States begin offering Mega Millions, tickets
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Dozens of states have begun selling Powerball and Mega Millions tickets in what could be a step toward an eventual national lottery.
Margaret DeFrancisco, co-chair of a committee for both lotteries and president and CEO of the Georgia Lottery Corp., says tickets for both games began selling yesterday.
Twenty-three of the 33 jurisdictions where Powerball has been played are now selling tickets for the Mega Millions drawing on Feb. 2. Ten of the 12 states where Mega Millions has been played are selling tickets for the Feb. 3 Powerball drawing.
DeFrancisco says lottery officials want to see how cross-selling goes before focusing on establishing a national lottery, which they hope to have running by spring 2011.
Florida gov: Flights continue to leave Haiti
MIAMI -- Hundreds of people have been flown from Haiti to Florida, even after the U.S. military halted evacuation flights for critically injured patients, the state's governor said yesterday.
Gov. Charlie Crist told ABC News' "Good Morning America" yesterday he was puzzled by the suspension, which has been in effect since Wednesday. Civilian flights and other military flights have continued.
Military planes carrying 700 U.S. citizens, legal residents and other foreign nationals landed in central Florida over the past 24 hours, and three of those people required medical care at hospitals, state officials said.
Some passengers from those flights needed routine treatment at hospitals, but Florida has not received any critical patients needing urgent care since the halt, said Sterling Ivey, the governor's spokesman.
Exactly what led to the suspension of medevac flights remains unclear. Military officials said some states refused to take patients. Florida officials say none were ever turned away, though Crist had sent a letter Tuesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying the state's hospitals were reaching a saturation point.
-Jennifer Kay (AP)
Md. polar bear plunge canceled due to extreme cold
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- It was too cold even for some polar bears on Saturday.
The second of two scheduled dips in the water at the 14th annual Polar Bear Plunge in Annapolis, Md. was canceled on doctors' orders.
The air temperature was 23 degrees and the Chesapeake Bay was 36 degrees when crowds took a dip in the water around 1 p.m. Among the participants was Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco. He says the frigid water "took my breath away."
Organizers estimated that as many as 15,000 people got in the water in the event, which raises money for the Maryland Special Olympics.
Several people had to be treated for hypothermia after the first plunge and doctors monitoring the event advised organizers to cancel the second plunge.
New Mexico crash turns into 238-pound pot bust
TUCUMCARI, N.M. (AP) -- Tracks in the snow leading from a crashed car to the nearby bridge overpass on New Mexico's I-40 just didn't look right to officers.
State police say that officers patrolling the stretch near Tucumcari Saturday found that 40-year-old Henry Alan of El Paso had lost control of his sedan and crashed into a snow pile.
Then they noticed tracks leading back and forth from the trunk to the bridge.
They allege that partially hidden under the overpass were large plastic wrapped bundles and inside was 238 pounds of marijuana.
Police say that Lowe was arrested and treated for a gash to the head.
31 emaciated horses rescued in Ohio; 6 others die
OAK HARBOR, Ohio (AP) -- Authorities say 31 undernourished horses have been rescued in Ohio, and six others have died.
Ottawa County humane officer Nancy Silva says the horses were taken this week from a stable near Oak Harbor to the Sandusky County fairgrounds, where dozens of humane officials and volunteers were caring for them Saturday afternoon.
An animal cruelty case investigation is under way. No charges have yet been filed.
Ohio prison labor program facing budget cuts
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Layoffs are coming to a program that provides jobs to inmates in Ohio prisons.
Budget cuts are trimming the Ohio Penal Industries program, which officials say provides inmates with valuable job skills upon their release and helps reduce recidivism.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections plans to shutter several labor shops, including one at Dayton Correctional Institution. Jobs will drop from 1,554 to 1,269 by Feb. 28.
The jobs already are at a premium, paying inmates 47 cents an hour to $1.23 an hour and helping them learn a trade, said prisons director Terry Collins.
Inmates in the program have a recidivism rate of 18 percent, compared with the state's overall recidivism rate of 38 percent.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Dozens of states have begun selling Powerball and Mega Millions tickets in what could be a step toward an eventual national lottery.
Margaret DeFrancisco, co-chair of a committee for both lotteries and president and CEO of the Georgia Lottery Corp., says tickets for both games began selling yesterday.
