South Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Sanford, who lost his primary race this week hours after a last-minute Twitter broadside from President Donald Trump, warned his fellow GOPers on Thursday that the "question of allegiance" to Trump could damage the GOP.

Sanford on Tuesday night lost to South Carolina state Rep. Katie Arrington, a political newcomer who spent much of the campaign blasting Sanford — who had never lost an election — over his lack of loyalty to Trump.

"We swear an allegiance to the Constitution and we pledge allegiance to the flag and what was weird about this race that I've never experienced before in any race I've been a part of was an allegiance question where people say are you for or against the president," Sanford told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana is bringing the famous taste of Pepe's pizza to your home by launching a retail tomato line.

“We’ve always taken the time to find delicious ingredients and we take pride in knowing our customers are able to experience Pepe’s in the palm of their hands," said Gary Bimonte, grandson of Frank Pepe, in a statement.

Pepe's is known for it's New Haven-style pizza, and puts a lot of effort into selecting the tomatoes used for its famous pies. Their classic taste can now be brought home to recreate your own Pepe's styled pizza.

Sold in 28-ounce cans, Frank Pepe's "Genuine Italian Tomatoes" are priced at $3.50 per can and are available for purchase at all Pepe's restaurants. Three-packs of the cans are available for $10 on their website.

These tomatoes are hand selected by Frank Pepe's family members. 

Once a year, the grandsons of Frank Pepe come together for a blind taste test of freshly-harvested tomatoes that come from their family's hometown of Naples, Italy. They sample the tomatoes looking for the one with the best taste, density, texture, and flavor once they're cooked.

Once they pick the best one, it's used for their pizzas. 

"Our guests come from all over the world to experience the genuine taste and quality of Pepe’s pizza," said Bimonte."We’re thrilled to bring a special Pepe’s tradition to homes across the country."

State police are looking for a woman who threatened to shoot an 81-year-old woman, struggled with her and stole her purse.

Police said they responded to the parking lot of the Bank of America on Main Street in Killingly just after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday after receiving 911 calls and the 81-year-old woman told them said she had been at the Big Y in Killingly when another woman approached her and asked for a ride to Reynold Street in Danielson.

The victim agreed to give the woman a ride and drove her to the Bank of America parking lot. When they arrived, the woman demanded the victim’s purse and threatened to shoot her with the gun she had if the elderly woman did not hand the bag over, according to police.

The victim said she said no, screamed for help and the woman struggled with her, took the purse and fled, police said.

The assailant is described as heavyset, in her 20s or 30s, around 5-feet-5 and has strawberry blonde hair that was tied back. She was wearing eyeglasses and a hot pink shirt and she was carrying a cell phone.

A fraternity at Quinnipiac University has been suspended for two years after an investigation.

The chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon's suspension is effective immediately. 

“The university has suspended the chapter of the fraternity in question for two years following a thorough investigation regarding actions that occurred during the Spring 2018 semester,” a statement from Quinnipiac University said.

The university has not released the actions that caused the suspension. 

Interstate 91 South in New Haven was congested Thursday morning after a crash and the backup was around five miles.

State police said a tractor-trailer and two cars were involved in the crash between exits 8 and 7 and two center lanes were closed. The scene has cleared. 

No information was immediately available on injuries.

The town of Ledyard is considering whether to allow residents to post homes on Airbnb and other short-term rental sites and that issue will go before a local board tonight.

While town officials know renting out homes is nothing new, they’ve recently received complaints regarding short-term rentals. As it stands, town zoning regulations do not address short-term rentals. The current interpretation is that anything not listed or otherwise permitted is illegal.

Joseph Larkin, a zoning official, distributed four letters last month, asking residents to volunteer to stop renting their properties on sites like Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway. The notices said homeowners had 30 days to comply or they could face a cease and desist and/or a citation carrying fines up to $150 per day. But for now, the situation is in a holding pattern until the town looks into what to do next.

