Federal prosecutors say an IRS investigator in California has admitted leaking confidential details of financial transactions by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to Michael Avenatti, lawyer for Stormy Daniels, NBC News reported.

John C. Fry has been charged in federal court with searching for and disseminating Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), reports filed by banks when they note potentially suspicious transactions.

Federal officials say they found telephone records that indicate Fry placed a phone call from his personal cell phone to that of Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti the day before Avenatti released details of Cohen's financial transactions, and the day after.

The NBC Connecticut First Alert meteorologists are issuing a First Alert for Sunday and Monday because of the threat of ice Sunday morning and strong winds Sunday night and Monday. 

A storm that develops near Connecticut will produce heavy rain on Sunday and it might be cold enough for a period of freezing rain, especially in the hills, according to NBC Connecticut chief meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan. 

As the storm moves away, winds will increase and 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts are possible on Monday. 

Stay tuned for the latest. 

A New Britain man was seriously hurt when he was hit by a car in the city Thursday.

Police said the 57-year-old victim was hit in the area of Corbin Avenue and Osgood Avenue around 6 p.m. He was taken to the hospital where he is currently listed in stable condition.

The driver, an 81-year-old Bristol man, was not hurt and is cooperating with police. No charges have been filed.

The crash remains under investigation. Anyone with information should contact New Britain Police Sgt.Steven King at 860-826-3071.

Many are concerned about the possible effects of the Jussie Smollett case.

When Smollett was accused of staging a homophobic and racist attack, Roberto Tollis’ mind flashed back to the 1990s when he says he was the victim of a gay hate crime in Hartford.

“It just brings up those raw emotions, like, oh man. And to use that community again to better your career? What about all of our emotions? All the people who have suffered through this?” said Tollis.

Now Tollis worries if victims in the future will be concerned that they won’t be believed.

And they might think twice about coming forward, which is always difficult.

“It’s a scary thing. Like you don’t want to come out and report something like that and let the world see what happened to you,” said Tollis.

That fear is shared by Kenneth Gray, a former FBI Special Agent and a lecturer at the University of New Haven.

“This may stop reports from legitimate hate crime victims,” said Gray.

Gray says the Smollett case also took a toll on law enforcement, taking resources away from investigating other crimes.

“Because of the high profile nature of this crime spent a lot of resources to go in and investigate this crime,” said Gray.

After all the twists and turns of the Smollett case, Tollis hopes victims have faith that justice will prevail and are brave when facing hate.

“They need to report anything that happens. We have to report it because if we don’t it’s just going to get worse,” said Tollis.

Nationally, the FBI says hate crime reports were up 17 percent from 2016 to 2017, the most recent data available.

Of the more than 7,000 cases, about 60 percent were race bias, followed by religious and sexual orientation.

Experts think a lot of crimes actually go unreported. Victims worry about the attention, that police won’t take action or they might end up being arrested.

A candidate for the state Senate has fired his campaign manager over what many are calling an anti-Semitic tweet.

Bill Wadsworth, Republican candidate for the 5th Senate District, said he has fired campaign manager Nicole Palmieri over a tweet that went up Tuesday. The post was directed at his opponent Derek Slap, and showed a photo of Slap with Senator Richard Blumenthal with the text “Even Dick isn’t safe from Slap’s money grabbing.”

In an interview with NBC Connecticut Thursday night, Wadsworth said he didn’t approve of the tweet or have any knowledge of it until we reached out.

“The hard fact of the matter is it certainly looks like it is anti-Semitic and I don’t approve of any activity in my campaign that supports any kind of activity like that,” Wadsworth said.

He added that he did not know Palmieri prior to her involvement in the campaign and that he immediately felt action had to be taken when he saw the tweet.

“I certainly apologize to Mr. Slap and anybody else involved in this because like I said, it’s not characteristic of the way that I run campaigns.”

The Jewish Federal Association of Connecticut (JFACT) decried the tweet as anti-Semitic and called upon Wadsworth to apologize. Both Blumenthal and Slap are Jewish.

“This type of stereotyping Jews as money grabbing is irresponsible and unacceptable. The use of anti-Semitic language and imagery as contained in this tweet is becoming normalized in our society and we must stand up and demand it stop,” their statement read in fact.

Slap said he was taken aback by the tweet and supported JFACT’s position.