Twenty-three of the 33 jurisdictions where Powerball has been played are now selling tickets for the Mega Millions drawing on Feb. 2. Ten of the 12 states where Mega Millions has been played are selling tickets for the Feb. 3 Powerball drawing.
DeFrancisco says lottery officials want to see how cross-selling goes before focusing on establishing a national lottery, which they hope to have running by spring 2011.
Florida gov: Flights continue to leave Haiti
MIAMI -- Hundreds of people have been flown from Haiti to Florida, even after the U.S. military halted evacuation flights for critically injured patients, the state's governor said yesterday.
Gov. Charlie Crist told ABC News' "Good Morning America" yesterday he was puzzled by the suspension, which has been in effect since Wednesday. Civilian flights and other military flights have continued.
Military planes carrying 700 U.S. citizens, legal residents and other foreign nationals landed in central Florida over the past 24 hours, and three of those people required medical care at hospitals, state officials said.
Some passengers from those flights needed routine treatment at hospitals, but Florida has not received any critical patients needing urgent care since the halt, said Sterling Ivey, the governor's spokesman.
Exactly what led to the suspension of medevac flights remains unclear. Military officials said some states refused to take patients. Florida officials say none were ever turned away, though Crist had sent a letter Tuesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying the state's hospitals were reaching a saturation point.
-Jennifer Kay (AP)
Md. polar bear plunge canceled due to extreme cold
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- It was too cold even for some polar bears on Saturday.
The second of two scheduled dips in the water at the 14th annual Polar Bear Plunge in Annapolis, Md. was canceled on doctors' orders.
The air temperature was 23 degrees and the Chesapeake Bay was 36 degrees when crowds took a dip in the water around 1 p.m. Among the participants was Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco. He says the frigid water "took my breath away."
Organizers estimated that as many as 15,000 people got in the water in the event, which raises money for the Maryland Special Olympics.
Several people had to be treated for hypothermia after the first plunge and doctors monitoring the event advised organizers to cancel the second plunge.
New Mexico crash turns into 238-pound pot bust
TUCUMCARI, N.M. (AP) -- Tracks in the snow leading from a crashed car to the nearby bridge overpass on New Mexico's I-40 just didn't look right to officers.
State police say that officers patrolling the stretch near Tucumcari Saturday found that 40-year-old Henry Alan of El Paso had lost control of his sedan and crashed into a snow pile.
Then they noticed tracks leading back and forth from the trunk to the bridge.
They allege that partially hidden under the overpass were large plastic wrapped bundles and inside was 238 pounds of marijuana.
Police say that Lowe was arrested and treated for a gash to the head.
31 emaciated horses rescued in Ohio; 6 others die
OAK HARBOR, Ohio (AP) -- Authorities say 31 undernourished horses have been rescued in Ohio, and six others have died.
Ottawa County humane officer Nancy Silva says the horses were taken this week from a stable near Oak Harbor to the Sandusky County fairgrounds, where dozens of humane officials and volunteers were caring for them Saturday afternoon.
An animal cruelty case investigation is under way. No charges have yet been filed.
Ohio prison labor program facing budget cuts
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Layoffs are coming to a program that provides jobs to inmates in Ohio prisons.
Budget cuts are trimming the Ohio Penal Industries program, which officials say provides inmates with valuable job skills upon their release and helps reduce recidivism.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections plans to shutter several labor shops, including one at Dayton Correctional Institution. Jobs will drop from 1,554 to 1,269 by Feb. 28.
The jobs already are at a premium, paying inmates 47 cents an hour to $1.23 an hour and helping them learn a trade, said prisons director Terry Collins.
Inmates in the program have a recidivism rate of 18 percent, compared with the state's overall recidivism rate of 38 percent.
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It's stories like the big pot bust in NM that harms peaceful pot smokers, like Howe. You know time and time again, people are getting in trouble or loosing their lives over some grass. There needs to be reform in the law. More and more people are realizing that pot possession should be decriminalized. Mass has legalized gay marriage, decriminalized pot possession, but why did Howe die at the hands of the police in Mass., check out this story and the law suit against the Mass. police:
http://wendygdphillips.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/marijuana-possession-leads-to-death-penalty/