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Congress Members Call for Investigation After Fatal Metro-North Crash

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U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and U.S. Congressmembers Elizabeth Esty, Jim Himes and Rosa DeLauro are calling for a full investigation after a tragic Metro-North crash in New York on Tuesday evening that killed six people and injured a dozen others.

"There needs to be a massive overhaul in the culture in the safety and reliability of the tracks and to invest in the tracks and equipment that are decaying and often decrepit," Blumenthal said.

It’s too early to tell where the blame lies, Blumenthal said, but this brings up memories of several other tragic Metro-North crashes in recent years and he is calling on a prompt investigation.

"Riders deserve to arrive at their destinations safely and reliably. When they leave their homes in the morning, they have a right to expect that they are going to get where they're going without incident, and all too often, these incidents have been repetitive," Blumenthal said.

Murphy offered his deepest condolences to those impacted, then said the investigation into what happened must be comprehensive. 

"There are still many important questions that are left to be answered, but I’m confident that the National Transportation Safety Board will conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation as quickly as possible. In the meantime, I’d like to thank all of the first responders who so bravely rushed to the scene, and reassure Metro-North passengers that their safety is our number one priority as we take actions to ensure this never happens again,” Murphy said in a statement.

Esty released a statement on Tuesday night about the crash.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of tonight's horrific crash on Metro-North and their families during this difficult time. Commuters and their families need to be able to rely on safe, timely rail service. As a member of the Rail Subcommittee on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I will be raising serious questions with Metro-North and the Federal Railroad Administration on what actions can be taken to prevent this in the future. I've worked closely on rail safety efforts on the Committee, and tonight's crash is a glaring indication that more must be done," Esty said.

Service along the Harlem Line is currently suspended while the National Transportation Safety Board leads the investigation into what caused the crash.

DeLauro also released a statement about the crash.

“My deepest condolences go out to the families of the six people who tragically passed away and those who were on the train. A profound ‘thank you’ goes out to the first responders who assisted those on the scene," DeLauro said in a statement. "Federal investigators will determine what happened and how we can keep it from happening again. We must find a way to ensure that something as simple as a commute home does not become a deadly accident.”

Himes also offered condolences to families affected by the tragic crash and thanked the first responders.

“While we still don't have all of the facts about this accident, it's clear that there are a host of questions that need to be answered in the days ahead. I will keep pushing to ensure that we take concrete steps to prevent another incident like this from happening again,” Himes said in a statement.



Photo Credit: AP

Man Made Threats Against Officer: Police

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Naugatuck police have arrested a man accused of threatening a police officer three times, and referencing the 1991 murder of a state trooper, because he was upset about an investigation.

Robert Wagner, 64, of Naugatuck was arrested on Jan. 30 after threatening a Naugatuck police officer and making a reference to the 1991 ambush killing of State Trooper Russell Bagshaw.

Police said Wagner was upset about investigation into a tablet that had been stolen from him and told the officer “he would end up like Officer Bagshaw.”

The 28-year-old Bagshaw was killed while checking on a gun shop during a burglary on June 5, 1991 and the case is considered the “most cold-blooded violence ever leveled at a Connecticut State Trooper.”

When the shift lieutenant responded to Wagner’s home, he repeated the threat again.

Then, when the lieutenant, Wagner called the Naugatuck Police Department and left a message for the officer on his department voice mail box repeating the threat a third time, police said.

Wagner was charged with threatening and second-degree harassment intimidation and held on a $25,000 surety bond.
 

Adorable Zoo Babies: Florida's Baby Giraffe

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See all the newest arrivals at zoos around the world. Baby lions, tigers and bears step into the spotlight.

Photo Credit: Rosemond Gifford Zoo

Suspect in 2011 Murder of Norwich Mom Arrested

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Norwich police have arrested a suspect in the December 2011 murder of a 26-year-old mother of two and the man is being held on $2 million bond.

Lashawn R. Cecil, 33, of Norwich, has been charged with the murder of Jaclyn Wirth, who was shot in her Norwich apartment and died at the hospital.

Police responded Mohegan Park Apartments at 88 Mohegan Park Road in Norwich just before 2 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 after Wirth called 911 and said she’d been shot.

Her two young sons, then 2 and 7 years old, were home during the shooting, police said, and the older boy was a witness to the crime.

At the time, police said only that they were looking for a male shooter.

