Powerball Jackpot Nearly $300 Million

Giddily eyeing a record $292-million Powerball jackpot, a nation of optimists coped with computer glitches and hours-long lines on the tiny chance that six numbers drawn from a pair of rotating barrels in a Des Moines, Iowa, television studio would change their lives. Those numbers are: 8, 39, 43, 45 and 49, plus the Powerball 13. Officials didn’t expect to know if there was a winner until this morning. Although it’s an 80.1 million to 1 longshot, lottery officials said there’s about a 90% chance that at least one of the estimated 150 million tickets sold will hit the jackpot. The jackpot is the largest in U.S. history.