A man who is accused of setting several fires over the last few months in New Haven has been arrested.

Detectives and investigators from the New Haven Fire Investigations Unit say they have been hunting for what they call a serial arsonist since April of this year. Over the past three months, they say about 30 trash can fires covering approximately 16 acres centered at the New Haven Green have been set.

Last month, a detective and a fire investigations supervisor followed up on a trash fire that firefighters had extinguished around midnight on May 30. Officials say they noticed surveillance cameras on the New Haven Public Library that were focused toward the scene of the crime on Temple Street.

When the security footage was reviewed with the security guard, there were prominent images of the man suspected of setting the fire. The security guard said he knew the man since he'd been the subject of several past trespassing complaints at the library. Since the camera is programmed to move, the arson itself was not captured on camera, police say.

On June 5, officials say there was another fire at the same location. Firefighters responded, doused the flames and photographed the scene. After the fire, the fire investigations supervisor and the security guard checked the surveillance recordings. This time, officials say it showed the arson and arsonist.

Detectives were able to get an arrest warrant for 72-year-old Robert DiNuzzo of New Haven and he was arrested on June 7. Investigators say DiNuzzo confessed to setting several of the suspect fires. He is now facing charges including reckless burning, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. Officers say DiNuzzo was released on a promise to appear at a later date.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the practice of separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that her department is merely following laws. Speaking at a White House briefing Monday, Nielsen said the issue has been growing for years, the product of loopholes that have created an open border.

Hillary Clinton commented on migrant children being separated from their families at the border today during a speech at the Women's Forum of New York, saying in part, "every person with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged."

South Florida rapper XXXTentacion has died after he was shot during a possible robbery in Deerfield Beach Monday, officials said.

The 20-year-old singer, whose real name is Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was shot outside Riva Motorsports at 3671 N. Dixie Highway just before 4 p.m., Broward Sheriff's Office officials said. He was taken to a local hospital, where he later died, officials said.

Several deputies were at the scene examining a black BMW that was believed to be the rapper's car.

Officials say he was leaving the motorcycle shop when he was approached by two armed suspects. At least one of the suspects opened fire, hitting the rapper.

"He was in his vehicle attempting to leave the premises when he was confronted by the suspects," BSO spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said.

The suspects fled the scene in a dark-colored SUV, officials said.

XXXTentacion, who had a Top 10 pop hit with "Sad!" and saw his sophomore album reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last month, was awaiting trial on aggravated battery, domestic battery and false imprisonment charges after he was accused of beating up his pregnant girlfriend.

Miami-Dade court records show he was due in court next week for a hearing in the case.

The ridership for the first two days of Hartford Line rail service was a dream come true.

Officials said 21,850 people took advantage of the free rides on the Hartford Line on its inaugural weekend.

Figures for the first day of regular service, Monday, were not immediately available. While staff from CT Rail, the group principally in charge of the Hartford Line is tallying people every day, Amtrak reports ridership differently.

“I love what I’m seeing,” said James Redeker, Connecticut’s commissioner of the Department of Transportation. He said the line is a landmark achievement for the state, and one that should be looked at as an example around the nation.

“Where else are we opening up high-speed rail service with this many trains? The answer? Nowhere else in the country,” Redeker said, while seated at a table in a rail car traveling from New Haven to Hartford. “That’s something that Connecticut needs to stand proud and tall about. This is setting the bar as high as can be for the high-speed rail program.”

The rail cars were not full on the early and later afternoon trains ridden by NBC Connecticut, but riders were certainly excited about the new transportation service.

Jeff Travers took advantage of it to visit his son in New York City, and transferred to Metro-North Service in New Haven.

“Unbelievable. This is the best thing that could have happened. For years we’ve been driving to New Haven to go down to the city to visit with them and now you just get on in Hartford or anywhere along the way and bingo you’re in the city.”

Waterbury police have issued a warning about heroin sold in bags stamped “This or That” that has been traced back to multiple overdoses.

Police said Monday evening the heroin has been connected with “numerous” overdoses over the last 72 hours. The heroin was found in white glassine bags with red lettering.

Anyone who comes into contact with the bags is encouraged to contact police immediately.

A fire caused by a hot bus exhaust damaged four shuttle buses at a Goodwill parking lot in North Haven Monday.

Fire officials said crews were called to the scene on Washington Avenue around 5 p.m. No one was hurt, but four buses were heavily damaged.

