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(PITTSBURGH) — Two people died during storms in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, authorities said.

A Pittsburgh man was electrocuted by live wires around 7 p.m. while another man, a 22-year-old from State College was electrocuted when he was putting out a mulch fire caused by live wires that were knocked down due to severe weather.

Meanwhile, several severe weather events hit the Midwest and the Heartland as more than 280 destructive straight-line winds greater than 70mph were reported from Texas to New York with large hail fell in Texas, and a more than 500 miles long wind event left at least one dead and hundreds of thousands without power from Indiana to Pennsylvania.

Three tornadoes were also confirmed across Oklahoma and Missouri, though more may still be confirmed.

Elsewhere, a long-lived destructive thunderstorm wind event, known as a derecho, traveled more than 500 miles from eastern Indiana through central Pennsylvania on Tuesday afternoon as wind gusted between 55 and 80 mph as the more than 60 mile-wide storm complex knocked down trees and power lines along its destructive path.

Many schools in western and central Pennsylvania are running on a delay or have cancelled classes for Wednesday as more than 400,000 customers in the state remain without power as of 4 a.m. while in Ohio, more than 50,000 are without power.

Hail measuring 5 inches across was reported in Guthrie, Texas, where winds gusted over 100 mph near Seymour, Texas, and up to 90 mph near Nixa and Willard, Missouri.

An EF-1 tornado also hit near Collinsville, Oklahoma, destroying outbuildings, taking roofs and uprooting trees.

In Missouri, an EF-1 hit Verona and an EF-0 hit Nixa. The Verona tornado uprooted large trees and caused major damage to multiple buildings.

Oklahoma City is well on its way to its wettest April on record as the city has received 11 inches of rain as of midnight into Wednesday, and the record is 11.91” from April 1947.

Heavy thunderstorms, along with severe storms, are still slamming north Texas and parts of Oklahoma this morning, similar to Tuesday, and a severe thunderstorm watch is in place until 8 a.m. local time for Lawton and Wichita Falls.

On Tuesday, 2 to 4 inches of rain fell from north Texas to Oklahoma City and, in just the last week, this area had seen 800% of its normal rainfall for this time of year, with flash flood warnings have issued throughout the region.

A flood watch also remains in effect from north Texas to central Missouri for more than 9 million people on Wednesday.

On Thursday, there is a chance for even more severe storms from San Antonio, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, with damaging wind and large hail being the main risks.

However, by Saturday, this system will be much less severe, but still plenty of light rain is expected from the Gulf to the Northeast for a soggy Saturday.

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(MACON COUNTY, AL) — A runaway kangaroo caused a car crash that ended up shutting down an Alabama highway, police said.

The incident took place on Tuesday when the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency responded to a two-vehicle crash in the southbound lane of Interstate 85 near the 46 mile marker in Macon County, Alabama, when a kangaroo interrupted traffic, according to a statement from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Authorities ended up shutting down both the north and southbound lanes of Interstate 85 in an attempt to recover the runaway kangaroo, which may have caused the two-vehicle accident but was uninjured in the collision, officials said.

“Troopers with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s (ALEA) Highway Patrol Division along with the animal’s owner conducted a recovery of the kangaroo,” police said.

The kangaroo was eventually recovered, and the roadway was opened back up but police did not say how it managed to escape from the owner or how the marsupial ended up running away onto a busy highway.

According to the Associated Press, the kangaroo’s owner, Patrick Starr, said that the animal’s name is Sheila and that she escaped from her enclosure near to where his family runs a pumpkin patch and petting zoo, though Sheila, Starr said, is a personal pet.

The kangaroo was treated by the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, according to the Associated Press.

“She’s back home safe. She’s up. She’s not sedated anymore. She’s eating. She’s drinking. She’s not injured,” Starr said. “She’s a sweet pet. I’m glad she’s back home, and I’m glad everybody slowed down a little bit,” he said.

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(TOULUMNE COUNTY, CA) — The parents of a 1-year-old child have been arrested after the child tested positive for fentanyl and THC in California, authorities said.

The incident occurred on April 22 when deputies from the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) responded to a report of a medical emergency where a 1-year-old child had reportedly choked and temporarily stopped breathing at a residence near Dutch Mine Road in Jamestown, California, according to a statement from the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office.

The child was revived on scene, police said, before being taken to a local hospital for evaluation, and later released to their parents.

