While visible signs of winter have gone, its effects linger in our water supply.

NBC Connecticut Investigates has learned thousands who use well water in our state may have a new issue to worry about: contamination from road salt.

Approximately 130 wells across the state have been contaminated by road salt according to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

In Tolland, at least three homeowners are spending thousands of dollars to keep their water clean.

Bob DeRoy no longer uses water straight from the tap to make his morning coffee. His daily cup of joe eventually tipped him off to a problem.

"When we made coffee and it tasted really bad and the cream was curdling in the coffee, we were kind of like, something's up", DeRoy said.

DeRoy's water comes from a private well. Test results showed the chloride level was 528 milligrams per liter, more than twice the maximum contaminent level (MCL) of 250 mg/l set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Over time, we've seen an uptick in this, in sodium chloride detections in private wells. It creates very aggressive water, very corrosive water," said Robert Miller, director of health for the Eastern Highlands Health District.

At that level, the water not only develops a salty taste, but can corrode pipes and release other potentially harmful metals, such as lead and copper, into the water.

Miller said the chloride does not pose a human health concern, but people on low sodium diets should keep an eye on the sodium levels in their water.

Michael Dietz, who runs the Institute of Water Resources at UConn, says this issue goes well beyond Connecticut.

"This is a worldwide problem. It's a really big problem in the United States because the amount of salt that we've been applying has been increasing dramatically over the past few decades," he said.

Dietz says the only solution is to apply less salt. Over the winter, a UConn pilot program showed encouraging results, and saved the university $300,000.

"Most importantly perhaps is how to properly calibrate the equipment and apply salt at a rate that will melt the snow and ice that you need, but you don't over apply. So that's the key right there," said Dietz.

UConn is working with the Connecticut departments of Transportation and Public Health to get municipalities on board.

Dietz says the real challenge will be reaching private contractors, who account for about half of the road salt applied to our roads.

The Eastern Highlands Health District recently took water samples from Bob DeRoy and two of his neighbors. Once the tests results are in, the district with work with DEEP to determine the next step.

"I'm not mad. I am a little bit upset that it's gotten to this point," DeRoy explained.

DeRoy has been dealing with this issue for more than a year. He now uses a mini "reverse osmosis" system to purify water from the kitchen faucet and the fridge. He says getting a system for the whole house is just too expensive.

He knows the chloride could corrode his pipes and appliances, but says he doesn't really have a choice.

"We want the roads to be safe and you hope people are making the decisions for the right reasons. But there are the side effects that are happening. And this is just a side effect," said DeRoy.

Shallow wells and those that are downhill or near the road are the most susceptible to contamination. Dietz says well owners who haven't had their water tested in a while shouldn't wait any longer.

The Chesapeake Bay was swamped by record rainfall last year. Across the vast watershed, streams swelled with churning water that picked up sediment and chemicals and rushed into the bay, one of the most vibrant and important ecosystems in the country. And oysters suffered.

Watermen say they've been pulling up dead oysters when they fish near rivers. They blame a sudden influx of fresh water that wasn't salty enough for the oysters to survive. Other possible culprits could be what was in the water: a smothering blanket of sediment or nutrients from lawn fertilizer or septic systems that can contribute to algae sucking oxygen from the water.

"It's the largest amount of rain that's ever been recorded. I mean, how do you predict that?" said Robert T. Brown, Sr., president of the Maryland Watermen's Association.

Yet climate scientists are predicting more storms. Due to climate change, storms will likely hit the region more often and drop more rain and snow, a serious danger to go with rising seas and rising temperatures. Any increased runoff from that precipitation would intensify the pollution that federal, state and local governments have worked for decades to mitigate.

"We know it's going to get wetter and wilder in the mid-Atlantic," said Ben Grumbles, Maryland's secretary of the environment.

What experts don't yet know is exactly how that increased precipitation would combine with rising and warming seas and what effect it will may on wildlife. But the Chesapeake Bay Program, a partnership between governments, nonprofits and universities that protects and restores the bay, has begun to gauge the effects of climate change. This month, those efforts went public.

The latest edition of the program's annual Bay Barometer progress report, released in early April, is the first to assess climate change's interactions with the watershed. It finds that air temperature near the Chesapeake has risen 1-3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1901 while sea levels have risen 7-10 inches around the bay since 1960. More new indicators tracking climate change not included in the report are newly available online, as well.

Also this month, Maryland and Virginia, along with Washington, D.C., and the four other states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, released first drafts of their newest water pollution-control strategies, which must now take climate change into account.

The strategies may be tweaked over the next few years, but the Environmental Protection Agency expects them to be in operation by 2025. The public can comment on each plan until June 7.

The climate change indicators and the pollution-control plans are some of the most concrete steps taken so far to assess how much the changing climate may change the Chesapeake.

