April 8, 2024 5:10 am
MESQUITE, Texas (AP) — A chilly, midday darkness fell across North America as a total solar eclipse began its race across the continent. Monday’s spectacle was eagerly awaited by millions of spectators in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. It’s North America’s biggest eclipse crowd ever, thanks to the densely populated path. Cloud cover threatened to spoil the view in some places, especially in parts of Texas, but the skies cleared with minutes to spare. During a total solar eclipse, the moon passes in front of the sun and blocks the sunlight for a few minutes. The rest of North America will see a partial eclipse, weather permitting.
April 8, 2024 5:08 am
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Joe Biden says student loan relief will empower Americans to pursue their dreams without the burden of debt. He is visiting Wisconsin on Monday to announce details of a new plan to help more than 30 million people. The trip comes a week after primary voting in the Midwest battleground state highlighted weaknesses for the Democratic president as he runs for reelection. Young voters have been impatient for Biden to follow through on his campaign promise to slash debt after the U.S. Supreme Court foiled his initial plan last year. The new plan is smaller and would expand federal student loan relief to new categories of borrowers through the Higher Education Act.
April 8, 2024 5:05 am
BRIGHTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The last 48 hours have been emotionally draining for Alanna Posch and her family after her devoted husband, Brian Posch, 36, went missing on Friday and never came home. “We’re extremely emotional and we really miss him, and we really want him to come home,” Alanna Posch said. That morning started out like any other. “Just saying, ‘I love you’ and I had said, ‘I love you’ to him,” said Alanna. “We always just say, ‘I love you’ in the morning.” Just a few hours before that last text message, Alanna said Brian left their house in Brighton Township to head to work but never showed up at the construction site. “He doesn’t miss work,” Alanna said. “He’s punctual. He’s the head of his job site. He’s not into drugs. This is very, very unusual.” Brighton Township Police said his license plate was last scanned going south along Route 51 near Jefferson Hills around 6:30 Friday evening. The white Ford 250 pickup truck has a Pennsylvania plate reading ZTH-8685. “This is very uncharacteristic,” Alanna said. “He’s a wonderful dad and a wonderful husband, and he loves us and his daughter so much. So, for him not to come home, for him not to call and to not ask about his daughter is extremely, extremely not him.” If anyone knows where he could be, call the Brighton Township Police Department, or the Beaver County Emergency Services Center at 724-775-0880.
April 8, 2024 4:59 am
NORTH VERSAILLES, Pa. — (WPXI) – A woman is dead and a man is in a hospital after a crash in North Versailles. Allegheny County dispatchers say police, firefighters and medics were alerted about the crash at 6:12 p.m. on Sunday. The crash happened near the intersection of Crooked Run Road and 5th Avenue. Allegheny County Police say a 66-year-old woman who was driving a Nissan Versa was hit by a Pontiac Grand Am driven by a 20-year-old man. Investigators say the woman was taken to a hospital where she later died. The man was also taken to a hospital to be treated for injuries. He is in stable condition. Anyone with information on the crash is asked to call the Allegheny County Police tip line at 1-833-ALL-TIPS.
April 8, 2024 4:55 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – While no one in Pennsylvania took home the over $1 billion Powerball jackpot, some still won sizeable prizes in the delayed Saturday drawing. According to Powerball, a single lucky ticket holder in Oregon won the $1.326 billion grand prize after numbers were drawn early Sunday morning because of a procedural delay. That prize is the fourth-largest jackpot in the history of Powerball and the eighth-largest in U.S. lottery history. According to the Pennsylvania Lottery, four people who bought tickets in the state matched four of the five drawn numbers and the Powerball, each earning a $50,000 prize. The winning numbers drawn Sunday were 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball was 9.
April 8, 2024 2:40 am
(WPXI) – A man accused of killing two people in Allegheny County is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being found by police in West Virginia. Dennis Rahuba, 50, was wanted for the shooting deaths of a man and woman inside a home in the 1300 block of Great Oak Drive in Scott Township just before 3 a.m. Monday. Around 6 a.m. Monday, 911 dispatchers were notified that Rehuba was possibly traveling on I-79 toward Charleston, West Virginia. Deputies from the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office spotted the suspect’s vehicle just before 7 a.m. on a Charleston interstate. Police from several surrounding agencies attempted to pull over Rahuba. The interstate was immediately shut down and Rahuba’s vehicle was surrounded. The Kanawha County Sherrif’s Office said one of its deputies tried to order Rahuba to get out of the vehicle when he saw and heard what he believed was a single gunshot. Once SWAT was able to approach the vehicle, they found Rahuba dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Allegheny County police continue to investigate.
April 7, 2024 7:02 am
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and sent a message of mutual cooperation despite the nations’ differences. After focusing on trade and economic issues for the first two days of her visit, Yellen turned to the broader U.S.-China relationship in Sunday’s meeting with Li, one of China’s top leaders. She told him that in the past year “we have put our bilateral relationship on more stable footing.” She also addressed U.S. concerns about China’s trade relationship with Russia. Yellen is the first Cabinet member to visit since Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in California in November.
April 7, 2024 7:00 am
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Mexico’s government has severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police broke into the Mexican Embassy to arrest a former Ecuadorian vice president. It was an extraordinary use of force that shocked and mystified regional leaders and diplomats. Ecuadorian police late Friday broke through the external doors of the embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest Jorge Glas, who had been residing there since December. Glas sought political asylum at the embassy after being indicted on corruption charges. The raid prompted Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to announce the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Ecuador on Friday evening, while his government’s foreign relations secretary said the move will be challenged at the World Court in The Hague.
April 7, 2024 6:57 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia United Students’ Union is the leading oppositional force against cuts at the state’s flagship university. The union has organized protests, circulated petitions and helped save a handful of teaching positions before 143 faculty and 28 majors were ultimately cut. West Virginia University in September cut its world language department and dozens of other programs in subjects such as English, math and music amid a $45 million budget shortfall. Led by many first-generation college students and those receiving financial aid in the state with the fewest college graduates, union members say they want to usher in a new era of student involvement in university political life.
April 7, 2024 6:53 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Powerball player in Oregon has won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months. Powerball says the single ticket matched all six numbers drawn early Sunday to win a jackpot worth $1.326 billion. The jackpot has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years. The winning numbers were: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9. No one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, leading to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner. The $1.326 billion prize ranks as the eighth largest in U.S. lottery history. The odds of winning were 1 in 292.2 million.
