In-N-Out Burger's recent $25,000 donation to the California Republican Party has tested the loyalty among some of the burger chain's many fans in the Golden State. 

According to a public filing on the California Secretary of State’s website, In-N-Out made the donation Monday.

The donation made its way to thousands of people’s Twitter feeds on Wednesday and, shortly after, the hashtag #BoycottInNOut was born.

California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman called for the boycott, writing on Twitter: “It’s time to #BoycottInNOut — let Trump and his cronies support these creeps … perhaps animal style!"

As news stories about the boycott spread, the California Democratic Party's communications director, John Vigna, said that Bauman's tweet was his own personal view and didn't reflect the official stance of the California Democratic Party, The Los Angeles Times reported.

In-N-Out, which started in Baldwin Park, California, in 1948 by Harry Snyder and Esther Snyder, now has more than 330 locations across California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Utah. Most In-N-Out restaurants are in California. 

The company, which displays Bible verses on some of its packaging, has contributed to Republican causes in the past. According to the Sacramento Bee, it donated $30,000 to the California GOP in 2017.

But it also gave the pro-business PAC, “Californians for Jobs & A Strong Economy,” $80,000 in 2017. The PAC has worked to elect moderate California Democrats to office, according to the Bee. 

The official California Republican Party Twitter account was among those who panned the boycott campaign. The group tweeted that while Bauman "attacks an all-around great company, which is generous to both parties, CA leads the way in poverty, homelessness, unaffordability, traffic & underperforming schools. Oh, and violent crime is rising. But let's talk burgers instead."

California Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox also weighed in, sharing a tweet that included a picture of him outside an In-N-Out location.

"There’s nothing more Californian than In-N-Out Burger," he wrote. "Great lunch today in #Fresno. If .@GavinNewsom is nervous debating me on CA issues - maybe a friendly Double Double vs Caviar joust?"

In a statement to CNBC, In-N-Out Burger Executive Vice President Arnie Wensinger said the company "made equal contributions to both Democratic and Republican Political Action Committees in the state of California. For years, In-N-Out Burger has supported lawmakers who, regardless of political affiliation, promote policies that strengthen California and allow us to continue operating with the values of providing strong pay and great benefits for our Associates."

On Twitter, discussion of the donations included plenty of snark amid the debate over whether a boycott was justified. 

"This is the best California publicity Shake Shack could ever ask for," one Twitter user wrote.

@NersesAposhian tweeted: "Wait... does this mean California liberals (basically most of the state) won’t eat at In-N-Out anymore? Shorter lines?!"

Another person tweeted, "This really bums me out because I’m a regular customer... BUT I cannot spent money with a company that supports the current GOP! #BoycottInNOut."

An Alabama lawmaker however invited the burger chain to his state with open arms. "Hey #InNOutBurger c'mon to Alabama!" Republican state Senator Phil Williams tweeted Thursday. "We love burgers, and we love #Republicans!"

Check out some more tweets below:

A majority of voters say that it is not appropriate for professional football players to kneel during the national anthem to protest racial inequality in the United States, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that comes before the start of the NFL season. But the poll found stark divides along partisan and racial lines.

Overall, 54 percent of voters called kneeling during the anthem inappropriate, while 43 percent said it was appropriate.

Eighty-nine percent of Trump voters called it inappropriate, while 76 percent of Clinton voters disagreed.

Independents called the protests inappropriate by a margin of about 15 points.

Seven in 10 black voters supported the protests, compared to just 38 percent of white voters.

Fifty-one percent of Hispanics said kneeling was not appropriate.

Police have found two children with their biological mother after the kids were taken from a home where their foster mother was shot in southwest Miami-Dade Friday morning.

Miami-Dade Police Sgt. Carlos Rosario said the incident happened just after 5 a.m. when a man and woman went to the home in the Richmond Heights area near 136th Street and Jackson Street and demanded to take the two children from the 77-year-old foster mom, identified as Wendy Edmond.

Edmond refused, a struggle ensued, and Edmond was shot multiple times while the man and woman fled in a white sedan with the two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, Rosario said. Edmond was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was in stable condition.

Rosario said detectives worked to find the two children and their biological mother, 34-year-old Candi Johnson, who does not have legal custody of the kids. Johnson and the children were found hours later in the area of 87th Street and Northwest 11th Avenue, officials said.

Johnson was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Friday night on charges of attempted first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, two counts of conspiracy to kidnap and armed burglary, online booking records show.

Officials said they are still looking for the man who was at the home and possibly a third man.

"This is a very active investigation," Rosario said.

