SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle’s downtown streets are nearly empty as people work from home to avoid possible spread of the coronavirus. That means fewer customers for restaurants and shops that rely on the normally bustling traffic from Amazon employees and others. Business groups are trying to work with the city and state to get emergency relief for business owners and hourly employees. Amazon and Microsoft have both said they will keep paying hourly workers while their campuses are largely shut down. Restaurants and food trucks that are normally filled with people say they’ve seen their business plummet recently.

BEIJING (AP) — New York’s governor is sending the National Guard into a New York suburb to help fight what appears to be the nation’s biggest known cluster of coronavirus cases. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that schools, houses of worship and large gathering places will be shuttered for two weeks in a “containment area” centered in suburban New Rochelle. He told reporters that National Guard troops will help clean surfaces and deliver food around a synagogue. Cuomo says “It’s a dramatic action, but it is the largest cluster of cases in the country.” New Rochelle is at the center of 108 cases in Westchester County, out of 173 statewide.

ROME (AP) — An extraordinary, sweeping lockdown is in place in Italy because of the coronavirus, with travel restrictions being enforced by soldiers and police. In China, the diminishing threat prompted President Xi Jinping to visit the epicenter of Wuhan and declare: “We will certainly defeat this epidemic.” Caseloads are increasing in France, Spain and Germany, and fear is growing in the United States, where more than 750 people are infected and even some senior political leaders are putting themselves under quarantine. U.S. stocks, oil and other financial markets around the world clawed back some ground after their historic plunge Monday on hopes that the U.S. and other governments will pump in more aid for the virus-weakened global economy..

Proposed legislation would create an IRA savings program for private-sector employers. Andrea Sears reports…

BREAKING NEWS: The Aliquippa School Board has canceled its deliberation meeting tomorrow. Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano has more. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

Cranberry Township officials say their municipality is joining a project studying flooding issues in Butler County. They are now part of the Lower Connoquenessing Watershed-Stormwater Planning Study which intends to mitigate flooding and identifying doable projects that would benefit the region. The study’s total cost is 75-grand.

A new enforcement tool to monitor motorists’ speed statewide has gone into effect. Work zone speed enforcement cameras are live all over Pennsylvania as part of the five-year program that began yesterday. Lawmakers hope the program will protect roadway workers during construction season. As part of the initiative, 17 camera-equipped vehicles will be in various work zones on interstates and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The cameras will specifically target drivers going eleven miles or more over the issued speed limit.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A judge in Allegheny County has thrown out the conviction of a retired Roman Catholic priest accused of having assaulted a boy almost two decades ago. Common Pleas Judge Anthony Mariani said Monday he believed the Rev. Hugh Lang hadn’t received a fair trial. A spokesman for the county district attorney’s office vowed an appeal, saying officials believed the decision was “contrary to the law.” The 89-year-old defendant was convicted of indecent assault and other charges involving a preteen boy in 2001 when he was pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in Munhall. He denied any abuse.

Police in Ellwood City are looking for the man they believe robbed a convenience store early yesterday morning. It happened at the Uni-Mart on Sixth Street and Beaver-Factory Avenue with the suspect demanding the clerk open the register. The man ran off with cash, according to investigators. Anyone who may recognize the suspect from surveillance footage is asked to contact police.

All charges were waived by an Aliquippa defendant involving a minor yesterday. Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano has more. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…