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. Brian, it was a fall day today, but it was beautiful for all those Veterans Day parades and ceremonies. Yeah, you know, it was brightest in the morning. We've kind of gone gray now, but we've stayed dry. There's some somewhat Crummy weather on the way in here for the next couple of days, though. Couldn't see our first snowflakes of the year in many places. Yeah, before the end of the week. Let's take a look at traffic real quickly. See here that there are no problems with traffic, which is good news. The pike is looking good. Downtown Springfield, I-91, 291, 391, fine. 91 north of the city, and for that matter, south of the city into Longmeadow. Also looks great. Temperatures, as we expected, got close to 60 degrees today. In fact, we're at 50 in Springfield right now. 56, Northampton, Westfield and Greenfield. 54 in Orange and low 50s to... Nearly mid-50s in the Berkshires. As I mentioned, after a bright first half of the day, the clouds have rolled on in and there are more clouds off to our west. Overnight, a little bit of rain develops and we'll talk about our chances for some snow here before the end of the work week with the 22 News Storm Team Skycast. Claire. A former resident of North Adams has been sentenced to 9 to 12 years in state prison and six months in a house of corrections after being found guilty of raping a 16 year old girl back in 2022. Prosecutors say 49 year old Joseph Penny has been found guilty on two counts of rape and one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor. According to the Berkshire County District Attorney's Office, Penny brought the teen to his home on Fairgrounds Avenue in North Adams, where he gave the teen alcohol. His state prison and house of correction sentences will be served concurrently. TAKE VO And still in North Adams, TAKE VO TAKE VO seven people have been charged after a months-long drug investigation. TAKE VO TAKE VO TAKE VO TAKE VO TAKE VO Police say two apartments were suspected of being used for heroin TAKE VO TAKE VO TAKE VO and cocaine distribution. TAKE VO TAKE VO TAKE VO Search warrants were carried out for each apartment on Tuesday. TAKE VO TAKE VO TAKE VO Four people from North Adams were charged along TAKE VO TAKE VO with three from Springfield. TAKE VO TAKE VO Several others were taken into custody. TAKE VO All seven are facing drug possession and distribution charges. A driver in Palmer was arrested for a hit-and-run Tuesday afternoon after hitting a pedestrian. Police say it happened around 2.45 near Breckenridge Street. The pedestrian was taken to Baystate Medical Center, and there is no word yet on their current condition. The driver was found about an hour later when they admitted to hitting somebody. The driver's identity has not been released at this time, but they are facing several charges and will be arraigned in Palmer District Court on Thursday. Police in Holyoke are investigating a security concern that is causing Holyoke Health Center to temporarily close all of their locations. The health center says no injuries have been reported and that it is working closely with law enforcement to resolve the issue. In the meantime, all in-person appointments scheduled for today have been canceled. Patients can still call their health center to schedule telehealth visits, order prescription refills, and call after hours to ask medical-related questions. And now we have another check at today's weather. Brian, you're back with us. We have clouds moving in and the potential for snow. Yeah, before the end of the week, I just noticed that we're wearing maroon. We're matching. I think it's purple, but that's okay. Yeah, it looks maroon to me. It's like a plum. UMass basketball home openers tonight. Really? Yeah. Men. Go Minutemen. Yeah. And UMass football plays in Toledo. They do. It's Wednesday. Weird Wednesday games. Anyway, we were talking about snow. Rain, snow, head on in. A little bit of both over the next 48 to 60 hours, the way things are looking right now. Let's take a look at our clouds and radar. And you can see here we are. Mostly cloudy after a bright start to the day, we've gone gray and we expect that that gray is going to be with us through, geez, perhaps the first half of the weekend at the very least. So five o'clock here this afternoon, mostly cloudy skies. It's not until after midnight that we start to see signs of any rain. Ten o'clock. Okay, a couple of sprinkles here. But then after midnight, we've got some showers and drizzle. Notice it'll be damp, and this will be rain at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning with temperatures mainly in the low 40s. You can see here 10 o'clock, another wave of showers moves through. So showers and drizzle during the daylight hours here tomorrow. And then it's a late night tomorrow night when we start to see this rain mix with some snow. We'll talk about that on 22 News starting at 5. Preparations are in high gear for the 100th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. And this year, seven new helium balloons will be making their grand debuts. That includes beloved characters Bluey, Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse, and Snoopy as his alter ego, Joe Cool. Right now, handlers are learning to control the giant balloons at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The parade, which officially kicks off the holiday season, takes place on Thanksgiving morning, November 26th. And now for a look at what we're working on for 22 News starting at 5. Today is Veterans Day, and we're working for you with how officials in western Massachusetts honored the brave men and women who served our country. Plus, we tell you what local organizations are receiving a chunk of grant money as part of the Healy Administration's Healthy Food Access Initiative. And finally, our 22 News Storm Team will tell us why it's important for us to cover up or put our air conditioners away for the season. Traffic continues to be running fine here early in the evening commute, and you can see here might be because today is a holiday, so we're getting a little Veterans Day bonus here with free-flowing traffic in downtown Springfield. Pike looks good. I-91 also looking fine. Details on the arriving rain and snow with our 22 News Storm Team forecast on 22 News at 5. Claire. 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.