A resident of Fairfield and a resident of Newington have tested positive for West Nile virus infection and they are the first two human cases of WNV-associated illness identified in Connecticut this season, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

The patients are between 60 and 79 years old and became ill during the last week of July with encephalitis.

They were hospitalized and are recovering, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. One person remains hospitalized.

State officials said the people did not travel out of the state before becoming ill.

"The identification of two Connecticut residents with West Nile virus associated illness that required hospitalization underscores the potential seriousness of infection," Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Raul Pino said in a statement. "Using insect repellent, covering bare skin and avoiding being outdoors during the hours of dusk and dawn are effective ways to help keep you from being bitten by mosquitoes." 

Mosquitoes infected with West Nile have been found in 19 cities and towns across the state and Gov. Dannel Malloy said last week that recent tests show that infected mosquitoes are rising at levels that are higher than normal for this time of year. 

Mosquitoes infected with West Nile have been found in Bethany, Bridgeport, Darien, East Haven, Easton, Franklin, Greenwich, Hartford, Madison, Manchester, Meriden, New Canaan, New Haven, Stamford, Stratford, Waterbury, Waterford, West Haven, and Weston.

See the mosquito trapping and testing report here.

Tips for reducing mosquitoes around homes:

• Mosquitoes require water for reproduction. The following are measures that can help reduce mosquitoes: 
• Eliminate standing water suitable for mosquitoes. Dispose of water-holding containers, such as ceramic pots, used tires, and tire swings.
• Drill holes in the bottom of containers such as those used for recycling. 
• Clean clogged roof gutters. 
• Turn over objects that may trap water when not in use, such as wading pools and wheelbarrows. 
• Change water in bird baths on a weekly basis. 
• Clean and chlorinate swimming pools. When pools are not in use, use pool covers and drain when necessary. 

Tips for avoiding mosquito bites when outdoors:

• Be particularly careful at dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active.
• Wear shoes, socks, long pants, and long-sleeved shirts. Clothing material should be tightly woven.
• Use mosquito netting when sleeping outdoors.
• Consider the use of CDC-recommended mosquito repellents, containing DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, IR3535, or 2-undecanone, and apply according to directions, when it is necessary to be outdoors.
• When using DEET, use the lowest concentration effective for the time spent outdoors (for example, 6 percent lasts approximately two hours and 20 percent for four hours) and wash treated skin when returning indoors. Do not apply under clothing, to wounds or irritated skin, the hands of children, or to infants less than 2 months old. 

Also, be sure door and window screens are tight fitting and in good repair to avoid mosquito bites when indoors. 

The bridge at Moulton Falls is a popular hangout spot during the summer in Washington state. Many people come to take the 60-foot plunge into the water below, despite a sign warning visitors not to jump or dive from the bridge.

But a video that recently went viral on YouTube shows the dangers of what can happen when the fun goes wrong.

On Tuesday, 16-year-old Jordan Holgerson visited Moulton Falls with some friends. Video shows Holgerson standing on the bridge's ledge in her bathing suit while someone in the background counts down. Holgerson is heard saying "no," but a person pushes her off the ledge, hurtling her flailing into the river below.

"I could have died easily," Holgerson said in an interview with NBC affiliate KGW.

Holgerson said she tried to push herself forward as she fell, "so I could be straight." But "that didn't really work," the teen said. She struck the water chest-first, breaking five ribs and puncturing her lungs.

Holgerson said she couldn't breathe when she hit the water, but was rescued by another swimmer and rushed to a hospital.

Suffering a lot of bruising as well, Holgerson said she is now in "a lot of pain."

Washington trauma surgeon MaryClare Sarff agreed that Holgerson could have died. When someone falls from a distance three times his or her height, Sarff told KGW, there is a 50 percent chance the person dies. Holgerson's fall was much greater than three times her height.

"This could have been horrible," Sarff said of Holgerson's fall. "She fell into water, which people might say is not that bad because it's water. But when you're falling ... from that height, the water is like concrete."

The video of Holgerson's fall has since been removed from YouTube, and the sheriff's department is investigating the incident. Holgerson said she knows the person who pushed her and that the person has apologized.

Electric Boat, the Groton-based shipbuilder, has struck a five-year deal to relocate hundreds of employees to a facility owned by the Mashantucket-Pequot Tribe in North Stonington.

Straddling the North Stonington-Stonington line, Eagle Park is a 125,000 square-foot facility.

