22News at 4: Digital Edition 11/6/26

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to 22News at 4. I'm Claire Overton. We'll get to your top four at four in just a moment but first we always have a look at commuter traffic and weather. Let's bring in 22News Storm Team meteorologist Adam Strempel. Adam nice to have you here. Nice to be here Claire. Awesome well it was a bit of a switch up from yesterday. We were receiving rain Pretty significantly throughout the day, but it's not always too heavy. Right. It's been raining pretty consistently. We've had some downpours, but overall it's been on the lighter side and really not affecting traffic too much out there. We are getting some slowdowns. It looks like on 391, especially you're getting some slow traffic there. 291 as well. And you're... Getting some slowdowns in typical spots, Longmeadow Curve, Forest Park area, Route 20, some slowdowns as you're heading into Westfield, 91 up towards Holyoke, a little bit slow going, and up towards Northampton, looks like Route 5, Route 9, you have some delays going into Hadley as well, Route 20 as well, some slowdowns out towards Wilbraham and Ludlow, downtown Westfield, and Holyoke going on 202, some slowdowns. But it's another mild day. We've had temperatures out there into the 60s. In fact, mid to upper 60s. down a bit. It's 62 right now in Springfield, 63 in Westfield. Northampton at 63, 63 in Greenfield, 62 in Pittsfield. So the mild weather continues. We'll have one more day of the mild temperatures, then it gets cooler, and we are going to be tracking some drier weather as we head through the weekend. We'll show that to you in just a couple of minutes, Claire. A man accused of setting multiple fires in Holyoke this past week is being held without the right to bail. 43-year-old Angel Sanchez was arraigned this morning in Holyoke District Court. Sanchez is facing multiple charges, including attempted murder, after allegedly setting fire to an occupied tent on Tuesday with a man sleeping inside of it. Officials say the series of fires began last Sunday in the area of Race Street. Sanchez will be back in court on November 10th for a clarification appointment. Tomorrow marks one year since the devastating fire at Olympia Place in Amherst, where a fire from a construction building spread to a nearby apartment complex. That fire left 230 people without a home. It also raised concerns about staffing shortages in the Amherst Fire Department. The department says they are still struggling with staffing, despite the town adopting a plan to raise the fire department's minimum staffing to 10 firefighters per day. At the time of the fire last year, the minimum was 8. They had eight and they had nine on duty the night the flames broke out. That's according to the Amherst Fire Chief. 22News is your local election headquarters, and the only ballot question whose results were unresolved, it has been settled. Question 7 has come up short. With 99% of precincts reporting statewide, nearly 51% of voters said no. The question would have allowed single-family homes to be built on lots of up to 5,000 square feet, overriding local zoning ordinances. Supporters said this would help lead to more starter-sized homes being built amid the current housing crunch. Opponents said it would diminish the ability of local officials to make decisions based on community needs. 22 News is working for you with a cone zone alert in Westfield. Starting on Monday, Union Street will be closed to all traffic. The closure extends from Union Avenue to Dartmouth Street. Eastbound traffic will be detoured onto Columbia Place, while westbound traffic will be detoured onto Dartmouth and Notre Dame Streets. The closure and detours will also be put in place next Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Police are asking drivers to avoid the area. And now we have another check at today's weather. Adam, you're seeing a lot of rain today. Are we going to see that continue throughout the weekend or are we done with it? For part of the weekend, I think we're going to see some showers. I don't think we're going to see them as numerous as we've been seeing them out there today. And here is look at the skycast. So as we head towards seven o'clock tonight, lots of clouds around a few more showers, mainly scattered showers working on through there. We are tomorrow morning or early tomorrow morning as we head towards midnight. Still a few showers around and there we are seven o'clock tomorrow morning. Lots of clouds. There may be a few A few light showers early on, but I think we may see a few breaks of sunshine in the morning. You can see the clouds kind of breaking up a bit early afternoon, but also starting to see some showers working back in. So tomorrow afternoon into tomorrow evening, we have a chance for some showers. There we are at 11 o'clock Saturday, and then the showers should come to an end by Sunday morning. There'll be some clouds around in the morning on Sunday, but then those clouds start to break up during the afternoon, and we see the sunshine returning as we head through the afternoon hours. It's going to be cooler. And those cooler temperatures are going to be with us as we head through next week. And we'll show that to you tonight on 22 News at 5, Claire. Thanks, Adam. Trending today, there's plenty of hype around Sunday's Patriots-Packers matchup, but two Patriots legends are stealing that spotlight. Rob Gronkowski will be inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame this weekend. An honor he says means everything. And Tom Brady will return to Gillette Stadium for the first time as a broadcaster, calling the game for Fox. The Patriots host the Packers Sunday at 4.30, although they do have quite a bit of players that did not practice Thursday. That includes A.J. Brown. Brown, Travion Henderson, Hunter Henry, and Marcus Jones. Down south in Connecticut, Bradley International Airport is expanding its food options for travelers. Chick-fil-A and Sergio's Go are now open in the food court past security. Chick-fil-A is, of course, known for its chicken sandwiches. Sergio's Go is a grab-and-go restaurant featuring Cuban-inspired favorites like empanadas, sandwiches, and pastries. Both new restaurants will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Airport officials say this comes as As part of a larger strategy to modernize the terminal. and enhance the airport's dining experience. And now for a look at what we're working on for 22 News starting at 5. We have yet another development on the former aide to Governor Maura Healey after he was indicted in Boston federal court on Wednesday. Plus, we're tracking the latest after a Norfolk County district attorney announced she'll launch a review of the Matthew Farwell and Karen Read trials. And finally, we'll tell you what we know about a missing child task force launched by the U.S. Marshals. Adam? Claire here, it's a last look at traffic, and we are seeing some slowdowns, especially in the Springfield area, 391, 291, some slow-moving traffic, and you've got some delays on 91, Longmeadow Curve, traffic's moving slow, Mass Pike, really no issues, from 291 getting on the Mass Pike, slowdowns, Route 20, some slowdowns out towards the Ludlow, downtown Westfield, and going into Holyoke on Route 202, some slowdowns, you've got some slowdowns up north, up in Northampton along Route 5 and Route 9. Back to you. Thank you, Adam, and thank you for joining us this afternoon for 22 News at 4. Join us on TV tonight starting at 5. And you can get all your local news and weather updates anytime on WWLP.com and, of course, the 22 News mobile app.