Before her death, Tessa Pascarella made clear to loved ones that she wanted a 'green' burial. She envisioned her final resting place in a wooded area in the town of Sherman, but her family has since learned that fulfilling her wishes would be a struggle.

Green burials are designed to have less of an impact on the environment. The burials often use biodegradable caskets. They do not use chemicals for embalming, hardwood caskets, varnishes, vaults or liners.

"The forest is a place she always loved, " said Aldo Pascarella, Tessa's son, as he walked through the rolling hills in western Connecticut. Beneath the tree line and under the leaf-covered soil is what he hoped will become a sacred space.

Tessa, who passed away after an illness at the age of 79, had expressed to her son that she did not want to be cremated, she did not want any embalming chemicals involved, and she did not wish to be buried in a casket.

"When she learned about the idea of a green burial and she knew she was going to be dying soon, she very much liked the idea," said Aldo.

Green burials are legal in Connecticut and all 50 states, but there can often be restrictions at the local level concerning where these burials can take place.

The vision for Tessa's burial was in the woods of Sherman on her family's own private property. "We decided that this would be a good spot to try to bury her," Aldo said.

But attaining what his mother wanted has not been simple or quick.

Aldo, an attorney, said he had been granted all of the necessary approvals from the state in late 2018 while dealing with town officials.

Aldo said he had to write a regulation which would provide the means to apply to Sherman's Planning and Zoning Commission in December 2018. After a public hearing and after allowing time for any potential appeal, Aldo said his application for a private burying ground was accepted, but was not yet approved.

Later in March, after some of the snow had melted, a site walk of the property revealed the possible presence of watercourses or wetlands. Because of this, Aldo said he was advised it would be necessary to withdraw his previous application to the Planning and Zoning Commission in order to, instead, submit the application to the town's Inland Wetlands Commission. Approval from the Inland Wetlands Commission must come before approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission, Aldo said.

The approval process has continued through May 2019.

"It's highly regulated," said Aldo. "The longer it takes the more absurd the situation becomes."

Tessa Pascarella died on January 21, 2018 - nearly a year and half ago.

Her remains have since been stored in a 'climate-controlled environment' at Leo P. Gallagher Funeral Home in Stamford. The funeral home offers green funeral and burial options.

"Our hope is really for the family to have peace," said Christopher Farrugio, the funeral home's general manager. Farrugio and his staff said they hope to help with the Pascarella family's wishes in the near future. "To pursue this would be a great thing for many families all across the state," he said.

"He's so focused on doing this because he knows it's the right thing to do for his mother and for his family," said Farrugio. "We did not realize it was going to take this long."

"It is disturbing to think of a loved one's remains just sitting on ice somewhere for as long as my mom's remains have been sitting on ice," said Aldo, who is confident that his bureaucratic battles have been worth fighting.

Aldo expected final approval from town officials for a small, private family cemetery in the month of June.

"This is something that she very much wanted," he said.

A 2018 survey by the National Funeral Directors Association showed nearly half of respondents were interested in exploring green funeral options; mostly for environmental or cost-saving reasons. 

"This is the most comforting idea I've ever had of death," said Elizabeth Foley, founder of Connecticut Green Burial Grounds, an organization trying to establish cemeteries specifically for green burials.

"This is not a new concept. Prior to 150 years ago, this is how things were done for millennia," said Foley. "A shroud is another option, which would just be a linen or plain cloth material and a return to earth just cradled in that."

Two existing Connecticut cemeteries, in Danbury and Deep River, are already using a portion of their properties for green burials. But the Connecticut Green Burial Grounds group is pushing to create the region's first all-green cemetery.

An employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., has been arrested after authorities say he recorded women in the bathroom at work with two hidden cameras.

Alex Greenlee, 24, was arrested Wednesday and charged with five counts of misdemenaor voyeurism.

According to court documents, authorities went to the VA office building on I Street NW in January after a woman discovered a "micro camera" hidden underneath the stall next to her with a recording screen.

The woman said she then saw Greenlee outside the women's bathroom on his cellphone and he told her he needed to go inside the women's bathroom to get paper towels.

