On the last day of the 2018 legislative session, the Connecticut State Senate voted in favor of a bill that will add a $12 per year surcharge on every homeowners’ insurance policy in Connecticut to help pay for repairing homes with crumbling concrete basements.

It’s estimated the fee will raise $10 to $12 million per year to help pay for hundreds of people struggling with the concrete problem. It’s an issue unique to the northern-central and eastern portions of Connecticut that the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters uncovered almost three years ago.

The repairs can cost upward of $200,000 per home. This money is on top of $100 million in state bonding for the problem. And all this may still not be enough. At last check, almost 700 people have filed complaints about having crumbling basements with the Department of Consumer Affairs.

The Connecticut House of Representatives already voted in favor of the bill. It now heads to the governor’s desk for his signature. There was no word on whether Gov. Dannel Malloy is expected to sign the bill Wednesday afternoon.

Former Lt. Gov. Eunice Groark, who was known as a political trailblazer, died Tuesday at the age of 80.

Groark was elected as Connecticut’s first female lieutenant governor in 1990, running under the banner of “A Connecticut Party” with Lowell Weicker.

Her tie-breaking vote for the controversial income-tax plan in 1991 helped end a budget stalemate. She served from 1991 to 1995.

She was also a survivor of the Hartford Circus Fire in 1944.

Gov. Dannel Malloy released the following statement on her passing:

“Eunice Groark holds an important place in Connecticut history as a woman, a state leader, and an advocate who didn’t shy away from tough decisions and fought for what she believed in. She was a strong and talented leader, one who helped shape Connecticut and set the foundation for work we are doing today to support our cities, invest in infrastructure, and forge stronger partnerships with business and industry. We are fortunate to have had her leadership and her vision. On behalf of the entire State of Connecticut, we send our deepest condolences to her friends, family, and colleagues.”

What she thought was the end of an evening walk with her husband down Route 202 in New Hartford turned out to be a dog owner’s nightmare.

“The other two dogs were acting crazy, I knew something was up,” Debi Garfield said.

Garfield said she saw a big bear and two cubs in the woods just before her dog Roxy took off.

“We were screaming for her to stop to not run and she didn't listen and she ran down there,” Garfield said.

At first Garfield thought her lab rescue Roxy steered clear of the black bear and her cubs that came through her backyard Monday night.

“When she came back I noticed on her back she was wet but my husband was like don't you remember she was rolling in the grass,” Garfield said.

She later realized Roxy was in the thick of it.

“I went to touch her and she yelled then we looked at her side she must have been licking herself because it was just all blood,” Garfield said.

Garfield rushed Roxy to the veterinarian the next morning for emergency surgery.

“They determined that she was actually bit and I think that she might've even been picked up in the bear's mouth because they are that deep,” Garfield said.

Roxy is currently rocking tubs, stitches, and a cone around her head, but she is expected to recover.

DEEP said black bears are very common in New Hartford. There were 115 sightings reported in the town within the last year.

“This bear we might not see it today but it will be back,” Garfield said.

Garfield said Roxy’s brush with the bear was enough.

“She’s a good dog, I think she’s learned her lesson,” Garfield said.

DEEP said they haven’t gotten another report of the bear in the area but at the appropriate time they will set a trap for the bear and then relocate it.

As for Roxy, she’ll get her tubes out on Monday and eventually her stitches out too.

Enders Falls’ reputation as one of New England’s must-see waterfalls flows just as fast online as the water that runs through it.

“It's the number one place to see in Connecticut according to another magazine article that came out,” Chief John Horr with the Lost Acres Fire Department said.

But with the beauty at Enders State Forest in Granby, Horr said can come danger beyond bumps and bruises.

“Compound fracture of the leg, head injuries are very common here because of the fall. You're hitting rocks on your way down,” Horr said.

Horr said in the last 15 years rescuers have gotten 28 calls out to the area. He said at least half or more of those calls have been since 2011 alone.

“We just finished our training out here last week because we know the spring time is when people like to come out here,” Horr said.

In 2013, a 15-year-old girl died after falling 15-20 feet at Enders.

Tuesday night the Lost Acres, East Hartland and Barkhamstead East Fire Departments responded to the first fall of the year. An 18-year-old girl was knocked unconscious after falling 20 feet near a waterfall.

