hi, everybody. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> i'm vicky nguyen. "nbc news daily" starts right now. ♪♪ today, wednesday december 28, 2022. rolling delays. thousands more angry airline passengers as southwest airlines cancellations snowball. why it's happening and some simple tips to get you off the ground. the vatican asks for prayers as the former pope benedict's

health takes a turn. and the quest to conquer the final frontier. and tiktok block. congress orders the app off of all its devices. we begin with more waiting and more frustration for travelers still trying to get home from the holiday weekend. the focus is once again on southwest airlines. on tuesday, southwest canceled 2,700 flights. today, 2,500 have been called off and tomorrow, another 2,300 have been canceled. >> passengers are going nowhere and they are furious. >> it became a nightmare. i want to cry. i'm tired. >> frustrated, tired. pissed off. >> look at this mess.

>> i went to other airlines and everybody is booked up. >> the question now is will the affected passengers get their money back? if transportation secretary pete buttigieg has his way, customers will get the cost of their ticket and then some. >> at a minimum there needs to be cash refunds for the canceled flights and they need to be taking care of passengers where they got stuck with meals, hotel compensation. they put up a website to get those kinds of requests in. >> steven romo had to deal with this travel headache himself. we'll talk to him in a moment. let's begin with niella charles, she's at l.a.x. today. what's the situation there? a lot of bags behind you? >> the situation is not looking good. 62% of southwest airlines have been canceled today. another 58% tomorrow, which

means thousands of flights have been canceled nationwide. those bags behind me, though southwest has flown out baggage, the passengers themselves have not made it. they are stuck in limbo. woe spoke to someone who drove 30 hours, from nashville, tennessee to los angeles after her flight in tennessee was canceled just to make it to her bags here and continue on with holiday plans. she says she's gone days without the clothes and medication in her bags and also had to pay for the cost of the things she did not expect, hotels, rental cars, all of that. that's unfortunately not a unique story. we've seen lots of people affected in this way because while they're hoping to get on a flight with southwest, that at this point in the next couple of days is not looking likely because southwest is only flying a third of its scheduled flights over the next several days. >> you feel for those folks. we know southwest doesn't use

the same type of routing system for its flights and crews that a lot of other airlines use. walk us through that and why is that contributing to all the chaos? >> they use a point to point flight system which means flights are flown consecutively picking up crews along the way. usually that means southwest, because of that, is able to operate more flights than other airlines. in a situation like this, when there are cancellations and delays, that means it's a domino effect with the cancellations, not just for the passengers stuck in the middle but also we're hearing from employees who are stranded as well. the ceo has said it will do right by not just the customers but also the employees and unfortunately that system has left southwest disproportionately affected. though all airlines have been dealing with complications from the winter storm, more than half of the canceled flights are southwest flights. so that's why they've garnered the attention of the department of transportation who says they

will examine whether or not anything differently could have been done here and they are also calling on southwest to do right by their customers and is holding them accountable. >> we hope to see that soon. thank you very much. >> we'll talk with steven romo so, as we've been talking about, the issues with air travel and specifically southwest airlines, steven romo was one of those thousands of people left stranded in that cascade of cancellations and delays. steven romo joins me now to talk about this. first of all, glad you made it back. >> me, too. >> tell me about this experience. what was it like in that crush of people and dealing with the headaches. >> i covered a lot of travel troubles before. nothing like this have i ever experienced. we were supposed to fly out on monday. our flight was canceled abruptly. there was no text message, no notification, no phone call. i just happened to check the app the night before and it said the flight was canceled. so we ended up trying to rebook for standby the next day.

rebooked for the next day, same thing. both of those ended up canceled. we ended up getting a rental car, driving to louisville, borrowing my mother-in-law's car because there were no rental cars and finally made it there on that united flight and made it back. a lot of people are not as lucky as we are. >> given the fact that people are still stuck in some cases, did you learn anything, any sort of pro tips you might give to somebody else starting the experience that you had? did you pick up anything that might be helpful or do anything wrong? >> calling ahead any chance you get, but so many phone lines were down, including for southwest. after that, just be nice to people. there's so much frustration. people sort of taking it out on one another, either other passengers or workers there. a lot of them were in the same situation, they didn't know their schedules, hearing from flight attendants, they weren't able to call into the airlines to figure it out. any time you can, be kind.

