A body has been found in the Connecticut River in Chester, according to state police.
Police responded to the river and said a body was found near the Chester Ferry Landing at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
No additional information was immediately available.
A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows an alarming increase in pedestrian-related rashes across the country. The data shows that between 2009 and 2016 pedestrian-related deaths increased by 46 percent nationally.
According to the UConn Crash Data Repository, there have been 215 pedestrian-involved crashes in Connecticut since the start of January 2018. Among the 215, the data showed that nine of the pedestrian crashes were fatal.
Marie Armee said she walks every day in Middletown and is always careful, but even these statistics caught her by surprise.
“I’m surprised. I mean, I expect a little bit of an increase but not that much,” Armee said. “It’s terrible, because it’s something that could be avoided. People are losing their life, losing their daughters, their mothers, their fathers and that’s lifelong, you don’t get that back.”
In April, police said a woman was hit by a car in Windsor Locks while trying to cross Ella Grasso Turnpike. Investigators said she survived, but the man driving the car got out to help the woman and was hit by another vehicle and he was killed.
The study says speed, along with increased speed limits, are factors in most crashes. In addition, the IIHS believes higher speed limits in many municipalities around the country means a deadlier outcome when pedestrians are hit.
Researchers cite cell phones as possibly being part of the problem, but said there is not enough data to make a definitive conclusion about that.
The study says most of the pedestrian accidents are happening in urban or suburban areas along busy roads, away from intersections and often at night.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is calling for city and state governments to do a better job lighting and designating intersections and pedestrian crosswalks.
Researchers said pedestrians can play a part too by wearing bright and reflective clothing if walking at night.
“I do walk in the mornings sometimes and I will wear a brightly colored vest,” said Tamba Marino in Middletown.
Marino is careful during walks, but said most people need to pay more attention.
“I think that’s a shame. I do think that it’s both the pedestrians’ fault as well as the cars’. A lot of people walk across the streets and don’t look both ways like we were taught when we were younger,” Marino said.
A crash on Interstate 84 West in Danbury Tuesday morning caused massive delays for more than five miles.
The crash was near the Danbury Mall exit and delays extended back to Newtown.
The crash also affected traffic on Route 7.
A man faces negligent homicide charges in a fatal crash on Route 20 in East Granby last June.
According to Connecticut State Police, 59-year-old John Newman was driving down Metacomet Drive in East Granby on June 10, 2017 around 9 p.m. Police said that when Newman reached the intersection with Route 20, he slowed for a stop sign, but did not stop, according to data from his vehicle. He then accelerated hard and turned onto Route 20, crossing in front of a motorcycle traveling down the road. The motorcycle collided with Newman’s vehicle.
The motorcycle operator, identified as 37-year-old Christopher Litchfield, suffered fatal injuries and a passenger suffered serious injuries, according to police.
On May 4, 2018, Newman turned himself into Troop H on an active arrest warrant. He is charged with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle and failure to obey a stop sign. He was released on a $50,000 bond and is due in court on May 15.
A motorcycle and a dump truck have collided on Depot Hill Road in Enfield and the motorcyclist has been taken to the hospital with serious injuries, according to police at the scene.
Police on scene told NBC Connecticut it appears both vehicles were traveling south when they collided just before 3 p.m. The male motorcyclist was taken to St. Francis Hospital with life-threatening injuries. The dump truck driver was not hurt, according to police.
The road will be closed between Old Depot Hill Road and Route 5 due, according to police.
The crash remains under investigation.
A 17-year-old Norwich girl is dead after a crash on Interstate 395 in Plainfield Sunday night.
Police said 17-year-old Christine White, of Norwich, was driving a Chevy Impala on I-395 South, just before exit 32 in Plainfield, and the vehicle went off the road, hit a tree and burst into flames around 7:30 p.m.
White was the only person in the vehicle, according to police.
Connecticut State Police are investigating.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized former President Barack Obama and the nuclear deal with Iran that was sealed in 2015.
