One in five Americans would consider going electric for their next vehicle, according to a survey conducted by AAA.

It’s a five percent increase from 2017.

The survey shows range anxiety among consumers is starting to ease. Range anxiety refers to how long a vehicle can run on a single charge.

One factor is the expanding network of charging stations. There are more than 400 publicly accessible EV charging stations across Connecticut.

Newer electric vehicles are also designed to go further.

But the survey finds the main thing car buyers are looking for in an electric vehicle is reliability.

"You've got lower and lower pricing as the technology as the technology improves. And also, we know from AAA research that electric and hybrid vehicles are more cost-effective over the long run," said Amy Parmenter, who is the spokesperson for AAA of Greater Hartford.

Each year, AAA tests hybrid, plug-in and electric vehicles for ride quality, safety and performance.

AAA rated the Tesla Model X 75D the overall winner.

The Nissan Leaf SL was named Best Compact.

Kia’s Niro LX was the highest rated vehicle under $30,000.

Electric vehicle buyers may qualify for a federal tax credit up to $7,500.

And right now, Eversource customers are eligible for a $3,000 rebate off the MSRP of a Nissan Leaf. The offer is good through July 2, 2018.

With makeup carefully applied and smiles on every face in the room, you almost forget about all the medical equipment beeping away. It's not exactly how Newington High School senior Toni Laites thought she'd spend the hours before her senior prom. But it turned out it was even better than she imagined.

"I really had no hope at the beginning of the day. I thought my one special day was taken away from me," Laites said.

Last year doctors diagnosed her with Ulcerative Colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease. Just days before her prom, the Newington High School student suffered an excruciatingly painful flare up. After being admitted to Connecticut Children's Medical Center, she was told she couldn't go to prom. But knowing how much it meant to her, at the last minute, her doctor found a way.

"Everybody was in tears in the room. It was so moving," said Toni's mom Leslie Cassandra. "I can't believe people care this much and go this far to help someone."

"I can't thank them enough. The entire family is so excited to even have this opportunity. Honestly, I'm lost for words. I can't thank them enough for pulling it off. I'm still kind of shocked," said Toni's stepdad Thomas Ferreira.

The change in plans meant everyone needed to move fast. Laites' stepsister offered to do her makeup, and a staff member stepped up to do her hair. The dress Laites had picked out hung up nearby ready to go.

Laites will need to come back after prom to continue her treatments. Her mom calls it her Cinderella moment.

With the last touches complete, Laites posed next to the people who have already made her night unforgettable.

"Thank you all so much," Laites said. "I didn't expect any of this. It means the world to me."

An inspector for the state of Connecticut resigned from his position after an internal investigation by the Department of Administrative Services (DAS). DAS Documents obtained by the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters show the inspector had been using his state-issued laptop computer for viewing pornography, playing video games, gambling and shopping online during regular work hours.

The report was released by DAS, which provides human resources for the Office of the State Building Inspector. Because of redactions made to the documents, neither the employee in question or his specific employment role are being identified.

The report details what a forensic examination of the employee's laptop revealed, including "excessive use of the internet for non-state business." A review of computer use from Jan. 19, 2016 through Oct.19, 2016, showed the employee had accessed over 250 websites that did not have anything to do with his position. Those websites were said to include auctions, chat rooms, dating sites, employment searches, gambling, personal finance, interactive video games and shopping.

The examination of the laptop also showed several pornographic images and photographs of “women in lingerie”. The inspector was also found to have received nude photos from “various women” on Skype during work hours. The records show the employee was also playing World of Warships, an interactive online video game.

When confronted about the computer activity, the employee said he was “not proud of or denying” what he did, according to the report.

Employees at the Office of the State Building Inspector are responsible for many public health and safety functions, including making sure structures are up to fire, safety and building codes. Inspectors also oversee code compliance for elevators, escalators, boilers and hot water heaters around the state.

