The FBI has arrested a woman who allegedly posed as the aunt of a Newtown, Conn. shooting victim and solicited money in his name through Facebook, telephone calls and text messages.

Nouel Alba, 37, of the Bronx, was arrested Thursday and charged with lying to FBI agents.

Federal prosecutors say Alba sought donations for what she called a "federal fund."

Alba was the subject of a "Today" show story about alleged scams exploiting the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Within hours of the shooting, Alba allegedly posted a solicitation on Facebook, identifying herself as an aunt of Noah Pozner, a 6-year-old victim.

In one text to a donor, Alba wrote about being in Newtown when President Barack Obama was in town to meet with the families, according to the complaint.

The donor asked Alba if she was watching the president's speech in person.

According to the complaint, she responded: "No im sitting in my car. Emotionally I cant (sic) deal. with it right now ..tomorrow ill see (redacted) in a casket and that will be hard enough to handle."

Alexis Haller, Noah's uncle, said Alba is not related to the family and never gave the family any of the funds raised. 

READ THE FULL COMPLAINT HERE. 

Alba was released on a $50,000 bond . She hid her face as she left court on Thursday and said nothing to reporters. 

“This arrest should serve as a warning to anyone who attempts to profit from this tragedy by contriving fraudulent schemes that exploit the many victims, their families and individuals who sincerely want to help,” U.S. Attorney David Fein said in a statement. 

The nail polish company OPI and Sandy Hook Promise have launched a new, limited edition nail color called “Sandy Hook Green” to raise money for Sandy Hook Promise.

The nail polish will be launched at the first Sandy Hook Green Salon-a-Thon event at Ricci’s Salon & Spa and Academy of Cosmetology in Newtown on Sunday, May 19,  from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

OPI has pledged to donate 10,000 bottles of "Sandy Hook Green" to Sandy Hook Promise to support efforts to keep communities safer.

Ricci’s Salon & Spa and Academy of Cosmetology in Newtown will give a free bottle of "Sandy Hook Green" on May 19 to anyone who purchases a variety of salon services.  The bottles also will be available at the event with a $10 donation to Sandy Hook Promise.

Sandy Hook Promise works to support those affected by the Sandy Hook School tragedy and help the community heal as well as support solutions to make our country safer from similar acts of violence.

The mother of a boy killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre will deliver the president's weekly address this week, the White House said.

Francine Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son, Ben, was killed along with 19 other first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, will give the remarks, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday.

Carney said it would be the first time anyone other than Obama or Biden has given the address during the administration.

Carney said Obama has been in regular contact with many of the Newtown families this week and "believes their voices and resolve" have been critical to lobbying efforts for gun control in the Senate.

The Senate rejected an effort by conservatives on Thursday to block debate on Democrats' gun control legislation, which is backed by Obama. Next week the Senate will consider a proposal to expand federal background checks to gun shows and online firearm sales.

Wheeler said in a statement that she was "honored" for the opportunity.

"We were grateful this week to be able to speak directly to senators about our children and our hopes that no other parent should have to experience our grief," she said. "I am equally grateful today to speak directly to the American people about the common sense solutions that are currently under debate."

Newly released documents on Newtown shooter Adam Lanza's brief college career add a few small details about his life but do little to answer any questions about what motivated him to kill.

The Western Connecticut State University paperwork, released Tuesday, outline Lanza's attempts, after completing his high school credits early, to continue his education.

In May 2008, just after his 16th birthday, Lanza took an algebra placement exam, saying in his background questionnaire that he did not want to indicate his gender or anything about his background. He scored a 95.9.

That summer, Lanza took two computer science classes, earning an A and an A-minus, the documents show. He followed up in the fall with another computer science class, which he withdrew from, and a philosophy class titled "Introduction to Ethical Theory," in which he earned a C.

Lanza began the spring 2009 semester with classes in German and American history, but apparently dropped his studies soon afterward.

The records end there.

Nearly four years later, on Dec. 14, 2012, Lanza, 20, killed his mother at home in Newtown and drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators before committing suicide.

Investigators searched the Lanza home and found a massive cache of guns, knives, swords and ammunition, according to documents released by authorities last week.

Those documents not only described a household enamored with guns, but also raised questions about what Lanza's 52-year-old mother, Nancy, knew about the danger that her son posed, and whether she was complicit in allowing him to obtain guns.