“This type of imagery and wording doesn’t have a place, should not have a place in our politics. Hopefully it will be taken down and they will address JFact’s concerns,” he said.

Palmieri released the following statement on the situation

“I decided to step away from the campaign to not draw attention away from the serious issues facing voters next Tuesday. I’m shocked and saddened my tweet was used as a diversion from the issues at hand.”

Slap said he appreciates Wadsworth’s response and hopes this truly was an issue where the candidate wasn’t engaged with the campaign, and he looks forward to focusing on issues that matter to the voters in the Fifth District.

A school bus and a truck have been involved in a crash in Tolland and no injuries are reports.

Officials from the Tolland Fire Department said children were on the bus and they are safe and were not hurt. 

Tolland Alert reports that the crash is on Mile Hill Road. The road is open.

A person was hit by a vehicle in East Hartford Friday morning and suffered minor injuries, according to police. 

Police said the person was walking and a driver motioned for her to cross Silver Lane, but a driver behind that vehicle switched lanes and struck the pedestrian. 

The person who was struck was taken to a hospital to be treated for minor injuries, police said.

Around four Southwest flights have been delayed Friday morning, according to the Connecticut Airport Authority. 

Southwest has been replying to people on social media about delays across the country and said there was an issue, but it has been resolved.

A  man who was stabbed multiple times in Hartford Thursday night is dead and police are trying to identify him. 

Officials said the stabbing happened on Main Street around 9:30 p.m.

The unidentified victim, believed to be in his 40s, was initially rushed to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition and died from his injuries early Friday morning, according to police.

Investigators believe they have recovered the weapon involved and are questioning a suspect who they expect to formally charge.

Detectives do not believe this incident is connected to any other violent crimes that occurred in Hartford this week.

The Chicago Archdiocese revealed Thursday that current priests have fathered children in the past and were financially supported by the diocese. 

Four unnamed priests living today have fathered children, NBC 5 has learned, "and the last case was nearly 20 years ago," a Chicago Archdiocese spokeswoman said. 

Following New York Times reporting this week about secret Vatican rules in place for priests who father children, NBC 5 asked Chicago's archdiocese if any of its priests have fathered children, how many and how the children are taken care of. 

The archdiocese would not say if these priests are currently assigned to Chicago parishes but noted all of the children are now adults. The first priority, according to the archdiocese, is that the priest meets his responsibilities to the child. 

Financial support of differing lengths was provided to the priests' children, the Chicago Archdiocese spokeswoman said, and generally lasted through college. 

"Provisions were made in each case for the care of the child, and in general, the priest made arrangements to reimburse the archdiocese for amounts paid for such care," the spokeswoman said. 

The archdiocese said it will not release more information to protect the privacy of all involved. 

Former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who investigated priest sex abuse in the state, said bishops told her that consensual adult relationships had been reported. 

"When I did speak to the bishops from the state of Illinois, virtually all of them said to me, look, you're going to get reports from people about relationships that priests are having that are with adult women that are consensual," Madigan said. 

Unanswered questions include: How many children have been fathered by Chicago priests, how much money did they receive, and how did the priests afford to support them. Also, what care and consideration did the mothers receive from the archdiocese. 

The Vatican said priests are asked to leave once it is revealed they have fathered a child, and the Archdiocese confirmed that if they return, the priests must recommit their vows. The New York Times reported that canon lawyers said: "there is nothing in church law that forces priests to leave the priesthood for fathering children." 

"There was a time that priests were allowed to marry and so it is a policy change that they should consider making at this point," Madigan said. 

Though it remains unclear how many children of priests there might be, a support group website called "Coping International. Children of Catholic Priests" has 50,000 users in 175 countries. 

The news comes as Pope Francis opened the first-ever worldwide summit on priest sex abuse with the world’s bishops.

A Hamden woman was shot in the feet while lying in bed when someone fired gunshots from outside a home, according to police. 

Police said they responded to the Dix Street home around 2 a.m. Friday after receiving reports of gunshots. 

The investigation revealed that a 21-year-old Hamden resident who was visiting was lying in bed in a basement apartment when several gunshots were fired from outside of the home and she was struck “in both of her feet,” according to police. 

Hamden Fire Rescue responded and treated the woman who was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital to be treated. 

Police have not located the shooter and they ask anyone with information to call the Hamden Police Department Detective Division at (203) 230-4000.

