 percent for computer and data processing services. 

Learn more about Connecticut’s “use tax” and what it means for you. 

The White House says there are no discussions of President Donald Trump pardoning former advisers Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort in the Russia probe. 

The New York Times reported, citing three people with knowledge of the discussions, that former Trump lawyer John Dowd had spoken with the lawyers of Flynn and Manafort about presidential pardons, raising concerns that the pardons were being offered to influence their pleas and cooperation in the investigation. 

Sanders repeatedly pointed to a statement from Trump's current lawyer Ty Cobb.

"He's got a statement on the record saying that there’s no discussion and there’s no consideration of those at this time in the White House," Sanders told reporters, adding, "So there would be no reason for me to have had a conversation with the President about that because that is not being currently discussed at the White House."

Cobb's statement, provided to NBC News, said, "I have only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House."

Sanders said she did not talk to Trump specifically about the Times report, and again referred to the president's outside counsel.

The press secretary again asserted that there was "no collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia. "We’re very confident in that and look forward to this process wrapping up," she said.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump campaign deputy chair Rick Gates was in touch with an associate of chair Paul Manafort's whom he knew had been a Russian military intelligence officer, NBC News reported.

The information comes from an FBI assessment filed in court late Tuesday by prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller, as part of a pre-sentencing report for another defendant who has pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Gates.

Gates has also pleaded guilty in the Russia probe, admitting conspiracy and making false statements, and is cooperating with Mueller's investigation.

An attorney for Richard Gates didn't immediately respond to requests for comment, while a representative of Manafort's declined to comment.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders was asked at the White House press briefing about the police shootings of black men Alton Sterling and Stephon Clark and how the president is responding to the situations. Sanders said they should be dealt with at the local level.

Hamden police performing a welfare check at a home on Blue Hills Avenue on Tuesday found the bodies of two elderly people inside.

Officers went to the house after being told the elderly couple hadn't been seen in weeks.

Firefighters helped police get into the home around 2:20 p.m. on Tuesday.

The bodies were taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Farmington for autopsies to determine how the couple died, police said.

The names of the couple have not been released.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in the press briefing that President Donald Trump is not discussing pardons for Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates in the Russian investigation.

A Bridgeport police officer is on paid leave after he was accused of a wrong-way crash and driving under the influence. 

John Carrano was driving on the wrong side of Broadbridge Avenue near Emerald Place on Dec. 23 just after midnight when his car collided with another vehicle head-on, Stratford police said. 

The driver of the other car sustained injuries because of the crash, but police did not release details.

A warrant was issued for Carrano, a Bridgeport officer, who turned himself into Stratford police on Tuesday. He is accused of operating while under the influence, failure to drive right, driving the wrong way and second-degree assault. His bond was set at $25,000. 

Bridgeport officials said Carrano is on paid leave and is under an internal investigation.

In a study published this week, scientists said they may have come across an unknown organ in the human body that could advance the understanding of cancer and other diseases, NBC News reported.

The research suggests the network of connective tissues called the interstitium is a complete organ, according to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

The report additionally suggests that the interstitium is one of the biggest organs in the human body, NBC News reported. 

Teens lobbied at the state legislature on Wednesday to push for the legal age of buying cigarettes increase from 18 to 21.

If passed, Connecticut would become one of six states to ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21, which includes e-cigarettes or vaping products like the newest fad among teen tobacco users, JUULS.

"The amount of people who are 'JUULing' has skyrocketed," Daksha Reddy, a Glastonbury High School senior, said. 

The e-cigarette devices are small enough to fit in someone's palm, but Andrew O’Bright, the regional manager of the Vapor 9 shops, said they’re also more potent than other vaping products. 

"They have a higher level of nicotine," O’Bright said. "We don’t sell them because we don’t believe it’s an effective way to get a smoker off of cigarettes."

One JUULs pod holds almost as much nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes and has a rectangle shape. Other e-cigarette devices, often found at gas stations, look more like a pen.

