Latest news with #TheBeverlyHillbillies
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Wife hits $500,000 lottery jackpot after husband forgot to buy tickets
The unidentified woman recently stopped at a Redi Mart gas station in Lyman, South Carolina, and bought herself three Money Madness Extra Play scratch-off game lottery tickets. She told the South Carolina Education Lottery that the 'bright, shiny, and glittery tickets caught my eye.' She didn't win anything from the first two tickets after scratching off the hidden numbers. However, she said her third ticket was 'magical,' since it won her the top prize of $500,000. 'I felt like Jed Clampett when he discovered his bubblin' crude,' she said, referring to the character on The Beverly Hillbillies discovering oil on his land. This resulted in Jed's family's new wealth and their move to California. The woman also shared her plans for her earnings, adding: 'I'll have a little fun, take some trips, and retirement will come sooner rather than later.' As a result of her win, the petrol station where she got the lottery ticket received a commission of $5,000. According to the South Carolina Education Lottery, the odds of winning $500,000 in the Money Madness Extra Play game are one in 1.152 million. This isn't the first lottery player in the US who ended up winning big. ADVERTISEMENT Earlier this month, school bus driver Russell Ruff, who's based in Connecticut, discovered that his lost lottery ticket was worth $150,000. He lost the ticket shortly after purchasing it on Friday, June 13. So, it was 'miraculous' that his 16-year-old cat was the one who later discovered the Powerball ticket. 'We lost the ticket at home. It went behind a headboard, and we didn't think too much of it,' he said in the release shared by the Connecticut Lottery. 'We didn't really check the numbers.' Ruff said he had to move his bed when he realized the cat was stuck behind it. With the ticket back in his possession, he realized he had four of the five winning numbers, plus the Powerball number. He also had Power Play added to his ticket, which allows you to multiply your non-jackpot winnings by a specific amount. As a result, Ruff's prize increased from $50,000 to $150,000. In June, a Kentucky woman, Pamela Howard-Thornton, also won the state lottery after nearly losing the winning ticket by throwing it in the trash. Howard-Thornton bought four tickets for the Flamingo Bingo scratch-off game at a rest stop store in nearby Lebanon Junction after having a dream about winning a large jackpot. 'The first three were not winners, so I put them in the trash,' she added. 'Then I was like 'Where's my fourth ticket?' I looked in the trash and I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, I threw it away.'' Luckily, Howard-Thornton was able to recover the ticket and won the game's top prize of $80,000, or $57,600 after taxes.
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Husband forgot to get lottery tickets. So wife bought her own — and won big
A woman's husband forgot to get lottery tickets. So, the wife bought her own — and won big. 'I'll have a little fun, take some trips and retirement will come sooner rather than later,' the wife told the South Carolina Education Lottery in a July 25 news release. The lucky winner scored $500,000 after she stopped at a gas station in Lyman, a roughly 25-mile drive northeast from downtown Greenville. While at the 357 Redi Mart, she tried her luck on the Money Madness Extra Play scratch-off game. 'I was standing in line and these bright, shiny and glittery tickets caught my eye,' the woman told lottery officials. 'I bought three of them.' She checked two of the $10 tickets, but they weren't winners. Then she scratched off the last one, revealing a 'magical' win. It turns out, the woman beat more than 1-in-a million odds to score one of the top prizes in the game. She kept $347,500 after taxes and compared the win to a character's fortune on the TV show 'The Beverly Hillbillies,' lottery officials wrote in their release and in an email to McClatchy News. 'I felt like Jed Clampett when he discovered his bubblin' crude,' said the lucky winner, who wasn't identified publicly. It's not the first time an eye-catching lottery ticket has led someone to hit the jackpot. In North Carolina, a man was drawn to a ticket that made him much richer, McClatchy News reported in February.