and also have a backup plan. but so many people just couldn't go to united and book another flight, they had to wait at the mercy of southwest. some of them are still waiting right now. if you can, be nice to people. >> always good advice. steven romo, appreciate you spending a few extra minutes here with us. go home and get some sleep. >> will do. >> we're glad he's back. let's bring in marissa parra standing by in buffalo, new york. county officials say the death poll from the historic blizzard there keeps rising and crews there are trying to clear the roads. where are the recovery efforts right now? >> yeah. so we're currently in the midst of watching the cleanup efforts happening right now. on the other side of the camera, we can see snow removal crews. on the other side you might be able to make out people shoveling the sidewalks around here. that's particularly around the railway system here. the city is inching towards returning to the "normal." the airport is back open as of 11:00 a.m. the railway system and several

bus routes are back open. clearly, as we talked about, there's not only the search and rescue and recovery efforts happening now for those who may have been trapped inside of their homes without power for several days in those freezing, frigid temperatures, those are conditions that proved deadly. on top of everything we have all of these efforts to try to get the snow out, to get the city moving back as it was. we spoke with the lackawanna city mayor, that's the city south of buffalo about the conditions that made this storm so much more deadly than the last one a month ago. >> the previous storm, we could see a lot of snow came down, but we could see. this storm you couldn't see outside. your screens, windows, everything got clogged. people were trying to last-minute shop for the christmas holiday. they were trying to do grocery shopping and get their meds. a lot of the fatalities and a lot of the incidents happened because people were out and

about. >> a lot of factors here in addition to the fact that at its peak, this blizzard was negative 20 degrees in windchill and 70 miles per hour at the strongest gust. difficult conditions to survive. as this snow starts to melt and as crews remove the snow that is on the streets, they do expect the death toll to rise as they uncover more bodies. >> yeah. heartbreaking stories about people being trapped in their cars just trying to get home from work. the forecast, it says the city is likely to see warmer weather in the coming days, that's nice to get a break, now officials are trying to prepare for potential flooding. talk to us about that. >> right. so the good news is that temperatures are warming up. but the bad news is it is happening fast. even throughout our time here, it almost looks like, if you look at the streets, it almost looks like it's rained. it's very clear where we are right now. these streets, you can see, there's no snow left on them. you can see the asphalt, we

could not see that as early as this morning. the snow is melting, which is making it easier for the snow removal crews. but the problem is it's melting so fast, temperatures are expected to get upwards of the 50s this weekend. on top of that, they are expecting rain. so, we did have a chance to talk with officials who say that they have measured in place and personnel on standby in case of flooding conditions this weekend. >> thank you. now to the breaking news from the vatican where officials say pope benedict -- former pope benedict's health took a turn for the worst. around the world leaders of the church are asking people to pray for the pope emeritus, including pope francis. raf sanchez joins me now. what more do we know about pope benedict? >> pope francis went to visit

the former pope at the monastery where he retired in 2013. that is not a common occurrence. the last time the two popes were together was four months ago. pope francis clearly felt it was important to make that visit today, possibly to say a final good-bye. we know the former pope's health has worsened as a result of his old age. he turns 95 in april. i want to read you a bit of the last statement we got from the vatican. the spokesman saying in the last few hours, his condition worsened due to age. the situation at present is under control, monitored constantly by doctors. that statement is from about ten hours ago. i guess you could argue no news is good news, but a lot of people closely waiting for anything more from the vatican. >> we can't help but wonder, raf, what happens next if, in fact, the pope emeritus does die.

