[Masthead] Fair ~ 26°F   Feels like: 14°F Friday, Dec. 13, 2013
Letter from the Editor  Monday, January 9, 2006  Lottery and the
fickle finger of fate  The front page headline in all caps on
the biggest paper in Iowa trumpets, "$132 million prize made him
giggle."  "Him," is Hugh Hawkins, a real estate developer who
attended three different colleges without graduating from any,
has passed through a string of jobs and professions without
seemingly making much of a dent in any. He has a documented
history of getting thousands behind in child support payments to
a previous wife, running up tens of thousands of dollars in
debts on multiple credit cards, and taking bankruptcy just last
July to escape a mountain of debts when he was down to his last
$250. Somehow, luckily, he still had the itch to blow a few
bucks of the family grocery money on Powerball tickets.  Voila!
He now has a team of public relations, finance and legal gurus
at his disposal, and is savvy enough to put off claiming the
money until after the