“The following day, Wednesday, April 23, just before 4:00 in the afternoon, TCSO received a report from Child Welfare Services stating that the child had been brought back to the hospital for a second time on Tuesday by their parents—22-year-old Rory Kerr and 32-year-old Denaun Davis—after becoming unresponsive,” authorities said in their statement regarding the case. “During this visit, the child was administered CPR, successfully resuscitated, and later transferred to an out-of-area hospital for treatment related to Fentanyl poisoning after testing presumptively positive for Fentanyl and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).”

TCSO Detectives “immediately launched an investigation,” authorities said, working on it through the evening into the early morning hours the next day before issuing multiple warrants for the parents of the child.

“Detectives executed the search warrant and located numerous items of drug use paraphernalia containing narcotics residue, along with a used Narcan, inside the motorhome where the family lived,” police said.

During their investigation, officials discovered evidence that one of the child’s parents had administered Narcan during the medical emergency, police said.

Davis and Kerr were arrested and taken to the Dambacher Detention Center, where they were booked on felony child abuse charges, including abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death.

The child involved in this case has since been placed in protective custody.

“We want to remind the public that while Narcan (naloxone) is a critical and often life-saving tool in reversing the effects of opioid overdoses, including those caused by Fentanyl, it is not a substitute for proper medical care,” TCSO said. “Narcan is temporary in nature and can wear off while dangerous levels of narcotics remain in the body. If you or someone else has been exposed to a suspected overdose, it is essential to seek immediate medical attention—even if Narcan appears to have worked. Being honest and forthcoming with emergency responders and healthcare professionals about potential drug exposure is critical to receiving appropriate and timely treatment.”

“We want to thank our community partners including Child Welfare Services and Adventist Health Sonora for their assistance and clear lines of communication which were critical to life-saving measures and a successful investigation,” police said.

This remains an active investigation, and no further details will be released at this time.

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(WASHINGTON) — A Catholic school in Oklahoma is asking the Supreme Court to clear the way for it to become the nation’s first religious charter school funded directly by taxpayers.

Oral arguments will be heard in the landmark case on Wednesday, pitting claims of religious freedom against efforts to maintain strict separation of church and state.

The justices will be weighing whether the First Amendment, which prohibits a government role in establishing religion while also protecting an individual right to practice religion, means only nonsectarian organizations can qualify for Oklahoma’s charter schools program or whether faith-based groups are also eligible.

The case turns in large part on whether the state’s charter schools meet the definition of “public” schools and, as such, operate as extensions of state government.

“The claim in this case is not that government schools are allowed to be Catholic or religious. This is a claim that, in Oklahoma, charter schools are contractors,” said Rick Garnett, a constitutional law professor at the University of Notre Dame.

St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which was created by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa in 2023, argues state funding for charter schools is made generally available to qualified organizations and that the state cannot discriminate on the basis of religion.

A series of recent Supreme Court decisions has made clear that taxpayer-funded public benefit programs, from school vouchers to state-run scholarships, must be equally available, even if a person or organization has a religious affiliation.

“It’s a pretty settled rule of the Supreme Court that once a government opens up a benefit program, it can’t discriminate on the basis of religion,” Garnett said of the school’s argument.

Oklahoma argues that its charter schools are part of the public school system and, under state law, must be “free, open to all, funded by the State, subject to state control, nondiscriminatory and nonsectarian.” Forty-five other states and the federal government have similar guidelines.

The state’s highest court ruled last year that taxpayer-funded religious schools would violate both the state and U.S. constitutions.

“In Oklahoma, the charter school law defines charter schools as public schools, so the case is sort of closed there,” said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“This school is run by the Catholic diocese in Oklahoma, and they say they will conduct themselves as a Catholic school according to the morality codes of a Catholic schools, which, read between the lines, means that they will discriminate against LGBTQ kids and families,” Laser said.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, said the state supports school choice and access to private religious education, including through the use of tax credits and state-funded tuition assistance. But in court documents, Drummond argued that charter schools are not simply “contractors” receiving a benefit.

“They are free, open to all, subject to anti-discrimination laws, created and funded by the State, and subject to continuing government regulation and oversight as to curriculum, testing, and a host of other matters,” the state said in its brief to the justices.

The state warned that a decision in favor of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would have “sweeping consequences” nationwide, upending charter school programs and the education of millions of students.

Advocates for the school say not allowing the Catholic school to receive charter school funding amounts to religious discrimination.

A decision in the case is expected by the end of June.

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