pope benedict was the first pontiff to resign from that role in more than 600 years. i know the vatican has procedures in place for when a sitting pope dies. what about a hope emeritus? >> there's no playbook for a situation like this. we for the first time in six centuries have a pope who stepped down, continuing to live on in this new title as the pope emeritus. when a sitting pope dies, it triggers century-old rituals. most famous is the conclave of the cardinals where a new pope is elected. no playbook for what happens when a pope emeritus passes on. >> raf, thank you. well, a big u.s. company strikes a deal with the ukrainian government and a judge in the ftx bankruptcy case is stepping down. >> kristina partsinevelos joins us. >> president zelenskyy has a deal with blackrock, one of the world's biggest investment managers to help make sure

future public and private investments in the country's reconstruction and recovery go to the areas wither they are most needed. also, a new judge has been assigned to handle the ftx bankruptcy after the first judge recused herself because her husband worked for a law firm that advised the crypto exchange. and "avatar: the way of water" hit $1 billion in global ticket sales. it took 14 days, much faster than the other two movies that got to that milestone, that would be top gun maverick and jurassic world dominion. all movies i have never seen. >> really? >> sorry. i shouldn't have admitted that. i don't go to movies. >> i don't think i've seen them either. i was thinking "jurassic park," the first one, which was a long time ago. still to come, keeping up with -- not the kardashians, prescription drug price changes in the new year. we'll show you how to save on vital medications step-by-step. you're watching "nbc new

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year, health care costs can be staggers, that's because deductibles reset on top of other factors like inflation. there are ways to save on your prescriptions in 2023. >> reporter: it's all too common, sticker shock at the pharmacy. >> $250 a month. >> my copayment was $660. >> $17,710 for a milliliter. >> reporter: as the new year is under way, it is shocking with the deductibles and out of pocket maximums are reset, and the insurance plans are updating coverage, you could be caught footing bill. >> at the beginning of the year, everybody's plan changes. >> consumer reports lisa gill says the best way to combat those price hikes starts with a phone call and key questions. >> give your insurance company a call and find out how well is this drug covered? is it covered at a preferred pharmacy at a lower cost? >> reporter: turns out there's a lot of options.

if you have a high deductible and high-pharmacy copay and you take mostly generic medicines is, there are multiple discount pharmacies to help you to pay less without using your insurance. some like costco, walgreen's and scriptco offer discounted meds for those with a membership fee. and good rx and singlecare offer coupons to be used at pharmacies. and then online pharmacies like blink health, and the ones that typically don't like mark cuban's cost plus drug company. we called walgreen's to see how theirs compared. so i got off of walgreen's, and they wanted to charge me $94 for one-month supply of a common cholesterol medication, the generic. but, if i join their membership program for $20, i can get the drug for $15 a month. get this, when i went on line for the drug company website, i

found i could get a 90-day supply for under 5 bucks. finding the savings for the brand name medications is different. if you have insurance through your employer, go directly to the drug manufacturer's website and look for something called a co-pay coupon or a savings card which could mean a big discount for you. if you are on medicare or uninsured call the drug maker directly and ask about any assistance programs. >> over time, those programs have expanded quite dramatically to the point where you can have insurance, a moderate income and still receive a dramatic discount or free medication. >> reporter: the when site, needymeds.org has assistance plans for a huge variety of brand name drugs, but gill says it is still important to check in with your insurance. >> you don't want to be surprised later in the year when you find out that you never met that deductible. >> reporter: if you tried everything and still can't pay, gill says your best resource

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nancy pelosi, was back in court today. he entered a final plea before his case goes to trial. and we were inside the courtroom and has the latest. >> reporter: today's arraignment on the information lasted near minutes. it was straightforward and administrative with the accused, depape, entering a not guilty plea once again. when the judge decided there is enough evidence for this case to go to trial. and during today's appearance, depape was wearing a mask and had his hair in a ponytail. his attorney entered the not guilty plea as well as, quote, denning all allegations against him. the public defender asked depape if he waives his right to a speedy trial to which he answered yes.