On Wednesday, police arrested Cecil, who has been charged with murder, felony murder, criminal possession of a firearm and first-degree criminal attempted burglary.

He is being held on a $2 million court-set bond and will be arraigned in Norwich Superior Court today.

This come after a reward was offered and the case was placed on cold case playing cards sold to inmates in Connecticut prisons.

In 2013, billboards offering a $25,000 reward were put up in Norwich in the hopes that it would generate leads.

The ad featured a photo of Jaclyn and her family, said “Who Shot Our Mommy?” and included a phone number to call Norwich Detectives.

Police said they expect to make more arrests in the case.



Photo Credit: Norwich Police

Oven Fire at Stratford Home

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The Stratford Fire Department is reminding residents to change the batteries in their smoke detectors after an oven fire broke out at a home in town on Wednesday afternoon.

Residents at the two-story single family home at 73 Avo Street called 911 and were directed to leave the house, but they said the fire had gone out and stayed inside.

When Stratford firefighters arrived, they saw light smoke rising from the building and the occupants were still inside the home, according to the Stratford Fire Department. They evacuated the house and discovered that the fire was out on the stove. They investigated to ensure the fire had not spread to the structure of the house and to make sure no toxic gas was in the air.

A mother and her infant child were taken to Bridgeport Hospital as a precaution to be evaluated, according to fire officials.

The fire marshal's office investigated the cause of the fire and determined it started by accident when food cooking on the stove was left unattended, fire officials said.

Only one of three smoke detectors in the house was working, so the fire department installed two more before leaving the scene.

The fire department recommends changing your smoke alarm batteries every six months when you change your clocks for Daylight Saving Time. Fire officials also request that residents leave their home right away if there is a fire.

Police Arrest Armed Man After Police Standoff

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A Stratford man wanted for a reported probation violation on a robbery was arrested after barricading himself inside his bedroom at a home with a gun.

Peter Latham Jr., 35, refused to open his door for police when they came to check on his welfare at 1042 Success Ave. on Wednesday.

He locked himself inside a back bedroom at the home when police arrived, Stratford police said. Police backed off when they saw a rifle case in the home and tried to call him, but couldn't make contact.

Police discovered there was a warrant out for Latham Jr.'s arrest on a violation of probation charge stemming from a robbery arrest.

Stratford Police Department's Special Response Team and crisis negotiators responded to the scene  and got him to surrender after two hours. 

Police found a loaded rifle in the room he was barricaded in.

Stratford police charged Latham Jr. with interfering with officers, breach of peace, criminal possession of a firearm and criminal possession of ammunition. His bond was set at $25,000.

Police also separately charged him with violation of probation and is expected to remain in custody for the charge related to a separate robbery offense. He was also issued a $25,000 bond for that arrest.



Photo Credit: Stratford Police Department

Viral Video: Mom Battling Cancer Reunites With Son After Chemo

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Meriden native Laura Martancik's 2-year-old son, James bounds into her arms for hugs with a big grin and a lot of giggles.

That reunion after her three weeks in the hospital for chemotherapy treatment and a stem cell transplant is captured in a YouTube video and has gone viral. There were already 127,236 views on the video as of 3:14 p.m. on Wednesday since she posted it on Jan. 30.

"This is crazy," she said.

Martancik, 35, who grew up in Meriden and lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, was first diagnosed with Stage 2 B Hodgkins Lymphoma in July of 2013 and was in remission after six months of chemotherapy until the cancer flared up again in July of this past year. She flew back to Connecticut for her treatment to be near family and is being monitored at Smillow cancer center at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

When she posted the video her sister, Courtney spontaneously took in mid-January, she knew she wasn't the only single mother with cancer out there and never imagined it would spread to so many people. She simply hoped to inspire others in her shoes. She wanted to show that "even when you have those moments when you think you can't push through," little hugs and smiles can get your through the tough days.

"What did I tell you? Mommy always comes back. I'm all back from the doctor," Martancik tells her son after the first of many hugs in the video.

While the video shows a small moment, it's significant to Martancik and is representative of her optimism.

"I figure you always have choices. You can either choose to be miserable and dwell on all your problems or you can be happy and see the best part of a situation," she said. "You always feel better when you choose happy."

After going a long time without working during her battle with cancer, one way she is fighting is raising money to pay her bills and medical expenses through gofundme.com.

"Cancer is trying for round 2. No way," Martancik says on her YouTube and gofundme.com page. At least 286 people have donated in 16 months and she has raised $21,447 of her $30,000 goal so far.

