Lottery player uses same series of numbers in NC — and it pays off in a big way
On Thursday, June 5, the Carolina Cash 5 drawing's winning numbers were 5, 12, 19, 27 and 35, and that seemingly random set of digits made Antoine Williams a top-prize winner.
The jackpot was $439,972, lottery officials said in a June 10 news release. Williams, who lives in Fayetteville, paid $1 for the ticket while playing online.
No one appeared more surprised than Williams.
'It's breathtaking to think about. I'm still in shock,' he told lottery officials.
His friends were also in disbelief, including a former union representative. 'She went nuts,' he said in the release.
Why Williams clings to the same series of numbers was not revealed, but it helped him beat odds of 1 in 962,598, officials said.
He picked up his money at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on June 9, and the prize was adjusted $315,680 after taxes.
He plans to use his pot of money to buy a car, then invest in starting a logistics business, officials said.
Carolina Cash 5 is a rolling jackpot game with a prize that grows bigger until someone picks the right set of numbers.
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9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Australian man, 73, says his bank failed to protect him from ‘ghost tapping' scam — and so he's taking them to court
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After CCTV footage collected by the police proved it wasn't him who made those transactions, the bank said it would return the money in full under two conditions. Williams refused. "It's the principle of the thing. I just won't wear being called a liar," he said. 'I'm a stubborn old turd, and I will not give up.' Here's what happened. Fraudulent $1,338 charge on account It all began in October 2022. Williams says he discovered two suspicious charges on his account — $515 and $823 — at a Coles supermarket in Bundoora, a suburb 150 kilometers away from his home. When he contacted NAB's digital subsidiary, uBank, he says a representative told him the transactions were made using his Google Pay account. "They said that I was guilty, I was responsible, I was personally at Coles to do the transactions with my phone and my thumbprint," he said. His maps app and sleep-tracking app both supported his claim he was in Bendigo around that time. He had call and text logs which showed his friend was coming over that morning. He also made a statement at the police station and sent it to the bank, but it was not enough. Eventually, CCTV footage confirmed that the shopper wasn't him — police said it showed 'two young males' using what appeared to be cloned card credentials on phones. That's when the bank offered to reimburse him the $1,338 — on the condition that he sign a non-disclosure agreement and agree that the payment did not mean the bank was taking responsibility for the missing funds. Five months after Williams declined, a second offer of $1,500 came with strings attached: no legal action allowed. He turned that down too. Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says — and that 'anyone' can do it The court battle What followed was a year-long journey of legal research and late nights. He said no civil lawyer he met was willing to take on his case without fees. Williams represented himself and filed a 14-page writ against NAB, alleging the bank failed to secure his banking credentials and transaction data, failed to use its fraud detection protocols, breached its duty to "protect customers from unauthorised transactions" and violated obligations under Australia's ePayments Code by not conducting a fair and transparent investigation. He argued that the $1,338 loss represented 5.5% of his annual pension — and therefore is seeking 5.5% of NAB's 2022 profit after tax: $379.05 million. "Things need to be proportionate," he said. In a brief courtroom victory earlier this year, the bank failed to respond in time, and a default judgment was awarded in Williams' favor. But NAB's lawyers later had the judgment overturned, citing a paperwork issue. The case is now headed for a full hearing — and if Williams loses, he could be on the hook for the bank's legal fees, which he says could bankrupt him. 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Platform Engineering Lessons From Public Sector Technology
The UK Houses Of Parliament & Elizabth Clock Tower (Big Ben bell inside). We need more software. Look into any corner of the enterprise computing landscape and you'll find a need for additional applications, wider network connections between existing resources and new-age AI entities, additional cloud observability services, supplementary data storage and analytics functions and (often above all, although organizations don't like to admit it) better data integration. What that often boils down to in the mind of the average CEO, CIO, CISO or CTO is the management control factor i.e. they want to be able to view their technology deployment and twiddle knobs (literally) on a vizualisation dashboard that turns the flow up, down or outwards on any given stream of the IT stack. 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An Insufficiency Of Infrastructure 'The UK Government (and for that matter the ruling body in any other Western or modern nation) typically doesn't lack ideas, it lacks infrastructure built to adapt when those ideas inevitably shift,' explained Williams. 'In many government departments, ageing platforms were built years ago to meet a particular need. They were often delivered via traditional programmes or projects, with big design up front, and implemented over months or years. They were rarely built with long-term evolution in mind.' At first, these incumbent government platforms did what they were supposed to. But the needs of the services running on top of them changed. Teams began exploring different architectural approaches… and quickly found that they needed flexible networking, updated security models and an ability to serve new types of workloads. Many want to experiment with AI or machine learning. But old platforms don't (and generally can't) keep up. 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That's where the idea of the thinnest viable platform comes in i.e. start small, deliver value early and meet real user needs… then expand responsibly as those needs evolve. The Platform Is The (Change) Lever For digital transformation to succeed, Williams says platforms need to stop being 'passive infrastructure' and start being 'active enablers' in modern cloud computing architectures. That means embedding user needs into their DNA. It means investing in empowered, iterative, data-informed teams who align with wider organisational goals. 