No additional information was immediately available. 

Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been charged with soliciting another to commit prostitution in Florida.

"He is one of the individuals -- that would be Mr. Robert Kraft," a Jupiter Police Chief Daniel Kerr said at a press conference on Friday morning.

Kraft is being charged with two counts of soliciting another to commit prostitution based on two separate visits.

Police said they have not had contact with Kraft.

More to come.

An American-born ISIS bride told NBC News on Friday that she anticipates "no problem" in returning to the U.S. despite the Trump administration's insistence that she won't be allowed into the country.

Hoda Muthana, 24, left the U.S. to join the Islamic State in Syria in 2014.

She is now staying in a refugee camp with her 18-month-old son after fleeing the remnants of the caliphate. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told NBC's "Today" on Thursday that Muthana is not a citizen and will not be admitted to the country. 

Muthana, who was born in New Jersey and lived in Alabama, and her family are now suing the Trump administration in an effort to allow her to return.

The state-run widening project for Route 6 was supposed to be finished last November and now will not be done until next November and the cost has increased from $13 million to closer to $20 million. Officials say utility issues and fiber optic cable issues are contributing factors.

A child has died from the flu in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Public Health. The child died earlier this week.

This is the first pediatric death involving a Connecticut child during this flu season, according to the department.

“Our hearts go out to the family of this child,” Department of Health Commissioner Raul Pino said in a statement.

In Connecticut, 12 flu-associated pediatric deaths have been reported from the 2005-2006 flu season through the 2017-2018 season.

“Only two of these cases (17%) had evidence of current flu vaccination,” Pino said in a statement. 

He said it is important that all children be vaccinated for influenza, starting at 6 months old, since even children who appear healthy children can become very ill and die from the flu.

There have now been 30 flu-related deaths in Connecticut this season.

UConn Health is warning patients about a data breach that could impact more than 300,000 people. 

UConn Health released a statement saying they recently learned “that an unauthorized third party illegally accessed a limited number of employee email accounts” and said it has secured the impacted accounts. 

UConn Health said it learned on Dec. 24 that the accounts contained some personal information, including some individuals’ names, dates of birth, addresses and limited medical information, such as billing and appointment information. The accounts also contained the Social Security numbers of some individuals. 

UConn Health has identified around 326,000 people whose personal information was contained in a compromised email account and the information included Social Security numbers for around 1,500 people. 

It's not know if an unauthorized party saw or obtained the information and UConn Health said it is not aware of any instances of fraud or identity theft and said the breach had no impact on UConn Health’s computer networks or electronic medical record systems. 

People who might have been affected will be receiving letters by mail if UConn Health has a valid mailing address for the person. 

UConn Health said it is offering free identity theft protection services to individuals whose Social Security numbers may be impacted. 

They are urging patients to regularly monitor credit reports, account statements and benefit statements. 

“UConn Health takes its responsibility to safeguard personal information seriously and apologizes for any inconvenience or concern this incident might cause. We have taken and continue to take steps to help prevent something like this from happening again, including evaluating additional platforms for educating staff and reviewing technical controls,” UConn Health said in a statement. 

Anyone looking for more information should visit UConn Health’s website or call our toll-free inquiry line at 1-877-734-5353 between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

South Windsor Public Works crews came to the rescue when someone lost a wedding band into a catch basin Friday.

According to a post on the department’s Facebook page, crews used a low-flow pump to remove water without picking up the ring. The ring was recovered and returned to its owner.

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When the Paramount movie ranch and Western Town burned in a wildfire that swept through Southern California, one woman lost more than a local historic site.

Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel invited more than 500 people to her 1990 wedding at the Paramount Ranch. Her stuntmen friends provided the entertainment for her guests by falling off buildings and staging elaborate gunfights. 

“The only thing that is left there is the little church,” Erskine-Hellrigel, the president and executive director of the Santa Clarita-based Community Hiking Club, said. “It was just the most magnificent place to have a wedding or an event. And it breaks my heart that it’s now gone. All those memories up in smoke." 

Paramount Ranch was just one of many recreation areas destroyed by two wildfires that swept Southern California throughout November 2018. It’s been three months since wildfires in the area were contained, but the state’s cleanup process is still in early stages. Many residents are concerned about the lasting damage to their national and state parks, as park officials estimate it could take 10 to 20 years for the land to fully recover. 

