The fare for the New Haven Metro North line will increase by 1 percent, Connecticut's Department of Transportation announced. 

The increase will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2016.

Stations withing Connecticut and stations between Connecticut and New York will most likely be affected however some fares may not change.

This is the fifth out of seven annual increases imposed by the CTDOT to help finance new M8 cars for that line. 

Two people from Bridgeport, Connecticut, including a Fairfield University professor, are among the people killed when a woman driving a pickup truck into oncoming traffic on Interstate 95 in Miami, Florida crashed into several cars, killing four people inside one vehicle and herself, the Florida Highway Patrol confirmed.

Four of the deceased victims have been identified as 52-year-old Jose Martin Labrador and 48-year-old Gisela Gil Egui, both of Bridgeport, Conn.; Miguel Gil of Cooper City, Florida; and 71-year-old Gisela Egui of Venezuela. Family confirmed with NBC 6 in Miami that she is the mother of Miguel Gil and Gisela Gil Egui.

Gisela Gil Egui was an associate professor at Fairfield University, who taught courses focusing on globalization of mass media and information, mass media and society and other subjects, she assisted her students on their thesis proposals and research, and was an avid and inspiring faculty collaborator in a number of other projects and committees.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Universidad Central de Venezuela and her Master of Arts degree from Temple University.

The crash occurred just before 1 a.m. on I-95 northbound. According to Florida Highway Patrol, a 23-year-old woman from California in a pickup truck was driving the wrong way in the northbound express lanes when she sideswiped one car and struck several others. She was killed in the crash. Her name has not been released.

There's no word on what caused the woman to drive the wrong way and the investigation is ongoing.

The windows of at least five public buildings in Waterbury were smashed by rocks in the last several days and local and state police are now trying to determine who is behind the incidents.

“What’s been happening is, folks show up for work in the morning, around 6 a.m., and they’re finding that this damage has been done overnight,” Deputy Chief Fred Spagnolo of Waterbury police said.

The locations with shattered windows include the Waterbury Superior Court on Grand Street, Silas Bronson Library on Grand Street, the Willow Street Fire House, the probation office on Scovill Street and the Department of Mental Health on Thomaston Avenue.

Waterbury Police are not sure whether the acts are connected and have no idea what would prompt someone to specifically target these facilities. Part of one of the rock attacks was caught on surveillance video, which police are now reviewing.

Deputy Chief Spagnolo said they have not identified a suspect or the motive.

So far, the city paid $365 to repair the broken windows at the firehouse, while the estimated cost to fix the windows at the library could be between $500 and $1,000, which would be covered by taxpayer dollars.

“It is very silly and you wonder what goes through the people that perpetrate these acts of vandalism mind when they do it,” Joe Geary, Chief of Staff for the City of Waterbury, said.

State Police are investigating the incident at the courthouse.

“It’s not a nice thing to do and we would ask that it would stop,” Spagnolo said.

Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call Waterbury Police at (203) 574-6941.

Route 120 is closed due to a car accident  that resulted in a pole falling, police said.

Meridan Avenue from Southington Avenue to Carter Lane is closed, Southington police said.

Police expect it will be closed for six to eight hours.

About thirty Connecticut National Guard members are returning tonight from Afghanistan after about nine months overseas. They didn't make it for Christmas but as one wife and mother said, 2016 will be a better year.

"We have three kids," said Kimberly Foran, "so I've been raising them on my own. One of them's an infant. So it's been difficult."

That youngster was scurrying around the facility til his grandfather scooped him up.

Michelle Szmajlo, Kimberly's sister-in-law, said, "She held up really great til Christmas a little bit but then we got her through. It was tough, you know, in between the holidays you're kinda hoping he can make it back just a little sooner."

"His son's first birthday party was kind of a really heart wrenching thing but he was there through the technology of today which was great," said Patricia Foran, Gary's mother.

"The empty seat at the Christmas dinner table was tough," she said.

