cleared out its backlog. the lessons to be learned about getting products off ships and on to shelves. >> reporter: these containers are all loaded on rail cars that are going to head to big cities. >> garrett: sentencing outrage-- a young truck driver is given 110 years in prison for a pileup that killed four people. protests tonight saying the sentence is excessive. the war on cancer-- a closer look at the racial divide in diagnosis and treatment. and finally a story about a christmas tree that could become your new tradition and help the environment at the same time. >> this is the "cbs evening news" with norah o'donnell reporting from the nation's capital. >> garrett: good evening to our viewers in the west. thank you for joining us. i'm major garrett in for norah. we begin with the omicron surge. the variant is spreading faster than all other covid strains. on monday the c.d.c. reported nearly 290,000 new covid cases. that is the second-most new infections in one day since this pandemic began. and the spike in cases has president biden unveiling new plans to combat omicron. we'll have more details on that in just a moment. with just days until, yes, our second covid christmas, health officials are urging those headed to family gatherings to do the following: get tested, vaccinated, and boosted-- underscoring that vaccinations reduce your risk. professional sports are grappling with this resurgence as well. the n.h.l. announced it will pause its season, and the league will reportedly keep its players out of the beijing winter olympics after a spike in infections. there are, as you can tell, a lot of covid headlines to get to tonight, and cbs' nancy chen starts us off at a pop-up testing site in new york city. nancy, good evening. >> reporter: major, good evening to you. just days before christmas, it's a scramble against fast-moving omicron, with the c.d.c. predicting record-high new infections nationwide as soon as january. here in new york, more than one in 10 tests is coming back positive for covid. in times square, the crossroads of the world, long lines to get tested, as the rapidly spreading omicron variant grips new york city. 92% of cases in the area are connected to omicron, and the city is testing more than 130,000 people each day, double the number from just three weeks ago. today, mayor bill de blasio announcing a reward for booster shots. >> get your booster shot, get $100 incentive. >> reporter: and there's rampant covid testing in chicago where mayor lori lightfoot said proof of vaccine requirements for restaurants, gyms, and entertainment venues. >> this is what we have to do to keep our health system from becoming overwhelmed. >> reporter: and tonight, the c.d.c. reports more than 1,000 children have now died from covid since the beginning of the pandemic. research shows that the risk of household transmission is nearly three times higher for omicron than the delta variant. one in five hospitals nationwide expects a staffing shortage within a week. >> each variant has its own little shop of horrors, and in the case of the omicron variant, that's what this is, that one- two punch of so many people getting infected and knocking out a substantial segment of our healthcare workforce at the same time. >> reporter: peter hotez is a virologist at houston's baylor college of medicine and recommends a fourth shot for healthcare workers and those who are immunocompromised. >> the level of protective immunity after the third immunization against the omicron variant wanes, declines pretty rapidly. >> reporter: massachusetts is one of several states activating the national guard to support hospitals as omicron spreads. you think that people should reconsider holiday plans? >> i think people should take a hard look at them and really think about their individual situations with their families. >> reporter: and tonight, another weapon in the fight against covid. the f.d.a. is reportedly expected to approve treatment pills from pfizer and merck some time this week. the pills could be taken at the early onset of symptoms and help prevent hospitalizations. major. >> garrett: nancy chen, thank you. now to the white house where president biden tried to reassure vaccinated americans about their holiday gatherings, while warning the unvaccinated they risk severe illness and even death. cbs' ed o'keefe is there. >> reporter: president biden today tried leveling with a wary nation. >> i want to start by acknowledging how tired, worried, and frustrated i know you are. >> reporter: he assured those who are vaccinated and have a booster shot that they should be able to gather over the holidays, but also had a stark warning for americans who don't have their shots. >> almost everyone who has died from covid-19 in the past many months has been unvaccinated. >> reporter: 68 million people are still unvaccinated, and of the more than 200 million who are fully vaccinated, only 30% have that critical booster shot. >> just the other day, former president trump announced he has gotten his booster shots. it may be one of the few things he and i agree on. people with booster shots are highly protected. >> reporter: with growing testing lines around the country, the president announced plans to distribute 500 million at-home testing kits next month, available for order online for free. and new federal testing sites will be opening nationwide, first in densely populated new york city. to deal with the ongoing crush at some hospitals, fema is already deploying emergency medical teams to six states, and 1,000 military health professionals are ready to deploy. even with this war-like footing, including a fresh supply of ventilators, masks, and glovesvs ready to go, the president tried to sound reassuring. >> we should all be concerned about omicron, but not panicked. >> reporter: the president himself had a close call with the virus. a staffer he came into close contact with late last week tested positive on monday. the president was tested. he tested negative, and aides say he'll be tested again tomorrow. major. >> garrett: ed o'keefe, thank you. tonight, there are two storm systems that could make for messy driving conditions for holiday travelers on both coasts. parts of new england will get snow and freezing rain tonight, while in the west, the sierras could get up to 10 feet of snow by the end of the week, making driving treacherous along