Another woman found a second micro camera three days later attached to the underside of a toilet, court documents said.

Five women were recorded on the cameras, one of them multiple times, according to the documents. One of the victims hasn't been identified yet.

Investigators interviewed Greenlee, who denied knowing anything about the cameras.

Federal Protective Services said Greenlee was spotted placing the cameras in the stall when they reviewed the memory cards from the cameras.

Tess Engelhardt first met seminarian student Robert Dreisbach when she was a sophomore in college. They started dating one year later and, shortly after, Dreisbach became an ordained Roman Catholic priest in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

But that didn’t end their relationship.

In fact, the two remained intimate for 15 years until Engelhardt became pregnant with a son. Her clandestine affair with Dreisbach was never made public until now.

“He’d come over once or twice in a week, watch TV, have sex, be romantic,” she said of her relationship. “We would do things in the house, but didn’t go out publicly.”

Engelhardt’s revelation comes more than one year after a Pennsylvania grand jury report revealed hundreds of instances of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church. Lurid details revealed throughout more than 1,300 pages included rape, abortions, confessions and cover-ups. It took the grand jury more than two years to fully investigate the claims contained in the sometimes explicit report.

Throughout her affair with Dreisbach, Engelhardt hoped things would eventually work out.

“I just felt if I had Christ as my center point, if I had good intentions and he had good intentions, we could see where it panned out,” she said.

About six months into her pregnancy, Engelhardt confided in a close friend who was also a local monsignor. He urged her to attend a meeting with bishops and other church leaders in Allentown. She hoped she would find support and comfort, but instead she was given an ultimatum: adopt the baby to another family, sign a confidentiality agreement and receive financial assistance for her silence. She could never have contact with her son or lover again.

“He told me I was being selfish for wanting to raise my child,” Engelhardt said of the bishop at the time.

Dreisbach was removed from ministry 26 years ago after his church learned about his son, according to the Diocese of Allentown. The process of defrocking Dreisbach, which requires approval from the Vatican in Rome, is still pending.

“The actions of Robert Dreisbach in the 1980s and 1990s have caused great pain for all those affected. We pray for everyone who has suffered as the result of this situation,” the Diocese of Allentown said in a statement. “We pray for everyone who has suffered as the result of this situation.”

No one in authority at the time is still with the diocese, it said.

Despite the consensual nature of Engelhardt’s relationship with Dreisbach, she frequently referred to those days as “hell.” She didn’t reveal to her son the true identity of his father until he was 8 years old.

John Dreisbach, now 28, still remembers questioning his life as a result of his parents’ relationship. He felt like a problem the church needed to resolve, he said.

“I know that there were many times that I’d lay awake at night as a kid thinking to myself ‘Should I even be here?’” he said. “It was hard. Currently I’m dealing with a lot of depression, been diagnosed. I was diagnosed with depression and having to deal with those questions in my mind at that age certainly didn’t help.”

Robert Dreisbach still lives in Pennsylvania and, though his son John, declined to comment.

Lingering trauma is just one of the many repercussions from the clergy sex abuse scandal. Vincent Doyle, a psychotherapist from Ireland and the son of a priest, started a support group for victims like himself and John Dreisbach. His group, Coping International” has cases from more than 175 countries. He estimates there are at least 10,000 children of clergy across the globe.

“The presence of secrecy in the domestic environment of a child will absolutely and categorically destroy that child,” he said.

A car crashed into the porch of an apartment on Orange Street in Hartford early Thursday morning. 

Police said it happened just before 3 a.m. No information was immediately available whether anyone was injured.

A 73-year-old Oxford man has serious injuries after being struck by his own car on Wednesday afternoon. 

Police said Stephen Kovzel Jr., 73, of Oxford, was parked in the lot of the Oxford Liquor Shoppe on Oxford Road just before 3 p.m. when his 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee started rolling backward into a Chevy Silverado as Kovzel got out of his Jeep. 

The other driver, a 62-year-old Beacon Falls man, moved his vehicle back and Kovzel’s Jeep continued backing up, caught Kovzel with the door and ran over him, according to state police. 