Among the paperwork taken from the home they shared were photographs of what appeared to be a bloody body, a New York Times article about a 2008 mass shooting at Northern Illinois University, self-help books for understanding the minds of people with Asperger's Syndrome and autism, a paperback entitled "Train Your Brain to Get Happy," a guide to pistol shooting and a holiday card containing a check Nancy Lanza wrote to Adam for the purchase of a firearm.

Newtown killer Adam Lanza and his mother kept their home stocked with a massive cache of guns, knives, swords and ammunition — a startling array of weapons described in newly released documents that sketch a portrait of a household enamored with firearms and of a young man apparently coping with emotional issues.

The documents, released Thursday morning, outline what police found in the home following Lanza's Dec. 14 rampage, which began with him shooting his mother in bed and culminated with a massacre inside Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he gunned down 20 first graders and six adults and then killed himself. The school attack is believed to have lasted less than five minutes.

They also raise new questions about what Lanza's 52-year-old mother, Nancy, knew about the danger that her son posed, and whether she was complicit in allowing him to obtain guns.

For full U.S. news coverage, visit NBCNews.com.

Among the paperwork taken from the home they shared were photographs of what appeared to be a bloody body, a New York Times article about a 2008 mass shooting at Northern Illinois University, self-help books for understanding the minds of people with Asperger's Syndrome and autism, a paperback entitled "Train Your Brain to Get Happy," a guide to pistol shooting and a holiday card containing a check Nancy Lanza wrote to Adam for the purchase of a firearm.

A witness told FBI agents that Adam Lanza "rarely leaves his home" and was considered a "shut-in" and avid video game player, the documents say. The witness, whose identity was blacked out of the text, also told agents that Adam Lanza had attended Sandy Hook and that the school was his "life."

The documents also show that Adam Lanza kept a gun safe and a military-style uniform in his bedroom, and that he and his mother some sort of certificates from the National Rifle Association.

The NRA said in a statement to NBC News Thursday there "is no record of a member relationship between Newtown killer Adam Lanza, nor between Nancy Lanza, A. Lanza or N. Lanza with the National Rifle Association. Reporting to the contrary is reckless, false and defamatory."

Police seized several of Adam Lanza's personal journals and drawings, a smashed hard drive, handwritten notes on the addresses of local gun shops and several printed emails. The documents do not indicate what they contained. 

The list of weapons found in the home reads like the contents of a survivalist bunker. The guns included an Enfield Albion bolt-action rifle, a Savage Mark II .22-caliber rifle, a black BB gun and a starter pistol. In addition, investigators found several large-capacity magazines, along with a huge array of ammunition: at least 126 shotgun shells and 1,526 bullets, including 661 .22-caliber bullets, 178 .45-caliber bullets and 161 9mm bullets. There were also nine knives, three Samurai swords, a pole outfitted with a spear and blade and a bayonet.

Many of those items were found in an open gun safe, but the documents do not indicate whether they were found in the safe in Adam Lanza's bedroom, or if there was a second one elsewhere in the house.

In any case, Adam Lanza clearly had a wide array of weapons to choose from to carry out the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

He started with his mother, shooting her in the forehead with a .22 caliber rifle. Then he took four guns to the scene: a .223 caliber Bushmaster rifle, which he used to shoot the students and school workers; a Glock 10mm handgun, which he used on himself; a loaded 9 mm Sig-Sauer handgun found on his body; and a 12-gauge Izhmash Canta shotgun, which he left behind in his mother's Honda Civic outside the school. In the car there were two magazines containing 70 shotgun rounds.

All four of those guns were legally owned by Nancy Lanza, authorities have said.

The documents, which had been under court seal since the start of the investigation, cover five search warrants. The seal expired on Thursday. The judge overseeing the case granted prosecutors' request to redact certain details, including a witness’ name, a telephone number and a credit card number.

Along with the search warrant documents, Danbury State's Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III included a statement that added details to the rampage and its aftermath.

He stressed that the investigation has not ended, adding that he had determined that the release of the search warrant documents would not jeopardize the case. He also acknowledged that state lawmakers have been anxious to learn more of the attack to help them negotiate a wide-ranging gun control proposal.

The state Attorney General may release more information later this week. A final report on the investigation is expected in June.

"Our sympathies for this tragedy continues to go out to the victims' families, friends and the Newtown community," Sedensky said.