”It’s exciting when we have buildings that already exist, we want to bring life into them, so it’s an exciting thing for the town and the tribe,” said Mike Urgo, North Stonington’s First Selectman.

According to Electric Boat and tribal officials, the space will be repurposed over the coming months as the company moves in, relocating 400 designers and engineers from the Fort Trumbull facility in New London.

”It’s in line with what we’ve been trying to do and also what we kind of expected to happen,” Urgo explained. “There’s a lot of activity in the area and this certainly (is) one of the first catalysts to help, I think, attract more to the area.”

Urgo said the five-year deal makes sense given Eagle Park’s key location on Route 2, off the Interstate 95 corridor.

“It’s a really perfect location for a lot of potential businesses to call home, very convenient for people who want to work here,” he said.

The move could also translate to more business for local eateries, such as Goodies Family Restaurant, which is less than two miles away.

”I would really like a really busy lunch hour,” said owner Cheryl Pelchat. “We’re not too busy here for lunch, breakfast extremely busy, so it would be very nice to get more clientele for the lunch. I’ll be sure to send them my takeout menus.”

Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former "Apprentice" contestant who became a White House aide, claims in her new book that President Donald Trump is a "racist" who used the N-word, NBC News reported.

In her upcoming tell-all book entitled "Unhinged," to be published next week and obtained by NBC News directly from the publisher, Manigault Newman alleges that Trump was caught on a microphone saying the N-word "multiple times" during the filming of "The Apprentice," and says there is a tape to prove her allegation.

Manigault Newman wrote that she did not hear Trump use the slur, nor has she listened to the alleged tape. She cites three sources as having told her of the existence of the tape and what Trump says on it.

The Guardian first reported Friday on the quotes in the book and said it had obtained a copy. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the "book is riddled with lies and false accusations."

A Milwaukee woman died from a rare infection that may have been caused by a nip from a puppy, her family and doctors said, marking the second such case of the infection reported in Wisconsin this summer.

Sharon Larson had just gotten her new dog Bo in June when the pooch nipped at her, causing a small cut.

But when Larson quickly developed severe flu-like symptoms that lasted for days, the 58-year-old was rushed to the hospital. Within two days, she had died, her family said.

“I was told she could get struck by lightning four times and live, win the lottery twice,” her husband Dan Larson told NBC affiliate WTMJ. “That’s how rare this is supposed to be."

Doctors told the family Larson tested positive for Capnocytophaga, a bacteria commonly found in the mouths of dogs and cats.

It is the same bacterial infection doctors believe a Wisconsin man contracted from a dog lick in late June. Surgeons have had to amputate part of Greg Manteufel's legs and hands after he contracted a rare blood infection caused by Capnocytophaga canimorsus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes adults 40 years old and older are more likely to contract the rare infection, and risk factors include alcoholism and weak immune system related to cancer, HIV and diabetes. Another key risk factor is not having a spleen.

Dr. Silvia Munoz-Price, an infectious disease specialist with Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin, told TMJ4 the number of such cases are not reported "because they are fairly infrequent."

“We are exposed to many, many, many organisms every day and most of us - the majority, 99.99 percent of people - never get infection,” she said.

Dogs and cats can test positive for the bacteria one day and not the next, officials said. But the pets are not prescribed medicine for it because the bacteria is a natural part of the animals’ systems.

“I feel like I got robbed. Lost my right arm. My best friend,” Dan Larson said.

Glastonbury police have arrested a local man who is accused of soliciting nude photos of girls on forcing himself on one of them sexually.

Police received the report on April 15, investigated and arrested Nicholas Cusimano, 21, of Glastonbury, on Aug. 2.

He was charged with two counts of sexual assault in the second degree, sexual assault in the fourth degree, promoting a minor in an obscene performance and three counts of risk of injury to a minor.

He is due in court on Aug. 15.

A Hartford police officer has been placed on administrative leave and an internal investigation is underway after he allegedly was recorded telling people he was “trigger happy” and warned them not to run or fight, according to police. 

Officials from the Hartford Police Department said in a statement that they learned Friday morning that an officer “was evidently recorded” telling a group of people during a field interview that they would be checked for drugs and weapons and that if they tried to flee or fight, he was “a little trigger happy, I’m not going to lie.” 

He also said he didn’t want to have to shoot somebody if they did run of or fight, so they shouldn’t “do anything stupid,” according to police.