On Tuesday, in announcing the U.S. would be pulling out of that deal, Trump said the agreement has a "decaying and rotten structure."
Below are Trump's full remarks, followed by Obama's statement, which he issued later in the day.
Trump:
My fellow Americans: Today, I want to update the world on our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
The Iranian regime is the leading state sponsor of terror. It exports dangerous missiles, fuels conflicts across the Middle East, and supports terrorist proxies and militias such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, and al Qaeda.
Over the years, Iran and its proxies have bombed American embassies and military installations, murdered hundreds of American servicemembers, and kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured American citizens. The Iranian regime has funded its long reign of chaos and terror by plundering the wealth of its own people.
No action taken by the regime has been more dangerous than its pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them.
In 2015, the previous administration joined with other nations in a deal regarding Iran's nuclear program. This agreement was known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
In theory, the so-called "Iran deal" was supposed to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a weapon that will only endanger the survival of the Iranian regime. In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and, over time, reach the brink of a nuclear breakout.
The deal lifted crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for very weak limits on the regime's nuclear activity, and no limits at all on its other malign behavior, including its sinister activities in Syria, Yemen, and other places all around the world.
In other words, at the point when the United States had maximum leverage, this disastrous deal gave this regime -- and it's a regime of great terror -- many billions of dollars, some of it in actual cash -- a great embarrassment to me as a citizen and to all citizens of the United States.
A constructive deal could easily have been struck at the time, but it wasn't. At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program.
Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie. Last week, Israel published intelligence documents long concealed by Iran, conclusively showing the Iranian regime and its history of pursuing nuclear weapons.
The fact is this was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made. It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.
In the years since the deal was reached, Iran’s military budget has grown by almost 40 percent, while its economy is doing very badly. After the sanctions were lifted, the dictatorship used its new funds to build nuclear-capable missiles, support terrorism, and cause havoc throughout the Middle East and beyond.
The agreement was so poorly negotiated that even if Iran fully complies, the regime can still be on the verge of a nuclear breakout in just a short period of time. The deal's sunset provisions are totally unacceptable. If I allowed this deal to stand, there would soon be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Everyone would want their weapons ready by the time Iran had theirs.
Making matters worse, the deal’s inspection provisions lack adequate mechanisms to prevent, detect, and punish cheating, and don't even have the unqualified right to inspect many important locations, including military facilities.
Not only does the deal fail to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but it also fails to address the regime’s development of ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads.
Finally, the deal does nothing to constrain Iran’s destabilizing activities, including its support for terrorism. Since the agreement, Iran’s bloody ambitions have grown only more brazen.
In light of these glaring flaws, I announced last October that the Iran deal must either be renegotiated or terminated.
Three months later, on January 12th, I repeated these conditions. I made clear that if the deal could not be fixed, the United States would no longer be a party to the agreement.
Over the past few months, we have engaged extensively with our allies and partners around the world, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. We have also consulted with our friends from across the Middle East. We are unified in our understanding of the threat and in our conviction that Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon.
After these consultations, it is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement.
The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen. In just a short period of time, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons.
Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
In a few moments, I will sign a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating U.S. nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime. We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction. Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States.
America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. And we will not allow a regime that chants “Death to America” to gain access to the most deadly weapons on Earth.
Today’s action sends a critical message: The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them. In fact, at this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un. Plans are being made. Relationships are building. Hopefully, a deal will happen and, with the help of China, South Korea, and Japan, a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone.
As we exit the Iran deal, we will be working with our allies to find a real, comprehensive, and lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear threat. This will include efforts to eliminate the threat of Iran’s ballistic missile program; to stop its terrorist activities worldwide; and to block its menacing activity across the Middle East. In the meantime, powerful sanctions will go into full effect. If the regime continues its nuclear aspirations, it will have bigger problems than it has ever had before.
