Pricey picks: Powerball tickets doubling to $2 (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Powerball lottery organizers are betting that bigger jackpots will entice more people to play, but gamblers are going to have to dig deeper into their wallets to try their luck.

Tickets for the multistate game are doubling in price to $2 beginning Jan 15. While the odds of winning one of the game's giant jackpots also are improving, those in charge of the lottery are gambling that people are willing to pay more for the hope of becoming a millionaire in a down economy.

"With the price of everything else going up, there's not much you can get for a dollar anymore," said 28-year-old Ryan Raker, of Des Moines, Iowa, who buys a ticket once a month. He says he'll probably play less frequently now.

Lotteries have long sold regular people on the hope of becoming rich quick by simply picking a lucky combination of numbers. Some play loved ones' birthdays or anniversaries in the hope that fate may point them in the direction of a jackpot. Selling that hope is easy; less so is predicting consumers' sensitivity to price changes.

Powerball's move follows the model of scratch ticket games, which once were all $1 but now are offered at higher prices with the chance for bigger prizes.

The evolution of scratch tickets and the creation of families of games that offer tickets at different prices has proven successful across the country, said Rebecca Hargrove, president of the Tennessee Lottery. Scratch games like Win for Life in Illinois, Jumbo Bucks in Tennessee and the Crosswords game in Iowa have all been successful, Hargrove said.

"The more choices you gave players the higher the sales were," Hargrove said. "A family of games at multiple price points created the most excitement. Once those kinds of games were introduced we saw a dramatic increase in sales."

For example, in Iowa, scratch ticket sales increased from $125 million in 2007 to $165.3 million in 2011, state lottery officials said.

Lottery officials believe increasing the price of the game will make it more attractive to players, said Terry Rich, spokesman for the West Des Moines-based Multistate Lottery Association, which runs Powerball.

"People like variety," Rich said. "We're repackaging and freshening up the product and enriching the product."

Powerball is the big fish of the various lottery games states offer, and typically has some of the biggest payouts. There are nine ways to win the game, from a $3 prize for matching the Power Ball number to various payouts for different combinations of winning numbers.

Odds of winning are improving because of changes the game is making in the numbers players can choose. The number of Power Ball numbers to choose from will decrease from 39 to 35. That will raise the odds of winning from 1 in 192 million to 1 in 175 million.

Picking the right numbers will have a bigger payoff: The starting jackpot is rising from $20 to $40 million. The amount won for matching all five numbers but not the Power Ball will increase from $200,000 to $1 million.

The move is a strategy to differentiate the game from Mega Millions, the other big money, multi-state lottery game that is sold for $1 a ticket. Both games are sold in 42 states, plus the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington D.C. Each game has drawings twice a week.

It could pay off, because consumers often get more excited about larger jackpots and play more. Clyde Barrow, a gambling expert at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, said larger jackpots should attract more players, even at the higher price.

"As prizes escalate more people tend to enter the game," he said. "The big draw will be the size of the jackpot. The idea is that at $12 million people don't get too excited but when it crosses $140 million, more people will play and by increasing the price level of tickets you will reach that prize level much faster."

Rich said sales may dip at first but likely would climb as jackpots soar. Half of ticket sales are returned to the states where Powerball is played to help fund government programs.

"We wouldn't be doing it if we didn't think more money would be coming back to the states and help them with revenues during these tough economic times," Rich said.

Hargrove, the Tennessee lottery executive, said many players already pay an extra dollar to play an option called the Power Play, which can multiply winnings for prizes below the jackpot level.

In Oklahoma, 40 percent of players already are paying $2 for a Powerball ticket with the Power Play option. In Tennessee, nearly 30 percent pay to play the Power Play option. The option will continue to be offered for an extra dollar with the new changes, Hargrove said.

Still, the game may have work to do to win over players hesitant to fork over an extra dollar. Many say they'll simply play half as much, or switch to the less expensive Mega Millions.