"We're the people who protect the public health and safety and make sure that these buildings are done correctly," said State Building Inspector Joseph Cassidy, who was not part of the investigation. "It takes a lot of focus. It takes some dedication because you're always the umpire. You're the one that's making the call," he said of the importance of an inspector's duties.

"Our best job is a job that nobody ever knows we were there because everything went right," said Cassidy.

DAS said they are unable to comment about the case because of an agreement with the union for the inspector, who resigned.

"You should not be visiting pornographic websites or games on your state-issued laptop," said Lon Seidman, a technology expert and former IT manager.

Seidman said that monitoring inappropriate online activity is difficult for any employer, but it needs to be done.

"This is not just about somebody wasting time on the state payroll," he said. "It's also about conducting risky activities that could put the state's security at risk."

Because of the inspector's repeated inappropriate access online, "a very large amount of spyware, malware and adware" was found on the system, according to the DAS report.

Seidman said malware and spyware can spread quickly through a computer network.

"Once you're behind that firewall, you have the ability to start causing a lot more problems," Seidman said. "This is why it's very difficult for IT managers to do their job in keeping everything secure when people are doing things they shouldn't be doing on these computers in the first place."

The DAS internal investigation found the employee violated the Acceptable Use of State Systems Policy. The employee agreed to resign, effective June 8, 2017, and to repay DAS for 13 work days totaling $2,238.50.

DAS said this sort of case is rare, but when it does happen, it is taken seriously.

At least one person is dead after a shooting near a high school Friday night in Georgia, according to officials.

The shots were fired in the parking lot of Mt. Zion High School, located just south of Atlanta, NBC Atlanta's 11Alive News reported. Authorities said the shooting happened after the high school's graduation ceremony.

Offcials told 11Alive that a woman in her 40s died after she was shot three times in the chest. She was taken to an area hospital but was later pronounced dead.

The Clayton County Fire Department said two other victims were transported to area hospitals with gunshot wounds.

Please check back for updates.

Members of Mothers United Against Violence gathered in front of Hartford’s public safety complex to thank police for their service and to offer support for the Hartford police officer stabbed in the line of duty Thursday.

“We just wanted to show that people here in Hartford do love and respect the police department and we are concerned about their safety,” said Rev. Henry Brown.

Officer Jill Kidik was critically injured Thursday when she was stabbed in the neck while responding to a landlord-tenant dispute in a luxury apartment building. She is currently recovering from life-altering injuries at Hartford Hospital.

“This young lady could have lost her life, and that's a scary thought,” Brown said.

Those she serves expressed their support for her through prayer and song.

Hartford Police Chief David Rosado said the public display of support is helping the department cope.

“This is a part of our healing process,” Rosado said. “You are holding us up today and with that I'm saying that I thank you. This means a lot to all of the members of the police department,” he added.

Police said Kidik opened her eyes Friday morning surrounded by friends and family, and is recovering.

In Beacon Falls, the clean up from Tuesday’s tornado is well underway. But one doesn’t have to look far to see clear signs of the power of the week’s weather and the destruction it caused.

At homes like Vera Woodward’s on Wolfe Avenue where countless downed trees and debris now cover her front yard, the cleanup effort is still underway three days after the storm.

“Before I knew it, TV went off. I looked out and the winds blowing and the rain and hail and then I saw nothing. It was like a sandstorm” Woodward said of the moments before the storm swept through her community.

Her house didn’t sustain any substantial damage. But a tree landed in her pool and another one collapsed the small house where she stores a beloved classic car.

“I could feel the house moving. We were fortunate. The house is in good order. We are, especially us together,” Woodward said.

In the community, debris from the storm still litters many streets and people are still shocked about the level of damage the fast-moving storm left behind.

“We started walking the neighborhood and we just couldn’t believe the damage that was around the neighborhood,” said Paul Bernier.

On Friday, two smashed cars could be seen outside of the home where Dan Griffin lives. There was no power and he used a generator to provide electricity to his home as well as a neighbor’s.

“We’re out of power. There’s a tree on top of our roof, inside our house,” he said. The storm also knocked off the house’s chimney and toppled a neighbor’s trampoline.

