Starr920's Blog

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's job approval rating climbed steadily this month as he fought Republicans to extend the payroll tax cut and is now above his disapproval rating for the first time since July, a Gallup report showed on Tuesday.

The rating for Obama, who is running for re-election in November, climbed to 47 percent versus a 45 percent measure of disapproval, according to Gallup's three-day rolling average of polls, taken between December 21 and December 23. This was up from approval of 41 percent and disapproval of 51 percent early in the month.

On December 23, the Democratic president signed a two-month payroll tax cut extension after forcing Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to back his demands or see taxes rise on January 1.

The gain in the Gallup poll echoed other surveys showing his approval ratings on the mend, as public opinion sided with Obama during the bitter dispute to extend a tax cut to around 160 million Americans, worth some $40 per bi-weekly paycheck.

Obama's gain in approval ratings marks the first time since July 7-9 that the number has exceeded his disapproval rating.

U.S. economic data has also been somewhat more positive in recent weeks, and a Gallup poll of economic confidence on Tuesday showed an improvement in otherwise gloomy sentiment, to a reading of minus 38 in December from minus 45 in November.

Household confidence has been hammered since a severe recession that ended in 2009 and unemployment remains at 8.6 percent, which is beneath a 10.1 percent peak but still very high by historic U.S. standards.

The White House aggressively highlighted what $40 would buy a middle class family feeling the pinch in a tough economy, showcasing Obama's key re-election message which claims that he backs ordinary Americans while Republicans favor the rich.

House Republicans caved after their own party in the Senate, and constituents back home, lobbied them to compromise with Obama on an issue seen as a clear vote-loser in the upcoming November general election.

House Republicans wanted the tax break to be extended for all of 2012, and had initially refused to approve a 60-day extension agreed by Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.

Republicans and Democrats disagree over how to pay for the extension of the tax break and resume negotiations in January.

Democrats favor funding the more than $100 billion price tag of the extension, which also applies to longterm unemployment aid, by raising taxes on people who make more than $1 million a year. Republicans prefer to pay for it by cutting spending.

(Reporting By Alister Bull; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/obama-approval-rating-gallup_n_1171484.html

WASHINGTON — Americans probably won't be seeing a huge ticker-tape parade anytime soon for troops returning from Iraq, and it's not clear if veterans of the nine-year campaign will ever enjoy the grand, flag-waving, red-white-and-blue homecoming that the nation's fighting men and women received after World War II and the Gulf War.

Officials in New York and Washington say they would be happy to help stage a big celebration, but Pentagon officials say they haven't been asked to plan one.

Most welcome-homes have been smaller-scale: hugs from families at military posts across the country, a somber commemoration by President Barack Obama at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

With tens of thousands of U.S. troops still fighting a bloody war in Afghanistan, anything that looks like a big victory celebration could be seen as unseemly and premature, some say.

"It's going to be a bit awkward to be celebrating too much, given how much there is going on and how much there will be going on in Afghanistan," said Don Mrozek, a military history professor at Kansas State University.

Two New York City councilmen, Republicans Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo, have called for a ticker-tape parade down the stretch of Broadway known as the Canyon of Heroes. A similar celebration after the Gulf War was paid for with more than $5.2 million in private donations, a model the councilmen would like to follow.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last week that he was open to the idea but added, "It's a federal thing that we really don't want to do without talking to Washington, and we'll be doing that."

A spokesman for the mayor declined to elaborate on the city's reasons for consulting with Washington. Ignizio said he had been told by the mayor's office that Pentagon officials were concerned that a celebration could spark violence overseas and were evaluating the risk.

Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said that he has not heard that issue raised and that New York has yet to make a formal proposal. He also said officials are grateful communities around the country are finding ways to recognize the sacrifices of troops and their families.

The last combat troops in Iraq pulled out more than a week ago. About 91,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are in Afghanistan, battling a stubborn Taliban insurgency and struggling to train Afghan forces so that they eventually can take over security. Many U.S. troops who fought in the Iraq War could end up being sent to Afghanistan.

A parade might invite criticism from those who believe the U.S. left Iraq too soon, as well as from those who feel the war was unjustified. It could also trigger questions about assertions of victory.

Mrozek noted that President George W. Bush's administration referred to military action in the Middle East as part of a global war on terror, a conflict that's hard to define by conventional measures of success.

"This is not a war on a particular place or a particular force," he said.

Bush himself illustrated the perils of celebrating milestones in the war, Mrozek said, when he landed on an aircraft carrier and hailed the end of major combat operations in Iraq behind a "Mission Accomplished" banner in May 2003. U.S. troops remained in Iraq for 8 1/2 more years, and Bush was criticized over the banner.