Irwin Weitz, who owns an Atlanta home improvement business, said he buys five to 10 tickets each time the Powerball jackpot reaches $100 million. The 57-year-old said he's not swayed by promises of higher, faster-growing jackpots and will buy half as many Powerball tickets.

"I don't see the argument," Weitz said. "The reality is when the odds are so high, you're just gambling on a dream of becoming rich quick."

Katie Langel, manager of the Freedom Value Center convenience store and gas station in Sioux Falls, S.D., didn't like the idea, either.

"Say I've been buying (tickets) for years," she said. "I may just go to Mega Millions. I just don't really see why it has to go up to $2."

At the Navarro Pharmacy in Miami's Little Havana area, retired nursing home worker Maria Fernandez, 67, said playing the Powerball every week has given her hope. Fernandez, who lives off a small pension, said she can't afford more than the $5 a week she now spends so will have to play less.

"Poor people will not have as many chances to win," she said.

Zach Levy, a 23-year-old salesman from Atlanta, said he'll buy fewer Powerball tickets but won't give up altogether.

"I won't play as eagerly as I did before, but I still want to win," he said. "I would finally move out of my parents' basement."

___________

Associated Press writers Christine Armario in Miami, Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and Kristi Eaton in Sioux Falls, S.D., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120101/ap_on_re_us/us_powerball_prices

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New court challenge to Wisconsin union law filed (Reuters)

MADISON, Wisc (Reuters) ? The Wisconsin Supreme Court should void a controversial state law curbing the power of public sector unions because a judge who ruled on the law had a conflict of interest, a county attorney said on Friday.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said in a court filing that Judge Michael Gableman should have recused himself from the case.

A divided Supreme Court in June allowed the union law to go into effect by a vote of 4 to 3 with Gableman in the majority. The court would have been deadlocked had Gableman recused himself.

The law set off a fierce national debate on the collective bargaining rights of labor unions and prompted a drive to remove from office nine Wisconsin state senators. Two Republicans who had supported the union curbs were recalled.

The law forced local workers such as teachers to pay more for health care and pensions, and limited the ability of their unions to negotiate wage increases.

Democrats and labor unions are leading a campaign to force a recall election next year of Republican Governor Scott Walker, who championed the union law.

The court filing on Friday said that Gableman should have recused himself because a lawyer who represented the Republican-led state government in the case had represented Gableman on a personal issue.

"Justice Gableman received legal representation from a private law firm, Michael Best & Friedrich, LLP in a personal legal matter without any obligation to pay legal fees," the court papers said.

The filing said that Gableman's personal lawyer, Eric McLeod, attended the oral argument before the state Supreme Court on the union law as a representative of the state government.

The filing asked the court to either void the law or force Gableman to recuse himself. Gableman has denied any wrongdoing.

(Writing by Greg McCune; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111231/us_nm/us_unions_wisconsin

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Inconstant Constants

Image: Courtesy of Wolfgang Steffen Instituto de Astronom?a, UNAM and Cosmovisi?n

In Brief

  • Physicists routinely assume that quantities such as the speed of light are constant: they have the same values everywhere in space and time.
  • The authors and their collaborators have called that assumption into question. By comparing quasar observations with laboratory reference measurements, they have argued that chemical elements in different regions of the universe may be absorbing light differently than the same elements on Earth. The data suggest that one of the constants, known as the fine-structure constant, drifts gradually by a few parts per million across the entire observable universe.
  • Small though it might seem, this change, if confirmed, would be revolutionary. It could be a sign that space has extra dimensions.

Some things never change. physicists call them the constants of nature. Such quantities as the velocity of light, c, Newton?s constant of gravitation, G, and the mass of the electron, me, are assumed to be the same at all places and times in the universe. They form the scaffolding around which the theories of physics are erected, and they define the fabric of our universe. Physics has progressed by making ever more accurate measurements of their values.

