Mosquitoes in at least 50 towns across the state have now tested positive for West Nile Virus.

Mosquitoes infected with West Nile have been found in Bethany, Bethel, Branford, Bridgeport, Cheshire, Chester, Danbury, Darien, East Haven, Easton, Fairfield, Farmington, Franklin, Greenwich, Haddam, Hamden, Hartford, Madison, Manchester, Meriden, Middlefield, Milford, Monroe, New Britain, New Canaan, New Haven, Newington, Newtown, North Branford, North Stonington, Norwalk, Orange, Plainfield, Shelton, South Windsor, Southington, Stamford, Stratford, Trumbull, Wallingford, Waterbury, Waterford, West Hartford, West Haven, Westbrook, Weston, Westport, Wethersfield, Wilton and Woodbridge.

There have been five human cases of the virus in the state so far this season, according to health officials. One of those was a child between the ages of 5 and 10.

Mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk. Residents can reduce their risk of being bitten by minimizing time outdoors during those periods, wearing insect repellent, and wearing clothes that cover arms and legs. 

You can see the mosquito trapping and testing report here.

The question of whether the University of Connecticut violated a state nepotism ban by hiring football head coach Randy Edsall’s son as an assistant had the president of the university testifying in court.

NBC Connecticut Investigators broke the story last summer that the Office of State Ethics issued an opinion critical of the hire.

UConn President Susan Herbst made it clear she believes Connecticut has a unique set of ethics laws that can make it hard to recruit staff, whether it’s faculty or Division I coaches.

Attorneys for the Edsalls and UConn said their clients did everything right when Corey Edsall was hired as tight end coach, up to and including having a management plan so Corey Edsall would be supervised by the school’s athletic director and not Randy Edsall.

However, the Office of State Ethics is holding fast to its view that Randy Edsall negotiated his son’s contract after already starting work for UConn, something UConn and the Edsalls dispute.

The ethics panel argues even without that issue, the other problem that will always loom large is that while faculty members might be related and in the same department, a football team works differently.

The judge ended the hearing without a ruling.

If he upholds the ethics opinion it could subject Randy Edsall to a potential fine only for the past season, because at the very end of the legislative session language was slipped into a bill that permits the Edsall arrangement.

Naugatuck police are trying to locate a family that hasn’t been heard from since Aug. 11.

Police said they were first notified the family might be missing when they received a report from the Naugatuck School system. School officials said they could not locate two children, identified as 11-year-old Samantha Bravo and 14-year-old Christopher Bravo, who were enrolled last year and were last seen in June.

Naugatuck police went by the family's last known address and found the home had been sold. The parents, 43-year-old Andres Bravo and 33-year-old Jennifer Cubillos, had told family members that they were moving to Florida. Family members said they last saw the parents in late June or early July, and had heard from them by text message until around Aug 11.

The latest text messages suggested the family needed money for car insurance and was trying to return to Connecticut.

Police said while there does not appear to be any criminal aspect to the incident, they are concerned about the safety of the family. The family is listed as missing through the National Crime Information Center and authorities issued Silver Alerts for the children.

The family may be with a car registered to the parents, gray 2007 Dodge Nitro SUV displaying Connecticut registration AL-51810. 

Anyone with information on any of the family members should contact Naugatuck Police at 203-729-5221 or the NPD Confidential Tip Line at 203-720-1010. 

Hartford police have several people accused of robbing a man at gunpoint then forcing him to drive them around and holding him against his will.

Police said the victim flagged down officers on Jefferson Street just before 8 a.m. Wednesday. The victim reported he was robbed at gunpoint on Enfield Street, then the suspects made him drive them to 525 Hudson St., where he was held until he managed to escape.

Officers located one suspect nearby and two others at the Hudson Street address. Police said they also recovered an illegally possessed loaded Glock Model 30 .40 caliber handgun during the investigation.

Police arrested three people in connection with the investigation. Shaquill Strickland, 22, was arrested and charged with kidnapping, robbery, kidnapping with a firearm, having a pistol without a permit, and larceny. Deasijah Burnham, 19, was charged with possessing a pistol without a permit and a large capacity magazine.

