West Hartford’s town historian set out to find out the names of every slave owned in West Hartford, and that’s when she learned one man actually served in place of his owner in the Revolutionary War. Now, “Prut,” as he’s called, is etched in West Hartford’s history thanks to a group of local fifth graders.

“Not a lot of people only a couple people knew,” explained Landon Schlossinger, a fifth grader at Renbrook Elementary School.

Prut’s sacrifices were nearly forgotten until Tracey Wilson uncovered information about the man’s service to America while researching local slavery. Instead of relaying the news, Wilson wanted students to discover it for themselves.

Over two months Hannah White and Landon Schlossinger, along with their fifth grade class at Renbrook combed through church records and other accounts to piece together what Wilson had uncovered.

“We discovered lots of things,” said White.

The most important was that Prut was sent to serve in the Revolutionary War in place of his owner. This lesson, about a man fighting for the freedom of a country that held him captive, left a lingering question in White’s mind.

“Why would you want to have a slave if you were fighting for your own freedom?” White wondered.

Wilson said the Revolutionary War featured the most integrated fighting forces until Vietnam.

“Unlike the Civil War and World War I and II black people were actually integrated into the militias and into the troops that they didn’t have separate colored regiments,” she explained.

These pint-sized historians were also tasked with convincing council members to add Prut to the town’s war memorial. The name was unveiled during the town’s Memorial Day ceremony Monday.

“I think he took away a big lesson in slavery in America, the American Revolution, and how towns and town councils work,” said Landon’s mother Julie.

“I think she now understands in the greater scheme of things not only the importance of recognizing the past as it pertains to the future but also the fact that she can participate in community services of this nature,” added William, Hanna’s father.

Now, Prut’s name sits alongside other men who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their nation.

“He deserves to be on there just as much as every other single person on there,” said Hannah after the ceremony.

“Now that we put him on the plaque everyone now can recognize him and know who he is,” added Landon.

Historians believe Prut died of disease at Fort Ticonderoga, near Lake Champlain, in 1776. His owner joined the militia the next year.

Later this week, stones bearing the names of West Hartford slaves will be installed by eighth graders in the old Central Cemetery.

This project started with 29 names and has expanded to 62. So far, Prut is the only slave from West Hartford known to have died serving in the Revolutionary War.

World War II veteran John Danaher says he knows all too well why freedom isn’t free.

“I was very lucky. I was married when I went overseas so I was lucky to get back alive,” said Danaher.

Stationed in France for the US Army, Danaher served for six years and earned two bronze stars for his time in combat. He helped lay a wreath at the Veterans Memorial in West Hartford Monday.

“I think about the veterans, those who lost their lives, not able to partake in ceremonies such as this,” said Danaher.

Standing at attention for this solemn ceremony was a wise beyond her years 13-year-old named Alexandrea Chapman.

“I think you have to earn your freedom. You can’t just get your freedom based on what you look like and what you talk about and what you do for a living,” explained Chapman.

Chapman, a student at the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering in Windsor, knew early on she wanted to give back. She joined the Civil Air Patrol a civilian-based volunteer organization tied to the Air Force.

“She’s a brave little girl. I don’t have to worry about here. She knows what she’s doing. She knows what she wants,” said her mother, Gillian Chapman-Wilson of Windsor.

Chapman plans to be become a doctor and is interested in working for a veterans hospital.

“They’re doing so much for us. The least I can do is kind of take of them if they’re injured,” she said.

It’s a lesson she learned early on in life, thanks to the sacrifices of men like John Danaher.

“Memorial Day means to recognize those who have brought this equality upon us,” said Chapman.

“I think it’s not a sacrifice actually. I think it’s an honor,” said Danaher.

It has been 30 years since the Hartford Vietnam Veterans Memorial was first unveiled, and on Memorial Day a local Boy Scout troop held a rededication ceremony to mark the occasion and remember those the memorial represents.

Boy Scouts read the names of Hartford heroes who died during the Vietnam War.

Exactly 30 years before, Hartford Boy Scout Troop 105 led the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

“I have lost friends, I have lost soldiers alike. For me it is just a reflection on their legacy, on their memory,” said Jose Sierra, a former member of that troop.”

Now a police officer in Austin, Sierra is also an army veteran himself. He traveled back to Connecticut knowing the importance of Memorial Day.

“They are the guys who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom,” Sierra said.

A sacrifice Alicia DeLaripa knows as well.

“It means a lot because people forget,” she said.