"People bring it to school and put it in their pencil cases. Nobody can tell, nobody can notice," Reddy said.

Kamren Johnson, a New Britain High School senior, said he sees students using them on the school bus. He joined a group of teens at the state capitol on Wednesday pushing lawmakers to raise the age of legal tobacco sales to 21.

"Sometimes even at lunch in the cafeteria when no one’s looking they do it under the table," Johnson said.

The bill failed to pass the legislature last year.

This issue is above politics. It’s above any individual. It relates to what’s best for the public health of Connecticut," Rep. Andy Fleischmann, who chairs the Education Committee, said.

Health officials hope by raising the age beyond high school will cut off access to younger kids who buy tobacco from their older friends.

"Unfortunately, my own son is in a middle school. He sees kids who have used these products in the classroom when the teacher turns their back. They exhale the vapor into their backpack," Jim Williams, the government relations director at American Heart Association, said. 

Williams said 95 percent of tobacco users start before the age of 21.

"In Connecticut, there are 56,000 kids now under the age of 18 that will eventually die of their own tobacco use," Williams said. 

O’Bright, who is lobbying lawmakers to keep the age at 18, said the state needs to do a better job of enforcing the laws it already has on the books.

"We don’t believe that anybody under 18 should be using our products or any other products when it comes to cigarettes, drugs, anything. We do have to be realists though. Kids will get their hands on anything if they want to," O'Bright said. 

While some vape shops are reluctant to sell JUULs, they’re still finding a way into the hands of underage students thanks to resale websites that don’t verify the purchaser’s age.

For its part, JUUL Labs told NBC Connecticut its mission is to eliminate cigarette smoking among adults and that it is actively working with local law enforcement and community leaders to further reduce the number of minors who possess tobacco products.

"We strongly condemn the use of our product by minors, and it is, in fact, illegal to sell our product to minors. No minor should be in possession of a JUUL product," the company said in a statement. 

Former Texas Christian University quarterback Trevone Boykin was arrested Wednesday afternoon on charges of aggravated assault with serious bodily injury, Mansfield police said.

Mansfield police had said Tuesday there was an active investigation for aggravated assault with serious bodily injury-family violence, involving Boykin and Shabrika Bailey.

Officers were called to Parkland Hospital in Dallas on March 21 regarding an alleged assault in Mansfield. Officers took a statement from the victim, police said.

On March 22, detectives executed a search warrant at the home where the assault allegedly occurred and interviewed Boykin. During the investigation, detectives noticed there were cameras in the house that may have captured the alleged assault and removed a DVR connected to the cameras.

Police say detectives obtained a search warrant for the contents of the DVR and reviewed the video footage of what appeared to be an assault inside the residence.

On Wednesday, Boykin was arrested at his residence without incident and was to be booked into the Mansfield jail. Bond will be set at the time of arraignment.

On Tuesday, the Seattle Seahawks released Boykin.

In a statement released to NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport - Boykin said he understood the Seahawks decision to release him but that "the story is false" and that he "was not involved in a physical altercation." Boykin went on to say the woman was lying about him. "This person has fabricated a story and I am suffering the consequences." Boykin said he believed he would be "vindicated."

Boykin and Bailey's names have been in the news before. In March 2017, they were arrested after she crashed a car into Sidebar Uptown Dallas, eight people were injured. She was arrested on two counts of intoxication assault with a vehicle. Boykin was arrested for public intoxication and marijuana possession.

In June 2016 the former TCU quarterback pleaded no contest to resisting arrest over an incident that led to his suspension for his final college game at the Alamo Bowl. Boykin originally faced a felony charge of assaulting a police officer during an incident at a bar two days before the Horned Frogs beat Oregon in the Alamo Bowl on Jan. 2, 2016. Boykin agreed to a one-year probation in the case and had the felony charge dismissed.

NBC 5 is reaching out to Boykin's mother and agent about the most recent allegations and his release from the Seahawks, we are awaiting a response.

Roughly 43 million Americans have delinquent medical debt, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but most may not know they can negotiate when it comes to their bills.

NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, NBC CT’s parent company, is making a donation to RIP Medical Debt that will forgive $1 million of Connecticut’s medical debt. At least 674 people in Connecticut will receive yellow envelopes from RIP Medical to inform the resident that some of their medical debt has been forgiven.

Since the selection process is random, residents can’t sign up or apply for relief that will forgive a million dollars’ worth of medical debt in Connecticut. However, even if you don’t receive a yellow envelope from RIP Medical Debt, there are ways to avoid collections and get help with your medical debt.

The first thing to know is you have about six months to straighten out any potential errors or disputes regarding medical bills before that debt starts impacting your credit score.

Bruce McClary, a spokesperson for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, said the sooner you address the issue, the better.

“I would recommend, the first thing anybody should do- even while they're receiving treatment- is have an open dialogue with the care provider and talk about the cost of the medical care,” McClary said.

McClary said patients should ask about the cost of care before undergoing any treatment or procedures.

"They can put you into a payment plan that can fit into your budget and if they do that, that can keep it from going to a debt collector, which makes it a much more urgent and much more serious issue," he said, adding that doctors and hospitals are usually open to price negotiations.

McClary said patients should look at each bill as it comes in to make sure there aren’t any errors and that patients should get a final bill detailing what has been paid by insurance and any charges the patient is still responsible for.

Medical bills are typically sent to collections after three months of nonpayment. If your bill ends up in collections, McClary recommends contacting a reputable nonprofit credit counseling agency.

"Talk to a professional counselor about an affordable repayment plan that helps you clear the medical debt without derailing any of your other financial obligations," McClary said.

Once your debt is paid off, it will no longer affect your FICO score.

A useful research tool to check out before negotiating medical bills is www.healthcarebluebook.com. The website tracks the prices of procedures at multiple facilities and uses that information to calculate a fair price.

For example, the website shows a patient in Waterbury can expect to pay between $34 and $462 for a chest x-ray, so Healthcare Bluebook determined a fair price to be $60.

If you want to help families struggling with medical debt, you can pay it forward with NBC Universal Owned Television Stations by making a donation to RIP Medical Debt. Just a few dollars can make a big difference in the lives of families struggling with their medical bills.

Protesters blocked streets in downtown Sacramento Wednesday to demand justice for Stephon Clark. Clark, an unarmed black man, was fatally shot by Sacramento police in his grandmother’s backyard. Officers said they thought Clark was armed, but he only had a cellphone.

A 22-year-old driver is accused of striking two pedestrians at a crosswalk in New London on Wednesday, police said. 

Ariam Martinez-Colon, of New London, was traveling northbound on Montauk Avenue and attempting to make a right onto Steward Street when he struck a man and a woman who were walking across the street around 7:38 p.m., police said.

Upon arriving to the scene, police found a 55-year-old man suffering from leg injuries and a 58-year-old woman who had sustained injuries to her neck and back.

Both were transported to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital for treatment and police said their injuries were not life threatening. 

Martinez-Colon was charged with failure to grant the right-of-way to a pedestrian at a crosswalk. 

People in New Britain are keeping an eye out for a notorious cat that might have rabies and has reportedly attacked at least five people, according to the city's health department.

All five of the reports came from the same neighborhood located near Saint Francis Church. It even has the attention of Saint Francis' Father Michael Casey.

“It’s been getting a little dangerous,” said Casey. “We’ve been keeping our eyes open and making sure everyone’s staying safe to and from the church.”

Churchgoers have reportedly come and gone unscathed, but not every homeowner has been as lucky.

“I was in my garage just cleaning, and it came out of nowhere and just jumped on my face,” homeowner Jimmy Puzewski said. “It was pretty wild.”

That cat is one of the dozens of feral cats neighbors said they often see roaming around these quiet New Britain streets. Seldom do they get personal, except for the one.

“It got me in my nose and my face and my neck,” Puzewski said. “It scratched me, it drew blood and so I know, you know [it was] not good.”