In a statement to NBC Connecticut, Liz Burdick, Ledyard’s director of land use and planning, said in part, “This has prompted the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Mayor’s office to seek a common sense approach to short term rentals and ways to address them either by way of the Ledyard Zoning Regulations or by a Town Ordinance.”

Burdick researched how other towns and cities across the state and country handle short-term rentals and said ideas brought to the Planning and Zoning Commission Thursday will include letting the community self-regulate short-term rentals, writing simple zoning regulations or writing a town ordinance.

Jon Day, a resident, went to Ledyard’s mayor and other town officials to open the dialogue about short-term rentals in town.

He has rented out his home before and while he wasn’t one of the property owners who received a letter, he took his property offline for the time being.

Day and many other owners of short-term rentals came up with ordinances that he plans to present to Ledyard officials.

“It’s really common sense stuff. It’s stuff like noise ordinances, parking ordinances—basically setting out basic expectations of how people should behave,” Day said.

Elena Lockett said she’s rented her Ledyard home through Airbnb and HomeAway without issue.

“At 300 - 400 dollars per night, the guests that I host are professionals and most have young families. The town needs a way to bring in revenue. I pay nearly $9,000 per year in taxes and renting short term is a great way to offset that outrageous bill twice a year,” Lockett wrote in an email to NBC Connecticut.

She mentioned the town potentially compromising by asking owners to register or get a permit if they plan to rent for the short-term so officials could monitor how many rentals are on the market and have a contact if there is an issue with a particular home.

Some people who rent told NBC Connecticut that they have a vetting process for who stays at their homes, renting gives them additional income, people spend money in the area and it helps ensure houses are kept up in town.

Jeanne Hollister lives on Long Pond Road South and is one of the people who wrote to the town about multiple rentals on her street

“It’s becoming a nuisance. We’ve got cars going up and down the road much faster than our speed limit, we have strangers stopping at different homes looking for the one they’re looking for at 10, 11 o’clock at night,” Hollister said.

She said she and her husband have been bothered by the noise and have concerns about the septic system.

Day said they take all those concerns seriously and it’s a policing matter too.

The town will take up the issue at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting at 7 p.m.

The Otis Library in Norwich is one of the latest public buildings in Connecticut to carry a dose of Narcan, the life-saving antidote to an opioid overdose, and they have already had to use it. 

Bob Farwell, the library’s executive director, said he made the decision to carry Narcan about a month ago, not knowing he would have to use it so soon. 

“I don’t think it’s any secret that southeastern Connecticut has had a challenging time with opioid overdoses. There have been a number of those in Norwich,” Farwell said. 

In 2017, 1,038 people died in Connecticut from accidental drug overdoses, a number of them in Norwich, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. 

“These are things that we just couldn’t ignore as community challenges and that led us to the decision to at least have one person on the staff who was trained,” said Farwell. 

On Monday afternoon, Farwell said, a man was found inside the library, unresponsive. Farwell felt for his pulse and then immediately administered Narcan. 

“It’s part functioning on instinct and hoping that the training you’ve had kicks in,” said Farwell. 

It was at Norwich Human Services that Farwell received that training and the dose of Narcan. 

People we spoke with who live and work in Norwich said they were happy to hear the library staff intervened and they think it is a good thing the library has Narcan on hand. 

“Anything you can do to help a person in trouble, I think that’s a good thing. As long as there’s trained personnel here who know how to administer it, then it’s probably worth having it nearby,” said Tom Tassias, who works in Norwich. 

Others think this recent incident proves it is worth having Narcan in other public places around the city. 

“I think it should be in more professional buildings in the area,” Jeffrey Brewer, of Uncasville, said. 

The director said he wants people to know the library is still a safe environment and he said he is hoping Monday was the one and only time he will ever have to administer Narcan. 

On the Army’s 243rd birthday, the Connecticut Army National Guard’s Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment is making a historic deployment. The unit, specialized in medical treatment and critical care, has been deployed to its first overseas mission in southwest Asia. 

National Guardsmen Staff Sgt. John Harrington describes the work he and his fellow 29 soldiers will be performing in southwest Asia as, “kind of like treating a patient in a hospital, but in the back of a helicopter.” 

