Daily Briefing: A moment of cosmic alignment

A total eclipse was both precisely predictable and undeniably mysterious.  Also in the news: The Connecticut Huskies are not only the best team in program history — but one of the best in recent NCAA history. The sentencing of Jennifer and James Crumbley could impact precedent on parents' culpability when their children access guns and cause harm.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. What was the eclipse like onboard a flight?

Here's the news to know Tuesday.

Rare eclipse event was an astronomical experience like no other

Monday's eclipse was unusually accessible to millions of people. It was widely anticipated not only for its remarkable period of darkness, but for its rare timing: No total solar eclipse would be visible from the contiguous United States again until 2044.

Over the course of several hours, millions of people fell beneath the moon’s shadow as it swept across the continent at some 1,500 mph. At the center of that path, however briefly, the midday sun vanished entirely – the period of an eclipse known as “totality.”

• A small group in Texas was among the very first Americans to see Monday's eclipse.

• Forecasters across the country had predicted considerable cloudiness, rain and possible hail, but watch parties made the most of conditions by driving to better vantage points or noticing the sudden midday darkness that accompanied the eclipse.

• Awe, cheers and clapping: Americans came together under the same shadow. Eyes turned upward both inside and outside the path of totality, from ranches in the Texas hill country and blankets spread out in Washington on the National Mall.

Read more: From the sandwich shop to the radio airwaves, how the solar eclipse united a Vermont town.

The UConn Huskies are national champions again

The Huskies once again are on top of the college basketball world, winning their second consecutive national championship by beating Purdue, 75-60, on Monday night to cap off one of the dominant runs in NCAA Tournament history. Zach Edey, the two-time Big Ten Player of the Year, scored 16 points in the first half, bullying UConn sophomore Donovan Clingan and drawing double-team attention when Clingan went to the bench with his second foul. And as against Illinois in the Elite Eight and Alabama in the national semifinals, UConn pulled away in the second half with increased defensive intensity and an offensive barrage. Read more

• A Purdue student, 22, is dying. Inside a hospital room, he got a Final Four for the ages.

More news to know now

• Here's what to know about President Joe Biden's new student loan forgiveness plan.

• Column: Gen Z wants no part of Biden's unceasing support of Israel.

• The most-challenged books in 2023 centered on LGBTQ themes, a library organization says.

• The Vatican denounced gender-affirming surgery, gender theory and surrogacy in a declaration on "dignity."

• On today's The Excerpt podcast, Donald Trump lost his push to delay the Manhattan hush money trial pending a location change request. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your smart speaker.

What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

Parents of Michigan shooter to be sentenced

Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first parents of a mass school shooter in the U.S. to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, are set to be sentenced on Tuesday. Prosecutors asked that each parent be given 10 to 15 years in prison after separate juries found them each guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year. Their son, Ethan, is serving a life sentence for the murders of four of his classmates at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, on Nov. 30, 2021, when he was 15 years old. Read more

Trump defers to 'the will of the people' on abortion

Both Democrats and anti-abortion advocates weren't happy with GOP frontrunner Donald Trump's policy on abortion. Given the rallying item reproductive rights have provided Democrats this election, Trump was practically required to give voters some direction on where he stood on the issue: individual states should decide the extent of abortion access (or lack thereof). The anti-abortion coalition took aim at Trump's opting out of a national abortion ban, while Democrats pointed out that Trump has given at least tacit support to Republican-backed restrictions in individual states, including a six-week abortion ban in his home state, Florida. Read more

• Republicans who want a national abortion ban are blasting Trump's policy.

Keep scrolling

• Country star Morgan Wallen was arrested after throwing a chair off a rooftop.

• Is airport Wi-Fi safe to use?

• The Guardians-White Sox baseball game in Cleveland was eclipsed.

• Here's everything we know about Billie Eilish's upcoming third album.

• Has speculation about conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel gone too far?

• Beyoncé collaborators Shaboozey and Willie Jones highlight Black country music on "Cowboy Carter."

• Check out our favorite celebrity eclipse photos.

ERs at Appalachian hospitals slow to a crawl

Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system in the Tri-Cities region of Tennessee and Virginia, benefits from the largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in the United States. In the six years since lawmakers in both states waived anti-monopoly laws and Ballad was formed, ER visits for patients sick enough to be hospitalized grew more than three times as long and now far exceed the criteria set by state officials, according to Ballad reports released by the Tennessee Department of Health. Tennessee and Virginia have so far announced no steps to reduce time spent in Ballad ERs. Read more

• The database you don't want to need: Check to see if your health data was hacked.

• What should you do if your medical records are stolen?

Photo of the day: Cruisers see the eclipse

Cheers broke out on Holland America Line’s Koningsdam ship when the total solar eclipse began on Monday. Off the coast of Mazatlan, Mexico, passengers were perched on loungers, reclining on beach towels and lining the railings of Deck 14 with cameras on tripods at the ready. Read more

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com. Support journalism like this – subscribe to USA TODAY here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Eclipse, UConn, Crumbley trial, abortion, Trump, Vatican: Daily Briefing