Finally, I want to deliver a message to the long-suffering people of Iran: The people of America stand with you. It has now been almost 40 years since this dictatorship seized power and took a proud nation hostage. Most of Iran’s 80 million citizens have sadly never known an Iran that prospered in peace with its neighbors and commanded the admiration of the world.
But the future of Iran belongs to its people. They are the rightful heirs to a rich culture and an ancient land. And they deserve a nation that does justice to their dreams, honor to their history, and glory to God.
Iran’s leaders will naturally say that they refuse to negotiate a new deal; they refuse. And that's fine. I'd probably say the same thing if I was in their position. But the fact is they are going to want to make a new and lasting deal, one that benefits all of Iran and the Iranian people. When they do, I am ready, willing, and able.
Great things can happen for Iran, and great things can happen for the peace and stability that we all want in the Middle East.
There has been enough suffering, death, and destruction. Let it end now.
Thank you. God bless you. Thank you.
Obama:
There are few issues more important to the security of the United States than the potential spread of nuclear weapons, or the potential for even more destructive war in the Middle East. That’s why the United States negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in the first place.
The reality is clear. The JCPOA is working – that is a view shared by our European allies, independent experts, and the current U.S. Secretary of Defense. The JCPOA is in America’s interest – it has significantly rolled back Iran’s nuclear program. And the JCPOA is a model for what diplomacy can accomplish – its inspections and verification regime is precisely what the United States should be working to put in place with North Korea. Indeed, at a time when we are all rooting for diplomacy with North Korea to succeed, walking away from the JCPOA risks losing a deal that accomplishes – with Iran – the very outcome that we are pursuing with the North Koreans.
That is why today’s announcement is so misguided. Walking away from the JCPOA turns our back on America’s closest allies, and an agreement that our country’s leading diplomats, scientists, and intelligence professionals negotiated. In a democracy, there will always be changes in policies and priorities from one Administration to the next. But the consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America’s credibility, and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers.
Debates in our country should be informed by facts, especially debates that have proven to be divisive. So it’s important to review several facts about the JCPOA.
First, the JCPOA was not just an agreement between my Administration and the Iranian government. After years of building an international coalition that could impose crippling sanctions on Iran, we reached the JCPOA together with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the European Union, Russia, China, and Iran. It is a multilateral arms control deal, unanimously endorsed by a United Nations Security Council Resolution.
Second, the JCPOA has worked in rolling back Iran’s nuclear program. For decades, Iran had steadily advanced its nuclear program, approaching the point where they could rapidly produce enough fissile material to build a bomb. The JCPOA put a lid on that breakout capacity. Since the JCPOA was implemented, Iran has destroyed the core of a reactor that could have produced weapons-grade plutonium; removed two-thirds of its centrifuges (over 13,000) and placed them under international monitoring; and eliminated 97 percent of its stockpile of enriched uranium – the raw materials necessary for a bomb. So by any measure, the JCPOA has imposed strict limitations on Iran's nuclear program and achieved real results.
Third, the JCPOA does not rely on trust – it is rooted in the most far-reaching inspections and verification regime ever negotiated in an arms control deal. Iran’s nuclear facilities are strictly monitored. International monitors also have access to Iran’s entire nuclear supply chain, so that we can catch them if they cheat. Without the JCPOA, this monitoring and inspections regime would go away.
Fourth, Iran is complying with the JCPOA. That was not simply the view of my Administration. The United States intelligence community has continued to find that Iran is meeting its responsibilities under the deal, and has reported as much to Congress. So have our closest allies, and the international agency responsible for verifying Iranian compliance – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Fifth, the JCPOA does not expire. The prohibition on Iran ever obtaining a nuclear weapon is permanent. Some of the most important and intrusive inspections codified by the JCPOA are permanent. Even as some of the provisions in the JCPOA do become less strict with time, this won’t happen until ten, fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years into the deal, so there is little reason to put those restrictions at risk today.