EMS transported Kovzel to Waterbury Hospital. Police said his arms and left leg were injured. 

Police are investigating the incident and said unsafe backing of the Jeep caused the crash. 

The other driver was issued a misdemeanor summons for evading responsibility. He was also cited for operating a motor vehicle without insurance or a license and operating a motor vehicle with an expired registration. 

He was released on a $500 non-surety bond and is due in court on May 31. 

At a conference in Midtown Manhattan last May, Seth Shapiro watched his life’s savings disappear in a matter of minutes. He later learned from detectives that a group of hackers had seized control of his cellphone, striking from hundreds of miles away by using a technique called “SIM swapping” to access Shapiro’s phone remotely, and drained an encrypted digital wallet of nearly $2 million in cryptocurrency.

“That was probably the worst moment in my life,” Shapiro said. “I just sat there … knowing that everything we had was gone.”

In a case watched closely by cryptocurrency investors, hackers, and law enforcement officials alike, one of the hackers arrested in connection to Shapiro’s case, Joel Ortiz, 21, was sentenced last month in Santa Clara County to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to his role in a string of cyber heists. Prosecutors say those heists involved several different hackers operating from around the country and netted a total of nearly $18 million in stolen money and assets.

Ortiz, prosecutors say, is the first so-called SIM swapper to be sentenced to prison time in the United States. They say he is only a small part of a new wave of young hackers, some as young as 15-years-old, who have ripped off more than 800 victims to the tune of $50 million since early 2018. And, authorities say, there are many more hackers who have not been caught who  continue to seek ways to steal through SIM swapping.

“It’s a nationwide epidemic,” said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Erin West, who prosecuted the case against Ortiz and has four other SIM-swap cases currently pending in Santa Clara County Superior Court. “It is young kids, who haven’t had jobs, who have figured out a sneaky way, from their homes, in their pajamas, of how to steal your money.”

West says the San Francisco Bay Area has been hit especially hard by SIM swap scams, where more than 50 victims who have been hit for $35 million. She says the culprits are typically young, decentralized groups of hackers who can steal millions in mere minutes from just about anywhere in the world.

Despite the threat, NBC Bay Area found that there are few formal, concerted law enforcement efforts to target and stop SIM swap theft.

One exception is the REACT Task Force, based in San Jose. REACT, Santa Clara County’s multijurisdictional cybercrimes team, took on their first SIM swap case in March 2018 and haven’t slowed down since. REACT includes representations from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The lead detectives on REACT come from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, and West serves as the lead prosecutor on the team. SIM swap investigations have taken the REACT task force across the country, from the Bay Area to Oklahoma City to Midtown Manhattan, and detectives say other cases may even take them overseas.

“We will find you, we will drag you out in your pajamas, and we will seize those assets that you have stolen from the victims of Santa Clara County,” West said.

How it Works

Detectives call SIM swapping a new twist on an old con. Cyber thieves first hijack your mobile phone number by getting your phone carrier to electronically switch the SIM card in your phone to a SIM card they control. Court records show hackers typically pull this off by impersonating the victim or by bribing an employee at the phone company. Once the SIM swap is pulled off, the victim loses cell service because the phone falls under the hackers’ control.

At that point, hackers can begin changing the passwords to victims' email, social media, banking, or cryptocurrency accounts by exploiting two-factor authentication, which typically sends a verification code to the victim’s phone, now controlled by the hackers.

According to court records and law enforcement officials who spoke with NBC Bay Area, hackers have set their sights on potential victims who maintain large amounts of cryptocurrency or other electronically accessible assets, such as Shapiro. Hackers learn which victims may have cryptocurrency stashed away in digital wallets by following those potential victims through social media, blog posts and internet chat rooms. In some cases, hackers obtained rosters of attendees at cryptocurrency conferences in search of potential targets.

“It’s a major new way of doing an old crime,” West said. “It’s a new way of stealing all your money.”

The Hackers

Detectives say the loose networks of hackers working together to commit SIM-swap crimes often began as virtual friendships formed over years of playing online video games together as kids. The hackers are typically young men, ranging in age from teenagers to early 20s. Most are males, many with no criminal history before their foray into cybercrime, according to detectives.

