Massachusetts Lottery

Massachusetts Lottery's oldest jackpot game, has a new look starting tonight. The inaugural drawing for Megabucks Doubler is at 11:24 p.m. on WCVB-TV Channel 5; as with the original game, drawings will be held every Wednesday and Saturday night. "Megabucks Doubler promises to create a great deal of excitement with higher jackpots and significantly more winners," Executive Director Mark Cavanagh said. "The improved game represents a real opportunity for our players and a fun way to raise more revenue for our 351 cities and towns."

According to lottery officials, the $1 per bet price will remain the same. However, they said jackpots on average will be twice as high in the new game; starting jackpots will be increased from $400,000 to $500,000; one in 10 tickets will be a "Doubler ticket" that would double non-jackpot prizes; and lower-tier prizes for matching three, four or five numbers will all "dramatically increase."

Megabucks, which began in 1982, had sales of $40.5 million last fiscal year, or about 1 percent of total lottery sales. But sales for Megabucks dwindled over the years as other games gained in popularity. In 1986, for example, Megabucks sold more than $473 million in tickets, or about 43 percent of lottery sales, officials said. "Our players will enjoy this game more than the original," Cavanagh said. "The game preserves the best of the old and adds a bold freshness to our portfolio."

Nikki Catsouras

Nikki Catsouras took her father's Porsche without permission. Her joyride ended in her death when she struck a toll booth at 100 mph. Nikki was the daughter of Christos and Lesli Catsouras. The Catsouras family lives in the affluent Ladera Ranch area of Orange County, California. Theirs was a picture-perfect family. Christos was a wealthy successful realtor. His blonde wife, a proud mother. They had it all: success, good looks, and all the luxuries and trappings of affluence and high social status. Their idyllic lives changed abruptly with the tragic loss of their 18 year old daughter Nikki.

But losing their daughter was just the beginning of a sordid nightmare steeped in an Internet netherworld that celebrates death and suffering, a sub-culture of depravity that is difficult to comprehend. Two California Highway Patrol (CHP) dispatchers, 39 year old Thomas O'Donnell and 30 year old Aaron Reich, leaked pictures of the accident scene and Nikki's horrific death onto the Internet. The teen was immortalized in a sub-culture of morbidity and dubbed "Porsche Girl."

Within days of Nikki's death, the Catsourases were deluged with emails and text messages accompanying the grisly accident scene photos of their once-living 18 year old daughter. Some of the text messages and emails sent by mysterious cyber bulllies said, "What a waste of a Porsche" , "Whoo-hoo! I'm still alive!", and "that spoiled rich girl deserved it."

Jihad Recollections

Brachman says “it raises the bar for pro-Al Qaeda propaganda in English. Its presentation is flashier than any English language Al Qaeda propaganda that we’ve seen to date.” He also says “the publication shows how deeply embedded in the global Al Qaeda movement its editors are.”It is not clear what connection, if any, the magazine has to Al Qaeda or its followers. It is published by the “Al Fursan Media Foundation,” but FOX News could not find such an organization or a way to contact them for comment.The first issue says of the 9/11 attacks, that “the strategy was genius.” It calls America “one of the most atrocious and egotistical regimes to date,” and it accuses the United States of spreading corruption in Islamic countries through its embassies. “How can we expect from America any good?” it asks. “We only expect from it every evil and corruption.”

“Jihad Recollections” appears to prepare followers to engage in jihad. One section teaches aspiring jihadists how to stay in shape by doing exercise without weights. Articles with photographs of men dressed in white robes with their faces covered encourage them to exercise at home and stay away from American gyms because “they are full of music, semi-naked women, free mixing.” It warns of the dangers of “showing off” during a workout and even observes that protein shakes are too expensive and not worth the money.It even includes the views of some prominent critics of the president’s polices, such as former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, now an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute, and veteran Tennessee Rep. Zach Wamp, the ranking Republican on the House Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee. Such references clearly indicate an awareness of American political discourse similar to the nation’s political policy magazines.

“This is designed for Americans,” says noted terrorism expert Steven Emerson, founder of the Investigative Project on Terrorism in Washington, D.C., and author of the book "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us."Whoever is behind “Jihad Recollections” has a strange mix of opinion with one focus: seemingly to spread the message of Islamic jihad at the expense of Americans. That such a publication is accessible at all speaks to the freedoms we enjoy in our country while, experts say, also serving as a warning of the danger that Islamic militants and radicals pose to our nation.