Finally, the JCPOA was never intended to solve all of our problems with Iran. We were clear-eyed that Iran engages in destabilizing behavior – including support for terrorism, and threats toward Israel and its neighbors. But that’s precisely why it was so important that we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Every aspect of Iranian behavior that is troubling is far more dangerous if their nuclear program is unconstrained. Our ability to confront Iran’s destabilizing behavior – and to sustain a unity of purpose with our allies – is strengthened with the JCPOA, and weakened without it.
Because of these facts, I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake. Without the JCPOA, the United States could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East. We all know the dangers of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. It could embolden an already dangerous regime; threaten our friends with destruction; pose unacceptable dangers to America’s own security; and trigger an arms race in the world’s most dangerous region. If the constraints on Iran’s nuclear program under the JCPOA are lost, we could be hastening the day when we are faced with the choice between living with that threat, or going to war to prevent it.
In a dangerous world, America must be able to rely in part on strong, principled diplomacy to secure our country. We have been safer in the years since we achieved the JCPOA, thanks in part to the work of our diplomats, many members of Congress, and our allies. Going forward, I hope that Americans continue to speak out in support of the kind of strong, principled, fact-based, and unifying leadership that can best secure our country and uphold our responsibilities around the globe.
European allies expressed "regret" over President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, and said they were committed to upholding the accord even in the U.S.'s absence.
"This agreement remains important for our shared security," said the joint statement from U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
They noted that the agreement continued to be the legal framework to resolve disputes about the Iran nuclear program and urged Iran to show restraint in response to Trump's actions. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has been abiding by the restrictions set out by the accord.
"The world is a safer place as a result," they said.
Their reaction was as expected as Trump’s statement to bail on the deal, which fulfilled a presidential campaign pledge but also promised to alienate many U.S. allies.
Tehran had agreed to halt its quest for nuclear weapons in 2015 under President Barack Obama in exchange for a roll back of sanctions that were crippling its economy. During the 2016 campaign, Trump railed against the accord, arguing the United States had given away too much in exchange for too few concessions from Tehran. On Tuesday, he repeated his disdain for the deal, calling it “decaying and rotten.”
He also said the United States was imposing the highest level of economic sanctions on Iran.
“The United States no longer makes empty threats,” Trump said. “When I make promises, I keep them.”
Trump is withdrawing from the agreement though UN nuclear inspectors have said that Iran is in compliance. Last week, as Trump announcement neared, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel had documents showing that Iran had had a secret nuclear-weapons plan for years that it lied about and that could activate at any time.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" about Trump's decision and called on the remaining parties to abide by their commitments, according to Reuters.
The Trump administration is hoping to force Iran and the participants in the deal, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union, to negotiate a new agreement that goes further, curbing Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its funding of groups such as Hezbollah.
Macron also tweeted: “We will work collectively on a broader framework, covering nuclear activity, the post-2025 period, ballistic activity, and stability in the Middle-East, notably Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a chief architect of the deal, said withdrawing from it was not in the U.S.'s interest. Trump had broken America's word, isolated the U.S. from its European allies, put Israel at risk while empowering hardliners in Iran and damaged the ability of future administration's to make international agreements, he said.
"The extent of the damage will depend on what Europe can do to hold the nuclear agreement together, and it will depend on Iran's reaction," he said.
Former President Barack Obama said in a lengthy statement that the decision to walk away was "so misguided."
"In a democracy, there will always be changes in policies and priorities from one Administration to the next," he said. "But the consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America’s credibility, and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers."
Meanwhile, Netanyahu thanked the U.S. president for his courageous leadership and his commitment to ensuring that Iran “never gets nuclear weapons, not today, not in a decade, not ever.”
He said Israel fully supported Trump’s bold decision to reject a “disastrous agreement.”
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said the Iranian foreign ministry would continue to work with the countries remaining in the deal and with the EU.
“I want to emphasize that people should not have any worries about the future of this country,” Rouhani said. “The people are more united than ever, and there will be peace and stability in Iran.”