The benchmarks were clearer in previous wars. After World War II, parades marked Japan's surrender. After the Gulf War, celebrations marked the troops' return after Iraqi forces were driven out of Kuwait.

The only mass celebrations of U.S. military activities since Sept. 11, 2001, were largely spontaneous: Large crowds gathered in Times Square and outside the White House in April after Osama bin Laden was killed.

At the same time, Iraq veterans aren't coming home to the hostility many Vietnam veterans encountered. The first large-scale event honoring Vietnam veterans was not held until 1982, when thousands marched in Washington for the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Parades were later held in New York in 1985 – 10 years after the war ended – and in Chicago the next year.

"I think we've seen recent history in Vietnam, where that wasn't done appropriately, and we want to make sure we do the appropriate thing by those that made the ultimate sacrifice and risked their lives for us to say thanks," Ignizio said.

At Fort Hood in Texas, troops have returned to welcome-home ceremonies at the post that were attended mostly by soldiers' families. Soldiers in uniform run to hug their loved ones after an announcer yells, "Charge!"

Col. Douglas Crissman, commander of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division, said Saturday after one such ceremony that that is as large-scale a welcome as the troops need.

"This is just the right size because it's quick and meaningful and it gets them home to their families," Crissman said.

Staff Sgt. Troy Rudolph was among the first troops to arrive in Iraq in March 2003 and was in the last combat brigade to leave. Rudolph said that a large-scale ceremony would be nice but that he feels appreciated even without confetti falling from the sky.

"I've had people buy me lunch at airports just because I was in uniform," said Rudolph, who lives at Fort Hood with his wife and 9-year-old stepdaughter. "It's emotional because you don't realize what kind of impact you have on people across the country."

In Washington, federal agencies take the lead on planning parades, and so far nothing is in the works. A spokesman for Mayor Vincent Gray said the city would be honored to host a parade but said local officials wouldn't take the lead in staging one.

In recent years, most of the ticker-tape parades in New York have been held for the city's championship sports teams.

"The sports celebrations that we've had in New York for the Yankees and the Mets were amazing," Oddo said. "But these are the real heroes."

___

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/iraq-war-ends-parade-afghanistan_n_1171429.html?ref=new-york&ir=New%20York

He carpet-bombed Cambodia, spewed out anti-Semitic slurs and crude misogynistic jokes in the White House and smeared his political opponents with ruthless 'dirty tricks' campaigns.

And, of course, he lied to his country about his involvement in the Watergate scandal and went down in history as America's shiftiest, darkest President.

Given everything that Richard Nixon has been accused of, it's difficult to believe there could be any more skeletons left in his cupboard. But it seems there are.

A new biography by Don Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the Nixon years, suggests the 37th U.S. President had a serious drink problem, beat his wife and — by the time he was inaugurated in 1969 — had links going back two decades to the Mafia, including with New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then America's most powerful mobster.

Yet the most extraordinary claim is that the homophobic Nixon may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behaviour of a notoriously secretive politician.

Fulsom argues that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia-connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon.

The book, Nixon's Darkest Secrets, is out next month — by coincidence at the same time as the UK release of a new film directed by Clint Eastwood about another supposed closet gay among Washington's 20th-century hard men.

But while FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover, played in Eastwood's film by Leonardo DiCaprio, allegedly had an affair with his squeaky-clean deputy Clyde Tolson, Nixon's supposed secret paramour was a very different character.

Bebe Rebozo was a short, swarthy,  good-looking Cuban-American businessman with a history of failed relationships with women and close alliances with Miami's Mafia chiefs.

 

The veteran TV newsman Dan Rather recalled how Rebozo 'transmitted the sense of great sensuality', paying tribute to his 'magnetic' personality and 'beautiful eyes'.

Fulsom uses recently revealed documents and eyewitness interviews — including with FBI agents — to shed new light on long-standing suspicions among White House insiders that Nixon may have been more than just good buddies with Rebozo.

He claims Nixon's relationship with Pat, his wife of 53 years, was little more than a sham. A heavy drinker whom his own staff dubbed 'Our Drunk', Nixon used to call his First Lady a 'f***ing bitch' and beat her before, during and after his presidency, says Fulsom.

The pair had separate bedrooms at the White House — and in Key Biscayne, the exclusive resort near Miami where Nixon holidayed, Mrs Nixon didn't even sleep in the same building. Rebozo, however, was in the house next door.

Fulsom claims one of Nixon's former military aides had a secret job 'to teach the President how to kiss his wife' so they would look like a convincing couple.

How much of this can we believe? Nixon died in 1994 and his reputation is pretty much irredeemable. As with Eastwood's Hoover film, there is no definitive proof, but plenty of 'supporting evidence'.