Fire Chief Paul Januszewski said the fire was accidental and caused when a bus driver backed the bus up to mulch. The hot exhaust ignited the mulch and the flames spread to the vehicles.

The buses were not occupied at the time of the fire.

The NBC Connecticut meteorologists are tracking the threat for severe storms this evening.

and a severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for far northeastern Windham County, Hartford County and Litchfield County.

Locally heavy rain began moving in around 3 p.m. and the threat of storms will continue until about 11 p.m.

Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for Litchfield County, Windham County and Hartford County throughout the night.

The storms could contain lightning, heavy rain, and strong winds. There is a slight risk of a tornado, according to NBC Connecticut Chief Meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan.

“Dump this trash plan.”

That’s the message from fired-up residents in New London, as the city debates a new garbage program.

The proposal would require people to pay for every trash bag they throw out. This would work by requiring people to buy special bags at stores that they could then put out to be picked up.

The mayor calls this a way to keep curbside service going without raising taxes. But the idea isn’t going over well.

There is growing concern about a proposal that could require people to pay more to throw out trash.

“It’s just more money out of people’s pockets. I think there’s going to be big problem with that,” said resident Kevin Rood.

Monday night people packed a City Council meeting, many speaking out against the idea, dubbed “Pay-as-You-Throw.”

Many taxpayers are upset that the plan would require them to pay for every garbage bag they throw out and then is picked up curbside by city workers.

For example, special large trash bags would be sold at stores for $1 each.

But city officials counter with what they see as the benefits, including promoting recycling.

“The ‘Pay-as-You-Throw’ program will cut our municipal waste between 40 and 50 percent in the first year,” said Mayor Michael Passero.

Passero told NBC Connecticut the plan could save the city upwards of $700,000 a year. He also pointed out that everyone might have to pay including those who are tax exempt.

“It’s a fair and more equitable way to pay for a city service and to preserve that service quite frankly,” Passero said.

But many remain skeptical.

“I think there’s other options we can stay with and looking for that to happen here in New London,” said resident Nancy Anglin.

Monday the council voted to put the issue on hold and revisit it at the next meeting on July 16.

The Department of Homeland Security was discussing separating migrant children from their mothers in the earliest days of the Trump administration, NBC News reported.

Obtained by MSNBC, notes from a closed-door town hall meeting on Feb. 2, 2017, for Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officers show the agency's chief told officers they might have to "hold mothers longer" and "hold children in HHR/ORR," an acronym for facilities for children run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The policies he laid out were intended to lower the number of immigrants claiming asylum, which was at a 20-year high point in 2016.

The Trump administration has been falsely claiming that the increasing number of children being separated from their parents at the southern border is not its own policy but a tragic byproduct of enforcing the law.

As temperatures soar, parents are beginning to think about pool safety, but a family in Attleboro said the device they installed to keep their backyard safe, put their toddler in danger. The video they posted demonstrating it has since gone viral on social media.

The Wyman family just installed an above ground pool in their backyard, with a ladder that includes a safety cover. The cover has slats in it, which the family said makes it easy for their toddler to climb it and go right into the pool.

They noticed what their child was doing before they started rolling, filming the video of it on purpose to prove a point. Before the child goes in, his mother intervenes, but the family said it sheds light on what they believe is a design flaw.

“If a two year old can do it, a six year old can do it and an eight year old can do it,” Keith Wyman, the child’s father said. “The door on the ladder needs to be one solid piece if anything.”

Wyman posted the video of his son on Facebook on Friday. It has since been shared more than 530,000 times by people all over the world.

Wyman said he has received responses from users as far away as Uganda and Australia.

The pool store the family bought the ladder from offered to let them exchange it for a different model, but the family said many of the ladders have a similar design.

The family said they've since learned that the ladder was manufactured by VinylWorks Canada. They tried to reach the company on Monday without success.

NBC10 Boston spoke with a VinylWorks customer service representative Tuesday, who said the person who could comment on this was not in the office.

The Wyman family now plans to install a fence around the pool to better protect it, but hope their video raises awareness.

“It was an eye-opener,” Keith Wyman, the child’s father said. “It was a life lesson and we want to get this out there, to tell everybody that it is pool season. Watch your kids.”

A confusing system of food labeling has led to consumers throwing away billions of dollars worth of food products every year, and much of that food is completely safe to eat.

As a result, the U.S. grocery industry is taking steps to simplify food labels, with the goal of reducing waste and helping households save money.

"A lot of people confuse quality and safety," food research scientist Linda Harris said. "That's a big problem."