february 23rd has been agreed when the parties will meet back in courtroom. depape faces a number of charges including attempted murder, assaulted with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. if he is found guilty of this and other charges he will face up to 50 years in prison. ginger conejero saab, bay area news. here are other top stories. high-speed pursuit with a twist has four people detained in vallejo. police say police linked the killer to another murder. brown lee faces seven murder charges. the cause of an apartment

fire that broke out late last night in pleasant hill is being officially classified as arson. police say three apartments were damaged after the flames broke out just after 9:00 last night, and this happened on contra costa boulevard. neighbors say they saw a man taking off into his apartment after the fire broke out with two knives. then a slow pursuit ends with an arrest. this all unfolded in vallejo on westbound 80 around 10:00 this morning. the chp had the whole traffic stopped at the canyon road to stop that driver. chp surrounded the driver before he crashed into the center divide. four people were arrested here. it caused a traffic backup for miles and no word yet on what started the original chase. contra costa health leaders

say a raccoon is behind a flaring incident last week. at the time health leaders say there was no risk to the surrounding incident, and then another flaring incident happened due to an equipment malfunction. and that incident was not believed to be a health risk, but now they are investigating. more wet weather is on the way. here's meteorologist, vianey arana. >> we are getting a little break from the rain before we see another round of showers move in late tonight, but this is what you are going to see for your wednesday, high cloud cover is expected to increase in the afternoon, and expect to warm up only into the 50s. around noon we will see the increased high clouds and then look what happens around 2:30, 3:00, the temperatures bump up

into the upper 50s and then we have rain moving in. we are talking overnight into the early-morning commute. not as intense or as heavy as what we saw on tuesday, but it will impact the early morning part of your commune. >> thank you. we do have a follow-up on the robbery of a controversial statue stolen in oakland. the statue was headed to southern california on tuesday when the u-haul was stolen, and most of the statue was recovered but some still missing. i will be back in 30 minutes with more news. my a1c statayed here,, it neeeeded to be e here. ray's s a1c is dowown with r rybelsus®. i'm m down with h rybelsus®. my a a1c is downwn with rybebe. inin a clinicacal study, once-daiaily rybelsusus® signgnificantly y lowered a1c

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bottom of the hour. here's some of the stories making headlines on "nbc news daily." >> a delaware trucker described as the coleader of the conspiracy to kidnap gretchen whitmer has been sentenced to prison. he was frustrated with her covid-19 lockdown protocols. this comes a day after his accomplice received a sentence of 16 years. an arizona judge rejected katie hobbs request to sanction her former opponent, kari lake.

the judge declined so sanction lake, he ordered her to pay hobbs $33,000 plus to cover legal fees. the mega millions jackpot has jumped once again after no one matched all six numbers in tuesday's drawing. it is estimated that friday night's drawing will reach a grand prize of $640 million. that's 328 million if you take the cash payout. that would be the sixth largest jackpot in mega millions history. we want to turn to the war in ukraine where military officials say russia fired 33 missiles at civilian targets in kherson in just the last 24 hours. president zelenskyy said there is no place that is not covered with blood as the fighting intensifies there. matt bradley is on the ground for us in kyiv.

matt? >> that's right. ukraine and kherson have endured relentless attacks over the past weekend. two dozen attacks overnight and dozens more earlier in the week. here's our report. >> reporter: ukraine's southern city of kherson under fire again. only weeks ago, these civilians were welcoming ukrainian liberators, now new russian bombardments including a maternity ward on tuesday has sent them fleeing. russian artillery attacks on christmas eve killed 11 people. this woman's son is among the dead. i urged him to wake up and leave the house but he didn't and that was it, she said. our lives are ruined. but the fiercest battles are in the east like bakhmut. among ukraine's longest battles, a violent crucible for the wider war.

other areas in donbas require maximum strength and concentration now ukraine's president said. the situation there is difficult and painful. the constant drumbeat of war now a routine rhythm for many. you kind of get used to it, said this man. you don't even look or listen carefully to what is happening and where. that's how we are now. still, i want to live a normal life. after five months of fighting, there is little left here to destroy except lives. a video game designer was killed just before christmas. he always cared other people more than himself, said his friend. diplomacy reached another impasse this week. russia announcing it will ban oil sales. the move may limit the west's ability to punish moscow, but on the homefront, energy is