Connecticut lawmakers are reaching the end of another legislative session and another year of last-minute budget negotiations Tuesday.
Last year’s budget standoff lasted nearly five months. This time, lawmakers have to fill a nearly $400 million budget hole and come up with some kind of spending plan for the next year. It appears Republicans were digging in their heels, demanding a vote on their own budget very soon. But there are no votes for that Republican budget in the House, making it dead on arrival.
Time is running short to finish the budget, Democrats warn that Gov. Dannel Malloy will just want to cut without one.
"We’re so tough and our budgets are so smart and there's 27 pages and it’s fully vetted and the governor runs the state of Connecticut. Good luck to your town,” said Rep. Matt Ritter (D-Hartford), the majority leader.
“I think there are enough people in this state that are sick and tired of the same old same old of what’s been going on and the Democrats have been in control for 40 years and there’s a Democrat governor,” said Rep. Themis Klarides (R-Derby), the minority leader.
The messaging here has been very different from Republicans and Democrats. Democrats want a bipartisan deal and that’s all they want to talk about, while Republicans are saying they want to vote on their own budget. That kind of stiff divide makes a budget impasse more likely.
NBC Connecticut Meteorologists are tracking an area of fog that will move in late tonight.
Fog will be most dense along the Connecticut shoreline with fog developing this evening.
Communties located in river valleys should expect fog to develop by Wednesday morning.
Waterbury police are searching for a vehicle involved in a serious hit-and-run crash on Bucks Hill Road Monday evening.
Police said they are looking for a dark blue 2008 model year style BMW X5 SUV that fled the scene of an accident at the intersection of Bucks Hill Road and Cemetery Road. According to police, the BMW struck a moped, seriously injuring the rider.
Investigators said the BMW should have extensive damage on the passenger side front end, and a cracked windshield.
Anyone with information on the crash should contact Waterbury police at 203-574-6941 or Crime Stoppers at 203-755-1234.
Seasonal allergy sufferers always know when pollen is in the air.
The pollen count is expected to remain high all week in Connecticut.
“It’s when the trees start to bud. My nose starts to become runny. I’ll get little headaches,” said Rachel Russo of Westbrook.
At Go Health Urgent Care in Avon, doctors say they’ve been busy.
“All of a sudden the pollen out The spores are out from the trees everything is blooming and you kind of see this big rush of people Who is congested and who have a lot of sinus pressure,” explained Dr. Jason Kurtzman.
He said to try over the counter medications first, but know when to see a doctor.
“If you’re really having any difficulty breathing, you’re unable to sleep at night, you have a lot of facial swelling and puffiness where your eyes are really starting to get affected, you’re having difficulty hearing certainly if you’re having any fevers or chills,” Kurtzman said.
Kutzman said if you don’t treat seasonal allergies they won’t get any worse, and they’ll eventually go away with the season. In most cases, it’s just a matter of comfort.
Information on foodborne illness cases, school staffing records and problems with your public services should be readily accessible to the public. The 169 towns and cities in Connecticut are required by law to provide this kind of information when it’s requested, but getting access to it is a challenge.
State and federal Freedom of Information laws are there to ensure the public’s access to their government. Everything from attending public meetings, such as school board meetings, to obtaining copies of your police record are rights protected by these laws. In Connecticut, there’s no central clearinghouse for public records and, without regional government it’s up to each of the state’s municipalities, school districts and public safety agencies to provide information. That’s hundreds of public agencies.
If you want to know what’s happening on a state-wide level, you need to ask each individual local agency for what you want. Many of these agencies struggle with small staffs and outdated technology, making simple public records requests a time-consuming and challenging process for both the public and their public employees.
The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters wanted to see what would happen if we asked all of Connecticut’s public school districts for the same information. We sent Freedom of Information, or FOI, requests to the state’s more than 190 public school districts and charter schools, asking which school employees were on leave and why, for one random date in April.
