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January 13, 2009
"Sex offender wins $500,000 Alaska lottery"
The title of this post is the title of this new CNN piece. Here are the basic details:
An Alaska lottery held to raise money for a group that helps sexual abuse victims had a surprise winner: a convicted sex offender. Alec Ahsoak, who according to the state sex offender registry was convicted in 1993 and 2000 for sexual abuse of a minor, came forward Saturday with the winning ticket for the $500,000 Lucky Time Pull Tabs jackpot.
Proceeds of the lottery help Standing Together Against Rape in Anchorage, a nonprofit group that offers support to sexual assault victims among other services. "It's not how we had envisioned the story going," Nancy Haag, the group's executive director, told CNN Radio.
Alaska has the highest per capita number of rape cases in the United States, according to FBI statistics. "With a ranking that high, it's ironic that the person who wins is a convicted sex offender," Haag added.
Somewhere Alanis Morissette is tweaking her lyrics to this modern classic. Come to think of it, isn't she perhaps driving in Alaska at the start of the original video for the song?
January 13, 2009 at 09:42 AM | Permalink
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Two predictions:
1) Public outrage over the sex offender winning the $500,000 lotto jackpot will cause the state to refuse to pay him his winnings, with the logic that the $500,000 lottery winnings (all "proceeds of the lottery") should instead go to the nonprofit group to help rape victims. This ignores the fact that by playing the lottery, the sex offender/lotto winner helped fund this nonprofit group.
2) Public outrage will cause the Alaska legislature to pass, and Sarah Palin to sign, a law that says sex offenders are ineligible to receive state lottery winnings and/or are not allowed to buy lottery tickets (sending them back to prison if they do). "We should not be paying sex offenders prizes taken from money collected to help the victims of their crimes!" Yeah that sounds right! Who could be against that? You betcha!
Of course that means sex offenders no longer buy lottery tickets, causing an overall drop in Alaska's lotto revenue, and thus less funding for the nonprofit group that helps rape victims. You know, to protet the children....
Anyone want to bet me that these two things will not happen?
Posted by: BruceM | Jan 13, 2009 10:00:02 PM