Harris is the chair of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. She said most food is perfectly safe to eat past the date on the label. That's because most dates on food are not "expiration" dates. They actually tell consumers when peak freshness or flavor drops off.

"The date is meant to signal quality," Harris said. "It's not a safety issue."

Some consumers may be surprised to learn federal law requires an actual expiration date on only one food product: baby formula. Every other date you see on food is voluntary, under federal standards.

"It's not illegal to sell a product past its 'best-by' date," she said.

So, even the beef with no date at all meets federal criteria.

Without clear government guidelines, we're bombarded with terms:

-Best By
-Expires On
-Use By
-Best Flavor By
-Sell By
-Enjoy By

The meanings vary, and so does the science used to calculate the date. Megan Stasz of the Grocery Manufacturers Association says that's a problem for ordinary shoppers.

"What the confusion leads to is consumers unnecessarily throwing away some food when it might still be good to eat," Stasz said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates as much as 40 percent of all food grown, produced and shipped in the U.S. will never be eaten. That amounts to about 218 pounds of food per person per year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It will end up in landfills, in part because consumers don't understand the labels.

That should change this summer. The Grocery Manufacturers Association is telling companies to start using either "Best if Used By" or "Use By."

"Rather than having 10 or 20 phrases on your food products now, you'll just see one of two," Stasz said.

Most products will get "Best if Used By", since the association says most food "is safe to use or consume" after the date.

The remaining few product date labels will read "Use By." Stasz said that's reserved for highly perishable food, that could pose a health risk after the date on the label. "Maybe something like a sliced deli meat or raw shellfish that would have that food safety concern over time," she said.

Food experts are hungry to teach families about the new labels and help them stop wasting so much food.

"In turn, that can help them save money, which I think is a win for everybody," Stasz said.

The new labels are voluntary, and federal law remains mostly silent. If you ever suspect you were sold spoiled food, you may report it locally.

Online: Texas Department of State Health Services

A new report has found that rental prices are out of reach for many United States workers and Connecticut ranks the ninth highest for how much money you need to earn to afford to rent a home here. 

The average fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Connecticut is $1,295, according to “Out of Reach,” a report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

That means your household would need to earn $4,317 per month, or $51,799 per year, to afford a two-bedroom without spending more than 30 percent of your income on housing. 

To further break that down, you would need to make around $24.90 per hour to afford to rent an average two-bedroom home, the report finds. 

Workers who make just the minimum wage of $10.10 would need to work 99 hours per week, or work two full-time job and one part-time job to afford a fair-market rate two-bedroom rental home. 

Read the full report here.

The United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics report from May 2017 lists the median hourly wage in Connecticut as $22.05, the mean hourly wage as $28.56 and the annual mean wage as $59,410. Take a closer look at the numbers here. 

The "Out of Reach" report goes on to say affordable rent for workers who make minimum wage in Connecticut is $525 per month, while a worker making $17.38 could afford a rental that costs $904 per month.

Of course, rents vary in different parts of the state and the report finds these are the most expensive regions of Connecticut to rent in:

• Stamford-Norwalk, where you would need to earn $38.19
• Danbury: $30.94 per hour
• Southern Middlesex County: $26.65 per hour
• Milford-Ansonia-Seymour: $25.19 per hour
• New Haven-Meriden: $24.98 per hour

Two teenagers are accused of stealing a car from a house in Hamden early Tuesday morning.

Officers responded to a house on Old Coach Highway around 2:00 a.m. after a car was reported stolen. Police say they were told the homeowner was following his stolen vehicle on Shepard Avenue.

Shortly after, officers saw the stolen vehicle traveling southbound on Dixwell Avenue. Both the 17-year-old driver and 17-year-old passenger left the vehicle and fled on foot before officers arrested them. 

Both teenagers are facing larceny and interfering with police charges, according to police. They are scheduled to appear in Juvenile Court in New Haven on July 10.

Connecticut State Colleges and Universities President Mark Ojakian plans to present a new consolidation plan to the Board of Regents on Thursday. The “Students First” plan would consolidate all 12 community colleges in Connecticut into one accredited institution by 2023. It would save $17 million when fully implemented. 

His last plan drew sharp criticism from faculty members and students and was most recently rejected by the Regional Accreditation Commission in April. 

Ojakian said the biggest difference with the new plan is the extended timeline. He wants to slowly phase in the changes over the next five years, with the goal of having one single accredited institution by 2023. 