She lost her brother in Vietnam, but says his memory still lives on in moments like this.

“I miss him every day and I wish he were here,” she said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has churned out a consistent stream of policy proposals since getting in the president race, with more than a dozen in-depth plans ranging from leveraging public lands in the fight against climate change to student loan debt forgiveness, NBC News reports. But while the consistent flurry of policy papers puts meat on the bone for reporters, as well as puts the pressure on fellow candidates, are voters clamoring for specifics?

For Warren, perhaps nowhere does the answer to that question matter more than in Iowa — where she’s banking on consolidating support to springboard her into the top tier of candidates in the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses early next year.

In more than a dozen conversations over three days recently at events for multiple candidates, including Warren, voters told NBC News they wanted to hear specifics before making their choice — and that Warren was cementing herself as "the policy candidate" in the field.

"(Warren)'s the plan girl right now, isn't she?" Keith Kuper of Ackley told NBC News Saturday in Iowa Falls. "She really has specifics, plans on almost everything." 

Some spend the Memorial Day holiday relaxing with family and friends, but there’s another way to do it. It’s called the “Murph” challenge in honor of Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy, who was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan.

The challenge involves running a mile, doing 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, and then finishing it off with another mile.

“The Murph is an event that really kind of highlights the sacrifices of veterans all across the country,” said Steven Kennedy, who completed the challenge at Dooms Day Fitness Experience in New Britain on Monday.

“We’re out here for a good cause we’re honoring veterans,” Avelyn Carrion from New Britain said after her course.

Even though it might sound like a grueling way to honor those who’ve died while serving in the armed forces, over 100 people showed up at Gabriel Gordon’s gym to participate.

“This is greatest feeling in the world to have 100 people come here and support this cause,” said Gordon.

For him, it’s personal.

“It is important to me because I am a veteran,” Gordon said.

The money raised will go towards building a retreat center for veterans and emergency responders struggling with PTSD.

“I’m trying to give back on this Memorial in honor of my son and those who represent,” said Donna Chapman, who leads that effort.

Her son, Sgt. William Davidson, died by suicide in 2017 after returning from Afghanistan and struggling with PTSD himself. 

“When people suffer wounds, whether they’re physical wounds or emotional wounds, to be able to come together with who suffer similarly I think can bond and heal more effectively,” said Chapman, who started the WILL Power for Veterans Fund, Inc. in honor of her son in 2017.

They raised over $700 today, and Chapman has already raised over $57,000 to build this healing place for veterans.

In the young and lucrative world of video game streaming, few groups are as popular as FaZe Clan. And few streamers are as popular as Turney Tenney, 21, who goes by Tfue, NBC News reports. But just last spring, Tenney was just another anonymous streamer — until he was invited to join FaZe Clan, an esports group that houses and builds teams with some of the biggest names in esports.

Now, Tenney and FaZe are embroiled in a very public lawsuit over how the money he generates is divided, a battle that shines a light on what esports lawyer Andrew Gordon calls “the Wild West.” Gordon compared the esports streaming industry to the early days of baseball before players unionized, when team owners had all the bargaining power.

“When you’re a new guy that has no followers, what are you going to demand?” Gordon said.

Behind the drama is a larger story: a labor dispute in a burgeoning and largely unregulated $1.1 billion industry ripe with questionable contracts agreed to by people who often aren’t yet of legal drinking age.

After a rainy spring, many families traveled to the Connecticut shoreline to enjoy the perfect weather for the unofficial start to summer.

This Memorial Day came with ideal weather for sailing on Long Island Sound, spending time on the beach or cooling off at the splash pad at Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven.

"It’s been nice for a few days so I can say we getting a little reward,” said Erica Watts from New Haven. “We haven’t been down here in a while, so we decided to do something today with the family so it was last minute but we decided to make it work.”

Watts and her family lit the grill for a barbecue in the Lighthouse Point Park picnic area.

“So right now I got hot dogs on that grill, hamburgers on that grill,” she said.

Her mother Tonya Watts took credit for the sides.

“My mother made a potato salad and a garden salad," Erica said. "We got some barbecue chicken, we got some sausages, we got some pork chops.”

With the Hammonasset Beach State Park campground at capacity, nearby businesses in Madison like The Clam Castle are feeling a boost in business.

"This is our favorite place," said Joette Trinh from West Hartford. "We love this. We come here every summer. This is how we kick our summer off.”

Trinh and her husband are first generation Americans. Their parents came to the country from Vietnam.