But Staff Sgt. Harrington has something to take care of first with his wife, Tessa – the birth of their firstborn, Jack. 

“It’s kind of nuts for me to have a baby, but we have a really good support system at home, so I’m sure I’ll be OK,” Tessa said. 

Ten days after Jack is born, Staff Sgt. Harrington will join the others. 

For now, he’s saying goodbye to his unit, which will be responsible for critical care, medical support and emergency responses. 

“When there are sick, wounded people needing transportation, we go out and we pick people up and we transport them and provide en route care and take them where they need to be to get the care they require,” Lt. Andrew Seiverson said.  

Lt. Seiverson said the unit has been waiting for the mission after months of practicing through simulations. 

“For our unit, this will be the first opportunity we have to go and do our jobs for real, so all of us are excited for it. I’m excited to see what the team does,” Lt. Seiverson said. 

The team said goodbyes to their families, friends and our state leaders, each of whom comforted one another on that tarmac. 

“They’re the strong ones in it,” Staff Sgt. Harrington said, referring to each of the families wishing soldiers goodbye. “That’s what it takes, is their support to be able to get us through.” 

The mercury will continue to rise as we head into the weekend. Temperatures are expected to be well above average this weekend with the warmest of the weather arriving by Monday.

A 'Bermuda High' will be responsible for some communities closing in on 100 degrees by Monday. 

Saturday will feature mostly sunny skies with low humidity and temperatures rising into the low 80s along the water and middle 80s for inland areas.

Temperatures for inland cities and towns will rise to near 90 for Father's Day on Sunday. The high temperature in the Hartford area on Sunday is expected to reach 90s degrees with temperatures along the shoreline in the low to middle 80s.

The uncomfortable heat and humidity will arrive by Monday.

Temperatures for interior Connecticut are expected to surge into the middle to upper 90s with shoreline communities experiencing temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s.

The big story on Monday will be the high humidity values. Dew points are expected to be near 70 degrees which indicates oppressive humidity will be present. 

The heat index also known as the feels like temperature is expected to reach 100 to 105 degrees.

Thunderstorms Monday night will usher in some cooler and drier air by Tuesday.

One grew up the only blonde klutz in a family of dark-haired athletes. The other is a redheaded softball player whose light-haired family avoided sports entirely.

Now, at age 72, two women have only recently discovered that they were switched at birth and have been living as each other for their entire lives.

Denice Juneski, of Eagan, Minnesota, submitted her DNA to genealogy website 23andMe, KARE-TV reports, only to discover that her list of relatives were "a bunch of strangers" and she didn't match anyone she knew, not even her own mother.

She took the test a second time, and got the same result.

"Either 23andMe made a mistake," Juneski told KARE, "or I was switched at birth."

Forty miles away in Hammond, Wisconsin, Linda Jourdeans' niece noticed Jureski's name on the results of her own DNA test - informing her aunt that she believed Jourdeans may have been switched at birth.

"I did my DNA right away, because I've got to see this on paper," Jourdeans said, revealing the decades-old secret.

On Dec. 19, 1945, at Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, Denice Mary Mayer was born at 2:17 a.m. and Linda Jean Nielsen 31 minutes later.

The two were somehow switched and how it happened remains a mystery.

“We'll never know,” Jureski said, “and I'm sure the nurses are dead that probably took care of us.”

For the next 72 years, the two women lived as one another, never knowing that they were actually born into another family they had no idea even existed.

"It's a crazy thing," Juneski said. "People just automatically assume they got the right family."

Juneski grew up the only blonde among brunette and redhead siblings, not an athletic bone in her body while the rest of her family excelled.

Her dad played for the St. Paul Saints baseball team, while her older sister Geraldine was inducted into the Minnesota Softball Hall of Fame.

"Yeah, sometimes I had that sense, that I didn't quite fit in," she reflected - a sentiment the athletic Jourdeans echoed.

Jourdeans, a redhead in a family of blondes, was the only athlete and played softball into her 50s.

