Hello there,
I was experiencing this issue too. Despite changing the Connection String in the settings.txt file my local environment was still redirecting to the live site.
I followed the steps involving changing the URL and forcing SSL in the database. I still saw the same issue...
Confused, I deleted the Settings file just to test. My local environment was still able to connect, even though I had cleaned my solution and no settings file existed..
This leads me to believe the settings file is cached, I restored the settings file and cleared my cache and all is good. So to add to the current advice:
1. Make sure the URL and SSL fields in the database point to your local URL and no SSL
2. Clean your solution and Clear you cache