The first 911 call from the school reached authorities at 9:35 a.m., the documents say. When police arrived, they found Nancy Lanza's Civic parked in the fire lane in front of the school. Adam Lanza had shot his way into the entrance. The dead were found in two classrooms near the front door.

In one of the classrooms police found Adam Lanza's body, outfitted in military-style clothing. They recovered the Bushmaster—with 14 rounds in its magazine and one in its chamber—and two handguns, along with three fully loaded 30-round additional magazines for the Bushmaster. Nearby were six more 30-round magazines, three of which were spent, and three of which still had bullets inside. At the scene investigators collected 154 spent .223 shell casings.

Authorities headed to the Lanza home, about five miles away, and found Nancy Lanza in bed in a second-story bedroom with a gunshot wound to her forehead, and a rifle on the floor.

Besides the article about the Northern Illinois University shooting, in which Steven Kazmierczak killed five people and injured 21, the newly released Newtown documents do not add to prior reports that Adam Lanza had studied prior mass shootings.

The Hartford Courant has reported that investigators found news articles about Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian man who in July 2011 detonated bombs that killed eight people in downtown Oslo before going on a rampage at a summer retreat, shooting 69 people to death, most of them teenagers.

Connecticut Police Lt. Paul Vance has in the past dismissed reports that Lanza had felt himself in competition with other mass murderers as "mere speculation."

State police and local officials privately briefed victims' families at the Newtown Municipal Center Wednesday night on how to handle the release of the documents.

"I think it reopens...it causes them to revisit the pain they felt three months ago," said Newtown Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson. "It's really too bad when we go on this path of healing to have these things that come back to us and remind us and take us back to the events again. It's hard."

Several people in Newtown have been on the receiving end of robocalls from the National Rifle Association. The calls started last week and many people on the other end of line are furious.

The National Rifle Association is calling residents urging them to contact their state legislators and push back against proposals for stricter gun laws.

The calls are stirring controversy and outrage in Newtown. People there are calling them insensitive.

"I was just kind of more shocked. That type of call would come to Newtown three months from one of the most horrendous tragedies and to call the town of Newtown didn't seem like the right thing to do," said Newtown resident Tom Maurath.

Maurath said he received the calls last week and believes it crosses the line from a political issue to one of right and wrong.

Tom and his neighbors are most upset that they have received the calls during dinner time. A time when the whole family is home including children who might not know the details of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Dan O'Donnell lives in Sandy Hook and said he never though about the gun debate until his town became the center of it and now robocalls are bringing the discussion to his doorstep.

"I have no understanding why they would be calling my house. Three calls in one week asking us to protect our Second Amendment Rights when I'm not a member of their organization," he said.

Dan said he supports efforts to explore more gun control legislation. The robocalls asking him to reject proposals for any new laws go against what he believes in and he finds them disturbing.

"It's ridiculous and insensitive. I can't believe an organization would be so focused on the rights of gun owners with no consideration for the losses this town suffered."

NBC Connecticut reached out to the NRA for comment and has not heard back. Federal law allows nonprofits like the NRA to issue unsolicited robocalls.

People from across the country who wanted to show their support were able to donate and run by participating in what the foundation called a virtual run.

Event organizers expect to raise more than $400,000. The money will go to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund.

"Nurturing. Healing. Love."

Scarlett Lewis noticed the chalk-written message on her kitchen chalkboard when returning home for the first time – days after her son Jesse was taken from her on December 14th.  “It was in 6-year-old handwriting. Right about where he’d be standing,” says Lewis from her Sandy Hook farmhouse.  “It’s phonetically spelled. It's very clear what it says. I was stunned.”

Lewis described her son as an “energetic, happy boy” whose personality could dominate a room. This type of message, however, was out of the ordinary for him but feels it was left for when she and her oldest son, J.T.  would need it most.

“He isn’t the type of boy who would write that. He was loving and sweet and kind but that was a prophetic statement. I felt like it came from his spirit.”

It was this same message that the single mom sent while eulogizing her son.  “I said ‘I have something for you to do for us. That’s to consciously change an angry thought into a loving one’ because it is a choice.”

It’s now the mission of the newly formed Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation. Scarlet hopes it grows from the chalkboard to the pulpit to – one day – your child’s classroom. She is meeting with professional educators to create a school curriculum that will be taught nationwide.