A DIET TO STOP DEAD ZONES
Members of the Chesapeake Bay Program have been talking about climate change for at least 20 years, but the partnership has been working to counter the danger posed by excessive nutrients in the water for longer. The program was founded in 1983, about a decade after the alarm was raised over the bay's underwater grasses beginning a serious decline.

When the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus seep from human development into the waterway, they feed algae blooms. The blooms suck oxygen out of the water when they die and decay, creating dead zones that suffocate plants and animals in the water. The bay's dead zone usually lasts for four or five months each summer, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program, and it has averaged 1.7 cubic miles since 1985.

Excess sediment in the water can block the sunlight that underwater plants need to survive or help carry contaminants and harmful nutrients further into the bay.

The EPA in 2010 put the Chesapeake on what Grumbles called "a one-of-a-kind pollution diet" to cut the amount of nutrients and sediment reaching the bay by about a quarter.

Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and D.C. have a maximum amount of nutrients and sediment that each can let into the bay from the 64,000-square-mile watershed, the country's largest such plan. The EPA also requires the states to provide a detailed watershed implementation plan that explains how to achieve those goals — the latest version is the document submitted this month that factored in climate change.

In a sign that the diet may be working, this year's Bay Barometer report found that, for the third year in a row, underwater grasses are more abundant in the Chesapeake than ever before recorded. But the report also found that toxins like PCBs are also on the rise, found partially or fully impairing up to 83 percent of the bay and its tidal tributaries as of 2016.

"The patient is recovering but the patient has a long way to go yet," said Donald Boesch, an influential marine scientist and former president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

Storms are dangerous because they can dramatically increase the amount of nutrients and sediment in the water through runoff, erosion and dam discharge, along with causing flooding and other physical damage. Some oyster reefs in the Chesapeake never recovered from the torrential Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

And climate science suggests that more precipitation — and intense storms — are on the way. In warmer temperatures, more water evaporates, and that brings heavier and more frequent rain- and snowfall.

The latest U.S. National Climate Assessment, released in November, observed that the Chesapeake Bay watershed is already seeing "stronger and more frequent storms," and that the northeast is likely to see more of both.

RISING, WARMING WATER
The effects of increased precipitation aren't completely clear, Boesch said, given that climate models forecasting precipitation and seasonal patterns differ for the massive estuary and watershed. But other effects of climate change, like the sea level rising faster and temperatures warming, are essentially certain. Even a best-case scenario for the bay includes the sea rising faster than it has in the past, according to Boesch.

"We might lose some species, gain others," he said. "We might be able to achieve that environmental quality that we're striving for. The sea level though … is going to continue to rise."

The worst-case scenario, if carbon emissions go unchecked, would be 3-5 feet of sea level rise by the end of the century, he said. That would likely be enough to flood Baltimore's historic waterfront, parts of the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton and large swaths of Maryland's Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge as they stand today, according to a federal sea level rise tool. In the following centuries, the sea would rise tens of feet beyond that, Boesch said.

At the base of the bay, Norfolk, Virginia, is one of the U.S. cities most likely to see sea level rise in the coming years. In fact, it already has more "sunny day flooding" that makes it tough to get around, according to councilwoman Andria McClellan.

Home to a major port and an important naval shipyard, Norfolk revamped its zoning code to account for climate change, effectively ceding parts of the city to rising seas while requiring new buildings by the water to be elevated above the level of a 100-year flood, according to a 2018 Inside Climate News report on the change.

The city also launched a nonprofit "resilience accelerator" called RISE to foster new ideas for climate adaptation. Last week, RISE awarded $1.5 million to fund six entrepreneurial ideas, including a concrete-based oyster reef habitat system and technology that would transfer energy from vehicle traffic on roadways to pumps that would clear the roads of flooding.

The city isn't "throwing up our hands in the air and retreating" but trying to take advantage of the difficult position it finds itself in by innovating, McClellan said. 

"We're the tip of the spear. Every coastal community in America is going to have to deal with what we're dealing with in Norfolk," she said.

Climate change is also believed to be warming the oceans, which can stress some species, increase their susceptibility to diseases and, because warmer water holds less oxygen, worsen dead zones, Boesch said. If the bay warms, it will make it more difficult for colder-water species like the soft-shell clam to prosper; New England lobster fisheries are already seeing the lobster shift to the north.

Another victim of higher temperatures could be the underwater grasses like eelgrass, which provides an important habitat for animals like the Chesapeake's famed blue crab, according to Boesch. While the crab likely won't be stressed by a few degrees of warming, they look for protection and food in the eelgrass, and losing it could cause a "critical" drop in the crab's population in the bay.

It's less clear how climate change affects oysters than some other species, said Stephanie Westby, Chesapeake oyster restoration program manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They live in a wide range of salinities, and while too much fresh water can kill them, some oyster diseases thrive in saltier water, so it will take time to learn how they adapt to changes in the bay.

