22News at 4: Digital Edition

Streaming from the 22 News Broadcast Center. This is 22 News at 4 p.m. Digital Edition. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to 22 News at 4. I'm Claire Overton. We'll get to your top four at 4 in just a moment. But first, we always have a look at commuter traffic and weather. Let's bring in 22 News Storm Team meteorologist Brian Lapis. Hello. Hello, Claire. How's it going? Pretty good. Pretty good. Weekend weather was pretty good. A little rain here and there, but not too bad. Yeah, I was out of town until about Saturday evening. You know, yesterday was kind of... Kind of a little blustery, but that's what November's like. I know, we're actually starting to get like fall temperatures and November skies and everything. A little dreary. Yeah, and all the, you know you're middle-aged when you have these in-depth conversations with people about the leaves falling off the trees. You know, that was real quick, even the oak trees have the leaves off the trees now. All right, let's look at traffic. The clock is ticking. Soon you'll be there, Claire. No, I won't. Not so soon. No, I won't. Got about a generation to go. Okay, so traffic looks pretty good up and down I-91, and even 291 is looking pretty good right now. And the pike, no problems there. So we're in good shape here in the early stages of the Monday evening commute. Winds, and it is a little windy. Some occasional gusts to 23 miles per hour, Springfield. 24 miles per hour in Pittsfield. Temperatures are very November-esque in the mid-50s right now. 56 Springfield, 54 in Greenfield, 49 in Pittsfield, 48 in North Adams. And a couple of sprinkles. Could be a raindrop here and there. We're expecting a dry night tonight and a dry day here tomorrow. Rain at the end of the week. We'll talk about it with the 22 News Storm Team forecast. Claire. Thanks, Brian. Lamar Cook, the former aide to Governor Maura Healey, faced another arraignment in Boston federal court this afternoon. Last week, a grand jury indicted Cook of one count of SNAP fraud and two charges of wire fraud. He pleaded not guilty to those charges in his arraignment today. Prosecutors allege Cook lied on his application for federal food stamp benefits, failing to accurately report his living situation and money he had in the bank. Cook continues to be held on a series of state drug trafficking and firearm charges. His next federal court appearance is set for December 17th. Jurors in the Matthew Farwell trial continue to deliberate in court. Farwell is accused of killing 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore and her unborn child back in 2021. At the time of her death, he was a Stoughton police officer. Prosecutors claim he killed Birchmore to prevent her coming out with their intimate relationship. And the defense claims she took her own life after he ended their relationship. He has pleaded not guilty. Today marks 28 years since the unsolved homicide of Ashley Turniak. On November 9, 1998, Turniak was found dead on I-91 in Longmeadow near the Connecticut state line. She died after reportedly falling feet first from the window of a moving vehicle. If you have any information on this case, you are asked to contact your local police department. Heating season is coming in full swing as temperatures continue to drop and there are expanded resources available to help people in need that are facing high energy costs. Through the Massachusetts Home Energy Assistance Program, eligible homeowners and renters can get help paying their heating bills. Benefits of up to nearly $1,500 are available for households that qualify. The state has also expanded resources for eligible middle-class families that rely on oil heating, which can help reach people who have may not qualified for traditional fuel assistance. Everything is going up. The heating costs are going up. So there are people, I think the thought is right, there are people that don't qualify for traditional fuel assistance that still might be struggling to pay the costs. An important thing to note, you do not need to be behind on heating bills or receive public assistance in order to qualify. Many of those programs are already in effect and the oil heating program is set to start on December 1st. For more information, you can head to our website. WIPE VO And now let's get another check at today's weather. We're just talking about heating assistance. And Brian, there's some lingerings here and there that some areas of the Berkshires might be seeing snow. Yeah, you know, there might be some flakes flying at the end of the week in the in the hills to our west. But generally we're talking about mainly rain here. And we're still, you know, we're looking at the Climate Prediction Center's predictions for a warmer than average winter for better or for worse. So that may help a little bit. All right, let's take a look. Still going to be winter though. For sure. Scattered shower right now, kind of along the pike there in eastern Hampshire and eastern Hampden County. We look ahead, expecting a dry night here tonight with what I would call variable clouds. Clouds kind of in and out. Evening temperatures will be in the 50s and 40s. Overnight low temperatures will be in the 30s. This is 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. Variable clouds as the sun rises and a partly sunny day. Still a little breezy here tomorrow. High temperatures will be in the mid-50s, we expect. We'll track those chances for rain later in the week with our 22 News Storm Team seven-day forecast on 22 News at 5. Trending today, the Hampden District Attorney's office is once again announcing the return of a collection drive benefiting the Rock 102 Mayflower Marathon. The DA's office is partnering with state police to continue their long-standing tradition of giving back to the community through the beloved food drive. They are encouraging the community to stop by and drop off non-perishable food items. The collection event will be hosted Saturday, November 21st from 11 until 2 at the Big Y in Wilbraham. Starbucks has recently launched its holiday menu and new cups. This year's cups design feature ribbons and holiday trees. The new holiday drinks include the Tiramisu Velvet Latte, an apple pomegranate refresher. Some fan favorites like the Peppermint Mocha and Sugar Cookie Latte are also making a comeback. And for the first time, there's a special holiday pup cup for your four-legged friends. And now for a look at what we're working on for 22 News starting at 5. We're tracking the latest after the trial for one of the suspects involved in a deadly shooting in Holyoke back in 2023 began this morning. Plus, dozens of Springfield residents have been scammed at cryptocurrency kiosks. We'll tell you what city officials are doing to prevent this situation from happening again. And we'll tell you what local food kitchen is in need of donations to better help struggling families this Thanksgiving season. No major problems traffic wise you can see here starting to get a little slow at the end of 291 on actually on either side the pike side is backed up a little bit and also a light back up on the i-91 side toward downtown but otherwise no significant traffic struggles here this afternoon dry weather continues tomorrow we'll track it with our 22-news storm team forecast on 22 news starting at 5. Thanks, Brian. 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 the 22 News mobile app.