Seven health centers in Connecticut are receiving federal funding of at least $325,000 to help the fight against prescription opioid and heroin abuse, Sylvia M. Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced on Friday.

“Opioid overdose, heroin overdose, is a big issue for our state,” Dr. Ece Tek, an addiction psychiatrist, said.

Tek and physician Doug Bruce treat substance abuse and addiction patients from disadvantaged neighborhoods at New Haven’s Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, which is receiving $406,250.

“It allows us to take another step toward expanding our compendium of services,” Michael Taylor, CEO of Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, said.

The doctors said the federal funds will help them better merge primary care treatment with substance abuse services.

“We want to be a one-stop shop (for) people with substance abuse disorders,” Dr. Bruce said. “They have multiple problems. People use drugs for a reason, so we know that the more hoops you make someone jump through, the fewer hoops they can do.”

Dr. Bruce said he has seen an increase in children, as young as in middle school, starting to abuse prescription painkillers.

“As a result of the availability of prescription opioids, that also then creates dependence issues and then it becomes a gateway drug for people to move to heroin,” he said.

A new public service announcement the Governor’s Prevention Partnership released on Friday features a family with a son who has faced prescription pill addiction.

“Keep your medication locked up, because you’ll never notice that a pill is gone,” the mother says in the PSA.

Gov. Dannel Malloy is applauding the announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services.

“This funding will no doubt provide help to those who need it. We must tackle prescription opioid and heroin use – this is a growing problem nationwide that Connecticut is working hard to combat,” Malloy said. “I applaud HHS and Secretary Burwell for investing in our community health centers so they can expand and build upon the critical services they provide our residents.”

Here’s a list of the Connecticut health centers receiving some of the $94 million in federal funding.

• Bridgeport: Optimus Health Care, Inc.: $325,000
• East Hartford: First Choice Health Centers, Inc.: $406,250
• Hartford: Community Health Services, Inc.: $325,000
• Middletown: Community Health Center, Inc.: $379,167
• New Haven: Cornell Scott-Hill Health Corp.: $406,250
• New Haven: Fair Haven Community Health Clinic, Inc.: $352,083
• Waterbury: Staywell Health Care, Inc.: $325,000
   

Sarah Palin canceled a campaign stop for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Florida Monday after her husband, Todd, was injured in a snow machine crash.

A source told NBC News that Todd Palin was in "a very serious" crash Sunday night and is in intensive care.

In a brief unplanned appearance before Trump's afternoon event in Tampa, Palin referenced the "little wreck" and thanked audience members for their prayers.

The former Alaska governor, who endorsed Trump earlier this year, stopped by the Trump town hall in Tampa but canceled her other planned appearances. She has been in contact with medical personnel and will be traveling back to Alaska today, the source said.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History revealed a newly discovered dinosaur species Monday — one that shows how the Tyrannosaurus rex evolved to become a top predator.

The new species, Timurlengia euotica, lived 90 million years ago and was about the size of a horse, scientists said Monday. Weighing up to 600 pounds, the Timurlengia is a member of the tyrannosaur family, but not an ancestor of the T. rex, scientists said.

"It had long legs and was likely a fast runner," said a release from the Smithsonian on Monday.

"Timurlengia was a nimble pursuit hunter with slender, blade-like teeth suitable for slicing through meat," said Hans Sues, chair of the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, in a news release.

But at that size, there's still a big difference between the Timurlengia and the T. rex, which could have weighed up to 7 tons.

Fossils of the species were discovered in Uzbekistan between 1997 and 2006. Only once scientists began studying the remains did they realize they had an entirely new species on their hands.

The remains fill in a major gap in the evolution of tyrannosaurs, the family of dinosaurs to which the T. rex belongs. The fossils show how tyrannosaurs evolved from smaller-bodied creatures into massive predators, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The ancestors of T. rex would have looked a whole lot like Timurlengia, a horse-sized hunter with a big brain and keen hearing that would put us to shame," said paleontologist Steve Brusatte in the Smithsonian's release. "Only after these ancestral tyrannosaurs evolved their clever brains and sharp senses did they grow into the colossal sizes of T. rex. Tyrannosaurs had to get smart before they got big."

Paleontologists have long known that this transition took place over about 70 million years — but the new fossils suggest that most of it occurred suddenly, toward the end of that period.