Oysters have also been dealing with existential threats since long before climate change became a global issue. Thanks in large part to overfishing that began in the colonial period, the Chesapeake oyster population is less than 1% of its historic level, and even lower in some places, Westby said. Depleted oyster reefs are more vulnerable to being smothered by sediment or suffocated by decomposing algae blooms.

That's bad for the watermen who fish oysters, but also bad for the health of the bay. Oysters filter feed, cleaning dozens of gallons a day, and if they were more plentiful, they would likely have a measurable affect on reducing water pollution across the bay.

"We've got more people, we've got more development, we've got more of everything in the watershed and then we've got more storms, and all that washes down into the Chesapeake," Westby said, adding, "we've largely removed one of the very few mechanisms that the bay has to get that stuff out."

The Bay Barometer has some good news about oyster restoration efforts: two of 10 tributaries selected for projects have completed reef construction and seeding.

The projects will only add a few thousand acres of reef to the bay, but Westby said they're great for the local ecosystem. She's buoyed by an "astounding" recent study that found the $28.6 million spent on reef restoration at Harris Creek, Maryland, will result in an estimated $3 million a year in removal of nitrogen and phosphorus.

And she hopes that ramping up oyster production through a thriving, private oyster farming industry would bring multiple benefits to the region through a "local and sustainable food source that's actually good for the environment."

That would at least help humans in the Chesapeake on one front in the fight to adapt to the changing climate.

One simple way for anyone to contribute is to use alternatives to herbicide, the source of the algae-feeding nutrients, on weeds in the yard, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program. It also recommends common conservation tips, like reducing emissions, buying native plants and using less water.

Boesch, who was named an admiral of the Chesapeake by former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley for "extraordinary commitment" to conserving and restoring the bay, thinks it's feasible to keep global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the goal set in the Paris climate accords.

"I see signs in various parts of the word we're at least beginning to turn the ship around and head in the right direction," he said.

Noreen O'Donnell and Wendy Rieger contributed to this report.

One new flu-associated death has been reported in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Health.

The flu remained widespread during the 16th week of flu season and 69 flu-associated deaths have been reported in Connecticut since the end of August.

One of the people who died this season was between 5 and 17, four were 25 to -49 years old, 18 were 50 to 64 and 46 were 65 years old or over.

Since Aug. 26, 3,231 people have been hospitalized with influenza.

See the number of lab tests that have been positive for influenza in each Connecticut county:

• New Haven County: 3021
• Hartford County: 2193
• Fairfield County: 1,815
• New London County: 868
• Litchfield County: 596
• Middlesex County: 544
• Windham County: 312
• Tolland County: 215
• Unknown County: 44

The White House is denying a request by the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for testimony from senior adviser Stephen Miller about the administration's controversial immigration actions, NBC News reported.

"The precedent for members of the White House staff to decline invitations to testify before congressional committees has been consistently adhered to by administrations of both political parties and is based on clearly established constitutional doctrines,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a letter to the committee's chairman, Elijah Cummings, on Wednesday.

Cummings sent a letter to Miller last week requesting that he testify on Trump's immigration agenda.

Demonstrators gathered outside the Wethersfield Police Department headquarters Thursday then marched the Silas Deane Highway, fighting for justice after a police-involved shooting that killed an 18-year-old man.

The protestors are calling for justice for the young man they called “Chulo.” That’s the nickname for 18-year-old Anthony Jose Vega Cruz.

Connecticut State Police say he died several days after being shot by a Wethersfield Police officer in the area of Silas Deane Highway and Maple Street.

Investigators said that on Saturday officers were trying to pull over Vega’s car when it struck a cruiser. Police say an officer got out and Vega drove toward him, which is when Officer Layau Eulizier opened fired. Another officer – Peter Salvatore – was there at the time but did not shoot.

The Hartford State’s Attorney’s Office is now leading the investigation.

“We want to see the dash cam video and we want to know why this officer felt comfortable enough to shoot this young man, rather than try to apprehend him in another way,” said Cornell Lewis, an organizer of the group Moral Monday CT.

During a similar protest on Monday, Wethersfield’s police chief called this a tragedy but deferred questions to state authorities.

Wethersfield police have been preparing for this demonstration and there’s also concerns counter protesters might come too.

Officers have put up fencing around police headquarters and are urging drivers to stay away from this area in case of possible road closures.

Part of Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed budget has some animal advocates say he’s barking up the wrong tree.

“Folks are literally breaking the piggy bank to take care of their pet,” Gordan Willard, executive director of the Connecticut Humane Society said.

Veterinary care is one of several goods and services to which Lamont wants to apply the state’s 6.35 percent sales tax.

It is one of a bevy of products and services that would see the sales tax applied to them for the first time.

“We have a budget out there right now, I kind of like the budget I got out there, it’s honest and it’s credible,” Lamont said on Wednesday.

Lamont says the sales tax expansion would bring in $292 million the first year and $500 million the second. But Willard says the tax would be a financial burden to families with pets and could potentially cause them to have to make sacrifices.

