Powerball lottery jackpot at $460M; winning numbers drawing Wednesday
January 4, 2018 by admin
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Wednesday night’s Powerball jackpot is $460 million, the seventh largest Powerball grand prize ever and the tenth largest U.S. lottery jackpot.
In addition, Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot has jumped to $418 million. This is the first time in U.S. history that both jackpots have topped $400 million at the same time.
The winning numbers from Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing were – 01 – 42 – 47 – 64 – 70 – and the Mega Ball number was 22. While there was no jackpot winner in Tuesday night’s drawing, Illinois players won more than 67,000 prizes, ranging from $2 to $10,000.
1 IN 292 MILLION
Earlier Wednesday, the Powerball ticket sales were steady at 7-Eleven at Wabash and Wacker in Chicago’s Loop.
Players know the odds are not in their favor (about one in 292 million), but they still had dreams of paying off bills, taking vacations in warm locales and giving to charity.
“I would treat all my family,” said Cynthia Mayes. “Then I would travel the world.”
If you get a winning ticket, put it in a safe place and don’t make any big decisions right away. The cash option is $291 million.
“You do nothing for the next six months. Take this money, digest it. Build your team. Build the infrastructure so you can responsibly manage this money,” said Andrew Stoltmann, an attorney who represents people who hit the jackpot.
QUICK POWERBALL FACTS
Current jackpot at $460 million; cash option of $291 million
Jackpots start at $40 million
Overall odds of winning the jackpot 1:292,201,338
Drawings are at 9:59 p.m. (CT) every Wednesday and Saturday
Choose five different numbers 1 to 69 and one Powerball number 1 to 26
While the jackpot gets the most attention, there are other prizes to be won in Powerball. Prizes range from $4 for matching just the Powerball to $1 million for matching all five numbers (but not the Powerball).
QUICK MEGA MILLIONS FACTS
Current jackpot is $418 million; cash option of $261 million
Jackpots start at $40 million
Overall odds of winning the jackpot 1:305,575,350
Drawings are at 10 p.m. (CT) every Tuesday and Friday
Right now, the Mega Millions and Powerball games have a combined jackpot of $878 million.
Saturday’s Powerball numbers were:
28 – 36 – 41 – 51 – 58 Powerball: 24 Powerplay: 2X
The record Mega Millions jackpot is $656 million – three tickets shared that jackpot on March 30, 2012. Just behind that is the $648 million jackpot split by two winners on December 17, 2013.
With slightly better odds than the Powerball game, it’s rare that months pass without someone winning a Mega Millions jackpot.
There are several factors for the lack of a winner, including fewer players.
The odds of picking the correct numbers on five white balls and one yellow ball in the Mega Millions game are one in 259 million. For Powerball, it’s one in roughly 292 million. Revamps to the country’s two big lottery games in recent years decreased the odds of picking all the numbers needed for the top prize, though officials point out it has increased the number of winners who score smaller prizes that range from $1 million to $5 million, depending on the game.
Mega Millions tickets are sold in 43 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Firm That Contracted Steele Dossier Says It Was ‘Shocked’ By Findings on Trump
January 4, 2018 by admin
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Glenn Simpson, co-founder of the research firm Fusion GPS, arrives for a closed House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in November.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Glenn Simpson, co-founder of the research firm Fusion GPS, arrives for a closed House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in November.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
The founders of the political research firm that commissioned the infamous Russia dossier on Donald Trump say they were “shocked” by the things they say it uncovered and want their full story to be public.
Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, founders of the opposition research shop Fusion GPS, also are accusing Republicans in Congress of unfairly targeting them and their company while ignoring “credible evidence of collusion” between Trump’s campaign and the Russians who interfered in the 2016 election.
Simpson and Fritsch used an op-ed in Wednesday’s New York Times to call for the release of transcripts of their 21 hours of closed testimony before congressional investigators.
“It’s time to share what our company told investigators,” Simpson and Fritsch wrote.
Fusion GPS was first hired by the conservative news website The Washington Free Beacon to research Trump’s alleged ties to Russia during the Republican primaries. To do so, the company hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, a longtime Russia expert.
Steele used his contacts in Russia to put together a dossier that describes efforts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to cultivate a relationship with Trump and his entourage and to gather material that could be used to blackmail the candidate if necessary. Steele did not pay sources for information.
The dossier contains salacious allegations that NPR has not detailed because they remain unverified, but an unexpurgated copy of the document was posted by BuzzFeed last January and circulated widely. One important aspect of the story is that the material in the file, if accurate, might have exposed Trump to potential blackmail.
Months before, during the presidential campaign, information gathered by Fusion GPS was passed to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Trump and GOP lawmakers have sought to portray the 35-page dossier as outrageous and false. They’ve drawn attention to the fact that much of it is unproven. By impeaching the dossier, they have tried to impeach the basic case that people in the Trump orbit may have coordinated with the Russians who attacked the election.
Trump allies also have used the dossier to go on offense against the FBI and the Justice Department, charging that “biased” federal investigators used what Republicans call partisan, Democratic-funded propaganda as the basis for the whole Russia investigation.
Never seen such Republican ANGER UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017
The case for collusion, however, goes beyond the dossier and includes outreach by Russian agents to the Trump campaign and meetings between Trump associates and Russians.
In fact, in their op-ed, Simpson and Fritsch wrote that congressional committees have “known for months” of credible allegations of collusion but have chosen instead to “chase rabbits.”
“We suggested investigators look into the bank records of Deutsche Bank and others that were funding Mr. Trump’s businesses. Congress appears uninterested in that tip: Reportedly, ours are the only bank records the House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed.”
“[We] found widespread evidence that Mr. Trump and his organization had worked with a wide array of dubious Russians in arrangements that often raised questions about money laundering,” the two wrote.
Simpson and Fritsch said that when they hired Steele, he did not know who would be getting the information he gathered. The two acknowledge that they assisted Steele in passing the dossier to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain “via an emissary.” McCain later gave it to FBI Director James Comey.
Simpson and Fritsch say, however, they were not responsible for the full dossier becoming public.
“The goal was to alert the United States national security community to an attack on our country by a hostile foreign power,” they wrote. “We did not, however, share the dossier with BuzzFeed, which to our dismay published it last January.”