Mike Lang, spokesman for the Illinois Lottery, said his state's winning ticket was sold in the small town of Red Bud, near St. Louis. The winner used a quick pick to select the numbers, he said._____
The Maryland Lottery announced earlier Saturday that it had sold a winning ticket at a retail store in Baltimore County.
A winning ticket also was purchased in northeast Kansas, according to the Kansas Lottery website. A spokeswoman didn't immediately return a message Saturday morning.
Lang said each winning ticket was expected to be worth more than $213 million before taxes.
The WSWS has an excellent overview of Earl Scruggs' life and work:
The Carolinas provided a rich musical environment during this period. Scruggs was influenced by a number of musicians in the area, both amateur and professional, including Snuffy Jenkins (1908-1990), who had begun to move away from the old-time “clawhammer” or “frailing” style of banjo in which the strings were strummed or rapped with the backs of the player’s fingernails. These new players utilized a freer, more syncopated finger-picking style. Scruggs surpassed them all, developing his own three-finger, virtuoso technique that would set the bar for all the players who came after him._____
Scruggs’ big break in music came when he was hired by Bill Monroe, the “Father of Bluegrass,” in late 1945. Bluegrass music, which emerged and developed in the postwar period, was an energetic new style of folk music characterized by fast tempos and instrumental virtuosity, along with close harmony singing with soaring tenor vocalists taking the lead. The music seemed an almost cathartic release for the musicians who had finally put the Great Depression and the war years behind them.
Scruggs revitalized Monroe’s band the Blue Grass Boys, a group which also included the talented singer and guitarist Lester Flatt. Prior to Scruggs’ recruitment, David “Stringbean” Akeman had been the group’s banjo player. While a talented performer, Akeman played banjo in the old style and Monroe’s new musical experiments demanded something different. Scruggs’ new style of playing was the missing piece of the puzzle.
While a handful of people did better in this economy thanks to the Mega Millions drawing, more people are suffering because of a new round of layoffs.
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Shelby's Cobra, a favorite of auto collectors, turns 50 this year.
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The Roberts court is known to make up shit as it goes along, and its attitude toward age discrimination is no exception. Given how much harder it is when one is over 50 to keep and get jobs, any bill to reverse the court's ruling is welcome:
The plaintiff in the case, Jack Gross, was from Iowa. In a welcome show of bipartisanship, his state’s two senators — Tom Harkin, a Democrat, and Charles Grassley, a Republican — recently introduced a bill to reverse the court’s age-bias ruling and restore older workers’ rights. Although this is not the first time that Mr. Harkin has offered such legislation, Mr. Grassley’s co-sponsorship of this year’s bill makes the outlook for Senate passage much brighter.
This is a matter of some urgency. Since the Supreme Court ruled three years ago, lower courts have applied its onerous standard of proof to deny thousands of age-discrimination claims.
You never know how the House is going to act, but at least this is a hopeful sign.
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Is bullying in schools really a crisis? Or is it just a bunch of overhyped garbage.
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Another reason the death penalty needs to be abolished. Although this guy was found to have had nothing whatever to do with the killing, he has yet to be exonerated.
On the morning of jury selection, the district attorney made another offer: if Mr. Cook pleaded no-contest with no admission of guilt, the case would be dismissed and he could go on with his life. Mr. Cook considered the deal. He had suffered terribly during his 19 years in prison — he had been stabbed, raped repeatedly and had tried to kill himself, once slitting his own throat after severing his penis, which was reattached.
He took the plea deal. Two months later, the DNA results returned. The semen belonged to James Mayfield, a married man with whom Ms. Edwards had been having an affair.
By then Mr. Cook was trying to move on with his life, but it was harder than he had imagined. The physical and emotional abuse he endured in prison causes nightmares and suicidal urges. And the murder conviction made him a second-class citizen.
That's because some officials are covering their asses.
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