June 2014 – Page 6 – Family Council

Remembering D-Day: President Roosevelt’s Prayer

Jun 6, 2014JerryHistoryHistory

On June 6, 1944, as Allied forces battled Nazis soldiers in Europe as part of the D-Day invasion, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went on the radio to ask the American people to join him in prayer.

Listen to President Roosevelt’s prayer here:

[audio:http://familycouncil.org/downloads/FDR-D-Day-Prayer.mp3]

Read a transcript of the prayer below:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

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Arkansas Lottery Looks to Hire $89K Public Relations Aide

Jun 5, 2014JerryArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery

According to a story in today’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Lottery Commission’s Personnel Committee has approved a proposal to hire a public relations and legislative liaison for $88,957 a year. The full commission will vote on the proposal later this month.

To be fair, the position is not a new one; Lottery Commissioner Julie Baldridge held the job before retiring in April of 2013, and it has been vacant ever since. But the Arkansas Lottery seems to have gotten along just fine without a PR person. Yes, ticket sales have continued to drop at the Arkansas Lottery, and scholarship projections have been cut time and time again, but you can’t blame that on poor public relations–although it might be the kind of thing a public relations aide could help gloss over.

In the face of lagging revenue, the Arkansas Lottery seems to be bent on using the same, tired strategy of rolling out more gambling, spending extra on advertising, and, now, hiring an $89,000 PR aide–presumably to boost the lottery’s image.

So far, those tactics haven’t delivered the “world class” lottery we were all promised back in 2009. Is there really any reason to think that strategy will work this time?

Keno and Powerball: What’s the Difference?

Jun 4, 2014JerryArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery, Keno

The Arkansas Lottery has decided to bring “monitor games” to the state later this summer despite objections from lawmakers. One of the first monitor games they apparently plan to roll out is, for lack of a better term, keno.

We’ve heard a few people describe the monitor games as “keno-like” or “similar to Powerball.” Many people do not know what keno is, and they assume it’s just another lottery game. Here’s a very brief breakdown of keno and a few ways it differs from your typical lottery (Note: For the sake of example, we are comparing Keno to Powerball, as Powerball is fairly standard lottery).

How Keno and Powerball Are Similar

Both are, essentially, “draw games.” In a “draw game,” players try to guess which numbers will be drawn from a pool of numbers. For instance, if I ask you to guess a number between 1 and 10, you could call that a “draw game.” I thought of (drew) one number out of ten possible numbers, and I asked you to guess which number I drew. This would be called a 1-from-10 lottery (one number chosen from ten possible numbers).