Fulsom quotes a former Time magazine reporter who, at a Washington dinner, bent down to pick up a fork and saw the two holding hands under the table. It was, the reporter judged, sufficiently intimate to suggest 'repressed homosexuality'.

Another journalist related how, loosened up by drink, Nixon once put his arm around Rebozo 'the way you'd cuddle your senior prom date. Something was fishy there'.

But who exactly was Bebe Rebozo, and how did a shady Florida businessman of unclear sexual leanings end up as the bosom friend of one of the most paranoid and buttoned-up political leaders of the 20th century?

Born two months before Nixon in 1912, Charles Gregory Rebozo was the son of a Cuban cigar-maker and, as the youngest of nine, was stuck with the nickname 'Bebe'.

He came from poverty but worked his way up through property speculation and then banking. According to the FBI, he had close links with Mob bosses such as Santo Trafficante, the Tampa Godfather, and Alfred 'Big Al' Polizzi, a stooge of Meyer Lansky, the Cosa Nostra's financial brains.

By the 1960s, an FBI agent was describing Rebozo as a 'non- member associate of organised crime figures'. He bought land in Florida with a business partner who was believed to be a front for some of the most powerful Mafiosi.

When Rebozo started his own bank in Florida in 1964, Nixon — then a lawyer — wielded a golden shovel at the ground-breaking ceremony and became its first depositor.

According to Mafioso Vincent  Teresa, the bank was used by the Mob to launder stolen cash. It hardly seems possible that Nixon, who pledged to make fighting organised crime a priority of his presidency, could not have known of his best friend's Mafia links.

Nixon had just won one of California's U.S. Senate seats when he first met Rebozo in 1950. Fearing Nixon was facing a nervous breakdown, fellow Senator George Smathers suggested a holiday in Florida and enlisted his old school friend Rebozo to show the socially awkward Nixon a good time.

Their first jaunt together — in Rebozo's 33ft fishing boat — did not go well. Rebozo later complained that Nixon just sat reading papers and, according to his host, barely said half a dozen words to him.

Smathers said Rebozo later told him: 'Don't ever send that son of a bitch Nixon down here again. He's a guy who doesn't know how to talk, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't chase women... he can't even fish.'

But Rebozo persevered — and according to a cynical Smathers, Nixon's rising stardom in Washington and the potential influence it offered 'had a lot to do with it'.

In months, the pair were inseparable, holidaying with Nixon's wife Pat — and without her. Rebozo became an 'uncle figure' to the Nixons' two daughters, Tricia and Julie. The dapper Cuban-American chose Nixon's clothes and even selected the films he watched at the White House.

On Nixon's solo visits to Key Biscayne, they swam and sunbathed, indulging in their shared passions for discussing Broadway musicals and barbecuing steaks.

Both men were also extremely secretive, and their relationship — described as the 'most important unsolved mystery in Nixon's life' — was kept so discreet that the New York Times did not mention it for nearly 20 years.

Observers noticed their intimacy became most apparent when they were drunk. An aide recalled them playing a game called King of the Pool at Key Biscayne: 'It was late at night, the two men had been drinking. Nixon mounted a rubber raft in the pool while Rebozo tried to turn it over. Then, laughing and shouting, they'd change places.'

They were seen together at the same British-themed hostelries in the Key: the English Pub, where they drank beer from tankards engraved with their names, and the Jamaica Inn, where they ate at a discreet booth.

Both spots were owned by another businessman with Mob links and the secret service asked Nixon to find another place to eat.

Why the President's minders didn't raise alarms about Rebozo's Mafia connections has puzzled experts, but they probably didn't dare. When a New York newspaper investigated Rebozo's Mob links in the 1970s, its staff suddenly found themselves under secret service surveillance.

A White House aide once dismissed Rebozo's role as 'the guy who mixed the Martinis', but he was far more important than that.

When Nixon became President, Rebozo got his own office and bedroom at the White House, and a security clearance that allowed him to go in and out without being logged by the secret service. Using a false name, says Fulsom, Rebozo even got into Nixon's hotel suite during a trip to Europe.

The President's closest colleagues complained at the way Rebozo monopolised Nixon's time. General Alexander Haig, his last chief of staff, is said to have imitated Rebozo's 'limp wrist' manner and joked that Rebozo and Nixon were lovers.

According to Fulsom, Henry Kissinger resented the way Rebozo would fly on Air Force One, the Presidential plane, wearing a blue U.S. Navy flight jacket bearing the President's seal and with his name stitched on it.

Away from Nixon's side, Rebozo surrounded himself with glamorous women and threw Miami parties that descended into orgies, but was it all a front?