Two weeks later, the responses we received were all over the board.
Less than half of the districts gave us what we asked for, and those records came in formats ranging from Board of Education meeting minutes approving an employee’s leave to printouts of that day’s attendance log.
Bloomfield and North Haven public schools each cited a court decision saying they are not obligated to create records for our request. Neither district responded to our question of whether they maintain attendance records.
Three asked the Troubleshooters to first mail them a check for labor costs. Under state law, agencies can charge 50 cents per page to copy records.
More than 40 districts did not respond in any way within two weeks. Some school districts redacted their employees’ names from the records. One charter school director suggested The Troubleshooters send the request to the state’s Department of Education. And we received many calls and emails asking what our story is and who else we requested information from.
That’s not alright, according to Colleen Murphy, the executive director and general counsel of the state’s Freedom of Information Commission.
“That is not appropriate to ask somebody why they want the government information, or to provide more context or background,” Murphy said.
The FOI Commission conducts numerous outreach and education programs for public employees, but Murphy explained the sheer number of government agencies spread out all over the state can make it difficult to keep up.
“There’s a real varied level of knowledge about what the law is. You can get different results in different towns, unfortunately,” Murphy added.
The Troubleshooters wanted to find out why it was so difficult to get the information we requested, so we asked to speak with Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents.
Rabinowitz said superintendents know the FOI law well. She told us she received calls and emails from superintendents who felt our request was not clear, and she said some expressed concern about our motives.
“’What’s going on here?’ I rather think that was another question,” Rabinowitz explained.
Our motivation for requesting records shouldn’t matter, according to the state’s Freedom of Information Commission.
Rabinowitz said she understood our request and agreed it is disclosable information, but said some superintendents might have hesitated to comply because they lack the time and staff needed to track down information.
The records might belong to the public, but getting them comes at a price.
See below for a full list of the school districts and charter schools we contacted, and the response we received within two full weeks of making our request.
One of the bills that could be left without action in the Connecticut General Assembly could have far-reaching health and safety consequences for school children with serious food allergies.
The bill would allow for children to carry epinephrine injectors with them on school buses, something currently prohibited, and mandate some basic training for school transportation workers like school bus drivers and monitors. Connecticut would join several other states that have similar provisions.
Scott Zweig spent part of his workday at the State Capitol advocating for the measure as a parent of a daughter with serious food allergies. His daughter Ava was diagnosed with an allergy to tree nuts.
“Every day my wife and I fear for her safety that in the 20 minutes, 10 minutes, between home and school, she might pick up a tree nut, or a wrapper and touch a seat that had a kid before with an almond or a walnut and she’ll go into anaphylaxis, and the bus driver won’t have a clue.”
The measure passed the Connecticut House with bipartisan support and is currently awaiting action in the Connecticut Senate.
The concerns from school bus operators and their association, COSTA, the Connecticut School Transportation Association, included the overall responsibilities of people who work on buses, and fear for their liability if a child has an allergic reaction.
The group testified back in March, "Our school bus drivers are trained to drive the bus, not perform medical interventions."
The bill is expected to pass through the Connecticut Senate, but it has to get called first. Other measures like the state budget could stop that from happening. Scott Zweig from West Hartford hopes lawmakers act to ease his fears.
“Until this bill passes, we won’t feel comfortable putting her on the school bus,” Sweig said.
Stormy Daniels' attorney claimed Tuesday that President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen received $500,000 from a company controlled by a Russian oligarch, deposited into an account for a company also used to pay off the adult film actress, NBC News reported.
Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, also detailed other transactions he said were suspicious, including deposits from drug giant Novartis, the state-run Korea Aerospace Industries, and AT&T — which confirmed it paid Cohen's company for "insights" into the Trump administration.
If true, Avenatti's claims, made in a dossier posted to Twitter, could add a new dimension to the federal investigation into Cohen. NBC News has reviewed financial documents that appear to support Avenatti’s account of the transactions.