"Time to get my game face on and get my life back!" she said on her GoFundMe page.

Martancik said she is "blown away" by the support she's gotten from both loved ones and strangers. It restores her faith in the goodness in the world and the kindness of people.

"If some stranger is going to give me money over the Internet, go outside and shake a real person's hand," she said.

She still tears up thinking about that moment returning to her son and said that "these minutes of giving him those hugs took away" three tough weeks of chemotherapy.

"It was the craziest feeling ever. I feel like I need to invent a word for it....it felt like being home," she said.



Photo Credit: Laura Martancik
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Driver Leaps as Train Hits Truck

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A truck driver leapt from his tractor-trailer after getting stuck in snow on train tracks, just moments before an MBTA commuter train smashed into it at a Braintree, Massachusetts, crossing Wednesday afternoon.

The truck driver escaped unscathed, while a few train passengers suffered minor injuries.

The tractor-trailer driver, who identified himself only as Herman, had just made a delivery of racks and dollies to Frito-Lay when his empty truck had gotten stuck on snow and ice next to the tracks along Grove Street, wheels spinning in the path of an oncoming northbound train.

"It would spin, it wouldn't go forward or backward, then I hear [a man who was helping] screaming, 'Train, train, train!'" said Herman. "'What do you mean, train?' I heard the dinging, and I saw it coming at the truck, so I jumped."

Herman, a Red Wings fan from Michigan, was wearing a borrowed Bruins hat and winter jacket but was still in his shorts, shaken up from the traumatic afternoon. "An explosion, a bomb. Boom!" he said. "It happened so fast."

One witness described just how narrowly Herman escaped from the path of the oncoming train.

"He waited until maybe 50 yards. It was a gray box over there. That train was going 45-50 miles an hour. And he finally jumped out at the last second," said witness Bill Bradford. "Personally, I think he waited a little too long. But if he ever fell, he would've been crushed by the train."

The damaged train made its way to Braintree station and train service was interrupted for a few hours after the crash. The tracks reopened later to commuter trains, which were more crowded than usual with revelers heading home from the Patriots' victory parade in Boston.

"Everybody's doing the best they can to keep up the roads as clear as possible," said Transit Police Deputy Chief Kenneth Sprague. "But, you know, sometimes, with these industrial areas, the trucks are coming out, and the tractor-trailers will keep hitting the snowbanks and constantly knocking snow back down. So it's a constant battle."

The debris field illustrated how fortunate Herman was to have escaped, just a day after a commuter train outside New York smashed into an SUV and killed six people.

But it also illustrated just how much he had lost.

"Everything is in there. I think they found one of my phones. But that's my home. That's my home on wheels. That's what I do for a living. It's what I've been blessed with. Now it's all gone," Herman said.

The trailer was expected be towed away after rush hour Wednesday, around 7 p.m.



Photo Credit: NECN

2 Teens Shot at Md. High School: PD

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Police are still looking for the suspects responsible for a shooting that left two teens injured outside a high school basketball game.

The shots rang out around 8 p.m. Wednesday outside Frederick High School's gymnasium along Carroll Parkway, where a rival junior varsity basketball game was being hosted.

"Gunshots going off around a gym packed with kids… You can imagine, everybody’s running," a police officer at the scene said.

The two students were flown to a hospital in Baltimore with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Frederick Police Capt. Richard Hetherington said. He did not know the students' ages or genders, and he said the shooter or shooters were still at large early Thursday.

A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear and an investigation into the identity of the shooter or shooters was ongoing, Hetherington said later in a statement.

"I heard five shots really quickly. Not quite automatic, but really fast shots," Frederick resident Tom Thompson said.

Police canvassed the school and neighborhood for suspects. Parents waited outside a nearby bowling alley for their children to be released following a lockdown, which ended about two hours after the shooting.

"[I] just want to see my son and make sure he's straight and everything is good ... make sure his mind is in the right place," parent Shawn Rodriguez said.

Frederick High School, on the city's west side, has about 1,300 students. The school district said in a statement that the high school and West Frederick Middle School would be closed Thursday for students.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Couple Left Baby Alone in Cold Car to Shop in Adult Store: Police

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A mother and her acquaintance are accused of leaving a baby alone in a freezing car while they went shopping at an adult store in Southington on Wednesday morning.

