Longtime Trumbull High School English teacher Clayton Curtiss is preparing for his fourth Closer to Free Ride in support of the Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven.

“My wife and I had always been bicyclists,” he said. “We’d always done a lot of riding together.”

That was before Mary Curtiss, Clayton’s wife of 40 years, lost her balance because of a brain tumor.

“And we didn’t ride anymore and that was one of the things she regretted most,” Clayton said.

Mary passed away in January 2015, just three months after Clayton’s 51-year-old daughter Carolyn died following her own battle with cancer.

“It was a pretty horrible time in my life,” Clayton told NBC Connecticut Wednesday morning at Smilow. “Of course you ask yourself isn't there anything you can do, is there anything I can do.”

The next summer Clayton became determined to get back on a bike, so he bought a new one better equipped for his age in Branford.

"As I’m coming along I-95 in East Haven, I look up on the billboard and there it says ‘Ride Closer to Free’ and I thought wait a minute, this is something that is a sign to me,” he said.

Today, event production company Eventage that helps Smilow put on the ride each year presented Clayton with a gift basket from one of the company’s for profit clients, Art of Shaving.

“It’s a gift, it’s an honor for us to be part of it,” Olive Isaacs from Eventage said.

Eventage plans to pass out at least 50 gift baskets with grooming products to patients at Smilow.

“These are our ‘Art of Going Home’ kits, which are luxury products for comfort and pampering to those who need it most,” Isaacs said.

After everything Clayton went through, losing two loved ones in such a short time span, he learned of his own cancer diagnosis last summer.

“My urologist said Clayton you must have surgery to have this removed,” he said, “your prostate is in such danger it’s a threat to your life.”

The first time Clayton went in for surgery, he said his heart stopped. So he had a pacemaker installed ahead of a successful operation in January.

Now, he is one month away from a 40-mile bike ride.

“I’ll be wearing a survivor jersey for the first time and that’s unexpected, but pleasantly unexpected,” Clayton said.

He’s raising money for research in hopes of making this world closer to cancer free.

“If we can eradicate cancer,” Clayton said, “what more can we leave to our generations to come except a cancer free life, I can’t think of anything better.”

NBC Connecticut is a proud media sponsor of the Eighth Closer to Free Ride on Saturday September 8. There is still time to sign up.

Strong storms are moving through Connecticut Wednesday evening.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Fairfield and New Haven counties, but have since expired.

There are several strong storms moving through Connecticut.

These storms bring the potential for torrential rain, lightning and gusty winds. One storm moving through the Oxford-Waterbury Airport produced a wind gust of 45 mph.

Track conditions in your area using our interactive radar.

The volunteer fire departments in Bozrah and Taftville want residents to know they’re not sending out letters asking for money.

There’s been some confusion lately after letters from a non-profit have been arriving in the mail, asking people to donate or volunteer their time.

“It appears to be misleading because if you look at the bold areas—your eyes are drawn to the bold areas first. With a quick scan over, it appears to be coming from the fire department,” said Taftville Fire Department Assistant Chief Bill Hadam.

If you look at the letter distributed in Taftville, the bold title reads “Taftville Area Volunteer Firefighter Drive,” the reply form, where a person can submit a donation, reads “2018 Taftville Area Volunteer Drive Reply Form.”

But upon a closer read, the letter is from the Volunteer Firefighter Alliance. A 501 (c) (3) non-profit. The money is to continue their national volunteer firefighter recruitment efforts and the mail-back address is to a P.O. Box in Topeka, Kansas. The company is located in Knoxville, Tenn.

The same letter was sent out in the Bozrah area, too, but targeted to that community.

“If you live in Bozrah or in the Bozrah area you know there’s only one fire department and we’re the only volunteer fire department for the town. I think the letter was misleading and confusing,” said Bozrah Volunteer Fire Co. Chief Ryan Sholes.

Sholes wants to make it clear the department will see none of the money the Volunteer Firefighter Alliance is raising.

He said there’s poor timing with the distribution of that letter as well since the department is currently negotiating with the town to get some paid staff during the week to fill a void in available volunteers. He doesn’t want the community to misinterpret.

Volunteer Firefighter Alliance Executive Director Alan Bohms said he thought the letter clearly stated that it’s a national program and they’ll reach out to a local department if someone wants to volunteer.

The money goes to the production and distribution of radio and TV public service announcements, Bohms said. That information is not listed in the mail-out.

