The Powerball jackpot, already the largest in the United States history, has been boosted yet again to a whopping $800 million. The cash prize is now at $496 million. Lively ticket sales have propelled the jackpot up at an astounding rate.

A lottery official says the estimated prize for this weekend’s Powerball drawing is the largest jackpot of any lottery game in U.S. history. Officials say Saturday’s drawing will be worth about $675 million. That’s because no one matched the numbers drawn for Wednesday night’s estimated $500 million jackpot. The previous record was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot won in March 2012.

An Ellwood City man convicted of stalking Amish schoolchildren waived his detention hearing today on federal child pornography charges and will remain in custody at the Mercer County Jail on a federal detainer. 39-year-old Lucas Klobetanz was indicted last month after a search of his house by the FBI and state police turned up child pornography on a thumb drive and photos of young boys engaged in sex acts. Klobetanz was charged last winter with attempting to lure children into the courthouse of an Amish school. When the children told a neighbor, Klobetanz explained that he had dropped toilet paper and needed help picking it up. He pleaded guilty to stalking in that case and prosecutors dropped a related charge of luring.

A man is in custody after a nearly seven-hour standoff in Ellwood City. According to police, the incident started around 6:00 last night at a home in the 200 block of Patricia Drive. Officers initially went to the home to serve a warrant to a man who failed to show up for a court appearance. At that time, he barricaded himself inside the home and refused to come out. Around 1 a.m. this morning, the man surrendered peacefully and was taken into custody. No injuries were reported.

Have you seen a spike in your electric billy recently? You’re not alone. Some are blaming the problem on so-called Smart Meters. Over 160,000 smart meters have been installed by Duquesne Light and since that time here in Beaver County, there have been reports of customers seeing huge spikes in their electric bills. It apparently happened to Cindy Landman of Beaver Falls, who told Beaver County Radio’s Pat Septak that her bill jumped to $916 after a new meter was installed at her White Township home. We reached out to Duquesne Light. Spokeswoman Jessica Rock blames the problem on ‘human error’ and tells us that they are in contact with the customer and will be issuing a new bill before the end of the week.