The substance that prompted investigations into four white powder incidents in Hartford Wednesday was baby powder, according to Hartford fire chief Reginald Freeman.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said 51-year-old Gary Gravelle, of New Haven, is being questioned in connection with these incidents. Gravelle was arrested on a supervised release violation unrelated to this case and is in custody. Officials said no charges have been filed in connection with the white powder incidents.

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.

One white powder incident Wednesday was at 450 Columbus Blvd., which houses the Department of Education. State troopers responded to the building at 11:04 a.m.

At the federal courthouse at 450 Main St. in Hartford, two envelopes were found containing letters and white powder, according to two state sources. Fire officials said one female was taken by ambulance to Hartford Hospital as a precaution.

A third incident occurred at 21 Oak St., a state building behind the state courthouse. Firefighters at the scene said the building was not evacuated and the incident was contained to a small area.

The fourth incident happened at 10 Columbus Blvd. in Hartford.

Federal officials said Thursday morning that an investigation at Motel 6 in Southington is connected, but no additional information was immediately available on how.

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 said a female employee at First Bristol Credit Union discovered white powder while opening an envelope. The Bristol fire and police departments responded and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection were called.

Gov. Dannel Malloy released a statement Wednesday afternoon about the threat and response.

“The Connecticut State Police was notified of a threat at the Grasso-Fauliso State Office Building and the federal courthouse in downtown Hartford and immediately responded. Special units are on site and working closely with our federal and local partners to assess the situation. The State Police will be taking every measure to protect the safety and security of personnel and visitors in the buildings and surrounding areas. We are monitoring the situation very closely and will provide further updates as the investigation progresses,” Malloy said in a statement.

DEEP is supposed to test the powders. Federal officials said Thursday morning that they do not have any information to provide yet on what was in the letters.

Anyone with information that could help with the investigation is asked to call the FBI at 203-777-6311.

Eight great white sharks were spotted off Nauset Public Beach on Thursday, including one close to shore.

The sightings were reported by a spotter pilot for the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. There is no word on whether any beaches have been closed to swimming.

This summer has been an extremely busy one for sharks off the Cape. More than a dozen have been spotted off the coast in the past two days alone.

Greg Skomal, a state marine biologist, recently said that his team spotted nearly 150 great whites off Cape Cod in July, double the number of sightings they recorded in 2017.

Last month, a New York man was badly bitten by a shark off a beach in Truro, the first person since 2012 to be attacked by a shark off Massachusetts. Many Cape Cod beaches have also been forced to temporarily close to swimming this summer after sharks were spotted close to shore.

A New York City Ballet member secretly took sexually explicit photos and videos of a female dancer and shared them with ballet members — in line with the “out-of-control, fraternity-house” atmosphere the company has fostered, a new lawsuit charges.

Alexandra Waterbury, a ballet dancer and former City Ballet student, filed the suit against her ex-boyfriend Chase Finlay, a former City Ballet dancer, and the City Ballet in State Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The suit claims the company has “condoned… an atmosphere where its… employees, donors, principals and [affiliates] abused, degraded and mistreated alcohol, drugs and women.”

Waterbury, 19, was a student at the company’s School of American Ballet from 2013 to 2016, the New York Times reported. She met Finlay, who was employed as a principal at City Ballet, through the company and the two started dating, according to her lawsuit.

This past May, however, Waterbury learned Finlay had been recording and saving nude and sexually explicit photos and videos of her without her knowledge, the lawsuit claims.

Finlay texted the photos and recordings of Waterbury to two other principal dancers, according to the lawsuit. Finlay and other employees, principals and donors at City Ballet also shared sexual images and videos of other women and female ballet members with one another, the suit charges.

The suit claims that Finlay was “frequently asked… about his partying and alcohol use because he smelled like alcoholic beverages,” but that City Ballet “buried its head in the sand” without pursuing the situation.

It also claims Finlay, City Ballet donors and other dancers sent degrading messages to one another about female dancers.

“I bet we could tie some of them up and abuse them like farm animals,” a City Ballet donor wrote to Finlay about a group of American Ballet Theater dancers, according to the suit — “to which… Finlay added, ‘or like the sluts they are,’” the suit says.

City Ballet has also swept other instances of men physically and sexually abusing women in the company “under the rug, offering carte blanche for the other male NYC ballet employees,” the suit says.

“This fraternity-like atmosphere permeates the ballet and its dancers and emboldens them to disregard the law and violate the basic rights of women,” the suit says.

