The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Despite the claims

that the president supports a balanced approach, the Democrats have yet to get serious about real spending cuts.”

House Speaker John Boehner

Article, 1A

Missouri verifies Powerball winner

DEARBORN, Mo. - Missouri Lottery officials on Thursday verified one of two tickets that matched all six numbers to split a record $588 million Powerball jackpot, but the identity of the ticket holder was not revealed.

A second winning ticket was sold in Arizona at a 4 Sons Food Store in Fountain Hills near Phoenix, state lottery officials said. No one has stepped forward with that ticket.

The winning Missouri ticket was sold at a gas station in Dearborn, Mo., just off Interstate 29, the highway linking Kansas City to the Canadian border.

Missouri lottery officials said they verified a ticket that was presented to them Thursday and set a news conference for 11 a.m. today at North Platte High School, near where the ticket was bought.

Winners in both states have 180 days to claim their share of the prize money.

The $587.5 million payout represents the second-largest jackpot in U.S. history, behind a March Mega Millions drawing in which three ticket-buyers shared a $656 million jackpot.

California gunfire

kills dogcatcher

GALT, Calif. - An unarmed animal-control officer was shot and killed Wednesday in Sacramento County while trying to retrieve pets from a home whose owner was evicted the previous day.

The officer had gone to the home to rescue dogs and cats that authorities thought had been left behind, a day after Joseph Francis Corey was served an eviction notice and a sheriff’s deputy changed the locks.

The officer - Roy Curtis Marcum, 45, of Elk Grove - and a bank employee had knocked on the door when Corey fired a shotgun through the door, striking the officer in the torso, Sacramento County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Jason Ramossaid.

Corey, 65, was arrested early Thursday and faces murder charges after a SWAT team managed to get into his garage after a 17-hour standoff.

Birth-control edict blocked for 1 firm

ST. LOUIS - A federal appeals court has issued an order temporarily blocking implementation of the contraception mandate of the federal health-care law for a Missouri business owner.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a preliminary injunction Wednesday on behalf of Frank O’Brien and his company, O’Brien Industrial Holdings LLC of St. Louis.

At least three dozen suits have been filed around the country challenging the requirement that workplace health plans cover birth control. O’Brien, a devout Catholic, claimed in his suit that the requirement infringes on his religious beliefs.

The one-sentence appeals panel ruling did not offer an explanation for the 2-1 decision.

O’Brien Industrial Holdings employees 87 people and is engaged in mining, processing and distributing refractory and ceramic materials and products. A statue of Jesus sits in the main lobby. Its statement of values includes references to the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 11/30/2012

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