Investigators also arrested 47-year-old Kenneth Daniels on motor vehicle warrants.

A fourth suspect also faces charges.

The two insurers remaining on Access Health Connecticut told state regulators Wednesday that their proposed rate increases have to do with changes at the federal level to requirements for health coverage.

Anthem and Connecticare are the only companies offering individual market plans on Access Health Connecticut when open enrollment begins in November.

Robert Kosior, Connecticare’s chief operating officer, said the company has to raise rates as more healthy residents decide that they do not need any health coverage.

"We believe there is a new and growing uninsured population,” Kosior said during the hearing at the Connecticut Department of Insurance in Hartford. “Those who prior to the Affordable Care Act could afford insurance and did so to protect themselves and their families but who are now choosing no longer to purchase health insurance due to its high costs. These individuals tend to be younger and healthier resulting in higher costs for those remaining in the individual market."

Both Anthem and Connecticare said the decision by the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump to repeal the individual mandate that all Americans carry some kind of health coverage contributed to the drop off in enrollments, and increase in premium rates for the 2019 year.

On average, Anthem proposed rate increases that average nine percent, but on at least one plan the company wants to increase rates by 31 percent. Connecticare filed rate increase proposals that averaged 13 percent, and even proposed cutting at least one plan by more than ten percent, but does still propose raising one rate by at least 17.8 percent.

Anthem is Connecticut’s largest insurer, overall, and it covered 45,500 lives on plans purchased on Access Health Connecticut. Connecticare, however, covered more lives covered by plans purchased on Access Health, 63,693.

Tu Nguyen, Anthem’s Director of Actuarial Services, told state regulators that rates are going up as a result of the overall marketplace for insurance contracting in Connecticut.

"When the members have to make a choice, what's best for them, the healthy members are more likely to drop coverage and the ones that know they need the healthcare are more likely going to stay in the market. So, based on our modeling, there is an impact of healthier members dropping out of the market."

Jennifer Lovett is the President of Crystal Financial Insurance Services that helps residents and businesses select and purchase insurance coverage. She says as rates have risen in the past few years for various reasons, her business and her clients have suffered.

"When you have a couple that's getting close to retirement and they're making $70,000 a year they do not qualify for a subsidy and when their premium is literally, $30,000 a year, do the math. What's left?"

The Department of Insurance will rule later in September on final rate hikes, if any, for consumers.

Republican nominee for governor Bob Stefanowski made his first visit to a home with a crumbling foundation Wednesday.

Stefanowski admitted the issue had not been on his radar up until he decided to run for governor last year.

"I wasn't personally aware of it before I started running for governor,” Stefanowski said. “There wasn't in that part of the state a lot of press around it."

The Madison businessman traveled to the home Willington home of Tim Heim, one of the most outspoken and politically active homeowners from Eastern Connecticut with a home with a crumbling foundation.

Stefanowski made his visit to Heim’s home after the GOP primary, even as his primary rival David Stemerman made a visit in the weeks before the August 14 election.

Ned Lamont, the Democratic nominee for governor, made a visit to Heim’s home back in January, roughly four months before he won the party’s endorsement.

Stefanowski, who spent his career in business with large corporations like General Electric and UBS, proposed going back to the federal government for assistance in paying for repairs and new foundations for impacted homeowners.

The presidential administrations of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump have, so far, denied the state federal funds, saying the issue did not rise to the level of a full-fledged natural disaster.

Brushing off that fact, Stefanowski said the state should try again.

"I do think if we had better relations with Washington and the state of Connecticut, we might be better prepared to get funding,” he said. “I think we need more testing. Maybe there is something we can do on foundations that have this mineral that haven't started to crack yet."

Heim, who has testified at the State Capitol and kept the issue top of mind for Eastern Connecticut lawmakers, said he is simply happy to have the issue take up some time on the campaign trail. He hopes whoever wins the governor’s race takes the issue seriously when they take office.

"Anybody can say anything in front of a camera,” Heim said. “It's what happens when the camera is off and it's the follow through."

