Shane Lewis, of Ansonia, has traveled all over the world, but it’s a safe bet that his latest adventure for the Discovery Channel is unlike any other trip he has taken in the past.
Lewis, 40, was on the TV show “Naked and Afraid,” where cast members are left in pairs for 21 days with no food, water or clothing.
Each episode is self-contained and focuses on one man and one woman who have been stranded with only one personal item each.
What you did not see if you watched last night is that Lewis was on his own for almost a week.
He said his fellow castmate dropped out after 15 days and that did not get aired.
Reflecting back on three weeks in the wild, Lewis said he was most surprised by the temperature. With no clothing, it was very cold, he said.
Then there was the rain.
"It was supposed to be the dry season but that storm rolled in and it poured day and night for 7 of the first 9 days." Lewis said in an e-mail.
The experience would be painful for anyone, but Lewis embarked on the survival competition with three broken toes. One was at a 90-degree angle from where it should have been, Lewis said, and he was in excruciating pain.
If you want to learn more about Lewis' adventures, follow his Twitter page or his blog, "Off the Grid."
You can also buy his book, “Growing Up, Institutionalized to Globetrotting.”
A water main is leaking on Whalley Avenue, just north of the intersection with Amity Road in the Westville section of New Haven, and road detours are in place.
The leak is in a 36-inch water main that was installed in 1909.
Crews from the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority are excavating and preparing the site and expect to repair it on Wednesday, when all materials are delivered.
In the meantime, detours around the area remain in effect.
Drivers traveling north on Whalley Avenue are being detoured to Amity and then Bradley to get back to Litchfield Turnpike. Southbound traffic is the reverse.
Motorists are urged to use caution while traveling through the area and avoid it entirely if possible.
Local access to businesses on Whalley Avenue near the work zone will be maintained.
A Tweet helped the National Zoo recover a missing red panda before 2:30 p.m. Monday, according to zoo officials.
Animal keepers fed Rusty about 6 p.m. Sunday in his exhibit on the Asian Trail but discovered him missing Monday morning and began combing trees at 8 a.m.
Ashley Foughty spotted Rusty near 20th and Biltmore streets and the Airy View condos in the Adams Morgan neighborhood and Tweeted pictures about 12:30 p.m. that helped the zoo locate the red panda in a tree.
"We are very grateful to her," zoo spokesperson Pamela Baker-Masson said.
A team of animal care personnel with capture equipment and veterinarians, with assistance from the Washington Humane Society, surrounded Rusty, National Zoo Senior Curator Dr. Brandie Smith said. The keepers most familiar to Rusty approached him first.
“So the keepers called his name,” Smith said. “He was familiar to them. They calmed him down. We were able to approach him with a net, capture him with a net, transfer him to a crate and then we just took him to our veterinary hospital to make sure that he was OK.”
He will be kept there several days for observation, though he suffered no obvious injuries.
“I think the biggest danger is if he ate any inappropriate food,” Smith said.
Rusty is a recent addition to the zoo, joining female red panda Shama two weeks ago from the Lincoln Children's Museum in Nebraska. He was brought to the National Zoo to breed with Shama and turns 1 next month.
Over the last few days, Rusty hasn't been as interested in food, which zoo officials attribute to the heat.
The zoo says red pandas are territorial animals, so it would be unusual for Rusty to leave his new habitat. He is the first animal to go missing from the zoo in recent memory.
The distance Rusty covered surprised zoo officials, and they haven't found an obvious point of escape, so they have not ruled out foul play and they are reviewing surveillance video.
“So the two theories we’re working on: One is that he got out of the exhibit and managed to travel a great distance over the course of the night, or the other is that someone actually did take him from the exhibit and then this afternoon thought a little bit better of having a red panda as a pet and decided to release him back to the wild,” Smith said.
Potentially Rusty could have leapt from one of the longer branches in the enclosure, but zoo officials don't think he could make that jump.
“But he is a young male, he is a 1-year-old male, and we all know that young males like to test boundaries,” Smith said.
The zoo trimmed back long branches in the enclosure as a precaution Monday.
