(NEW YORK) — The Saturday night Powerball prize rose to an estimated $580 million, giving players a chance at winning the 10th largest jackpot in the game’s history. The prize has a cash value of $278.2 million.
The game has had 33 drawings in a row without a winner.
The Powerball jackpot was last won with a ticket in Pennsylvania, which won a $206.9 million jackpot on Aug. 3.
There have been a total of five Powerball jackpot winners this year.
The top winners from Wednesday night’s drawing include two tickets sold in Michigan and New Jersey that won $1 million each and a third ticket sold in New Jersey that won $2 million.
The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9 and the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to a statement from Powerball.
The largest Powerball jackpot in the game’s history was $1.586 billion, won on Jan. 13, 2016. The winning tickets were sold in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to a Powerball website.
(NEW YORK) — After nearly 100 consecutive days of falling gas prices, fuel costs have spiked in recent weeks.
This time, the price increase coincides with the lead up to the midterm elections — and the trend could determine which party gains control of Congress.
The approval rating of President Joe Biden — an indicator of Democrat’s election prospects — has tracked closely with gas prices. In conjunction with a monthslong fall in prices from their summer peak, Biden’s approval surged.
Since the increase in prices took hold two weeks ago, when OPEC+ announced a cut in oil output, disapproval of President Joe Biden has risen 1.1 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight.
On Wednesday, Biden announced moves that aim to address the oil supply shortage behind the cost spike, including a scheduled release of millions of barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR.
But the price of gas — and the recent movement of that price — varies dramatically across key midterm states. In some states, like New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, prices have barely increased or even fallen over the last month.
Here’s a look at the key midterm states where gas prices have spiked significantly in recent weeks, and what candidates are saying about the rising costs:
Arizona
In Arizona, a swing state host to highly contested races for governor and Senate, the price of a gallon of gas stands at $4.40 — a figure roughly 15% higher than the national average of $3.82, according to AAA. Moreover, the price of gas in Arizona has risen more than 8% over the past month.
Blake Masters, a Republican candidate for Senate, condemned the gas price spike on Wednesday in a tweet critical of his opponent, incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly, as well as Biden.
“Now in a desperate bid to try to save the midterms they’re squandering our strategic reserve,” Masters said. Biden retains sole authority over releases from the SPR, which currently stands at 57% capacity, according to the Energy Information Administration, or EIA.
Kelly, meanwhile, acknowledged the elevated prices last week, citing a general supply bottleneck. “From groceries to the gas we pump into our cars, it feels like everything is too expensive right now,” he said. “I’m working in the Senate to fix our supply chains and bring down costs for Arizona’s working families.”
Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, where a high-stakes Senate race could determine which party holds the chamber, the price of a gallon of gas stands at $3.67, AAA data showed. While that price falls below the national average, it reflects a recent surge of more than 5% over the past month.
Republican incumbent Senator Ron Johnson, first elected in 2010, has attributed the high gas prices to spending increases and environmentally friendly initiatives supported by Democrats.
Earlier this month, Johnson said: “Make no mistake, this is the result of Democrats’ reckless deficit spending and radical green energy policies.”
To address the gas prices, Democratic candidate Mandela Barnes, the state’s Lieutenant Governor, says on his campaign website he would end government subsidies for oil and gas companies, which he claims have enabled high profits.
Ohio
Another key battleground state is Ohio, where a close Senate race features author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance, a Republican, and Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.
Gas prices in Ohio stand at $3.71, nearly 10 cents below the national average. AAA data showed. But the price has jumped about 7% over the last month.
In a debate between the two Senate candidates, on Monday, Vance faulted the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats for impeding investment in the U.S. energy sector that could increase oil output and bring down prices.
“That rising energy price that people see at the pump, that people see in your utility bills, that our farmers see when they’re paying more for diesel,” Vance said. “That was the direct result of policies enacted by Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and supported 100% by Tim Ryan.”
Oil production in the U.S. last year was nearly identical to that seen over the final year of the Trump administration, in 2020, and greater than the amount produced in 2017 or 2018, according to data from the EIA.
Ryan, meanwhile, cited his vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which is projected to cut the deficit over a 10-year period and slightly reduce inflation, according to the Wharton School of Business at Pennsylvania University.
To provide short term cost relief, Ryan called for a tax cut for working families that would ease the pain imposed by higher prices. “This is an opportunity for us to put more money in people’s pockets,” he said at the debate.