After 5 o'clock the first group of soldiers ended their trip after a couple of days in Texas. The national guard members were helping to run a NATO base in Afghanistan, from office work to warehouse duty.

And now, the Forans are together again.

"It's awesome," said Gary Foran. "I'm happy to be home."

Mayor Pedro Segarra says one of the things that holds back Hartford residents from economic success is the fact that the city is the entity providing for all local services.

The mayor argues that in states across the country, major cities are supported by the local governments around them, and aren't left to stand alone.

“We have a situation right now where all or most of the social services are concentrated in Hartford and yet a lot of the affluence is external for the city, thus a very dual existence of a city that has a very large poverty rate with a much affluent suburban community" Segarra said during one of his final interviews before he leaves office Thursday night.

The mayor said Hartford is not just the biggest city in the area, it's where the most people come to work each day. He says the lack of counties places stress on everything the city wants to do.

“Whatever happens in Hartford ultimately impacts the entire region so we can either choose to coexist and share in the responsibility or we can continue to play the sort of game that has been going on for decades now which ultimately leaves too many people trapped in poverty in our city.”
He's not optimistic that anything will change, with local governments insisting that they should remain in many cases entirely separate from all other cities and towns.

“I think there is some political will but we are the land of steady habits and people are very very fixed in their ways.”

Segarra says he hopes he leaves behind a legacy that shows how he handled difficult times with some poise. He blamed many of the city's early financial struggles when he took office on the 2008 economic recession. The city, he says, will actually have a surplus to end the next fiscal year of about $7 million. However, some money in the budget will disappear after the city sold a parking garage. The revenues from that sale will have been dried up.

Perhaps the most finite reminder of Mayor Segarra's time leading the Capital City will be the new Dunkin' Donuts Park Minor League Baseball Stadium being built in the development known as Downtown North.

Mayor Segarra secretly inked a deal with the New Britain Rockcats to move them to Hartford, guaranteeing a brand new stadium. The team became the Hartford Yardgoats, and a $56 million stadium was approved and new Stadium Authority was established.

Construction has been underway for nearly a year and now there are confirmed cost overruns totaling $10 million or so. The stadium's developer and the authority overseeing the project are pointing fingers at each other with blame.

Mayor Segarra says both sides have to figure out a way to see the project through to completion.
“I think that the parties will eventually, they have to, figure out a way to make it work. It’s just way too important.”

Finally, Segarra says he will continue to live in the city and sees a future continuing what was his early life's work in Social Work. He says he hopes people in the city remember him fondly.

“There is a safe position to take and that is to do nothing. I didn’t take this job to do nothing. There’s some risk associated with it. I’m a doer.”

Connecticut State Police will be on the lookout for intoxicated revelers who get into the driver's seat on New Year's Eve. An increased number of troopers will hit the state's roadways in search of anyone who appears to be impaired behind the wheel.

“You're going to see a huge increase in roving patrols and DUI checkpoints all throughout the state," said Trooper Tyler Weerden of the Connecticut State Police.

Troopers ramped up their enforcement last year at this time and gave out hundreds of speeding and seat belt citations. State Police arrested nearly 40 people for driving under the influence, which was double the number of DUI arrests compared to the year before.

“Dangerous driving, bad conditions, drunk driving - it leads to deaths, plain and simple.” said Trooper Weerden.

Weerden said drivers can expect to see DUI checkpoints in Hartford, Waterbury, Killingly and Brooklyn.

Also teaming up with law enforcement ahead of the holiday is Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) as well as Uber.

“Designate a sober driver or very simply, you pull out your cell phone, you tap a button and you have a ride that is safe and reliable," said Matt Powers, a spokesperson for Uber Connecticut.

The ride-sharing service is running a New Year's Eve promotion for new and existing riders to help boost safety efforts. On the night before Thanksgiving, Uber saw record ridership - five times more - and expects the night before the start of 2016 to be even bigger.

