Maybe tomorrow....
"Terminally ill Iowa inmate gets parole for hospice" The Des Moines Register December 04, 2013
DES MOINES — A dying Iowa inmate who was 15 when she entered prison will spend her final days in a hospice facility, a state board ruled Tuesday in granting her unprecedented parole.
The Iowa Parole Board’s decision for Kristina Fetters, 33, means she is the first inmate in the state sentenced to life in prison as a juvenile to be released after a landmark US Supreme Court ruling last year.
The high court said life sentences without parole are unconstitutional for juveniles, a ruling that could give 38 Iowa inmates new sentences with a chance at parole.
The board said at the meeting that Fetters, who was diagnosed in September with inoperable stage 4 breast cancer, will be sent to Hospice Care of Central Iowa .
Fetters’s attorney said his client wants to die outside prison walls.
At the meeting, board members debated whether hospice care was the best option after a state oncologist said Fetters had responded to hormone therapy treatment and cancer cells in her bones may have shrunk. But the doctor said her condition probably remains incurable.
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"Iowa man fired for using forklift to get candy | Associated Press February 21, 2014
MILFORD, Iowa — An Iowa man lost his job and unemployment benefits for using a forklift to get a candy bar from a malfunctioning vending machine, state records say.
He was simply doing something we all have wanted to; however, I wonder if this is real or not.
Is it possible all the "news" is scripted and refried s***?
According to state unemployment records released last month, Robert McKevitt, 27, of Spirit Lake, was working at Polaris Industries’ warehouse in Milford when the incident occurred last fall.
McKevitt wanted some candy, so he deposited $1 in a vending machine for a 90-cent Twix candy bar, The Des Moines Register reported. But the candy bar got snagged and wouldn’t fall. He banged it and rocked it, but that didn’t work.
The records said McKevitt then commandeered a forklift, picked up the machine at least six times and dropped it about 2 feet onto the concrete floor. Three candy bars fell.
McKevitt was fired five days later. ‘‘That machine was trouble,’’ McKevitt said. ‘‘They fired me, and now I hear they have all new vending machines there.’’
Should have given it six right in the coin slot.
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"Powerball’s pot lifts state budgets | Associated Press February 24, 2014
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The scores of losing players in last week’s $425 million Powerball jackpot did more than take an extremely long shot at getting rich. Their ticket purchases also helped fund a small but increasingly important part of their states’ budgets.
Changes in the nationwide Powerball and Mega Millions games have led to some of the world’s largest jackpots in the last two years.
Fueled by the growth of those games and the expansion of other offerings, many state lotteries last year reported record revenues and transfers to the state budgets and programs they helped fund.
For every $2 ticket, 50 cents or more might end up paying for police officers in Massachusetts, services for the elderly in Pennsylvania, or education in rural school districts in Idaho, lottery directors say.
In all, about $20 billion out of the roughly $70 billion in overall annual lottery revenues is used by states after prize money, retailer commissions, advertising, and administrative expenses are taken out.
Gary Grief, Texas Lottery Commission executive director, said Powerball sales in his state multiply several times as the jackpots rise, from about $3 million per week all the way up to 10 or 15 times that amount. “That’s a very small piece of a big pie, but every dollar counts,” he said.
He and other lottery directors say that revenue from jackpot games still make up a small fraction of overall sales — instant scratch tickets remain their bread and butter.
Critics say lotteries are a terrible way to fund services. They argue that tickets are heavily taxed since only a fraction of the money goes to payouts and winnings are taxed again. And they say the poor are more likely to play more often, making it a regressive funding source.
And government promotes and profits from it so they can give tax loot to well-connected corporations and concerns!
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