California
California, the state with the highest gas prices, could determine which party retains control of the House of Representatives. The state plays host to three toss-up House races, according to the Cook Political Report.
Gas prices in California stand at $5.83 per gallon, which puts the price about 52% higher than the national average, according to AAA data. That price has spiked nearly 8% over the past month.
In one of the toss-up House races, the Oakland-area 13th district, two challengers seek a seat left open by the retirement of longtime Democratic Representative Barbara Lee.
Adam Gray, a Democratic state assembly member running for the seat, faulted California’s tax credit system, which he said in a debate last month offers a tax break for wealthy Tesla purchasers but leaves working-class people straining to afford high gas prices.
“We need to have a renewable energy policy that actually doesn’t balance its book on the folks who can least afford to pay the bill,” he said.
On the other hand, Republican candidate John Duarte, a farmer, blamed the high gas prices on environment-friendly Democratic policies that he says have limited oil supply.
“We need to develop domestic energy as a matter of opportunity and affordability for families,” he said at the debate.
(WASHINGTON) — Several police officers in Washington D.C. are facing allegations of police brutality and excessive force after video of a brutal arrest of two men went viral and the Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau is now investigating the incident as city leaders and activists call for swift action from D.C. Police.
Police responded to a report of possible gunshots in Southeast D.C. at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Thursday night when police say they located a stolen unoccupied vehicle with visible shell casings inside and the motor still running. Authorities tell ABC News, “a group of subjects approached the officers while they were searching the vehicle. A male in the group threatened ‘to smack’ a female police officer. In response, an officer pushed the male against a fence and took him into custody.”
The two men arrested were later identified as Ty’Jon “TJ” Jackson, 23, and Tejuan “TC” Colman, 30.
D.C. Councilmember Trayon White, who arrived on the scene an hour after the incident began told reporters on Friday, “this incident was totally unacceptable on so many levels.”
He noted that no one should threaten “to smack” an officer. However, he notes, that shouldn’t be the reasoning for an aggressive arrest.
“If a guy threatens a female officer, he does not deserve to be kicked in his upper body or face, right? One doesn’t equal the other. I think they have enough training. We have enough protocols, policies, and procedures to address situations and that’s not it. And it’s totally unacceptable. So if the police department is using that as an excuse to escalate violence, that is just not acceptable.”
DC police said both “individuals were transported to an area hospital for medical evaluation and have since been released back to MPD custody and will be presented in court today.”
Tejuan Colman’s mother, Aminah Saladin, told reporters on Friday that the situation “was heart wrenching, very disappointing. Anyone else could have been shot during that time. Their total focus was on a car that no one was actually in.”
(GREEENWOOD, Miss.) — The Mississippi community of Greenwood erected a towering statue Friday in honor of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy whose murder sparked much of the 20th century civil rights movement.
“I feel that when young people ask me what the memory of Emmett Till is, we have this statue as a memory,” Mississippi state Sen. David Jordan, who represents Greenwood, told ABC News. “He liberated all Black people for all that he sacrificed.”
The memorial statue stands at 9-feet tall — a bronze figure reminiscent of Till’s infamous portrait with a white button-down shirt, slacks and his left hand tipping his hat with a slight grin on his face.
The statue’s unveiling comes just a week after the release of “Till,” a film detailing the untold chapter of Till’s story centered around his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who championed civil rights activism following the murder of her son.
“This is a great day as we take another leap forward in recognizing the life and legacy of Emmett Till,” the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Till’s only remaining family member who saw his cousin the night he was kidnapped, told ABC News.
Till, a Chicago native, was murdered in in August 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in a grocery store in Drew, Mississippi, about 40 miles north of Greenwood, the county seat in the Delta region. The two white men arrested for kidnapping, torturing and lynching the 14-year-old were acquitted by an all-white jury.
Till-Mobley insisted on an open-casket funeral for her son to allow the surrounding community to witness the torture inflicted onto her son. She became a prominent leader of the civil rights movement, adamant that her son should not have died in vain.
Jet Magazine published the daunting image of Till’s battered face that changed lives forever. Numerous Black publications, including The Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News and various others, were charged with moving the needle forward reporting on the atrocity.
“When I met Rosa Parks in 1961, she said she didn’t get out of that seat for Emmett Till,” Jordan said.
But there are still reminders of Mississippi’s segregated past everywhere. A Confederate monument stands outside the Greenwood courthouse’s lawn, only a few miles away from Greenwood’s Rail Spike Park where Till’s new statue is located.