'Platform engineering isn't a silver bullet. But it's one of the clearest, most actionable levers we have to make digital transformation real – not just in pilots or proof of concepts, but at scale. With the right mindset, the right structure and the right investment, we can build platforms that keep pace with ambition. We can make value delivery easier. Then we can finally move from intent to impact,' concluded Williams. But can we really move forward with progressive government technology architectures (a sort of quadrilateral oxymoron, in the past at least) and talk about a future where public sector IT platform teams are established so that they develop and share projects? Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting open computing, open data and open source at large points out what this future might look like… and highlights who is already working on it. 'We are seeing Emily Middleton [UK director for digital centre design at the British government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology] drive departments' efforts centrally," said Brock. "This is happening alongside the UK's Government Digital Service, the Cabinet Office and others all being urged to operate as a central team, which is the right first step. Now they are looking to build cohesion and skills, to streamline processes and build understanding. I see this bedding-in towards a platform engineering approach as critical to create good practices and avoid silos.' Going deeper, Brock suggests that a centralized approach to computing helps to build shared understanding; this (in theory if not in practice) enables teams (in government or in the private sector) to to check whether others are already working on the same idea, and contribute to existing projects rather than building another new project. 'We are seeing talk of software and data service cataloges, but however we ultimately develop… building open source infrastructure as the base of a future digital spine at this level will allow access for all parts of the public sector and create a well-curated infrastructure that becomes an interoperable de facto standard,' said Brock, speaking at a media event in the House of Commons terrace this summer. Public Sector Progressiveness? Could we move to a technology future where the breadth and girth of public bodies enables them to adopt platform engineering for its flexibility factors even faster than we see in the private sector? Even if the deployment surface is 20% of existing technology projects at this level, the 80:20 knock-on effect could (arguably) be positive for all sectors. Insular information technology silos may soon be regarded as just as damaging as cultural, economic or political insularity, it may just be time to collaborate and listen.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
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Will the Big Beautiful Bill Make Your Utility Bills More Expensive? Experts Weigh In
Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law on July 4, rolls back clean energy tax credits, repeals climate-focused funding and expands oil and gas development. While some Senate Republicans claim the bill is pro-growth, energy experts warn it could raise utility bills across the U.S. and make long-term power costs more volatile — below is what they had to say. Also here's ChatGPT's simple explanation of what the Big Beautiful Bill is. Explore More: Read Next: Power Bills Could Jump According to a report from Energy Innovation, households across the U.S. could pay a combined $170 billion more for energy between 2025-2034 due to the Big Beautiful Bill. Patrice Williams-Lindo, a workforce futurist, visibility strategist and CEO of Career Nomad, who has advised energy firms on digital adoption and job transitions, said the Big Beautiful Bill doesn't support the energy systems people actually rely on. 'Consumers might see temporary dips in prices if domestic oil and gas production is amped up,' she said. 'But that's a supply illusion. Without long-term investment in resilient grids, diversified energy sources or consumer subsidies, bills will spike again — especially in disaster-prone regions.' Owen Quinlan, head of data at Arbor, said households are already feeling it. 'In many cities, rates have jumped 10% to 45% this summer,' he said. 'And that's before factoring in the potential impact of this bill.' Quinlan's team tracks real-time energy prices across the country. He warned that pulling back on clean energy now could make things more difficult for households already feeling the strain of higher bills. For You: Clean Energy Keeps Prices Down, but That Could Change Quinlan pointed out that solar already plays a big role in keeping daytime prices low. 'The challenge comes when the sun goes down and demand stays high — that's when the grid relies on costly backup power and prices can spike dramatically,' he explained. 'Without more investment in clean energy and the infrastructure to support it, those price spikes could become more common and expensive.' Williams-Lindo said rolling back clean energy also hits the workforce. 'Rolling back climate-forward policies will stall the growth of future-ready jobs in solar, wind, grid optimization and green infrastructure,' she said. She added that it could mean fewer affordable energy options for consumers and fewer high-wage jobs in underserved regions. What's Missing From the Energy Conversation Williams-Lindo shared what she called the RNA framework: Rebrand, Network, Achieve Recognition and said that consumers and industry leaders will need to rebrand how they engage with energy, moving from passive users to educated advocates. 'Utilities will need to network across sectors — tech, policy, labor — to build smarter, equitable pricing models,' she said. 'And marginalized communities, especially Black and brown households often hit hardest by utility hikes, must be recognized in energy policy as stakeholders, not just line items.' According to Lindo, patriotic branding doesn't pay your power bill. Without transparency, equity and investment in energy innovation, the Big Beautiful Bill could lead to big ugly bills for everyday Americans. Editor's note on political coverage: GOBankingRates is nonpartisan and strives to cover all aspects of the economy objectively and present balanced reports on politically focused finance stories. You can find more coverage of this topic on More From GOBankingRates 3 Reasons Retired Boomers Shouldn't Give Their Kids a Living Inheritance (And 2 Reasons They Should) This article originally appeared on Will the Big Beautiful Bill Make Your Utility Bills More Expensive? Experts Weigh In