Aged 18, Rebozo reportedly enjoyed an 'intense' affair with a young man, Donald Gunn. He later wed Gunn's teenage sister. The marriage lasted four years and, according to his wife, was never consummated.

Rebozo didn't marry again until middle age, when he entered what Newsweek magazine described as an 'antiseptic' alliance with his lawyer's secretary. 'Bebe's favourites are Richard Nixon, his cat — and then me,' the lady complained later. A fellow Miami resident told Nixon biographer Anthony Summers that Rebozo was definitely part of the city's gay community.

Summers and co-writer Robbyn Swan, however, question whether there is enough evidence to suggest Nixon was gay. 'They held hands on occasion, and both men had problems with consummating physical relationships with women, but we found no evidence that Nixon was actively homosexual,' Summers told me this week.

Physical or not, Nixon's attraction to Rebozo has struck many as politically reckless. Nixon expert Professor Fawn Brodie couldn't understand how he would be 'willing to risk the kind of gossip that frequently accompanies close friendship with a perennial bachelor'. After all, she added, Nixon was, in public, a virulent gay-hater.

When Walter Jenkins, a trusted aide to President Lyndon Johnson, was caught providing sexual favours to a retired sailor in a YMCA lavatory, Nixon denounced him as 'ill'. People who suffered this 'illness', he added, 'cannot be in places of high trust'.

Rebozo was certainly in a position of 'high trust', and not only because he was a key fundraiser. He was with Nixon when he announced his successful run for President and again in June 1972 when Nixon learned that five men hired by the White House to break into the Watergate building had been arrested.

'We were swimming at Key Biscayne in front of my house,' Rebozo recalled. 'They came out and told him. He said: "What in God's name were they doing there?" We laughed and forgot about it.'

Rebozo also ended up being investigated by the Watergate committee, which found that a £64,000 cash contribution from the industrialist Howard Hughes that was meant for the Republican Party was actually in Rebozo's safe deposit box.

It also emerged that both Nixon and Rebozo's personal wealth had soared during Nixon's first five years in the White House, Rebozo's rising nearly seven-fold from £432,000 to nearly £3million.

Rebozo escaped prosecution — allegedly because of a White House deal — and he stood by his disgraced friend. He was at Nixon's bedside during his final days.

When Rebozo died in 1998, he left more than £12million to the Nixon memorial library, whose executive director eulogised him as a 'consummate gentleman' on whose 'wise counsel, shrewd political insight and ready wit' Nixon relied.

Typically, Nixon had been rather less charitable — he always described Rebozo as just a 'golfing partner'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078822/Did-Nixon-gay-affair-Mafia-fixer-Forget-Watergate-A-new-book-claims-Americas-corrupt-President-hid-far-personal-scandal-.html#ixzz1hkIeW2Co

This gymnastic dog has become a YouTube sensation after video emerged of it streaking down the stairs - doing a handstand.

It's owner, believed to be from Philadelphia, had no idea of her pet's hidden talent until she tried to dress it up in a pair of Santa Claus trousers.

But before she'd managed to pull the trousers up, the acrobatic pooch is distracted by someone at the foot of the stairs and scoots off on his front paws.

The poster writes: 'It was Christmas day so I threw a pair of Santa pants on my dog. He was fine walking around but when he ran down the stairs to greet someone, something amazing happened.'

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is hoping to finally hit the jackpot when it comes to gambling in the state.

He has been increasingly vocal about his desire to open state-run casinos in New York in order to financially benefit from the way that people like to spend their money.

'There are going to be eye-catching things next year,' the governor said in an interview with The New York Daily News.

 

Legalization of public casinos has been a political hot-topic for years, and was even on the state's agenda in the 1990s when the current Governor Cuomo's father, Mario Cuomo, was the governor.

Though Mr Cuomo was clear in his undying support for the issue in the most recent interview with The Daily News, this is just another instance added to the list. He held a press conference on the topic in August where he made the case for gambling houses as one of practicality.

'It’s really not an issue anymore of "Well, if we don’t officially sanction it as a government, it’s not going to happen." It is happening,' he said at the Albany press conference.

 

'So now you have to go to the second step. If there is going to be gaming, how should it be done? And that issue, that question, is an important question for the state,' he said.

 

If that is the second step, the third would be location.

 

New York City has been floated around as a very clear possibility given the existing public transport system and built-in audience. That said, Mr Cuomo wasn't ready to settle on the Big Apple for sure during the Daily News interview.

 

 

'Do I support casino gaming at a New York City location? . . . Yes,' he said.

 

'I’m not excluding any locations at this time,' he continued. 'New York City is a real location, Albany is a real location. Buffalo is a real location.'

