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• "It's the same question as to why do people gamble," said Stephen Goldbart, author of "Affluence Intelligence" and co-director of the Money, Meaning & Choices Institute in California. "It's a desire to improve your life in a way that's driven by fantasy. ... The bigger the fantasy, the tastier it gets."
• In a piece called "Lottery-itis!," Goldbart and co-author Joan DiFuria wrote on their blog last year on the Psychology Today website that in times of economic stress, playing the lottery is a way of coping with financial anxieties and uncertainty.
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Senate GOP leaders reject budget deal hailed by House Republicans, but passage still likely
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republican leaders are criticizing a bipartisan budget deal, parting ways with their House counterparts who shepherded the measure through that chamber last week.
• The split makes it harder for the Republican Party to present a united front as it approaches the midterm election year. And it shows that even modest tweaks in tax and spending policies trigger strong reactions in conservative circles.
• Still, senators in both parties say the budget deal should have enough votes to pass and become law, perhaps by Wednesday. And some GOP activists play down the House-Senate divide's implications, saying it's driven by internal congressional politics more than by serious philosophical splits.
• "Our leadership gets along pretty well, and coordinates pretty well with each other," said Terry Holt, a longtime Republican strategist and former congressional staffer with close ties to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
• Holt said it's not unusual for the minority party in the House or Senate to force the other party to provide the overwhelming majority of votes for contentious legislation.
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Chemical weapons watchdog meets to approve plan for destroying Syrian toxic arsenal
• THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The global chemical weapons watchdog is meeting to approve a definitive plan for ridding Syria of its declared stockpile of toxic chemicals in just over six months.
• The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons already has drawn up a timeline for the destruction of Syria's poison gas and nerve agent program by mid- (Continued on page 27)
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