“We would rather have them stay with their family then have to give them up and then we have to find another family makes no sense,” Willard said.

At the federal level, one of Connecticut’s U.S. Senators is looking to keep pet care affordable.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced a bill Thursday that could help cut costs for pet owners when it comes to their prescriptions.

For pet owners like Ginny Lavoie, the cost for pet care can come with a bite.

“You’re talking anywhere from five to $600 a year,” Lavoie said.

While she says she expects some costs to go up, she says her pet’s care should not be taxed.

Virtual reality is seemingly everywhere today, including medical facilities. Connecticut Children’s new Infusion Center is using this technology hoping to provide therapy in multiple ways.

“I think our theme here was mystical adventure and I think we pretty much nailed that on the head here,” said Karri May, interim director of facilities for Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

Taking design cues from an adventure park, The Infusion Center, scheduled to open Tuesday, has patients looking forward to their visits.

“Coming from where we were before it was very hospital feeling and here it kind of just feel like I’m at a playground or just some cool resort hotel,” explained 18 year-old patient Chloe Lang.

The facility is brightly colored, with iridescent lighting. Themes throughout the facility are reminiscent of a theme park. The centerpiece of the Infusion Center is a virtual world, allowing patients to create their own avatar, download an exclusive app, and explore what is known as the Wilderverse.

“It’s definitely something to take your mind off the infusion part. Infusions can be long and mine are up to an hour and a half, two hours and sometimes that can drag,” explained Lang, “here it’s gonna fly by with these virtual worlds and (avatars) because you’re gonna be so lost in the moment having fun.”

According to May, the goal of the new facilities’ design was to change the patients’ mindset.

“Getting to a transition where they’re looking forward to coming to the doctors instead of dreading it, was really our biggest goal,” May said, “if we can achieve that then we’ve really hit it out of the park.”

A search warrant application obtained by NBC Connecticut offers new details about the Hamden and Yale police shooting of an unarmed couple in a car in New Haven.

The passenger, 22-year-old Stephanie Washington, survived being shot and the driver, 21-year-old Paul Witherspoon, was not hit.

State authorities have taken over the investigation while the two officers involved remain on paid administrative leave.

The court paperwork includes the statement Witherspoon provided to state police investigators when interviewed at the Hamden Police Department on April 16.

Witherspoon told them he got into an altercation with a newspaper delivery man at the Hamden gas station, but denied ever showing or implying he had a gun.

The paperwork also included an account from the newspaper delivery man and the gas station clerk. The person delivering the papers told police he was approached by a male and that the interaction left him convinced the man was trying to rob him. He did not mention a gun.

The clerk “stated that he never saw the suspect (Witherspoon) with firearm," though during the 911 call he said "he pulled a gun on the guy who delivered the paper."

Police did not arrest or charge Witherspoon and no gun was found in the car.

In his account of the police shooting, seen widely in surveillance video from a nearby building, Witherspoon said he saw two police cars driving at him from Dixwell Street onto Argyle Street.

Witherspoon said Hamden Officer Devin Eaton got out of the car and ordered him to get out, too.

"(Witherspoon) believed the officer told him to show his hands, but because his window doesn't open, he pushed open the door with his left arm and then reached out the door with both arms and hands extended," police wrote in the search warrant application.

Witherspoon told investigators he never reached for anything and as he got out of the car, he looked behind him and saw the officer pointing the gun at him.

New Haven Attorney John R. Williams is not involved in this case, but has extensive experience dealing with issues of police misconduct. From reviewing the surveillance and body camera video released Tuesday, he told NBC Connecticut the officers could be charged with first-degree attempted assault. 

"Well I'm less concerned with criminal penalties than asking the more fundamental question is why did this happen," Williams explained, "and how can we make sure it doesn't happen again and prosecuting those policemen is not going keep it from happening again. That requires accountability on the part of the employers and the trainers or non-trainers of those police officers."

Members of the clergy and Black Lives Matter New Haven met Thursday afternoon with Yale University President Peter Salovey and other officials.

"We have come to an understanding that there will be change and the community will be leading that change with Yale," Ala Ochumare from Black Lives Matter said. "It will be a coalition."

Ochumare and the clergy said Yale has agreed to put its officers through new urban trauma, deescalation and implicit bias training.

The clergy said they are still demanding the immediate termination of Hamden Officer Eaton and Yale Officer Pollock. 

"This is what we're asking for," Rev. Dr. Boise Kimber said.

Williams pointed out that the officers have rights under the constitution and collective bargaining agreements.

"That's why the town and university can't just turn around and fire them," Williams said. "They have to go through the procedures."

Williams said he has watched the videos of the police shooting that has sparked more than a week of protests. 

"It's painfully clear from the video as well as the witness statements that the police handled this in an extremely unprofessional manner," he said.