 

The creation of a state-run casino would add to the five Indian-owned casinos operating upstate currently. The state also allows partial electronic gambling but only at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens, though that is a different classification.

 

Once the intended location is chosen, the final major step would be to fix the state-legality issues which include changing the state's constitution. In order for that to happen, an amendment would have to be added which can only occur if two consecutive legislatures agree and put it forth to a public referendum. 

 

If the bureaucratic obstacles are overpassed, there is certainly a big winning to be had for the state. According to The New York Times, New York should earn $684million from the electronic gambling at the Aqueduct racetrack and other 'racinos' alone. 

 

Given his success this year- his first- as Governor, Mr Cuomo seems determined to add casinos to his list of completed tasks which include the legalization of same-sex marriage, a much-needed austere budget, and a property tax cap.

 

'The economy is not going to come rebounding back in a way that you can buy your way out of this problem. And, by the way, you shouldn’t buy your way out of the problem — you’re going to have to manage your way out of the problem,' Mr Cuomo said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078696/Ca-Ching-New-York-City-hit-jackpot-Casino-says-Governor-Cuomo.html#ixzz1hk9u3zSH

GREENWOOD VILLAGE - Nobody expects to become a saint in Sin City. Mitch Gilbert may have come close.  Gilbert had a winning weekend in Las Vegas in early December, but he came upon some really big money at the airport as he was about to catch a flight home.

Gilbert found $10,000 in two unmarked Caesar's Palace envelopes.

"There was $5,000 in each envelope. I just about fell over, I couldn't believe it," Gilbert said.

He discovered the cash when he opened the envelopes at his home in Greenwood Village.

"If it happened to me I sure would want that back," Gilbert said.

Some may have thought they hit the jackpot, but Gilbert knew he had to return the money.

"I wanted to show my kids the right thing to do. It would have been a lot easier keeping it to be honest with you. But I felt like I had to get it back to the right person," Gilbert said.

He called the airport in Las Vegas, but they would not even take down his name.

"They didn't do that. It was against the rules. I just said, 'Well, I'll keep calling back and I'll give it 30 days,'" Gilbert said.

Gilbert kept his word to continue calling the airport. More than two weeks later, the operator told him a man in El Paso, Texas reported losing two Caesar's Palace envelopes full of cash.

"She goes, 'Well, this is breaking the rules, but you're trying to do the right thing,'" Gilbert said.

9NEWS reached Ignacio Marquez by telephone from his home in El Paso. Marquez says he won the money gambling and dropped it as he was running to catch a flight.

"Relief is an understatement. Cash money is very difficult to get back. I'm very appreciative to Mitch and his family. You do not find people like this," Marquez said.

Marquez knew the odds of someone actually returning $10,000 were pretty slim.

"I will always thank Mitch for doing this. That could have easily just gone south, instead of what happened," Marquez said.

Gilbert deposited the money in Marquez's bank account just two days before Christmas.

"I think he was pretty much in shock. I don't know if he believed it," Gilbert said.

Even though Gilbert's real estate business is slow, he says returning the money was the only option.

"I would have loved to have $10,000. You think about all the bills you can pay. But it didn't belong to me," Gilbert said. "It felt so good to be able to get it back to the guy. I felt like I was floating on air. I felt like a million bucks."

Source: http://www.9news.com/dontmiss/238021/630/Colorado-man-finds-10K-in-Vegas-returns-to-owner

On Christmas morning, an unidentified man called the restaurant and liquor store Wesley's in Elkton and asked for the winning Powerball numbers.  When a clerk read the numbers over the phone, the mystery caller said, "Looks like I am the winner."

So far, that's all the longtime family-run restaurant, lounge and liquor store knows about the person who won the $125 million jackpot. Maryland Lottery officials don't know who the winner is either. Like nearly all state offices, the agency was closed Monday, said spokeswoman Carole Y. Everett.

The winner bought at least one random-pick Powerball ticket at 3:13 p.m. Saturday at the liquor store.  Monday morning, Maryland Lottery security officials were at Wesley's, verifying that the $125 million jackpot-winning Powerball ticket was sold there.

"We looked on the camera to see who was the seller — I was the seller," said Jeff Wesley, a member of the family that operates the restaurant, which opened in 1951.

"He bought some beer," Wesley said. And, of course, the lottery ticket.

Though they scoured their video of the buyer, neither Wesley nor anybody else there recognized him. They guess they'll find out later this week.

The caller also told the clerk he'd come by in a couple of days — "after the media hype has been all settled down," Wesley said.

"It's all the talk," Wesley said.

The winner's good fortune extends to the store as well: It will get a $25,000 commission, lottery officials said.

