A crash closed Route 9 North between Exits 10 and 11 in Middletown during the morning commute on Friday.
State police said there were injuries in the accident but didn't say how many people were injured.
One lane was opened a short time after the crash but delays continued through most of the commute.
A Sunrise man is facing a federal charge of mailing a threatening communication to the home of the family of David Hogg, a Parkland shooting survivor and one of the most visible activists in the March for Our Lives movement.
Warren Stanley Bond, 78, is accused of mailing a letter to Rebecca Boldrick, Hogg’s mother, at their Parkland home in June.
Last month, Bond agreed to a Risk Protection Order stemming from the same incident. The order, also known as a red flag law, allows law enforcement officers or family members to petition the courts to temporarily remove guns from a person who is a threat to themselves or others. The law was one of several gun-control legislations passed in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The petition for the RPO states that on June 25, Boldrick and her husband called the Broward Sheriff’s Office to report getting a threatening letter in the mail. According to the report, it was a white, self-adhesive envelope addressed to Boldrick. There was no return address on it. Inside the envelope, Boldrick discovered a white letter-size sheet of paper with ten words typed in large black font. The warning read, "Keep F------ with the NRA and you will be DOA."
Since the Valentine's Day massacre, David Hogg, along with several other Parkland survivors, have made countless media appearances, grilled lawmakers about gun reform during town halls, and sparked massive walkouts and peaceful protests at schools across the country. Their efforts have drawn international attention. In November, they were awarded the International Children's Peace Prize for their youth-led organization March for Our Lives.
According to the RPO petition, a BSO detective and a Postal Inspector focused their investigation on Bond, and when questioned, Bond admitted he sent the letter. The report says he told the investigators, "Yep! That is exactly what I told her, and you know what, I believe it today."
The RPO petition noted that Bond had a concealed weapons permit in Florida and owned a firearm. He reportedly told investigators he had been a member of the NRA but recently cancelled his membership.
Bond was arrested Thursday and appeared in federal court. He has no prior history of arrests. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
He is scheduled to appear in court again Friday and has told the federal court he plans to hire an attorney.
Boldrick told NBC 6 she’s "relieved he was caught. There should be consequences when you threaten to kill someone," Boldrick said in a text message.
The Hoggs' home was also the target of a "swatting" prank in June, when someone called 911 falsely claiming to be heavly armed in order to get police to respond to the home.
Heavy rain and strong winds arrived early Friday, soaking Connecticut and making travel tough on a very busy day on the roads.
As much as three inches of rain is expected to fall in parts of the state, which could lead to flash flooding, poor drainage flooding and even flooding of small streams and rivers.
A coastal flood warning is in effect for parts of the shoreline.
High winds took down a tree in Southington around 7 a.m., closing Berlin Street at Stonegate Road, according to Southington fire officials. The tree landed on a vehicle, but no one was injured, fire officials said.
At Bradley International Airport, a few flights were delayed Friday morning, but most were departing on time. More delays are expected throughout the day.
A man riding a moped was killed in a crash in Killingly on Thursday night.
Police said Tyler William Nelson, 23, of Killingly, pulled his moped out onto Route 6 from Halls Hill Road when he was hit by a car just after 5 p.m.
Nelson was thrown from the moped onto the street and then was hit by a second car, police said.
Nelson was taken to Day Kimball Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Anyone who witnessed the accident is asked to call Trooper Kane at 860-779-4900.
Just days before Christmas, a Long Island family is desperately trying to get the body of their veteran husband and father back home from China after he mysteriously died on a flight there from New York.
On Friday, Dec. 7, retired Lt. Col. Norman Easy, a health care executive, boarded a China Eastern Airlines flight at JFK Airport and headed to Shanghai for a business trip. He travels frequently, according to his family, but wife Nixtia panicked when the father of four didn't let her know he'd landed in China.
"He always communicates with us, and I didn't hear nothing from him," said Nixtia.
When he didn't show up for a meeting on Monday, his company dispatched a team to find him.
"One of the police officers who happened to be at the airport when he died [also] happened to be at the police station when the team got there," his son Marcus told News 4 New York.
What the officer told the team was devastating.
"He said that someone matching my dad's description passed away on the plane," Marcus said. "They weren't allowed to verify that it was him but they're 100 percent sure it was him."
Since then, the Easy family say they've been getting the runaround from the Chinese government. They can't find out how he died, and they can't get his body.
"Just a good man who's done so much for his family -- not just for his family, but for the country and gave up almost 30 years of his life," said daughter Caitlin. "I just feel like the treament he's been receiving is so heartbreaking."