"The wonderful thing about the video evidence we have these days is it’s not so easy to cover up police wrongdoing the way it used to be in the past," Williams added.

The search warrant application states the Hamden gas station clerk who called 911 reporting an attempted armed robbery told investigators he never saw Witherspoon with a firearm.

In the 911 recordings released Tuesday by state police, the clerk said "he pulled a gun on the guy who delivered the paper here in Hamden."

"It's just a horrible tragedy we're lucky that people aren't dead," Williams told NBC Connecticut.

Both Hamden Mayor Curt Leng and Yale officials have said they are asking for patience and waiting for the state investigation to finish before a decision will be made about the two officers' futures with their police departments.

Wendy Brown says it was nearly impossible to get AmeriGas to remove their outdoor tank after she canceled the service. When she couldn’t resolve it on her own, NBC Connecticut Responds did and saved Brown some money.

“It was frustrating.”

Last November, Brown made a service call to disconnect her AmeriGas-owned tank. She said her mother-in-law smelled gas and called the fire department.

“Amerigas came out promptly and shut the gas tank off outside because there was no safety valve in the house,” Brown said.

After the inspection, the service tech determined it was not safe and that Brown needed to get a new gas stove.

Brown learned it would be more expensive than expected.

“He couldn’t put a safety valve in and gave us options that ran $500 and $1200 to replace the lines,” said Brown.

Brown decided to ditch the gas stove and install an electric one.

“I called AmeriGas and asked them to come pick their tank and once that was done I would settle up with them as far as what the payment was supposed to be,” said Brown.

According to Brown, months went by and no one came. But she was still getting a bill, and then a collection notice.

“I immediately went into…what do we do now? There’s no reason for this,” said Brown.

That’s when she contacted NBC Connecticut Responds. An AmeriGas spokesperson told us in part:

“Ultimately, the customer determined that the cost was too high and informed us that she was converting to an electric stove. “Where issues of customer safety and home convenience were concerned, our responses were timely and appropriate. Regretfully, during the busy heating season, there were delays in picking up the AmeriGas-owned tank, which admittedly could have been better communicated to the customer.”

After it was all said and done, AmeriGas picked up the tank and Brown had a zero balance on her account.

“It was nice to finally get a resolution to it because we are getting ready to leave town,” said Brown. “I was amazed, absolutely amazed.”

Protesters marched the streets in New Haven again Thursday, continuing to call for justice after a police-involved shooting that injured a young woman last week.

Grove Street by Yale in New Haven was shut down as protesters demanding justice marched to the university president’s home.

Connecticut State Police say police officers from Yale and Hamden opened fire on a car at the intersection of Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street in New Haven early in the morning of Tuesday, April 16 while investigating reports of an attempted armed robbery in Hamden. A passenger in that car, 22-year-old Stephanie Washington, was injured.

In the days since, protesters have been demanding that police release the body camera video. State police released the video on Tuesday. 

Both police officers, Hamden Police Officer Devin Eaton and Yale Officer Terrance Pollack, have been placed on leave.

The investigation is ongoing. New Haven State's Attorney Pat Griffin will decide whether the Hamden and Yale officers will face criminal charges.

Thursday's protest was multi-layered. In addition to calling for "#JusticeForStephanieandPaul," people also asking for changes to Yale’s labor practices and union treatment. Some students say they’re protesting general racial issues at the university.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The NBC Connecticut meteorologists are tracking the potential for some strong storms Friday.

Friday will see occasional showers, downpours and thunderstorms. The best chance for a strong storm is in late afternoon or the evening.

We could see small hail, lightning and downpours.

More severe weather is expected south of the state, possibly as close as New Jersey.

Highs will be in the 60s.

Track conditions in your area using our interactive radar.

For the latest forecast anytime, click here.

As Texas legislators work towards possibly making CBD legal in the state, confiscation of the oil by federal officers has "skyrocketed" this year at DFW Airport, NBC 5 Investigates has learned.

In some cases, passengers have been jailed on felony drug possession charges for a single bottle of CBD.

"I would say a year ago it was almost non-existent," said Cleatus Hunt Jr., port director at the airport for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"But in the last six months, the interception rate for that (CBD) has skyrocketed," Hunt said in an interview.

Shops that sell CBD, which can contain small amounts of THC, have popped up throughout North Texas, and across the state.

And just this week, members of the Texas House voted in support of making the oil legal -- a move that has already taken place in some other states -- paving the way for consideration in the Senate.

But at North Texas' busiest airport, the fourth largest in the country, customs officers will detain international travelers, and seize their CBD, if a quick field test shows it to contain even a small trace of THC -- the ingredient in marijuana that produces a high.

It happened just recently, with NBC 5 Investigates there, capturing it on camera.

A drug-sniffing dog showed interest in a traveler's backpack, prompting a search by a customs officer who found an e-cigarette cartridge. The traveler said he bought the e-cigarette at a CBD shop in Dallas.

An on-the-spot test for THC came back positive.