"So everything the veterans have done for us means a great deal because we wouldn’t be here without their sacrifice,” Trinh said.

At the Watts family barbecue in New Haven, Tonya Watts said her son Davon recently finished Army basic training in South Carolina and now he is stationed in Georgia.

“When I went there and saw him at the graduation," she said, "it was just beautiful how they teach them how to just be young men that care about their country.”

On this Memorial Day, she is thinking about the military families who lost loved ones that made the ultimate sacrifice while defending the country's freedom.

"It means a lot," Watts said, "because a lot of people gave their life for us to be able to be here in the United States, to live free.”

After losing two sons — one to a rare disease and the other to suicide — a Virginia woman decided to become a nurse and help ease others’ pain.

Kathy Wales’ son Alex was diagnosed with a very rare brain disease called adrenoleukodystrophy.

“They said, ‘Buy a video camera and enjoy your time,’” she said.

Doctors gave him six months to live, but he survived more than seven years before passing away at 16.

“He never stopped smiling, and I figured if he’s not going to stop, I don’t have any right to,” Wales said.

Through it all, Alex’s big brother Zach stayed by his side.

“He was amazing,” Wales said. “He was the best brother. He did everything for Alex.”

And though he wasn’t showing any symptoms, Zach had the same disease.

After Alex passed away, Zach was devastated, Wales said.

“Because he liked to come off as the big tough guy, he didn’t let on as much that he was hurting as much as he was,” she said.

Zach killed himself at age 20.

“It was a huge, huge, huge surprise, huge blow to us,” Wales said.

“We miss them both so much every day, but they’ll always be in everything I do,” she said.

She went back to school to become a nurse, wanting to pay it forward and help families like hers.

“I like to think that they’re watching us and I just had to keep going for them,” she said.

Wales graduates from the East Coast Polytechnic Institute in Manassas Friday.

Yale lost to Virginia 13-9 in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Championship in front of 31,528 fans at Lincoln Financial Field Monday.

The Bulldogs, who were trying to repeat as national champions, were held without a goal for more than 16 minutes in the first half. Head Coach Andy Shay is extremely proud of Yale’s effort.

“You’re going to make me cry on TV. They’re just the greatest kids that you could ask for. They do everything that you ask of them and more. If my son could grow up to be like these guys, it would be good,” Shay said.

Virginia captured its sixth national championship in program history and first since 2011.

“Hats off to Virginia,” said Yale senior Joe Sessa. “They beat us straight up but I’d rather have the loss in the national championship in this locker room than in another one with a win.”

Yale’s senior class is the winningest senior class in program history.

“Obviously today is tough but I think the seniors did a good job leaving the program in a better spot than we found it, said Yale senior captain John Daniggelis.

Despite graduating a talented group of seniors, the Bulldogs will have some key players returning next season including sophomore goaltender Jack Starr, freshman attacker Matt Brandau and junior attacker Matt Gaudet.

The season for the Southington Drive-In is almost here and the 10th season will start on Saturday, June 1 with “Jaws.” 

The drive-in is open each Saturday from June through Labor Day. The films start just after sunset each week and the Southington Drive-In also offers family games and activities before each movie. 

Schedule: 

• June 1: Jaws
• June 8: The Little Mermaid
• June 15: Back to the Future
• June 22: Ralph Breaks the Internet
• June 29: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• July 6: Bohemian Rhapsody
• July 13: UP
• July 20: Weekend at Bernie’s
• July 27: No Movie: Southington Italian Festival
• Aug. 3: Ice Age
• Aug. 10: Lady and the Tramp
• Aug. 17: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
• Aug. 24: Tangled
• Aug. 31: Ferdinand
• Sept. 7: Captain Marvel
• Oct. 27: Halloween Festival - Movies to be announced. 

The drive-in is located at 995 Meriden Waterbury Turnpike in Southington. 

The admission price is $12 per carload for Southington residents and $18 for non-Southington residents. The venue has a pavilion with surround sound and picnic tables. 

Walk-ins are welcome to bring their own chairs or watch the movie from under the pavilion for $2. Food and ice cream trucks will also be on the drive-in site.  

Learn more on the Original Southington Drive-In Facebook page.

Malaysia will send back some 3,000 metric tons (3,300 tons) of non-recyclable plastic waste to countries such as the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia in a move to avoid becoming a dumping ground for rich nations, Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin said Tuesday.