also in short supply. ukrainian civilians huddled through a cold dark christmas amid electricity outages. war weary but still celebrating as best they can. >> the united nations is saying there's a large portion of ukraine's population that needs humanitarian help. what can you tell us about that? >> that's right. as this war enters its 11th month, the united nations just reported that about 40% of the population needs assistance. that's about 18 million people. you know what else? the united nations also reported that about 7%, only 7% of the ukrainian population say they want to leave. aaron? >> matt bradley for us in ukraine. thank you. a controversial immigration policy won't be going away any time soon. the supreme court deciding to keep title 42 in place until at least june. it was set to expire last week. the trump-era rule started during the pandemic. it allows the u.s. to quickly expel migrants.

sam brock has more. >> reporter: after a tight 5-4 supreme court decision as it pertains to title 42, people here are trying to process the reality that it will be at least another six months before we have any sort of resolution as the high court will be looking at whether 19 states can intervene on this policy as abject human distress is playing out on the streets. folks here are just waking up. many of them folding up their blankets and trying to get food. el paso has been deeply impacted by the immigration crisis. this is a shelter over my shoulder. all these folks want to sleep inside of one, many of them are from venezuela and venezuela is blocked under title 42 from seeking asylum. even if they wanted to stay inside a city shelter, you need documentation to do so and they don't have it. food and shelter are at the top of the priority list. they're working with church groups and ngo groups to distribute food, blankets, supplies, all of that, but it's been a struggle.

one woman asked me what's going on with title 42, when i told her it would be another six months, her jaw dropped. many people here don't know what's going on but they have fear of being sent back into mexico, back into situations where they were prey for cartels, where their kids were in danger. that's why they're here. many people say they would rather be sleeping on the streets in freezing temperatures than going back to their home country. in terms of the biden administration's response, they will comply with the policy. they said they're making advanced preparations for when title 42 will be lifted to secure the border in a humane and orderly way. the root problem the administration says is the fact you have a broken administration system that has not acted on the enforcement side or the immigration side and to ultimately resolve this crisis so cities like el paso are not dealing with such suffering and pain on their back door, congress needs to get involved. cam brock, nbc news.

a spokesperson for the house ways and means committee tells nbc news that former president trump's tax returns will be made public on friday. the committee voted to release the documents last week but is taking time to make sure some personal information is redacted. the committee obtained six years of the records back in november after a 3 1/2 year legal battle. the irs did not conduct mandatory audits while trump was in office. the house of representatives is dealing with two different types of controversies just days before a new congress is sworn in. republican leaders are remaining silent about congressman elect george santos after he admitted lying about several parts of his resume. time's up for tiktok. the app is now banned on all house-issued devices. ryan joins us now. let's start with george santos. he appeared on fox news for an interview last night. i'll play part of this. you and i will talk on the other

side. >> i think we can all look at ourselves in the mirror and admit once in our life we made a mistake. i'm having to admit this on national television and i have the courage to do so because i believe in order to move past this and be an effective member of congress, i have to face my mistakes and i'm facing them. >> there are mistakes there are intentional lies, some house democrats are saying santos, you need to resign. what are you hearing from republicans today about him and is there a mechanism to recall him or to sanction him in any way? >> yeah. first off, republican leaders are not saying much at all. the minority leader, kevin mccarthy who would like to be the next speaker of the house has not said a word about george santos. we're hearing from some rank and file republicans, particularly republicans that represent the same area that george santos does, including congressman

elect nick loloda who was elected in the neighboring district. he said i believe a full investigation by the house ethics committee and if necessary law enforcement is required. new yorkers deserve the truth and house republicans deserve to govern without this distraction. that gets into the second part of your question. what can they do? the house ethics committee is probably the most natural conduit to look into a situation like this. if that happens, largely it becomes a black hole. they do all of their investigations behind closed doors. we won't learn the outcome of that investigation until it's all wrapped up. then, of course, there's the question of whether or not some agencies like the new york attorney general's office or the new york attorney would look into his financial situation. that's a possibility but it's far down the road. >> quickly before i let you go. let's talk tiktok. why is the house banning that app now? >> they say it's a security risk. it comes just after the house and senate made part of that omnibus spending package a new