“The culture is fascinating,” said Samy Tarazi, a sergeant with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office assigned to the REACT Task Force. “A lot of these guys have known each other for years. Before they were ever criminals; before they had any criminal thoughts in their mind, they were just playing games together, some as early as 12-years-old.”

They come from all backgrounds, all walks of life. Ortiz, for instance, was raised by a single mom in Boston public housing. According to his attorney, Ortiz was diagnosed with autism, but rose to the top of his high school class before enrolling at Boston University.

West has four other SIM-swap cases pending in Santa Clara County, including Kalvin Ung, accused of stealing $500,000 in cryptocurrency while living above his parents’ doughnut shop in Fresno, and Nicholas Truglia, accused of stealing more than $24 million, including $1 million from San Francisco resident Robert Ross. The REACT Task Force arrested Truglia at his apartment in Midtown Manhattan. Both Ung and Truglia entered not-guilty pleas and have, so far, declined to be interviewed.

“They don’t care about the damage they are doing to other people’s lives,” Ross said.

Detectives say many accused SIM swap hackers haven’t been subtle with their stolen loot. Before Tarazi arrested Ortiz, who was decked out in Gucci clothing and carrying wads of cash, last year at LAX, Tarazi says Ortiz and his friends had been partying at Las Vegas nightclubs and had spent $150,000 for a monthlong Airbnb rental at a swanky home in the Hollywood Hills. Tarazi says they posted videos of their exploits spending the stolen money on social media.

One video shows Ortiz and his friends pouring expensive bottles of champagne on $50,000 watches at a Las Vegas nightclub.

“It definitely makes it look all the worse when you see images of them wasting money, and that’s what they were doing. But they’re kids,” said Dennis Dawson, Ortiz’s attorney.

Dawson said his client got a harsh deal for a nonviolent offense because the court system wanted to make an example of Ortiz as the first defendant to be sentenced strictly for a SIM-swap cryptocurrency theft in the United States. Dawson advised Ortiz not to agree to an interview because of potential charges in other jurisdictions that he might face. But Dawson agreed to speak for his client in the Santa Clara County case.

Ortiz’s criminal sentence “shouldn’t have been 10 years,” Dawson said. “Not even close.”

“As Joel explained [in his apology letter], he doesn’t have any friends,” Dawson said. “He just has internet friends. So, this (cryptocurrency theft) seemed cool, they were including him, and I think those are the factors the court should have taken into consideration.”

But some of Ortiz’s victims say 10 years in prison isn’t long enough.

“It’s been very hard on the kids,” said Shapiro’s wife, Ann Marie Michaels. “It’s been very hard on our marriage. There’s been many times where we didn’t know if we were going to make it.”

Authorities were only able to recover $75,000 of Shapiro’s money. The rest has been spent, or as Shapiro believes, stashed away in a digital hiding place where authorities will never find it.

The REACT Task Force says it continues to search for assets stolen by hackers. But cryptocurrency is hard to trace, making that a difficult task.

Detectives say they’re pursuing more cases that haven’t yet been charged. Meanwhile, federal authorities in Michigan just indicted nine suspected hackers earlier this month who they say are part of the hacker group known as The Community. In addition, they charged three former employees of mobile phone providers who they accused of aiding the alleged hackers.

Federal prosecutors in New York on Thursday unsealed an indictment charging the former CEO of a bank with approving loans to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in exchange for an administration position.

The relationship between Manafort and Stephen Calk was a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as far back as early 2018, sources told NBC News at the time. 

"As alleged, Stephen M. Calk abused the power entrusted to him as the top official of a federally insured bank by approving millions of dollars in high-risk loans in an effort to secure a personal benefit, namely an appointment as Secretary of the Army or another similarly high-level position in the incoming presidential administration," Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement. 

Calk, then the president of the Federal Savings Bank of Chicago, was named to Trump's council of economic advisers during Trump's campaign in 2016, NBC reported.

According to the indictment, from July 2016 to January 2017, Calk approved $16 million in loans to Manafort in return for "obtaining a senior position with an incoming presidential administration."