Lamont’s campaign provided a statement on his strategy for addressing crumbling foundations, saying, “As Governor, I will bring everyone to the table to make sure we address this solution for families that are struggling now and to make sure this never happens again.”

He went on to add, “I will convene homeowners, banks, insurers, and representatives from the local, state and federal levels to address the crisis, support homeowners, provide property tax relief, and prohibit affected concrete from being recycled into new foundations."

Hartford police are investigating a fatal pedestrian-involved crash in the city's North End late Wednesday.

Police said the crash happened near the intersection of Albany Avenue and Garden Street.

No other information was immediately available. Check back for updates.

Former officials say the Trump administration dismissed an intelligence assessment last year that showed refugees did not present a significant threat to the United States, NBC News reported. 

Hard-liners in the administration, which has consistently sought to exaggerate the potential security threat posed by refugees, issued their own report this year that several former officials and rights groups say misstates the evidence and inflates the threat posed by people born outside the U.S. 

At a meeting in September 2017 with senior officials discussing refugee admissions, a representative from the National Counterterrorism Center came ready to present a report that analyzed the possible risks presented by refugees entering the country. But before he could discuss the report, Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand dismissed the report, saying her boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, would not be guided by its findings.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said, "If we only look at what terrorists have done in the past, we will never be able to prevent future attacks…We cannot let dangerous individuals slip through the cracks and exploit our refugee program, which is why we have implemented security enhancements that would prevent such violent individuals from reaching our shores, while still upholding our humanitarian ideals."

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. 

Police have issued a Silver Alert for a 74-year-old Lebanon woman who has been reported missing.

Lindell Braasch was last seen Wednesday wearing a white shirt, blue sweatpants and blue slip-on shoes.

She has gray hair, blue eyes, wears glasses and has dentures, according to the Silver Alert.

Anyone with information is asked to call Connecticut State Police Troop K in Colchester at 860-465-5400.

A rollover crash has closed the exit 13 on-ramps from the Wharton Brook Connector to Interstate 91 in Wallingford, according to state police, and they expect it to be closed from two to three hours.

The rollover is keeping drivers from getting onto the north and southbound sides, but you can get off I-91.

No injuries were reported at the scene.

The state Department of Transportation, Wallingford EMS and the fire department are at the scene.

Hartford police are searching for a driver who they said hit a 47-year-old woman and then left the scene Wednesday night.

The woman was struck in the area of Albany Avenue and Garden Street at 10:47 p.m. and she was rushed to St. Francis Hospital to be treated for life-threatening injuries. She is listed in critical condition with.

Detectives are searching for a white four-door sedan, possibly a 2008 to 2012 Chevrolet Malibu.

The intersection was closed for several hours and reopened just before 5 a.m. Thursday.

The mystery illness that sickened at least 19 people on a plane from Dubai to  John F. Kennedy Airport Wednesday has been confirmed as the flu in at least 10 cases, the mayor's office said Thursday.

All 10 patients hospitalized after the nightmare flight will be kept in the hospital as a precaution, New York City Mayor press secretary Eric Phillips said on Twitter.

"Test results on the 10 hospitalized patients find influenza. Some tests came back inconclusive on other viruses, which is common. They’ll be re-administered this morning," he said.

Emirates Flight 203 from Dubai was quarantined on the runway for hours Wednesday after 106 of the 521 passengers on board the flight reported feeling ill. The cause of the outbreak has not been confirmed, but a Jamaica Hospital spokesperson says multiple passengers and crew treated were experiencing headache, sore throat, coughs and fever.

The vast majority of the symptomatic passengers was cleared of illness and allowed to continue on the remaining legs of their trips. The office of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said 10 people -- seven of them crew members and three passengers -- were taken to hospital, while another nine were sick but declined medical attention. The CDC had slightly different information, saying 11 people were taken to hospital of a total 549 people on board.