But despite all of that, Griffin is among the many here who are working together to get everything back to how it used to be.

“The whole neighborhood’s been helping each other. We all came together,” he said.

The United States has more than 160 active volcanoes, but experts say it's hard to tell whether any will erupt soon, like Kilauea did in Hawaii, NBC News reported. 

Among these volcanoes are Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens and Yellowstone. Kilauea is considered one of the most active volcanoes, as it has been erupting constantly since 1983. But as one expert pointed out, the time scale of eruption is long, and in some cases, that means centuries, or even thousands of years, can pass between eruptions for many volcanoes. 

"It's really difficult to predict, because those volcanoes are relatively quiet until they start to activate an eruption," said Ben Edwards, a volcanologist and professor of earth sciences at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

Crews responded to the scene of a fire in Colchester on Saturday morning.

According to Colchester Fire Department, the fire is at a house on Skylark Road.

The extent of the fire is unclear at this time.

This is a developing story.

Firefighters responded to a fire in Willington on Saturday afternoon.

According to the Willington Fire Marshal, the fire was in the 200 block of River Road, also known as Route 32.

The flames partially destroyed the building, firefighters say.

No injuries have been reported.

May 15th's storm provided the perfect opportunity to capture Mother Nature’s fury, thought one Meriden photographer. Instead, Hailey Wilson found herself hanging on for dear life as trees fell and debris swirled around her inside Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden.

Wilson was expecting a show in the sky when she climbed to the top of the tower trail to take pictures for her business, HIKED Productions. It is a hike she does three to four times a week.

“I thought there would be a lightning storm that I would be able to take cool pictures of from the top of the tower,” she recalled.

Instead, Hailey found herself in the middle of a microburst that hit the park with 100 mile per hour winds. She only shot a few photos before she was forced to take cover inside the top floor of the tower.

“It felt like survival for about 45 minutes,” said Wilson. “There were two gusts that were so loud and heavy and strong.”

Those winds changed the landscaped. Once familiar, the tower trail now felt like an obstacle course to Wilson.

To capture how she felt in the moment, Hailey recorded herself.

“That was by far the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done,” she said into her camera. “The trails look nothing like they did when I came up.”

“I felt kind of alone for a minute because I knew there was nobody to get up and save me,” Wilson reflected when we sat down with her on Saturday.

“Surrounded by splintered trees, as Wilson made her way down the trail she fully expected to find her car crushed in the parking lot.

“I’m ok and my car’s ok,” a stunned Wilson recorded herself saying. “Look at this. Look at this. Insanity. Look at the rest of the parking lot.”

Panning over the parking lot with her camera, Wilson captured what the state park looked like in the moments after the storm barreled down. Trees were snapped in half like toothpicks and the roofs were torn off the outhouses.

Making her way back home to Meriden proved as challenging as getting down the mountain. Dodging fallen power lines and trees Hailey says it took her three hours to get out of Hamden.

Wilson says she watched the weather before she headed out on her hike. She felt more confident about her decision when she saw other hikers on the same trail. However, the ordeal has taught the 24-year-old a valuable lesson: don’t mess with Mother Nature.

“I’ve realized the dangers of the storm and how terrifying, and how scary, and real it can get in a matter of seconds,” Wilson said.

To see more of Hailey's photos, visit her Facebook page.

Ned Lamont continued a trend of political redemption for longtime statewide candidates during the convention season and locked up the party’s endorsement for governor during an anti-climactic single ballot.

Lamont said it was a good feeling to be on the stage as the endorsed candidate for the first time.

“I’ve been here on the floor not winning as you know,” Lamont said. “And it just meant a lot, standing there with the support of a lot of people who took a while to support me and I’m going to earn their support every day as their governor.”

Over the past month, state Democratic political forces have been aligning for Lamont. First Attorney General George Jepsen provided his endorsement, and later New Haven Mayor Toni Harp as other candidates dropped out of the race.