“Usually animals leave a trail when they exit, and we’re having trouble finding it,” zoo Director Dennis Kelly said.
Before returning Rusty to the exhibit, the zoo will check it thoroughly to make sure it is secure.
“It’s important that the animals have access at night, because these are animals that enjoy being outside, and our exhibit is designed for that,” Kelly said. “I would hate to have to lock in animals.”
Shama remained on display in the exhibit Monday.
Red pandas resemble raccoons and have bold red coats. An endangered species, they are called pandas because they come from the same habitat as giant pandas and eat bamboo like giant pandas and are red and black instead of white and black. But unlike giant pandas, red pandas are not members of the bear family.
The zoo warned Rusty could bite if cornered or scared and advised not to try to approach him, though red pandas are not aggressive animals.
The zoo provided updates on its Twitter and Facebook pages, and several Rusty Twitter handles popped up, adding levity to the search, including @RustyThePandaDC, which Tweeted some shout outs to News4:
I just really need to crack a few bottles of red wine with my girl @nbcwendy
— RustyThePandaDC (@RustyThePandaDC) June 24, 2013
Wait, @patcollins4 is on my case? Damn, this was fun while it lasted.
— RustyThePandaDC (@RustyThePandaDC) June 24, 2013
And a retweet of Storm Team 4 Chief Meteorologist Doug Kammerer:
Any predictions on electric fence outages? RT @dougkammerer Strong #Storms across the area, @ChuckBell4 has the latest on #NBC4 at 4pm.
— RustyThePandaDC (@RustyThePandaDC) June 24, 2013
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Connecticut is gearing up for its latest taste of Hollywood.
The film “Unknowing” is set to begin filming in the state in mid-July.
Not only will filming take place in the Bridgeport area, but it is also being produced by Connecticut native, Christy Carlson Romano, who is best known for her roles on the Disney Channel’s “Even Stevens” and “Kim Possible,” as well as appearing in Broadway’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
Romano, a native of Milford, will act in the film in addition to producing.
The movie centers around a graduate student named Brian, played by Christian Madsen, whose father abandoned him in his youth.
After discovering that his father has amnesia, Brian sets out to learn more about his past and finds more than he was looking for.
For more information on the film and on filming locations you can contact LA Productions & Entertainment at 203-693-3212.
Information about casting calls in Connecticut is posted on the state Department of Economic and Community Development Web site.
New Haven police have charged a 22-year-old local woman in a crash that killed another woman in April.
Police said they obtained an arrest warrant for Antwuaniece Robinson on Monday and she turned herself in after the warrant was signed.
Police said Robinson was driving a Buick Century westbound on Goffe Terrace, entered the intersection at Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, and struck a Honda Civic driving by Carolina Chicas-Sabatino on April 19.
Chicas-Sabatino died from the injuries she sustained in the crash.
According to police, the speed limit on Goffe Terrace is 25 miles per hour. Two seconds before the Buick’s air-bags went off, the Event Data Recorder indicated that Robinson’s car was traveling 78 miles per hour -- 53 miles per hour over the speed limt.
Before the crash, Officer Jose Luna tried to pull the Buick over because it was speeding recklessly and going through traffic lights, but the driver wouldn’t comply and Luna lost sight of the car, police said.
At 9:04 p.m., Officer Luna searched the neighborhood, discovered the crash scene and saw Robinson climbing out of the driver’s window, police said. One man and one woman were passengers in the Buick.
EMTs and firefighters responded and Officer David Rivera spotted what looked like crack cocaine on the floor of the car. He later recovered 45 grams of crack cocaine, drug packaging materials and $1,720 in cash from one of the passengers, police said.
When Robinson spoke with police at the hospital, she said she didn’t know Officer Luna had tried pulling her over and said she was fleeing from a Honda Civic that was following her, according to police.
She told investigators that one of the men in the Honda had pointed a gun at her in front of the Taurus Nightclub on Winchester Avenue, police said.
Police obtained a search warrant, searched the Buick and found three resealable bags of crack cocaine, two iPhones and uncooked rice, which police said is often used to keep heroin dry.
