Thirty five degrees in Boston at three thirty good afternoon. I'm Ben Parker. Here's what's happening. The snow is here. The Great Holiday Escape is underway, and the weather's been leading to some major problems on the highways. We have a crash on the Turnpike in Auburn. We have traffic everywhere and it's going pretty slowly. It'll get you caught up on traffic and weather together in just a couple
of minutes. And there's going to be a lot of traffic through the holiday season as Triple A is expecting record travelers, projecting one hundred and nineteen million people will travel fifty miles or more from home tomorrow and until New Year's Day. Over seven million people will be flying, but most travelers will be driving. They'll be treated to the lower gas prices this year compared to last and Triple as as those hitting the road should follow the
speed limit, void overnight drives, and expect some delays. If you're flying today out of Boston, yeah, there are delays. According to Flight to Where, there have been four hundred and sixty four delayed flights over at Logan Airport today in twenty six cancelations. The weather, of course not helping. Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year, so W The bz's Kendall Bule last locals what days they're getting off.
With Chipley saying this weekend begins a record travel period. I think everyone's on the cosp of a holiday break. That's not what I found though, when I asked people about it.
I do have to work next week.
I don't start Tell Wednesday.
You have working next week?
Oh yeah, I have to work next week.
For sure.
We got Christmas off, we celebrate Baby Jesus, and back to reality we go.
And those aren't even the essential workers. I talked to the first responders, hospital staff and others who work at jobs. Were the doors never ever closed? Now, I will say this, while the few people I spoke to for whom the weekend is indeed the start of their holiday seemed extra giddy, the ones who will be working don't seem to have lost any of their Christmas time goodwill.
The holiday for me is what I make of it.
Kendall Bull WBSY Boston's news Radio.
My makers making a mad dash to try to put together a government spending bill to pass the House following yesterday's that was voted down.
Well, there is apparently a planned c in the works. Democratic lawmakers like Representative Promila Jayapaul are pushing for the House Speaker to put the original bipartisan stopgap funding deal up for another vote.
He could grow a spine right now, ignore his puppeteers, and then he could put this negotiated bill on the floor.
But Republican Anna Paulina Luna says, I'm not cutting.
Gild of Democrats.
We're going to work it out here. I do not believe the government is going to be shutting down. Stacey Lynn, CBS News Washington.
Number of Amazon delivery drivers are off the job right now during the busiest time of the year.
Thousands of Amazon workers who belong to the Teamsters union. They're on strike for a second day at seven of the company's delivery hubs in New York, Georgia, Illinois, and California. Justin Sharer is president of Teamster's Local seven eighty three in Louisville, Kentucky.
It's about our workforce, and it's about improving this workforce.
This corporation has made billions, if not trillions, of dollars on the backs of Labor.
Says the striking workers who are delivery drivers actually work for a third party company. Jim Chrysilli Cibesta.
We've got these snow around. We have a winter weather advisor until four o'clock in the morning, and we're going to get varying amounts of snow falling and various amounts of snow on the ground. By the time all this said and done, one to three inches on average, but there could be some locally higher amounts as this coastal storm kind of gets revved up. It's not going to hit us directly, but as you can see, it is
giving us a little wake up call. We'll have some slippery conditions on the roads already due and that'll continue into the evening. The snow will come to an end and we'll just linger with some flurries tomorrow morning, and then we'll get some sunshine to come through, but it won't warm us some much. Thirty two is going to do it for the high tomorrow real field temperatures with the wind around mainly in the teens. Tomorrow night, it'll
be clear. It'll be cold fifteen in the city. Colder than that maybe single digits in the suburbs and the real fields below zero at times. Sunday, real fields in the single digits. The sunshine will be out, but we'll have blustery conditions. Temperatures load mid twenties downtown but probably not getting out of the teens in many of the coldest suburbs will be in the upper twenties with some sunshine. Monday.
Right now, it's thirty five degrees in Boston. If you haven't finished your holiday shopping yet, well you're certainly not alan WBZ Sheerry Small as more.
Checking over that shopping list twice. If there are still gifts to be bought, no sweat. You have this weekend to get that done, but get ready for some big crowds. This weekend is expected to be one of the busiest times of the holiday shopping season, and there's no shortage of spending this season. We're talking online and in stores. In fact, the National Retail Federation predicting records spending, with people on average spending more than nine hundred dollars on
holiday gifts. Sherry Small WBZ, Boston's News Radio.
If you procrastinated then are scrambling to buy holiday presents, There is still time to make those last minute purchases, topping some gift lists this year, gifts that were also popular decades ago. Rabbly Blackburn with more on how our digital world has some staying power in the analog world.
Over the last eight years, vinyl album sales have grown nearly three hundred percent, with nearly fifty million new records sold in twenty twenty three.
CDs and even.
Cassettes are making a modest comeback as physical gifts you can touch, and here.
We're hitting that point where people want to break from just staring at the screen.
It's not just analog audio. At one of New York's oldest toy shops, Mary Arnold Toys, many customers come in asking for low tech gifts.
And according to Research and Markets, dot com board game sales are expected to double in the coming years, reaching more than forty billion dollars by twenty twenty nine. Do you have a real Christmas tree? How's it holding up? Bring Tennis tells us how to spruce it up?
Yarden Garden says, even if you do everything right, your tree can stop drinking water and die. Experts say there's hope to bring it back, but it's going to take a bit of work because when the tree stops drinking water, it's usually because sap is covering the bottom of the trunk. They say, you need to pull that tree from its base, give it a fresh cut, then back into the water. Then you can clean up all the ornaments that dropped on the floor. I'm Bree Tennis.
You are now in the loop for news updates throughout the day. Listen to WBZ News Radio on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Ben Tarkner, WBZ, Boston's news radio