The study also shows that before even before tyrannosaurs grew larger, they'd already developed "keen senses and cognitive abilities, including the ability to hear low-frequency sounds," according to a release from the museum.

Sues said they probably preyed on large plant-eaters, especially early duck-billed dinosaurs.

"Clues from the life of Timurlengia allow us to fill in gaps and better understand the life and evolution of other related dinosaurs, like T. rex," he said.

The fossils at the center of the study were collected by Sues and Alexander Averianov, a senior scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the Kyzylkum Desert.

As they were studying the fossils, Sues and a team of paleontologists led by Steve Brusatte at the University of Edinburgh discovered they were from a previously unknown species. The team later reconstructed the Timurlengia's brain using CT scans of its brain case. While its skull was much smaller than the T. rex's, scientists say key features of the skull show the Timurlengia's brain and senses were already highly developed. 

Fort Worth police removed an officer from patrol duties after a video posted to YouTube showed him using pepper spray on a group of motorcyclists as they rode past him Sunday afternoon.

Five people were treated at the scene for exposure to the spray and one man was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, said Medstar spokesman Matt Zavadsky. Records show police called an ambulance shortly after 3 pm. 

The department announced Officer Figeuroa, whose first name was not given, would be reassigned to an administrative job while an internal investigation is underway. 

Police spokeswoman Cpl. Tracey Knight confirmed late Monday that the officer used pepper spray on the passing bikers and documented it in a report. 

Motorcyclist Chase Stone posted the video on his YouTube channel with the caption, "MUST WATCH!!! This is how our law enforcement chooses to 'protect and serve.'"

The video appears to show a Fort Worth police officer engaged in a traffic stop with the driver of a red pickup truck when a large number of motorcycles begin to pass their location. As the riders pass, video recorded on a camera worn by one of the riders shows the officer exit his patrol car and spray a yellow mist into the air in the direction of the roadway.

The footage was slowed down and zoomed in to highlight the officer's actions.

Fort Worth police said they received several 911 calls from drivers reporting hundreds of motorcyclists weaving in and out of traffic along Highway 287.

An incident report obtained by NBC 5 confirmed Fort Worth Police Officer W. Figueroa pulled over a red pickup truck along Highway 287 at about 3 p.m. Sunday for "blocking traffic to rocord [sic] motorcycles driving recklessly."

Brittany Botella, who is six months pregnant, said she was driving the red pickup truck and was cited only for driving without a license. One of her passengers, Markus Hernandez, who has asthma, was hospitalized and given breathing treatments after being exposed to the mist, which Botella believed was Mace.

"I looked out my mirror and I seen [sic] all the Mace going towards all the bikes. And then it hit us. And then I started choking and that's exactly what happened," Botella said.

She said the officer initially confiscated their phones but later returned them. 

Hernandez told NBC 5 he and another passenger were riding in the back of the pickup truck and were each ticketed for standing in the back of a moving vehicle.

"I think it's not right. I don't think officers should be able to do that just because they've got a badge. We weren't showing no force of hurting him, none of that. He just jumped out with brute of force and sprayed everybody," Hernandez said. "If he would have gotten one of those bikers there would have been a lot of deaths. It wouldn't just be hurt. People would be dead."

Stone's YouTube channel contains at least one video showing dozens of trick riders performing stunts on highways, driving in emergency lanes and riding in both lanes of traffic on inner-city roadways.

Knight said in an email Monday morning, "The Fort Worth Police Department takes any complaint of officer misconduct very seriously and this incident will be investigated thoroughly."

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call police at 817-392-4270 or 817-355-4222."

NBC 5's Scott Gordon contributed to this report.

The CT Fastrak buses go through downtown in New Britain and authorities want to make sure transit-oriented development doesn't pass by the city.

The bus terminal is close enough to add icing to the business at Dulces Cupcakes Cafe, Carmen Ellison, the owner, said.

"Especially on the weekends," she said. "We have a lot of people that do come in from other towns."

She and her year-old shop welcomed Gov. Dannel Malloy with four cupcakes.

Outside, city government officials showed him what they've done to the Central Park triangle.

On Bank Street, they gave him an idea of the roundabout they have in mind. If it makes commuting easier he's for it.

"I was mayor of Stamford for 14 years," he said. "We invested in transit-oriented development. We have thousands of people living in a neighborhood that was all manufacturing just a few years ago."

He said, across the country, once the government cleans up pollution on a site close to transportation, people want to live there.