"We are going to take all of the money and put in back into the business," Wesley said. "I'm just happy to be involved in this."

The store previously sold winning lottery tickets, including a $40,000 Keno winner, but "nothing of this magnitude," Wesley said.

Everett, the Maryland Lottery's spokeswoman, said it appears that the nationwide drawing yielded a single winner — but she didn't know if it was a shared ticket. The $125 million prize has a $78.9 million cash option and would come to $51.87 million after taxes.

She said it's not uncommon for a winner to take several days to step forward, or to be publicity shy.

This is the second winning Powerball jackpot ticket bought in the state. Another jackpot-winning ticket was purchased in September in Abingdon. In addition to Maryland, Powerball tickets are sold in 31 other states and Washington, D.C.

The winning numbers were 14, 16, 30, 51, 52 and the Powerball was 19 with a Power Play of x2.

"Personally, as far as a business owner, we will take the publicity we get," Wesley said — noting that Mega Millions jackpot was up to $206 million for the Tuesday drawing.

IDAHO FALLS, ID (KIFI/KIDK/CNN) – A disabled man's dreams came true when his lottery ticket turned out to be the winning ticket.

"I was in shock, I'm still in shock," said winner Donny Jones. "I'm going to pay most of my bills off and then go from there."

For 16 years, Jones has been a familiar face at the Hometown Kitchen restaurant in Idaho Falls, ID, as a dishwasher and now the head cook. On Sunday, Jones realized he had won a $200,000 prize from the state's PowerBall game.

Jones was born with a disability and he says his coworkers are like a family that always looks out for him. They are teaming together to make sure he uses the money wisely. His employment training specialist Linda Asher says she is very proud of Jones. 

Asher said when she heard Jones had won the lottery, her first thought was, "Oh my gosh, what a blessing."

It's a blessing that will bring Jones and his "work family" closer together.

"I love my job and I love my bosses and everybody I work with here," Jones said. 

There is no doubt his close friends will be there to help him with the savings account he hopes to open after the bills are paid. Jones used the winning numbers 13, 28, 49, 51 and 59 with a Powerball 14.

Jones will claim his prize after the New Year in Boise, ID.

Source: http://www.cbs3springfield.com/story/16359139/disabled-man-wins-lottery

                                               

MANHATTAN, NY (12/20/2011)(readMedia)-- There's nothing like a giant check to spruce up your holiday decorations! The New York Lottery today awarded $19,000,000 in prizes to six new lottery millionaires from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island and Staten Island. The festive event featured a $14,000,000 Lotto jackpot winner from Staten Island and five $1,000,000 scratch-off winners.

After 15 years of working as a grievance representative for the Service Employees' International Union local 32BJ, nothing could keep Edward Foti, 50, of Staten Island from finishing out his work day. Not even a $14,000,000 Lotto jackpot.

"I found out I was a winner, and I went back to work." said the longtime SEIU employee. "I represent people who are out of work so I have to do my work."

The father of one purchased his ticket at Clinton News on Clinton Street in Brooklyn on August 17. Of the 10 number combinations on his Lotto Quick Pick ticket, the fourth matched all six numbers drawn that night: 18, 20, 34, 37, 42, 56.

"This is like getting hit by lightning ten times," he said of his random turn of luck.

Foti elected to receive his prize as a one-time lump sum payment of $9,140,573. He will receive a net payment totaling $5,681,232.

"I vacation on the Jersey Shore, and I think it's time for an upgrade," Foti said of his plans for the windfall. "I would love a place near the ocean."

The five scratch-off millionaires to ring in the holiday season with a Lottery check for $1,000,000 include:

Esther Frederick, 54, of the Bronx. On December 9, three days after the new Golden Opportunity scratch-off game launched, Frederick claimed its first $1,000,000 top prize. "Golden Opportunity drew me to it," the Medicaid eligibility specialist said of her ticket choice. That fateful decision occurred at the Patel News newsstand on Broadway and Chambers Streets in Manhattan. Frederick will receive her prize in 20 annual payments of $50,000 and will net $31,077 after taxes. She said of her plans for the money, "I know it's nothing flashy, but I have always wanted to buy a Kia!"

Robert Gredder, 61, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Gredder, a car dealership driver, showed his wife and daughter his lucky ticket and bought some champagne to celebrate. He is New York's second $1,000,000 Winfall winner. Gredder purchased his ticket on December 2 at Karim 1 Stop Mini Mart on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn. He will receive his $1,000,000 prize in 20 annual payments of $50,000, netting him $31,077 through 2030. His plans for the riches are simple, "I'll take care of my family and give to my church."