An 18-year-old woman was injured when she fell while hiking at Enders State Forest in Granby Tuesday.
According to officials from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the teen was hiking along the river when she fell approximately 20 feet. She briefly lost consciousness and when she woke up she was complaining of back and neck pain, officials said.
The victim was airlifted via LifeStar to St. Francis Hospital for treatment.
No further details were immediately available.
On an average year, first responders are usually called to the popular Granby spot three or four times, and slips and falls are not uncommon calls.
Holly Irwin said she missed saving her son's life by one day.
“He said to me ‘mom, I need a helmet’ and the very next day we were going to go,” Irwin said, her voice wavering. “I missed saving his life by a day. It’s the worst pain any mom can go through in her entire life.”
Now the Ledyard mom is on a mission to keep families from the same tragedy she faced.
On Nov. 25, 2016, Irwin’s 14-year-old son Conor was in a skateboarding accident just a couple of blocks from home. He hit his head and succumbed to his injuries 10 days later.
“He had two helmets for hockey. A concussion helmet and a regular helmet. He had a lacrosse helmet, he had a bicycle helmet,” Irwin listed. The only sport Conor didn’t have a specific helmet for was skateboarding. While he still wore one, he wasn’t at the time of the accident, Irwin said.
So she helped create a bill known as Conor’s Law. It passed the state Senate Monday. The bill, in part, would require children 15 years or under to wear protective headgear when skateboarding, roller skating or in-line skating.
Irwin said she’d like to see the required age even higher but hopes this encourages kids to start the habit early.
“You ask where do you get your fight? Or, where do you get your strength? I don’t have any,” Irwin said. “I don’t have fight. I don’t have strength. I still have Conor inside of me saying, ‘mom I need you to do this.’”
Conor spent his life and now his legacy helping others.
He was known for wearing a bowtie because he had to “dress for success,” Irwin said. Conor was the kid who would help an elderly stranger load groceries into the car. He spoke with lawmakers about getting healthy foods in schools. In fact, he went to Washington D.C. for a day to talk with Rep. Joe Courtney’s staff about student lunch programs, according to Irwin. He spent his life helping others.
That’s what Irwin hopes Conor will be remembered for.
“Thing most important to him is that no mom would have to cry again about their son or their daughter dying of a closed head injury, or a traumatic brain injury, because they wore a helmet. That would make him feel empowered,” Irwin said.
According to Irwin, if Conor’s law passes in Connecticut, she wants to bring it to the national stage.
Experts are warning drivers that gas prices might keep climbing well into the summer and AAA believes that’s one of the likely effects after the president withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions.
Drivers who spoke with NBC Connecticut said they’re groaning as they watch the average gas price in the state keep climbing and closing in on $3 per gallon for regular.
“I went from $40 to fill my tank to $60 in two weeks,” Southington resident Alyssa Debbisi said.
Connecticut motorists are already paying some of the highest gas prices that they’ve paid in years, according to AAA spokesperson Amy Parmenter.
Parmenter warned that drivers need to prepare themselves for another price hike. She said that might be one of the impacts after President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and will re-instate sanctions.
“The re-imposing of sanctions against Iran will likely affect crude oil prices and that’s the biggest factor when it comes to the price at the pump,” Parmenter said.
That could mean prices could continue to rise well into the summer, instead of reaching a peak around Memorial Day as expected.
That’s unwelcome news, especially for Debbisi, who is a commuter college student.
“There’s really nothing I can do with what I drive, just drive to class every day,” she said.
While Connecticut could break the $3 mark for the statewide average soon, don’t expect to see the impact of sanctions quickly. AAA said an increase in crude oil prices takes weeks or months to show up at the pump.
Bridgeport officials have released video of a woman who they say has been stealing packages off porches and they are asking for anyone with information to come forward.
The thefts have been in the west side of Bridgeport, according to police.
Anyone with information should call the Bridgeport Police tips line at 203-576-TIPS.