CBD oil, which has become a health craze in Texas and throughout the country, is made from hemp -- the cannabis cousin to marijuana -- and can contain trace amounts of THC.

CBD users say the oil has a multitude of health benefits, from soothing aches and pains to relieving anxiety, but that there is not enough, if any, THC to make them high.

That doesn't matter, said Hunt, adding that any THC found at the airport can result in a DFW police bust.

"So one single incident, one single small amount of CBD oil that you thought was cool to take on a trip with you, could result in life-changing affects for you," the customs port director said.

NBC 5 Investigates obtained police reports at the airport detailing some of the cases in which travelers were caught with CBD, including a 71-year-old woman who was jailed on a felony charge after telling authorities the vial in her bag was "CBD oil which she used as medicinal pain relief."

Another case involved a 22-year-old college student from Collin County who was caught after officers "conducting a random bag check ... discovered a brown bottle labeled "hemp CBD."

But the lead lawyer for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, which supports the legalization and growth of the CBD and hemp industries, said no one should be detained for possessing the oil.

Attorney Jonathan Miller, who also represents one of the travelers arrested at DFW Airport, said the federal farm bill signed into law last year makes it legal for people to transport CBD products made from hemp.

"Federal law is very clear. And when a Customs official pulls someone over for this, he or she is acting in the wrong," Miller said.

He said of customs officers: "I am hopeful they can use their resources and their time on things that actually hurt people."

A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection had a different opinion on the law, however, saying, "CBD oil is considered a controlled substance under U.S. Federal law."

"Travelers found in possession of controlled substances at U.S. ports of entry can face arrest, seizures, fines, penalties or denied entry," the spokesperson said.

In Texas, state law on CBD is murky, with the legislature currently debating a bill that would clear up the confusion and legalize CBD.

In the meantime, some state law enforcement agencies have said they will arrest and prosecute people found in possession of CBD.

But with different laws in each state, travelers face a confusing patchwork of enforcement that could land them in jail, depending on where they are in the country.

At airports, the Transportation Security Administration tells NBC 5 Investigates it will also notify airport police if TSA screeners find CBD oil during routine checks of passenger bags.

For those reasons, federal authorities are urging international travelers to leave the CBD at home, not in the suitcase.

And for anyone still thinking about taking CBD to DFW Airport, Hunt suggested, "... don't do it. It simply isn't worth it."

One person was taken to the hospital after a crash at Danbury and Seeley roads in Wilton. 

Police said the crash was reported around 7 a.m. and Danbury Road is closed north of Seeley Road. 

Fire officials said two vehicles were involved and one person was extricated. One person was taken to the hospital. It’s not clear if there are any additional injuries. 

Crews from the state Department of Transportation were called to sand the road because of fluids on the ground.

In past years, a group of 26 bicyclists called Team 26 has pedaled 400 miles from Connecticut to Washington, DC in an effort to urge Congress to enact stronger gun laws. 

This year, the group that honors those who were killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown will ride 600 miles to bring their message of peace, hope and love to the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. 

That is the house of worship where 11 people were killed and seven were wounded when a gunman opened fire on Oct. 27, 2018.  

The first leg of the ride for Team 26 will be to Baltimore, Maryland and they will stop in Peekskill, New York, Morristown, New Jersey and Trenton, New Jersey. 

They will travel to Philadelphia and Newark, Delaware, then stop in Gettysburg and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and pay a visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial before ending near the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. 

The group’s mission is to reduce gun violence and there will be a send-off for the cyclists at Trinity Episcopal Church Service in Newtown from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. 

Leta Brown detected a brown spot on her leg that just wouldn’t go away. When the preschool teacher from Middletown, Maryland, finally went to see a doctor to check out the blotch she learned she had a tumor the size of a football.

Brown, a married mother of two, was diagnosed with metastic melanoma — the deadliest form of skin cancer.

“It was a really grim prognosis,” she said. “The doctors I saw at the time were sort of telling me to get my affairs in order.”

And the cancer was spreading.

“I also had tumors in my small intestines and in my lungs,” Brown said.

She believes it was likely caused by sun exposure and frequent sun burns as a child.

"We just didn't really use sunscreen when I was a kid,” she said. “It just wasn't really used widespread at the time, so I didn't even really think about being safe in the sun until I was older."

Exposure to UVB radiation from the sun causes non-melanoma skin cancer and is linked to increased risk of melanoma development, according to the National Cancer Institute. People with fair skin, like Brown, or who are sun-sensitive are at a higher risk of developing skin cancer, the federal agency said. Doctors have long warned of the dangers from overexposure to UV radiation after scientists first sounded the alarm on the human-induced depletion of Earth’s protective ozone layer. And while studies show the ozone is finally healing from the damage thirty years later, its recovery is now being threatened by new emissions of banned ozone-depleting chemicals and a newly discovered link between climate change and ozone depletion.