Scottish Sun
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Actress and Playboy star, 55, looks VERY different 36 years after finding fame as she's spotted in LA
The star revealed why being a Baywatch babe was much more difficult than it looked BEACH BABE Actress and Playboy star, 55, looks VERY different 36 years after finding fame as she's spotted in LA Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) SHE shot to fame in the 80s as a Playboy cover star and Baywatch pin-up. More than three decades on, actress and model Erika Eleniak, now 55, looks very different with two tattoo sleeves. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 4 Baywatch's Erika Eleniak was pictured walking her dog in LA Credit: The Mega Agency 4 The actress and model now has a more alternative style Credit: The Mega Agency Erika was pictured walking her pet dog in Los Angeles in a black T-shirt and shorts, with a fanny pack around her waist. She looked to be makeup-free on a sunny day in California as she strolled in a pair of sliders. Best known for her role as lifeguard Shauni McClain, Erika is still quizzed about her time on set to this day. Last year, she admitted playing a beach beauty, famed for her red swimsuit, was much harder than she was given credit for. "Running on sand is really hard," she told UPI. "Running in and out of the water is really hard. "It doesn't always look cool, either, so trying to make it look good and do it well is definitely not easy. I don't think anybody ever thought any of it was hard." Not only did the cast need to look good and be super fit, they also needed to learn emergency first aid skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation. While Baywatch is now most famously linked to Pamela Anderson as C.J. Parker in the mid-90s, original beach babe Erika still has a cult following. She previously told Media From the Heart that her decision to leave the show came organically after it changed direction. "Originally, this was written as a serious look at lifeguarding. As soon as it changed and became a music montage show, it was so lovely, but for me, it was time to go," she explained. TV bombshell, 54, looks completely different with baggy tee, sleeve tattoos and no makeup as she walks her dog in LA "I will say I had really strong storylines the second year, which was great. "And I did get some juicy parts, but the show became something else. So for me, it was no longer where my heart was." Immediately after her exit from Baywatch in 1992, she starred in action flick Under Siege, alongside Steven Seagal. Breaking out in the way Pamela Anderson famously wanted to with her 90s flop Barbed Wire, Erika played fictional Playboy star Jordan Tate, who helped bring a hijacked battleship under control. Feature films The Beverly Hillbillies and Chasers followed, before she became a fixture on reality TV with shows The Real Gilligan's Island and Celebrity Fit Club. The twice married mom-of-one struggled with an eating disorder and abused laxatives before going on the VH1 show. Thankfully, she has overcome her issues and also shed her clean cut image for a more alternative look. Though Erika began getting tattoos in the 90s, her colorful arm inkings were only completed in the last few years. She explained: "Most of my sleeve work is probably within five years. It's been a work in progress over the years of starting and stopping, so not really consecutive." 4 Erika is best knwon for playing Shauni McClain Credit: Rex
The Irish Sun
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Actress and Playboy star, 55, looks VERY different 36 years after finding fame as she's spotted in LA
SHE shot to fame in the 80s as a Playboy cover star and Baywatch pin-up. More than three decades on, 4 Baywatch's Erika Eleniak was pictured walking her dog in LA Credit: The Mega Agency 4 The actress and model now has a more alternative style Credit: The Mega Agency Erika was pictured walking her pet dog in Los Angeles in a black T-shirt and shorts, with a fanny pack around her waist. She looked to be makeup-free on a sunny day in California as she strolled in a pair of sliders. Best known for her role as lifeguard Shauni McClain, Erika is still quizzed about her time on set to this day. Last year, she admitted playing a beach beauty, famed for her red swimsuit, was much harder than she was given credit for. "Running on sand is really hard," she told "It doesn't always look cool, either, so trying to make it look good and do it well is definitely not easy. I don't think anybody ever thought any of it was hard." Not only did the cast need to look good and be super fit, they also needed to learn emergency first aid skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation. While Baywatch is now most famously linked to Pamela Anderson as C.J. Parker in the mid-90s, original beach babe Erika still has a cult following. Most read in Celebrity She previously told that her decision to leave the show came organically after it changed direction. "Originally, this was written as a serious look at lifeguarding. As soon as it changed and became a music montage show, it was so lovely, but for me, it was time to go," she explained. TV bombshell, 54, looks completely different with baggy tee, sleeve tattoos and no makeup as she walks her dog in LA "I will say I had really strong storylines the second year, which was great. "And I did get some juicy parts, but the show became something else. So for me, it was no longer where my heart was." Immediately after her exit from Baywatch in 1992, she starred in action flick Under Siege, alongside Steven Seagal. Breaking out in the way Pamela Anderson famously wanted to with her 90s flop Barbed Wire, Erika played fictional Playboy star Jordan Tate, who helped bring a hijacked battleship under control. Feature films The Beverly Hillbillies and Chasers followed, before she became a fixture on reality TV with shows The Real Gilligan's Island and Celebrity Fit Club. The twice married mom-of-one struggled with an eating disorder and abused laxatives before going on the VH1 show. Thankfully, she has overcome her issues and also shed her clean cut image for a more alternative look. Read more on the Irish Sun Though Erika began getting tattoos in the 90s, her colorful arm inkings were only completed in the last few years. She explained: "Most of my sleeve work is probably within five years. It's been a work in progress over the years of starting and stopping, so not really consecutive." 4 Erika is best knwon for playing Shauni McClain Credit: Rex 4 Erika in Under Siege with Steven Seagal