And yet, remarkably, no one has ever successfully predicted or explained any of the constants. Physicists have no idea why constants take the special numerical values that they do (given the choice of units). In SI units, c is 299,792,458; G is 6.673 ? 10?11; and me is 9.10938188 ? 10?31?numbers that follow no discernible pattern. The only thread running through the values is that if many of them were even slightly different, complex atomic structures such as living beings would not be possible. The desire to explain the constants has been one of the driving forces behind efforts to develop a complete unified description of nature, or ?theory of everything.? Physicists have hoped that such a theory would show that each of the constants of nature could have only one logically possible value. It would reveal an underlying order to the seeming arbitrariness of nature.

In recent years, however, the status of the constants has grown more muddied, not less. Researchers have found that the best candidate for a theory of everything, the variant of string theory called M-theory, is self-consistent only if the universe has more than four dimensions of space and time?as many as seven more. One? implication is that the constants weobserve may not, in fact, be the truly fundamental ones. Those live in the full higher-dimensional space, and we see only their three-dimensional ?shadows.?

Meanwhile physicists have also come to appreciate that the values of many of the constants may be the result of mere happenstance, acquired during random events and elementary particle processes early in the history of the universe. In fact, string theory allows for a vast number?10500?of possible ?worlds? with different self-consistent sets of laws and ?con-
?stants. So far researchers have no idea why our combination was selected. Continued study may reduce the number of logically possible worlds to one, but we have to remain open to the unnerving possibility that our known universe is but one of many?a part of a multiverse?and that different parts of the multiverse exhibit different solutions to the theory, our observed laws of nature being merely one edition of many systems of local bylaws.

No further explanation would then be possible for many of our numerical constants other than that they constitute a rare combination that permits consciousness to evolve. Our observable ?uni?verse could be one of many isolated oases surrounded by an infinity of lifeless space?a surreal place where different forces of nature hold sway and particles such as electrons or structures such as carbon atoms and DNA molecules could be impossibilities. If you tried to venture into that outside world, you would cease to be.

Thus, string theory gives with the right hand and takes with the left. It was devised in part to explain the seemingly arbitrary values of the physical constants, and the basic equations of the theory contain few arbitrary parameters. Yet so far string theory offers no explanation for the observed values of the constants.

A Ruler You Can Trust
indeed, the word ?constant? may be a misnomer. Our constants could vary both in time and in space. If the extra dimensions of space were to change in size, the ?constants? in our three-dimensional world would change with them. If we looked far enough out in space, we might begin to see regions where the ?constants? have settled into different values. Ever since the 1930s researchers have speculated that the constants may not be constant. String theory gives this idea a theoretical plausibility and makes it all the more important for observers to search for deviations from constancy.


Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b89033c8013f7d05e82b9c5328b3c57f

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How does Alistair Overeem beat Junior dos Santos?

Before Overeem's victory over Brock Lesnar last night, there was already a definitive buzz surrounding the idea of a fight with Junior dos Santos. As such, many people were already picking Alistair. However, I think that going into this fight, Overeem has a lot of questions to answer.

First of all, how will he deal with Junior's speed? It's no secret that Overeem takes a slower, more plodding approach to striking. Additionally, he isn't much of a volume puncher. While he does have some serious explosiveness in his combinations, he seems to always be looking for that one big punch, kick or knee. These are all flaws that JDS would be happy to exploit. He's faster on his feet than Overeem is and he has both vicious one punch knockout power, as well as some blazing combinations.

Next, will his striking defense be good enough to avoid Junior's technically solid boxing? Overeem's turtle like approach to striking defense works very well in kickboxing, but in MMA, many strikers who are inferior on paper have managed to repeatedly find his chin. when he is being pressured, he also has a tendency move backwards and put himself in even more dangerous positions. If Junior is able to find his chin or put him against the cage, the fight will be over very quickly.

