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The unique raffle-card lottery game that captured much of the world’s attention for the last year or so has finally pulled a winner. The small town of Inverness, a fishing village off the coast in Nova Scotia, Canada, has made national headlines for their lottery game known as “Chase the Ace.” It started last October as a way to raise funds for a local community center, according to The New Yorker.

The lottery started as a $200 jackpot that rolled over every week until someone won the grand prize by selecting the Ace of Spades from a deck of cards after first having their raffle ticket pulled. The wait is finally over as Donelda MacAskill, a 62-year-old woman from Nova Scotia, won the grand prize this past weekend, which had accumulated to $1.7 million.

“You don’t play with the thought of winning,” MacAskill told CTVnews.ca when asked what she planned to do next. “I really didn’t think I was going to win. That’s why I was on the side of the road, ready to head for home.”

Apparently, MacAskill and her husband, John, were about to head home when she realized her number had been called. With more than 25,000 people crowding the small town and the hockey arena being used to house the card pulling, it was a struggle to make it there in time. Lucky for her, she did.

A random lucky million dollar winner isn’t what makes this lottery particularly unique, though; that happens pretty much every day somewhere around the world. Regardless of how much is won, 70% of winners will lose or spend it all within five years.

Yet what happened in Inverness over the last year was something of an experiment by a small town.

Not only did they market and advertise the event, they were able to draw literally tens of thousands of people from around the country to a place they may have otherwise never even heard of. The contest rules made it clear you had to be present in Inverness to win.

“There’s a saying going around here,” said Alec O’Neill, whose family owns the Village Grill in the town, a short drive from the region’s acclaimed Cabot Cliffs golf course. “The golf course spent $500-million to put us on the map. And the legion just bought a deck of cards.”

Two organizations took part in putting the event together, the Royal Canadian Legion and the Inverness Cottage Workshop. The two will evenly split what’s expected to be over $2 million in net earning.

This is what passes for criticism in the tech journalism world of 2015: “Elon Musk is a genius. He’s a business icon. He’s a massive force for good on our planet, and he’s one of the most impressive people of this century, having founded PayPal, SpaceX, SolarCity, and, of course, played a leading role in building Tesla, perhaps the most innovative car company on the planet.”

That’s Venture Beat’s John Koetsier complaining that Musk’s grand unveiling of the Tesla Model X just wasn’t amazing enough. He continues, concluding that “Tesla will go on. The Model X will sell well. And Elon Musk will continue to be an outrageously successful individual. But it could have been much better.”

And over on Fast Company, Neal Ungerleider claims the Model X represents the mainstreaming of the electric car, despite its $130,000 price tag. While the Silicon Valley fan club that is tech and venture capitalism journalism seemed reluctant to admit that Musk is a mere mortal, you can find the true skeptics on Wall Street. Not everyone is actually convinced the Model X is going to sell. Despite nearly universal praise for the Model X, which is by all accounts a truly impressive specimen, shares for Tesla are dropping so far this week.

Far from going mainstream, the Model X is just too expensive. Not only that, but most Americans would struggle to find accessible charging stations on the road. While there remains a niche for hybrids and all-electric vehicles, the $130,000 Model X is a tough sell. Hybrid cars are 20-35% more fuel efficient than traditional vehicles, and produce about 20-35% less emissions as a result. However, while total U.S. sales of hybrid cars have been flat in recent years, electric vehicle sales are modestly increasing.

Despite small gains in the market for EVs, analysts say the newly released Model X and its “falcon doors” are unlikely to appear in many driveways. This week, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas — another noted fan of Tesla and Musk — revised forecasts for Tesla sales downward. Jonas issued sharply lower projections for Tesla’s sales through 2018, and Wall Street reacted accordingly.

For now, the mainstreaming of electric cars appears to be on hold.

Or, at least, that’s the claim made by new critics of the standing desk trend. The backlash against the standing desk movement seems to come from two primary sources: annoyed coworkers and health experts. A growing body of standing desk truthers argue that too much standing is just as unhealthy as too much sitting.