After Trump won, the indictment says, Calk sent a list of jobs that he might like, including Secretary of the Army. 

He did not get the position, the indictment alleges, and the bank suffered millions in losses when Manafort defaulted. 

Calk faces one count of financial institution bribery, which carries a maximum 30-year sentence. He surrendered to the FBI in Manhattan Thursday morning. 

A former employee of the city of New Haven’s accounting department is accused of embezzling more than $102,000 from the city by issuing vacation paychecks to himself over a period of several years. 

Daniel Lion, 64, of Hamden, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of wire fraud in U.S. District Court, according to John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut. 

Federal officials said Lion worked for the City of New Haven for around 40 years, most recently in the city’s accounting department. 

New Haven has a policy in which employees can be paid in advance if they are about to take approved vacation leave and Lion had access to the city’s payroll system, according to Durham’s office. 

From around 2002 to June 2018, Lion periodically accessed the city’s financial accounting software to issue vacation paychecks to himself, then deleted the computer entries for the checks, which caused the payroll system to issue his regular paycheck, as well, according to federal officials. 

In all, Lion was accused of stealing $102,947.44 from the City of New Haven and he is scheduled to be sentencing on Sept. 4. 

Lion retired from the City of New Haven in March.

An American man has died on a climb of Mount Everest and his family thinks that he had a heart attack while descending from the peak of the world’s tallest mountain, NBC News reported.

Don Cash, 55, was a Utah resident whose children told NBC affiliate KSL-TV in Salt Lake City that he died just after completing his goal of reaching the summit on the highest mountain on every continent.

His family told KSL that sherpas, mountain guides on Everest, tried to perform CPR and give him oxygen, but he died on the way back to camp.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Don Cash’s family during this difficult time,” BMC Software, Cash’s former employer, told NBC News.

Gov. Ned Lamont is holding a news conference this morning to announce what his office called “major healthcare reform legislation.” 

Lamont, State Comptroller Kevin Lembo and the co-chairs of the legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee, State Senator Matt Lesser and State Representative Sean Scanlon, as well as advocates, will take part in the news conference, which will start at 11 a.m. at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are predicting a "near-normal" 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, with nine to 15 named storms and four to eight hurricanes.

Of those hurricanes, two to four are expected to be major, NOAA announced Thursday at the agency's aircraft operations center in Lakeland, Florida. That facility is the base for NOAA's "hurricane hunter" aircraft that fly into storms to collect data used in storm forecasts.

Acting NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs said the outlook reflects competing climate factors. The ongoing El Nino is expected to persist and suppress the intensity of the hurricane season, but countering that is the expected combination of warmer-than-average sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and an enhanced west African monsoon, both of which favor increased hurricane activity, Jacobs said.

Forecasters noted that their outlook does not suggest all of these hurricanes will make land fall. 

The Atlantic Basin annual average is 12 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.

Hurricane season begins June 1 and runs through November.

Last year's active season saw 15 named storms and eight hurricanes including two Category 4 hurricanes, Florence and Michael. Michael made landfall on the Florida Panhandle as one of the strongest storms ever to hit the United States, with its highest winds reaching 155 mph.

Several homes were evacuated in Hartford Thursday morning after a construction worker struck a gas line on Boothbay Street and residents have been allowed to return home.

Police said there was a small leak, which was located, and gas was shut off.

Fire officials said gas was escaping into the open air and not into homes.

Connecticut Natural Gas responded to the scene.

Better check your raw meat before firing up the grill for Memorial Day. 

Illinois-based Aurora Packing Company is recalling 62,112 pounds of raw beef products that were shipped out for further distribution and processing nationwide because they may be contaminated with E. coli, the USDA announced. 

The issue was detected as a result of routine, random testing by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service and there have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions, the department said in a notice Wednesday. 

Still, the recall is classified as Class I, which means "there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death." 

The affected products were packaged on April 19 and can be found on this list. They have an establishment number “EST. 788” inside the USDA mark of inspection. 

The government notice warns that some of the products may be in institutional facility freezers. 

"E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause dehydration, bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps 2–8 days (3–4 days, on average) after exposure the organism," the recall notice says. 