New Britain's demolishing its old police station and the city's asking developers to propose projects.

What about apartments there?

"Oh my goodness," Mayor Erin Stewart said. "It would mean the world. I mean, we want more housing in our downtown area and as the governor said, more young people from my generation are not looking for the house with the white picket fence and the big backyard. They're looking for an apartment that they can walk across the street and go grocery shopping. They can hop on a bus and go to a restaurant in Hartford or West Hartford. They want that ease of access."

Tonight, she's hosting what she calls a visioning session to hear what the public wants at the city's three bus stations. It begins at 6 p.m. at the new police station.
 

Some UConn fans probably never thought they'd spend their spring break in Iowa, but for Huskies fans, Des Moines is where des action is.

This UConn team is bringing back sweet memories of past champions to one alumna, Cara Hale, Class of 2011.

"It's pretty impressive," she said. "It feels nice. It feels like Kemba and Shabazz all over again, so it's very exciting."

Willie Isaac, of Bridgeport, bought a Huskies jacket on sale, even though he's a Duke fan.

"They're on a mission," he said of UConn. "I will give them credit and UConn is good. I see them going to the Final Four."

Yale basketball actually outrates UConn in some measures, such as RPI, though the Bulldogs are strangers to postseason play.

Not strangers, of course, are UConn's defending women's basketball national champions, so at least one fan has twin titles in mind.

"I think they'll both win," said Sandra Ouellette. "It'll be another big year for UConn."
 

Police continue to search for a father who is accused of abducting his 7-year-old son in Trumbull on Saturday and have obtained a warrant for his arrest.

Seven-year-old Ariel Revello was found safe on Saturday night, but 43-year-old Rodolfo Revello remains at large and police said they have obtained a warrant charging the father with second-degree kidnapping, second-degree larceny, criminal violation of a restraining order, second-degree strangulation, second-degree assault, second-degree threatening, second-degree criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.

Rodolfo Revello is accused of abducting Ariel after a violent encounter with the boy's mother on Unity Road in Trumbull at 4:30 a.m. Saturday and prompting an Amber Alert.

Police said he forced his way into the Trumbull home,  grabbed a knife from the kitchen and assaulted his estranged wife, who had a restraining order against that expires in September of this year.

His 17-year-old stepson disarmed him, according to police.

The victim was able to escape by jumping out of her bedroom window and hiding in the yard. She was later transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Revello took several thousand dollars in cash and jewelry before taking his 7-year-old son, according to police.

Around 5 p.m. on Saturday, Rodolfo Revello called police and said he was leaving Ariel with a relative, according to Trumbull Police.

New York authorities responded to the address and found Ariel, who was safe and unharmed.

Rodolfo Revello remains at large and police said several agencies are searching for him.

Ahead of the next round of primaries on Tuesday, with the Republican presidential race in turmoil over the violence that has erupted at Donald Trump's rallies, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is doing all he can to try to squeeze out a victory in his home state.

As Florida and Ohio go to the polls, Rubio's campaign is urging his supporters in Ohio to back Gov. John Kasich there on Tuesday in the hope that Kasich’s supporters will return the favor in Florida. The appeal mirrors a proposal from 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney to try to halt Trump as the New York businessman barrels toward the Republican nomination.

But the latest effort may be too late for Rubio, who is facing criticism for trying too soon for the presidency and running a lackluster campaign as a result. He trails the Republican front-runner in Florida by 21 percentage points in a NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday, with 22 percent of likely Republican voters supporting Rubio to 43 percent for Trump. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas follows Rubio at 21 percent and Kasich trails at 9 percent. The poll had a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points. 

On NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, the Ohio governor deferred a question about whether he would ask his supporters to vote for Rubio in Florida.

"My voters are not like robots where I can say, 'Go do something,' okay," Kasich said. "How do you run for office and tell people to vote for somebody else?"

Cruz meanwhile has made it clear that he wants a two-man race against Trump -- who could make an argument for being at least a part-time Florida resident at his private club at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach -- and hopes to force Rubio out with a loss in Florida. Other polls show Rubio behind 6 to 19 percentage points there.

“Right now this is Donald Trump’s to lose,” said Mark Weaver, a longtime Republican consultant based in Ohio. “It’s hard to see the momentum stopping.”