"Suddenly it all makes sense," she told KARE.

"I was really supposed to be another person," Juneski added.

Since they discovered the swap in April, the two have met several times and have even visited the 99-year-old mother they now share: one daughter born to her and the other that she raised.

The women retell the story every time they visit Marianne Mayer, who is now 99 and in memory care. Mayer gave birth to Juneski but raised Jourdeans.

Juneski said she considers the discovery "a gift," adding, "good things come out of it, I think."

Here is the report by the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General over the investigtion into the FBI's handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. 

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With Father’s Day around the corner, Takeisha Saunders thought she’d pick up a card for her husband while making a Target run in North Texas.

The Army Captain from Royse City, about 30 miles east of Dallas, browsed the greeting cards aisle at the big box retailer's Rockwall location looking for the perfect card for her husband, who is also an Army veteran. The couple has a young daughter.

Under the section labeled "Husband," Saunders came across a card depicting a black couple overlaid with the phrase "Baby Daddy." Inside, the card says, "You're a wonderful husband and father — and I'm so grateful to have you as my partner, my friend, and my baby daddy! Happy Father's Day."

It was the only card that featured a black couple.

Saunders took a photo of the card and shared it on social media. In a Facebook post published May 31, Saunders wrote: "You CANNOT be serious Target!!!! Really!!!?!!!!? This was the only Father’s Day card that featured a black couple!!!!!!” She tagged Target and American Greetings, the company that made the card.

"This particular card is marketed to the black consumer. Without knowing what the phrase means they published it," Saunders told NBC. "All I did was make a comment about my lack of options for my husband. My issue is inclusion and how there were no other black husband cards."

The post started making rounds on social media and other Target shoppers claimed to have spotted the same card at their local stores, echoing Saunders' sentiments about the lack of options for black couples as well as the racial insensitivity associated with the term "Baby Daddy."

Facing a backlash, Target issued an apology Wednesday and announced it would be pulling the card from its shelves.

"We want all guests to feel welcomed and respected when they shop at Target," Target spokesman Joshua Thomas said in a statement. "We were made aware of some concerns about this card last week and are working with our vendor to have it removed from Target stores. We appreciate the feedback and apologize. It’s never our intent to offend any of our guests with the products we sell."

American Greetings also apologized and said it would stop selling the card at all retailers, including Target.

"This particular card was created for, and addressed to, a loving husband — which the inside copy makes clear," American Greetings said in a statement to NBC. "However, we now see that the front page, taken out of context, can communicate an unintentional meaning that we are strongly against perpetuating and is not consistent with our company purpose and values. We should do better in the future, and we will. We have notified our store merchandisers to remove the card from the shelves and apologize for any offense we’ve caused."

However, not all Target shoppers were as angered by the controversial “Baby Daddy” cards, with some appearing to find them more amusing than offensive.

"@TARGET should not have pulled the BABY DADDY cards. People are addicted to being outraged in this era," one Twitter user posted.

Saunders notes that while some people called for the card’s removal, she never asked Target to pull it from its shelves and told NBC she has no issue that the card exists because "some people might like it."

"My issue is inclusion and how there were no other black husband cards. When I was growing up a 'baby daddy or 'baby momma' was not what you wanted or wanted to be. It was negative and still is to many people, obviously based on the other folks talking about it. So, I do not call my husband that, and he would be upset if I got [the card] for him."

She continued, "This issue is not only limited to cards. It applies to all kinds of products across our economy. I did not call for the card to be removed in the first place. I’m sure others did but my issue was this was the only one. If we don't speak up about it, it will continue and manifest in other ways, that’s the way stereotypes work."

Target and American Greetings did not immeditately respond to email requests for comment on Saunder's concerns about the lack of product options available to families of color.

Supporters gathered outside the offices of Immigration & Customs Enforcement in Hartford Thursday to rally for a Stamford father who was facing deportation.

Nelson Santos was supposed to be deported to his native Honduras. He found out Thursday, just four days before he was supposed to leave, that ICE has granted him a six-month stay, according to Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Supporters say Santos has lived in Connecticut for 30 years, is married to a U.S. citizen and the couple is raising three kids in Stamford.