The Woolsey Fire spread across nearly 97,000 acres throughout Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It claimed three lives, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s website, destroyed 1,500 structures and damaged more than 340. The Hill Fire burned through an additional 4,500 acres in Ventura County but left behind little structural damage compared to the Woolsey Fire.

The Woolsey Fire also heavily impacted state and national parks, many of which neighbor cities like Thousand Oaks, Malibu and Santa Monica.

“Over 85 percent of what we call the national recreational area has burned,” said William Vanderberg, the vice chair of the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force of the Sierra Club’s Angeles Chapter.

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area falls under the National Park Service’s jurisdiction. Paramount Ranch, Rancho Sierra Vista, Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Canyon, the Santa Monica Mountains Visitor Center and the Sandstone Peak trail have all reopened, but many other NPS parks remain closed. 

The National Parks Service did not respond to several requests for comment.

Of the Santa Monica Mountains State Parks land, 55 percent was damaged, with the Leo Carrillo and Malibu Creek parks being the hardest hit, according to California State Parks officials.

Much of Leo Carrillo’s campground, trail and day-use areas remain closed as the state parks department works to clean debris and rebuild burned structures. Malibu Creek’s campground also remains closed. The park also lost employee residences as well as some historical sites like the home of one of the state’s pioneer homesteaders, Pedro Sepulveda. Point Mugu State Park and the other state parks have been completely reopened to the public. 

“State Parks really want to thank the firefighters and law enforcement and first responders who really worked day in and day out and who still continue to work for the state parks and for the surrounding communities,” Craig Sap, the state parks’ district superintendent, said. “We’re pushing as quickly as possible to have these facilities and particularly the Davis campground areas opened as quickly as possible.” 

Sap said not only did the parks suffer damage, but the organization’s facilities, support buildings, maintenance yard, office buildings and restroom facilities were also impacted.

Local residents are reeling over how the damage done by the fires will affect their outdoor spaces. 

Vanderberg with the Sierra Club described a hike in Will Rogers State Historic Park in Los Angeles that goes down a canyon called Rustic Canyon. The remains of an old vacation home called the Murphy Ranch and a colony where people once lived lies at the bottom of the canyon. Vanderberg said local folklore claims that leading up to World War II, the abandoned ranch was once home to Nazi sympathizers who wanted to create their own colony in the canyon. 

“It’s just fascinating to see all these old artifacts and ruins from almost 100 years ago,” Vanderberg said. “Hiking anywhere in the Santa Monicas is an experience that I really have enjoyed over the years, and I’m a little bit dismayed to know that for a while now it’s not going to be the same and I’m not sure that in my lifetime it will ever be the same.” 

It could be months or even years before evidence of the fires disappears.

Vanderberg said that volunteer organizations, the National Park Service and the state’s Department of Parks and Recreations began the cleanup process in the beginning of December by beginning to walk the trails to assess the damage and hazards. This included clearing fallen tree limbs, removing trees that may fall in the future and moving dirt to prevent erosion.

Sap, the state parks official, warned that rainstorms could still have massive effects on the recovering parks. 

Vandenberg added that the firefighters had already done some of the work of clearing trails so that their trucks could enter. But Vanderberg noted that it might take several months or even years to recreate all the trails that once crisscrossed the parks.

One such case is the Backbone Trail. Vanderberg said the trail contains nearly 70 miles of trail in an urban area that stretch the length of the Santa Monica Mountains. It offers everything from ocean views to stops at the Hollywood sign. Vanderberg said it had been officially completed and dedicated as a National Recreation Trail just two years ago.

“It’s the combination of 40 years of effort in acquiring property, in building these trails that connect the entire trail system,” Vanderberg said. “And people have been really drawn to it this past year or two as word has gotten out that it had been completed, well that’s going to be significantly impacted for a long time." 

Santa Monica Mountain Trails Council President Ruth Gerson said three of the trail’s major bridges have been destroyed. Gerson rode the length of the Backbone Trail on horseback two years ago when she was 83 years old. 

“So that’s going to be a high priority to get those repaired,” Gerson said. “There’s a lot of areas that can be ridden where you don't have to worry about any of the bridges that are destroyed.”

Sap said that although he has an overall budget of $10 million for his district, the district will require more funding from the state Parks and Recreation Department and the federal government.