Finlay resigned from City Ballet in August after the company started questioning him about Waterbury’s allegations, according to the Times.

Waterbury’s lawsuit comes less than a year after longtime New York City Ballet leader Peter Martins retired in the midst of a sexual misconduct investigation.

“Every time I see a little girl in a tutu or with her hair in a bun on her way to class, all I can think is that she should run in the other direction, because no one will protect her, like no one protected me,” she told the Times.

Finlay’s attorney declined to comment to the Times, and City Ballet’s chairman said the company “has no liability for the actions specified in the complaint,” adding that the company has “taken the appropriate disciplinary actions for the dancers involved.”

The City of Miami's civilian oversight board said a South Florida officer who was captured on police body camera video kicking a teenage girl in the head used excessive force, calling his actions neither "reasonable” nor "necessary," according to documents obtained by NBC 6.

The Civilian Investigative Panel’s conclusion challenges the findings of a Miami Police Department’s internal affairs investigation, which determined Officer John Askew was negligent in his duty, but did not think he used excessive force.

Dashboard camera and body camera video footage obtained by NBC 6 captured the March 5, 2017 incident. Video shows officers chasing a stolen SUV in Miami Shores after police said a woman called 911 reporting that she had just been robbed at gunpoint.

The SUV crashes into a wall and the teen is seen running from officers, dashcam video shows. An officer’s bodycam footage shows a policeman tackling the teen and then Askew can be seen kicking her twice in the head while she’s already down on the ground.

"Move, move again. I dare you," Askew warns the teen before kicking her again.

Police said the teen, who has not been identified because of her age, told officers she was just a passenger in the car and didn’t know anything about a robbery. She was later charged with armed robbery and grand theft, police said. It is not known if she has an attorney and no further details were immediately available.

Askew didn't report kicking the girl to his superiors. He told investigators that he didn’t think he needed to report it because the teen wasn’t hurt and she didn’t file any complaints at the time.

Both the police department and the civilian panel found Askew violated department policy by not documenting his use of force on the teen. However, the Miami Police Department’s internal affairs investigation ultimately determined Askew was negligent in his duty but did not think the use of force was excessive.

The civilian oversight board disagrees and said its panel "does not believe Askew's actions were either reasonable or necessary." The Miami Police Department declined to comment on the report.

The full civilian panel will meet later this month to vote on approving the board's findings. If confirmed, the Miami police chief will be officially asked to re-examine the case.

Every high school team needs a leader, but sometimes that person isn’t who’d you expect.

"It was a passion, it was a drive, but it seemed like something was missing,” said CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering boys soccer coach, Oscar Perez. “There wasn't that commander."

Not until last season, when the Aerospace boys soccer team found a leader in a girl.

"I asked to play on the boys team and they said as long as I make the team, I can play on the team,” said Aerospace junior, Sabrina Porter.

Porter made the cut last season as a sophomore.

"The first game that she came out with us, as a coach, you're a little nervous for her,” Perez said.

There was no reason to be nervous. Porter scored in her first game, and 20 seconds into their home opener, in front of an awestruck school.

"They're like, ‘woah’,” Porter said. “And the other team was pretty taken aback."

The fight to play with the boys was the easy part. Porter carries a much more difficult battle with her every day.

"I lost like 15 to 20 pounds,” said Porter of the end of her eighth grade year. “I was really thirsty, really hungry. We went to the doctors and my blood sugar was 500."

Porter was diagnosed with diabetes.

It was a total lifestyle change of always having something to worry about, Porter said.

But just like learning to play soccer, Porter learned how to manage playing sports as a diabetic. She now wears a patch on her arm and on her stomach, which can monitor her blood sugar from her smart watch and phone.

"I find myself every three minutes just checking her blood sugar and I'm like ok Sabrina, you're at 140, you're good, you're at 130, you're good,” said Perez, who watches her levels during practice and games.

It’s a team effort from a group that's made it clear they don't want to see her on the bench. She was just named captain to start off her 2018 season.

"Gender really doesn't matter when it comes to ability,” said Porter. “I still think there's a lot of work to be done with how society thinks of it, but I'm glad that I can take one step in making it change."

Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds died Thursday at the age of 82. Known for his iconic roles in movies such as "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Deliverance," the actor was nominated for an Oscar for his role in "Boogie Nights."

Police have located a Salem man who was reported missing Thursday.

East Hartford police said Thursday afternoon that 55-year-old Steven Klobukowski was last seen in East Hartford on Aug. 31. and authorities were trying to confirm his welfare. He was located late Thursday afternoon. 