Weaver predicted a narrow win for Kasich in Ohio and a loss for Rubio to Trump in Florida. In both states, the Republican winner takes all of the delegates — 99 in Florida, 66 in Ohio.

“And I bet you it’s not enough to derail the Trump train,” Weaver said.

Four other contests will be held on Tuesday: primaries in Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina and a Republican caucus in the Northern Mariana Islands. For Republicans, Florida and Ohio stand out as a last chance for their favorite sons and for their winner-take-all rules. But Illinois and Missouri together will allocate 121 delegates by congressional district, and North Carolina has 72 delegates to be distributed on a proportionate basis.

Kasich has a 6-point lead over Trump in Ohio, but Trump is ahead in Illinois, according to NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls done there. In Florida and in Illinois, Trump is favored among most key demographic groups except for likely voters who describe themselves as very conservative. Among that group, Cruz has the advantage.

“For those who thought March 15 was going to be the end of the confusion, we’re going to know a lot more but the show will gone,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute of Public Opinion.

Among the Democrats, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Florida, Ohio and Illinois, according to the polls.

Rubio has won only three contests: Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and Minnesota. Going into Tuesday's vote, Trump had 460 delegates to 370 for Cruz, 163 for Rubio and 63 for Kasich. To win the Republican nomination, a candidate needs 1,237 delegates.

Rubio told his supporters in Florida over the weekend that Trump -- whose rallies have gotten violent -- would fracture the party if he became the party's nominee. Rubio has been saying he doubts the polls that show him trailing Trump.

“There’s a majority of Florida Republicans who do not want Trump to win or be the nominee,” he said on CNN.

In a sign of how dissatisfied Florida's top Republicans are, Politico Florida reported that a group of the state’s GOP donors and strategists has been trying persuade former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to run independently for president. A memo that the website obtained noted Rice was reluctant to make a bid.

April Schiff, a Tampa-based Republican consultant and strategist who is not yet supporting a candidate, said Rubio should have remained in the Senate for a few more terms before running for president. At 44, he had plenty of time, she said. As it is, he has angered supporters who worked hard to get him elected to the Senate and who think he did little once he got there, she said. What he did try to do — a failed effort at immigration reform with a group of senators who became known as the Gang of Eight — alienated others.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio shot up through the political ranks and in 2006 became the first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House while Jeb Bush was governor. Bush's camp was surprised when Rubio decided to compete for the nomination and, though Bush has suspended his campaign, some of the former governor's loyalists continue to see Rubio as an opportunist. Some even talk about writing in Bush's name on the ballot.

If Rubio loses Florida, he will be a particularly bad position politically, Schiff said. He has time to run again for his Senate seat or he could compete for the state’s governor race in two years, but she doubted he would be successful at either.

“He could very well have destroyed his political career by doing what he’s doing today and that’s kind of disappointing because he was basically a rising star,” Schiff said.

A North Carolina sheriff's department mulled Monday whether to bring charges over Donald Trump's conduct at a rally in which a 78-year-old man was arrested for assault, but ultimately decided not to, NBC News reported.

North Carolina law makes inciting a riot a crime, and the Cumberland County Sheriff Department said Monday it was investigating "whether there was conduct on the part of Mr. Trump or the Trump campaign which rose to the level of inciting a riot."

Trump supporter John McGraw was arrested for allegedly assaulting a protester being escorted out of the event in Fayetteville on Wednesday. 

But in a statement issued Monday night, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said legal counsel had advised, and Sheriff Earl "Moose" Butler agreed, that evidence wouldn't support a conviction for inciting a riot.

Messages of hate have been discovered in Southington in recent days. Police are investigating to find out who may be leaving 'white power' fliers around the town. Meanwhile, a local family fears it was targeted because of the color of their skin.

“I almost fell backwards. I couldn’t believe it," said a man who spoke exclusively with NBC Connecticut. He did not want to publish his name or reveal his identity because he was concerned for the safety of his family. He said his 26-year-old daughter found the flier on her car outside her Southington home on Friday night.

“That someone would target my daughter, who does nothing but good for the community – that’s all we do," he said.

To him, this is much more than just a piece of paper. He said he grew up in a country where racism and segregation ran rampant, and knows first-hand how it can seep into a society.

“I thought I was done with that so to see my kids have to go through this, I’m really upset about it," he added.

The website for the Michigan-based American Nazi Party may be prominently placed on the flier, but many questions about the messages remain. Police have not said how many of these fliers have been discovered in Southington. As of Monday evening, police had not been able to find anyone who may be responsible.