Hartford's police chief identified the officer as Sgt. Steve Barone.

Officials from the police department said that the statements, regardless of the context or the intent, are “unacceptable and represent a fundamental disregard for the conduct” the department expects. 

“We look at it from the perspective of the person on the other end of the field interview, and to hear those words isn’t just scary, it projects an image of law enforcement officers who take use of force lightly. As I hope you know, we do not take any use of force lightly as a Department,” the statement from police said.

It is not the first time Barone has been disciplined by the department.  He was one of several officers suspended for his conduct following a June 2016 pursuit that ended in West Hartford.  The officers had been accused of using excessive force after placing two suspects in custody.  The encounter was recorded on a police dashcam. 

A 21-year-old Thompson man is accused of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl while he was babysitting her and he has been charged with first-degree sexual assault.

The girl’s adoptive parents contacted police on Feb. 10 after the little girl told police that 21-year-old Derick Mercado-Labonte exposed his “private” to her and told her to touch it, according to the arrest warrant application.

When police interviewed him, Mercado-Labonte blamed the child, according to the arrest warrant application, then said he took full responsibility for letting the girl touch his genitals and for touching hers.

The child provided police with details about the alleged assault and said Mercado-Labonte told her not to tell anyone, but she had to tell her mother the truth, the arrest warrant says.

She also said Mercado-Labonte watched a “very bad video” and showed it to her.

Police took the victim’s clothing and conducted a forensic examination.

Mercado-Labonte has been charged with first-degree sexual assault, illegal contact with a child under 13 and risk of injury to a child.

Bond was set at $500,000 and he is due in court on Aug. 10.

Violence stemming from protests over the past four months has made Nicaragua, once the safest Central American country, now one of the most dangerous.  

The U.S. on July 6 ordered non-emergency government personnel to leave the country, encouraging citizens to do the same.

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega accused the Organization of American States (OAS), which is now investigating the unrest, of taking "right-wing measures" against his government and of being directly supported by the U.S. Others have cast the blame back at Ortega.

This has been the bloodiest protest in Nicaragua since the civil war ended in 1990 where close to 40,000 people were murdered. So far, 448 people have been killed, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. 

Here’s what else to know:

The protests
Peaceful demonstrations began on April 12 when university students in Managua took the streets to protest the lack of response from the government to wildfires in the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve. The protest grew two days later when thousands joined the students against the government’s intention to cut pensions and social security, a policy that would greatly affect the elderly. Protesters and human rights activists claim people were beaten up by the opposition.

During the first days, several people were killed including policemen and many unarmed students. Angel Gahona, a journalist who reported on police abuse and drug trafficking, was killed while livestreaming the protests.

Although Ortega canceled the pensions policy a few days later, riots protesting violence and demanding the president’s resignation continued. Ortega, once a leftist icon, is now being compared to Anastacio Somoza, the right-wing dictator he fought against during the Sandinista Revolution. “Ortega y Somoza son la misma cosa” (Ortega and Somoza are the same thing) is the rallying cry.

Since the protests began, the government, along with the Sandinista Youth, have been accused of murdering, torturing, jailing and kidnapping hundreds of opponents. While the protests have ceased due to the brutality, the country is in such state of emergency that it is causing Nicaraguans to flee. 

Ortega has blamed protesters on gangs violently attacking one another. But the United Nations claimed Ortega’s government committed crimes against human rights, including killings, torture and freedom of expression.

A few days ago, the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights closed its offices after receiving what it called “alarming threats.” The group, which has been reporting violence in the country for the past four months, said its workers have experienced death threats over the phone and other sorts of harassment. 

Daniel Ortega
Once known as “Comandante Daniel,” Daniel Ortega, 72, became first known for his role in the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, when Sandinistas overthrew the right-wing Somoza dynasty that ruled Nicaragua from 1936 to 1979. Since then, Ortega has climbed his way to power. He was elected president in 1984 and after losing elections in the 1990s was elected president again in 2006 following a divided vote. 

When he took office in 2006, Mr. Ortega, once a Marxist, vowed to be open to foreign investment in the country and sought reconciliation with opponents to fight poverty. Today, he has power over the four branches of the government and is head of the police.