Police said they responded to VIP – or Very Intimate Pleasures – on Queen Street in Southington at 11:09 a.m. after an employee called authorities to report that customer has left an infant alone inside a vehicle in the parking lot as they shopped inside, police said.

When officers responded, they found a 2-week-old child alone inside a 1997 Nisan Sentra.

Upon investigating, they determined that the mother, Lindsay M. Hoffmann, 26, of Waterbury, and her acquaintance, Marquette Riggsbee, 54, of New Haven, had first gone into the adult shop with the infant, but store staff said children were not allowed inside the store, so the couple left.

Soon after, they came back, but without the baby.

Concerned, an employee went outside to check on the infant, saw the vehicle and the child seat with no one else in or around the vehicle and called police.

The car was not running and temperatures were below freezing, so officers got the child and called AMR ambulance to check on the infant’s condition.

Other officers found Hoffmann and Riggsbee inside the store, where they had been for more than 20 minutes, police said.

Hoffmann and Riggsbee were both charged with risk of injury to a minor and leaving a child unsupervised. They were each held on a $25,000.00 bond.

The infant was taken to the hospital to be evaluated and doctor found the child had cold extremities, but the body temperature was OK.

The state Department of Children and Families was notified and has started its own investigation.



Photo Credit: Southington Police

Another Roof Collapse Montville Apartment Complex

"It Could Have Been Me": Train Crash Survivor Also Escaped Boston Bombings

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A Ridgefield, Connecticut, man who was across the street from explosions during the Boston Marathon bombing has another dramatic survival story to tell after escaping a burning Metro-North train that crashed in Valhalla, New York on Tuesday.

Fred Buonocore has a routine on his commute to work in New York. He rides the back car there every day and the front car, or the quiet car, on the way home. However, on Tuesday, he broke his tradition, running to catch the train and hurrying into a middle car before the doors closed.

About halfway through his ride home, the 5:44 p.m. train on the Harlem line hit an SUV on the tracks, killing the driver and five train passengers who were sitting in the front car.

"There was a bump, and then the train came to a stop, and everything went silent," Buonocore recalled. "Several people were yelling, 'You have to move back, everyone walk back."

Chaos and confusion began to set in.

"Whatever that emotion is that leads to panic was starting to bubble up in the car," Buonocore said.

Then there was an explosion.

"Not like a massive explosion, but like a boom toward the front of the train. A number of people, myself included, said we just need to get off the train," he said.

Buonocore grabbed the emergency lever to open the door. He has cuts on his hands from the glass that he reached through to grab that lever and open the main doors to the car. He jumped out into the snow as another small explosion came from the front. Buonocore quickly started helping others off the train.

"Nobody told us to do that, it just seemed like that's what needed to happen," he said.

As passengers made their way around the train, they saw the destruction at the front.

"You just see the flames coming up and the smoke coming up," Buonocore described.

Buonocore realized he could have been a passenger in that front train car.

"You have the same routine. Whether it makes sense or not. I sit in the last car every day on the way to work. I sit in the first car every day on the way home," said Buonocore.

From inside the train, they had no idea just how bad the situation really was. When they arrived at the triage center the passengers began to talk.

"To come to the realization that people in the train actually died was really a frightening concept," Buonocore said, noting that usually it's only those in the car who are hurt or killed in this type of situation.

Buonocore has been through tragedy before. He was at the Boston Marathon, standing across the street, when the bombs went off, but was not injured. Now he says he appreciates every day he has with his family.

"Everyone just needs to take away the message, don't take things for granted, don't take any given day or people for granted," Buonocore said, tearing up.

As he waited to learn the identities of the victims, Buonocore said he probably knew two-thirds of them, not by name, but by face, because he sat in that front car on the way home from work every day.

One of the victims killed happened to live in Danbury, a mere nine miles away from Buonocore's Ridgefield home. 

Aditya Tomar, 41, of Danbury, was one of the people killed in the crash, according to Danbury mayor Mark Boughton.

While Buonocore worked from home in Ridgefield on Wednesday, he said that he doesn't plan to stop his routine of sitting in the front car when he goes back to work on Thursday.



Photo Credit: NBCConnecticut.com
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Woman Says Lotto Spat Cost Her $50K

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Crystal Ellis and her mother are convinced that they won $50,000 from a scratch-off lottery ticket, but the New Jersey Lottery says it’s worth just seven dollars.

The dispute is over just one letter printed on the ticket.