Yeo said Malaysia and many developing countries have become new targets after China banned the import of plastic waste last year. She said 60 containers stacked with contaminated waste were smuggled in en route to illegal processing facilities in the country and will be sent back to their countries of origin.

Ten of the containers are due to be shipped back within two weeks, she said, as she showed reporters contents of the waste at a port outside Kuala Lumpur.

The displayed items included cables from the U.K., contaminated milk cartons from Australia and compact discs from Bangladesh, as well as bales of electronic and household waste from the U.S., Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia and China. Yeo said the waste from China appeared to be garbage from France and other countries that had been rerouted after a ban imposed by China.

In one case alone, Yeo said a U.K. recycling company exported more than 50,000 metric tons (55,000 tons) of plastic waste in about 1,000 containers to Malaysia over the past two years.

"This is probably just the tip of the iceberg (due) to the banning of plastic waste by China," Yeo told a news conference. "Malaysia will not be a dumping ground to the world ... we will fight back. Even though we are a small country, we can't be bullied by developed countries."

The government has clamped down on dozens of illegal plastic recycling facilities that had mushroomed across the country, shuttering more than 150 plants since last July. Earlier this month, the government also sent back five containers of waste to Spain.

Yeo said China's plastic waste ban had "opened up the eyes of the world to see that we have a huge garbage and recycling problem."

Citizens in rich nations diligently separate their waste for recycling but the garbage ended up being dumped in developing nations where they are recycled illegally, causing environmental and health hazards, she said.

"We urge the developed countries to review their management of plastic waste and stop shipping the garbage out to the developing countries," she said, calling such practices "unfair and uncivilized."

Yeo vowed to take action against Malaysian companies illegally importing used plastic, calling them "traitors to the country's sustainability."

A transformer fire has closed a road in West Hartford early Tuesday morning.

Police said Quaker Lane South is closed from New Britain Avenue to Troutbrook Drive after a transformer caught on fire.

It is unclear exactly how long the road will be closed. Officers expect it to remain closed at least through the morning rush hour.

At one point, Eversource reported over 800 outages in West Hartford, however, the outages have since been resolved.

Opioid prescriptions remain common for teens and young adults, a new study finds.

NBC News reported that, from 2005 to 2015, nearly 15 percent of teens and young adults received an opioid prescription during an emergency room visit, according to the study, published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics. That’s compared with 3 percent among those who were seen in an outpatient clinic.

What’s more, ER visits for dental issues resulted in an opioid prescription nearly 60 percent of the time.

“Adolescents and young adults are such a high-risk population for opioid misuse and future addiction,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Joel Hudgins, a clinical instructor at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “We found the rates of opioid prescriptions were pretty high, at 15 percent, which is right in line with adult data.”

Count out the Boston Bruins at your own peril.

Down a pair a minute into the second period on their home ice, two of Boston's great strengths propelled it to a come-from-behind 4-2 win over the St. Louis Blues to take a 1-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.

Boston's lethal power play, combined with its superior depth, were most responsible for the Bruins running ther winning streak in the postseason to eight games dating back to Game 4 vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets in the second round.

Rust, initially, was no problem for the Bruins after an 11-day layoff. Boston had a pair of shots in the first 35 seconds of the game, including a laser off the stick from David Pastrnak that really tested the mettle of St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington.

Despite the fast start for the B’s, it was Brayden Schenn who scored the first goal of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final at 7:23 of the first period, taking advantage of a Bruins defense that failed to clear the zone twice. Schenn slid back in behind Brad Marchand, who found space behind a well-screened Tuukka Rask for a 1-0 lead.

The Bruins went 0-for-2 on the power play in the first, its missed opportunities highlighted by a pair of missed posts on the first man-advantage. Marcus Johansson broke up the middle between three Blues skaters and beat Jordan Binnington, only to be denied by the cross-bar, while David Krejci unloaded a rocket from atop the left-wing circle that ricocheted off the iron.

Shots on goal were 8-8 after 20 minutes.

The second period got off to a less than ideal start for Boston, when Schenn was at it again, this time from behind the net. He hit Vladimir Tarasenko alone in front for a 2-0 St. Louis lead 1 minute in to the middle frame.

Just as they have all season long, however, the Bruins wouldn’t let an early deficit define the game. Keeping in line with its season-long theme of getting production up and down the roster, it was a fourth-line center and third-pairing defenseman connecting on the goal which would get Boston within one.

Sean Kuraly saucered a pass to Connor Clifton, cutting in towards the left post, and knocked it further along out of mid-air into the back of the net at 2:16 to make it 2-1 in favor of the Blues.