According to the American Cancer Society, one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. The most common forms of skin cancer in the U.S. are basal cell and squamous cell, and usually treatable. Melanoma is less common and accounts for only 1% of all skin cancers but causes the vast majority of skin cancer deaths.

The ozone layer works as an atmospheric shield absorbing ultraviolet radiation from the sun, particularly harmful UVB rays. In the 1970s, scientists first realized that the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), man-made chemicals commonly used in aerosol sprays and refrigerator coolants, were eating away at the ozone and increasing the amount of UVB radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface.

By 1987, several countries, including the U.S., agreed in the Montreal Protocol to phase out CFCs and businesses were forced to come up with replacements for spray cans and other uses. As a result, the ozone began a decades-long process to heal from the damage, one that is currently being threatened.

A study led by NOAA scientists and published in Nature in May 2018 found emissions of another banned ozone-depleting chemical, trichlorofluoromethane, or CFC-11, are on the rise and interfering with the recovery of Earth’s damaged ozone layer. Once commonly used as a foaming agent and in insulation, production of CFC-11 was supposed to have stopped as of 2010, according to the report. The illicit emissions are believed to be coming out of East Asia, the report noted.

"We're raising a flag to the global community to say, 'This is what's going on, and it is taking us away from timely recovery from ozone depletion,'" NOAA scientist Stephen Montzka, lead author of the report, said in a new release.

To make matters worse, new research has linked for the first time climate change and ozone depletion. James Anderson, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his colleagues found that powerful summer thunderstorms in the Great Plains region inject water vapor far higher into the stratosphere than previously believed, where the moisture triggers the same type of ozone-depleting chemical reaction that occurs over the polar regions and causes the ozone hole. Climate change could be an underlying cause because it can supercharge summertime thunderstorms. Global warming feeds warmth and moisture into the atmosphere, and that fuels instability, Anderson said in a news release announcing the study’s findings.

"If you were to ask me where this fits into the spectrum of things I worry about, right now it's at the top of the list," Anderson said in a news release. "What this research does is connect, for the first time, climate change with ozone depletion, and ozone loss is directly tied to increases in skin cancer incidence, because more ultraviolet radiation is penetrating the atmosphere."

The prevalence of melanoma has rapidly increased over the past 30 years, studies show. The ACS estimates in 2019, 96,480 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed in the U.S. and the disease is expected to cause more than 7,000 deaths. And while the rise in skin cancer is likely due to UV exposure, studies have also “attributed the rising incidence of melanoma to an increase in diagnostic scrutiny rather than an actual increase in the incidence of disease,” according to the National Institute of Health. Still, the World Health Organization predicts a 10% increase in skin cancer incidence among the U.S. population by 2050.

The American Cancer Society recommends avoiding the sun, especially between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., and don’t allow yourself to get sunburned in order to lower the risk of melanoma. The group also warns against using tanning beds and wear protective clothing like pants, long-sleeve shirts, hats and sunglasses when possible. Use a broad spectrum (UVA/UVB) sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher every day. For extended outdoor activity, the group suggests using a water-resistant, broad spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher and reapply it every two hours or after swimming or sweating. Examine your skin from head-to-toe every month and if you notice a new or changing mole, contact a dermatologist immediately to get it checked out.

Leta Brown, meanwhile, remains cancer free six years after her diagnosis thanks to advances in cancer treatment. Brown signed up for an immunotherapy clinical trial at Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2013. Three to four months into the clinical trial, Brown said there was no evidence of disease. The treatment regimen for advanced melanoma has since been approved by the FDA.

“That really has taken this cancer that had only a 10 percent chance of people being alive at two years and changing that chance of survival to 60, 70 or, in our heads, 80 percent,” said Dr. Michael Atkins, deputy director of the center.

The disease took a toll on Brown’s body. She walks with a brace after suffering nerve damage from surgery, and the cancer drugs had some side effects, too.

But she's grateful.

“I hope the reason why I was able to have all of this good fortune will manifest in some way that I am able to serve other people,” she said.

If you were to measure Tanvi Barman's age by the number of birthday parties she's had, you would come up with 16. If you were to measure her kindness, however, by the number of parties she has thrown, that number would be almost twice as big.

"I think it's 30 parties so far," the Fremont teenager said.

Barman is the founder of No Birthday Left Behind, a nonprofit that throws birthday parties for children living in homeless shelters.

Barman said the idea grew out of experiences she had volunteering with her mother and sister, serving breakfast at a homeless shelter in their town. Barman at the time was too young to help out in the kitchen so she would play and talk with the children staying in the shelter.

One memory, in particular, stands out.

"My birthday was coming up and I was getting excited about my birthday party," Barman said. "I asked one of them, 'When is your birthday coming up?' and they didn't really respond."

Barman soon learned that her life and that of the children at the shelter were quite different.