“The procedure was different, we had to improvise with the equipment in the position that she was in,” Horr said.

NBC Connecticut captured first-responders practicing rescue operations last June. Horr said the team made eight rescues last year. Half of the victims had to flown to the hospital by LifeStar, and each rescue took 45 minutes to an hour to complete.

“We just stuck our feet into the water,” Alicia Talbot said.

Talbot brought her son to the park Wednesday. While the falls are refreshing she knows they can take a turn for the worse.

“There's signs posted everywhere cliffs slippery rocks,” Talbot said.

“Come and enjoy nature, but nature needs to be respected,” Horr said.

Four people have been taken to the hospital after a crash on South Main Street in East Windsor Wednesday afternoon. 

Police said a motorcycle and two cars were involved in the crash. 

Anyone who witnessed this crash should call Officer Simoes at 860-292-8240.

A Thomaston man who was onboard a Delta flight helped fellow passengers evacuate the plane as smoke filled the cabin soon after landing at Denver International Airport on Tuesday.

“It took a minute but shortly thereafter panic started to ensue, people started yelling,” said Jay Compton, of Thomaston.

Cellphone video captured Compton and others standing at the end of an emergency slide helping passengers off the slide and onto the tarmac.

“What people don’t realize is when you hit that slide, you go down really fast, because you’re maybe 10, 12 feet in the air,” said Compton.

Compton had left Connecticut and was headed to Denver for work.

While on a layover in Detroit, he said he and other Denver-bound passengers were taken off one plane because it had mechanical issues.

But it appears the second plane had its own problems soon after touching down in Denver.

As flight 1854 taxied to the gate, the 146 passengers realized something was wrong.

“Smoke started to come out at a fairly rapid rate from somewhere in the overhead vents,” said Compton.

On cellphone video, the flight crew can be heard instructing passengers to take cover: “Ladies and gentlemen please lower yourself, get as low as you can.”

After an evacuation was ordered, people exited over the wing or jumped out using the plane’s emergency slides.

Compton was one of the first to leave and said he was happy to help others off the MD-80 aircraft.

While he’s glad the smoke didn’t appear mid-air, the experience does not change his mind about flying again.

“It’s a bucket list item that most people don’t realize you sort of have until it happens. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again,” said Compton.

One person was taken to a hospital and there’s no word on their condition.

A Delta spokeswoman said the smoke was caused by a small amount of hydraulic fluid that dripped onto a hot power unit and investigators did not find any fire on board the plane.

The most challenging cities to live with spring allergies are mostly located in the northwest and southwest of the country, NBC News reported.

The finding comes in a recently study by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, which also says climate change is to blame for this year’s more intense pollen counts.

Among the study's rankings of the 18 most challenging cities to live with spring allergies are Louisville, Kentucky; Providence, Rhode Island; Springfield, Massachusetts, and Richmond, Virginia. McAllen, Texas, is ranked as the most challenging city, while Youngstown, Ohio, is the least challenging. 

According to researchers, this year’s intensified allergy season may be the result of warmer, wetter winters.

The search is one for two brazen thieves who burglarized a New Haven shop by crawling through the wall.

Burglars hit the Kats Kidz Boutique on Whalley Avenue twice within a week. In both instances, the perpetrator cut a hole through the wall to access the store.

Manager Bobby Bloodworth Jr. said by creating their own entrance, the thieves are avoiding setting off the alarm. Surveillance footage shows the thief crawling into the store through the freshly cut hole around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, Bloodworth said. The store was also hit on May 4.

“They took jeans, a stack of jeans, a couple of sweat suits and some shirts,” Bloodworth said.

Bloodworth manages the store, which is owned by his brother. Both were upset over the loss of more than $2,000 in goods, but they’re especially shocked by that the thieves got in by tearing whole in the wall.

“We have apartments upstairs. This door right here is the door for the hall when you go upstairs,” Bloodworth said. “Came in and pulled up the footage and seen the guy roaming through the store, ducking down, taking clothes and coming back to the hole.”

Bloodworth said the second thief was wearing clothes taken from the store during the first burglary Friday morning – a red, white and blue jacket.

“You’re going to steal or what they call boosting and wear the stuff that you stole back to another crime scene where you got it from? That’s real dumb,” he said.