His wife, vice-president Rosario Murillo, is known by many as "the power behind the throne." After appointing herself as "communications chief" and leading the role since 2006, she took office as vice-president in January 2017. Ortega was criticized by opponents for establishing an authoritarian dynasty. Murillo's daughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez Murillo, accused Ortega, her stepfather, of sexually harrasing her for many years since she was 11.  She tried to pursue legal action, however, Ortega has immunity as member of the Nicaraguan congress. Murillo denied the charges and claimed she was "embarrassed" her own daughter would claim such a thing. 

Ortega and his wife are compared by many to the Somoza dynasty and are accused of being corrupt, repressive, authoritarian and brutal.

Response
Although Murillo and Ortega have blamed the violence on a “diabolic oppression” led by anti-Ortega right-wing groups, two weeks ago, 13 Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, called for immediate end to repression. Additionally, The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Organization of American States are further investigating the unrest. 

In an interview with journalist Max Blumenthal Ortega said, "what weakens the OEA the most is their revengeful attitude from right-wing Latin governments that have taken over most of Latin America."

On July 15, at least 10 were killed throughout the country, including two students trapped overnight inside a church while hiding from gunfire from pro-government supporters. Nicaragua’s Catholic Church had served as a mediator between the government and protesters. The church has since said it supports protesters due to the increasing violence and repression.

The opposition, which includes mainly students, clergy, activists, rural workers and business people, has claimed they will keep fighting to remove Ortega from power and attain a true democracy. In a recent essay published en El País by Nicaraguan author Sergio Ramírez, he wrote: "It's difficult not to believe that in Nicaragua, history is repeating itself with astonishing, terrifying accuracy."

The author stressed the importance of non-violent protest to make a real change: “If a transition from dictatorship to democracy can be achieved without civil war, we will avoid the risk-so often a reality- that from the country’s ruins a new tyrant will rise up to take the place of the tyrant who was violently overthrown.” 

Attorneys for Andrew Miller, a former aide of ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone, said that Miller has been held in contempt of court for refusing to appear in front of the grand jury hearing testimony in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, his lawyers said Friday.

Miller had earlier fought to quash a subpoena from the special counsel's office but was ordered to appear Friday morning. He did not, said his lawyer Paul Kamenar outside U.S. District Court in Washington, and was "held in contempt, which we asked him to be in order for us to appeal the judge’s decision to the court of appeals."

His lawyers are challenging the legitimacy of the special counsel and how he was appointed. The U.S. District Court rejected the argument, and his lawyers are appealing.

Another Stone associate, Kristin Davis, is set to testify before the grand jury Friday afternoon. Known as the Manhattan Madam for providing prostitutes to New York's elite, Davis worked for Stone beginning in August 2017. She has done web design and office tasks for Stone's political consultancy and said she would have little to no information on the Trump presidential campaign as she was serving a prison sentence in 2016 for a charge unrelated to her role in providing escort services.

The mother of Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, four years ago, said Friday that she is running for city council in the St. Louis suburb, NBC News reported.

Lezley McSpadden announced her candidacy along Canfield Drive, near the exact spot where her son, who was black, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, 2014, by a white police officer.

"Almost four years ago to this day, I ran down this very street, and my son was covered in a sheet," McSpadden said, fighting back tears. "I learned to walk again, and this is one of my first steps." 

McSpadden said she plans to focus on three issues: community policing, economic equality and access to health care for Ferguson's young children. Anticipating that some people might ask why she was qualified to seek elected office, she said, "If a mother had to watch her son lay on the street for four hours, and watch our community be completely disrespected by the people we elected, what would you do? You would stand up and you would fight, too."

Emergency crews have responded to Haddam Meadows State Park in Haddam for a water emergency. 

Valley Shore dispatchers said crews were sent to the area of the boat launch. 

No additional information was immediately available on the person’s condition. 

Check back for updates.

It’s been 50 years since Carl Brannan died, and all that time his remains have sat unclaimed.

Without a family to say goodbye, the military stepped in to make sure the sacrifices that he and three others made are not forgotten.

Friday the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs, along with the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association, held a funeral at the state veterans cemetery with full military honors for Brannan and fellow sailor Charles Noonan, who both died in Darian, along with Airman Arthur Chappell who passed away in Meriden, and Soldier George Church, who died in Wallingford.

The four men served in World War II and died in Connecticut between 1966 and 2001. These men, who served their country proudly, left this world without loved ones to remember them.

Tasked with taking their unclaimed remains to their final resting place Friday were fellow veterans.

“It just doesn’t seem right that any veteran should go to their grave totally unaccompanied and alone,” said retired First Lt. Eileen Torpey-Richard, who served as a nurse with the Army.