The family from Millville, New Jersey, claims it is an “O,” which would lead to the top prize on the Super Crossword ticket. But the New Jersey Lottery says he letter is actually a “C” and that part of the latex covering was not removed completely, hence the confusion.

“There is no discrepancy on this ticket,” said Judith Drucker of the New Jersey Lottery. “Unfortunately, she just misread the ticket.”

Ellis says that she purchased the ticket for her mother at a local 7-Eleven in mid-December, and that she scratched it off in front of an employee, in the store.

“We’re not trying to make a big deal out of nothing,” Ellis said.

“It looks like 'O' to me," the 7-Eleven's owner Ashish Shah said. "She’s my regular customer. She comes every day.”

After receiving a visit from a lottery investigator and hearing that it was not a grand prize winner, the family threw out the ticket. Only a cellphone picture and a photocopy remain.

“That photocopy was taken before the latex had been removed from the actual playing card,” said Drucker.

Lottery officials say they have no recollection of prior complaints about misprints on lottery tickets.

Ellis told NBC10 the entire experience has left her feeling insulted.

"You're going to make me look like an idiot," Ellis said. "Like I couldn't scratch a ticket!"

Storm of Towing Complaints in New Haven

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On Tuesday night, New Haven's new snow blower was out in downtown, clearing out the snow on the side of the roads. In order for it to be out, cars needed to be off the roads.

“We noticed residents through our See Click Fix channels to make sure they were aware we were lifting the downtown parking ban Tuesday morning at 6 a.m., but we still needed to do some overnight snow removal,” said Doug Hausladen, New Haven’s Director of Transportation, Traffic and Parking.

The See Click Fix posting when out Monday just before 6 p.m. The City says emergency no parking orders were posted on meters Tuesday afternoon.

“We did a lot of outreach going to every bar in the neighborhood, every restaurant, and every business that had people in there,” said Hausladen.

However, some drivers say, they didn't get a notice from the city nor see any of the signs. They were surprised to see their car had been towed overnight.

The towing companies didn't know much about the emergency orders either and say they were only made aware that it was happening last night.

“We received a call to head out around 9 o'clock to 200 Orange Street to meet the staff from Traffic and Parking to do some type of emergency snow removal,” said Jennifer DiLauro of Columbus Auto Body Works.

Columbus Auto Body Works ended up towing seven of the 16 cars that were towed.

The city ended up calling off the towing for other areas where signs weren't visible to drivers.

“On Temple Street between George and Crown last night, across from the Criterion movie theater, there was an inadequate posting, so we made a decision in the field not to tag and tow that block,” said Hausladen.

The city is working on ways to better inform drivers when emergency orders are placed on roadways. It has postponed the snow cleaning efforts for Wednesday night.

Rep.: I'll Pay for "Downton" Decor

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An Illinois Republican congressman says he will pay for his elaborate "Downton Abbey" decor, after a watchdog group filed an ethics complaint accusing him of accepting decorating services for free.

Rep. Aaron Schock spoke out Wednesday in defense of his “Downton"-themed office digs, saying, in the words of Taylor Swift, "haters gonna hate.”

The Washington watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics had filed a complaint Tuesday asking the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether the 33-year-old violated House rules by accepting free interior decoration services and using campaign funds to pay for office furniture.

Schock’s interior designer told reporters she was not paid for her $70,000 renovation services, and this was not the first time she designed Schock’s congressional office.

But Schock told reporters he does plan on paying for the services out-of-pocket; he just hasn’t yet, because he has yet to receive an invoice.

As for the scrutiny he’s received for hiring a luxurious interior designer to outfit his congressional offices in the first place, he said in a statement he’s just "never been an old crusty white guy,” hence the bright red walls.

“I'm different. I came to Congress at 27,” Schock said. “When I go take a personal vacation I don’t sit on the beach, I go do active things. And so, I'm also not going to live in a cave. So when I post an Instagram photo with me and my friends, as Taylor Swift said, 'haters gonna hate.'"

Despite being one of the country’s youngest to have a seat in the House, he said his taste in décor has little to do with his role as a congressman.

"At the end of the day, regardless of what color wall you choose your office, the most important thing in Congress is what you do for your constituents and what you do for your job," Schock said.


Malloy Proposes Criminal Justice Reform

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At the heart of the Malloy Administration's proposals to reform the state's criminal justice system is the governor's idea that nonviolent criminals should get a second chance, that conviction for possession of drugs should be a stain you can remove from your record, even with a pardon at some point.

