Small Fla. city anxious to learn jackpot winner

The highest Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $590.5 million was sold recently at this Publix supermarket located in Zephyrhills, Fla. (AP Photo/Scott Iskowitz)

The highest Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $590.5 million was sold recently at this Publix supermarket located in Zephyrhills, Fla. (AP Photo/Scott Iskowitz)

Satellite trucks line the parking lot where the highest Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $590.5 million was sold recently at this Publix supermarket located in Zephyrhills, Fla. on Sunday May 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Scott Iskowitz)

Satellite trucks line the parking lot where the highest Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $590.5 million was sold, at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla. on Sunday, May 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Scott Iskowitz)

ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. (AP) ? It could be an anxious wait of up to two months for people in a small Florida city to find out who won the highest Powerball jackpot in history: an estimated $590.5 million.

The lucky ticket was bought sometime Saturday or earlier at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, a city of about 13,000 people best known around the state for its brand of spring water with the same name.

The winner has 60 days to claim the lump-sum cash option, estimated around $376.9 million, at the Florida Lottery's office in Tallahassee. Under Florida law, lottery winners in the state cannot remain anonymous; their names and city of residence must be made publicly available to anyone who asks, according to the state's lottery website. No one had come forward as of Monday morning.

"It never happens this quickly," lottery spokesman David Bishop said. "If they know they won, they're going to contact their attorney or an accountant first so they can get their affairs in order."

The winner wasn't Matthew Bogel. On Sunday, he loaded groceries into his car after shopping at the Publix. He shook his head when asked about the jackpot.

"It's crazy, isn't it?" he said. "That's so much money."

It's an amount too high for many to imagine. Compare it to the budget for the city of Zephyrhills: This year's figure is just more than $49 million. The winning Powerball jackpot is 12 times that.

Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous said there are a lot of rumors about who won, but the store doesn't know. "We're excited for the winner or winners," she said.

Plenty of people in Zephyrhills are wondering whether it's someone they know.

Joan Albertson drove to the Publix early Sunday morning with her camera in hand, in case the winner emerged. She said she bought a ticket at a store across the street, and the idea of winning that much money was still something of a shock.

"Oh, there's so much good that you could do with that amount of money." Albertson said. "I don't even know where to begin."

Zephyrhills is a small city in Pasco County, about 30 miles northeast of downtown Tampa. Once a rural farming town, it's now known as a hotbed for skydiving activity, and the home to large retiree mobile home parks and the water bottled from the natural springs that surround the area.

And now, one lucky lottery ticket.

"I'm getting text messages and messages from Facebook going, 'uh, did you win the lottery?'" Sandra Lewis said. "No, I didn't win, guys. Sorry."

Sara Jeltis said her parents in Michigan texted her with the news Sunday morning.

"Well, it didn't click until I came here," she said, gesturing to the half-dozen TV live trucks humming in the Publix parking lot. "And I'm like, 'Wow I can't believe it, it's shocking!' Out of the whole country, this Publix, in little Zephyrhills would be the winner."

With four out of every five possible combinations of Powerball numbers in play, lottery executives said Saturday that someone was almost certain to win the game's highest jackpot, a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars ? and that's after taxes.

The winning numbers were 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball of 11.

Estimates had earlier put the jackpot at around $600 million. But Powerball's online site said Sunday that the jackpot had reached an estimated $590.5 million.

The world's largest jackpot was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2012.

Terry Rich, CEO of the Iowa Lottery, initially confirmed that one Florida winning ticket had been sold. He told The Associated Press that following the Florida winner, the Powerball grand prize was being reset at an estimated jackpot of $40 million, or about $25.1 million cash value.

The chances of winning the prize were astronomically low: 1 in 175.2 million. That's how many different ways you can combine the numbers when you play. But lottery officials estimated that about 80 percent of those possible combinations had been purchased recently.

The longshot odds didn't deter people across Powerball-playing states ? 43 plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands ? from lining up at gas stations and convenience stores Saturday.

Clyde Barrow, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, specializes in the gaming industry. He said one of the key factors behind the ticket-buying frenzy is the size of the jackpot ? people are interested in the easy investment.

"Even though the odds are very low, the investment is very small," he said. "Two dollars gets you a chance."

Lewis, who went to the Publix on Sunday to buy water, said she didn't play ? and she isn't upset about it.

"Life goes on," she said, shrugging. "I'm good."

___

Rodriguez reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press Writer Kelli Kennedy in Miami contributed to this report.

___

Follow Tamara Lush at http://twitter.com/tamaralush .

Follow Barbara Rodriguez at http://twitter.com/bcrodriguez .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-20-Powerball%20Jackpot/id-2880a38ce7a74de394b0a88a1b4f27a6

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Jennifer Garner & Ben Affleck Laugh Off "Marriage Trouble"

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck re-affirmed their marriage, and their adorableness, on this week's Saturday Night Live. During his opening monologue, guest host Affleck raised the awkward subject of his Oscar thank-you speech, during which he thanked Garner for "working on" their marriage. His choice of words sparked rumors that Jen and Ben's relationship was in trouble, and on Saturday, they addressed those rumors for the first time together. Watch the clip below!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/jennifer-garner-ben-affleck-joke-about-marriage-trouble-snl/1-a-536676?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ajennifer-garner-ben-affleck-joke-about-marriage-trouble-snl-536676

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Car bombs kill at least two in Russia's Dagestan

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - Two car bombs killed at least two people on Monday in Dagestan, a turbulent province in Russia's North Caucasus region where armed groups are waging an Islamist insurgency.