As more American workers spent more time sitting in front of the computer and being sedentary, doctors began to warn that sitting can lead to negative side effects. That led to a rash of articles warning about the dangers of our cubicle-bound lifestyle, and a number of companies touting the health benefits of their standing desks. In 2012, U.S. News and World Report ominously asked “Are You Sitting Yourself to Death?”

In one study, researchers did find that adults who sat for eight hours a day had a 15% greater risk of early death. Those who sat for 11 hours a day had a 40% greater risk. Excessive sitting can also lead to lower back pain, one reason that doctors say 80% of the U.S. population will experience back problems in their life. Not only that, but 26 million Americans between the ages of 20 and 64 suffer from lower back pain already.

But, in what’s become a rather predictable cycle in the online content industry, a backlash has begun against standing desks. In September, the New York Times published an article titled, “How To Use a Standing Desk Without Annoying Your Co-Workers.” The Wall Street Journal released a report chronicling dubious claims about standing desks, while The Week published a tirade against those Standing Desk People called “Down with standing desks!”

Finally, in a sign that a meme has reached its peak, Good Morning America covered the issue, with a report called “Debunking Fitness Myths: Standing Desks.”

In reality, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Standing at your desk all day is just as unhealthy as sitting all day. However, proper posture, stretching, and periods of standing or walking can help decrease the potential risks. As always, without a healthy diet and exercise, it doesn’t matter whether you stand or sit.

Police in South Carolina are mowing through calls after asking the public for tips on a serious crime committed against a landscaping company on Friday morning.

According to local news affiliate WISTV, police in Forest Acres, SC are on the hunt for thieves who stole over $30,000 worth of landscaping equipment being stored in a trailer.

To make matters worse, the criminals didn’t just steal the equipment; they stole the entire trailer, as well as the truck it was attached to.

The stolen goods in question belong to Superior Southern Landscaping. Among the items inside the trailer were mowers, lumber, and trimmers, as well as thousands of dollars’ worth of personal tools belonging to employees.

An employee of Superior Southern Landscaping, Dustin Westmoreland, says that the trailer was being kept at a home the company was renting. When employees arrived, ready to start work for the day, their Dodge Ram truck and trailer were nowhere to be found.

“My major concern ever was that somebody would break into the trailer,” said Westmoreland. “It never crossed my mind that they would take the trailer not to mention the truck it was attached to.”

The U.S. landscaping industry generates an estimated $74 billion of revenue annually and involves some expensive equipment, so it’s no surprise that it is often a target of thieves.

According to the Darien Daily Voice, a landscaping truck with a loaded gun inside of it was recently stolen. The perps took the truck while an employee was landscaping at a client’s home — in broad daylight.

The truck was found the next day, but police are still searching for the person responsible for the theft, and neither the gun or equipment has been recovered.

In the case of Superior Southern Landscaping, the company says they do have insurance to cover the losses, but say that it will take weeks for their claim to be processed.

They add that the theft will result in lost work time as they now only have one truck to take to jobs. Locals are being encouraged to contact Crimestoppers with any information on the truck’s whereabouts.

The latest battle over police brutality and #BlackLivesMatter is being waged on… T-shirts?

In Baltimore, some residents are furious over a T-shirt featuring a large brick and the slogan, “The Baltimore Riot 2015, The Battle of Mondawmin.” Baltimore became the center of #BlackLivesMatter protests following the death of Freddie Gray, and a riot began this summer after police cornered black teenagers at Mondawmin Mall. The group selling the controversial T-shirts say that all proceeds will be used to support the six police officers charged in Gray’s death, which has only further antagonized local residents.

And that’s not the only T-shirt causing controversy this September. In Houston, Fatimah Bouderdaben, 17, designed a light blue T-shirt with the words “#BlackLivesMatter” on the front, while the back included the names of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and 23 more victims of alleged police brutality. When Bouderdaben wore the custom designed T-shirt to the Harmony School for Advancement, she says the Dean of Students criticized her shirt and sent her home.

Many students in Houston were paying tribute to Texas Sheriff Deputy Darren Goforth at the time, who was tragically executed at a gas station. According to a school spokesperson, students related to police officers complained about the teen’s #BlackLivesMatter shirt.