“This will be taught right along Math, Reading and Writing. It will be a life management course.”
Lewis was the first family member to speak at Wednesday’s Legislative Gun Violence Prevention and Children’s Safety hearing held in Newtown. She says she is not looking to get involved in the political debate that has followed the shootings. Rather,  she will focus on a message that can be supported on all sides of the discussion.

“I feel like he wrote that message for a reason and handed me a torch. I’m gonna take it and hopefully – with everyone's help – change the world so this will never happen again.”

The Newtown Board of Education wants more armed police officers in the Connecticut town's four elementary schools after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Last night, they decided to ask the town to approve the request to include one additional full-time Newtown police at each of the elementary schools in next year's budget.

Members of the board will meet today with state and federal officials about obtaining additional funding for security.

“Our parents are demanding of us that things are made safe and secure and certain measures are put in place,” Chairwoman Debbie Leidlein said. “So we’re being very thoughtful.”

Several police officers have been stationed at all Newtown schools since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, where 20 children and six staff members were killed.

Those officers will remain at the school through the remainder of the school year, but the budget for the next fiscal year funds only resource officers at middle and high schools.

Parents said security means more than a police presence. 

“My main concern is with accessibility to these school, said Neil Johnson, a parent of two Newtown students. “On December 14th, that was the main bare-boned reason that occurred.”

“After what happened in our community, I just think we should go over and above and provide a shining example for the rest of the world and protect our kids,” said resident Donna Lorenz.

The chorus from Sandy Hook Elementary School will sing "America the Beautiful" before Sunday's Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, The Associated Press reported.

The chorus features 26 children from Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., where 20 first-graders and six adults were killed in a shooting rampage last month.

The performance will be part of CBS's pre-game show and will be broadcast live.

For full U.S. news coverage, visit NBCNews.com.

A few weeks ago, the chorus joined Grammy-nominated singer Ingrid Michaelson to record "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for the one-month anniversary of the shooting.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the children of the choir and Michaelson recorded the song in the home studio of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz of Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club, who are longtime Connecticut residents.

You can download the track here. Proceeds will go to benefit the Newtown Youth Academy and the United Way of Western Connecticut.
 

A Connecticut state representative is apologizing for a Facebook post warning Gabby Giffords to stay away, ahead of the former Arizona congresswoman's visit with Sandy Hook Elementary victims' families last week in Newtown.

"Gabby Giffords stay out of my towns," the post on the Facebook page for State Rep. DebraLee Hovey, a Republican who represents Newtown and Monroe, said last week.
 
Former U.S. Rep. Giffords survived a shooting in Tuscon, Ariz., in 2011 that killed six people, including a judge and a young girl. She and her husband have been advocates for stricter gun laws.

NBC Connecticut tried to reach Hovey about the comment, but she was unavailable. In the days after, there were several blogs and opinion pieces criticizing Hovey.

On Monday, she issued an apology for the comments she posted online.

"The remarks I made regarding Congresswoman Giffords' visit were insensitive and if I offended anyone I truly apologize," Rep. Hovey said in a statement.

"My comments were meant to be protective of the privacy of the families and our community as we work to move on, and were in no way intended as an insult to Congresswoman Giffords personally. Our community has struggled greatly through this tragedy, and we are all very sensitive to the potential for this event to be exploited for political purposes. This is what I wish to avoid," she added.

Hovey was in Florida last week to attend a board meeting of the Women in Government national organization when Giffords visited.

"The events of Dec. 14 affected all of us deeply and like many others I am still working through my grief and trying to come to terms with what happened, how we as a community and a state move forward and how we can prevent horrific events like this from occurring in the future," Hovey said.

"My deepest condolences continue to go out to the families, the community of Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown and Connecticut," she continued.

Hovey’s office said she has been a strong advocate for her district and has called for a dialogue on mental health issues, improving school safety and gun control.
 

The parents of a first-grader killed in the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary say the loss of their son has put them on a different path. 

A gun show will go on this weekend in Stamford, Conn., despite critics who say that it is too close and too soon after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, where 20 first-graders and six educators were killed, just 40 miles away in Newtown.

The East Coast Firearms Show at the Stamford Plaza Hotel is organized by Westchester Collectors. A flyer for the show says it offers the "best of the best of vendors, offering 250 tables of antique and historical arms."

Similar gun shows by the same promoter in Waterbury and Westchester County were canceled.

Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia said he felt the timing of the event was problematic, just over three weeks after the Newtown school shooting. 