The city health department says symptoms indicated "this is probably influenza," but final determination is pending the lab results of the respiratory samples taken, expected later Wednesday night. Because the Emirates flight is so long, it's possible that there was ongoing transmission on it, according to Dr. Oxiris Barbot, acting health commissioner. That specific scenario rarely happens, but the flu -- which can take one to three days to incubate -- does spread easily.

Erin Sykes, who was on the Emirates flight, told News 4 New York some passengers were sick before they even boarded the plane. “When they were standing in line to board, people were coughing,” she said. “People were not covering their mouths.”

Sykes became so concerned by the situation that she asked a flight attendant for a mask before the flight took off, she said. The attendant, however, said there weren’t any on board. “I proceeded to put my jacket and the blanket over my head for the entirety of the flight because so many people were coughing, and so dramatically,” she said, adding that some passengers were sick to their stomachs.

Passenger Hadi Nadimi recalled, "The gentleman sitting next to me said that he said he saw a lot of people, before we sat in the plane, lot of people were coughing and people were like spitting into napkins and stuff. So it was iffy from the get-go." 

After landing, rapper Vanilla Ice confirmed he was also on the flight. He was not sickened.

The flight landed about 9:10 a.m. to a huge emergency runway response. Port Authority Police and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were waiting in a staging area to check passengers.

"There was around five doctors, medical personnel who were coming downstairs on the lower deck to collect the passengers who were coughing," said a passenger named Lydia Ayallew. 

Chopper 4 was over the scene at landing, where about seven ambulances were lined up to treat sick passengers, as well as dozens of other emergency response units including police and Homeland Security. 

Emirates issued a statement confirming that some passengers had taken ill. It later tweeted, "We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience caused. The safety and well-being of our customers and crew is always our top priority." 

The mayor's office initially said the flight had stopped in Mecca, which is experiencing a flu outbreak, and that may be a possible source of the outbreak. A spokesperson later said the flight was in fact direct, but that some of the passengers had previously been in Mecca. 

The CDC said passengers who are not ill would be allowed to continue with their travel plans. They advise anyone who got treated and released to see a doctor if they develop symptoms in the coming days. 

TV host Diala Makki, who flew in for Fashion Week, said she was going straight to the doctor's office before heading to the red carpet. 

"The officials on the ground, they took our temperature to make sure we were OK," said Makki. "It was a dramatic morning." 

"My first question is, if it is a virus, why did they let them on the plane?" said passenger Srinivasa Rao. "I sat with them for 13 hours. If it is a virus, we are all breathing the same [air]." 

"I'm worried what's gonna happen in the next 72 hours," said Nadimi. "Am I gonna catch up something or not? I don't know." 

Jamaica Hospital officials said because those aboard the plane were kept in isolation, hospital operations were not impacted. The hospital was especially well prepared for the health emergency, because it had gotten federal funds and mandated training in the 2014 Ebola outbreak, according to former CDC chief medical officers Robert Amler. 

The Trump administration announced a new rule Thursday that would allow immigrant children with their parents to be held in detention indefinitely, upending a ban on indefinite detention that has been in place for 20 years, NBC News reported.

The rule, proposed by the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, goes into effect in 60 days and will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep children with their mothers in detention facilities while their cases for asylum play out in court.

A DHS official speaking on the condition of anonymity said the purpose of the rulemaking is to terminate the 1997 Flores settlement agreement that said children could not be held in detention longer than 20 days. The result may mean the issue is taken to appellate courts or even the Supreme Court.

Officials argue that the rulemaking is legal because they will be holding children in ICE facilities that have been evaluated by third parties. And DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement that the rulemaking is necessary to enforce immigration laws.

A crash has closed part of Route 1 in Madison near Nathans Lane.

Police said a tractor-trailer rolled over and a tow truck is responding to move the truck.

The driver is not injured.

No additional information was immediately available.

Four people are dead, including the gunman, following a shooting at a Fifth Third Bank building in downtown Cincinnati Thursday. The shooter has not been identified and it wasn’t clear if the victims were targeted, police said.

Cellphone video taken aboard an American Airlines flight from Arizona to Hawaii last week appears to show a flight attendant telling a passenger that they should urinate in a plastic bag.