“We’ve stopped the mailing because of the feedback we’ve received about the confusion and are going to revamp the letter,” according to Bohms, adding only four to five letter went to each zip code.

The entire Volunteer Firefighters Alliance staff, including himself, are volunteer firefighters, Bohms said.

Hadam said his department does all its own fundraising whether it be community breakfasts or an upcoming comedy show.

“I had to read it a couple of times to get the true meaning of it. And people with their busy lives, they’re checking their mail and they look through and again, look at the bold areas and go, ‘Oh, local fire department looking for donations,’” Hadam said.

Hundreds of dollars in donations for a raffle fundraiser helping homeless animals were swiped just days the event, the director of the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter said.

“She worked tirelessly for the past few months gathering this stuff and in an instant it was all gone,” said Chris Barbaro, who works at the Branford animal shelter.

A volunteer had collected restaurant gift cards, signed cookbooks and other donations from local businesses to be raffled off this Saturday at “Woofstock."

Proceeds from the raffle support the animal shelter’s medical fund.

“It’s to get them back to a healthy place and get them into homes, get them adopted,” shelter director Laura Burban said.

Burban said the devoted volunteer spent several months collecting the raffle items in Branford and New Haven.

“And she collected about $1500 worth of items,” Burban said. “And unfortunately she put them all in a box and left them outside her front door for one of our staff members to go pick up and it was gone.”

Barbaro said his stepdad discovered the box was missing when he went to pick it up Monday around lunchtime.

“My stomach sank, like I just felt awful like of course this happens the week of, you know, why now,” Barbaro said.

“Once this happened it was a little shocking because it’s a little difficult to put all of this back together which takes months to prepare for,” Burban said.

The shelter shared what happened in a Facebook post.

“We hoped if we put it on Facebook they would realize this is for homeless animals I’ll just drop it off and leave it, but that didn’t happened unfortunately,” Burban said.

Instead, in the last 24 hours, Burban said there has been an outpouring of support from people dropping off new gift cards and making donations.

“I didn’t expect so many people to come out and be like I’ll give a gift card or I’ll help in this way, so that was happily surprising,” Burban said.

The raffle will go on as planned this Saturday afternoon at Woofstock on the Branford Town Green.

“Words can’t describe how humbled I am,” Barbaro said. “It’s just amazing to see what people can do in the matter of just days.”

Hard-line conservative Republicans in the House recently hit a roadblock in their effort to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when Speaker Paul Ryan opposed the move. But one of those conservatives, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., gave a different explanation to donors recently when asked why the impeachment effort had stalled, NBC News reported.

He said it's because an impeachment would delay the Senate's confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made the statement in an audio recording surreptitiously made by a member of a progressive group who attended a Republican fundraiser on July 30 in Spokane, Washington. The recording was obtained by "The Rachel Maddow Show" and was played on MSNBC on Wednesday night.

NBC Connecticut will host debates in the race for the 5th Congressional District ahead of the primary election.

The Republican debate between Manny Santos, Rich DuPont and Ruby Corby O'Neill took place on Monday, July 30. See the recap here.

The Democratic debate between Mary Glassman and Jahana Hayes was Wednesday, Aug. 8.

The debates will start at 8:30 p.m. and run an hour.

NBC CT Political Reporter Max Reiss will moderate both debates.

Both debates will stream live on nbcconnecticut.com, in the free NBC CT app and on the NBC Connecticut Facebook page.

It was standing room only in Newington Wednesday when residents turned out to voice their concerns about plans for a new apartment complex.

Dakota Partners presented plans for a 108-unit complex on a busy section of Cedar Street. The area is usually zoned for business, but Town Planner Craig Minor said because the project calls for affordable housing, it gets a pass.

“It’s mostly one bedroom or two bedrooms. It will be mostly rented to rates that are affordable to working people. Eighty percent of the apartments will be affordable. The other 20 percent will be market rate," Minor said.

One neighbor who spoke to NBC Connecticut said she’s happy the town is getting more affordable housing, but she’s concerned about the location. Cedar Street is one of the busiest streets in Newington.

“As a single parent 30 years ago I would have loved to have affordable housing in the area. I ended up living with my mom when my daughter was 7. So this is a project I think is needed. Is it the right place for to be? I'm not sure,” Rose Lyons said.

Another meeting is set to take place in a few weeks. The town could make a decision by the end of next month.

No one running for statewide office in Connecticut collected more signatures to achieve ballot access than Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim.