Laboratory results showed that Robinson was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.
However, she was driving under a suspended license, police said. The Buick was unregistered, had the wrong license plate and was uninsured.
Robinson has been charged with manslaughter in the first degree, misconduct with a motor vehicle, reckless driving, engaging an officer in pursuit, operating under suspension, misuse of marker plates, operating an unregistered motor vehicle and failing to obey traffic control signals.
Her bail has been set at $300,000.
Police arrested a felony suspect early Monday morning in San Diego after he swam along the coast for seven hours attempting to evade arrest.
The incident began around 10 p.m. Sunday when a Coronado police officer tried to approach the suspect near Hotel del Coronado at 1500 Orange Ave. The man then fled from law enforcement officials and swam nearly 2.5 miles away to Silver Strand Beach.
Police, K-9 units, divers and helicopter patrol tried to coax the suspect out of the water for more than 7 hours, during which time the man said threatening comments to officials. He swam up and down the coast throughout the standoff.
Eventually the man was arrested shortly after 5 a.m. near the Hotel del Coronado and booked in jail. Police believe he was under the influence.
Officials said the incident was narcotics-related and he is known by police in Coronado for past episodes.
A man who tried to rob people waiting outside an Atlanta store waiting to buy the new LeBron James sneakers was fatally shot by one of the customers, police said.
Atlanta police were investigating the early Saturday morning shooting, which occurred at Wish Atlanta, according to NBC affiliate WXIA.
Several customers were outside waiting to purchase the sneakers, called LeBron X Denim, when a man approached them, took out a firearm and attempted to rob them, said Officer John Chafee.
One of the customers took out his own weapon and shot the suspect, authorities said. The customer had the appropriate permit to possess the gun, according to WXIA.
"A number of witnesses were interviewed and this appears to be self defense," Chafee said in a statement.
No charges were immediately filed.
The sneakers cost $180, NBC News reported.
Police are investigating a bank robbery at People's United bank in Mystic.
No injuries are reported.
No additional information was available.
A natural gas leak on Jefferson Street in Fairfield forced the evacuation of the Ludlowe Center for Health and Rehabilitation on Monday.
The medical rehabilitation center is located at 118 Jefferson Street.
Construction workers struck a high-volume gas line near the health center just before 3 p.m., according to fire officials.
Repair crews were able to shut off gas to the building. No one was injured.
NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen is being questioned by detectives following a fight outside an upscale Malibu, Calif., restaurant that sent another man to the hospital Sunday evening.
The former Chicago Bulls star, 47, was being interviewed inside a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department station Monday afternoon over the altercation. The 6-foot-8 former forward walked with his attorney and driver past a gaggle of reporters outside the station without saying a word.
Witnesses had said Pippen was involved in an argument outside Nobu around 6:30 p.m. Sunday that ended with a man being hospitalized with a head injury, the Los Angeles sheriff's office said Monday.
Pippen is a named suspect on a charge of assault with intent to commit great bodily injury.
The Chicago Tribune reported earlier that police were called to the scene, but by the time they arrived, Pippen had already left.
The other man was released from the hospital Monday morning, the sheriff's office said.
A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for parts of Fairfield County until 7:45 p.m.
A series of strong storms developed in New York State and began to slowly move into Connecticut Monday afternoon.
Severe thunderstorms moved through Litchfield County around 5 p.m., bringing hail, lightning and heavy rain to places like New Milford.
Glastonbury police reported scattered damage, including some trees and wires down. At one point, about 3,800 Connecticut Light & Power customers in Glastonbury were without power.
The storms are being fueled by hot temperatures across the region. The temperature at Bradley International Airport hit 94 degrees Fahrenheit, which tied the record set in 1975.
State police said an 18-year-old Ellington girl who was reported missing on Sunday has been found, conscious and alert, on a trail at Webster Road and Route 140.
Until Monday, authorities said Heather R. Smith, a recent Ellington High School student, was last seen in Ellington on Sunday and wandered away after her car crashed into a tree near Tree Top Road at around 10:30 a.m.