On the flip side, Junior has shown that his striking defense is considerably more solid. He knows how to use head movement to avoid his opponents strikes, and if he is put in a dangerous position, he will circle away from his opponents power and utilize the cage to get back to safety.

Finally, will his conditioning hold up? He has shown some issues with cardio in the past. In contrast, Junior seems to have anything but cardio issues. In the later rounds, he doesn't seem to slow down the way Alistair does. While it seems unlikely that this fight will go the distance, stranger things have happened, and conditioning could end up being the deciding factor.

What do you guys think? What do you see Alistair's path to victory being in this fight?

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

Source: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/12/31/2673654/how-does-alistair-overeem-beat-junior-dos-santos

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Actress Patricia Clarkson to lead Carnival parade

-->By Associated Press ??|??Celeb Stalker??|??December 30, 2011 --> Patricia Clarkson

Patricia Clarkson (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

Actress Patricia Clarkson will lead the Carnival parade of the Krewe of Muses in her hometown of New Orleans.

The star of the 2010 thriller ?Shutter Island? and the 2003 drama ?Pieces of April? will step into a whimsical limelight by riding on a red fiber-optic-lit float shaped like a high-heeled shoe.

The Krewe of Muses is an all-women?s organization that parades through New Orleans on Feb. 16.

The krewe traditionally selects an honorary rider who exemplifies a muse from Greek mythology, such as dance, poetry or music. For 2012, the club said it chose Clarkson as its honorary ?EveryMuse? because she embodies the spirit of all muses.

Source: http://www.pbpulse.com/gossip/celeb-stalker/2011/12/30/actress-patricia-clarkson-to-lead-carnival-parade/

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Foreign monitors energize Syrian protests (AP)

HOMS, Syria ? The presence of Arab League monitors in Syria has re-energized the anti-government protest movement, with tens of thousands turning out over the past three days in cities and neighborhoods where the observers are expected to visit. The huge rallies have been met by lethal gunfire from security forces apparently worried about multiple mass sit-ins modeled after Cairo's Tahrir Square.

On Thursday, security forces opened fire on tens of thousands protesting outside a mosque in a Damascus suburb and killed at least four. The crowd had gathered at the mosque near to a municipal building where cars of the monitors had been spotted outside.

Troops fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse large protests in several areas of the country, including central Damascus, killing at least 26 people nationwide, activists said. A key activist network, the Local Coordination Committees, said it has documented the names of 130 people, including six children, who died since the Arab League monitors arrived in Syria Monday night.

The ongoing violence, and new questions about the human rights record of the head of the Arab League monitors, are reinforcing the opposition's view that Syria's limited cooperation with the observers is nothing more than a farce for President Bashar Assad's regime to buy time and forestall more international condemnation and sanctions.

Still, the presence of outside monitors has invigorated frustrated protesters and motivated them to take to the streets again in large numbers after months of demonstrations met by bullets had dashed their hopes of peaceful change.

"We know the observers won't do anything to help us," said Yahya Abdel-Bari, an activist in the Damascus suburb of Douma. "But still, we want to show them our numbers, to let them know what is really happening here," he said.

The 60 Arab League monitors, who began work Tuesday, are the first Syria has allowed in during the nine-month anti-government uprising. They are supposed to ensure the regime complies with terms of the Arab League plan to end Assad's crackdown on dissent. The U.N. says more than 5,000 people have died in the uprising since March.

The plan, which Syria agreed to on Dec. 19, demands that the government remove its security forces and heavy weapons from cities, start talks with the opposition and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. It also calls for the release of all political prisoners.

As word spread Thursday morning that the observers would be visiting Douma ? which saw an intense government crackdown in the early days of the uprising ? thousands of people began gathering outside the Grand Mosque, calling for Assad's downfall and for international protection for civilians.

Amateur videos posted on the Internet showed protesters in Douma facing off with Syrian soldiers, shouting "Freedom, Freedom!" Troops then opened fire to disperse the protesters, whose numbers had swelled to around 20,000.