Most people explosed to E. coli recover within a week but children under age 5 and older adults are especially susceptible to a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome, according to the USDA.  

All consumers should make sure that raw meat products have been cooked to a temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit by using a food thermometer, the department says. 

Consumers with questions can call Aurora Packing Company at (630) 897-0551 or reach out with other food safety questions to the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) during weekday business hours.

Swimming hours at Lake McDonough in Barkhamsted will be limited this summer because of the lack of lifeguards.

Lake McDonough will be open on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., but it will otherwise be closed for swimming on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, according to the Metropolitan District.

The schedule change does not affect the hours for boating. 

Beginning on Saturday, May 25, the new schedule for swimming at Lake McDonough will be Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

On Thursday, July 4, it will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

MDC said in a news release that it regrets any inconvenience the new hours will cause, but the changes are necessary to ensure the safety and security of recreational users.

There is an immediate need for lifeguards in the state.  

All qualified candidates must pass igorous physical tests, including swimming underwater for 25 yards, treading water for two minutes without using hands, retrieving a brick from about seven to 10 feet, swimming 550 yards continuously and running a quarter mile in 90 seconds. 

Move out or get married. That's the message a South Dallas pastor has for couples in his congregation who are cohabitating.

Many couples have accepted the challenge.

Pastor Bryan Carter of Concord Church wants couples who've been cohabitating to make a decision, and make one soon.

"It's radical. It can be a little bit in your face if you're not careful. But our hope is to call people to follow after Christ," said Carter. "Our hope is that not only are we challenging your thought process about marriage and family, but also we want to give you tools."

He invited couples down during Sunday service.

The agreement – 10 weeks of counseling and a decision to marry. The church will take care of the rest.

"If you're living together and you want to get married but financially it's not a good season, we'll take care of the tuxedo, dress, reception. We'll help you get there," said Carter.

It's a call to action he started 10 years ago. Since then, some 200 couples have come forward.

At the end of pre-marital counseling, they get a chance to walk down the aisle and take vows in a group wedding.

"We're offering counseling. We're offering a free wedding. We want to help you step into the best possible space you can in your marriage and family," he said.

That's not all. If marriage isn't the answer, the church will help pay for one month's rent if someone in the relationship will agree to move out.

"We said let's remove all the barriers. So if you're living together and you want to step away but you need help financially, we'll pay your first month's rent," said Carter.

Carter realizes what he's doing may not make sense to some.

But he says his reasons are simple.

"The scriptures teach us the value of marriage," said Carter, "So for us if you're living together we believe that there's a better way."

If you plan on being one of the almost 2 million New Englanders traveling for Memorial Day weekend, you might want to have a travel plan. 

The Connecticut Department of Transportation said all non-emergency construction will be suspended for the holiday, from 6 a.m. on Friday until 6 a.m. on Tuesday. 

However, there are some ongoing projects that will continue to have lanes blocked, such as the work in Farmington on Interstate 84 East, between exits 37-39, where three lanes go down to two. 

In Hartford and East Hartford, bridge repairs on the Founders Bridge will have the Route 2 westbound ramp closed for bridge work. 

The DOT said the biggest congestion area will likely be the drive on Interstate 95 South from New Haven, through Fairfield and into Greenwich. Check traffic cameras and travel issues on the CT Travel Smart website.  

No construction projects are scheduled to block lanes in Waterbury on I-84 or Route 8 or along I-95 over the Gold Star Bridge in Groton. However, state officials said crashes and emergency construction can always change the travel situation.

Looking for the best gas prices? Check the Connecticut gas prices on GasBuddy. 

If you are taking the train, there will be changes for Memorial Day weekend. 

The CT Rail Hartford line will operate on a modified schedule. 

On Sunday, May 26, trains will operate on a Saturday schedule. On Monday, May 27, they will operate on a Sunday schedule.

Shoreline East will operate on a weekend/holiday schedule. 

Metro North also has a special Memorial Day weekend service schedule and has added extra early getaway service.

Friday, May 24:

On Friday, May 24, there are 17 extra "getaway" departures from Grand Central Terminal between roughly 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Some late evening peak trains will be canceled or combined. 