“This is a FEMA-declared event,” Sap said. “So the hope is that a portion of the cost will be offset with funding from FEMA.” 

While recovery efforts keep most of part of the state parks closed, Will Rogers and the Topanga park northwest of it remain completely open to public use.

Steve Iland, who plans the hikes for the Community Hiking Club in Santa Clarita, fears that because so many parks remain closed either partially or completely, more people will crowd to a select few parks. 

Iland said even if some of the burned areas were to reopen, they might not be much use to hikers. He said the section of Malibu Creek State Park where “M.A.S.H,” the 1970s Vietnam War-inspired television show was filmed, once contained exotic trees and plenty of shade before the fire. Most of that shade is gone now.

“The whole idea of hiking is to get out into areas that are lush, that are maybe shaded because of the amount of heat and sun in Southern California, you obviously want to be in areas that have got some shade,” Iland said. “Tramping through gray ash is not what hiking’s all about.”

”For the general public who wants to go to the woods and escape, the woods are gone,” Vanderberg said.

Kate Van Waes, the executive director of an advocacy group for hikers called American Hiking, believes the loss of scenery could affect visitation to the parks. 

“People end up being disappointed in the views that they see or they don’t want to go visit the place because they’re worried because it’s been ‘ruined,’” Van Waes said. “So it can affect visitorship and that can affect the local economy because fewer people are going to go hike on those trails and visit these scenic areas because of what the wildfire has done to them.”

But the scorched earth hasn’t stopped Gerson, the Santa Monica Mountain Trails Council president, from visiting Paramount Ranch, which has been reopened. She decided to stay in her home near the park, despite a mandatory evacuation, to watch over the 25 horses that evacuated neighbors and friends entrusted her.

Gerson prefers to go with her horse to Malibu Creek State Park, which remains partially closed, but she’s settled for Paramount Ranch.

“In places like Paramount Ranch, the grass is already coming up and is green already,” Gerson said. “People will come use the trails once it’s green.” 

Erskine-Hellrigel, the hiking club president, said that people should be on the lookout for other examples of California’s “really interesting” fire ecology. She described how oak trees that are burned down to the ground will stump sprout, meaning it will grow back with multiple trunks fused together. The “magnificent trees” with two, five or eight different trunks are often evidence of a past fire.

Erskine-Hellrigel also said there will be Poodle Dog bushes after the land recovers, and they’ll last for about eight years. 

“A lot of people are attracted to it because it has these spikes and these beautiful purple flowers,” Erskine-Hellrigel said. “They have no idea that it can be as dangerous as poison oak. You get this rash if you touch it.”

Sap said that visitors tend to flock to parks to take pictures of the wildflowers and plants that emerge like phoenixes from the fire. He also said the California Department of Parks and Recreation learned a valuable lesson from the 2013 Spring Fire, which burned more than 80 percent of Point Mugu State Park. Despite wildfire and flooding damage, people stormed the park when it reopened after a month. 

“I think we’re going to see a similar situation here, you multiply that one park times three, the big parks within the Los Angeles district and the Malibu sector primarily, that people really want to get out there and recreate,” Sap said. 

Attorney General William Barr will not receive the final report of special counsel Robert Mueller by the end of next week, NBC News reported, citing a senior Justice Department official.

Multiple news outlets, including NBC News, CNN and the Washington Post, reported this week that Mueller's report on his team's investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia could be sent to the attorney general as early as next week.

The Trump administration is “looking into” Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s role in securing an unusually lenient plea deal — the details of which were illegally kept hidden from dozens of victims in the case — for sex offender and well-connected former hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein, NBC News reported.

Epstein, 66, reached a nonprosecution deal in 2008 with then-Miami U.S. Attorney Acosta's office to halt a federal sex abuse investigation involving dozens of teenage girls in return for him pleading guilty to state charges involving a single victim, paying financial settlements to other victims and becoming a registered sex offender.

The wealthy financier, who'd been friends with the likes of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, wound up serving 13 months in a Palm Beach jail, where he was allowed to leave almost daily through a work-release program and to have his own private security detail.

Acosta was actively involved in the negotiations, according to documents that were introduced into evidence in a lawsuit by two victims who said their rights were violated. That included an email between Acosta and one of Epstein's lawyers, former Whitewater special prosecutor Ken Starr, where he agreed to temporarily hold off on sending out victim notification letters at Starr's request.