Police are working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Department of Children and Families in the investigation.

Police placed the children in DCF custody. DCF officials said the children are known to the child welfare system.

"The horrific attack on this foster mother is unfathomable. We have been in contact with the victim’s family and will continue to provide support as she recovers," DCF said in a statement.

State police have arrested a New York man who is accused of trespassing at the Hotchkiss School, a boarding school in Salisbury, early Friday morning.

Police said school security staff contacted them just before 1 a.m. and reported a trespasser and troopers from Troop B responded to the campus and began searching for the trespasser.

Troopers took 59-year-old Alexander Gimpelson into custody. Police and the school then did a headcount to make sure everyone on campus was safe.

Authorities do not believe Gimpelson entered any school building.

He was charged with criminal attempt, burglary in the third degree; first-degree criminal trespass; and disorderly conduct.

Bond was set at $50,000.

Police are urging residents to secure door and windows of their homes and immediately report any suspicious activity.

Police are investigating a robbery at a bank at the People’s Bank branch inside Stop and Shop in Monroe. 

Police said they responded to the bank inside the supermarket on Route 111 at 6:50 p.m. on Wednesday. 

The Connecticut Bankers Reward Association is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect. 

Anyone who witnessed the robbery or has information is asked to call the department at 203-261-3622.

Students from Plainfield Memorial School are starting the school year in a new school building today after fire damaged at least a dozen classrooms, the cafeteria and library around two weeks before the beginning of the new school year.

Hundreds of fourth and fifth graders headed to the former Killingly High School which is around 11 miles away from their school.

The community pulled together to make the transition for the students as easy as possible.

”When we came in on Monday the school hadn’t been used in quite a while and all the teachers were just in here, rolling up their sleeves, getting their hands dirty and really just trying to put everything together for the kids,” Michael Broughton, a Plainfield parent, said.

Parents and community members gathered outside the high school to greet and cheer students on as they arrived for their first day.

“They opened their hearts and their doors, and we’re doing our best to respect that and show them that we can add a little bit. When we leave, we hope they’re going to feel they have a wonderful learning space they might choose to use for another purpose,” Superintendent Kenneth DiPietro, of Plainfield Public Schools, said.

To accommodate the students, the school day starts at 8:30 a.m., 15 minutes later than usual because the children will ride the same buses to Plainfield Central Middle School and then be bused from there.

The school district anticipates the renovations at Plainfield Memorial School will take about four months, so students could be back in the building by December.

NBC News has denied accusations by one of its former producers that the network blocked investigative reporting about a series of sexual harassment claims against media mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The former producer, Rich McHugh, who had worked with writer Ronan Farrow on a story detailing accusations against the Hollywood film producer, told The New York Times that Farrow was ordered to stop work on the investigation.

According to the Times article, published late Thursday, McHugh said the handling of the matter was "a massive breach of journalistic integrity," and that the order to end filming came from "the very highest levels of NBC." McHugh left the network earlier this month.

NBC News disputes McHugh's comments, saying in a statement, "The assertion that NBC News tried to kill the Weinstein story while Ronan Farrow was at NBC News, or even more ludicrously, after he left NBC News, is an outright lie."

NBC News says it disagreed because Farrow "did not yet have a single victim of — or witness to — misconduct by Weinstein who was willing to be identified." Dissatisfied with that decision, Farrow chose to leave for a print outlet that he said was willing to publish immediately, according to an NBC spokesperson.

Farrow did not respond to an NBC News request for comment.

The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the agency has launched a "major operation to investigate and address" the "troubling" finding of a cancer-causing agent that may be contaminating a growing number of medications used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure.

In a joint statement Thursday, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), said they have developed a multidisciplinary task force to investigate trace amounts of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a "probable human carcinogen," detected in some generic versions of the medication valsartan.

The initial recall in July has now been expanded to include five manufacturers and other companies who repackage the affected valsartan products under a different name, and officials warned Thursday more products may need to be recalled. A third-party supplied the valsartan contained in the recall. The FDA recently updated the list of products affected and the list of those unaffected. 

"At the same time, the FDA is working to make certain that patients have access to the treatment that they need," the joint statement said. "Currently, more than half of all valsartan products on the market are being recalled. But prescribers can find a similar replacement product within the same class to substitute for patients who require this medication."

The FDA said it is working with companies to take "swift action" to pull any products found with unacceptable amounts of NDMA from the U.S. market. The agency also said manufacturers would not have been testing for NDMA in valsartan because there was no anticipation such levels would be evident. 