He collected more than 32,000 signatures to secure a spot on the August primary ballot, and did it through a grassroots campaign focused on the state’s largest cities.

However, nearly half of those signatures were disqualified by local elections officials, and Ganim’s support was almost entirely from three urban bases of registered Democrats: Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford.

NBC Connecticut spent two days parsing through every single petition submitted by the Ganim campaign in order to run for the Democratic nomination for governor next week.

The documents showed a rejection rate of about 48 percent, while accepted signatures, 16,929 of the them, made up the other 52 percent.

During an interview, Ganim said he knew that many signatures would end up getting thrown out by election regulators for a number of reasons.

“If you’re doing it basically with a volunteer effort: me, myself, getting many of them, you’re going to get signatures of people who will tell you they’re registered Democrats, have been taken off the list or think they’re registered Democrats or have a voting place somewhere else,” said Ganim, who is making his second run for governor in political career.

Ganim was forced into the petition collection process after being denied a spot on the ballot by Connecticut Democratic Party delegates at the organization’s May convention in Hartford.

Endorsed Democrat or Governor Ned Lamont achieved close to 90 percent of all delegates, denying Ganim the 15 percent of delegates he needed to win for a position on the August ballot. Many Democrats wrote off Ganim as a viable candidate because of his seven years spent in federal prison due to a corruption conviction stemming from

Ganim’s effort to collect signatures in Hartford, New Haven, and especially Bridgeport was nothing short of remarkable.

40 percent of all of his verified Democratic signatures came from his home city of Bridgeport, while overall, more than 80 percent of his signatures were collected from Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport.

Petitions from 25 cities and towns were submitted.

Ganim argues the focus on major cities with the highest concentrations of registered Democrats was the best way to achieve ballot access.

He said, “If you look at the practicality, to talk about it, if you were anybody doing this, if you want to be smart, and I try to be smart in how I handle things. You want to go to where, if you’re getting Democratic signatures you want to go where the most Democrats are. So you’re going to go to where there’s 40,000 Democrats in Bridgeport, similar amount in New Haven.”

In their final debate before voters head to the polls, the contrast between endorsed Democrat Mary Glassman and longtime school teacher Jahana Hayes has more to do with style and experience than it does with policy proposals.

During the hour-long debate that streamed live on NBC Connecticut’s mobile app and Facebook Live, the two agreed that Congress should pursue a “single-payer” health insurance system, legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in some capacity, and on the need to work across the aisle.

But there were numerous tense moments between the two candidates looking to replace Rep. Elizabeth Esty in the Fifth Congressional District. Esty announced she would not seek re-election after she came under scrutiny for her handling of sexual harassment allegations against her former chief of staff.

Glassman made the first attack, criticizing Hayes for having more financial support from out of state donors.

"I think you can tell a lot about a candidate, how they'll act in Congress and the way they'll run their campaign,” Glassman said. To date, Hayes has collected about half of all of her financing from out of state contributions, compared to Glassman, who has received more than 80 percent of her contributions from within the state of Connecticut.

Hayes also pointed to the fact that Glassman provided a loan to her campaign worth $30,000.

"I'm also the only candidate who didn't loan myself any money,” Hayes said. "I am a person who has never run for elected office who stepped into this race and has inspired a nation. 50 percent of my money is from in state, I had to go outside of state. That's what innovators do. They make a path where there isn't one. They create footprints where there weren't any."

Hayes is a former school teacher who was named, “National Teacher of the Year,” in 2016, which brought her a level of fame around the country. She appeared with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and she even appeared on the Ellen show.

Glassman has spent her career in government, with much of her career focused on her time running Simsbury as First Selectwoman. She also ran unsuccessfully on two occasions for lieutenant governor, most recently in 2010. Glassman won the party’s endorsement for the race back in May in a controversial vote that involved vote switches. She defeated Glassman by two votes.

The winner of the Democratic Primary will face the winner of the three-way GOP primary which features endorsed Republican Manny Santos who is the former mayor of Meriden, Ruby Corby O’Neill who is a former college professor from Southbury, and Rich DuPont, a businessman from Watertown.

On the conversation about legalizing marijuana, Glassman said she supported the regulation of the drug for recreational use at the state level. Hayes said she supported it at the federal level, and even said, “I’m not running for statewide office,” referring to Glassman’s answer.

He two also differed on whether Nancy Pelosi, the California Congresswoman, should continue as the leader of the party in the event Democrats regain a majority in November.