“We know people are going out," said Trooper Weerden. "We expect that there's going to be a lot of drinking.”

State police will have their mobile breath alcohol testing unit on the roads as well. The increased enforcement ends Sunday, January 3 at midnight.

Advocates for survivors of sexual violence expressed relief and appreciation that famous comedian Bill Cosby was charged Wednesday with aggravated indecent assault in Pennsylvania, after years of lurid allegations he has vigorously denied.

The charges stem from a more-than-decade-old encounter in which a former Temple University employee claims she was urged to take pills and drink wine at Cosby's home, and that doing so left her unable to fend off his sexual advances.

The now-78-year-old Cosby allegedly penetrated the woman with his fingers without her consent as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

If there is a conviction, the crime is punishable by five to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Cosby did not have to enter a plea.

"I'm thinking, 'What a relief,'" said Isa Woldeguiorguis, the executive director of the Center for Hope and Healing in Lowell, Massachusetts. "Finally, some justice."

Woldeguiorguis said she did wonder if criminal charges would ever be levied against the celebrated star of "The Cosby Show." She said the charge gives much-needed visibility to the scourge of sexual intimidation, exploitation and assault.

"For survivors, the world becomes a different place when we see perpetrators held accountable," Woldeguiorguis told necn. "When a perpetrator comes to justice, when the criminal justice system begins to do what it needs to do to hold perpetrators accountable, the burden, the shame, the secrecy, is removed from the shoulders of the survivor alone and is placed where it belongs: on the shoulders of a perpetrator."

Helen Gumple, a former model and actress who now lives with her husband in Connecticut, told necn by phone Wednesday that she is glad accusations against Cosby have been taken seriously.

"I was elated," Gumple said of learning criminal charges would be filed. "What bothered me was the intimidation factor. I'm glad the women came out finally. The little people - the victims - they're coming out and saying something. And actually, what they're doing is protecting other women."

Gumple said the famous comedian tried assaulting her in the 1980s, when she had a small role on "The Cosby Show." Gumple alleges Cosby exposed himself, and gave her a drink she refused to take. She said after that rebuked encounter, her career suffered.

"Just because a person has an image - for example, the Catholic Church or celebrities - they have an image of being wonderful or powerful. It could be a lie," Gumple said. "In this case, it's a lie."

Gumple's attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, who has handled many cases involving sexual abuse, told necn he believes the criminal charge against Cosby will help empower victims in other cases so they do not feel alone or forgotten.

Garabedian also praised the prosecutor for filing this criminal charge when a predecessor declined to, just days before Pennsylvania's statute of limitations was set to run out.

Woldeguiorguis said sexual violence is widely believed to be one of the nation's most under-reported crimes, and that very few perpetrators end up being prosecuted, let alone convicted. Still, she called it "refreshing" that Cosby was charged.

Previously, Cosby and his representatives have repeatedly denied all allegations of sexual misconduct. Prior to Wednesday, Cosby had never been charged criminally with anything stemming from the sexual misconduct allegations.

"Make no mistake: We intend to mount a vigorous defense against this unjustified charge, and we expect that Mr. Cosby will be exonerated by a court of law," Cosby's attorney, Monique Pressley said in a statement.

Cosby made no comment to reporters as he was released on $1 million bail.

In the last few hours of 2015, organizers with First Night Hartford were busy doing the hard work that comes before the fireworks. From setting up a life-sized board game in city hall to doing mic checks underneath the Trinity arch, the night before First Night is filled with run-throughs to make sure the event runs smoothly.

“We take over city hall and it just brings so much joy to so many people,” Hartford artist LB Munoz said. “It’s really amazing to be here.”

Munoz is one of several Hartford artists behind “The Big Game,” one of the many family friendly activities at First Night. The celebration also features musicians and performance groups in addition to two fireworks displays.

Instead of a button, this year attendees need to purchase a $12 wristband to get in. The wristband serves as a ticket to more than 40 performances. Thousands are expected to ring in the New Year at First Night including plenty of police officers.