Car bombs, suicide bombings and firefights are common in Dagestan, at the center of an insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet wars against separatist rebels in neighboring Chechnya.

Investigators initially said eight people had been killed by the successive blasts in the provincial capital Makhachkala, but law enforcement officials later put the death toll at two and said more than 20 people had been wounded.

Both explosions were near the headquarters of the court bailiffs' service and appeared to have been detonated by remote control, said the federal Investigative Committee, a Russian state agency.

Twisted wreckage of a car could be seen near the building, which was cordoned off by police.

The main suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings in the United States, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, lived in Dagestan with his family about a decade ago and visited the region last year.

The visit by Tsarnaev, who was shot dead by U.S. police after the April 15 bombings that killed three people and wounded 264 others, is being scrutinized by U.S. investigators for signs of ties with insurgents.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered law enforcement authorities to ensure insurgents do not attack the 2014 Winter Olympics next February in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, which is close to the North Caucasus.

Most of the wounded and the two dead were caught by the second of Monday's explosions, a few minutes after the first, the investigators said.

Insurgents in the North Caucasus have often sought to increase casualties by setting off an initial blast to attract law enforcement officers and then detonating a second bomb.

Dagestan, an ethnically mixed, mostly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea, has become the most violent province in the North Caucasus, where insurgents say they are fighting to carve out an Islamic state out of southern Russia.

At least 405 people were killed in Dagestan in violence linked to the insurgency last year, according to the Caucasian Knot website, which tracks developments in the region.

Putin launched the second war in Chechnya as prime minister in 1999 and likes to take credit for preventing the region from splitting from Russia. But his 13 years in power have been marred by deadly attacks claimed by or blamed on the insurgents.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman; editing by Timothy Heritage/Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/car-bombs-kill-eight-russias-dagestan-investigators-120207347.html

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Graying China taps rural elderly to care for those even older

By Li Hui and Maxim Duncan

QIANTUN, China (Reuters) - Two years short of 70, Zhang Guosheng spends his days caring for an 81-year-old fellow villager - washing his clothes, bringing meals to his bed, and keeping him company - a routine he'll keep up until he himself needs the type of care he is now giving.

"Living here is better than staying at home alone. We help each other and have a common language," said the spritely Zhang, an enthusiastic dancer. "We are very happy here."

With younger villagers who would traditionally have looked after their parents and grandparents flocking to the booming cities to seek work as part of Beijing's urbanization drive, Qiantun village in northern China's Hebei province has had to pioneer a new model - the old looking after the even older.

Surrounded by green wheat fields that stretch across a flat plain, Qiantun is unremarkable among countless rural Chinese communities, but its old-age care model is now a prototype cited by central government as a solution to the daunting challenge of caring for a vast and rapidly greying rural population.

One of every four Chinese will be older than 60 by 2030, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Massive rural-to-urban migration will further strain the rural areas' ability to provide care for the elderly, as personal savings and family support remain the primary pillars of old-age care.

"Migrants to urban areas are mainly young adults, leaving mostly the elderly in villages with children," said Wang Dewen, an expert with the World Bank's Beijing office. "The formal eldercare system in rural areas is very weak, and basically a blank spot in many places."

As a result, the gap between the number of elderly in rural and urban areas is expected to balloon over the next 15 years, to 11 percentage points from today's 1.24 percentage points, the ministry projects.

The costs of caring for China's rapidly expanding elderly population are likely to be too heavy a burden for the government, forcing Beijing to find cost-effective and creative ways to provide care in myriad localities. The self-help model practiced among the 1,500 residents of Qiantun offers a cheaper and streamlined alternative to a state-run system.

More than 95 percent of China's rural elderly still adhere to the traditional practice of seeking old-age care within their families, Wang said. But families are no longer able to cope, with youth and even middle-aged people heading to cities to find work, leaving the elderly behind to fend for themselves.

THE "LIGHT" OF FEIXIANG

In their search for affordable eldercare models, Beijing's leaders have turned their attention 450 km (280 miles) to the south in Hebei's Feixiang county, where Qiantun lies. The practice of old people taking care of each other posed a simple and attractive solution.

Labeled "mutual assist eldercare", the Feixiang model is set to be expanded to the rest of rural China, with 3 billion yuan ($490 million) set aside by the central government to get it started over the coming three years.

"The light of Feixiang will shine across China," Li Liguo, minister of civil affairs, declared enthusiastically during a trip to Feixiang in 2011. "Feixiang has set an example for the whole country."

But not everyone is as optimistic about the model.