"Recognizing these risks is based on a deep understanding of the chemistry involved in drug manufacturing, and the theoretical risk that an impurity could be a by-product of an essential step used in the manufacture of an active ingredient," the statement said. "When these impurities are identified, there are ways to re-engineer manufacturing processes to find pathways that don’t create these by-products."

It continued: "As we develop a better understanding of the root cause of NDMA formation, and develop a way to detect NDMA in valsartan or other ARBs, we can ensure that appropriate testing is performed in the future."

The FDA also said that while millions of Americans take blood pressure medication, the risk of many of them developing cancer because of the NDMA exposure is fairly low. CDER toxicologists and chemists estimated that if 8,000 people took the highest valsartan dose from NDMA-affected medicines every day for four years, which is the period of time officials believe the affected products have been on the U.S. market, there may be one extra case of cancer beyond the regular average cancer rate of Americans. 

Patients are urged to look at the drug name and company name on the label of their prescription bottles to determine whether a specific product has been recalled. If the information is not on the bottle, patients should contact the pharmacy that dispensed the medicine to find out the company name.

If a patient is taking one of the recalled medicines, they should follow the recall instructions each specific company provided, which are available on the FDA’s website.

If a patient's medicine is included in the recall, he or she should contact his or her health care professional to discuss treatment options, which may include another valsartan product this recall doesn't affect or an alternative option.

The agency encourages patients and health care professionals to report any adverse reaction to the FDA’s MedWatch program.

In the meantime, the FDA said it will continue to improve its procedures for guarding against such impurity risks. 

"We will use the information that we learn from our investigation into valsartan to strengthen our oversight," the statement said. 

Read more about the agency's probe and NDMA here. 

The Village Voice, the United States’ first alternative weekly newspaper, is suspending editorial content, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.

The end of the fabled New York City outlet -- which was founded in 1955 -- was announced in a conference call on Friday afternoon, according to the Review, which also obtained audio of the interaction.

In it, CEO Peter Barbey, told employees that half the staff would be let go while the other half would stay on for an archive project.

“Today is kind of a sucky day. Due to the business realities, we are going to stop publishing Village Voice new material,” said Barbey on the call.

It wasn’t clear what the archive project would entail, but the Columbia Journalism Review reports that Barbey referred to meetings with “other entities.”

“I bought the Village Voice to save it. This isn’t exactly how I thought it was going to end up, and I’m still trying to save the Village Voice,” he said in the call.

NBC New York has reached out to the Voice seeking comment. 

The editorial suspension of the Voice comes a little less than a year after it stopped publishing a weekly newspaper. It's just the latest salvo in a barrage of layoffs and closures that have besieged the newspaper and alt-weekly industries in recent years.

A former University of Connecticut graduate school employee must go before a state panel to determine if she committed ethics violations.

Charmane Thurmand worked as a diversity officer with the UConn graduate school for more than four years.

She resigned after being accused by the university of using her position to financially benefit her husband.

NBC Connecticut Investigates first reported the investigation last year when she resigned from her job.

A judge has ruled the Office of State Ethics has established probable cause that Thurmand inappropriately used her position at the university to award her husband a fellowship that he was not eligible for, valued at over $50,000.

An audit had determined Thurmand’s husband, Martinus Evans, never applied for the money.

The two alleged violations by Thurmand each have a maximum penalty of $10,000.

We left messages for Thurmand, and the attorney believed to be representing her in the ethics case, but have not heard back.

Attorney James Brewer, who is representing Thurmand in a federal discrimination lawsuit she’s filed against UConn, says his client is the victim in all of this.

The lawsuit claims UConn discriminated against Thurmand because of her race, subjected her to unequal treatment, and gave defamatory statements about her to two newspapers and NBC Connecticut.

Brewer told us by email that, “These ‘ethics’ administrators are defendants who conspired with the defendant UConn to violate my client’s civil rights. This administrative agency has shown bias throughout and the true outcome will be determined in our lawsuit where all the defendants will have to answer, not in this one sided kangaroo court.”

UConn says it does not comment on matters that are the subject of pending litigation.

UConn Police said they conducted a criminal investigation into Thurmand and her husband’s alleged conduct, but it did not result in any charges.

Thurmand’s hearing before the ethics panel is scheduled for Oct. 25 and 26.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued new guidelines for young children in car seats: They should remain rear-facing until they reach the maximum height and weight allowed by the car seat manufacturer.

The update is a departure from the previous recommendation that babies remain rear facing until the age of 2. Because the new guidelines are now based on the size of the child, some children will remain rear facing even after turning 2.