Lamont and many other Democrats would prefer to see an uncontested primary, allowing the Democrats to unite around one candidate from late May through November, as Republicans fight for their nomination amongst possibly seven candidates.

Bridgeport Joe Ganim thinks the opposite. Ganim did not emerge with the 15 percent needed to secure a spot on the August primary ballot, and already started the process to petition his way on to the ballot through collecting the signatures of registered Democrats.

Ganim says he wants to see the Democratic process play itself out through a contested primary.

“The campaign starts today, if you will. We’ve laid the foundation. I think I’ve made a lot of new friends around the state, here.”

Numerous Democratic delegates said privately they are worried about what kind of message the party would have sent if they provided enough support to Ganim to send a convicted felon to the August primary. Ganim took on the issue head on, talking about how he has learned his lessons and served his time as he’s worked to put Bridgeport back on its feet for the second time.

Democrats will have a hotly contested election for Lieutenant Governor, as both Susan Bysiewicz and Eva Bermudez Zimmerman qualified for the primary. Bysiewicz secured the endorsement, running as Lamont’s preference for the office. She beat back a strong late charge from Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, a thirty year old former union organizer and member of the Newtown Legislative Council.

Bermudez Zimmerman entered the race following a backlash of some black and Latino Democratic party leaders who expected to see a person of color alongside Lamont.

Bermudez Zimmerman could make history as the first ever Latino nominated for statewide office in Connecticut, and is running on a platform of economic equality, but even she couldn’t escape discussing the issue of race as the driving force for her candidacy.

She said, “To have a nomination of a majority white ticket is not a positive step forward.”

A pedestrian has died after being hit by a car on a highway in Hamden on Friday night.

Officers were called shortly before 11:30 p.m. to Route 15 southbound for a report of a pedestrian walking in the right shoulder near Exit 61 in Hamden, Connecticut State Police say.

While en route, Troopers say they learned the pedestrian, later identified as 50-year-old Mark Bernardi of New Haven, had been hit by a passing car.

When they arrived, officers found the Bernardi in the median and the vehicle in the right shoulder.

According to police, Bernardi suffered fatal injuries in the accident and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Connecticut State Police are investigating the accident. Any witnesses are asked to contact Trooper Leary at (203) 393-4200.

Connecicut State Police are investigating after a body was found in Colchester late Friday night.

Troopers say they responded to 95 Stanavage Road shortly before midnight for reports of an untimely death.

Connecticut State Police Detectives responded to assist with the investigation.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is expected to determine the cause of death and the person's identity.

There is no threat to the public, according to police.

When Gayatri Kaimal, a seventh-grader from Tucson, Arizona, competes in the National Geographic Bee finals this weekend, she’ll be one of the only four girls on stage, NBC News reported.

Fifty-four geography-loving fourth-to-eighth-graders have earned a spot in the televised, rapid-fire contest — winners of local competitions from each U.S. state and territory — but just four of them are girls. The gender gap has persisted since the competition started in 1989; of the 29 winners, only two have been girls.

Gayatri, 13, beat 100 other children to win this year’s Arizona Geographic Bee. She said she feels extra pressure to perform this weekend as one of the few girls to make it this far in the competition, adding, “I wish there was a little bit more representation for both genders."

The National Geographic Bee championship kicks off Sunday, with the final round crowning a new champion on Thursday.

Many people are still dealing with the damage left by Mother Nature on May 15th, but farmers will be feeling the effects for a long time to come. The storm didn’t just damage their property, it may have ruined their livelihood.

“That had all the apple blossoms on and the hail has taken all of them out. There’s nothing there. There’s just nothing there,” said Allen Clark, owner of Clark Farms at Bushy Hill Orchard.

Surveying the damage to their 76 acre orchard in Granby, it’s quickly apparent to the Clark Family that the fruits of their labor may not be realized this season.

“It’s heartbreaking. Everything was perfect conditions,” Allen’s wife Becky recalled of the morning before the storm hit. “Within five hours it’s gone.”