No other information was immediately available.

A school bus hit a fallen tree on I-84 West in Farmington on Thursday afternoon.

It happened near Exit 37.

There were students on the bus, but there were no injuries, according to state police.

It is not clear what school the students are from.

A black teenager who was riding in a car with his white grandmother and her friend was handcuffed by police in Wisconsin after they received a report that he may have been trying to rob the women in the vehicle.

According to authorities, a man and a woman flagged down a Wauwatosa police officer just before noon Sunday and told him a robbery had either just occurred or was in progress. The pair said "the suspects were two black males in the back seat of a blue Lexus," and pointed out the car to police, authorities said.

Dashcam footage released by the Wauwatosa Police Department shows officers pulling the Lexus over and directing the teen to exit the vehicle and walk backward toward them. He is then ordered to his knees before officers handcuff him. At least one officer is seen drawing his gun in the video. 

"This is a trained vehicle contact procedure which is used by officers in many different circumstances,” the department said in a statement. 

Police Capt. Brian Zalewski said the officers did draw their guns “based on the original information of possible violent crime,” but added that they kept their weapons "pointed in a safe direction.”

The teen was detained in the back of a squad car for six minutes “on reasonable suspicion,” police said.

The women in the car turned out to be the teen’s grandmother and her best friend.

Dashcam video shows the officers approaching the Lexus and asking if they are Ok. The grandmother identifies the teen as her grandson and tells the officers they were on their way home from church. One of the officers, realizing there had been a misunderstanding, explains why they were pulled over and recounts the tip they'd received.  

“I'm sure [the witnesses] saw two old white ladies in a car with a black kid and made assumptions,” the woman is heard telling the officer.

When the officer tells her the person who reported it was also black, she responds, "that’s even worse."

In a separate video from inside the police cruiser, a female officer questioning the teen tells him the incident appears to be a "big misunderstanding" before releasing him to his grandmother. 

When officers returned to scene where they were approached by the couple, the two had left and have not been located for a statement, authorities said.

Meanwhile, an attorney representing the teen said she has filed a request for all records associated with the case, but added that "the evidence as it currently stands" appears to show a bias.

"When we get those records we will know more on what our course of action is," she said. 

The police department, however, stands by the actions of its officers. 

“The officers acted professional during the entire interaction,” Zalewski said in a statement.

A child was rushed to the hospital after being struck by a car after getting off a bus in Manchester Thursday.

Police said the crash happened the area of Porter and Munro streets around 3:30 p.m. The child, who is around 10 years old, had gotten off the bus and was hit crossing Porter Street.

The child’s injuries appear non-life threatening, police said.

The crash is under investigation. Anyone with information on the crash should contact Officer Moss in the traffic division at 860-643-8620.

Dulles International Airport has implemented facial recognition software for international travelers; the system will be used to identify visa holders as they leave the country. Passengers have their pictures taken before boarding, and those photos are compared to their visa photos.

More than 60,000 people are expected to fill New London for the annual Maritime Heritage Festival this week.

Thursday was the official kickoff. Gov. Dannel Malloy, festival and local leaders were all in attendance at Fort Trumbull.

Families will get to tour a combination of historic schooners, merchant marine vessels and U.S. Coast Guard and Navy Ships, including the USS Lassen, the Navy’s guided missile destroyer.

The five-day celebration runs from Wednesday, Sept. 5 to Sunday, Sept. 9 and promotes the state’s maritime heritage during Connecticut Maritime Heritage Week.

“This festival is a little bit about our history, a little bit about what’s currently going on and a lot about what going to happen in the not too distant future,” Malloy said. “We’re making massive investments here in New London at the Naval Base, up the river and across the way at Electric Boat.”

Events include a “Swingin’ on the Pier” dance party, a parade of ships and a Coast Guard search and rescue demonstration.

The New Haven Police union has put up two digital billboard ads near the I-91 & I-95 interchange as part of their push for better pay.

The department is down more than 85 officers. Chief Anthony Campbell told NBC Connecticut the shortage is only expected to get worse by the end of the year.

“Low pay, police don’t stay,” said Craig Miller, president of Elm City Local, quoting one of the ads.

The second digital ad says, “In three years, 34 officers left New Haven for better pay or benefits.”

“It falls back on public safety,” Miller said. “We need to be fully staffed to protect the public, to perform our duties as police officers."

The starting officer salary of about $44,000 may be the lowest for law enforcement in the state, Campbell said.

“When you look at our sister cities Hartford and Bridgeport, they both start out significantly more than we do," Campbell added.