New Haven police are reviewing the security footage to try to track down the thieves, who the brothers think may be working together.

The two holes - one next to the other - have been covered. The building’s owner said they’re planning to improve security to prevent future thefts.

The police investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information on either burglary should contact New Haven police.

One person has died after a crash on Farnam Drive, near East Rock Park, in New Haven Thursday morning.

Police have the area blocked and they hope to reopen the park now that the vehicle has been towed from the scene. 

No additional information was immediately available.

Check back for updates.

A jailhouse letter from Aaron Hernandez detailing concerns about his dental problems is up for sale on eBay.

In the letter, which the seller Rare Memorabilia Madness said is two pages of writing on the front and back, the fallen New England Patriots star reveals his concerns about his dental health.

"One side of [my] bridge came off but I put it back in place but its [sic] painful and I barely could eat!" he wrote. "I have to put everything in pieces into the back of my mouth."

The letter, listed for $7,500 on eBay, was written and sent by the fallen New England Patriots star in March 2016.

Hernandez was arrested in June 2013 for the murder of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee. He was found guilty in Lloyd's death in April 2015; however, his conviction was thrown out due to the pending appeal after he was found dead in his cell days after being found not guilty in a 2012 double homicide case in Boston in April 2017.

One Hartford city councilor is proposing a ban on vaping in public and raising the age limit to buy the devices.

There are quite a few shops in the city that sell vaping products and e-cigarettes. Currently, you can buy the devices if you’re 18 or older, but if a proposal by Hartford City Councilman Larry Deutsch goes through, buyers would have to be at least 21, and avoid using the products in public in the capital city.

“I don't think they should raise the age limit. I think the age they have now is good,” said 19-year-old Qasian Banks.

Banks said he started vaping last year, but if the proposed ordinance goes through, he’ll be too young to purchase the product in Hartford.

Deutsch said his proposal to up the age and the public ban is based on recent studies.

“Same reason you ban cigarettes. It's a health hazard,” he said.

A study published in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics reports that e-cigarette vapor may be less hazardous than tobacco smoke, but that “e-cigarettes contain additives and solvents, including propylene glycol and/or glycerol, which can form carcinogenic compounds when heated. These and other toxic chemicals may be inhaled through the vapor produced.”

Deutsch said what’s most important is to raise awareness and get people talking about it.

“This is the city all we can do is try to protect the health of people in the city,” he said.

At the Songbirds Vape and Smoke shop in West Hartford, manager Alex Keenan uses an e-cigarette to quit smoking traditional cigarettes, and said at least half his customers have the same motivation.

“I was smoking since I was 13, and I just bought this six months ago. And I haven't bought a pack of cigarettes since,” he said.

He said while he thinks upping the buying age to 21 is a good idea, he is opposed to the idea of a public ban.

“Maybe in a confined area like a restaurant or something like that but a big park or something, I don't see a problem with that. That seems silly,” he said.

Dramatic video showed armed immigration agents storming a National City, California, home with a riot shield marked "police" as they arrested a father of seven wanted on a federal warrant.

Brianna Alonso said ICE officers surrounded their home at 43rd and Delta streets with guns in hand Tuesday. They used microphones to order 31-year-old Alberto Alonso Hernández to come outside. 

Alonso refused to let the federal agents inside of the family’s home until they showed her a warrant. 

She said the agents stayed in front of the home for three hours when Hernandez refused to come out and at one point disconnected their electricity. 

Then they began to force their way inside, she said. 

In the video given exclusively to Telemundo 20, you can hear Alonso on the phone with a legal assistance hotline saying in English that there are five children in the home.

The video shows Alonso repeatedly asking the ICE officers to show her the paperwork or the warrant.

At one point, one of the agents tells Alonso, "You’ve been watching too much movies."

As officers work to open a metal door with a crowbar, he says, "We will show you the order once we finish."

Parts of the incident were recorded by Hernandez's 11-year-old daughter who was inside the house, as well as neighbors filming from outside.

Officials say the suspect had several deportations and had faced charges of domestic violence.

NBC 7 reached out a spokesperson for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The station was told agents had an arrest warrant from a federal judge, and the man had previous charges for domestic violence and was previously deported.

ICE said the agents in Tuesday's raid followed the agency's training protocols.

ICE told Telemundo 20 that this was a complicated situation and the intervention of the neighbors complicated the operation.