“With national and world events, we’ve been forced to look at things differently and we have,” Deputy Chief Brian Foley said. “You will see a heavy uniform presence downtown and there will be a covert of unmarked police officers that you won’t see in addition to cameras.”

Security is top of mind, but organizers say they will not let fear get in the way of celebrating the new year at First Night Hartford now in its 27th year.

“If I’m starting to worry about there being danger then I’m not making fun and it’s all about making fun,” Munoz said.

The fireworks will go off at 6 p.m. and then again at midnight. Parking at Hartford during First Night is free.

 An 8-year-old child was struck by a car on Wednesday night, police said.

The driver of a 2009 Toyota RAV4 was traveling north of Glenbrook Road in Stamford when she struck the child crossing the street. 

The young pedestrian suffered from a rib fracture, a lung fracture and injuries to the head and lungs, Stamford police said. They are in serious but stable condition at the Stamford Hospital.

Anyone with information is asked to call (203) 977-4712

West Hartford police have arrested a Maine resident who is suspected of burglarizing homes in Connecticut in 2007 while he was working for the Salvation Army.

West Hartford police traveled to the Cumberland County Sheriff's lock-up in Portland, Maine on Tuesday and took Gabriel Estela, 30, into custody on burglary and larceny charges. Police said he left Connecticut after the 2007 crime despite being on a three year probation.

“We lost track of him somewhere in the state of Maine for about 9 years," Lt. Ted Stoneburner of the West Hartford Police Department told NBC Connecticut. " And our front desk officer did an awesome job tracking him down and found out he was incarcerated in the state of Maine.”

Police said Estela and James Ryals, 27, were working for the Salvation Army, where they picked up furniture, and used their jobs to get into homes, steal items and pawn them. 

Estela and Ryals went to a house to pick up donated items and while the homeowner was distracted, Estela stole items valued at $1,500, police said. He pawned them off in West Hartford.

Estela had finished serving a prison sentence in Maine when West Hartford police took him into custody and he previously waived extradition rights and agreed to be extradited to Connecticut, according to police.

He has been charged with second-degree burglary, third-degree larceny and conspiracy charges in connection with the West Hartford case.

Ryals was detained in East Hartford on an unrelated matter on Aug. 7, 2007, when West Hartford police took him into custody. He was convicted on a third-degree larceny charge and sentenced on April 21, 2008. 

 Bond is set at $100,000 and his next court date will be Jan 21.

Hartford Treasurer Adam Cloud says he will reject a $20,000 raised contained in the city budget that multiple members of the city council had been critical of over the past two weeks.

“As I deeply value the confidence of the citizens who elected me to serve them, and believe that government should always be conducted in an open, transparent, and orderly public process, I have chosen not accept more than my previous pay of $140,000 from the $160,000 salary that was set by the Court of the Common Council, and will return any increase I have received,” Cloud said in statement.

When news of the raise became public, several councilors were left scratching their heads, wondering if they had ever even approved the raise in the first place.
Cloud claimed the raise was proper and that it was even approved by the city’s Human Resources and Labor Relations Director.

A vote to rescind the raise by the City Council failed earlier this week.

Even before Cloud’s announcement this morning, NBC Connecticut confirmed that one member of the City Council, Ken Kennedy, had asked the city’s Audit Commission to look into the raise and the circumstances that led to it.

Kennedy, who chairs the city’s budget committee, said he had no recollection that a retroactive raise to July, to which Cloud claimed he was entitled, had been contained in the budget.

Incoming Mayor Luke Bronin applauded the raise, calling it, “the right decision.” He released a statement saying, “Taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability, and while the Treasurer is fully entitled to ask the City Council to review his compensation in the future, there needs to be an open, thorough process before the public eye.”

Bronin even pledged to work a number of unpaid days to return $20,000 of his own salary to the city as a budget shortfall looms.