He's scheduled to receive dialysis and a kidney transplant at the end of the summer. Supporters said they had feared he would not get this treatment if he returned to Honduras.

“It violates everything we know about who we are and what we are. We don’t send people away to death. That’s not who we are as Americans," said Gov. Dannel Malloy.

Santos said he is thankful for the stay, but many are hopeful he will be allowed to remain in the U.S. beyond that.

“I want to say thank you everybody, for your guy’s help, you helping me a lot," Santos said.

NBC Connecticut has reached out to ICE for a comment but have not yet heard back.

The Trump administration has selected Tornillo, Texas, for the construction of tents to house the overflow of immigrant children, many of whom have been separated from their parents under a new "zero tolerance" policy, according to three sources familiar with the decision.

NBC News, citing those sources, reported that the Department of Health and Human Services will erect a "tent city," full of large tents whose walls touch the ground, which is estimated to hold approximately 450 beds for children.

It will not be the first time the U.S. government has erected tent cities to house immigrants. U.S. Customs and Border Protection used tents to house an influx of immigrants in 2014 and at the end of the Obama administration. But now the overflow of a particular immigrant population — in this case, children — is a government-created problem.

The Justice Department has agreed to let AT&T complete its purchase of Time Warner, according to joint government filings, clearing the way for a quick conclusion to a deal to be completed as soon as Friday.

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that AT&T's $85.4 billion bid for Time Warner was legal, imposing no conditions on the merger, CNBC.com reported.

The government had the option to seek a stay, delaying the merger for a designated waiting period, but has foregone that option.

An Ashford resident will be the superintendent of the Connecticut Captive Insurance Company charged with paying out claims to homeowners with collapsing basements.

Michael Maglaras is the principle of Michael Maglaras and Company, a firm that’s been running and starting captive insurance companies for more than 30 years, while Maglaras himself has been in the industry for 41 years. He used that experience as part of his sales pitch to homeowners Thursday, at a meeting of a committee formed by the Capitol Region Council of Governments tasked with dealing with crumbling foundations.

"I will assure you absolutely on a 41-year reputation that help is on the way,” Maglaras told the group. “It's coming soon. And we're moving as quickly as we humanly can."

The insurance company was laid out in state law by the Connecticut General Assembly to be the state’s mechanism to help homeowners who have basements crumbling around them. The issue was brought to light by the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters in 2015.

The captive insurance company will be governed by a superintendent, Maglaras, who will also work with a board of directors that will decide how claims are handled and determine the parameters for paying them out.

Maglaras, who was born in New Hampshire and later lived for 30 years in Greenwich, said the single most important issue facing the board is having enough capital to pay out claims.

"We're going to be responsible for paying claims for which we receive no premium.” Maglaras said. “It is an unusual insurance arrangement, but it is what it is."

The Connecticut General Assembly approved a $12 surcharge on all homeowners insurance policies to go into effect this year to help pay for crumbling foundations relief. That’s on top of the $100 million also authorized by lawmakers earmarked for repairing foundations.

The goal, Maglaras said, is to develop a captive insurance company that is both efficient in the way it’s managed and the way it pays out claims. He said if that happens, then private insurers and the federal government could step in to provide even more cash for relief, knowing that the company will handle the money properly.

“Any insurer who would like to make a statement to the citizens of the state of Connecticut should be welcome to make that statement with a tax-deductible check and I'll accept it and that puts us in line I think for more funding to broaden our reach and to make more funding available through additional efforts with the feds and others."

While Maglaras is confident he can deliver a credible company, he did tell homeowners that this undertaking is one of the biggest and most consequential of his career.

Oops!

Someone accidentally deployed the emergency slide exit from a flight at Bradly International Airport Thursday, airport officials said.

A traveler snapped a photo of the accident and posted it to Twitter.

Airport officials confirmed slide deployment on a Delta flight was accidental, but could not provide details. NBC Connecticut has reached out to Delta for more information.