Gov. Malloy heard no opposition from community leaders invited to speak to him in Hartford, where the "war on drugs" has left its mark.

"Now that it's seeped into suburban white communities, into the middle class, it's cut across all socioeconomic classes, people are waking up," said Rep. Edwin Vargas. "The governor has taken the bull by the horns."

Malloy's choice to lead the Department of Correction, Scott Semple, told the panel that with the prison population declining, one of the correctional centers will become a "community reintegration center" as soon as April.

It's part of the governor's intention to teach inmates skills they can use in jobs and to make those jobs easier for them to get when they leave state prison. But another part is to keep nonviolent criminals out of prison.

"That means we have a judicial system that could pay attention to the things that are really important, the violent crimes and more serious crimes," said Gov. Malloy.

"Now I think it's time that we get away from treating simple possession as a felony," he said.

In the morning, Malloy is to take his package of proposals to sympathetic ears in Bridgeport.

Snow Banks Narrow Roads, More Snow Coming

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While most towns are waiting for the next storm, workers in some towns are still cleaning up from Monday's snowstorm, and they're tired.

"Our guys have been working really hard, around the clock," said the public works director in Cromwell, Lou Spina. "Now that the snow's stopped we're re-widening the road, reclaiming the cul-de-sacs."

Dairy Lane is one such cul-de-sac workers handled to make room for emergency vehicles if need be.

Spina said if forecast storms don't blow out to sea drivers will be back out there.

"If they need to get off the road for an hour or an hour and a half we're not opposed to it," he said. "Once they get refreshed and got some food in their belly, warm socks on, we get 'em right back out there."



Photo Credit: NBC10

Flag Painted Over Swastika Vandalism on Iconic Rock

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At Bolton Notch State Park stands a rock painted with the American flag that has been there for more than a decade. It's become a landmark for the area and something many greet with pride.

Recently the Town of Bolton was alerted about swastikas painted over the flag. While both face left, which can represent luck in Buddhism, many believe those responsible only meant hate.

The town alerted state police and DEEP, but the inclement weather and precarious location made it impossible to fix right away.

When wounded veteran Micah Welintukonis found out about it from a friend and Vernon firefighter, the two grabbed spray paint cans and made the difficult journey to the rock.

"There is three feet of snow just getting up there," said First Selectman Bob Morra.

After about an hour Welintukonis finished bringing life back to Old Glory.

"As First Selectman, also as a veteran I was extremely thankful that someone took the initiative, quite an initiative, to go out there and take care of it," said Morra.

Welintukonis says he has a message for those responsible.

"If it happens again we'll be watching and these people will get caught," said Welintukonis.

DEEP says they take this incident very seriously and that EnCon Police are investigating along with state police.

Welintukonis is offering a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest.
 



Photo Credit: NBCConnecticut.com

Man Sentenced Who Struck and Killed Enfield Child

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The man who hit and killed an Enfield child in 2013 was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison, suspended after three and five years of probation.

Brian Dolloff, 30, was sentenced for charges of second degree manslaughter, driving under the influence, and other charges in Enfield Superior Court.

Dolloff was speeding and drunk when he crashed his motorcycle on Broad Brook Road in Enfield back in September of 2013, according to the arrest warrant.

Dolloff hit 11-year-old Nico Fillippa who was riding his bicycle at the time. The boy’s mother, a nurse for LifeStar, helped treat her son at the scene before he was taken by ambulance to Bay State Medical Center, the warrant states.

Dolloff initially admitted to drinking just one beer that night, but later admitted having a second beer and a double shot of rum, the warrant says.

An hour after the crash, tests determined his blood alcohol content to be .069 which experts say would have been over the legal limit when the crash happened, according to the warrant.

Police also say Dolloff was driving without a motorcycle endorsement.

Police Seek Armed Robber

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Bristol police are looking for a man who robbed a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Bridgeport at gunpoint.

Officers responded to the store on Feb. 4 at 6:20 p.m. to investigate the robbery. A man in his 40s or 50s, who was about 5-foot-10, skinny and who had grey facial hair displayed a handgun to a clerk and demanded money, police said. He was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and jeans.

A K-9 unit and detectives also responded but could not find the man.

Police ask anyone with information to contact the department at 860-584-3011.



Photo Credit: NBCConnecticut.com
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