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are eligible to retire after 20 years at half pay. The provision was included in the bill at the direction of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
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• DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- The two winning Mega Millions tickets were sold in California and Georgia, lottery officials said Wednesday.
• The $636 million jackpot was the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history.
• One ticket was sold in San Jose, Calif., California Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso said. The other was sold in Georgia, but Mega Millions' lead director Paula Otto said early Wednesday morning that she didn't yet know in which city it had been sold.
• Otto, who is also the Virginia Lottery's executive director, said $336 million in tickets were sold for Tuesday's drawing -- they had projected $319 million.
• "Sales were a little better than we'd anticipated," Otto said. "It was a fun run, it was our first holiday run for either of the big jackpot games."
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Investors are waiting to see whether one of Ben Bernanke's final acts as chairman of the Federal Reserve will be to announce a pullback in the Fed's bond purchases. The purchases have been intended to keep long-term loan rates low to spur economic growth.
• It's a close call.
• But most economists think that when the Fed's latest policy meeting ends Wednesday, it will announce that it's maintaining its pace of $85 billion a month in bond purchases despite a drop in unemployment to 7 percent and other improving economic data.
• One factor in the Fed's hesitance to reduce its stimulus is that inflation remains historically low. The Fed's optimal rate is 2 percent. For the 12 months ending in October, consumer inflation as measured by the Fed's preferred index is just 0.7 percent, well below its target. The Fed is as concerned about under-shooting the inflation target as over-shooting it. Both are seen as threats to the economy.
• On Wednesday, Bernanke will also give his final quarterly news conference. His

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