News

USA Today reports: The price for a shot to be a multimillionaire is about to rise. Starting in April, Mega Millions tickets are going to cost $5 per play, the lottery game announced. The increase marks the second price change in the game’s history, following the shift from $1 to $2 in 2017. The ticket adjustment comes as Mega Millions …

The Insider reports: “There’s never been one like this,” Mayor Jane Castor, a Democrat, told CNN Monday, adding that Hurricane Helene, which caused huge damage in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, was “a wake-up call.” Asked for her message to anyone who believed they could stay put and “ride out” the storm, Castor said, “This is literally catastrophic, and I …

The Associated Press reports: Cissy Houston, the mother of the late Whitney Houston and a two-time Grammy winner who performed alongside superstar musicians like Elvis Presley, and Aretha Franklin, has died. She was 91. Houston died Monday morning in her New Jersey home while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter-in-law Pat Houston told The Associated Press. The acclaimed …

CBS News reports: The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a clash between a federal emergency care law and Texas’ near-total ban on abortion, declining to provide clarity over whether states with the most restrictive laws must provide abortion care in certain emergency circumstances. The court’s rejection of the Biden administration’s appeal leaves in place a lower court decision that …

ABC News reports: A Frontier Airlines flight appeared to catch fire during an emergency landing at Harry Reid International Airport on Saturday evening. The flight from San Diego to Las Vegas was in the process of landing when the pilots detected smoke and declared an emergency, Frontier said. After fire and rescue crews extinguished the blaze, all 190 passengers and …

The Daily Beast reports: Argentina’s right wing libertarian president Javier Milei plagiarized a chunk of his recent address to the United Nations from an episode of The West Wing, according to reports in his home country. La Nacion columnist Carlos Pagni was the first to flag the striking similarity between Milei’s remarks and those by the fictional U.S. President Josiah …

The Weather Channel reports: Milton has rapidly intensified into a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, as of Sunday afternoon. The storm is expected to continue to strengthen before making landfall as a major hurricane threat on the west coast of Florida sometime on Wednesday. Much of the current computer guidance suggests that a stronger hurricane threat for Florida is …

USA Today reports: Election officials and lawmakers are worried that U.S Postal Service delays could prevent thousands of ballots from being counted this year, in what could be an extremely close presidential contest. Election officials, lawmakers and postal officials are urging voters to mail ballots at least seven days before Election Day to ensure they are delivered with enough time …

The Tallahassee Democrat reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Milton, which could bring Category 3 winds and surge, or worst, to the Florida peninsula. Areas at the greatest risk are communities still reeling from last month’s Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Ian in 2022. Milton is expected to rapidly intensify over the next 36 …

The Weather Channel reports: Tropical Depression Fourteen has formed in the Gulf of Mexico and now poses a major hurricane threat to Florida just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. I​n their first advisory on the new system, the National Hurricane Center said that “there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for …

Knoxville’s ABC affiliate reports: East Tennessee’s own Dolly Parton partnered with several Sevier County attractions and Walmart to make a significant donation to flood relief at an event Friday. The event took place at the Walmart in Newport, Tennessee. Parton announced she was making a $1 million donation to the Mountain Ways Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing immediate assistance …

Politico reports: The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the government of Mexico can sue the leading gun manufacturers in the U.S. for allegedly fueling drug cartel violence south of the border. The justices announced Friday that they will hear the gunmakers’ challenge to an appeals court ruling that would allow the unusual, $10 billion lawsuit to proceed in …

The Hill reports: Democrats increasingly suspect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to interfere in U.S. domestic politics by ignoring President Biden’s calls to negotiate a peace deal in Gaza and by confronting Hezbollah and Iran weeks before the U.S. election. The rapidly escalating confrontation between Israel, Hezbollah and Hezbollah’s ally, Iran, has undercut Biden’s efforts to achieve peace …

The Texas Tribune reports: Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who is one of the preeminent critics in his party of former President Donald Trump, will lead a GOP group backing U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, in his drive to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Republicans for Allred will be co-chaired by Kinzinger, a former Illinois congressman who later …

Los Angeles’s ABC affiliate reports: Forty-two members of what prosecutors call a San Fernando Valley-based white supremacist gang have been arrested in connection with a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday alleging a years-long criminal operation that included drug trafficking, weapons violations and COVID-19 and loan fraud. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 29 people named in the indictment were arrested Wednesday …

Bloomberg News reports: The destruction from Hurricane Helene is expected to cost insurers roughly $6.4 billion, according to an early estimate from catastrophe modeling firm Karen Clark & Company. KCC’s assessment includes damage to privately insured automobiles as well as residential, commercial and industrial properties and the impact of business interruption. Insured losses are much lower than the total economic …

Via press release from the state of Georgia: Overnight, monitoring around the Bio Lab facility detected some exceedances above the action level for chlorine. Workers on site have continued to make progress in neutralizing the product. As the neutralization process continues, periodic increases in chlorine levels around the facility are expected. The current weather models show the winds will begin …

Florida Politics reports: As debates show sharp the divide between the Republican and Democratic tickets, a recreational marijuana campaign is highlighting a key area of agreement. The Smart & Safe Florida campaign notes Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican opponent Donald Trump both favor legalizing marijuana in Florida. So do their running mates, Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim …

The Associated Press reports: As the rain from Hurricane Helene came down harder and harder, workers inside a plastics factory in rural Tennessee kept working. It wasn’t until water flooded into the parking lot and the power went out that the plant shut down and sent workers home. Several never made it. The raging floodwaters swept 11 people away, and …

The Jerusalem Post reports: Israel’s foreign minister declared UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ‘persona non grata’ and was henceforth banning him from entering Israel, according to a post on X/Twitter on Wednesday. The ban on entry, said FM Israel Katz, was due to Guterres’s failure to “unequivocally condemn” Iran’s massive missile attack on Israel. “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s …