“We were told by the administration to either cover it up, take it off or be pulled from class and sent home,” Bouderdaben said. “My friends chose to change but I refused to because I was not breaking dress code.”

The article of clothing might seem like a strange battleground for activists, but there are legitimate free speech concerns in the drama. Nine out of 10 Americans say that they own at least one T-shirt they refuse to throw away for sentimental reasons. And in the landmark Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, SCOTUS ruled that high school students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

However, the court also said that students’ free speech rights must be balanced with school administrators’ obligation to maintain order. That’s exactly what the Harmony School claims the Dean of students was trying to accomplish by sending Bouderdaben home.

“We don’t want fights in the school. We were trying to contain and handle her as delicately as possible,” said the spokesperson.

For her part, Bouderdaben says she would rather “speak than stay silent.”

Overdosing on marijuana may not be possible, but apparently the drug can still cause tragedy, according to recent events.

Last week a 69-year-old man, Sheldon Bare, and his 15-year-old grandson, Ryan Bare, were both fatally injured in an apartment fire in Altoona, PA, believed to be caused by a marijuana pipe.

Local NBC affiliate KHQ.com reported that the elder Bare had been smoking the pipe and left it in the living room. Improperly discarded cigarettes are known to be one of the leading causes of fire deaths in this country.

Proponents of recreational and medicinal marijuana use have long touted the statistical evidence that supports the notion weed is a relatively harmless drug. It may be possible to overdose on, but no one has ever been reported to up to this point in history.

In most cases, smokers may experience hunger or become tired, and over time they can develop a raspy cough. House fires, however, are a side effect that most don’t consider in a conversation about cannabis usage.

Sheldon Bare was a disabled Vietnam War veteran. His sister, Holly Spatafora, believed that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the things he witnessed during the conflict. She claims that her brother probably turned to marijuana as a way to self-medicate.

“The man that came home was no longer my brother,” Spatafora said. “He was just never happy again. He was one of the walking wounded.”

Firefighters and first-responders were quick to the scene around 3:30 a.m. when the call was made, but sadly it was to late.

Local Fire Chief Tim Hileman summarized the mix of emotions telling local CBS affiliate WTAJ, “These people really do put themselves out to try to help, and unfortunately, the outcome’s not always what we want.”

When most people hear the term malpractice, the first thing they tend to think of is medical. That makes sense considering it is one of the most common and potentially serious versions. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, approximately 225,000 deaths occur annually from medical malpractice.

There are, however, other types of malpractice, though most times they are not quite as serious as life and death. Unless, of course, it’s a person’s lifetime of liberty that’s in question. Some would argue that holds a similar level of importance, and such are the stakes in a recent case stemming from a murder conspiracy verdict.

The News-Herald.com in Ohio reported Tuesday that Kevin Knoefel, the man convicted of manipulating his teenage foster daughter to kill his wife with a knife in 2012, is suing his defense lawyers from that case for legal malpractice.

“Attorneys need to be held to a higher standard of professionalism, and they have to be held to a higher standard when it hurts the client,” said Joseph Patituce, the attorney Knoefel hired to represent him in this case.

According to the News-Herald, points of contention Knoefel is claiming in the lawsuit include:

• His lead lawyer in the case, Michael Connick, lied to him about his experience (and lack thereof) with murder cases,
• the legal team never hired an investigator as promised,
• and multiple attorneys charged him for the same work, but Connick was really the only person who worked on the case.

The suit also states that Connick’s “unprofessional behavior angered the judge to Kevin Knoefel’s detriment.”

The court records go on to state that, “During the criminal trial, Defendant Connick did not display the proper degree of skill required by a criminal defense attorney in a murder case.”

In addition to objecting to his own question, Connick is also accused of “unprofessional behavior [that] angered the trial judge” at Knoefel’s sentencing.

Losing a life based on medical negligence, or accidental missteps is always a tragedy. But a man that’s sentenced to life in prison, as is the case here, also has the right to ensure he got a fair and just trial. Whether you’re a lawyer or the person hiring one, legal malpractice is a real thing and should not be taken lightly.