interstate 80.seere, rn anndl disrupt travel in the bay area tomorrow, and in los angeles thursday.ay. there was als there was also severe weather in florida today. a tornado touched down in south fort myers, damaging several homes.st one person was hur at least one person was hurt. americans are hitting the stores, frantically searching for those last-minute gifts. finding them is one thing, of course getting them there on time quite another. here is cbs' janet shamlian. >> reporter: 'tis the night before the christmas panic... ♪ ♪ ♪ when all through the stores, like houston's fundamentally toys, procrastinators paced the aisles. and you waited until last minute because... >> it's like that every time. there's just no way about it. >> reporter: manager cliff moss says the most popular items are long gone. what's it like in the store right now? >> it's crazy. we don't have a lot of what, you know, they might be looking for. >> reporter: for those relying on premium services to deliver gifts before christmas, it's almost the midnight hour. >> i'm sending out a parcel. you know if it gets there on time, but i doubt it. >> reporter: at the post office, thursday is the last day to ship priority mail express, same with next-day delivery via u.p.s. and fedex. and only fedex can help you if you wait until friday using same-day delivery. with an active season driven by pent-up demand, the national retail federation predicts record sales. >> it looks like actual retail sales will exceed our forecast and be upwards of 11% in terms of growth. >> reporter: but the omicron variant could be a last-minute grinch. what about the u-turn of the last few days in terms of the rise of the new variant? >> well, we always knew that covid could cause some uncertainty around the holidays. >> reporter: outdoor shopping centers like this have been especially popular amid covid concerns. and this is the time people tend to hit the brick-and-mortar stores as some online sellers can no longer deliver in time. major. >> garrett: covid could cause some uncertainty, yes, indeed. janet shamlian, thank you. we turn now to a possible solution to unclog shipping ports, where goods have been stacking up, as you have been reading, for months. a new pop-up concept is being used at the port of savannah, one of the nation's busiest. it could be applied nationwide. here is cbs' kris van cleave. >> reporter: that's the sound of the holiday rush at the port of savannah. here, it's not about delivering gifts. it's about clearing the backlog of cargo containers. three months ago, they were really piling up, sitting here for up to 12 days. it's now closer to seven days, and to help, the port established what amounts to four inland pop-up ports. >> we think these things can be replicated across the nation. >> reporter: you see these pop- up yards becoming permanent yards? >> i see some of them becoming permanent yards where it's actually going to help our business. >> reporter: the pop-ups were idle rail yards that are now bringing cargo closer to its final destination while freeing up space at the dock. the port has been working around the clock, 24 hours a day, loading and unloading these giant ships, and it's having an impact. in october they had 31 vessels waiting offshore to be unloaded. that number has been cut to just six. >> it's that kind of problem solving that i think is going to help us deal with these short- term issues even while we're making investments towards the long run. >> reporter: transportation secretary pete buttigieg says the biden administration is now looking at if similar pop-up sites make sense nationwide, but supply chain delays mean some goods did not make it before the holidays. there are a lot of people out in the country who are going to see this and say, "you haven't fixed the problem." >> we welcome ideas, but look at what we've been able to do, cutting some of the container load times in half. if you go to the store, you're going to see a lot of options there. >> that's actually our most popular piece. >> reporter: but furniture designer ruel joyner still finds the kinks in his supply chain are limiting his options. this sofa is made in dallas, but one of its parts comes in china and it's backordered. >> we normally get this done in 24-30 days. right now, we're looking at probably a six-month lead time. >> reporter: his warehouse has about half its normal inventory. >> it's a bunch of issues. it's the perfect storm. will it ease, i think it will. >> reporter: at the end of the day, is the supply chain costing you money? >> yes, absolutely, it's costing you money. >> reporter: the costly consequence of a supply chain struggling to deliver. kris van cleave, cbs news, savannah, georgia. >> garrett: in colorado tonight, calls for leniency after a young truck driver was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for his role in a deadly accident. karen morfitt from our cbs denver station kcnc is covering this story. >> i'm begging for forgiveness. >> reporter: rogel aguilera- mederos was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of four counts of vehicular homicide, and 23 other charges for this 2019 crash that killed four people. >> i'm crying all the time when i'm thinking about it. >> reporter: aguilera-mederos, who was 23 at the time, claimed the brakes failed as he was driving out of the mountains and couldn't pull over to avoid stopped traffic. video shows he passed a runaway truck ramp where prosecutors say he could have pulled off. >> he made a series of terrible decisions. >> reporter: aguilera-mederos got the minimum sentence for every count, but colorado's law mandates they be served consecutively, adding up to 110 years, effectively a life sentence. sentence. >> if i had >> if i had the discretion, it would not be my sentence. >> reporter: some truck drivers have said on social media they'll boycott the state during their routes to protest. and more than four million have signed an online petition asking the governor to reduce the prison time. gage evans, whose husband, bill bailey, died in the crash, says aguilera-mederos' sentence should not be commuted. instead, she says the mandatory sentencing laws need to be reevaluated. >> he should not have taken a mountainous route with no experience. >> reporter: now, the d.a. overseeing the case has already taken the extraordinary step of asking that the court reconsider