The AAP said all infants and toddlers should ride in rear-facing car seats for "as long as possible, until they reach the highest weight or height allowed" by the seat's manufacturer.

While there is new research on car safety for children, the guideline that has not changed is rear facing is safer. 

Police said they found a drug factory and a cache of automatic weapons, as well as explosives and fireworks, during a raid on an East Windsor home Thursday night.

Members of the statewide narcotics task force central office, East Windsor Police and the DEA clandestine lab team raided the Wesley Road home of 45-year-old Marc Edward Betancourt around 9 p.m. Thursday. There they discovered 193 marijuana plants, processed marijuana, marijuana seeds, grow equipment, scales and packaging materials, according to a news release from state police.

Police said they also seized an Uzi, a loaded AK-47, an AR-15, several high-capacity magazines, a bump stock and a silencer. 

Investigators said they also removed explosives and fireworks from an attached garage.

Betancourt was arrested and held on $250,000 bond. During court, bond was set at $100,000.

In addition to several drug and weapons charges, Betancourt was charged with two counts of risk of injury to a minor and one count of second-degree reckless endangerment. 

He is due in court on Sept. 24.

The 137th edition of the Crocodile Club of Connecticut brought together a handful of candidates running for statewide office and with it, a number of jokes in the heat of the political season.

Jennifer Nye, the Republican running against John Larson in the First Congressional District poked fun at herself, saying, “you’ve probably never heard of me.”

She also took some playful digs at Larson, one of Connecticut’s longest-serving politicians.

"I've heard great stories about John's very funny speech at the first Crocodile Club meeting in 1875. Boy, time flies when you have Democratic incumbents in Connecticut."

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski made his first Crocodile Club appearance, and it turned into the unofficial start of his general election campaign. It was his first public event since clinching the GOP nomination on Aug. 14.

He joked how his daughters are tired of seeing their dad on television.

"My youngest daughter said, you know you actually remind me of a turtle,” he said to laughs. And his oldest daughter, "She started fast forwarding through it. I said, 'Lauren, that's me.' and she said I am so tired of hearing about you dad I don't want to hear about you ever again.”

Democratic candidate for governor, Ned Lamont, did not attend the annual dinner.

US Senator Chris Murphy was also not in attendance. John Larson and Sen. Richard Blumenthal were each in Washington to pay their respects to the late Sen. John McCain at the US Capitol.

The dinner is an annual and, especially, an election year tradition. Its home has been the ballroom at Lake Compounce Amusement Park. It was held there this year, and NBC Connecticut Political Reporter Max Reiss served as the President of the Crocodile Club, emceeing the event.

Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman heaped praise on the group running for statewide office, saying that’s what both Connecticut and the United States are all about, participating in the process.

However, she also warned them of the difficulty of living in the public eye.

"I just wanted to congratulate or give my condolences to all of you that are running."

Hartford police have arrested a teen who is accused of stealing a car and crashing it into a school bus on Thursday morning. 

Police said a 16-year-old was driving a 2015 Ford Edge that was reported stolen form Waterbury on Tuesday and hit the back of a school bus at Campfield and Maple avenues in Hartford at 7:46 a.m., then fled the scene. 

One student was on the bus at the time and was not injured, according to police. 

Officers found the Ford Edge, which was damaged, being driven in the Behind the Rocks area of the city and followed it. 

Additional police and detectives responded, stopped the vehicle in the 200 block of Exeter Street and took the 16-year-old into custody. 

The teen was charged with first-degree larceny using a motor vehicle without the owner's permission and criminal trover in the second degree. 

The teen was also issued a misdemeanor summons that carries charges of evading responsibility, operating a motor vehicle without a license and following too closely. 

The juvenile was transported to the Special Investigations Division and later released to the custody of a guardian. 

Westport police are investigating after someone pried open three US Post Office mailboxes and stole the letters and packages inside.

Police said it happened sometime in the overnight hours Friday. Two of the mailboxes were at Playhouse Square at 275 Post Road East, and the third was at 31 Riverside Avenue.

Anyone who dropped mail into these boxes in the last 24 hours is warned to be on alert for anything suspicious. Those who mailed checks should stop payment, and those who mailed anything with personal information should monitor their accounts and credit reports for any kind of fraudulent activity.

Stealing mail is a federal offense and can result in a fine or jail time.

The Office of the Postal Inspector and the Westport Police Department are investigating. Anyone with information should contact the Westport Police Detective Bureau at 203-341-6080.

A white supremacist group is running telephone robocalls in Florida impersonating Andrew Gillum, a Democrat who is running to be Florida's first black governor.