Family members said they were told on Wednesday that Easy's wife had to sign a waiver saying she doesn't object to anything in the police report -- a report she said she hasn't even seen -- before China will return his body.
"The fact that they're not willing to give us his body or death certificate or even the police report until we sign this waiver is just ridiculous," said Caitlin.
Easy's birthday is Christmas Eve. The family can't start to grieve until they have his body home, but they were determined to find out.
"Something is off. We don't know what it is," said Marcus. "We gotta figure it out and get him home."
An oil painting that was stolen from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe during World War II was recovered by federal agents in the D.C. area, the News4 I-Team has learned.
At least two people travelled to the Washington, D.C. area to attempt to sell the painting, court filings reviewed by the I-Team show. The duo was scheduled to attend an auction in November 2017.
The painting, "Secret Departure of Ivan the Terrible Before the Oprichina" by Mikhail N. Panin, was produced in 1911 and was the among the first works of art displayed in the collection of the Ekaterinoslav City Art Museum when it opened in 1914.
The painting "disappeared during the occupation of the city during the Second World War," according to court filings. The museum was in a region of central Ukraine occupied by the Nazis between August 1941 and October 1943.
Court filings from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia said the painting is believed to have been held and displayed for decades in a Ridgefield, Connecticut home after World War II.
The court filings said a Swiss citizen who emigrated to the United States in 1946 sold the home in 1962 and left the painting behind. The home was sold again in 1987, and the painting was left behind during that home sale as well, the court records said.
The U.S. Attorney has formally asked a federal judge to allow the forfeiture of the picture to the U.S. government. Federal agents have already obtained records from the Embassy of Ukraine in D.C. to prove the authenticity of the painting.
"The recovery of this art looted during World War II reflects the commitment of this office to pursue justice for victims of crime here and abroad," said U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu. "The looting of cultural heritage during World War II was tragic, and we are happy to be able to assist in the efforts to return such items to their rightful owners."
In their filings with the court, the U.S. Attorney said the painting was scheduled to be auctioned on Nov. 18, 2017, and was published in an auction house catalogue. The filings also said at least two people hired a company to transport the 7.5- by 8.5-foot painting to the D.C.-area for the attempted sale.
A representative from the Dnepropetrovsk State Art Museum in Ukraine sent an email to the auction house before the attempted sale to stop the auction. The email said, "Attention! Painting “Ivan the Terrible” was in the collection of the Dnepropetrovsk Art Museum until 1941 and was stolen during the Second World War. The museum documentation confirms this fact. Please stop selling this painting at auction!!! According the international rules of restitution of stolen works of art, the picture should return to Ukraine.”
A 2016 report by the News4 I-Team found the FBI has recovered at least 2,650 missing pieces of art and historical artifacts since 2004. The agency has an Art Crime Team, a specialized unit of agents formed and trained to track art thefts.
The FBI and the Ukraine Embassy to the United States did not immediately return requests for comment.
Firefighters battled a house fire in Andover on Friday morning.
They responded to the home on Lake Road around 9:45 a.m.
Most of the fire was contained by about 10:30 a.m., according to fire officials.
Fire crews remained on scene and are investigating the cause of the fire.
If the federal government shuts down, can you get that passport renewed for your January trip? What about your Social Security check? And do you have to file your taxes?
We have answers.
Q: How much of the government could shut down?
A: What's threatened now is a "partial" shutdown. Many agencies, including the Pentagon and the departments of Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services, are already funded for the year and will continue to operate as usual, regardless of whether Congress and the president reach an agreement over funding for a border wall.
Still, the dispute could affect nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, The Associated Press reported.
Q: How many government workers could see their paychecks delayed?
A: More than 800,000 federal employees would see their jobs disrupted, including more than half who would be forced to continue working without pay, the AP reported.
According to a report by Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee, more than 420,000 federal employees deemed essential would continue to work without pay during a partial shutdown. That includes employees working in law enforcement, corrections, Homeland Security, TSA, Customs and Border Protection agents and 42,000 Coast Guard employees.
But more than 380,000 employees will be furloughed.
All employees should be paid back in full once the government reopens.
Q: What about federal contractors?
A: Government contractors are in an even tougher situation. If their contract is funded, they are likely to be OK -- but in past shutdowns some furloughed agencies have issued stop-work orders to contractors, according to the National Law Review.
Contractors may not be made whole after a shutdown. And remember, not all contractors are big-money corporations -- the janitors at many government buildings are also contractors.
Q: I ordered my holiday presents from Amazon! Will they get here?
A: The U.S. Postal Service wouldn't be affected by any government shutdown because it's an independent agency and has its own sources of revenue. FedEx and UPS are private companies and would not be affected.