"It came like rain, they used heavy machine guns, Kalashnikovs, everything," said Abdel-Bari.

Four people were killed and scores others wounded, said Abdel-Bari and various activist groups.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said cars belonging to the Arab League monitors were seen in front of a municipal building close to the mosque around the same time.

But after the killings, Abdul-Rahman and Abdel-Bari said the monitors were barred by security officials from entering Douma and the situation quickly deteriorated. A witness said angry citizens closed off streets with rocks and garbage containers and thousands of people returned to the area around the Grand Mosque to stage a sit-in.

Troops also surrounded a mosque in Damascus' central neighborhood of Midan and tossed tear gas canisters at hundreds of people calling for the downfall of the regime.

In the northern Idlib province, some 150,000 protesters took to the streets ? more than on any other day recently, the Observatory said.

"The presence of monitors is a source of comfort to the Syrian street and breaks the barrier of fear for those who were hesitant about protesting," said Abdul-Rahman.

Although the violence against protesters has not stopped, he said the death toll would have probably been double what it is had there been no monitors on the ground.

Much of the bloodshed of the past few days appeared to be a desperate attempt by authorities to keep protesters from gaining ground for multiple mass sit-ins where they can recreate the model of Cairo's Tahrir Square. The two-week sit-in at Tahrir brought down longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak in February and inspired other uprisings across the Arab world.

On Tuesday, as monitors visited the flashpoint city of Homs in central Syria, troops shot at thousands of protesters trying to reach the city's central Clock Square. On Wednesday, the scene was repeated in nearby Hama, where protesters were shot trying to reach Assi Square and activists said at least six people were killed.

"This is the regime's biggest fear, to have hundreds of thousands of people gathered in one place," said one Homs resident.

Syria has allowed the monitors in, released about 800 prisoners and pulled some of its tanks from the city of Homs. But it has continued to shoot and kill unarmed protesters and has not lived up to any other terms of the agreement.

Syria's top opposition leader, Burhan Ghalioun, told reporters in Cairo after meeting Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby that the aim of the mission is not only to observe, but to make sure that the Syrian government is "stopping the killing and shooting." He added that the Syrian government is holding more than 100,000 detainees, "some of them held in military barracks and aboard ships off the Syrian coast." He added: "There is real danger that the regime might kill them to say there are no prisoners."

State-run TV said monitors also visited the Damascus suburb of Harasta, the central city of Hama and the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising against Assad began in March.

The Observatory said a total of 26 people have been shot by security forces and killed on Thursday, most of them in several suburbs of Damascus. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said 35 people were killed. The differing death tolls could not be immediately reconciled as Syria bans most foreign journalists and keeps tight restrictions on the local media.

The Syrian government organized a tour to the restive central city of Homs, where one team of monitors has been working for the last three days.

At the entrance to the city, which witnessed much of the violence in the past months, two checkpoints were stopping cars and asking for people's identity cards. Inside, most shops were closed and streets had few people and cars as sporadic gunfire rang out. Most main streets were clean, but side streets were lined with piles of garbage bags.

At the military hospital, one of the largest in the city, a large number of civilians and members of the military were receiving treatment. One of them was a soldier who was shot in the stomach while in a Homs street Thursday morning. He was undergoing an operation, his mother said.

"My son did not harm anyone. He is a soldier to protect the country," said his mother, Zeinab Jaroud, as she stood holding back here tears outside the operating room.

___

Karam reported from Beirut.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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Community Members Continue to Rally for RVC teachers

Reported by: Marty Kasper

Time is running out, and if the two sides can't find common ground the start of the spring semester could be delayed or even called off.

?

"We've never gotten this far without coming to an agreement," said RockValleyCollege faculty association president Tom Alisankus.

?

Alisankus says they have been speaking with the board of trustees throughout the past year but seem to be at a stalemate.

?

"We're not asking for extra, were asking for fair, and we just cant seem to reach that," said Alisankus.

