Cross Country
Beating Some Very Long Odds
The odds were a mere 1 in 176 million. But for Georgia truck driver Ed Nabors and someone in New Jersey, that didn't matter. They were winners last week in the 12-state, Mega Millions lottery jackpot, the biggest ever. And chances are, they're not going to be looking back.
Nabors, 52, who shares a home with his mother in Rocky Face, Ga., bought his winning ticket at a Dalton, Ga., convenience store, not far from a carpet mill run by his employer, Mohawk Industries. He said he wanted to buy a house for his daughter, who's been wanting to move out of her mobile home, and planned on doing a lot of fishing. His lump-sum payout will be $116.5 million before taxes, $80 million after.
In New Jersey, after some confusion over a couple who thought they won, lottery officials were still waiting for a winner to step forward. The winning ticket was sold at a liquor store in Woodbine, and news crews with satellite trucks were still camped out there late last week.
A Telling End for a Superhero
The quintessential American superhero is dead. Captain America fell to a sniper's bullets in last week's edition of the comic. The news seemed laden with ill portent as the republic grapples with an unstable stock market and an unpopular war. "We really need him now," lamented retired cocreator Joe Simon, 93.
Developed in 1941, Captain America gained his world-class strength after being injected with "super-soldier serum" to fight the Nazis. Captain America took on a number of real-world enemies, including Communists. The tale stayed timely to the end. He was killed after leading other superheroes in refusing to register with the government as "a weapon of mass destruction," arguing it was a violation of civil rights. Marvel execs in New York said the end was a long time coming and made for a "compelling story." But in comics, not even death is final. A Captain America movie is a possibility.
With Will Sullivan, Anna Mulrine, Bret Schulte and Associated Press
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