"It seems insensitive to have the event continue," Pavia said.  

Stamford Police Captain Richard Conklin said that while he understood some were unhappy about the event, it is being staged at a private facility and can't be forcibly canceled.

"When you think of gun shows this is not your typical gun show," Conklin said, adding that the show was for collectors of antique weapons and nothing dangerous. 

Conklin said he'd dealt with the organizer before and never had an issue.

"We're going to maintain a presence there to ensure that they continue to be compliant with state, local and federal laws," Conklin said.

Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived after being shot at a campaign event in her home state of Arizona two years ago, visited Newtown Friday.

Sue Marcinek, an assistant to Newtown's first selectman, told The Associated Press that Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, met with the selectman, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman.

Giffords was also set to visit a home in Newtown for a private event, according to a spokesperson from  Wyman’s office. The event is not open to the public.

Giffords was shot in the head when a gunman opened fire at a campaign event she was holding in a Tuscon, Ariz., shopping plaza in January 2011. She survived, but six people were killed, including a 9-year-old girl. The gunman, Jared Loughner, was sentenced to life in prison in November.

The visit in Newtown comes just two days after Giffords met with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, met with Bloomberg Wednesday to discuss gun control, according to the New York Post. 

Bloomberg has pushed for stricter gun laws in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Classes resumed on Thursday for the students of Sandy Hook Elementary School for the first time since last month's massacre in Newtown, where a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators.

With their original school still being treated as a crime scene, the more than 400 students are attending classes at a refurbished school in the neighboring town of Monroe.

Attendance on Thursday was good, officials said. There were no issues at school and students were excited to see their friends and get back to school. 

“A lot of them were happy to see their friends they had not seen in a while. They were excited about the new school,”   Monroe Police Lt. Keith White said. “They were all brought together as a class for the first time since the tragedy and teachers got to meet with the students.” 

To help ease the return, therapy dogs were brought in and several students spent a little time with them, White said. Counselors were also available.

Gov. Dannel Malloy called the effort to return to school "Herculean."

"It is the stuff that Connecticut is made of," Malloy said.

Law enforcement officers have been guarding the new school, and by the reckoning of police, it is "the safest school in America."

The school district said parents who want to be close to their children were welcome to visit and stay in classrooms or an auditorium throughout the day and some parents took the opportunity. The lecture hall was full and parents had the opportunity to meet with school board members, White said.

Parents were encouraged to have their children take the bus to help them return to familiar routines.

Still, Newtown Superintendent Janet Robinson said officials will do their best to make the students feel at ease.

"We will go to our regular schedule," she said. "We will be doing a normal day."

Returning students, teachers and administrators were met by a large police presence on a sunny and cold day with temperatures hovering near 10 degrees. Several police officers were guarding the entrance to the school, and were checking IDs of parents dropping off children.

When police were asked how long a large police presence would remain at the school, White said the decision would be evaluated on a week to week basis.

“We’re going to focus on the school. Again, the students’ safety is of utmost importance to both towns,” White said.  

“We don’t want them to think this is a police state. We want them to know that this is a school, and a school first, and that’s a place where some to learn, enjoy their friends and grow up,” White said in response to another question.

On Wednesday, the students and their families were welcomed at an open house at their new school, which was formerly the Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe but renamed as the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The new building was decorated like a winter wonderland, filled with snowflakes people from around the world sent to the Connecticut PTSA to help make the students feel welcome. Students received gift boxes with toys inside and shared joyful reunions with teachers.

"Right now, Chalk Hill has been transformed from a middle school to a very cheerful, nurturing elementary school," Robinson said.

Former principal Donna Page is leading the school, and Robinson called this a "godsend" to help the transition process.

One father, Vinny Alvarez, took a moment to thank his third-grade daughter's teacher, Courtney Martin, who protected the class from a rampaging gunman by locking her classroom door and keeping the children in a corner.

"Everybody there thanked her in their own way," he said.

The gunman, Adam Lanza, also killed his mother at the home they shared in Newtown before driving to the school and gunning down 26 people, including the school's principal. Lanza fatally shot himself as police arrived. Police haven't released any details about a motive.

Numerous police officers on Wednesday guarded the outside of the Monroe school, which is about 7 miles from the old school, and told reporters to stay away.

"I think right now it has to be the safest school in America," Lt. White said.

Teachers attended staff meetings at the new school on Wednesday morning and were visited by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy before the open house, White said.