Q: I rely on my income from Social Security. Will my check still arrive?
A: Social Security checks will still go out. So will payments to Medicaid and Medicare programs and for veterans' programs, including the GI Bill and VA hospitals. But if you are applying to join one of those programs, you might have to wait.
And the U.S. food stamp program has only limited funding, if the shutdown stretches on.
Q: What about the Mueller investigation?
A: It is funded "from a permanent indefinite appropriation and would be unaffected in the event of a shutdown," a Justice Department spokesperson told CNN.
Q: Can I go see Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and other national parks?
A: That depends. Most national historic sites, including Independence National Historic Park, have areas funded by the National Park Service and other areas funded by private organizations. The Park Service-funded locations would probably close; that would likely include the National Zoo and its popular panda exhibit, sadly.
Independence Hall would likely shut down, but the privately funded Museum of the American Revolution would remain open, public radio and TV station WHYY has reported. Similarly, the National Constitution Center will stay open; the Liberty Bell pavilion probably won't.
The Washington Monument would close, as would museums along the National Mall.
In the past, the vast majority of national parks were closed to visitors and campers, but during the last government shutdown in January the Interior Department tried to make parks as accessible as possible despite bare-bones staffing levels. It was not clear Monday if that effort will be repeated.
Q: Can I renew my passport?
A: The State Department will keep issuing passports, Bloomberg reported. But you might have a little trouble accessing their offices if the passport office you want to go to is inside a building run by another agency and that agency gets shut down.
Q: Do I have to pay my taxes?
A: Yes.
However, the IRS would have to furlough parts of its staff, which could affect the number of people available for tax prep help or investigations.
Police were called to Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy on Friday morning after a report of a student with a weapon.
The school, located on Vernon Street, was placed into lockdown at 9:45 a.m., according to a spokesperson for Hartford Public Schools.
The student was identified and searched and police searched the school but did not find a weapon, the spokesperson said.
The lockdown was lifted around 11 a.m. and the school day resumed as normal.
If you're planning to do some last-minute shopping on Christmas, you'll have limited options.
Open on Christmas Day
Most drug stores
American Airlines will be offering flights between Tweed New Haven Regional Airport and Charlotte-Douglas International Airport starting Saturday.
The airline is offering non-stop Saturday service from New Haven to Charlotte, one of the largest hubs in the country.
Previously Tweed's farthest commercial destination was Philadelphia.
Tweed has been working to expand its runway to boost business, but a resolution supporting lengthening the main runway didn’t make it to a final vote in May.
For more information on the airport's offerings, click here.
It has become 15-year-old Dylan Maldonado’s mission to make sure every foster kid has a suitcase.
“Whenever they get moved in emergency placement, they come with garbage bags or even nothing,” he said. “I want them to have something to call their own.”
Dylan knows all too well what it’s like to carry everything he has in a garbage bag. He and his twin brother, Tyler, were once foster children.
“I just want to do something so that people can carry on,” Dylan said.
Their adoptive mother Doris said the boys had a difficult past. Their biological mother was addicted to drugs. Doris first took them in when they were 9 months old and four long years later, she adopted them.
“She overdosed. Their only biological relative was their grandmother; she passed away two weeks before their mother overdosed,” Doris said.
Doris is still a foster parent, and Dylan sees that they don’t have much. He’s been taking in the gently used bags and toiletries over the past year. So far, they’ve collected more than 300 suitcases for kids.
“I’m grateful that I’m in a good household with a good family because many other children aren’t as lucky,” said Dylan.
Police are trying to locate a 78-year-old man missing from Greenwich.
Authorities issued a Silver Alert for 78-year-old Edward Jackson Friday. He is described as 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, with grey hair and brown eyes. He was last seen on Greenwich Avenue near J. Crew, wearing a gray knit cap, red pullover sweater, navy blue puffy jacket and tan khaki pants.
Greenwich police say anyone who spots Jackson should remain with him and call 911.
An incident at a New Jersey high school wrestling tournament in which a black wrestler was forced by a white referee to cut off his dreadlocks has once again sparked a social media backlash and questions about the treatment of young people of color.
A video originally tweeted by a SNJ Today reporter shows Buena Regional High School junior Andrew Johnson standing dejected in the school's gym after being forced to choose between getting his hair cut or forfeiting.
In the video, fans and coaches watch an official cut off Johnson's dreadlocks with a pair of scissors before he is allowed to compete.
The crowd cheers as Johnson wins the match - which helped his school to a tournament victory - but despite having his hand raised after the victory the junior stands with his shoulders slumped and head down as he walks off the mat to be comforted by his team.