Town officials don’t yet know if the cat has rabies, but Puzewski said he followed the health department’s advice and got shots just in case.

Kathy Kinley’s dog, Toffee, is up to date on her vaccines, but she’s losing out in other ways.

“I haven’t walked in over a week with her because I’ve been nervous coming to this end of the street,” Kinley said.

New Britain’s animal control and health departments are still looking for the potentially rabid cat. Each of the reports lists the same traits.

“It has a missing eye, and it has a bad leg,” Puzewski said. “So that’s why we’re connecting the aggressiveness and the injuries to the cat.”

One person is dead after a driver in Pomfret tried to pass other vehicles in traffic in a no passing zone, police said. 

The driver of a Honda Pilot was traveling west on Route 44 while a Chevrolet Silverado was traveling east in Pomfret on Wednesday. 

Police said the driver of the Honda attempted to pass a Lexus Nx that was stopped in traffic going westbound at the intersection of Paine Road, which is a no passing zone. 

The driver of the Honda collided with the Chevrolet head-on. The passenger in the Honda was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver sustained minor injuries.

State police said the drivers of the Lexus and Chevrolet were transported to the hospital for suspected minor injuries. 

Anyone with information on this crash is asked to call troopers at 860-779-4900.

Joined by his neurosurgeon and personal physician, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton says he is healthy and fit for running for office.

Less than two weeks ago, Boughton suffered a seizure during a GOP candidate forum in Avon. Immediately following the event, UConn Health and Boughton’s campaign released identical statements blaming the seizure on severe dehydration.

Today, the neurosurgeon from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said the primary factor was actually the fact that Boughton had skipped, “a couple doses,” of his anti-seizure medication.

Dr. Robert Friedlander, who performed brain surgery on Boughton last summer to remove a tumor, said, “That’s the key issue. Everything else, he was dehydrated, he was stressed out, that adds to things to some extent, but the major major issue is the lack of taking the medicines because he hadn’t had a seizure and he thought he was fine, but that’s where we are.”

Friedlander and Boughton’s personal physician, Dr. Spyros Smith, were both in agreement that Boughton is at no greater risk for a seizure now, than before the event in Avon, so long as he takes medication.

Smith even said Boughton did well during his physical exam last Thursday.

“We ran some routine chemistries on electrolytes, kidney function, things like that, all of which were normal. His vital signs were stellar, there were no findings from our standpoint.”

Boughton is looking to find success in his most recent run for statewide office. He failed previously in runs for both governor and lieutenant governor, and hopes this time around is different. He’s considered a kind of establishment favorite, since he has such high name recognition among Republican Town Committees. Those town committees will ultimately decide on the party’s endorsed nominee at a convention in May.

Boughton says he’s ready for what could be a long, and grueling road toward the nomination and election day.

“It’s a very very stressful job and I want the people to know that I am up to handle that stress,” he said.

There will be increased security measures at all Brookfield schools on Thursday after a 16-year-old student posted a threatening message on social media.

Police were called to Brookfield High School on Wednesday morning after three students told administrators about a social media post they saw the night before. 

An investigation found the 16-year-old student posted a photo showing an airsoft facsimile rifle modeled after an AR-15 style rifle with magazines and different sized rounds of ammunition. Police said the caption of the photo was threatening in nature and related to the school day on Wednesday. 

The airsoft rifle and airsoft ammunition are in the possession of the police as the investigation continues. 

No weapons were found at the school.

The student's parents were called to the school on Wednesday and the 16-year-old was arrested. The student faces first-degree threatening, which is a felony charge. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday slammed crisis-hit Facebook for profiting from user data and said "privacy to us is a human right," a civil liberty akin to freedom of speech, NBC News reported.

Speaking at an MSNBC town hall event, Cook also called for more regulation on the social media giant, which is facing criticism, lawsuits and political inquiries over how data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica acquired the user data of 50 million people.

Cook said Apple has chosen not to monetize its customers' user data: "The truth is we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer, if our customer was our product."