The ACLU of Southern California has published a guide for anyone who is confronted by immigration agents at the door. The guide advises residents not to open the door, and to ask to see a warrant. 

You can read the guidelines on the ACLU Southern California website or on the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties website.

Gymnasts who say they were molested by doctor Larry Nassar are calling for an investigation from Texas' attorney general into legendary Olympic coaches Martha and Bela Karolyi, NBC News reported.

The Karolyis have denied knowing about Nassar's conduct — he penetrated young patients with ungloved hands during supposed medical treatments — before the 2016 Summer Olympics.

But gymnasts who plan to hold a news conference outside Attorney General Ken Paxton's office Thursday point to a videotaped deposition of Martha Karolyi as an indication she may have known about the abuse earlier, before he was revealed as a predator.

"I don't understand why the Texas attorney general wouldn't do a thorough investigation," 2000 Olympian Jamie Dantzcher said. "Is this not a serious issue?"

Police are investigating several car burglaries in Old Saybrook and they are urging any residents whose cars might have been targeted not to touch their vehicles. 

The burglaries were in the area of George Drive and Old Colony Road and police said the driver of a vehicle that was stolen from Ansonia led police on a pursuit around 3:25 a.m. from George Drive to Spencer Plains Road. 

After trying to ram an Old Saybrook Police vehicle, then ramming a Connecticut State Police vehicle, the person ran off, according to police. 

Police took a West Haven resident into custody and another person remains at large. 

No one was injured and police said they are recovering many of the items stolen from vehicles.

Anyone who thinks the burglars stole from their vehicle is urged not to touch it and to call police right away at 860-395-3142.

There is some drizzle this morning and there are chances for rain showers this afternoon, but the NBC Connecticut meteorologists say the threat of showers or thundershowers will be higher this evening. 

NBC Connecticut meteorologist Bob Maxon said the threat is from around 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. 

Skies will be clear Friday, with high temperatures in the upper 60s.

Years of data from immigration courts around the United States and compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University show that whether or not a person seeking asylum is granted that request depends more on where they live and appear before an immigration court judge than it does on the facts of the case.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit closely tracked the asylum results at every U.S. immigration court over the past three years and found a wide variation in the number of asylum approvals depending upon the court; in some instances the rate varies as much as 75 percentage points.

From 2016 through the first part of 2018, immigration courts in Los Angeles and San Francisco consistently ranked in the nation’s top 15 courts when it comes to the number of asylum requests granted. Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, New York and Boston were also in the top 15 each year. Court data show each of those courts grants asylum requests more than 50 percent of the time. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, U.S. immigration courts that are vastly less likely to approve asylum petitions include Atlanta, Lumpkin, Georgia, Charlotte, Dallas and Houston. In some of those courts, asylum is granted around 20 percent of the time. In other jurisdictions, like the court in Lumpkin, judges grant asylum only 10 percent of the time.

This disparity has led many observers—from academic researchers, to judges, to the very lawyers appearing before the immigration court judges—to worry that political beliefs could be getting in the way of justice in America’s immigration courts.

“There's something going on that is very, very troubling,” said Karen Musalo, director at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the UC Hastings School of Law in San Francisco. Musalo spent years studying these inconsistencies in asylum outcomes. 

“I think there are a number of factors that contribute to these disparities. They have to do with both the selection process for the individual judges and what their backgrounds are and whether or not they're qualified (to serve as judges),” Musalo said.

“It has to do with a politicization of the selection process. It has to do with a lack of independence of these immigration judges,” she added.

U.S. Immigration Court judges are not part of the independent judiciary but, rather, are appointed and work for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which is an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Congress’s own Government Accountability Office twice issued reports—in 2008 and 2016—that point out a “signification variation” in asylum cases. In its reports, the GAO called on Congress to fix the problem.

But so far, nothing has happened.

The gap in asylum outcomes can take a human toll. Take, for instance, the stories of Maria and Mariel, whose names have been changed to protect their privacy.

Both women fled Honduras after being repeatedly sexually assaulted since they were children.

“I’m afraid,” Maria said. “I was raped at the age of 8.” 

Maria says the sexual assaults continued into her adulthood, including by a police officer who became the father of her child.

Maria fled Honduras for the United States seven years ago.