Anyone with information about the origin of the fliers should contact Southington Police. 

Thousands of Texans are being denied the chance to register to vote, violating federal voting laws, a new lawsuit alleges, NBC News reported. 

"Texas voters will continue to be shut out of the democratic process unless and until Defendants reform their registration practices," alleges the complaint, filed Monday in a federal court in San Antonio by the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Plaintiffs in the suit say they tried to update their drivers license and voter registration records through the website of the state Department of Public Safety, and believed they had done so. But when they went to vote, they were found to be unregistered, and forced to cast provisional ballots, which likely won't count.

"I felt that my voice was taken away from me when my vote wasn't counted," said Totysa Watkins, an African-American woman from Irving, Texas, who works for a health insurer. "Voting has always been something I value and is a right I have instilled in my children. Texas should not be able to take that away."

Donald Trump is "inciting mob violence" that recalls lynch mobs, Hillary Clinton said Monday evening at an MSNBC townhall, where she also took tough questions on foreign policy and trade.

Clinton told MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who moderated the event in Springfield, Illinois, that she holds Trump responsible for the violence seen in recent days at his rallies, and believes his rhetoric is not only wrong and offensive, but also "dangerous." "He's been building this incitement," she said.

"When you are inciting mob violence, which is what Trump is doing," Clinton said, "there's a lot of memories that people have. They're in the DNA. People remember mob violence that lead to lynching, people remember mob violence that lead to people being shot, being grabbed, being mistreated. And it's something that has a deep, almost psychological resonance to people who have ever been in any position of feeling somewhat fearful, somewhat worried."

Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio, is known for his crackdowns on undocumented immigrants, but he took some time off to show Bernie Sanders' wife, Jane, the "tent city" jail.

Arpaio's been branded "America's Toughest Sheriff" and he endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump. He accompanied Sanders on her visit to the makeshift extension to the Maricopa County jail.

Sanders intended to view conditions at the site through the fence, ahead of her husband's planned rally Tuesday in Phoenix, but Arpaio showed up and invited her entourage inside. She later tweeted that he "had no answers" to her questions about conditions at the facility.

"He admitted that the temperature in the tents were up to 130 degrees in the summer,"  she wrote. 

"What I saw and heard firsthand today by visiting with the families and seeing tent city was very disturbing," she added in a news release. "Sheriff Arpaio did not even attempt to explain or excuse his inhumane treatment of people of color — not that he could."

Windermere Avenue is closed from the Vernon line to Grand Boulevard in Ellington after a car hit a pole around 430 a.m. on Tuesday.

Use Route 83 and Lower Butcher Road as a detour.

Expect delays in the area.
 

The creator and author of the wildly popular photojournalist site Humans of New York has penned an open letter to Donald Trump blasting him as "a man who has encouraged prejudice and violence in the pursuit of personal power," and the note has resonated with many of the site's 17 million followers.

The Facebook post was shared over 750,000 times and received 1.4 million likes in about nine hours.

In his letter to Trump, Brandon Stanton says as a journalist he has tried not to appear as if he was taking sides in a contentious election, "but I now realize that there is no correct time to oppose violence and prejudice." 

He continues: "I’ve watched you retweet racist images. I’ve watched you retweet racist lies. I’ve watched you take 48 hours to disavow white supremacy. I’ve watched you joyfully encourage violence, and promise to ‘pay the legal fees’ of those who commit violence on your behalf."

Stanton goes on to say, "I am a journalist, Mr. Trump. And over the last two years I have conducted extensive interviews with hundreds of Muslims, chosen at random, on the streets of Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan. I’ve also interviewed hundreds of Syrian and Iraqi refugees across seven different countries. And I can confirm— the hateful one is you."

Stanton goes on to dispute Trump's characterization of himself as a "unifier" and as "presidential." 

"You are not a 'victim' of the very anger that you've joyfully enflamed for months," he says. "You are a man who has encouraged prejudice and violence in the pursuit of personal power. And though your words will no doubt change over the next few months, you will always remain who you are." 

Commenters chimed in to agree with Stanton. 

"I am white. I am a man. I am from the south. I am a Christian. And I am a conservative republican... but it is still BEYOND ME how anybody is in support of Donald Trump," wrote Joe Shelton III.