The American Civil Liberties Union's New Jersey chapter responded by tweeting that, "This is not about hair. This is about race. How many different ways will people try to exclude Black people from public life without having to declare their bigotry?"
On Friday, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association said it was conducting an investigation and had contacted Buena Regional High School officials and the referee involved in the incident.
The association also said it was forwarding preliminary information to the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights and that, "given the degree of attention being focused on this matter," it would recommend that the referee not be assigned to any event until the incident "has been reviewed more thoroughly."
The Buena Regional High School athletic department did not return a phone call seeking comment.
As he leaves office, Governor Dan Malloy has plenty of thoughts on one of the key moments that defined his second term.
“I think the reality is Boston is not going to get what they paid for,” Gov. Malloy said during one of his final interviews as he leaves office. “$140 million for a couple hundred jobs.”
When General Electric announced it would leave Connecticut in January 2016, it seemed like the start of even worse economic news.
GE had been located in Fairfield for about 40 years, and had announced in late 2015 that it was considering options outside Connecticut. It later announced it would move to Boston and build a new corporate headquarters.
The company said publicly that Boston was a better fit for a changing economy with access to younger, more valuable talent in a major city.
GE’s Fairfield campus, steps from the Merritt Parkway and equipped with a helipad, was from a different time, when business parks were popular destinations for major corporations.
“I have a lot of feelings, I suppose about GE,” Malloy said.
The Department of Economic and Community Development was chided by critics of the Malloy administration for putting a Pratt and Whitney engine in glossy materials talking about Connecticut as a place for businesses to locate and stay. GE is a competitor of Pratt and Whitney in the engine-building space.
Malloy did not mention that mistake, but did discuss the competitive environment and how General Electric told the governor the company felt betrayed by its home state.
Pratt and Whitney manufactures engines in Middletown and its corporate headquarters is in East Hartford.
“You know the first time I met with the leadership, they were yelling at me because Connecticut had backed a single provider of a jet engine for the F35 which is Pratt and Whitney,” Malloy said. “They greatly resented that entire Congressional delegation had backed a single provider as opposed to a competitive situation which they wanted to enter.”
Since the announcement of the move by GE, much has changed.
The company has seen its stock price plummet, and was even removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average earlier this year. It also hired a new CEO to replace the outgoing Jeff Immelt, the person ultimately responsible for the move to Boston.
The governor says he is not relishing in the company’s current situation, but believes the picture is now clearer surrounding the health of the company and what perhaps was happening behind the scenes when the decision was made to leave Connecticut.
He said, “General Electric and their leadership damaged a lot of people. As we sit here, there are people whose incomes have evaporated. And I'm talking about people who retired and relied on that dividend payment."
Malloy attempted at the final word on the issue as he leaves office in less than three weeks.
“One of the oddities of GE is they used to lecture me about this state's pension's problems, which we took massive steps in '11 to address and in the second SEBAC agreement to take steps to address, all the while GE went from a positive situation in their pension to a negative situation in their pension. So we're going in a positive direction and they went in the wrong direction, yet they felt free to lecture Connecticut even after it had gone to great lengths to address that problem.”
A man climbed the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse just south of the White House Friday evening, U.S. Park Police confirmed.
Police believe he was in some kind of emotional distress and negotiated with him to get out of the tree.
He was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
Some tree lights were damaged during the incident.
People had lined up to get in to see the tree, but police closed the White House pageant area and will keep it closed the rest of the evening.
D.C. Fire and EMS assisted Park Police.
The Senate adjourned Friday evening without reaching a stopgap funding deal, essentially guaranteeing a partial government shutdown at midnight, NBC News reported.
The move followed a vote to open debate on a temporary funding bill — a move that left an open channel with the White House for negotiations.
The vote on the bill, which included $5 billion in border wall funding, was held open for more than five hours. It ended just before 6 p.m. ET, when Vice President Mike Pence broke a 47-47 tie vote.
West Haven police arrested a man accused of robbing a TD Bank Friday.
Police said they responded to the TD Bank at 636 Campbell Avenue around 11 a.m. for a reported robbery. Employees reported the suspect as a man wearing black clothes and a black mask over his face, who fled north on Campbell Avenue.
Officers searched the area and found the suspect, identified as 65-year-old Malcolm Lytell, of New Haven. Investigators said they also found a bag of money from the bank nearby.
Lytell has several previous arrests for bank robbery, police said. He was arrested and charged with first-degree robbery and fourth-degree larceny. He was held on bond.
Foxon Road (Route 80) in North Branford is closed after a crash.
Police confirmed the road is shut down from Forest Road to Caputo Road. Drivers should avoid the area.
No other details were immediately available.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