If approved by the Board of Regents, the first change students will see is through the application process. It will be one application for all 12 community colleges, as well as one website. It will be the same process for any student enrolling in classes or applying for financial aid. Ojakian said students will have the same experience, if not better when they need help. 

“We’ll be able to devote more resources to things like student advisors, student success centers, student tutoring centers that will allow students to not only enroll in school, but stay in school and complete in a timely way,” said Ojakian. 

Under the new plan, CSCU would hire three regional presidents in spring 2019 and keep the department chairs in place instead of eliminating them. 

The Board of Regents meeting is Thursday, June 21 at 10 a.m. 

If approved, President Ojakian said they will move forward with the consolidation plan and revisit the single accreditation proposal with the Regional Accreditation Commission closer to 2023. 

Officials in East Windsor will hold a special meeting tonight about a casino proposed for the site of a former movie theater off Interstate 91. 

MMCT Venture, the joint company of the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes, has proposed opening a $300 million 188,000 square foot gaming and entertainment facility in spring 2020. It would include around 1,800 slot machines, 50 table games and 10 poker tables. 

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Interior issued one of two approvals needed for the construction.  

A project spokesman has said the second approval is expected soon on amendments to a similar agreement between the state and Mashantucket Pequots.

Supporters argue this casino would compete with the new MGM casino opening this summer in Springfield, Massachusetts and preserve jobs and revenue in the state. 

MGM has been fighting the tribes on the issue and argues it was not given equal opportunity to compete for a casino license at the same time. 

The Planning and Zoning Commission meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the town hall meeting room at 11 Rye St. 

Interstate 84 West is backed up for around three miles, after a truck carrying roof tiles rolled over near exit 33 in Plainville, according to state police. 

The two right lanes are blocked. 

No one has been injured. No additional information was immediately available.

A teenager from Hamden is under arrest in connection to a crash that killed a pregnant woman, the baby she was carrying and a teenager in April, according to police.

Officers say 19-year-old Abdulaziz Yuldoshev turned himself into Shelton Police on Monday. He is facing charges including manslaughter, negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, assault and illegal racing on a highway in connection to the deadly accident.

According to police, a Mini Cooper was going south on River Road on April 8 around 7:00 p.m. when it crashed into a Saturn going north. Two passengers in the Mini Cooper, 18-year-old Shalymar Herrera of West Haven and 23-year-old Briana Torres-Carter of Bridgeport were both pronounced dead.

Torres-Carter was pregnant, according to police. Her father-in-law said she was eight months along in the pregnancy. Her baby was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say Torres-Carter's husband, 19-year-old Lawrence Carter Jr. of Bridgeport was driving the Mini Cooper. He was critically injured in the accident. Another passenger in the car was also hospitalized with what police say were non-life threatening injuries.

The 25-year-old woman who was driving the Saturn and her two passengers, a 22-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man were also injured with what officials classified as non-life threatening injuries. All three are from Pennsylvania.

Additional arrests are expected, according to officers.

The owner of a bakery in Mystic can now add a national award to his list of accomplishments.

Sift Bake Shop announced on Facebook that Adam Young has won Food Network's Best Baker in America competition.

Food Network's website says Young competed against eight other world-class bakers to win the competition and a $25,000 prize. His task was to create "the ultimate chocolate cake for 100 people that features caramel flavor and elaborate chocolate decorations, three types of chocolate and three flavors of chocolate bon bons," according to Food Network's episode description.

Young previously competed on season three of Food Network's Spring Baking Championship where he came in second place.

According to Sift Bake Shop's website, Young is an executive pastry chef that has achieved the coveted Forbes 5 star and AAA 5 diamond awards for two restaurants and has co-written two cookbooks.

Young owns Sift Bake Shop on Water Street in Mystic with his wife, Ebbie. They also have a second location on Bay Street in Watch Hill, Rhode Island.

Migrant parents separated from their children at the border are sometimes unable to relocate their child and remain permanently separated, a former head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told NBC News.

"Permanent separation. It happens," said John Sandweg, who served as acting director of ICE under the Obama administration from 2013-2014.

A parent can quickly move from detention to deportation, but a child's case for asylum or deportation may not be heard by a judge for several years because deporting a child is a lower priority for the courts, Sandweg said.

Parents may then have trouble navigating U.S. immigration and judicial systems while back in their home countries and their children might be adopted by someone else after entering the foster system.

Sandweg's comments undercut the White House's stance that the separation of women and child migrants under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy is only temporary.