Glassman would not rule out voting for Pelosi saying, "I made it very clear I want to see all of the candidates who are running for speaker and I'll make the decision that's best for our community and for all of the people that serve throughout the district."

Hayes was far more direct, saying, "I would not vote for Nancy Pelosi."

Finally, both candidates have different factions of the state Democratic establishment backing them. Glassman attended a fundraiser in Washington DC organized by siting Congressmen John Larson, Rosa DeLauro, and Joe Courtney. While Hayes was urged to run for office by US Senator Chris Murphy who is seeking a second term in the Senate this Fall.

Hayes downplayed her support from Murphy, saying, “He's introduced me to people. But once I have to do something to make those people support me. I wouldn't give him that much credit."

The father of the 7-month-old infant who was found floating in the East River over the weekend has been taken into custody in Thailand and is due back in New York next week, the NYPD says.

The father, James Currie, 37, from Co-op City in the Bronx is expected to face charges of concealment of a human corpse in the alleged dumping of his baby, identified as Mason Saldana, authorities say. Additional charges could be filed pending an autopsy. A determination on the baby's cause of death isn't expected this week.

In a Wednesday press conference, NYPD Chief Dermont Shea said there were significant updates in the case over the past 24 hours and provided a timeline of the events leading up to the infant being discovered floating in the river.

The child, who was born in January, was exchanged between the mother and father at the mother’s residence around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. However, around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, the child’s father was seen leaving his home with a backpack covered with a blanket, fashioned as baby carrier, officials said, and it is believed the infant was already deceased at this time.

Currie was then seen walking in Lower Manhattan, between South Street Seaport and Wall Street Heliport, around 3:10 p.m. with the backpack, officials say.

The mother of the infant who was found floating in the East River over the weekend allegedly attempted to get in touch with the child’s father before sensing something was amiss and contacting authorities Monday night to report a custodial dispute.

During the "blood curdling" call to 911, the mother said the child was not dropped off at daycare, Shea said, adding that at some point she'd heard about the child in the water, feared the worst and started crying.

It was because of this call that authorities were able to identify the child found in the river.

On Monday, the father boarded a plane to Bangkok, Thailand, and was apprehended in Thailand. He is expected to return to New York sometime next week to face charges of concealment of a human corpse.

It's unclear if Currie has an attorney. 

The cause of death of the child has yet to be determined since additional testing is necessary, however, pending the results, Currie's charges could be upgraded, authorities say.

According to officials, there was a court-stipulated agreement for visitation involving the parents, who were not legally married, and the child, but there were no red flags.

The baby was discovered near the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge Sunday just after 4 p.m. A tourist from Oklahoma saw the child floating in the water and jumped in to bring him ashore, then tried to resuscitate him, witnesses and police said.

The boy, who was wearing only a diaper, did not survive.

Monte Campbell, the tourist from Stillwater, Oklahoma, who jumped into the water, said it was his wife Diana who first spotted the baby's body.

"She just called me over and said there was a baby in the water. I called 911. At that point I thought it was a doll," said Campbell. He jumped into the water and brought the baby ashore, performing CPR until help arrived.

Police said they moved the child from the embankment to the pedestrian walkway and continued CPR until an ambulance came. Diana Campbell said her husband didn't feel a pulse.

A backpack was floating near the baby, she said. It was also recovered.

Jennifer Williams can’t afford to work just one job.

In addition to teaching 10th grade English full time in Baltimore, the single mother works four side jobs, including a waitressing gig on nights and weekends. She also runs her school’s literary magazine, coaches volleyball and supervises the speech and debate team.

In the U.S., about 18 percent of public school teachers reported earning income from other jobs during the 2015-2016 school year, according to a June report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). They earned an average of $5,100 from that employment.

Previous survey data showed the rate had hovered around 16 percent in 2004, 2008 and 2012. (Only four of the last 13 teacher surveys asked teachers about outside jobs, said Maura Spiegelman, an NCES statistician.)

After a full day of teaching, Williams rushes to pick up her daughter from school and then drops her at home, with barely enough time to get to the waitressing job by 4:30 p.m. When she works the night shift, she’ll get home around 11 p.m. By then her daughter has made herself dinner and gone to bed.

“My kid becomes a latchkey kid,” Williams said of her 14-year-old. “I feel guilty that she is taking care of herself.

