Also on today’s menu:
New Voting Machines Mostly Pass Audit
U.S. Flights Delayed By Computer Outage
Mega Millions Jackpot Now Second-Highest Ever
Franklin Mayor Jo Brown recognized the Grevior family as Citizens of the Year and delivered a State of the City Address that recognized “some great accomplishments but also some troubling times.”
Grevior Furniture opened in 1932 in the basement of the Baptist Church on the corner of Church and Franklin streets and now operates out of 30,000 square feet of space on Central Street. What makes the business different, Brown said, was founder Nathan Grevior’s vision of “providing no-pressure sales, a quality product, and a commitment to support the local community.”
In a program that combined patriotism, community pride, and taking care of business, the January 9 meeting heard from Leah Cote, winner if the Franklin First essay contest, and seated the 2023 City Council while also committing to replacing sewer lines on East and West Bow streets.
New Voting Machines Mostly Pass Audit
The towns of Ashland, Newington, and Woodstock volunteered to pilot the VotingWorks ballot-counting device in the November 8 general election, and an audit team from the Secretary of State’s office subsequently conducted a hand count of the ballots that went through the VotingWorks device to compare the results.
A report on the audit found that the VotingWorks ballot-counting devices used in Ashland and Woodstock were successful, with the results falling within expected margins. Use of the VotingWorks device in Newington was abandoned on Election Day after nine ballots in a row were rejected by the device as overvotes in the first hour of use. Although some ballots were properly rejected, the majority of the rejected ballots should have been accepted and counted by the device, according to the audit. The rejected ballots were fed into the AccuVote ballot-counting device, which was used for the remainder of Election Day ballot-processing.
The audit team concluded that the malfunction in the VotingWorks machine was due to a physical obstruction on the portion of the device that scans the ballots. It was fixed by cleaning the sensor glass with a microfiber cloth.
U.S. Flights Delayed By Computer Outage
The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded all flights across the United States this morning after it experienced a computer outage. More than 2,500 flights within, into, and out of the U.S. were delayed around 8 a.m. and nearly 250 flights were cancelled.
The FAA announced on its website that its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system had failed. A NOTAM provides information essential to workers involved in flight operations. On Twitter, the FAA posted that it had ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET “to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”
The White House said there was no evidence of a cyber-attack but the causes of the IT failure would be investigated in full by the Department of Transportation.
Mega Millions Jackpot Now Second-Highest Ever
The Mega Millions prize has now reached $1.35 billion after there was no winner of the lottery’s latest giant jackpot. The numbers drawn late Tuesday night were: 7, 13, 14, 15, 18, and gold Mega Ball 9.
The Mega Millions jackpot '“is moving up and making history as the second-highest Mega Millions jackpot ever,” said Pat McDonald, Ohio’s lottery director and lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium. The only Mega Millions jackpot larger than Friday’s prize is the $1.53 billion won in South Carolina in 2018, Mega Millions said.
Only a winner who chooses to accept an annuity payment over 29 years would see the estimated $1.35 billion jackpot. A grand prize winner choosing to take a cash payout would receive an estimated $707.9 million.
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