“We’re all brothers and sisters in the service and so we work together and we honor each other,” added retired Petty Officer Third Class Kelvin Bunnell, who served with the Navy.

They were among dozens of Connecticut veterans and active duty members who crowded the state’s veterans cemetery for the service.

“We will never leave a fallen comrade behind,” Connecticut Veterans Affairs Commissioner Thomas Saadi told the gathered crowd. “These departed brothers stepped forward to fight for freedom and in doing so held our flag high as a symbol of liberty, freedom, and justice not only for Americans but for millions across the globe.”

“They served with us, they’re our comrades,” said Torpey-Richard.

They were posthumously awarded their Connecticut Wartime service medals, a final act to honor the service and sacrifice of these four men.

“To ensure that those who were once forgotten are never forgotten again,” Saadi explained.

Since 2008, the state has made it a goal of providing these military men and women the dignity of a burial with full military honors. Friday’s ceremony was the fifth one since those protocols, the first of its kind in the nation, were put into place.

A 25-year-old Danbury man was killed in a motorcycle crash Thursday.

Police said 25-year-old Samuel Hyde was riding his Honda CBR 954RR motorcycle west on Backus Avenue when the motorcycle collided with a Honda CRV near the entrance of the Danbury Fair Mall. Hyde was rushed to Danbury Hospital, but he did not survive his injuries. The 64-year-old driver of the SUV was not seriously hurt.

Investigators believe Hyde was traveling at a high rate of speed leading up to the crash.

The crash remains under investigation. Anyone with information should contact the Danbury Police Department Traffic Division at 203-797-2157.

Two 18-year-old men are heroes after they came across a man struggling in the water earlier this month.

Friends Joseph Lombard and Christian Sandor were hiking at Indian Well State Park in Shelton right after a heavy downpour earlier this month. They saw a man in distress near the falls.

“That’s when he went under,” Lombard said. “And a minute later, he popped up floating face down. He didn’t have a pulse. He was completely pale, no color, and his friend was screaming.”

They began CPR. Sandor called 911. He credits the Boy Scouts for knowing what to do.

“I was a scout for about 12 years,” Sandor said. “It’s all the training you never thought you’d had to use.”

Lombard, a member of the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, was able to bring 35-year-old helicopter mechanic, Fred Santoro, back to life. LifeStar airlifted him to the hospital.

“I was just looking out the window a lot of at the blades,” Santoro said. “I was just happy to fly again and also I was just thinking, OK lock this in your brain don’t ever want this to happen again.”

All three men now stay in touch, and they are planning to meet again soon.

“I want to say thank you to them,” Santoro said. “They did a great job that day. Their training kicked in and they handled it well. A lot of people can get flustered in situations like that, and they didn’t.”

When nearly 22,0000 students go back to New Haven Public Schools at the end of the month, the district’s budget deficit will be smaller than at the start of summer break, school leaders said Friday morning during a press conference at Wilbur Cross High School.

Working with Mayor Toni Harp (D), the Board of Alders, Board of Education and teachers’ union, Superintendent Dr. Carol Birks said they have been able to reduce the major deficit by more than $10 million.

“It is our legal responsibility so we have to make critical decisions to close the budget,” Dr. Birks said.

By closing three schools, making staff reductions and other difficult decisions, New Haven Public Schools now have an $8.4 million deficit. That budget shortfall was more than $19 million in March.

“We have to make decisions that may hurt just like in your own households,” Birks said.

NBC Connecticut asked the superintendent if that could mean more layoffs of teachers and staff.

“So ideally I want to say I hope not,” she said, “but I can’t say yes or no at this point cause we’re continuing to look and see how we can make certain adjustments.”

As of today, the number of full-time employees that won’t return to work is down from 36 to 32, Birks said, adding the number continues to fluctuate.

To make up for some of the guidance counselors that are losing their jobs, Dr. Birks said the district added five new social workers.

“We’ve made sure that our high schools are adequately staffed in terms of school counselors,” she said, “and we have provided each elementary school with a social worker to meet students social emotional needs. We did not have that across the district.”

Parent Andrew Conroe said he was pleased with his daughter’s kindergarten teacher at a New Haven Public School.

“The more money that’s flowing into the public schools the better,” he said.

But the reality is the school district where his daughter is about to begin first grade is still in the red, and the superintendent said more cuts will need to be made.