Virginio Irizarry, 68, of the Bronx. Irizarry's $1,000,000 Wheel of Fortune jackpot left him feeling "very, very happy." "I normally buy the Cashword tickets but I haven't had much luck with those lately," explained the Puerto Rico native. "So I decided to give Wheel of Fortune a spin." Irizarry purchased his Lottery ticket at Antonio Baez Grocery on Southern Boulevard in the Bronx. His change in routine won him $50,000 a year for 20 years. After taxes, he will receive $31,077. "I have so many plans for the money," he explained, "including sharing some with my family, and putting some away for when I retire."

William Storm, 69, of Seaford, Nassau County. Storm claimed his $1,000,000 Winfalljackpot on November 28, three days after he purchased the scratch-off ticket at Friendly Cards and Gifts on Wantagh Avenue in Wantagh. Storm's plans for the 'Winfall' windfall include a cruise for his entire family, and saving for college for his seven grandchildren. As with most New York Lottery scratch-off jackpots, he will receive his $1,000,000 prize as an annuity. Storm will receive 20 annual payments of $50,000, netting him $33,015 through 2030.

Christina Torres, 26, of Green Point, Brooklyn. Another Brooklynite to receive a $1,000,000 scratch-off jackpot today, Torres works in daycare. "I could not believe my eyes," Torres said of her reaction. "I took a picture with my phone and sent it to my boyfriend and asked, 'Do you see what I see?' He convinced me it was real!" She plans to use her Million Dollar Bankroll jackpot to go back to school for her master's degree in special education. She bought her winning ticket at Jiffy's Grocery on Nassau Avenue in Brooklyn on November 15 and claimed her prize on December 2. Torres will receive her prize in 20 annual payments of $50,000, netting her $31,077 after taxes.

You think Jesus has a hand in who wins the lottery? Ronald Redden must think so because, when he won the lottery, the first thing he said was "Thank you Jesus!"

Ronald's story is quite remarkable. He's one of those guys that just wanted to become rich by winning the lottery. For him, there was no other way to riches. So he played the lottery... A lot!

When I say a lot, I really do mean a lot; he spent about $1000 a year playing the lottery. He did that for the past seven years. That's about $7000 down the drain. Then he lost his job about two years ago and hasn't worked since. Yet, he continued to play the lottery. Winning the lottery was his dream. If he was to win, he wouldn't have to keep looking for work; he could just take it easy.

Being a religious man, I'm sure Ronald Redden prayed to Jesus to make him rich. Then one day it happened - Ronald won the lottery and he thanked Jesus for it.

Ronald won $1 million playing Mega Millions. That was in the December 6, 2011 draw. For that draw, Ronald bought three tickets from a gas station in Warsaw, Indiana. Two of the tickets were numbers that Ronald chose based on family birthdays. The third ticket was a random quick pick. After the draw, Ronald checked the two tickets with the numbers that he chose. He didn't win anything. However, he forgot that he also bought the quick pick ticket, so that one was left in his wallet.

Shortly thereafter, Ronald's girlfriend called him to tell him that it was announced on the news that someone bought a winning ticket at the gas station in Warsaw where he bought his tickets. Ronald told her it wasn't him - He already checked his tickets.

A few days later, Ronald was back at the gas station to buy more lottery tickets. He opened his wallet and saw the Mega Millions quick pick ticket that he forgot about. He pulled it out and started comparing his numbers to the winning numbers. "I looked at the first three numbers and I went thank you Jesus, because I knew right then and there that was the winning ticket," Ronald said. Yep, he won!

With the million dollar win, Ronald said that he wouldn't have to work anymore. I know you might be thinking, "ya right, he's gonna go on a spending spree and blow it all." I don't think so, not Ronald. After the win, some of his friends expected him to start spending and asked him why he was still driving his old car when he was a lottery winner. Ronald would reply that there was nothing wrong with it, so he didn't need to buy a new car. The only big purchase that Ronald's expecting to make is to install air conditioning in his home. With the rest of the money, he just wants to make it grow.

Have a happy retirement, Ronald!

Source:  http://www.biglotterywinners.com/2011/12/ronald-redden-thank-you-jesus-for.html

Do you ever play the Pick 3 Lottery game? If so, what's the most amount of money you would spend on Pick 3 tickets? I'd guess probably just a few dollars. However, there are some people that spend big money on the game. Garry Doering is one of those big money players.

I'll discuss Garry in a moment. But first, here's some basic Pick 3 rules - You can play Pick 3 in two ways; generally, you can choose three numbers to play straight, which means that you have to match the numbers in order, or you can choose three numbers to play box, which means that you can match the numbers in any order. Obviously, it's harder to win if you play the game straight. The odds of winning Pick 3 on a straight game are 1-in-1000. Depending on where you play, the payout on a winning straight Pick 3 ticket is about $500.