Williams' teaching salary is $50,000. She said she takes home about $34,000 after various deductions. It's far too low to make ends meet, so the income from her other jobs goes toward necessities.

Compared to other workers with college degrees, teacher pay has declined over the past several decades. According to a 2016 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), public school teachers’ wages were 17 percent lower than comparable workers in 2015, compared to just 1.8 percent lower in 1994.

This disparity amounts to a teacher pay gap, said economist Sylvia Allegretto, who co-authored the EPI report. Although college students are increasingly graduating with large amounts of student debt, the wage gap makes it even harder for teachers who take out loans to pay for their education. 

Allegretto fears this set of circumstances, along with broader budget cuts, is  dissuading prospective teachers from entering the field.

"Can we still attract the best and brightest?” Allegreto said in an interview. “Those teachers we really need to educate our children and future workforce? We’d like this to be an upstanding profession that people want to go into. Making that choice has become more difficult.”

Allegreto wasn’t surprised that three of the states with recent teacher strikes—Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina— also had the widest pay gaps in the country. Teachers there earned 63 to 65 cents for every dollar paid to other college graduates in 2015, according to EPI.

Kellyanne Brown, a high school government teacher, was one of about 20,000 teachers who participated in Arizona's statewide teacher walkouts at the end of April.

Brown has held second jobs in guest services at a movie theater and as a restaurant hostess. She said the odd hours affected her teaching.

“I would put off grading and lesson planning,” Brown said in a statement. “My prep is 7th hour and a lot of the times I would sleep at my desk cause I was so tired."

Brown wants people to know that teachers "aren't asking to get rich." 

“We just want enough so we don't have to have second jobs or sell plasma in order to pay for basic bills," she said.

"We make it through the month, but we’re pretty tapped out by the end of it," Lyon said. 

Williams has also struggled to make ends meet every month, even with the extra income. She had to request forbearance, halting payments on her student loans. Sometimes she puts the grocery bill on a credit card. She wishes she could spend more time with her daughter.

“Going into teaching I knew that teachers don’t make the most money,” Williams said. “I also understand we have a pension and benefits. But I didn’t think it would be a struggle like this.”

Police have arrested a suspect in an assault at a Hartford liquor store and said the man who was arrested admitted to the attacking the victim to rob the store. 

The robbery happened at Trinity Package Store, at 219 New Britain Ave. on July 6. 

Officers responded to the store at 5:04 p.m. that night and found the victim bleeding profusely. They said he had two large lacerations on his head and was transported to Hartford Hospital for emergency medical care, where he was later listed in stable condition, police said. 

Investigators found the homemade weapon -- three metal rods wrapped in a cloth and tied together with a shoelace. 

Major crimes detectives took over the investigation and 34-year-old Pawel Onyszczuk, of East Hartford, was identified as a person of interest, police said. 

West Hartford police contacted Hartford police on July 9 and told them their person of interest was in custody in connection to a home invasion incident in town. 

When Hartford investigators interviewed Onyszczuk, he confessed to his involvement in the assault and provided the detectives with a statement that said he’d hit the victim twice in the head, intending to render him unconscious so he could rob the store, according to police. 

But the victim yelled for help and Onyszczuk ran, fearing that police would be responding, according to a news release from police. 

Police obtained a warrant charging Onyszczuk with assault in the first degree and criminal attempted robbery in the first degree. Bond was set at $150,000. 

Police said Onyszczuk is incarcerated at the Hartford Correctional Center and he is being held on an accumulative bond of $310,000. 

One person was taken to the hospital after a car hit a tree in Enfield.

Enfield police said the crash happened on King Street.

The road has reopened.

A tree fell on a house in Mansfield Thursday morning. 

Officials said the tree fell on the house at 80 Meadowbrook Lane around 7:15 a.m. and the three family members who were home at the time were not injured. 

Power has been cut to the house. 

Officials said the weather did not bring down the tree.

Six people have been transported after a SEAT bus and a Subaru collided on Route 32 in Waterford and part of the road is closed.

Route 32 is closed between Donald Avenue and Red Cedar and an accident investigation team is at the scene.

Police said it appears the Subaru was turning left into Cumberland Farms, going toward Donald Avenue, and the SEAT bus was going straight toward Red Cedar when the collision happened.

Five people who were on the bus and the Subaru driver were transported. 

Police said the car was dragged. 

Check back for updates.

Tigger the tabby cat is back in the hands of his cat mom after being gone for seven full years.