After more than two years without a contract and pay increase, the New Haven Police Union and the city are headed to arbitration next month.

"I believe the billboard is true,” Campbell said. “This is something that we've been talking about for years, if you don't pay your officers competitively they're not going to stay."

According to Campbell, many members of his department cannot afford to live in New Haven.

"At the end of the day people are dedicated and loyal first and foremost to their families,” he said. “They have bills to pay."

After more retirements by the end of the year, New Haven could be down more than 130 police officers.

“Members of the New Haven Police Department comprise what I believe is the best-trained and most effective law enforcement agency in Connecticut,” Mayor Toni Harp (D) said in a statement. “The current, binding arbitration process will yield a new contract to provide them with appropriate compensation for their efforts given the city’s current ability to provide that compensation.”

Earlier this summer, Harp defended handing out pay raises to her own staff.

“When I heard about her staff getting raises I didn't know about this problem with the police department, but now that I know it infuriates me even more," New Haven taxpayer Kimberly Hart said.

The city is still safe with officers working overtime, Campbell said, but he added there may be a breaking point.

"It may come down to us looking at reducing the size of our department in order to increase pay," Campbell said.

Democrat William Tong, running to become Connecticut’s next attorney general, says defending Connecticut from policies pushed by the Trump administration is one of the most important parts of his campaign.

He says voters are looking for someone to stand up to President Donald Trump.

“They know what Donald Trump is doing in Washington is doing tremendous damage to our families and our communities and so I know Sue Hatfield doesn't want to talk about Donald Trump, she says she wants to talk about Connecticut. This is about Connecticut.”

Tong is making his second attempt at statewide office. He ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate in 2012, dropping out the primary before Chris Murphy eventually won the vacant seat. Tong, who currently represents Stamford in the General Assembly, also ran an unsuccessful bid for mayor of Stamford.

He’s looking to replace George Jepsen, Connecticut’s attorney general for the past eight years, who decided not to run for reelection.

Tong says his ideology has much in common with Jepsen, and his predecessor, Richard Blumenthal, saying he will be very public and vocal on issues he’s advocating for, while also working behind the scenes to further causes he supports.

"I've often been asked am I more Blumenthal or am I more Jepsen, and the answer is I'm both, and I'm also my own person."

Tong faces Republican nominee Sue Hatfield in the November general election. Hatfield is a state prosecutor in Pomfret who ran away with the GOP nomination last month.

Hatfield, who’s worked for the state for a year, criticized Tong last month over his qualifications to serve as attorney general, intimating that he may not meet the state’s qualifications for the job.

Similar rumors made their way through Democratic circles in the run up to the primary last month, and Tong beat them back once again. Tong has worked at a corporate law firm in Stamford for more than a decade, working on civil cases and other matters.

"It's just not true and it comes as no surprise that the Republican nominee is making these claims,” Tong said. “She's a Trump delegate and she's adopted a birther-like obsession with my qualifications. There's just no basis to it. I've answered question after question.”

He would not challenge Hatfield’s specific qualifications to hold the office, but did say her legal experience does not put her in a position to run the office of the attorney general on day one.

“Being a prosecutor, that’s just not what the attorney general does and it doesn't prepare you for the job of leading a major state agency of 200 lawyers, investigators and staff and being the state's lawyer."

The U.S. Coast Guard honored a southeastern Connecticut captain and his first mate after they helped rescue four fishermen from the rough waters of the Long Island sound in July.

Capt. Marc Berger and his son, first mate Michael Berger, were leading a fishing charter of six people on their boat, Lucky Strike, on July 21.

“Mike saw something that he said is out of place. He said ‘Turn around! Turn around!’ He said I see something doesn’t look right,” Capt. Berger said.

They found four people, in life jackets, struggling in the waters of Long Island Sound near Niantic, according to Berger.

“I couldn’t tell you how long it took. It just happened so fast,” first mate Berger said.

The Coast Guard said those four fishermen’s vessel took on water from crashing waves around 11 a.m., overtaking the bilge pump. They started to sink. The fishermen jumped into the water and were swept out to sea.

“Had we not gotten them, they would have been in the ferry lane and probably would have been run over by the ferry,” Capt. Berger said. “So it probably was a really good – really lucky thing that Mike saw them.”

Capt. Berger steered, Michael threw out a life ring.

“What I want you to do is one by one pull yourself through the boat and we pulled them through the door,” Capt. Berger said, recalling the rescue.