“As so many people are determined to erase our history, we are blessed to have so many more allies in the struggle to keep our story alive,” Parker said. “This statue is affirmation that our lives matter.”
Despite the demographics of Greenwood and Leflore County being about 70% Black, it took state officials years to erect the statue. This year, Jordan was finally able to allocate $150,000 in state funding to commission Utah artist Matt Glen to sculpt the statue.
“I am elated that it happened here in Mississippi, and this is a glorious day for all of the people in Greenwood, Mississippi,” Jordan said.
ABC News’ Fatima Curry and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — One of the first Texas state troopers to arrive at the scene of the May 24 elementary school mass shooting is being fired by the Texas Department of Public Safety, a spokesperson told ABC News.
“The department can confirm Sgt. Juan Maldonado was served with termination papers today,” a spokesperson for Texas DPS said.
Sgt. Juan Maldonado is one of seven members of Texas DPS whose conduct was being investigated by the DPS inspector general because of their actions or inaction during the shooting that claimed the lives of 19 students and two of their teachers.
DPS announced Sept. 6 that five DPS officers on-site at Robb had been referred to the IG. That number grew to seven.
Maldonado is the first one disciplined and the IG probe into him was the first one completed, the official said.
“We expect more of our troopers,” the official said.
Security camera footage revealed that Maldonado held the door open to the school open and stood idly by when another officer ran out of the building bleeding, begging others to go in. Maldonado was accused of not following active shooter protocol.
Maldonado was a 23-year veteran of the state agency and public information officer for the region. Maldonado did not respond to ABC News for comment.
Some family members of Robb Elementary School victims have already been notified.
Berlinda Arreola, step grandmother to Amerie Jo Garza who was on the children killed, told ABC News that it was “disappointing,” that the police officers had not entered the classroom,
“He’s been a member of the community for years and he had the chance to go in and save the children and teachers of a community that he knew so well,” Arreola said.
The DPS internal investigation prompted new DPS protocols to be enacted. Now, policy dictates that once an “active shooter” is declared at a school, the situation cannot be treated as anything else by Texas DPS personnel until the shooter or shooters are neutralized. According to the new rules, all DPS personnel are ordered to override any other law enforcement officers who are standing in the way of taking active measures to neutralize a school shooter.
McCraw is scheduled to testify about the Robb Elementary response and probe during a hearing Thursday in Austin.
ABC News’ Kate Holland contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Despite a gradual upward trend in military suicides over the last decade, 2021 saw a more than 15% decrease for active duty service members, according to a new Defense Department report.
“For the active component there was over a 15% decrease in the rate of suicides from 2020 to 2021,” said Beth Foster, executive director for DOD’s Office of Force Resiliency in a briefing Thursday. “Young enlisted male service members remain at greatest risk.”
Pentagon data counts 326 instances of suicide in the active duty force in 2021, down from 384 in 2020.
The department took steps to lower suicide risk across the force in 2021, including awareness programs, boosts in quality of life, and efforts to reduce the stigma of seeking help. The improvement has been heartening, but Pentagon officials believe there’s more to be done.
“While we are cautiously encouraged by the drop in these numbers, one year is not enough time to assess real change,” Foster said.
Though military suicide rates have trended upward since 2011, it has been essentially on par with that of the U.S. population, when accounting for age and sex.
The Pentagon controls for age and sex to help make a more apples-to-apples comparison between the U.S. population and the military, which is disproportionately made up of young males, who are generally more likely to take their own lives.
“Without standardizing for age or sex differences between the military and the U.S. population and then adjusting for age and sex differences in suicide rates within the military, the comparisons between the unadjusted or crude rates in the military and the U.S. population suicide rates would be misleading or distorted,” the DOD report noted.
L.S. Dunes, the new band featuring My Chemical Romance‘s Frank Iero and Coheed and Cambria‘s Travis Stever, has released a new song called “Bombsquad.”
“The lyrics for ‘Bombsquad’ came from a poem that I wrote around the time of the January 6 insurrection,” says Circa Survive vocalist Anthony Green, who completes the L.S. Dunes lineup alongside bassist Tim Payne and drummer Tucker Rule of Thursday.
“In the midst of the pandemic, people were trying to take down the government because a ConMan politician couldn’t admit that he had lost the election, not for any legitimate grievance or protest,” Green continues. “The song is a rage against society’s depressing and destructive forces.”
