State
Souvenirs might be from old bridges, might be old steel
CHARLESTON - The pieces of steel said to be from the old Cooper River bridges selling in stores and antique markets around Charleston may prove to be the real thing or simply old pieces of steel.
Crews are tearing down the John Grace and the Silas Pearman bridges, which once linked Mount Pleasant to Charleston. The spans were closed last summer when the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America, opened to traffic.
Despite pieces of the old bridges showing up in stores, and even on eBay, the Department of Transportation has not given away much steel.
Some is being used to make benches for the new bridge while a few other sections will go on displays in local communities, said James Law, a Department of Transportation spokesman.
"I'd be curious about whether some of this was original," Law said. "It very well may be, but it very well may not be."
Workers or the public may have taken some souvenirs from the demolition sites.
"I think everybody wants a little piece of that bridge," said Millie Maier, who works at the Hungryneck Antique Mall in Mount Pleasant where pieces of steel sell between $40 and $65.
Nation
Getting lucky: Widow wins record $10 million slot jackpot in Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - For 84-year-old Josephine Crawford, the golden years just got a lot more golden.
After a night playing the slot machines, the retired waitress widow was about to call it quits Tuesday when she hit a $10 million jackpot - the biggest in the history of casino gambling in Atlantic City.
Crawford, who gambles here twice a week and has been going to the casinos since the first one opened in 1978, had never won more than $1,000 before she came into the big money at the nickel slots at Harrah's Atlantic City.
The widow from Galloway Township lives with her daughter, drives a 2006 Honda Civic and has no plans to buy a new car or a new house. But she always wanted to see Italy, where her parents grew up, and wants to share the wealth with her two daughters, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
"Somehow, I'll spend it. I'll spend it at the casino, and I might go to Vegas," she said.
The jackpot was won on a progressive slot machine linked to hundreds of others in Atlantic City's 12 casinos. The previous biggest Atlantic City jackpot was $8.5 million, won in 1994.
Crawford was playing alongside her 27-year-old granddaughter Alicia Weeks. After spending about $20 with no luck, Weeks suggested they move on. Crawford said no, she wanted to play $20 more. She was down to her last $5 in credits when she hit the jackpot.
It didn't take long for word of her luck to spread. Three men proposed to her, she said.
"Their wives were there, too!" Crawford said. "One of them told me, 'You can have him.'"
World
Count of contested ballots confirms Prodi's win in Italian election
ROME - A top Italian court confirmed the slim election victory of center-left economist Romano Prodi, although Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition was not conceding defeat Wednesday.
The Court of Cassation said Prodi won the lower house of parliament by a margin of 24,000 votes over Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives - a margin virtually unchanged from the one previously announced.
After the results were announced, Prodi said Italians should have no more doubts about his win in the April 9-10 vote.
"Finally the electoral affair is over," Prodi said. "Italians have no more doubts about our victory."
"We are aware of the rifts and the divisions that we will have to heal, as we are aware of the problems and difficulties we will have to face."
Prodi said he had not received a phone call from Berlusconi.
Thanks to a majority bonus aimed at making the chamber more governable, Prodi's coalition is assigned 55 percent of the seats in the lower house, regardless of the vote gap.
Berlusconi won the popular vote for the Senate, but Prodi gained a two-seat majority due to a complicated system of regional bonuses.
Still, a top Berlusconi ally said the conservative coalition was not conceding defeat.
The announcement "does not exhaust all the checks on the electoral results," Giulio Tremonti, the economy minister, was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.
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