Police said there was concern that she might be injured.
Around 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Smith called out to a hiker, who called 911.
Authorities said Smith was found just off the blue trail in a thickly wooded area of Soapstone Mountain, about two and a half miles into the woods.
Clifford Labbe, of Connecticut State Police, said state police and fire personnel got Smith out of the woods and took her to an ambulance that was waiting.
Smith has been transported to Connecticut Children's Medical Center for evaluation and treatment.
A 61-year-old attorney from Seymour has been arrested on federal money laundering offenses, accused of laundering his client’s drug money.
A federal grand jury in Bridgeport has returned an indictment charging Ralph Crozier, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Connecticut.
Federal officials said Crozier convinced a client to invest $30,000 in cash in a solar energy company around September 2011 and knew that the cash came from his client’s narcotics trafficking activities.
Crozier was arrested at his office on April 11, 2013, after he allegedly accepted an additional $11,000 in suspected drug proceeds to invest on behalf of his client.
The indictment, returned on June 11, charges Crozier with one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and one count of attempt to launder monetary instruments.
He was released on a $200,000 bond.
New Haven police have arrested four suspects in an attack in March that left a man with severe head trauma.
Police responded to Cody’s Diner, at 95 Water Street in New Haven, on March 9 after receiving reports of an assault and found a man unresponsive and suffering from severe head trauma.
Police said the crime scene was in the diner parking lot and determined that four men had attacked Joyner, hitting him over the head with a liquor bottle and sledge-type hammer, causing severe brain trauma. The men also attacked the victim's friend.
On June 7, detectives obtained four arrest warrants charging Antonyo Streater, 23, and Cedric Shepard, 21, with assault in the first degree and conspiracy to commit assault in the first degree.
Stephen Outlaw, 22, and Lynwood Dorsey, 24, were charged with conspiracy to commit assault in the first degree.
Chained at his ankles and his waist, Jeffrey Hall stood in court Monday morning in Bristol where his bond was raised from $1.5 million to $2.5 million.
Bristol Police say Hall stabbed Jerry Duncan in the neck, killing him before sunrise Friday morning after an argument.
43 years old, Hall, unemployed, has lived in his Lincoln Street apartment for only a month. "He's not the first man I killed," police say Hall volunteered to them. "I never hurt anyone that didn't deserve it. I lived in the Florida Keys."
According to the police incident report, Karen Letourneau had invited Duncan to a party after she saw him outside the apartment building. Letourneau told police Hall got "upset because he is prejudiced and does not like black people," according to the report.
She told police Hall and Duncan started punching each other, then started to stab each other. "After the screaming had stopped," she saw Duncan lying on the ground near the front door, according to the report.
Police say they found him there covered in blood. Upstairs, they found Hall and "his hands, arms, legs, and feet were covered in blood," according to the report.
Just thirteen minutes earlier police had been at the apartment for an anonymous noise complaint.
Hall's last arrest in Connecticut was in 1997, for breach of peace. He's due to appear in court in New Britain July 2.
The globe-trotting manhunt for National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, now wanted at home as an alleged spy, intensified Monday after he disappeared in Moscow, adding another layer of international intrigue to the global manhunt for him and to his globe-trotting search for political asylum.
Weeks after he leaked documents detailing secret U.S. government data surveillance programs to the press, Snowden — who faces espionage charges — is seeking asylum abroad and safe passage to wherever he might find it. He fled Hong Kong, where he had been holed up for a month, on Sunday, and he is being aided in his search for asylum by advisors from WikiLeaks.
This week, Washington's diplomatic furor is aimed squarely at China, which failed to arrest Snowden before he left the country, and at Russia, which offered to entertain an asylum request he hadn't even yet made — and where he is believed now to be staying. But a host of Latin American nations led by leftists who are less than cozy with Washington could be entering the diplomatic fray, too.
The list of places Snowden could reportedly be headed has become a who's-who of countries with fractious relations with the U.S. Here is a run-down of the places Snowden has been and the places he could be headed.
