Nation briefs 2/20/06

$365 million Powerball ticket sold in Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Someone, somewhere in Nebraska held the only winning ticket for the record $365 million Powerball jackpot, but likely wasn't in a rush to come forward, lottery officials said Sunday. The only ticket matching the winning numbers drawn Saturday night for the multistate lottery was sold at a a U-Stop convenience store in Lincoln, Nebraska Lottery spokesman Brian Rockey said. It was the biggest jackpot on record for any lottery in the United States. No one had come forward to claim the jackpot Sunday, Rockey said.

Small plane crashes onto expressway near Chicago

HANOVER PARK, Ill. -- A small plane crashed Sunday afternoon onto an expressway in suburban Chicago while trying to make an emergency landing, authorities said. No serious injuries were reported, and the plane didn't hit any vehicles on the highway, said Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Ted Vernon. The plane carrying a flight instructor and a student crashed around 12:40 p.m. on the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway, less than a mile from the Schaumburg Airport, Vernon said. The instructor was hospitalized with a head wound, and the student appeared to walk away from the plane uninjured, Vernon said. The plane had just taken off from the airport when the engine failed. The instructor first tried to turn the plane around before attempting to glide it down onto the highway, Vernon said.

Lawmakers call for FEMA to be dissolved, rebuilt

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency should be dissolved and rebuilt before the upcoming hurricane season, a Democratic senator said Sunday. "FEMA has become, to many people in America, and particularly the Gulf Coast, a joke, a four-letter word," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He favored keeping the agency within the Homeland Security Department. FEMA was independent before it was folded into Homeland Security when the department was created after the Sept. 11 attacks. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, in appearances on Sunday morning talk shows, warned against overhauling FEMA with hurricane season only three months away. "Nature doesn't wait for us to do yet another reorganization," Chertoff told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Businesses fight IRS on long-distance phone tax

WASHINGTON -- Businesses and individuals continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes each year on some long-distance telephone calls even though three federal courts say the levy is invalid. Companies have convinced the appeals courts that the 3 percent excise tax on local, long-distance and wireless calls does not apply to some current long-distance billing plans. The tax dates to 1898, when telephones were a luxury and lawmakers needed money to help pay for the Spanish-American War. The government can expect to collect $52 billion over the coming decade from all telephone excise taxes, according to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office. The report said there is a "significant likelihood" the Internal Revenue Service will continue losing in court and eventually stop collecting the tax on some long-distance calls.

Frist: Medicare program to be 'huge plus' politically

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday the new Medicare prescription drug program will be "a huge plus" for Republicans, despite Democrats' hopes to benefit politically from the program's rocky start. Frist said that early problems were inevitable when 25 million people were moved into a new government program. Seniors have complained of confusion while sorting through a myriad of private options offered in the prescription drug program. And many needy people ran into problems when they were switched over from their drug benefits within Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, to the new Medicare drug benefit. "There are all sorts of stumbles and glitches and there is confusion," said Frist, who added that a million prescriptions are being delivered daily and seniors will appreciate the program six months from now.

-- From wire reports