“I think it depends on wise cutting and what they’re cutting. I don’t want to see things like teachers and arts and music and guidance counselors cut out for the sake of saving money,” Conroe said.

The district also eliminated 14 administrative positions by reassigning most of them to new roles, Birks said.

Students go back to New Haven Public Schools on Aug. 30.

An 11-year-old boy was hospitalized after being hit by a falling tree in Hartford’s Goodwin Park Tuesday, and the accident has led to questions about the city’s response to decaying trees tagged to come down.

“We knew that they were unhealthy trees and unhealthy enough that they ought to come down,” said Jack Hale, chairman of Hartford’s Tree Advisory Commission.

But Hale stopped short of saying Tuesday’s accident at Goodwin Park could have been prevented.

“I’m not gonna say that. Who knows whether that particular tree would have been taken down soon enough to avoid it,” said Hale.

Still, Hale said the loss of the city’s full-time forestry crew, which was laid off by the city’s previous administration, is bogging down the process to take down decaying trees. Now, the work is done with contractors on an as-needed basis.

“The fact is we need people all the time,” said Hale.

Under city ordinance there is a 10-day waiting period to allow for public input about the removal of a particular tree. After that, there’s a fairly lengthy process to bring that tree down. First a work order is created. A purchase order is produced. A contractor is chosen and then that contractor has to schedule the work.

“You’ve still have at least a month to go through all that,” said Hale.

That was just too much time for the tree that fell toward a group of children playing basketball Tuesday. While it was tagged for eventual removal it was not believed to be in imminent danger of falling.

The Hartford mayor’s office told NBC Connecticut that cost had no bearing on the tree’s removal. A spokesperson said because the decay was on the inside it wasn’t tagged as an immediate threat as that threat was not apparent from the outside.

“I was so shocked,” said Marisela Valez of Hartford.

Velez often takes her granddaughter to the park. Zerenity Seda said she likes climbing the trees. Now, grandma is encouraging her to play elsewhere.

“The kids are so special to us that we need to take care of them,” said Velez.

As the pair sat in the park, the sound of chainsaws buzzed nearby.

Since the accident, crews have been busy removing tagged trees. The city says there’s no wait for trees that pose an immediate threat and in fact the city removed 10 trees prior to the accident without going through the lengthy approval process.

The spokesperson went on to say that the city will continue the previous administration’s policy of using contractors on an as-needed basis given the city’s resources.

So far, 230 trees have been tagged for immediate take-down at a cost of $100,000 or more from the city coffers, according to the spokesperson.

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to begin confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Sept. 4, Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced Friday.

Grassley expects the hearings to last three to four days, his office said, with opening statements delivered on Sept. 4 and the questioning of Kavanaugh to begin on Sept. 5, NBC News reported.

The Judiciary panel has received more than 184,000 pages of records from Kavanaugh’s work as a White House lawyer and his work for Independent Counsel Ken Starr.

Colchester police are trying to locate a missing woman who hasn’t been heard from in 48 hours.

Crews are searching for 23-year-old Brooke Rafala. She is described as 5-foot-2, 90 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen near McDonald Road in Colchester and was wearing black yoga pants.

Authorities said her family hasn't heard from her in 48 hours and are concerned.

Police ask that people avoid the area that search efforts are underway to avoid interfering with K9 teams out looking.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts should contact Connecticut State Police Troop K at 860-465-5400.

With the primary just four days away, gubernatorial hopeful Democrat Joe Ganim is bearing down on new accusations surfacing against his opponent Ned Lamont.

Ganim claims high-level Democrats may have illegally helped Ned Lamont gather voter information from other campaigns.

The story was first reported in the Hartford Courant.

Now Ganim is threatening to file a complaint as soon as Monday with Connecticut’s Elections Enforcement Commission.

“The Lamont campaign it falls on their lap. They're the beneficiaries of this information- survey information - they need to come clean with all of us before primary day,” Ganim said.

Marc Bradley, Ned Lamont’s campaign manager, responded with the following statement.

"Joe Ganim doesn't understand the meaning of honesty and integrity and he doesn't deserve a shred of public trust. Joe lives in a world where coercing city employees and city contractors for campaign contributions is the norm, and playing fast and loose with the facts is standard operating procedure. This false smear on Ned is nothing more than Joe Ganim's swan song in his campaign for Governor. This is a critical election and we are confident that Democratic voters will stand with Ned to bring real change to Hartford."