Waipahu, Hawaii, U.S.:
Before Snowden's leaks made him a household name, the 29-year-old was living with his girlfriend outside Honolulu and working for the National Security Agency as an employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton — a job he told the South China Morning Post he took only in order to gain access to secret documents. The real estate agent for the couple's rented home told the Associated Press that Snowden and his girlfriend moved out of their house May 1.
Hong Kong, China:
Snowden first holed up in Hong Kong on May 20, according to The Guardian, and it was from his hotel room there that he leaked NSA documents to that British newspaper. Snowden told the paper that he chose Hong Kong as his home base for what he called the city's "spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent."
The U.S. asked Hong Kong police to detain Snowden pending his possible extradition on espionage charges, but China allowed him to leave Sunday. Hong Kong officials said Washington's documentation in support of his extradition wasn't complete — a claim Washington denied, blasting the Chinese government for letting Snowden leave.
"This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters Monday.
Moscow, Russia:
Snowden arrived in Moscow on Sunday after fleeing Hong Kong, where he had spent more than a month. Snowden had been expected Monday to board a flight to Havana on which he had booked a ticket, but the plane took off without him.
After Snowden failed to board that flight, the White House said Monday it believed Snowden was still in Moscow and urged the Kremlin to hand him over. "We continue to hope that the Russians will do the right thing," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told NBC News on Monday.
Russia had earlier offered to consider an asylum request from Snowden should he make one, although there is no indication Snowden would do so. Russia itself has no sterling reputation for free speech or for privacy from surveillance — or for press freedom, for that matter.
As of Tuesday, Snowden is believed still to be in Russia.
Havana, Cuba:
Snowden had been expected to board a Havana-bound Aeroflot flight out of Moscow on Monday, but the flight left without him — and with a host of journalists chasing him onboard. From Havana, he had been expected to travel on to Ecuador, which had promised to review his application for asylum. Snowden did not board that flight to Cuba, however. It is unclear why.
Ecuador:
Snowden has requested asylum from and is believed to be heading to the small Andean nation, which has promised to review his application carefully. It was only last year that Ecuador began harboring another high-profile leaker: Snowden's own newfound shepherd, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who himself is holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London avoiding extradition on sexual assault charges.
Ecuador has an extradition treaty with the U.S., but it also allows exemptions for political asylum, BBC News noted. The country's populist leftist President Rafael Correa has been openly critical of Washington and nominally friendly to Snowden's cause — but his presidency is marred by its own ongoing battle with the country's news media, culminating with a controversial new law cracking down on press freedom.
Iceland and beyond:
Snowden had earlier this month told The Guardian that he might seek asylum in Iceland, citing what he described as its strong legacy of protecting privacy and press freedoms. However, Iceland isn't a totally safe bet. Its just-seated new government is a center-right one that is seen as more likely to seek a close relationship with Washington — and possibly less eager to rankle Washington by harboring somebody like Snowden.
On a conference call Monday, though, WikiLeaks spokesman and Icelandic journalist Kristinn Hrafnsson said that asylum for Snowden has been formally requested from Iceland. "Similar processes were carried out elsewhere," Hrafnsson said. He declined to specify where — but the saga of Snowden's search for asylum, and the U.S.'s search for him, were stlll criss-crossing the globe.
Temperatures will be in the 90s through Wednesday and several towns around the state have opened cooling centers.
Cooling centers include locations in...
Bloomfield
Durham
East Hartford
Fairfield
Manchester
Monroe
Simsbury
Stamford
Stonington
Stratford
Westport
Wilton
Wolcott
Monday was the second of several hot days, and Tuesday, temperatures are expected to climb into the 90s again.
At 2:42 p.m., the temperature at Bradley Airport hit 94 degrees Fahrenheit, which tied the record set in 1975.
Connecticut will officially have a heat wave on Tuesday if the mercury reaches 90 degrees or higher at Bradley. A heat wave is defined as three consecutive days with temperatures of 90 degrees or higher.
How are you staying cool in this heat? Send your hot-weather photos to photos@nbcconnecticut.com.