law that would require tiktok to be banned on all executive branch devices. this is the house now saying for the devices that are controlled by members of the house and their staff that tiktok is no longer allowed to be on those house-issued devices. some members of congress use tiktok as a way to communicate to constituents. they can still do that on their private devices. these are devices controlled by the government. >> thank you. this morning, spacex launched updated starlink internet satellites. the aim is to provide better connectivity in remote areas. it is just the latest in what has been a blockbuster year in space launches and exploration. from privatization so the webb telescope delivering the deepest image of our universe yet and nasa taking the first step in man's return to the moon. tom costello looks back at how we expanded our reach into the frontier.

>> three, two, one -- boosters, ignition. liftoff of artemis one. >> reporter: a 25-day, $1.4 million test flight of the new orion spaceship that will one day carry astronauts back to the moon. a high resolution flyover of the moon. >> orion is on the money. >> reporter: then a spectacular reentry with the heat shield hitting 5,000 degrees. that's half the temperature of the sun. >> there it is, high over the pacific. >> before a parachute drop into the pacific ocean. >> splashdown. >> it is the beginning of the new beginning, and that is to explore the heavens. >> reporter: that new beginning is going to include astronauts on a similar

test flight around the moon in 2024, and then a lunar landing in 2025 or 2026 with a crew that includes a woman and a person of color. the first return to the moon since those heady days of apollo. >> houston, tranquillity base here, the eagle has landed. >> reporter: but nasa is leaning heavily on private companies. spacex now regularly raunches both crew and cargo to the iss. this is a view of earth from the international space station and simulator in houston. outside the cupola, the blue of effort and the deep blackness of space. and right there, the canada arm which has reached out to grab an incoming cargo vessel. spacex is now working overtime on its starship that will carry astronauts to the moon and then

perhaps mars in the late 2030s. another huge success in 2022, nasa's d.a.r.t. mission. >> we hahave impact!t! >> repororter: the s spacecraft time lapapse traveliling at 14,000 miles per hour, slamming into a small asteroid named dimorprphos severeral millionon from earthth and pushing it eve so slightltly off its orbibit. a critical success if nasa hopes to one day deflect an incoming planet-killing asteroid away from earth. >> this is a watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity. >> reporter: the most visual space achievement in 2022 were those spectacular images from the james webb telescope using infrared cameras. we're now looking at light billions of years old looking at stars and galaxies and stunning nebulas, and begging the

question, are we alone? >> we could have an answer about whether or not there can life in the universe, it would change everything. it would change our entire understanding of what we were and who we are in the universe. >> reporter: it's big and beckoning to a new generation of explorers. tom costello, nbc news, houston >> there's got to be life out there. >> the fact that we might find out one day through our own efforts, pretty impressive. >> maybe in our lifetime, you think? >> fingers crossed. still to come, celebrating well before the clock strikes midnight. >> sounds good. >> we'll show you some >> we'll show you some family-friendly

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we only have a few days left in 2022. >> i can't believe it. >> almost. >> as families get ready to ring in the new year, parents may be wondering what's the best way to celebrate with kids. we have some answers. joining us is author, life coach and founder of mom mastery university, haley. new year's eve is a time when parents want to celebrate solo, but you have your kids, maybe you want to do something family-friendly. we have some tips that you helped us put together. creating high-energy activities, avoiding alcohol, dropping your own ball and space-out party food. what do you mean by high-energy

activities? >> the point is that you don't want the energy to lag because kids are getting tired, adults are getting bored. every 30 minutes it's nice to incorporate something that's not exhausting, but just high-energy. one year we're doing a relay to see how many balloons we can pop by sitting on them. one time we had kayak races in the freezing cold pool outside. all of these are to get the kids engaged and the adults, too and keep the energy going. >> number two on the list is no alcohol. i don't understand that. >> help us comprehend. >> why no alcohol in this case? >> well, in this case, it's always fun to have a champagne toast new year's eve. but i found that alcohol can quickly divide the adults from the children. and since you want to have a family party, you want to limit that so that everyone can enjoy the party together. >> i think that's so cute. that's a great idea. there's a new trend towards