Cloud also asked the city council to review his compensation in the New Year, “to clear up any misunderstanding and uncertainty surrounding the issue.”

An attorney for Andrea Constand, who accused Cosby of the 2004 sex assault that has become the first case to result in criminal charges against Bill Cosby, praised prosecutors Wednesday for the decision to charge the comedian.

"She feels that they believe her, and to any victim, that is foremost in your mind: 'Are people going to believe me?'" Dolores Troiani said on behalf of Constand on Wednesday, after news of Cosby's aggravated indecent assault charges broke.

Cosby was released on $1 million bail before 3 p.m. and driven home shortly afterward, without offering any comment. His attorneys said hours later that they believed the comedian will be exonerated of the charges, which they called "unjust."

But Troiani offered her thanks for filing the charges to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office in a prepared statement, and for "the consideration and courtesy they have shown Andrea during this difficult time."

And while Troiani said that Constand was "gratified with the overwhelming positive response to today's events," and that several other women with "heart-wrenching accounts" of their own had reached out to her, she did lament that the charges took more than a decade to be brought.

"Naturally it is troubling that it took until the eleventh hour for this day to arrive," Troiani said. "She is hopeful that her patience has encouraged other victims to come forward."

Several other women who have also accused Cosby of sexual abuse and assault had mixed emotions at the news of his criminal charges. NBC Nightly News' Kate Snow, who interviewed many of the women for a special earlier this year, said it has been a "long journey" for Cosby's accusers. Some met the charges with relief, while the news stirred past pain in others.

"Tears, jumps for joy, thought this day would never come, etc.," accuser Linda Cooper Kirkpatrick told Snow today in a message, according to NBC News. "I feel again, vindication. I've lost friends over my 'coming out' and to them I say I shall forgive."

Cosby and his representatives have previously repeatedly denied all allegations. Prior to this, he had never been charged with any crime regarding the allegations.

In the Philadelphia area, where Cosby has roots, reactions to Cosby's criminal charges varied.

Paul Smith, who grew up in the city, said he recalls "urban myths" about Cosby always swirling.

"Growing up in Philadelphia, there had always been these little stories, urban myths, that these things were going on," Smith said.

Kyra Stauts, who attends Rutgers University in Camden, said she wasn't fully sold on all the allegations against the long-beloved comedian.

"It's hard to believe that all these people were really victims," Stauts said. "But at the same time, some of them have to be telling the truth."

Davonna Parsons, of Logan, said she's still a Cosby fan, and that she doesn't believe the allegations against him.

"I don't think they have evidence for anything," Parsons said. "I think they just try to get people the best way that they can."

Though she said she's also a longtime Cosby fan herself, Deborah Kosak, of Swarthmore, said she tends to believe the accusations.

"I've always been personally a Cosby fan," Kosak said. "But again, legends, themselves, are humans."

 While Metro North will run extra inbound trains to Grand Central Terminal in the late afternoon and early evening on New Year’s Eve, Evan Robertson from Cheshire and his friend couldn’t wait to leave tomorrow.

“We’re headed to Madison Square Garden to the Phish shows,” Robertson said.

They’re ringing in the New Year with a four night run of shows by their favorite band, which begins Wednesday night.

“I’ve seen over 50 Phish shows and each one is its own unique snowflake,” Robertson said, “they have a constantly rotating set list”

For those travelling on New Year’s Eve, do not pop the champagne bottle until you’re off the train. Drinking alcohol is banned at Metro North stations and on trains between noon tomorrow until noon on New Year’s Day.

If you’re leaving from New Haven’s Union station, make sure to arrive early enough to find parking.

“It was the first time in a long time we’ve come to the train station and there was no parking at the garage right adjacent to the train station and the garage across the street we were parked on the 5th floor,” said Caroline Salant from North Haven.

Even with the larger crowds on trains, travelling this way to the Big Apple beats sitting in traffic.