In Yukon Canada, where Garry Doering plays, the payout for a winning straight ticket is $500. A few months ago, he won $60,000 in a single day playing Pick 3. How much money do you have to spend on Pick 3 tickets to get a $60,000 payout? $120. That's quite a lot of money to bet on just one set of numbers, don't you think?

But even with his $60,000 win, Garry wasn't finished with his betting. Shortly after the big win, he bought more Pick 3 tickets and gave them to his wife, Anna Maria. With those tickets, Anna Maria won $131,000. If you do the math, it would mean that $262 was spent on those tickets. 

Crazy,  don't you think? I mean, it's great if you win, but if you don't, that's a lot of money down the drain.

Altogether, the couple won $191,000 playing Pick 3. For a game that pays out $500 for a winning straight play, that's not bad at all.

At the time of their win, Gary and Anna Maria Doering lived in Whitehorse Yukon. They said that they would be sharing some of the winnings with their family. Aside from that, there were no other plans for the money.

 

Source:  http://www.biglotterywinners.com/2011/12/garry-doering-spends-lot-of-money-on.html

Forget Politics For A Moment And Just Admit

This Is A Very Handsome Family

Oldest Daughter Looks Just Like Her Father,

Youngest Daughter Looks Just Like Her Mother 

2009

2011

TAMPA, Fla. - Dee Dee Moore, the woman accused of killing lotto winner Abraham Shakespeare, lost the fight to get jewelry and other possessions back to pay for her defense. They were seized as a part of the criminal case against Moore.

On Monday at a court hearing, Moore demanded that she sheriff’s office give back her jewelry, Rolex, computers and cameras. She said she accumulated these things before she ever knew the deceased $31 million lottery winner, Shakespeare she’s accused of murdering.

“In a bank statement you have, you can see what was bought before Abraham,” Moore said to the judge.

Shakespeare made headlines in the Tampa Bay area when he won a $31 million jackpot. Friends and family say he was generous with the money, paying for homes, cars and even  food for other people. Then he met Moore, who prosecutors say befriended Shakespeare and persuaded him to buy her a home and other gifts. She is then accused of killing him and burying him underneath a slab of concrete behind her home in 2010.

While in court, Moore denied that his money had anything to do with her most valuable possessions. She said the seven businesses she had before ever meeting the victim funded them instead. She also requested business records, which she says she’ll need for court.

“It’s stuff that will help me in my criminal trial that they’re withholding, and stuff that I need, because they’ve lied so much it hurts,” Moore said. 

In the end, the judge denied her requests, saying the items were lawfully taken.

Read more: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_tampa/accused-killer-of-lotto-winner,-dee-dee-moore,-denied-requests-for-jewelry,-business-documents#ixzz1gWJe0SId

                                  

A Bay County, Michigan man who won a $2 million Lottery prize is scheduled to be sentenced next month on  drug and other charges in Isabella County Trial Court.

Leroy Norman Fick, 59, of Auburn sparked a national controversy when he continued to use food stamps after winning the money on the state’s “Make Me Rich” Lottery television show in June 2010.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of driving with a suspended license and one count of possession of hydromorphone in Judge Mark Duthie’s Mt. Pleasant courtroom Thursday.

Hydromorphone is a synthetic opioid.

Duthie sent Fick’s sentencing for 2 p.m. Jan. 12.

During the plea hearing Thursday morning, Fick’s attorney, John Wilson of Midland, said his client understood what he was giving up by pleading rather than going to trial.

After Fick spoke and spelled his name for the record, Duthie apparently recognized him, and asked if he won the Lottery.  Fick said he did, and went on to tell Duthie his winnings totaled $2 million.

Fick, who appeared on The Learning Channel’s reality show “Lottery Changed My Life,” after winning the lump sum from the Michigan Lottery, was arrested by Michigan State Police troopers for speeding on East M-20 in Chippewa Township Sept. 18, according to court records.

He was also arrested for having the drug, for which he did not have a prescription.

He was pulled over again for speeding Sept. 28 by Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police, then again by Tribal officers Oct. 20, according to court records.

Fick gained national attention for continuing to use his Michigan Bridge Card to purchase food after winning the money.

According to a report on the Huffington Post online, Fick kept using the Bridge Card after purchasing an Audi convertible.

According to the Michigan Department of Human Services, Fick’s lump-sum Lottery prize does not count as income, which left him eligible for food stamps.

Source:  http://www.themorningsun.com/articles/2011/12/09/news/doc4ee0e7cbb2e62851220729.txt?viewmode=fullstory