You can listen to “Bombsquad” now via digital outlets. L.S. Dunes has also released a live video of the track, recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios in Hurley, New York.
“Bombsquad” will appear on the debut L.S. Dunes album Past Lives, due out November 11. The record also includes the previously released songs “Permanent Rebellion” and “2022.”
L.S. Dunes made their live debut last month at Riot Fest. They’ll launch a U.S. headlining tour in November.
What happens when a sharp-dressed Texas blues-rock legend joins forces with a sharp-dressed funk/R&B great? Music fans can find out by checking out “Too Much Girl 4 Me,” a new song featuring ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons collaborating with Morris Day of The Time.
The duet begins with a humorous dialogue between Gibbons and Day before kicking into a grooving tune that combines heavy rock and funk.
“Too Much Girl 4 Me” is available now via digital formats. The track will also appear on Day’s upcoming farewell solo album, Last Call, which will be released November 11 and can be preordered now.
Rolling Stone reports the collaboration came about after Day’s manager, Courtney Benson, introduced himself to Gibbons after running into him at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
“Billy got up in the middle of the lounge and did my famous ‘Chili Sauce’ slide across the floor,” Day explained to Rolling Stone in an email. “And [Billy] said, ‘Morris and I have to do something together.'”
Morris then phoned Snoop Dogg and got permission to record at Snoop’s Dogg Pound studio with Gibbons.
Day said that he and Gibbons bonded over their shared love of music, while noting that they both like “doing things out of the box.”
“That’s what I love about the song ‘Too Much Girl 4 Me’: Billy’s production on this is not what you would expect him to do,” Morris said. “He managed to bridge his and my genre together to create this song. I was literally impressed working with him every day. He has a love for my music as well.”
He added, “I believe his favorite song of mine is ‘The Bird,’ and my favorite ZZ Top songs are ‘La Grange’ and, of course, ‘Sharp Dressed Man.'”
Lucy, Carly and Joanna Simon in 1994; Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Very sad news to report regarding Carly Simon‘s family. The singer/songwriter’s two older sisters, Lucy and Joanna, both died this week, a source close to Carly confirmed to Deadline.
Lucy died Thursday of breast cancer at the age of 82, while Joanna passed away Wednesday of thyroid cancer at age 84.
Lucy and Carly formed the folk duo The Simon Sisters during the early 1960s and recorded three albums during that decade. Perhaps their best known song was an adaptation of the children’s poem “Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nod,” which reached #73 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Lucy released a couple of solo albums during the 1970s; in the early ’80s, she and her husband, David Levine, produced two Grammy-winning children’s albums — 1980’s In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record and 1981’s In Harmony 2.
Lucy’s biggest musical success was serving as composer for the 1991 Broadway musical The Secret Garden, which scored a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score.
She also wrote and produced music for the 1993 HBO film The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom.
In addition, Lucy composed music for a stage adaptation of Doctor Zhivago, which had a short Broadway run in 2015.
Joanna Simon had a long career as an opera singer, performing and recording with many orchestras over the years, including the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
From 1986 to 1992, she served as the arts correspondent for the PBS program TheMacNeil-Lehrer News Hour and won an Emmy Award for her reporting in 1991.
After the 2004 death of her husband, writer Gerald Walker, she was legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite‘s companion from 2005 until his death in 2009.
It appears some fans of House of the Dragon could not wait to find out what will happen to the Targaryens.
The season finale, titled “The Black Queen,” leaked online early Friday morning, Deadline has confirmed. It was meant to air on HBO and stream on HBO Max Sunday night.
“We are aware that the 10th episode of House of the Dragon has been posted on illegal torrent sites,” an official HBO spokesperson said. “We’re disappointed that this unlawful action has disrupted the viewing experience for loyal fans of the show, who will get to see a pristine version of the episode when it premieres Sunday.”
House of the Dragon stars Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower.
The actors found themselves the subjects of a viral meme moment recently when an interview segment about the cocktail they prefer — a Negroni Sbagliato with Prosecco in it — was spread widely throughout TikTok.
Now Google is in on the joke. Searching the words “Emma D’Arcy,” “Olivia Cooke” or “Negroni Sbagliato” on the site will cause an animated pop-up of D’Arcy and Cooke’s arms cheers-ing while dressed in their signature House of the Dragon costumes. How stunnin’, as Cooke would say.