Mariel’s name and age may be different, but her story is eerily similar to Maria’s. She also fled Honduras to escape a lifetime of sexual assault that started when she was a child.

She came to the United States seeking refuge from a physically and sexually abusive relationship back home. Mariel says the man she was in a relationship with drank a lot and was aggressive.

“I’m afraid of him,” she said. “Psychologically, he had me. I do not know how to say it.  He made me do what he wanted. He made me have sex with him when he wanted to. It was a nightmare. It could not be me. I did not have life.”

Mariel says she fled to the U.S. out of fear for her life, but she was forced to leave her young child behind. Mariel hasn’t seen her child in 18 years.

Though they endured similar horrors and fled the same country seeking protection, the women ended up in different locations once they arrived in the U.S.

Mariel came to the San Francisco Bay Area, where her request for asylum was granted by a U.S. immigration court judge.

Maria fled to Atlanta, where her request for asylum was denied. Her lawyers have appealed her case to higher U.S. immigration courts.

“It's a rough place to practice immigration law,” said Sarah Owings, one of Maria’s immigration attorneys in Atlanta.

“The bench can be a lot more hostile," she said. “The government is really interested in winning every case every time as opposed to sometimes, I think, doling out the most fair and correct administration of benefits.” 

Hannah MacNorlin is another one of Maria’s attorneys. She says anti-immigrant sentiment in Atlanta plays a pivotal role in asylum outcomes there.

“The law is consistent across the country. It's the way it's being applied,” MacNorlin said. “It's the judges not following the law. It's the judges feeling like they can decide that they don't like this kind of asylum case, and so they're going to decide that the law doesn't apply.”

Paul Wickham Schmidt, a retired U.S. immigration judge, says the nation’s immigration court disparity is so wide that it can be explained only by personal bias creeping into judges’ decisions.

“If I were an immigrant, I'd rather be in California than in Atlanta, Georgia, any day,” he said. “Clearly, the attitudes of the judges and how they feel about asylum law has quite a bit to do with it,” Schmidt added.

The EOIR, the agency in charge of the immigration courts, declined NBC Bay Area's request for an interview on the subject. Kathryn Mattingly, an EOIR spokesperson, emailed a statement:

“Regarding your reference to TRAC data, please note that we do not comment on third-party analysis of EOIR data because the method another party may use to analyze the raw data may be different from the analytical techniques EOIR uses. When looking at this issue, it is important to note that each asylum case is unique, with its own set of facts, evidentiary factors, and circumstances. Asylum cases typically include complex legal and factual issues and EOIR immigration judges and Board of Immigration Appeals members review each one on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration every factor allowable by law. It is also important to note that immigration courts in detained facilities typically have lower asylum grant rates because detained aliens with criminal convictions are not eligible for many forms of relief from removal. That all said, EOIR takes seriously any claims of unjustified and significant anomalies in immigration judge decision-making and takes steps to evaluate disparities in immigration adjudications. In addition, EOIR monitors immigration judge performance through an official performance work plan and evaluation process, as well as daily supervision of the courts by assistant chief immigration judges.”

“Sometimes it seems like people don’t care about it,” she said. “We are human beings. We all deserve to live.”

Meanwhile, Maria and her attorneys are hoping an appellate court will see her case in a different light and render a different decision. Maria says she remains hopeful her daughter will still get a shot at a life in the United States.

“I came to this country to get away, because I thought that here they could do something for me,” Maria said. “[I want] to stay here with my daughter. I do not want the same things to happen to her that happened to me.”

West Hartford Police are asking people to avoid the intersection of Interstate 84 and Park Road because of a water main break.

Police said there is no estimate on when the area will be clear.

From the start of 2016 through April 2018, there were 679 homicides in Philadelphia. Many of them only received attention through short mentions on the evening news or briefs in the local papers. 

One of those slain was Trina Singleton’s son, Darryl. He was killed outside of his grandmother’s home in Southwest Philadelphia just one day before his 25th birthday.

“From sunup to sundown on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016, shootings were happening all over Philadelphia,” Singleton said. “Darryl was, ‘Man, 24, Shot.’ No suspects or motive or follow-up story.”

Darryl’s death was a brief in the newspaper, part of a roundup of 10 separate shootings that day, she said.