The Aug. 31 flight had departed Phoenix for Kona when the lavatories malfunctioned during the flight, an American Airlines spokesman said in a statement.

A passenger, who wished to not be identified, told Phoenix NBC affiliate KPNX the cabin crew made an announcement to passengers that there was a problem with the bathrooms. The woman said only one restroom at the front of the plane was open, but that the toilet was overflowing.

“What do you mean I have to pee in a bag?” the woman asks the flight attendant in the video.

The flight attendant tells the woman the toilets are overflowing, and that's why bags are available: "I know, it's horrible. And guys are going in bottles."

The Fort Worth-based airline said a diaper had been flushed down one of the toilets, causing the lavatory system to malfunction. Normally a flight would redirect to a nearby airport but AA said this plane didn't because of its location.

AA said customer service agents were reaching out to all 187 passengers who had been on board the Boeing 757.

"At American, lavatories must be working properly prior to departure," an AA statement read. "If an American flight is in the air, and all lavatories become inoperative, the flight will divert to the nearest suitable airport in order for maintenance to rectify the situation. Due to the location of the aircraft, the flight continued to its intended destination. The issue was subsequently rectified upon arrival in Kona, and our flight returned to Phoenix as scheduled."

Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh avoided directly answering questions from Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., about whether or not he discussed special counsel Robert Mueller or the Mueller’s investigation with anyone at the Kasowitz Benson Torres law firm, where one of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers works. Harris didn’t explain why she believed Kavanaugh might have discussed the investigation.

Police have identified the victim of a deadly motorcycle crash in Suffield as 50-year-old David Gould, of Southwick, Massachusetts. 

Gould, who died of blunt head and torso trauma, might have been in a tobacco field for several days before being found, according to police.

The investigation began when police were called to the area of 399 Warnertown Road around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 30 for a report of a motorcycle found in a tobacco field. Responding officers found what appeared to be the victim of a fatal motorcycle crash nearby.

Gould was presumed dead at the scene.

Police said it appears the motorcycle went off the road while traveling south on Warnertown Road. Investigators believe the crash might have happened several days before Gould was found.

On Thursday, police said the office of the chief medical examiner determined that Gould died of blunt head and torso trauma and that his death was accidental.

The Regional North Central Municipal Police Accident Reconstruction Squad was called in to investigate. The investigation remains active.  

Bomb threats emailed to administrators of five buildings in New Haven Thursday and white powder sent to several buildings in Hartford yesterday might be connected, according to Rick Fontana, New Haven’s director of emergency operations.

Threats were made Thursday to Connecticut Mental Health Center building at 34 Park St., Continuum Of Care at 109 Legion Ave., Cornell Scott Hill Health Center at428 Columbus Ave., 441 Elm St. and 519 Norton Parkway, all in New Haven.

Fontana said no white powder was located at the New Haven locations.

White powder was discovered at four locations in Hartford Thursday and the city’s fire chief said the substance turned out to be baby powder.

No arrests have been made in the case, but the U.S. Attorney's Office said 51-year-old Gary Gravelle, of New Haven, is being questioned in connection with them.

He was arrested on a supervised release violation unrelated to these cases and is in custody.

Gravelle is known to federal authorities. In 2013, he was sentenced in Bridgeport federal court to 70 months in prison for mailing threatening letters and he was released from federal prison in November 2015.

A white powder incident was also reported at 25 North St. in Bristol, the First Bristol Federal Credit Union building, though it is unclear if it is related or if it was the same substance.

Police in Burlington, Vt. said the person being questioned in connection with white powder scares in Hartford may also have sent a series of threatening emails to officials in Vermont.

Gary Gravelle, who police said also goes by the name Roland Prejean, was taken into custody Wednesday in New Haven on unrelated charges.

Police believe Gravelle sent a series of threatening emails to "Burlington schools, the airport, civic institutions and public officials,"  Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said.

Del Pozo said in the emails Gravelle threatened "to engage in a spress of murderous violence against the community."

Police said they do not believe the threats presented an actual danger to the community and no other people are being sought at this time.