Tradition behind Boston Common's Christmas tree has endured decades and a pandemic: "This is a symbol of what we can do"
CBSN
About 40 miles outside Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the Gourley family's fifth-generation dairy farm, a tree stands so tall it still holds the lights that were strung some 20 Christmases past. The lights remain on the tree because it outgrew the family's highest ladder long ago.
Bette Gourley, the matriarch of the family, told CBS News' Nancy Chen that the white spruce has been growing alongside her family for nearly four decades now. But, as a Christmas tree-in-waiting, it's still a few feet short of reaching the height it needs to be before it is sent more than 600 miles away to Boston, Massachusetts.
"It's been five or eight years since they said they might consider us," said Chester Gourley. "So it's something we've been waiting for. And it's a big honor."
Strong storms with damaging winds and baseball-sized hail pummeled Texas on Tuesday, leaving more than one million businesses and homes without power as much of the U.S. recovered from severe weather, including tornadoes, that killed at least 24 people in seven states during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Actor Richard Dreyfuss is facing backlash for allegedly sharing remarks that audience members found sexist, homophobic and generally offensive at a Q&A event over the weekend tied to a Massachusetts theater's screening of "Jaws." Dreyfuss starred in the 1975 blockbuster that was filmed in Massachusetts and screened Saturday night at The Cabot, a performing arts center in the coastal community of Beverly.
Another American who was arrested in the Turks and Caicos Islands for possessing ammunition was sentenced to time served and a $9,000 fine on Tuesday, local media reported. Tyler Wenrich was facing a potential mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years in prison for ammunition charges in the British territory.