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill' contains an ugly favor for Florida's sugar industry
Acre after acre of sugar cane fields in Palm Beach County. (Photo via Florida Sugar Growers Co-op) In 1960, the TV show 'The Twilight Zone' aired an irony-soaked episode called 'Eye of the Beholder' that played around with the axiom about where beauty truly lies. In it, a bunch of grotesque doctors try to make a gorgeous woman (played by Donna Douglas from 'The Beverly Hillbillies') look like them, because conformity matters more than anything to their grotesque leader. I was reminded of this episode last week while reading up on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Congress has been debating. In case you haven't heard about OBBBA and how controversial it is, consider this: Despite being strongly endorsed by our own grotesque leader, the bill squeaked through the House of Representatives by a single vote. Now it goes over to the Senate, where it's liable to face even more opposition. I sure hope it does, anyway. This 'beautiful' bill contains a lot of ugliness. It will add trillions to the federal deficit, news that led to none other than Elon Musk calling it an abomination. It slashes food stamps for seniors to give billionaires a tax cut. And it makes such drastic changes to Medicaid that it's led to a dispute in Iowa over how many people will die. But what grabbed my attention is the really big favor it includes for Florida's Big Sugar. The feds already prop up our sugar industry with expensive government subsidies. This bill boosts that subsidy even higher, from 19.75 cents per pound to 24 cents per pound. Bear in mind that the sugar industry produces about 8 trillion tons of sugar every year. A hike of a nickel on a pound of sugar equals an awful lot of dough. 'It's egregious that this polluting industry — which Florida taxpayers have paid well over $2 billion to clean up after — is poised to reap even more profits if this budget bill passes the U.S. Senate,' said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. Samples questioned how boosting the profits of the sugar industry fits in with the goals of an administration that says it's going to 'Make America Healthy Again.' Maybe in this case the slogan should be altered to 'Make Big Sugar's Profits Healthy.' The sugar industry may be headquartered in South Florida, but it's long been king in both Tallahassee and Washington. 'This industry is protected at every level,' Samples said. For instance, take its horrible air pollution. From October to May every year, Florida's sugar companies burn their 400,000 acres of fields to prepare for harvest, thus getting rid of the outer leaves of the cane stalks. It's an old-fashioned practice that other countries have banned. So much burning sends billows of thick smoke floating across the little towns by Lake Okeechobee, showering down what residents refer to as 'black snow' that coats their houses and cars and the lungs of the unlucky. Four years ago, the Florida Legislature passed a bill — with support from both parties — that makes it much harder for anyone harmed by all this soot to sue the sugar industry. Gov. Ron DeSantis, when he was a congressman, repeatedly voted against federal price supports for the sugar industry. When he moved into the governor's mansion in 2019, he called for all the members of the South Florida Water Management District board to resign for being too pro-sugar. But when the Legislature handed DeSantis its bill to protect the sugar industry against suits over its burning practices, he signed it into law without a word of protest. Or take water pollution. Twenty years ago, the industry deployed 40 lobbyists — picture an army marching in bespoke suits and Italian loafers — to persuade lawmakers to extend the deadline for cleaning up Everglades pollution from 2006 to 2026. The bill sailed through, and then-Gov. Jeb 'Punctuation Marks Are Cool!' Bush — a self-described Everglades advocate — signed it behind closed doors. The industry controls these politicians so utterly that if sugar executives demanded they line up and start dancing to the old Archies hit 'Sugar Sugar,' they'd say, 'Sweet!' The main reason Big Sugar always gets what it wants is that it's ready to spend Big Bucks to get it. As the song from 'Cabaret' put it so well, 'Money makes the world go around!' According to the Dirty Money Project database created by the folks at the Vote Water environmental group, between 2018 and 2024 Florida's sugar industry spent $36 million on Florida political contributions. In the past year alone, Big Sugar gave more than $5.2 million to Florida politicians, including $3.1 million donated by U.S. Sugar, $2.1 million donated by Florida Crystals, and just over $43,000 by the Sugar Co-op. Acting like an always-available ATM has its advantages. Access, for example. On Presidents' Day in 1996, Bill Clinton was busy breaking up with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office when the phone rang. The caller: Sugar magnate Alfonso Fanjul Jr., of Florida Crystals. Clinton spent 20 minutes on the phone with him, listening to Fanjul complaining. The sugar baron was upset about Vice President Al Gore's proposal of a penny-a-pound tax on Florida sugar growers to pay for cleaning up the Everglades. After that phone call, Clinton shelved the plan. Incidentally, the Dirty Money website shows that the company Fanjul runs with his brother Pepe, Florida Crystals, donated $1 million last year to the super-PAC known as Make America Great Again Inc. You can probably guess which grotesque presidential