No one yet has been charged with his murder. A change of detectives on the case hasn't helped solve the crime, Trina Singleton said.

But Darryl's case and dozens of others are now receiving much-needed awareness.

A website called the Philadelphia Obituary Project is dedicated to shedding light on slayings that previously received little coverage. Attorney Cletus Lyman, along with Albert Stumm, a former editor at the Philadelphia Daily News, and two reporters created the site as a digital memorial.

More than 430 obituaries have been created for the website since its creation in 2016. Obituaries on the site can be sorted by the year and month each respective victim was killed. 

All obituaries are also featured on a homicide map that shows exactly where each victim was when he or she died. 

Annie Coulter lost her daughter, Caitlin Jaje, when someone killed the young woman and her boyfriend inside their South Philadelphia home in August 2017. She said though the 23-year-old had struggled with a drug problem in her youth, Caitlin was working to become a peer counselor.

“She wanted to help other [people] through the situation she had been through,” Coulter said.

When Caitlin was murdered, there were three brief stories that mentioned her. Only one included her full name.

“The first story just had, ‘Girl, 23, murdered,’ Coulter said. “Then it moved forward to a Cait with no last name. Then, the third story finally had her last name and that was it. After the first 48 hours, there was nothing else.”

People have a tendency to only pay attention to the details of how someone died and what they were doing before they were killed, Stumm said.

“We’re not in the position to judge people,” Stumm said, noting that the project highlights the person's life rather than the circumstances of their death.

Since its launch in June 2016, the Philadelphia Obituary Project has given many families of homicide victims the chance to provide a legacy for those killed.

Lyman said the idea came to him when he realized how many people have been affected by homicide in the city. He has funded the project.

"When I was growing up, everybody seemed to get an obituary," Lyman said. "Now, it seems kind of disrespectful that so many people go unnoticed."

"In the beginning, people were skeptical because it’s a different kind of story," he added.

The obituaries are investigated and written by reporters Taylor Farnsworth and Jen Lawson. According to Stumm, each reporter receives a list of homicides from the city’s police department every month for potential story leads. They also scour for information from Philadelphia’s major news outlets. He said they have also been developing their own contacts within the community.

"By telling these stories, we are telling the life of these people, not just their names," Stumm said. "And maybe it will make someone think twice about pulling the trigger."

The Connecticut Board of Regents was taken to task Thursday by members of its own faculty and former board members. At issue was a controversial plan to consolidate the community college system. 

One professor gave Mark Ojakian, the president of the Connecticut State Universities and College System, an “F.” and another told him not to bother coming to graduation.

Ojakian unveiled options to consolidate Connecticut’s community colleges after his first plan failed to receive the support of a regional accreditation group. 

The “Students First” plan was billed as a cost-savings measure. The idea would have kept all locations open and allowed students to enroll in classes on multiple campuses and combine credits towards one degree. It would have also combined back offices to save on administrative costs. 

However, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges called the plan “unrealistic.” 

A faculty group made up of university professors spoke out, saying a year after the plan was first unveiled they’re still waiting to be included in the process. 

“They might say that they’ve done that but they haven’t really. They’ve kind of gone through the motions and they are not going to get anything done until they have buy-in from the faculty,” the group’s president, Elena Tapia, said. 

Ojakian pointed out that many of those speaking out against the plan serve the universities and not the community colleges. Tapia said she and her colleagues believe any changes at one level will impact the entire system. 

“We have worked everybody on the community college campuses, whether they agree or not, to get to a point of having a more complete discussion, of having a path, because doing nothing is not an option,” said Ojakian. 

A group representing the community college students threw their support toward Ojakian and the Student First Plan during the Thursday meeting. 

Despite some calling it a failure, Ojakian said he will continue to move forward with Student First. He said he doesn’t believe the details in the plan were rejected but rather the timeline and path to implement the changes need work. 

He admitted the path forward might take longer than expected. 

He said he plans to meet with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges again and present the board with a more detailed proposal in June. He said that he expects work over the next year on ways to implement it and that students will not see any changes this fall.

A bear was struck and killed on Interstate 84 in West Hartford Thursday afternoon. 

Crews from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said state police from Troop H notified them that a bear had been hit by a car and the Wildlife Division was responding. 

Officials from DEEP said around 40 to 50 bears are struck by vehicles in Connecticut each year.