A 31-year-old New Jersey man who was a passenger in a box truck was killed in a crash Saturday on Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania, authorities said.

The truck was traveling north in Union Township, Lebanon County just after 4 a.m. when the driver veered off the road to the right and struck a tractor-trailer legally parked on the shoulder, Pennsylvania State Police said.

The crash pushed the box truck back onto the highway where it was rear-ended by another box truck.

READING, Pa. (CBS) — Three family members were charged for the death of a 6-year-old girl in Reading after she was locked in a room for more than three days, the Berks County District Attorney’s Office said on Monday. 

The 6-year-old’s grandparents — Jazmine A. Rodriguez and Manuel Rodriguez Sr. — and her uncle, Manuel Rodriguez Jr., were charged with criminal homicide, false imprisonment, endangering the welfare of a child and other related offenses. The DA’s office said the grandparents were taken into custody on Monday, but Rodriguez Jr. remains at large. 

On May 28, the DA’s office said the Reading Police Department responded to a home on Schuylkill Avenue for a report of a 6-year-old girl in cardiac arrest. Once officers arrived on the scene, it appeared the 6-year-old girl was dead for a “period of time,” the DA’s office said. 

According to the DA’s office, an autopsy revealed the 6-year-old died due to dehydration and “prolonged exposure to high ambient temperature due to child neglect.” Her death was ruled a homicide. 

“The condition of the victim at the time of her death is consistent with the victim being locked in the room for more than 3 days,” the DA’s office wrote in a press release. 

The 6-year-old was also wearing a soiled diaper for several days before her death, which led to a severe diaper rash, the DA’s office said. The lack of air circulation in the room where the 6-year-old was sleeping may have reached 100 degrees with 90% humidity. According to an affidavit, the bedroom where the 6-year-old was found dead had a lock on the outside of the door. 

Police obtained a search warrant for Jazmine and Manuel Rodriguez Sr.’s cellphone during the investigation. According to an affidavit, Jazmine Rodriguez’s cellphone revealed searches of “how to abandon a 6-year-old girl.”

According to the affidavit, a witness who spent time at the house told investigators that the 6-year-old girl would have to come home from school and stand in the corner and face the wall. The affidavit says she would stay there until Jazmine Rodriguez would come home. If the 6-year-old had to use the bathroom, she would be escorted to the restroom, an affidavit said. 

The witness told police the 6-year-old “did not have access to water or food because the family did not want her having to use the bathroom,” an affidavit said. The witness also told investigators that Jazmine and Manuel Rodriguez Sr. would take turns watching her on a monitor while she was inside the bedroom. 

The Reading School District released a statement about the 6-year-old’s death. 

“The child previously attended school in our district during the 2021-22 school year and parts of the 2022-23 school year. While she did not attend school in RSD last school year, some of our students and staff got to know her during her time with us,” Dr. Jennifer Murray, the Reading School District superintendent, wrote in a statement. “We urge anyone in our community with knowledge about a child in harm’s way to report it.”

In their book, political science professors Christopher Devine and Kyle Kopko determined that picking a running mate from a key voting bloc probably won’t make a difference with that voting bloc. For example, picking a woman will probably not get you many more votes from women — and picking a popular governor from a certain state will probably not win you many more votes from that state.

But, if 2024 is anything like 2020 or 2016, the margins will only be around 1% and it won’t take “that many more votes” to make a difference here.

“That is a big deal in a closely contested election,” says Dr. John Kennedy, a West Chester University professor of Political Science. “We’re not going to see suddenly Pennsylvania flip so that it’s no longer a battleground but if it does make just even a slight difference, that could be the difference between victory and defeat, not just for Pennsylvania before the entire election.”

The reality is that if you are a Democrat, you would probably already be voting for Harris. So where would those extra votes come from? Former U.S. Congressman Charlie Dent says that some of those votes would probably come from moderate Republicans who don’t like Trump but aren’t crazy about Harris either.

“At this point, if I were advising Harris, I’d say she needs to be ruthlessly pragmatic and do what she must to win Pennsylvania,” Dent told me. “Shapiro clearly helps her in that regard.”

According to Devine and Kopko, the running mate with the best chances of having a positive impact on the election would be an experienced, well-qualified running mate who will make the presidential candidate look better to voters.

Kennedy agrees with that, saying that the primary goal is to “do no harm” to the campaign, pointing to Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin as examples who damaged the chances of their tickets. He adds that Shapiro meets that bar and then some, given his abilities.

“I think if Gov. Shapiro was governor of one of the other states, he still would be viewed as a rising star and a contender,” he says. “Being the governor of Pennsylvania, certainly as a whole different dimension to his potential vote-getting ability.”