22News at 4: Digital Edition 9/14/26

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to 22 news at four. I'm Christina de Morris. We'll get to your top four at four in just a moment. But first a look at your commuter traffic and weather with 22 start team geologist brian lapis who joins us this afternoon. Hey happy monday brian back at you Christina. Thank you. Beautiful weather today. Yeah. You know what? Uh funny thing you bring this up. Sarah Biennium and I were talking about this on saturday morning. I was here on saturday morning. Yeah. Oh sorry for reacting that way. That was priceless and authentic. That was visceral. That was great. Anyway. Have you noticed? I mean it's kind of it's subjective and um uh you know there are fewer bugs. Yes. I'm noticing a slightly fewer bugs outside. It's lovely. The little gnats are not in your face anymore. Right. But we have those lantern flies everywhere. They are everywhere. My flip flop and I go, I saw one in downtown Springfield which like on Main Street, they're taking over intriguing. Yeah. Make sure you do your part. Kill those lantern flies. Splatter. Easy. Anyway. So traffic. Yes. Here we go. And traffic should not be bugging you because for the most part things are moving fine. Oh just as I said that I'm noticing there's ongoing construction here on the pike in the Russell area. You know, Westfield, Russell, Blanford and you can see that there's a little bit of a slowdown here on the mass pike eastbound in the foothills of the Berkshires. And of course there's the usual slowdown here at the end of 2 91 where it merges with the pike and with 91. Nice day out there today. 74 in Springfield, 74 Greenfield, 70 North Hampton, 73 in Westfield and orange 68 degrees and the blue sky continues and we've got another nice day on the way in here for tomorrow. We'll track it with our 22 new storm team forecast. All right, thank you brian. Gas prices in Springfield and across the country remain high as the war in Iran shows no signs of stopping. Gas buddy reports that prices in Springfield averaged $4 and 20 cents per gallon today compared to this time a year ago. That's $1.15 more on average. Nationally, the price of gas has risen by 17.2 cents in the last week, bringing the average price to $4.25 a gallon. Mass. D. O. T. Has announced that summer Avenue in Springfield will be reduced to one lane through the rest of the week as work continues on the X intersection. Officials say the traffic impacts are necessary to allow contract contractors to complete milling and paving operations. The lane closures will be in effect daily from seven a.m. To three p.m. Through friday. The project will also require temporary turned restrictions on street parking limitations. The fallout from the Lindsay Clancy trial continues. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is offering the holdout juror asylum after he accused the media of running a smear campaign against him. This comes after a report claimed the juror had a history of domestic violence allegations and an active restraining order. It was also reported that the juror was facing eviction after allegedly failing to pay rent since March. The controversies are now raising questions about how he was selected for the jury. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell is joining 21 other states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration's new public charge rule, which is set to take effect friday. The new D. H. S. Policy would give immigration officials broad authority to deny green cards based on an applicant's use of certain public benefits. Campbell says the rule could discourage immigrant families from using benefits they are legally entitled to. The coalition is asking a federal judge to declare the 2026 public charge rule unlawful and block it from taking effect. Now let's get in. I was here. He was here the whole time. Like an action shot. I was walking in. We were never in any real danger. We were never. It just alarmed me for a second. All right. So blue skies today. It's gorgeous today. Brian. Very much similar tomorrow. Actually it's gonna be a little cool here tomorrow morning. Nice. Like fall. Yeah. Wonderful. Right. We love that. Yeah. Let's take a look at the situation right now. Blue sky. Beautiful day. Hopefully you get some fresh air here before sunset. I believe sunsets around seven o'clock here tonight. Uh so our daylight is the margins of daylight are shrinking here. Anyway, five o'clock here this afternoon. Mostly clear, a mostly clear night here tonight. Uh evening temperatures will be in the sixties and fifties. And as I was mentioning to Christina will be in the forties here early tomorrow morning, seven o'clock tomorrow morning sunshine. Watch out. This is the time of year. September is kind of the fog season with warm river water kind of evaporating into cooler air and tomorrow will be a prime example. So I'm expecting areas of fog, especially near lakes and rivers here in the valley. 10 o'clock sunshine, noontime sunshine, a few scattered clouds in the afternoon. So maybe not quite as bright as today was, but it should be a nice day with high temperatures in the low seventies will be warmer. I expect for Wednesday. We'll show you on 22 news at five training today. UMass Amherst is launching a $120 million program to help address real world pressures on global food systems. The future of food initiative will examine critical challenges on the world's food supply like climate change, sustainability and food safety. UMass says it will break ground on a state of the art new food innovation hub in late 2027. The hub will offer a range of food science programs such as sensory tasting labs, innovation kitchens and a food grade pilot plant. UMass will also establish five permanent endowments in the food science field. The viral squishy dumpling craze is coming to Springfield through a new promotion announced by the Thunderbirds. The HL team announced that fans attending its December 27th game against the Providence Bruins will have a chance to receive a collectible squishy dumpling. The first 3000 fans who enter the mass mutual center will receive a squishy dumpling with some fans finding a rare boomer themed diversion featuring the Thunderbirds mascot. The Springfield Thunderbirds hit the ice starting october 10th. Now for a look at what we're working on for 22 news starting at five students of Springfield Public Schools returned to class today following last week's cyber attack. Plus Bay State Health has announced new security measures to better protect patients, visitors and staff and Governor Maura Haley is calling for stronger federal regulations against artificial intelligence. Hear her proposed solution tonight. Just a reminder that we've got a bit of a slowdown here on the pike eastbound in the hill towns, Russell Blanford area, some ongoing construction there and there's also a little bit of a slowdown on either end of 2 91 where it merges with the pike and where it merges with I 91. So otherwise I think we're in pretty good shape in terms of traffic, pretty nice weather here, clear, cool tonight, bright again tomorrow. We'll track a couple of chances for rain over the next seven days on 22 news at five. Thank you brian and thank you for joining us for 22 news at four. Join us on tv tonight starting at five. You get all your local news and weather updates anytime on www dot com. The 22 news mobile app