the sentence, and tonight, colorado governor jared polis says his office has received aguilera's request for clemency and they are reviewing it. major. >> garrett: kcnc's karen morfitt, thank you. tonight we continue our special series on the 50th anniversary of the war on cancer. cbs' dr. jon lapook looks at the racial divide in this fight. >> i was so afraid to go, that i was putting off going. >> reporter: tracy tomer had her first mammogram at age 53 after feeling a lump in her breast. she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but there were delays before treatment began. >> in this area that i live in, in brownsville, there's no mammogram service over here. there's no chemo service over here. there's no radiation. >> reporter: black women are more likely than white women to have tumors missed during screening and to have delays in diagnosis and treatment. one reason is access to care. >> all the appointments were so far away from one another. it's really a bad situation for women of color in this neighborhood. >> reporter: when it comes to breast and other cancers, the hard truth is there's a racial divide. while black and white women have the same chance of getting breast cancer, black women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced cancer, and are 40% more likely to die from it. >> there are biases. there are implicit and explicit biases that exist withinhin healthcare systems. >> reporter: tommer's surgeon, dr. vivian bea, is trying to change that equation. >> you have to look at the finances, the transportation. you can have a cancer treatment center, but if it's not accessible, patients cannot get to those areas. >> reporter: there are racial differences in the biology of tumors, and the types of breast cancer. >> black women are more likely to be diagnosed with actually triple negative breast cancer, which is more difficult to treat. >> so, there is one, two, three, four. >> reporter: in the 1990s, genetic researcher john carpten was studying patients with a strong history of prostate cancer, which kills black men at twice the rate of white men. >> i remember asking myself, i wonder how many of these families are african american. >> reporter: that was hard to answer, because racial and ethnic minorities have been underrepresented in research studies. >> if we have 95% of the data coming from whites, how can we say that we understand the full complexity of cancer when we know that the cancer disproportionately impacts other groups? >> my new journey in life has been dealing with breast cancer. >> reporter: tommer is now spreading a message of cancer awareness, including a tattoolui that says it all. get your dukes up. get your dukes up. >> that's right. >> reporter: dr. jon lapook, cbs news, new york. >> garrett: still ahead, the new penalty for unruly air passengers. plus a major recall of fresh express salad products. fresh express salad products. for a shave as quick and easy as washing your face. some days, you just don't have it. not my uncle, though. he's taking trulicity for his type 2 diabetes and now, he's really on his game. once-weekly trulicity lowers your a1c by helping your body release the insulin it's already making. most people reached an a1c under 7%. plus, trulicity can lower your risk of cardiovascular events. it can also help you lose up to ten pounds. trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. it isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. it's not approved for use in children. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. side effects include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration, and may worsen kidney problems. show your world what's truly inside. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity. the airport can be a real challenge for new homeowners who have become their parents... okay, everybody, let's do a ticket check. paper tickets. we're off to a horrible start. ...but we can overcome it. we're not gonna point out our houses, landmarks, or major highways during takeoff. don't buy anything. i packed so many delicious snacks. -they're -- -nope. would you say, ballpark, when group two is gonna get boarded? 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>> every year, i hate seeing the used christmas trees left on the side of the road. people just dump them. it seems renting a tree is the most environmentally friendly way of celebrating christmas. >> reporter: environmentalists say a chopped tree can leave a heavy carbon footprint, unless it's recycled, and that plastic trees can be even worse. that's one reason rental trees are a growing trend in the u.k. manager paul keane says nearly all of his farm's 1,000 firs and spruces for rent were reserved long before christmas. >> i think people love the idea of keeping a tree alive, of not killing it for christmas. >> reporter: after christmas, the rental trees will be brought back here. they'll be replanted in these pots in the ground, where they'll live to see another christmas. that's what campling plans to do, decking her halls year after year with the same tree. roxana saberi, cbs news, gloucestershire, england. >> garrett: question: can i rent that so-so christmas sweater? we'll be right back. it didn't? 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>> we lack the benefit of time, and we need to move quickly. lines for the booster shot are growing along with omicron concerns as we head to christmas weekend. if you are looking for a covid test, you may need to be even more patient. the jury in the elizabeth holmes fraud trial sends a message to verdict watchers -- it could be a while. a live look at bay area bridges, where a fresh out of rain is dampening the holiday getaway. chief meteorologist paul heggen is tracking the radar for us. anyone trying to travel this evening will have to allow extra time. more rain to come. the heaviest rain is falling north of the golden gate right now, but there is more rain offshore. let assume into the north bay, tracking moderate rainfall over most of sonoma and napa county. tapering off a little bit for parts of marin county, but more rain is moving in from the pacific as we speak. a little break in the action in downtown san francisco. that won't last long. this heavy rain will make its way across the bay and in the and over the next few hours. we even have rain showers over san jose, overshadowine