de-alcoholizing drinks. they taste great. you don't miss the alcohol. >> i'll take your word for it. >> absolutely. >> tip three is create your own ball to drop. how do you do that? why would you do that? >> okay. the reason why is because it's basically hysterical. one year we got this huge beach ball, we decorated it with battery operated christmas lights. my son dropped it down from the third floor window. so we're blasting music in the neighborhood, the neighbors come over and everyone sees it. it's so much more fun and engaging than watching a ball drop on the screen. it's just funny. nothing will boost views on your social media platform than seeing a ball dropped out of the window. >> very cool. just a few seconds left. you say space out the food, too. >> yes. absolutely to keep the energy going. every hour introduce a new hors d'oeuvre. add some novelty to it.

>> this is like keep it moving new year's eve party. >> absolutely. >> thank you very much. there is much more news ahead. >> you're watching "nbc news daily."

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audrey asistio. southwest airlines is canceling hundreds of flights. oakland international airport has canceled 124 flights so far. all southwest. san jose has 147 and sfo has 38 canceled southwest flights. southwest says they are reimbursing for hotels, food and rental cars. chris chmura is posting a step-by-step guide on twitter to help you get reimbursed. police in san francisco are investigating a deadly hit-and-run that happened around 5:00 this morning on bay and stockton streets. the victim was declared dead at the scene, and so far no arrests have been made. well, it is dry out there now but won't last long. meteorologist vianey arana is here with how the rest of the week is looking. we saw a much calmer wednesday, but heading into wednesday night and early

thursday morning we do have more rain on the way. you can see some of the cloud cover there. use this as your window of opportunity to prepare. we have a series of storms that will lead us into the first week of 2023. daytime highs in the 50s. increased high clouds. we'll get some peeks of sunshine. we are maxing out only in the 50s. and then we'll notice the winds begin to pick up 10 to 20 miles an hour, the rain moves in late tonight into early thursday morning. some rain early on, scattered showers, and more rain to the north heading into friday for new year's eve. expect lots of wind and rain. >> vianey, thank you. the storm brought this fresh blanket of snow up north. look at that. this is a live look in south lake tahoe where they got about 4 inches of snow. there were also strong winds of up to 111 miles an hour. that forced the resort to close its ski lift yesterday. we'lle back in one minute w bit

we are in the thick of a

messy winter travel season, and it looks like a lot of travelers are already looking ahead. i guess it's time to start thinking about spring break. and here is something our consumer investigator loves to loathe, talking about resort fees. chris chmura wants to help you avoid those resort fees. here is how. >> reporter: first, a rant, please. resort fees are totally, completely, undeniably out of control. okay. now that we've established how inhospitable i feel resort fees are, let's look at five ways you can try to beat them. our first trick is to check your rate. pro tip, if you already have a reservation, you're not necessarily locked into a rate with a resort fee. many hotel reservations can be revised right up until the week you arrive. second, comparison shop for package deals. third, see if your company has a negotiated hotel rate. many employers, especially the big ones, broker deals with the hotel chains. part of that negotiation is nixing resort fees and sometimes

you can use your corporate rate. see if your loyalty pays. at least one waives hotel fees, hyatt. get that go elite status requires staying 60 nights a year. we know that's not for everyone. but tip number five is. see if using points instead of cash to pay for your stay makes sense. here is an example. i researched a hotel in honolulu. a five-night stay in a king room, nothing special, in july. the room rate, resort fee and taxes total $3,324. if you look the same exact stay using points and you buy all those points, it will cost you $2,800. total sa

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today on "access daily," lindsay lohan is making a comeback. and we've got a new look at her new christmas movie. >> and the mullet championship t. >> "access" daily starts now. >> welcome to "access daily," everybody from universal studios, hollywood. i'm kit hoover, with mario lopez. i am so excited about this next news. lindsay lohan has a new holiday movie called "falling for christmas." her leading role in a movie in nearly a decade. >> i just want people to remember me for more than my last name. where exactly are we going?