Apple has long held up privacy as a value. It wouldn't unlock an iPhone that belonged to the man who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in late 2015, even when the government sued.

A pair of New Jersey police officers were suspended after one of them was caught on camera pushing a Domino’s restaurant chain manager against a wall because their pizza didn’t get delivered on time.

Video obtained exclusively by News 4 shows the two Jersey City police officers storming a Domino's on Communipaw Avenue in Jersey City and pushing the branch’s manager up against a wall in an incident the manager, Mena Kirolos, said was spurred because of a missed pizza delivery Tuesday evening.

Kirolos said the confrontation was sparked by a missed pizza delivery. He said when the driver arrived at the delivery location, his calls were not answered. A short time later, Kirolos said he got a call from an officer upset over his missing pizza delivery. 

“He said he was coming to my store, so I waited 10, 15 minutes, no one showed up,” he said.

Two officers eventually did show up. Surveillance footage shows the pair in uniform as they barged in and broke up the hum of the pizza-delivery operation.

Kirolos then walks out of a back room, video shows, and one of the officers grabs him and pushes him against a wall.

Several other Domino employees crowd around them, with some pulling out their phones to film the wrangle.

“(I was thinking) What can I do?,” Kirolos said. “He’s a police officer. I can’t do anything back.”

In a cellphone video recorded by an employee, Kirolos can be heard saying “remove your hands” and “don’t touch me.” One officer can be seen trying to diffuse the situation between the two.

Kirolos said at that point, the more irate of the two officers told him “I’ll lock you up,” and the cellphone footage then shows the manager holding his hands out as if they were cuffed as he says “please do it!”

The officer trying to break up the two men can then be heard saying “I am trying to have a conversation with you” to Kirolos, and then he suggests that the three of them go outside to “have a friendly conversation.” Kirolos initially refuses, but the three men eventually go outside and talk, their voices now inaudible.

After the exchange, the two officers were suspended and charged with harassment and disorderly conduct. Both are due in court on April 11. 

The Jersey City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

Kirolos, meanwhile, said he just wants an apology.

“I don’t like being cursed at, being touched,” he said. “I only demanded an apology. That’s it.”

Multiple parents who say the only reason they live in the Middlefield/Durham area is for its schools sounded off Wednesday night over a plan to close the John Lyman School.

On Monday, the Regional School District 13 board of education voted to close the school, a move parents called a surprise because the vote was not included on the board’s agenda for that meeting and there was no advance public notice. 

When the Board met again Wednesday evening, more than 100 parents and students showed up to express their displeasure about the vote and the possibility of their beloved school closing. 

“I don’t think you understand your role as a publicly elected representative and I think you should consider resigning now,” one parent said to the board during the public comment period. 

“If people are coming into your town for this program, why wouldn’t you keep it around?,” another asked to applause from parents who said Lyman School is their community’s largest draw. 

The board said the move to consider closing Lyman was forced by dramatic declines in state funding and in enrollment in recent years. The district shrunk from close to 2,100 students in the 2009 school year to less than 1,700 students this year. 

But parents, like Lindsay Dahlheimer, who moved to the district so her sons could get the school’s unique, integrated day, higher order thinking, curriculum, said the way the vote happened was wrong and she wants this school open. 

“We put our faith in the school board to make a proactive effort to represent our kids. Five or six people are making a decision for hundreds and hundreds of kids,” she said.

After a lengthy period of public comment at Wednesday’s school board meeting and a remark from one board member who said Monday’s vote might have broken the public trust, the board’s chair told NBC Connecticut that there might still be a way for Lyman to remain open, but the district needs to find savings somewhere.

“The option is ‘How do we go through the three options that we have and come up with one that fits everybody’s need?’” said Bob Moore, chairman of the Regional School District 13 Board of Education

The board is also considering merging the school with other.

As for the next steps in deciding the future of Lyman school, the board is preparing to send written communication to parents about another school board meeting where the school will be discussed. That meeting is scheduled for April 25.