A Texas man delivered boxes of pizza to dozens of undocumented immigrants who were found in the back of a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Telemundo San Antonio reported.

Armando Colunga saw a news report covering the discovery of 54 immigrants, some as young 16 years old, in the back of an 18-wheeler and felt compelled to act.

"I could see they only had water and didn’t know how long they had been there before they were found. I assumed they were hungry and hadn’t been fed so I decided to get them food," Colunga told Telemundo.

Colunga, who is of Mexican decent, drove to the scene where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were still interviewing and processing the immigrants. 

He stopped at a Little Caesars pizza shop nearby and bought seven pizzas, despite not knowing whether authorities would allow him to feed them. Colunga told CNN that two detectives escorted him closer to the group, eventually handing the pies off to a fireman who distributed them.

"They were happy they were eating something," Colunga told local media. 

Among the group of undocumented immigrants were men and women from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Brazil, Homeland Security Investigations officials said in a news release. It was not immediately clear how they cross the U.S.-Mexico border or how long they had been inside the trailer.

San Antonio Fire Department chief Charles Hood says all the passengers appeared to be in good health.

"This truck was air-conditioned, thank God," Hood said. "This truck had water, so they were hydrated."

Five of the detainees were taken to a local hospital. Four were treated and released and one remained hospitalized Thursday, ICE said.  

"The people rescued from this tractor-trailer were very lucky to have been discovered before the Texas heat took its toll,” said HSI spokesman Shane M. Folden said in a press release. “We have recently seen how smuggled people have died under the dangerous circumstances human smugglers transport their human cargo. These horrific instances show how no one should trust their lives — or the lives of their loved ones — to these criminal organizations.”

The driver of the big rig, identified as 36-year-old Gerardro Javier Carreon, a U.S. citizen, was arrested and appeared in federal court Wednesday facing human smuggling charges. No futher details were immediately available. 

"These are human beings. They don’t deserve to be treated that way,” Colunga told Telemundo.

A fisherman has died after being pulled from the water near Savin Lake Dam on the Colchester-Lebanon line Thursday morning, according to Connecticut State Police.

Fire officials were called to the scene at 11 a.m. and said the man was fishing in the area with his friend when he went into the water.

The 72-year-old man was rushed to Backus Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“They were on the side of the pond and his friend looked over and he was in the water,” Deputy Chief Mark Elliott, of the Lebanon Fire Department, said. “Whether there was a medical emergency prior or whether he lost his footing and ended up in the water, we’re not sure.”

Crews had also mobilized a dive team, but the man was already out of the water.

"When our crews arrived the man had already been removed from the water by, I believe, the Colchester Police, the first arriving unit. So, he was out of the water when we arrived so we didn’t have to launch a boat," Elliott added.

State police are leading the investigation. The fisherman’s name has not been released.

Rocky Hill police are investigating allegations of misconduct between a former assistant track and field coach at Rocky Hill High School and a student and school officials said the coach has resigned and two teachers have been placed on leave amid the investigation. 

A statement from police said the detective division is investigating the allegations and the assistant track coach is not a teacher. No charges have been filed. They referred all other questions to be directed to the Superintendent of Schools.

The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters first received word of administrative action against three employees at Rocky Hill High School on Thursday.

The superintendent’s office said the coach resigned from his coaching position on May 29 and two teachers who also serve as coaches on the track and field team were placed on administrative leave.

“The Rocky Hill Board of Education is aware of allegations against a former employee. As there is an ongoing investigation, I can only confirm that a former track and field coach, who was not and is not employed as a teacher in Rocky Hill or any other school district, resigned from his coaching position on May 29, 2018,” the statement from Supt. Dr. Mark Zito says. “I can further confirm that two teachers at Rocky Hill High School, who also serve as coaches on the track and field team, were placed on administrative leave, with pay and without prejudice, on May 30, 2018, pending the results of an ongoing investigation.”

“The safety of our students is our first priority, and we are cooperating fully with the investigation of this matter,” the statement from Zitto said.