Warehouse worker takes third of $1.6 billion Powerball pot ADVERTISING Warehouse worker takes third of $1.6 billion Powerball pot NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A small-town warehouse supervisor turned in one of three tickets splitting the world-record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot
Warehouse worker takes third of $1.6 billion Powerball pot
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A small-town warehouse supervisor turned in one of three tickets splitting the world-record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot on Friday, and swiftly announced that he would take his money now, giving up hundreds of millions of dollars in the future.
But John Robinson and his wife, Lisa, said they won’t stop working and won’t make any wild purchases. They’ll pay off their mortgage and their daughter’s student loans, but have no desire to move from their small, gray, one-story house into a luxurious compound somewhere.
“I’ve never wanted that in the past. I don’t really want that now,” said Lisa Robinson, who works in a dermatologist’s office.
“Big houses are nice,” her husband said, “But also you gotta clean ‘em.”
Robinson said he reached out to his brother for help finding lawyers and financial planners before deciding to take the winnings in a single lump sum of nearly $328 million, rather than let the lottery invest the prize and pay him 30 annual installments totaling an estimated $533 million.
1 man brain dead, 5 others hospitalized in French drug trial
PARIS (AP) — One man was brain dead and three others faced possible permanent brain damage after volunteering to take part in a drug trial for a painkiller based on a natural brain compound similar to the active ingredient in marijuana, French authorities said Friday.
The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into what French Health Minister Marisol Touraine called “an accident of exceptional gravity” at a clinical trial lab in the western French city of Rennes.
The trial involved 90 healthy volunteers who were given the experimental drug in varying doses at different times, she told reporters at a news conference in Rennes.
Six male volunteers between 28 and 49 years old have since been hospitalized, including one man now classified as brain dead, Touraine said, adding that the other 83 volunteers were being contacted.
Calling the case “unprecedented,” Touraine said she was “deeply moved” by the suffering of the victims, who she met with earlier Friday, along with their families. “We’ll do everything to understand what happened,” she said. “I don’t know of any other event like this.”
Wal-Mart to shutter 269 stores, 154 of them in the US
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart is doing some rare pruning.
The world’s largest retailer is closing 269 stores, including 154 in the U.S. that includes all of its locations under its smallest-format concept store called Wal-Mart Express. The other big chunk is in its challenging Brazilian market.
The stores being shuttered account for a fraction of the company’s 11,000 stores worldwide and less than 1 percent of its global revenue. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said the store closures will affect 16,000 workers, 10,000 of them in the U.S. Its global workforce is 2.2 million, 1.4 million in the U.S. alone.
The store closures will start at the end of the month.
The announcement comes three months after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Doug McMillon told investors that the world’s largest retailer would review its fleet of stores with the goal of becoming more nimble in the face of increased competition from all fronts, including from online rival Amazon.com.
Stock market slides again; worst two-week start to a year
NEW YORK (AP) — Never before has Wall Street gotten off to a worse start to a year.
The stock market capped the first two weeks of 2016 with a steep slide Friday that sent the Dow Jones industrial average down nearly 400 points.
All three major stock indexes — the Dow, the Nasdaq composite and the Standard & Poor’s 500 — are now in what’s known as a correction, or a drop of 10 percent or more from their recent peaks.
The market has been on a stomach-churning ride since the start of the year, wrenched up — but mostly down — because of alarm over a slowdown in China and the plunging price of oil to its lowest level in 12 years. Investors are already seeing damage to U.S. corporate profits, particularly at energy companies.
The Dow slid 390.97 points, or 2.4 percent, to 15,988.08. The average had been down more than 500 points early in the afternoon. The S&P 500 ended down 41.51 points, or 2.2 percent, at 1,880.33. The Nasdaq dropped 126.59 points, or 2.7 percent, to 4,488.42.
Obama administration halts new coal leases on federal land
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is imposing a moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands, arguing that the program has remained largely unchanged for more than 30 years and requires a comprehensive review.
The coal leasing program must be modernized to ensure a fair financial return to American taxpayers and account for climate change, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Friday in announcing the halt. The move drew praise from environmental groups and Democrats, but condemnation from Republicans who called it another volley in what they assert is a “war on coal” being waged by President Barack Obama.
“It is abundantly clear that times are different than they were 30 years ago, and the time for review (of the coal leasing program) is now,” Jewell told reporters in a conference call.
She called the moratorium, effective immediately and expected to last through the remainder of Obama’s final year in office, a “prudent step to hit pause.”
The federal program to lease coal-mining rights to a single bidder has remained largely unchanged for more than 30 years, despite complaints that low royalty rates and a near-total lack of competition have cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Snyder asks Obama for federal aid in Flint water crisis
DETROIT (AP) — The state of Michigan can’t meet all the needs of Flint residents whose water system has been contaminated by lead, Gov. Rick Snyder said in a request for a federal disaster declaration and millions of dollars that could pay for clean water, filters and other essentials.
Snyder’s letter to President Barack Obama paints a bleak picture of the troubled city, describing Flint as an “impoverished area” that has been overwhelmed by the release of lead from old pipes — the result of using the Flint River as the city’s drinking water for 18 months.
“Mistrust in government is at a heightened level,” Snyder, a Republican, said in a request dated Thursday and released to The Associated Press.
The application seeks help from all available federal programs. Snyder said 90 days of clean drinking water could cost $10.3 million, and home filters, filter cartridges and testing kits could cost $31 million over a year.
“The governor has made a request through the formal process, and that’s a request that we’ll consider expeditiously,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday.