Paige Hermansen wrote, "Even if people support Trump because they like his ideas about the economy or believe his promises to create jobs, they need to be aware of the pain and fear his words stir in the hearts of American citizens -- law-abiding and loving people who come from so many different cultures and religions and make our country the incredible place it is.

"Humans of New York represents the best of us -- the real, honest, and beautiful words of people brave enough to share their stories with the world, and Brandon, you are an amazing human being for wanting to document the best of humanity. Trump and his candidacy are a canvas for the worst kind of ignorance and hate," Hermansen said. 

Not everyone was enamored with Stanton's words. Stephen Keener said his information was "incomplete and one-sided," adding "You are no better than the biased media attention he gets." 

Humans of New York generally features a random New Yorker on the street with a revealing, quirky or emotional story. But it also photographs and tells the stories of people in other countries, and recently Stanton posted portraits of people in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan, as well Syrian and Iraqi refugees in several other countries. 

A North Texas man suspected of posing as his dead neighbor, selling the man's home and spending thousands with his debit card, has been charged with murder in connection with the man's death, according to police.

Christopher Brian Colbert, 43, was arrested March 3 by U.S. Marshals in Los Angeles on charges of money laundering, tampering with a governmental record and securing/executing a document by deception, according to Dallas police Maj. Max Geron.

Dallas police detectives traveled to Southern California to interview Colbert, and based on their interview, charged Colbert with murder in the death of his 57-year-old neighbor, Ronald David Shumway.

Shumway's remains were found in September 2015, encased in a concrete slab near the backyard of a vacant home under renovation in the 700 block of Winnetka Avenue.

Dallas police said Shumway had owned the home for more than 30 years but had not been seen or heard from for about six months before his body was found.

Investigators believe Colbert, a former next-door neighbor, sold Shumway's home by posing as the dead man.

Police said Colbert forged signatures on closing documents and provided the title company with a doctored driver’s license photo — one that had his photo superimposed over Shumway's actual license.

Police also said Colbert used Shumway’s debit card last summer to spend nearly $40,000.

Colbert is jailed on a $150,000 bond.

Information on an attorney for Colbert was not immediately available.

Arrest Warrant

As Donald Trump drives on toward the Republican nomination for president, Ohio's Gov. John Kasich could slow him with a victory in his home state in Tuesday's primary. But in nearby Illinois, the New York businessman seems poised to win the contest there.

On the Democratic side, in the first Midwestern primaries since Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' surprise victory in Michigan a week ago, Sanders is trying to capitalize on disenfranchisement with trade deals and the unpopularity of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whom he casts as a Clinton ally.

New NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls released on Sunday shows Kasich leading Trump among likely GOP primary voters in Ohio by six percentage points, but Trump ahead in Illinois. Among the Democrats, the former secretary of state leads. The closest race: Clinton's home state of Illinois, where she also is ahead six percentage points. 

“For those who thought March 15 was going to be the end of the confusion, we’re going to know a lot more but the show will gone,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute of Public Opinion.

Kasich is the type of moderate politician who normally does well in Illinois, but he has been overshadowed by Trump's appeal to voters' anger, said John Jackson, a visiting professor at the Southern Illinois University’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. And Trump's inconsistent ideology, something for which conservatives in particular have criticized him, serves him well, he said.

"People can see in him what they want because he has been some of what almost everybody wants," Jackson said.

As for the Democrats, he thought Clinton would do well in Illinois and Ohio. Michigan was likely an aberration, he said.

"She’s the kind of Democrat that tends to win in illinois," Jackson said. "And Sanders is benefiting from the same anger and angst on the left, but I don’t think the anger on the left is as deep-seated or loud as it is on the right."

Four other contests will be held on Tuesday — primaries in Florida, Missouri and North Carolina and a Republican caucus in the Northern Mariana Islands. Florida, where Sen. Marco Rubio seems likely to lose his home state, and Ohio stand out for their winner-take-all rules for Republicans. Florida allocates 99 delegates; Ohio, 66. But Illinois and Missouri together will allocate 121 delegates by congressional district, and North Carolina has 72 delegates to be distributed on a proportionate basis.

Going into Tuesday's contests, Trump had 460 delegates to 370 for Cruz, 163 for Rubio and 63 for Kasich. To win the nomination, a candidate needs 1,237 delegates.