candidate it supported. The industry has already seen a benefit, Patrick Ferguson of the Sierra Club told me. Three years ago, former President Joe Biden banned imports from a sugar company based in the Dominican Republic named Central Romana over evidence the company used forced labor, i.e. slaves. Central Romana is run by the Fanjuls, and in March the current administration quietly removed the Biden ban. Maybe they count 'being concerned about slavery' as being in favor of DEI. Can't have that! It's not just politicians who reap the benefits of sugar's bucks. In the 1960s, the sugar industry paid Harvard scientists to produce research that played down the connection between sugar and heart disease. Instead, they shifted the blame to saturated fat. One of the scientists paid by the sugar industry went on to become head of nutrition at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He helped draft the forerunner to the federal government's dietary guidelines. That's why environmental advocates weren't at all surprised to see Big Sugar included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 'Big Sugar is once again getting gifts they really don't deserve,' Ferguson said. Sugar has been getting special treatment from the federal government since the days when Alexander Hamilton was a real guy and not a smash Broadway show. In 1789, Congress imposed a tariff on imported sugar to raise revenue for the struggling young nation. It was the first substantive legislation passed by the young nation, and it was signed into law by the first president, George Washington. Despite that connection to our Founding Fathers, you know who's been the most critical of federal policy on propping up Big Sugar? Right-wing think tanks like the Cato Institute. Eight years ago, Cato published a paper titled, 'Candy-Coasted Cartel: Time to Kill the U.S. Sugar Program.' When I talked to him this week, the author of that Cato paper, Colin Grabow, pointed out something about the OBBBA's nickel-per-pound boost for Big Sugar that hadn't occurred to me: 'This is basically raising the cost of sugar in the United States,' he said. 'We just had an election where people were complaining about the cost of things.' Yeah, I told him, I recall a lot of people fussing over the price of eggs before going to the polls in November. 'Now, instead of reforming the system,' Grabow said, 'we're just going to hand them more money and make sugar more expensive.' I heard similar points from Vincent Smith of the equally right-wing American Enterprise Institute. The boost called for by the bill is 'a pretty dramatic increase,' he said. That will make all the goods that contain sugar — soft drinks, cookies, cake, applesauce, cereal, you name it — cost more as well. As an avid consumer of Publix sweet tea, hearing this made me do a classic spit-take. Smith joked that making sugar and its related products so much more expensive may be good news for dentists but not for family pocketbooks. Grabow pointed out, 'You can bet that the language related to sugar in the bill is directly due to lobbyists.' I tried contacting officials from the sugar companies about all this, but I just couldn't sweet-talk them into speaking with me. The closest I got to a quote was this statement from Ryan Duffy, senior director of corporate communications for U.S. Sugar, who told me via email, 'We typically don't comment on pending legislation.' Of course, the more important folks to talk to would be our two senators. Everyone wants to find out where they stand on the Big Bad Wolf — er, I mean, One Big Beautiful Bill. But they didn't respond to my requests for comment either. Our senior senator, Rick Scott, has a long history of being tucked in Big Sugar's hip pocket. Last year, when he was running for re-election, the sugar companies made big donations to his campaign's super-PAC. In his story on those donations, my colleague Mitch Perry pointed out the hypocrisy of Scott's pro-sugar stance. When he first ran for governor 15 years ago, he blasted his GOP primary opponent, Bill McCollum, for accepting contributions from Big Sugar. 'He's owned by U.S. Sugar,' the Orlando Sentinel quoted Scott saying of McCollum. 'They've given him nearly a million dollars for his campaign. And it's disgusting.' Scott apparently thought it was a lot less disgusting when Big Sugar's big payouts were going into his coffers, not McCollum's. He hasn't turned down a dime from them since. In fact, as governor, Scott was one of quite a few Republican officials who accepted hunting trips to Texas from a sugar company, then declined to answer reporters' questions about it. Yet Scott says he has serious qualms about the One Big Beautiful Etc. He doesn't believe it cuts enough federal fat, so he says he's inclined to reject it. 'I think there's plenty of us would not vote for it in the Senate,' he said, according to CBS News. Then we come to Florida's newest senator, the recently appointed Ashley Moody. When she was Florida's elected attorney general, the former Plant City Strawberry Festival queen was no friend to the environment. She also fought several absurd legal battles on the behalf of Mr. Grotesque. So far, she hasn't indicated whether she's in the same position as Scott or not. If you're inclined to bang your head against the wall, I'd encourage you to call or email these two and demand they stop this giveaway to a polluting industry. But bear in mind, they may not listen to you. After all, the more money the sugar companies rake in, the more they can give away to our elected officials. That's right — by boosting their profits, we're enabling the sugar companies to continue to spend so freely on buying the favors of our politicians. But I do have suggestion. If Scott and Moody say, 'The heck with my constituents!' and vote to pass this bill for Big Sugar, I think every single one of us should send them our grocery bills, demanding a refund. A tsunami of grocery store receipts inundating the senators' offices would be, I think, a beautiful thing to behold. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