Florida voters who receive the call, audio of which was obtained by NBC News, hear a man speaking in a minstral dialect who identifies himself as Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee who won his party's primary Tuesday.

Over a soundtrack of drums and jungle noises, the man says, "We Negroes...done made mud huts while white folk waste a bunch of time making their home out of wood an stone." The impersonator says the huts would be useful housing in a hurricane.  

Three people were arrested after two crashes involving a stolen car and a fight that was captured on video in Waterbury. 

Police said a stolen BMW was involved in a crash with another sedan on North Main Street near Jonathan Reed School Friday morning. 

According to Acting Chief Fernando Spagnolo video circulating on social media shows two other cars box the BMW in. Two men then ran out and went after the two teenagers in the BMW. One of the men took the passenger of the from the car and hit him, while the second man pinned the driver to the ground and repeatedly hit the teen’s face.

Spagnolo said the occupants of the BMW were both 15.

Police arrived to break up the incident, but the video shows that as an officer knelt down to address the teen driver one suspect kicked the teen near the head. The officer can be heard ordering the suspect to lie on the ground as he separates the two.

The suspect was identified as 29-year-old Angel Vasquez Jr. He was charged with breach of peace.

The two teenagers were also arrested but were not identified due to their age.

Investigators said before that incident, the BMW was involved in another crash at the intersection of North Main and Bellevue streets.

The investigation is ongoing.

Bob Stefanowski did not hold a single official campaign event for 17 days after he won the GOP nomination for governor in a five-way primary.

His official campaign general election schedule had what amounted to its inaugural event during an appearance at the Crocodile Club’s 137th Annual Dinner at Lake Compounce in Bristol.

“It’s simple, if you want to cut taxes, vote for me and if you want the same as the last eight years and Dan Malloy, vote for Ned,” Stefanowski said during an availability with members of the media.

When asked where has he been for the past two weeks, he said he was focused on securing a second ballot line.

“I put a lot of focus on the Independent bid. We were spending a lot of time phone calling independents, meeting the head of the party,” he said. “That was a big win for us."

Stefanowski is a former executive of General Electric, UBS, and a payday loan company based in the United Kingdom.

He emerged from a crowded Republican primary field to win the party’s nomination for governor, an office targeted by the Republican Governors Association as perhaps its best chance to flip a governorship.

On fundraising, Stefanowski won’t say whether he intends to use his own wealth to bankroll his campaign, like his opponent, Democrat Ned Lamont.

"I don't like to reveal my secrets but we're going to put in enough to win. This is the number one target state for the Republican Governors Association. I've been talking to national donors."

Multiple GOP legislative and party sources have told NBC Connecticut that Stefanowksi has informed major players in the party that he has no intention of using his own resources to fund his campaign.

There is already a planned fundraiser for Stefanowski in Greenwich in mid-September.

Lamont has been out in the public eye since he won the Democratic nomination, holding multiple events on a variety of topics and in varying settings.

Stefanowski has released his first public schedule, planning to visit a series of fairs and community events all over the state over the Labor Day weekend. He said he campaign needed a break, but says he will be visible between the weekend and election day.

"After the primary we had to retool and you know, Lamont has been running with Susan for a while. I was in a five person primary. We hired some people. We got the Independent vote. I'm very happy with the last couple of weeks and you're going to see more of us coming out after Labor Day."

Police responded to a hotel in Farmington just before 9 p.m. Wednesday after receiving reports that a dog was left in a car and they issued a summons charging the owner of the dog with cruelty to animals. 

Police said someone notified an employee of the Marriot Hotel that a dog was panting heavily and crying, so the employee checked on the dog, believed it was in distress because it was panting heavily and crying, opened the unlocked hatchback and let the dog out of the car, according to police. 

When officers arrived, they put the dog in a cruiser with the air conditioning on. 

Police said 62-year-old Stewart Galeucia, of Essex, was attending a meeting at the hotel and left his dog inside his vehicle on a leash so it could not run free inside the car. 

They said he was argumentative with the officers and didn’t think it was too hot to leave his dog in the vehicle for around 90 minutes. 

Police said the windows of the car door were open about an inch and the outside air temperature was around 83 degrees at the time of the incident. The high temperature for the day was in the 90s. 

Officers issued Galeucia a summons. 

A pedestrian was struck by a vehicle on Route 8 in Waterbury Friday, according to the state Department of Transportation.

The crash happened on Route 8 north at exit 35. Minor injuries were reported.

No other information was immediately available.