“If you drive in you’re faced having to take 95 or the Merritt and one of them is probably going to be backed up considering it’s a holiday weekend,” Robertson said.

In the first few hours of 2016 after the ball drops, there will be extra New Haven line trains to take you back to Connecticut.

Click here for the full New Year’s Metro-North schedule.

A 1 percent fare increase for the New Haven Metro North Line goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2016, Connecticut’s Department of Transportation announced.

Jeb Bush’s campaign is shifting gears in an effort to ramp up its ground game ahead of the first primary votes being case.

The GOP candidate’s campaign will cancel planned advertising buys in Iowa and South Carolina, and shift its Miami headquarters, NBC News reported.

The decision is based, partly, on the fact that the super PAC backing Bush’s bid has spent $40 million on advertising so far, compared to the campaign's mere $1 million, the campaign said.

Bush has spoken frequently about his faith in advertising, but the ads have had little impact as he continues to languish in the polls. 

An adorable kitten who survived a traumatic injury that led to the amputation of one of her front legs earlier this month is being adopted by a kindred spirit.

Born with a rare form of cancer, 2-year-old Scarlette Tipton also had to have an arm amputated when she was just 10 months old.

Wednesday afternoon, Scarlette will get to take little Holly, as the kitten was named, to her furever home.

Matt and Simone Tipton of Orange County, California, had sought out a kitten for Scarlette, who is now cancer-free, and went searching specifically for one that had an amputation to be paired with their daughter, according to the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

When Scarlette first met 3-month-old Holly she told her mother "Owie," and pointed at the kitten's missing limb, according to a statement from the agency.

"Yes, an owie. Just like you. But she's OK -- just like you are, too," her mother said.

Holly was found Dec. 17 by two women in Perris. She was bleeding next to some shrubbery, and they rushed her to the county's San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus. While it's not exactly clear what happened to her, the agency said it is possible that she was caught up in the fan belt of a car engine, as it's common for strays to cuddle up inside car engines during cold nights.

The Tiptons learned about Holly when her story was featured in several news articles last week, and the family went to meet her and schedule the adoption for as soon as she was recovered from her surgery, according to Animal Services.

A small plane crashed Wednesday night near a high school in Republic, Missouri, fire officials told NBC News.

The crash happened between 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. ET, according to officials.

Witnesses told NBC station KYTV the plane was flying low and sounded as though it was having engine trouble.

Two people aboard the plane were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the local fire captain said.  

His support may be waning, but Republican candidate Ben Carson continues to raise money at an impressive rate.

The campaign raised about $23 million over the last three months, spokesman Doug Watts confirmed to NBC News Wednesday night. That’s up from the $20.8 million Carson raised in the previous quarter.

"We have more than enough money to fulfill all our first-stage primary plans,” Watts said.

Carson has dropped in the polls in recent weeks. Support dropped from 29 percent in a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in late October to 11 percent by the middle of December.  

A 24-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of child neglect after five children — wearing nothing but soiled diapers — were found trying to cross a Florida highway, NBC News reported.

The children, aged 1 to 5, were stopped by a motorist before they tried to enter Route 19 outside Spring Hill, Florida, 40 miles north of Tampa on Tuesday morning. 

Deputies were later approached by Samantha McCarthy, who said she was taking care of the children at a nearby motel. She told officials they disappeared after she fell asleep. 

The children, one of whom had a "severe rash on various parts of her body," were taken to hospital for treatment. It wasn’t clear whether McCarthy had an attorney or what her relationship was to the children.

Four Indiana teens were killed Wednesday night after in a “tragic” crash, NBC News reported.

Their car crossed the median and into the path of a minivan, police said.

“It's tough on these troopers out here that were here as well but our prayers and thoughts are with the families right now these victims,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Curt Durnhil told NBC affiliate WTHR.

A fifth passenger in the car and a family of four in the minivan — all with non-life threatening injuries — were taken to hospital in Morgan County.