The Clarks said 50-mile-per-hour winds whipped golf-ball sized hail down at their crop.

“Just picture a rock, that you’re just throwing rocks at things anything like that is just going to get damaged,” explained Allen.

The Clarks said that hail wiped out most of the blossoms on their apple trees and without blossoms, the apples can’t grow.

“There will not be a second blossom to come to give us any more apples so whatever we have left is what we have, like 25%, and we don’t know the quality of those apples,” said Allen.

It’s not just the apples said the farm’s manager, Earl Swaby.

“The peach, the blueberry, they’re all gone,” said Swaby.

Swaby has worked at the farm for more than 25-years and said this is the worst devastation he’s ever seen to the crops.

He said the best case scenario is that the crops bounce back next season. The Clarks are worried about the worst case.

“If the trees die we’re left with nothing. We right now we are just hoping in the next few days that these trees are going to survive,” said Becky.

Allen said the trees were planted 30 years ago and would take at least five to start producing fruit if they had to be replanted.

The storm also broke windows, pierced siding, and damaged their tractor. Those will all be repaired or replaced by insurance.

“You can’t repair a tree,” Becky pointed out. “That’s where the worry lies right now and there’s nothing anybody can do.”

Right now, it’s wait and see for the Clarks, and what they see they really don’t like. They’ll know whether they’ll be able to salvage any of the fruit in a month. However, they say the bigger battle will be fighting to keep the trees alive for the next several years.

A man from Litchfield is under arrest after police say he threatened people on Friday.

Shortly after 5:30 p.m., Troopers say they received a complaint that 28-year-old Robert Fisher was threatening people at an apartment that he lives in on Andre Drive in Litchfield.

Officers also say they learned Fisher was in possession of multiple weapons.

When officers tried to arrest him, they say he initially did not comply. The State Police Tactical team was later able to arrest Fisher without incident, State Police say.

According to an arrest report, Fisher is facing threatening, reckless endangerment and breach of peace charges.

He is being held on $100,000 bond and is scheduled to be in court in Torrington on Monday.

New Britain Police are investigating a hit and run crash that killed a pedestrian on Saturday afternoon.

Officers say they arrived to the area of 250 Allen Street around 4:00 p.m. after a report of a serious crash involving an evading vehicle and a pedestrian.

When they arrived, they say they learned a 64-year-old New Britain man suffered serious, life-threatening injuries. He was transported to the hospital, where he later died, police say. The man's identity has not been released.

Police are describing the evading vehicle as a light-colored, four-door sedan with possible front end and windshield damage. They say it left the scene heading west on Allen Street.

Anyone who may have witnessed the crash or who may have information is asked to call Sergeant Steven King at (860) 826-3071.

A New Jersey police officer saved a fawn by performing an emergency C-section after the baby deer’s mother was hit by a car.

Animal control officer Robert Lagonera was called to the scene of a doe that had just been hit by a vehicle around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, the Washington Township Police Department said in a Facebook post.

The doe passed away, but still had a moving fawn inside of her, Lagonera said.

“Washington Township police Officer Vernon took the initiative and performed an emergency C-section on the deceased doe saving one of the two fawn inside,” wrote on the department’s page. “I arrived and took it home to dry it off and get it warm while rubbing its chest to help the underdeveloped lungs work.”

Photos posted on the department’s page show the newborn fawn wrapped in a blanket.

While he was attending to the fawn, Lagonera learned that a horse was on the loose not far away, he wrote. The two officers managed to coax it back into its paddock before they shifted their attention back to the fawn.

“Now I’m running around getting the premature fawn the care it needs,” he wrote. “No amount of coffee is too much today lol.”

A multi-vehicle crash has closed part of Route 15 in Trumbull on Sunday afternoon.

The accident has closed the on-ramp to the northbound side of Route 15 at exit 48, according to Connecticut State Police.

Approximately five vehicles were involved in the accident that happened around 2:10 p.m. Minor and non life-threatening injuries have been reported, police say, but it is unclear exactly how many people are injured.