Among the Democrats, who need 2,383 delegates to win, Clinton has 766 and Sanders has 551. In addition, Clinton has the support of 464 super delegates, compared to 25 for Sanders, The Associated Press reported. 

In Florida and in Illinois, Trump is favored among most key demographic groups except for likely voters who describe themselves as very conservative. Among that group, Cruz has the advantage.

Rubio's campaign is urging his supporters in Ohio to back Kasich there on Tuesday, hoping that Kasich’s supporters will do the same in Florida. But on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, the Ohio governor deferred a question about whether he would ask his supporters to vote for Rubio.

"My voters are not like robots where I can say, 'Go do something,' okay," Kasich said. "How do you run for office and tell people to vote for somebody else?"

Cruz meanwhile has made it clear that he wants a two-man race against Trump and hopes to force Rubio out with a loss in Florida.

Kasich, who was campaigning with the 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney ahead of Tuesday's vote, is popular not only among Ohio's Republicans but also among independents, said Bill Burges of Burges & Burges Strategists in Cleveland.

"The question is whether Trump’s going to dominate them here the way he’s dominated them elsewhere, because — and I think I think you saw this in Michigan — Governor Kasich is pretty popular among independents,” Burges said. “So I wouldn't make any predictions here."

As governor, Kasich has a very strong ground operation in his state, which Trump lacks, said Mark R. Weaver of Communications Counsel, a longtime Republican consultant based in Columbus. He predicts a narrow win for Kasich in Ohio.

"Getting out the vote matters and in a close election, it can make a difference," he said.

On the Democratic side, young people are gravitating toward Sanders and bringing their enthusiasm to the competition, the consultants said.

"Even the ones who are voting for Hillary, they like Bernie a lot," Burges said. “And we’re seeing that all over the place.”

Sanders is also popular among blue-color working class families in northeastern Ohio, tapping into resentment between classes. Weaver said. At his rallies he zeroes in on trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement signed into law in 1993 and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Clinton now opposes, hoping his populist message will appeal to Ohio voters.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, mayors and others in the Democract establishment have lined up with Clinton, and she is well ahead. But Ohio and Michigan are not very different and Sanders' surprise win in Michigan is on everyone's mind.

“Anybody who wouldn't think he's gaining is a fool," Burges said.

But because none of the Democrats' contests on Tuesday are winner-take-all primaries, the results will not be as dramatic even if Sanders manages to repeat his Michigan victory.

"The best thing Bernie can do is chip away at Hillary’s lead, but chipping way may not be enough," Miringoff said. "It’s probably not going to be enough."

In Chicago, where Clinton is courting African American voters, Sanders is trying to link her with the unpopular mayor. Emanuel, who has endorsed Clinton, has long had tense relations with the city's teachers especially.

"I don't want the endorsement of a mayor who is shutting down school after school and firing teachers," Sanders said at a rally in Illinois.

"We want the endorsement of people who are fighting for social and racial justice," he said. "We do not want the support of people who are indebted to Wall Street and the big-money interests."

Police are investigating a shooting that happened last week in Waterbury and they have released surveillance video in the hopes that someone can help them identify the shooter.

The shooting was reported at 7:24 p.m. last Wednesday, March 9, at Bank and Porter streets.

The video shows a group of people, including the shooter, inside a convenience store moments before a fistfight broke out outside.

Within minutes, one of the men pulled out a gun and fired a shot at another man, who limped away and back to the shop..

Police are looking for a man who is around 5-feet-8, between 18 and 20 and has short hair. He was wearing a blue OBEY hooded sweatshirt during the shooting.

Anyone with information about the shooting or who recognizes the shooter is asked to call 203-574-6941 or Crimestoppers at 203-755-1234.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said there will be layoffs of city employees during his first State of the City address on Monday.

Bronin told the City Council that Hartford is facing a dire financial situation and that the city is in a crisis.

The mayor, who began his first term in January, said difficult decisions must be made, including layoffs of city employees.

"There is no choice," Bronin said.

Police are investigating an armed robbery at a Valero gas station in Bristol on Monday night.

The cashier at the Valero at 105 West Street was getting ready to close up the store around 11 p.m. when a man with a knife approached him, demanded money and threatened to kill him, police said.

The cashier complied and the robber ran off with money from the register. He was described as stocky and was wearing a mask and dark clothing.

The cashier was not injured in the robbery.

Anyone with information should call Bristol Police at 860-584-3011.