"I don't even think they knew what a birthday party was," Barman said. "A birthday party is a whole experience. It's not just a piece of cake. It's not just one present. It's a whole thing."

The kind of party that Barman had grown accustomed to having as a child is what she wanted to give the shelter children.

That is how No Birthday Left Behind is started.

Barman now works with five different shelters hosting monthly parties for the children whose birthdays fall during that month. At a recent party for a 2-year-old at LifeMoves in San Jose included not just pizza and cake but also crafts, an Easter egg hunt, and even a pofessional magic show.

"It's just a heartwarming experience," Barman said. "I love spending time with kids. Seeing a kid smile makes me really, really happy."

Several police departments across the state of Connecticut will take part in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday to give residents the opportunity to safely dispose of prescription drugs and other medications. 

The one-day collection event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can find a location on the DEA’s Take Back Day website. 

Unused or expired prescription medications pose a possible public safety issue that could lead to accidental poisoning, overdose or drug abuse. 

The state Department of Environmental Protection offers tips on how to discard unwanted medications and recommends finding out if your local police department has a locked drug drop box or if your pharmacy has a low-cost disposal envelope to send away. 

If you must throw medication away, the Department of Environmental Protection has recommendations posted online. 

Anyone who's ever tried to run a restaurant can tell you it's not an easy thing.

So when you look around a place and there's not an empty table in sight, you know you're really cookin'.

Such is life at the Starfish Cafe in Lewisville, Texas.

"It's the happiest place to come have lunch," said Mary Beth Buck, a regular at the Starfish Cafe and the mother of one of its servers.

What sets the restaurant apart -- besides its food -- is the staff that keeps the place moving. All servers, hosts, bussers and cooks are young adults with intellectual disabilities.

"It's good," said Carla, a server at the cafe. "It's kind of fun."

Starfish Cafe is part of Lewisville ISD's "Focus on the Future" program, which helps students with intellectual disabilities transition from high school into their adult lives.

They have their hands in every part of the restaurant -- buying the groceries, planning the menu, setting up the room, interacting with customers, cleaning -- picking up skills that can help them land paying jobs in the real world.

"There is a place for them," said Karrie Barnes, the lead teacher for Focus on the Future. "And they can offer a lot."

Buck's son Eiler is proof of that. When he's not busy serving customers at Starfish Cafe, he's earning a living at Firehouse Subs.

"He's just proud," Buck said.

"He loves going to work," said Alex Buck, Eiler's father. "He loves interacting with other people. And he is extremely excited about taking those skills to where he can learn to live independently from us."

Eiler is just one of many success stories to come from Starfish Cafe in the five years it's been open. And he won't be the last.

"It shows that inclusion works," Barnes said. "You start seeing their skills, you see their personalities coming out and you see what they can contribute."

The Starfish Cafe is open every other Friday during the school year from 11:30 a.m. CT to 1 p.m.CT.

The final dates for the current school year are April 26 and May 10.

The restaurant is located inside the Purnell Support Center at 136 W. Purnell St. in Lewisville.

Walk-ins are welcome, though they prefer customers make reservations in advance to help them with their planning. Reservations can be made by emailing starfishcreations@lisd.net.

They ask that each person who comes to eat at the restaurant make a $7.50 donation, which helps fund their program.

Bus drivers for Shelton Public Schools are threatening to go on strike if they cannot reach an agreement with their employer, Durham School Services. 

The union representing the drivers and monitors, CSEA SEIU Local 2001, voted to authorize a strike on Wednesday. No date has been announced, but the drivers picketed at the bus yard on Friday. 

The superintendent sent a letter to parents, warning them of the possible strike and warning them to come up with contingency plans on how they will get their children to school, as the district plans to continue having classes if a strike were to happen. 

“We’re fortunate where we’re walkable to school but I know many parents don’t’ have that luxury and they have to get to work so it would be an inconvenience for them,” Anne Gaydos, the mother of an elementary school student, said. 

Durham took over managing the bus services for Shelton last year. The city of Shelton owns the buses and Durham leases them. The drivers’ wages and benefits had already been negotiated with the previous bus company, Landmark Student Transportation. 

“Durham came in and did tell everybody that was there [at a mandatory meeting], that they [Durham] would be honoring our contract, they just needed to change some wording. We all [the drivers] have stuck by, showing up every day and making sure we get our jobs accomplished. We haven’t had any fair negotiations at all,” Angela DiMauro, a bus driver from Shelton, said. 

The union communications director, Ben Phillips, said the bus drivers hope they do not have to strike and can come to an agreement with Durham. But they are prepared to strike if they cannot reach an agreement soon because the drivers have families they need to support. 

“We care about the kids, the families and making sure that kids get to school safe. Drivers and monitors, they have families as well. We need to make sure we have what we need to take care of them,” said Ben Phillips, the communications director for CSEA SEIU Local 2001. 

NBC Connecticut reached out to Durham School Services early Friday morning and is still waiting for a response.