?

The teachers have been working without a contract since July.? Alisankus says the board is asking faculty members to contribute more money to their healthcare benefits plan. ?But the union says that's not fair, and is threatening to strike if the two sides can't reach an agreement.

?

A standstill some students say teachers shouldn't be going through.

?

"I defiantly think the board needs to drop it's attitude, as if the teachers are some sort of group of robbers, it's completely absurd," said RockValleyCollege student Dylan Hackler.

?

Hackler stood with community members outside the college's campus holding signs in support of the teachers. ?People he credits for his early success.

?

"Trying to figure out how I am going to get to college, and I would be really struggling to get my eagle scout, which I am close to finishing now," said Hackler.

?

The spring semester is supposed to start on January 17th, and Alisankus says he's hopeful they will reach an agreement before students head back to class.

?

"I think both sides really have an interest in not going on strike," said Alisankus.

?

The faculty and college bargaining teams plan to continue contract talks tomorrow and into the New Year.

Source: http://mystateline.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=309807

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Kin to honor Alcatraz escapees with trip to The Rock

By NBC News and msnbc.com staff

Bank robbers John and Clarence?Anglin made multiple escape attempts from lesser prisons after their 1958 conviction. So they were sent to the ultimate lockup of the day:?Alcatraz.

On June 11, 1962, the brothers escaped with another man. Did they drown or are they still?on the run today?

This summer for the 50th anniversary of their?escape,?Marie Anglin Widner -- sister to Clarence and John -- along with her sons are planning a trip to San Francisco to visit the famed prison, where they will honor their escapee kin,?NBC/ABC station WALB?of Albany, Ga.,?reported on its website.


?John and Clarence?Anglin robbed a bank in Columbia, Ala., with toy guns in 1958. A few days later, they were captured in Cincinnati and sentenced to long prison terms. Their escape attempts eventually landed them at Alcatraz.

"The only reason they put them in Alcatraz was because they could not keep them anywhere else they put them," Widner, of Lee County, Ga., told WALB. "They kept getting away."

At Alcatraz, the brothers met Frank Morris, the mastermind of the operation, which involved elaborate digging and handcrafted?dummies and life rafts. Authorities believed the men probably drowned in the cold,?turbulent waters around Alcatraz.

But not?Widner, who?told WALB that?her brothers did not die during the escape. "We know they are OK," she said.

If the brothers survived the swim, they would be the only people to successfully escape The Rock. They would be in their 80s today.

Widner's sons David and Ken recall FBI visits to the house and bugged phone lines. They told WALB that the feds?stopped by just months ago.

The family is hoping to persuade the government to return some of the brothers' items.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

?This?article includes reporting from NBCBayArea.com and msnbc.com staff.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/29/9810124-family-to-honor-alcatraz-escapees-with-a-trip-back-to-the-rock

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Justin Bieber and Emma Watson Hairstyles: So Influential!


One may be the most popular young singer alive, and the other may have helped anchor the highest-grossing movie franchise in Hollywood history, but Justin Bieber and Emma Watson themselves take a backseat in a new poll published by The Wall Street Journal.

Justin Bieber at Rockefeller PlazaAdorable Emma Watson

According to that newspaper, Bieber and Watson possess the "most influential" hair in all the land.

“Hairstylists are being inundated with requests” by clients that want to resemble these stars, the publication reports. “The enthusiasm plays out online, where the fastest-rising searches for celebrity haircuts on Google are for Ms. Watson and Mr. Bieber.”

This honor for Justin and Emma is among a few fashion milestones from 2011 the Journal highlights. Others include:

  • The Fashion Event of the Year: Royal Wedding
  • The Most Spectacular Bridal Fiasco: Kim Kardashian‘s wedding
  • The Biggest Runway Flop: Kanye West‘s Paris Fashion Week Debut

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/justin-bieber-and-emma-watson-hairstyles-so-influential/

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