Lexington mom wins $100,000 scratch-off prize

Emily Praytor, of Lexington, won a $100,000 lottery prize on Friday, according to an NC Education Lottery news release. Praytor scratched the ticket in the car while her husband drove. At the same time, her son made a prediction from the backseat.

“He said, ‘I hope you win on number 55,’” Praytor said. “That was the winning number on my ticket.”

She bought her winning $30 MAX-A-MILLION ticket from the Quality Mart on Cotton Grove Road in Lexington. She arrived at lottery headquarters on Monday to claim her prize. Praytor, a mother of three boys, plans to use her winnings to do some home renovations and put the rest in savings.

Government shutdown blame begins as Senate tries to reverse course

Blame was hurled Wednesday at all sides for start of a government shutdown after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to fund federal operations and plunged the country into a new cycle of uncertainty.

Roughly 750,000 federal workers were expected to be furloughed, with some potentially fired by Trump’s Republican administration. Many offices will be shuttered, perhaps permanently, as Trump vows to “do things that are irreversible” to punish Democrats. His deportation agenda is expected to run full speed ahead, while education, environmental and other services sputter. The economic fallout is expected to ripple nationwide.

The Republican-led Senate will try to reverse course with do-over votes expected around midday, but the same outcome is expected as Democrats demand more health care funding that Trump and Republicans say they will negotiate later.

This is the third time Trump has presided over a federal funding lapse and the first since his return to the White House this year. His record underscores the polarizing divide over budget priorities in a political climate that rewards hard-line positions rather than more traditional compromises.

With New U.S. Proposal to End Gaza War, a Rare Moment of Triumph for Netanyahu

Heading into their meeting on Monday, the question was whether President Trump would apply enough pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to end the war in Gaza.

Ultimately, Mr. Netanyahu got almost everything he could have hoped from Mr. Trump’s proposal — a demand that Hamas release the hostages immediately and lay down its weapons, without which Israel would have carte blanche to keep pummeling Gaza.

As for Israeli troops, they would get to remain in Gaza’s perimeter for the foreseeable future. There was such a stinting nod to the aspiration of statehood for Palestinians that the proposal all but suggested they just keep dreaming. And the Palestinian Authority would be left playing no role in Gaza anytime soon.

It was a rare moment of triumph that showed Mr. Netanyahu could still get much — if not all — of what he wanted despite Israel’s mounting international isolation. Just last week, several European countries recognized a Palestinian state over Israeli objections, while a diplomatic walkout left Mr. Netanyahu addressing a mostly empty room at the United Nations.

On Monday afternoon, standing alongside Mr. Trump, Mr. Netanyahu praised the U.S.-backed plan as fulfilling his own conditions for ending the war with Hamas. And Arab and Muslim governments, including the Palestinian Authority, appeared ready to fall in line.

As for Hamas, it would have no say at all in the future governance of the Gaza Strip, making explicit what had been left vague in earlier attempts at ending the conflict.

Still, the group and its leadership have been so decimated by the war, and it faces so much apparent pressure from Muslim countries including its patrons in Qatar and Turkey, that its acquiescence is not impossible to imagine.