The Bruins haven’t gotten to this point without a prolific power play either, of course. It was only a matter of time before they broke through on that as well, with Charlie McAvoy uncorking a wrister past Binnington at 12:41 of the second to tie the game at 2-2.

Boston outshot St. Louis, 18-3, in the middle period.

The Bruins finally took the lead 5:21 into the third period, when Kuraly was on the receiving end of a pass from just outside the crease off the stick of Noel Acciari.

Brad Marchand's empty net goal with 1:49 left in regulation proved to be the dagger, giving Boston a 1-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.

Tuukka Rask made 18 saves on 20 shots for the Bruins, shutting the Blues out over the final 39 minutes of regulation.

It's the first time in the Bruins' three appearances this decade they've won Game 1.

Game 2 is Wednesday night at 8 p.m. back at TD Garden on NBC 10 Boston.

A fire broke out at Harrybrooke Park Condominiums in New Milford Tuesday morning.

No additional information was immediately available.

It was late at night and a group of Jewish teenagers were on a walk around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir in Massachusetts.

Boston College Police Officer Carl Mascioli was on patrol on May 17, the night that the four teens saved a man with an anti-Semitic tattoo in Chestnut Hill.

"As I approached them, two of them ran up to my car," said the patrolman. "There was a body in the water."

Mascioli ran down the embankment and found a man partially submerged and not moving.

"While I was pulling him out of the water, I also observed that he had a swastika on his hand," Mascioli said.

It turned out the man the Jewish boys helped save had a tattoo of the Nazi symbol, and Mascioli told them about it.

"I kind of let the gentlemen know sometimes some deeds have a funny way of turning around," said the officer. "Their good deed had a little bit of a twist to it."

The students, who study at a nearby Yeshiva high school in Brighton, were not permitted to speak with NBC10 Boston about the incident, but they had a message for the officer to share with the man they helped rescue.

"They wanted just to let him know that it was four young Jewish boys that helped save his life," recalled Mascioli, who said the students had no regrets about helping a man with an anti-Semitic tattoo. "A good deed is a good deed and that's part of life. We should be helping everybody out."

It's unknown how the man ended up in the water. But police say he didn't have much time left, and if it hadn't been for the teenagers, the patrolman likely wouldn't have seen him.

The man is expected to recover.

After a Colorado school district switched to a four-day week this school year, students had to find something to do with their Mondays, NBC News reported.

27J Schools was the largest district to make the change, and at the end of the experiment's first year, kids and parents have relished having three-day weekends while parents worried about child care for younger students and unstructured free time for older ones.

"I'll be relieved that they'll be back on a five-day schedule. It's what pretty much every human on earth works or goes to school for," said Brody Mathews, a small business owner with two children in elementary school.

But the district's teachers are the lowest paid in the Denver metropolitan area and it's seen more and more promising teacher applications since going down to four extended days of school instead of the traditional five.

A 38-year-old Norwich man suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle crash in Griswold on Monday night.

State police said Javier Dario Santiago was driving a Yamaha motorcycle on Route 201, near the entrance of Hopeville State Park, around 7:45 p.m. Monday when he crossed the median from the westbound side of the road to the eastbound side and struck a Kia Sedona.

Santiago was thrown from the motorcycle and suffered serious injuries, according to state police. LifeStar medical transport helicopter transported Santiago to Rhode Island Hospital.

The driver and passenger in the Kia were transported to Backus Hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

Police are investigating after a pedestrian was critically injured in a hit-and-run following a fight in New Haven early Tuesday morning.

Officers said two men were involved in a fight in the parking lot of a business on Whalley Avenue around 3:22 a.m.

During the fight, police said one man struck the other with a vehicle and fled the scene.

The pedestrian was transported to the hospital and is listed in critical condition.

A portion of Whalley Avenue near Sherman Avenue is closed and blocked off by police cars while officers investigate.

This is a developing story. NBC Connecticut will update this story as details become available.

Police are investigating after multiple shots that were fired ended up entering a home on Easton Street on Monday night.

Officers were called to Bowen Street around 8:15 p.m. after getting a report of shots fired.

According to police, residents told officers that they saw a man standing in a nearby driveway with a gun.

Investigators determined that multiple gunshots were fired.

When officers canvassed the area, they learned that two bullets had entered a home on Easton Street. The residents of the home were in the backyard at the time of the shooting, authorities said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective John Marks at (203) 230-4050.