"As people get older, they don't tend to get healthier. So if you have somebody in their sixties caring for somebody in their nineties, are they going to be able, and trained and strong enough themselves to care for somebody who has chronic conditions?" said Tony Buccheri, a manager with Right at Home International, a U.S.-based senior home care provider that offers services in China through a partner.

Buccheri's concern echoes that of Cai Qingyang, pioneer of the model and Qiantun's village chief.

"Old people with critical illnesses need more than the very basic care provided here, and we will have to think of other ways to care for them," said the 61 year-old former soldier Cai, watching several old villagers dancing in the yard.

"But this really is the only feasible way given the local elder care situation. The village and the government simply can't afford proper institutional care for every aged rural resident," Cai added.

In 2008, Cai sought to do something about the lack of care for rural elderly left behind as young adults sought better paying work in cities. He turned an abandoned brick house into an old-age home, where 25 elderly villagers moved into 11 rooms, keeping each other company, sharing meals, as well as farming and doing housework.

His innovation has thrived under state support and more than a dozen other provinces have replicated the model.

OLD BEFORE RICH

What separates China's ageing pattern from that in other Asian societies such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore is that the country is still relatively poor on a per capita basis. The phrase "getting old before rich" reflects the fact that even though China's economic growth remains robust, its demographics work against it.

Those in the emerging middle class have more options among at-home care providers, and public as well as private senior homes, and are more likely to find them affordable.

The rural elderly have fewer resources and fewer choices, while youth migration patterns unstitch the traditional family safety net. And despite years of efforts by China's leaders, the income gap between urban and rural residents has increased. A report published by the World Bank last year noted that rural elderly have "remained consistently poorer than the urban elderly over time".

Nor is that likely to change. Two-thirds of elderly Chinese currently live in rural areas, and although migration patterns cloud demographic estimates, many demographers believe the majority of China's elderly will remain in the countryside.

To meet the challenge, says the World Bank's Wang, China must make its urbanization an equalizer of basic social services for urban and rural residents. To do that, he adds, it must reform the household registration system that ties social services to people's registered home, to facilitate family migration to cities and receive care there.

But in the short term, rural areas such as Qiantun, which has three times as many elderly residents as young adults, can only make do with the resources they have. The government provides 600 yuan ($97.68) a year in subsidies for each of the 30 elderly Qiantun villagers at the centre. Their average age is 75.

By contrast, offering professional care at an old-age care institution would cost a minimum of ten times as much, 6,000 yuan a year, according to government estimates, offset by a mere 120 yuan annual subsidy from the government.

At the Qiantun villager centre, "old" Zhang, as he is known, talks about the future as he brings a bowl of dumplings and medicine to the bedside of his charge, bedridden by a broken thigh bone.

"He can't move around now, I help him," said a still spry Zhang. "When I can't move, someone will also care for me."

($1 = 6.1428 Chinese yuan)

(Editing by Ben Blanchard and Ian Geoghegan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/greying-china-taps-rural-elderly-care-those-even-041855642.html

Stephen Covey

Allstate: $216M in catastrophe losses in April

NORTHBROOK, Ill. (AP) -- Severe weather led to $216 million in catastrophe losses in April for Allstate Corp., the insurer said Thursday.

Two severe weather events accounted for more than 75 percent of the estimated loss for the month, but the company declined to name the events.

From April through June of last year, Allstate's catastrophe losses came to $820 million.

The insurance company, based in Northbrook, Ill., serves about 16 million households through its Allstate, Encompass, Esurance and Answer Financial brands and its Allstate Financial business division.

Shares of the company fell 50 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $50.16.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/allstate-216m-catastrophe-losses-april-201556195.html

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Southern Baptists End Investigation of Theology Professors at Kentucky University

Southern Baptist leaders in Kentucky have reaffirmed their partnership with Campbellsville University after investigating rumors that the school dismissed a professor for, as critics alleged, "being too conservative" in his theology.

In April, Campbellsville informed William Jarvis, an associate professor of New Testament and Greek, that his contract would not be renewed beyond the school year. Supporters of Jarvis protested that contracts of other faculty who allegedly reject biblical inerrancy were being extended. The decision prompted blogger Patrick Schreiner to suggest that school officials "jettisoned their convictions."

Several days later, the executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC), Paul Chitwood, said the group would investigate the claims that Campbellsville "retains other professors in the school of theology who reject biblical authority and professors in other disciplines who affirm evolution."

School officials and KBC leaders met on April 29. Baptist Press reported yesterday that representatives released a joint statement saying "they had received assurance that those who believe the literal truthfulness of every word of the Bible are welcomed as students and as faculty members."

Disputes over theology at Christian schools are not uncommon. Cedarville University also recently dismissed one theologian, Michael Pahl, after administrators deemed that he was unable to concur with every tenet of the school's doctrinal statement. The dispute over the Baptist school's doctrine then prompted the resignations of several administrators. Similar debates also arose at Milligan College, Calvin College, Northwestern College, and Shorter University in recent years.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctliveblog/~3/aa7fgfVc8wM/campbellsville-university-kentucky-southern-baptists-william-jarvis.html

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