“It was disbelief...even a couple of days later it was still belief that this cat was found and back home,” said Rebecca Collins West of Dennis.

She got the call last week.

“We had to listen to the message three times because we couldn’t believe that they actually found Tigger,” Collins West said.

That call came from the MSPCA on the Cape.

“The only reason they found him is because of the chip,” she said.

Collins West is now so grateful that she had that microchip implanted into Tigger’s neck when he was young.

He was one of several animals recently rescued from a home in Mashpee after the owner was moved to a treatment center.

The MSPCA ran the chip when they got him.

Collins West couldn’t wait to pick him up:

“He just stood up majestically and looked right at me,” she said.

It was an emotional scene:

“Everyone is crying...all the girls started crying, oh my God I can’t believe, I can’t believe.”

Collins West always thought he was alive and says Tigger must have strayed when she let him outside one day.

Tigger is now getting back to his routine, stealing his sister Hazelnut’s cat food.

He had some scabs and worms but is healing well and getting readjusted.

Collins West says she won’t be letting him out of the house anytime soon.

Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is hosting a "Free Fishing License Day" this Saturday, August 11.

"The designated 'Free Fishing License Day' is one of DEEP’s initiatives designed to connect people with outdoor activities and Connecticut’s natural resources," Susan Whalen, DEEP Deputy Commissioner, said in a statement. "'Free Fishing License Day' reflects how fishing is much more than catching fish. For many, the quality time spent connecting with friends and family outdoors is priceless."

Everyone 16 or older can fish for free, residents or non-residents, after getting the free one-day fishing license at www.ct.gov/deep/getmyfishinglicense.

Those who are 15 years or younger do not need a fishing license but can register using the same online system to receive a Youth Fishing Passport. This provides access to two fishing related activities and a list of sponsors who are offering discounts or free items to passport holders.

August 11 is also the 7th Annual Saltwater Fishing Day event in New London. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., there will be fishing and crabbing opportunities for the entire family at Fort Trumbull State Park on the Fishing Pier. The event is sponsored by DEEP's No Child Left Inside and the Connecticut Aquatic Resources Education programs.

State agencies and other organizations will be there to provide educational activities, exhibits and a touch tank with live marine species.

By combining the annual Saltwater Fishing Day with Free Fishing License Day, DEEP hopes to provide families the opportunity to plan an outing focused around fishing together as a family.

“We know many people would like to try saltwater fishing but may not know of an opportunity to do so. Combining Free Fishing License Day and Saltwater Fishing Day provides a great opportunity for the new or experienced angler to fish for marine species,” said Whalen.

NBC Connecticut meteorologists are tracking unsettled weather for the weekend. 

An area of low pressure will remain parked over New Jersey this weekend, which will result in some unsettled weather both Saturday and Sunday.

The area of low pressure will result in an easterly wind this weekend, which will lead to cloudy skies, heavy rain and scattered thunderstorms.

It appears Saturday will be more unsettled than Sunday with little to no sunshine and moderate to heavy rain starting in the morning and continuing through the afternoon.

The rain activity will become more scattered by Sunday with mostly cloudy skies. 

Humidity will increase once again by Friday afternoon and humid conditions will be present through the weekend and into next week.

Carla Provost, a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol, was officially appointed the agency's first female chief Thursday, more than a year after she was named acting chief, NBC News reported.

In becoming the Border Patrol’s 18th chief, Provost said, “I don’t know if it’s possible to be both humble and proud, but that’s the emotion I’m feeling today.”

Supporting the men and women in the force requires closing "some of these loopholes that are drawing people to bring their families and their children in a very treacherous trip to come into this country," Provost said. 

Roughly five percent of the Border Patrol’s officers are women, about the same ratio as when she joined the agency in 1995. “I believe this will help,” Provost said about her appointment. She said the Border Patrol is undertaking targeted recruitment in an effort to bring in more women.

Trees were taken down in Goodwin Park in Hartford Thursday morning after one fell on an 11-year-old boy as he was playing basketball earlier this week. 

Three tree removers took down trees that were marked.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin released a statement earlier this week that said, in part, that “although this tree was identified for removal, it was not identified as an emergency threat.”

A city forester said they only way to know for sure if a tree poses a threat is an internal examination.

As the 11-year-old boy recovers from injuries he sustained when the tree came down, foresters have been working to identify any more trees in Hartford that need to be pruned or removed and said they have identified around 100 out of more than 500,000 trees.