New Haven Line

Nine extra “getaway” trains will depart from Grand Central at:

• 12:58 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Westport, and all stations between Fairfield and New Haven.
• 2:01 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Westport, and all stations between Fairfield and New Haven.
• 2:28 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Westport, and all stations between Fairfield and New Haven.
• 2:31 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, New Rochelle, Larchmont, Mamaroneck and Harrison.
• 2:56 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Stamford then all stations between Noroton Heights and South Norwalk.
• 2:59 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, New Rochelle, Larchmont, Mamaroneck and Harrison.
• 3:26 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, then all stations between New Rochelle and Harrison.
• 3:29 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Westport and all stations between Fairfield and New Haven.
• 4 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Stamford, and all stations between Bridgeport and New Haven.

The following trains from Grand Central will not operate or are combined:

• The 5:18 p.m. to Harrison and the 5:21 p.m. to New Rochelle are combined, departing Grand Central at 5:21 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street and all stations between Mount Vernon East and Harrison.
• The 5:41 p.m. to New Haven will not operate.
• The 5:57 p.m. to Harrison and 6:02 p.m. to New Rochelle are combined, departing Grand Central at 6:02 p.m., making all stops between Mount Vernon East and Harrison.
• The 6:07 p.m. to New Haven and the 6:13 p.m. to Bridgeport are combined, departing Grand Central at 6:13 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street and all stations between South Norwalk and New Haven.
• The 6:49 p.m. to New Haven will not operate.
• The 7:09 p.m. to Harrison will not operate.

On Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26, a regular weekend schedule will be in effect.

On Monday, May 27, Memorial Day, a Sunday schedule will be in effect on the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines.

Most connecting services will not operate on Memorial Day. However, the Hudson Link will operate on a Saturday schedule.

Grand Central North will be closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

See the schedule page for train times. 

Another New London Public Schools employee has been arrested and charged with sexual assault. 

Police said they arrested 25-year-old Jevon Elmore, of New London, in association with an ongoing investigation involving New London Public School employees. Police said Elmore was hired in the summer of 2018 as a paraprofessional. 

He was charged with sexual assault in the second degree. 

Bond was set at $150,000 and he is due in court on Friday. 

Anyone with information is asked to call the New London Police Department’s Detective Bureau at 860-447-1481 or submit anonymous information through the New London Tips 411 system by texting NLPDTip plus the information to Tip411 (847411). 

The is the second arrest of a New London school employee on sexual assault charges this month. 

Corriche Gaskin, 35, who worked at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School as a behavioral specialist, was previously arrested and charged with multiple counts of risk of injury to a child, illegal possession of child pornography, second degree sexual assault and voyeurism with malice.

Online court records say Gaskin is being held on $500,000 bond and he is due in court next on June 5.

School district officials previously said four employees from New London Schools were placed on paid administrative leave related to the investigation into Gaskin.

No additional information was immediately available. 

Milford police have arrested a man who is accused of exposing himself to people at Woodmont Beach. 

Police identified the suspect as 55-year-old Roger Sherwood, of Fairfield, and said he has been charged with public indecency, breach of peace in the second degree, possession of less than half ounce marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. 

Police said they were called to the beach near Beach Avenue and Wall Street at 3:20 p.m. on Wednesday after receiving a report that a man had exposed himself to people who were passing by. 

Police said a victim told police that she and her friends were walking in the area when Sherwood looked at them, exposed his penis and started touching himself 

When police located Sherwood, he was wearing underwear, police said. 

Bond for Sherwood was set at $5,000 and he is due in court on June 18. 

Senators reached a bipartisan deal Thursday that would provide more than $19 billion in disaster aid funding to parts of the U.S. hit by hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes and wildfires, following months of negotiation.

Leaving a closed-door Senate Republican lunch, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala. told reporters that an agreement had been reached, NBC News reports.

The two said they had spoken to President Donald Trump about the parameters of the deal Thursday afternoon, which excludes the $4.5 billion in border funding that White House and Republicans kept demanding. Trump signed off, according to the two lawmakers.