Today's Top Headlines

Wednesday, September 16

Good morning Wypierdalaj,

We're following developing news this morning out of California, where a helicopter affiliated with NBC Los Angeles crashed, killing the photojournalist and pilot on board and one person on the ground. We also continue to track the latest on Ed Sheeran’s tour. Four of his supporting acts abruptly quit yesterday in solidarity with the rapper Macklemore. Plus, what's in store for our weather this week? I'm Kaitlin McKinley Becker, and these are your headlines.

A Boston woman says she waited more than two hours for her autistic son’s school bus to arrive.

Helen Swanson of Dorchester says her 7-year-old son, Davey, was thrilled to take the bus for the first time last week. But problems with the service have taken most of the fun away.

“Davey has been wanting to take the bus since he started school,” she said. “It’s the big yellow bus, what kid doesn’t?”

Two people were taken to the hospital following a fiery crash overnight on Cape Cod.

The Harwich Fire Department says it received a report around 1:39 a.m. of a crash, where the car was reportedly on fire and people were still inside, at the intersection of Queen Anne Road and Main Street.

Prior to first responders arriving on scene, a nearby resident helped two people get out from the car, which was engulfed by flames when firefighters got there.

Three people were killed and one person was hospitalized Tuesday night when a news helicopter crashed while reporters for NBC Los Angeles and Telemundo 52 were covering a fatal bus collision.

The crash was reported just before 7 p.m. in Chatsworth., a neighborhood in northern Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Colleen Williams, an NBC L.A. anchor, confirmed during a live broadcast that NewsChopper4, which is operated by Angel City Air, went down and two people were killed.

Ed Sheeran’s tour of North and South America was plunged into chaos Tuesday when four of his supporting acts abruptly quit in solidarity with the rapper Macklemore, who was dropped for making pro-Palestinian comments onstage.

Hours after Sheeran posted on social media about Macklemore’s ouster and attributed the decision to the tour’s promoters, Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, the Danish band Lukas Graham, and Finneas posted on Instagram that they were leaving the tour.

Rowe and Lukas Graham would have been replacements for Macklemore on Sheeran’s remaining U.S. dates, while Beoga had been performing several songs — including some the Irish folk band co-wrote — with Sheeran around the middle of each set. Finneas, who is Billie Eilish’s brother and musical collaborator, was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year.

Today sees a return of the warmth, but not the midsummer type. Highs will just reach 80 in spots with an uptick in the humidity throughout the day. Winds are light as they turn out of the southwest.

Showers won’t be a major issue in the coming days, but some spots may get wet as a weak weather system rolls by. Best chance for steady rain is in Northern New England. Here, we settle for scattered showers and sprinkles. As a result, don’t expect a lot of water into Friday morning. This front will do little else than move the sticky air in and then out. It is setting us up for a fine finish to the workweek, however.

Friday will see a slight dip in the temperatures, followed by a flat-out drop on Saturday and Sunday into the 60s. Rain could return on Sunday, but the jury is still out on the timing and intensity. Our favored model, the European, has been delaying it later and later into the afternoon. If this trend keeps up, we could see it arrive later Sunday night – or, as some guidance suggests, it may never lift into New England at all. This is no surprise in the autumn months. When the pattern is in transition (here from dry to unsettled), there’s a lot of volatility and shaky forecast confidence.

The Needham, Massachusetts, community is grieving following the death of a high school student there.

Needham High School junior Elijah Chen died suddenly Monday, according to Superintendent Dan Gutekanst. His cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

Elijah had many friends on the football and track teams, as well as two younger siblings attending High Rock School and Pollard Middle School, the superintendent added.