He and his son pulled each fisherman through a door at the back of the boat used to haul in fish. But the father-son duo said they were trained to handle this.

“Right place, right time,” Michael Berger said.

Both men were honored with a Certificate of Merit by the Coast Guard Thursday for their act of bravery.

“Amazing, amazing,” Berger said. “It’s a great honor to receive this award.”

The Coast Guard said the two treated the survivors for signs of hypothermia and transferred them to East Lyme Police rescue crews.

Marc Berger is the president of the Connecticut Charter Party Boat Association.

One of the people rescued went to kindergarten with Michael Berger. Another called Lucky Strike to say “thank you” and booked a charter with them.

Major staffing changes are coming to the Meriden Police Department after the city council pushed a new budget following the voter referendum rejecting a tax increase over the summer.

City Councilor Michael Carbona, who is the chair of the public safety committee, told NBC Connecticut the police department took the hardest hit from budget cuts.

Police officers are not losing their jobs, but there will be fewer of them assigned to the city’s schools and a community policing program is being eliminated altogether.

One week ago, Meriden police called in the state police bomb squad to detonate a pressure cooker found near the Israel Putnam Elementary School.

“It was an excellent response, it was an appropriate response and I really commend them especially Officer Egan who is a school resource officer to take care of that issue very quickly,” said Holly Wills, the president of the Meriden Council of Neighborhoods.

Chief Jeffry Cossette said he needs to reassign the three elementary and middle school resource officers after the city council cut the police funding by more than $420,000.

“Now the schools will obviously still remain safe,” the chief said, “but they won’t have that extra connection that they would have to the same officer every day.”

Cossette said it was a difficult decision given the heightened attention to school safety.

“No one is getting laid off,” he said, “what’s happening is they are all being reassigned to patrol which will reduce my $1.5 million overtime line item.”

Eleven officers in the neighborhood initiative program are also moving back to patrol, Cossette said.

“They’re dedicated to a certain area in the city, they get to know neighbors, they get to know them,” Will said. “Our concern is that crime is going to increase.”

Wills said the neighborhood officers have done good work responding to quality of life issues while cracking down on crime and blight.

“It’s a very sad day for the city of Meriden,” she said. “We really rely on these officers to be in our neighborhoods, especially the inner-city neighborhoods.”

Meriden’s two high schools will still have SROs. The staffing changes go into effect September 15.

If the city finds a way to restore the funding, Cossette said the neighborhood and school positions cannot be reinstated until January at the earliest.

New Haven police have arrested a school bus driver after two Wilbur Cross High School special needs students were left on the bus.

Police Chief Anthony Campbell said the driver told officers she forgot the two 17-year-olds were on the bus. One of the students called a parent, who contacted police.

The driver has been charged with risk of injury and reckless endangerment, Campbell said. She was not immediately identified.

New Haven Public Schools COO Will Clark confirmed that district staff, along with New Haven Police, the state Department of Children and Families and bus company staff all responded.

Clark said in a statement that the students were checked and appear to be OK.

“Leaving the vehicle with students on it is an unacceptable breach of training and protocol. The expectation of the District is that these protocols are followed every time on every run. Anything short of that is unacceptable as a breach of the contractual duty and obligations of safety,” Clark wrote.

A woman was taken to the hospital for evaluation after a tree came down on a home in Southington Thursday.

According to John Smigel, the Southington building official, the tree caused minor exterior damage when it came down on 218 Marion Ave. The family that lives in the home won’t be able to return until the tree is removed.

A family member said a woman in her 90s was transported to the hospital for evaluation.

Neighbor Fred Smith was wowed by the destruction, but sprang into action to help.

“I went into the house. I got grandma out of the house. And the ambulance was here and they checked her out," Smith said.

What caused the tree to fall is unclear, but there were strong winds in the area due to storms at the time.

"It’s just good no one was hurt. The house doesn’t seem to be too bad," Smith said.

During the nasty weather, across the state trees were downed which blocked roads or parts of them.

Two fell on I-84 west in Farmington, one of which was struck by a school bus near exit 39.

Thankfully police tell us the students on board were not hurt.

Elsewhere, a tree fell on wires on Jackson Road in Enfield and in East Hartford another tree fell onto a car on Britt Road.

A 12-year-old was struck by a car on Baldwin Street in Waterbury Thursday night.

It happened near 1052 Baldwin St. around 7:30 p.m. Police said the victim was alert and conscious and taken to St. Mary's Hospital for treatment of a cut on the forehead and abrasions.

The driver of the vehicle remained on scene.

The investigation is ongoing.