Any dedicated Shakespeare scholar will likely recognize the Bard’s mentions of thinking up “new-found methods and compounds strange” thanks to “invention in a noted weed” in Sonnet 76.

But to this day, few people probably suspected this “noted weed” referred to the most noted weed of all: marijuana.

Newly-published findings from South African researcher Francis Thackeray and his team from the University of the Witwatersrand show the results of analyzing 24 tobacco pipe fragments from Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Eight of these pipes tested positive for cannabis residue; four of the cannabis-positive pipe fragments came from Shakespeare’s own garden.

According to the Seattle P-I, Thackeray’s team used an advanced, non-invasive testing technique called gas chromatography mass spectrometry to analyze the residue on these pipe fragments. The findings led the researchers to conclude that Shakespeare was, in fact, a marijuana user during his famed literary career.

Thackeray himself actually got the idea for his research after reading the references to a “noted weed” in Sonnet 76.

“I had actually begun the project by reading all of Shakespeare’s sonnets,” Thackeray added.

In addition to the marijuana traces, scientists also found “unquestionable” evidence of Peruvian cocaine on two pipes from the Stratford-upon-Avon area; however, neither of these pipes were found on Shakespeare’s property like the cannabis pipes were.

Those who used this cocaine were probably consuming a product that had few, if any, similarities to the cocaine we know today, the stimulating effects of which can last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. USA Today reports that this cocaine likely came to England after Sir Francis Drake’s return from his 1597 visit to Peru.

Given the experimental nature of Elizabethan medicine, it’s not surprising to learn that 17th-century Englishmen and women used drugs like marijuana and cocaine. For Shakespeare, it’s entirely possible that he enjoyed marijuana for its mind-stimulating properties, which would undoubtedly have helped his creativity, Thackeray explained.

“We were delighted to find indications of cannabis,” Thackeray said. “We can’t be sure that the pipes which we analyzed were those of Shakespeare, but they were from his garden, and they were dated to the early 17th century.”

When most people purchase a home security system, they expect to get just that: security.

However, a new scam is targeting these very homeowners nationwide, threatening to take away the security they seek.

According to a July 30 WCPO article, police departments across the country, along with the home security company ADT, have reported an upswing in these scams — and thousands of Americans will have been victimized by the end of the year.

Scammers go door to door, telling the homeowner they’re there to upgrade the home’s security system, claiming they work for the security company.

“They’re knocking on our customers’ doors, saying they are either with ADT or saying other lies like ADT went out of business, or that their company bought ADT,” said David Bleisch, ADT’s corporate attorney.

If their plan works, the scammers are able to convince the homeowner to make a deposit — or even a multi-year contract — with an alarm company that may not even exist, only to never be heard from again. In other cases, scammers will actually tamper with the existing security system and dismantle its alarm to make a later break-in possible, Consumer Reports reported.

It’s an especially concerning trend, considering the fact that 41% of Americans now say they would prefer to purchase a brand new home over an existing one — and a good deal of these people will be outfitting their new homes with security systems.

And when the highest number of household break-ins take place in July and August, it’s especially important to be vigilant against potential home security scams.

Bleisch advised homeowners to never let someone into their house until the individual reveals his or her name and employer, and then to call one’s security company to verify the person’s identity. If the company representative doesn’t know the person at the door, it may well be a scammer.

“Before you let them into the house, make sure you know who you are dealing with,” Bleisch said.

A recent court ruling in Florida has dealt a potentially devastating blow to the state’s current cap on damages paid out in medical malpractice lawsuits.

According to the Washington Times, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that caps on certain medical malpractice damages don’t apply in cases involving personal injury.

Under this ruling, the state law’s current limits on pain-and-suffering damages — otherwise called non-economic damages — are considered unconstitutional.

“(The) caps are unconstitutional not only in wrongful death actions, but also in personal injury suits as they violate equal protection,” the 14-page decision reads. “Whereas the caps on non-economic damages in (the section of state law) fully compensate those individuals with non-economic damages in an amount that falls below the caps, injured parties with non-economic damages in excess of the caps are not fully compensated.”

For plaintiff Susan Kalitan, who left her 2008 surgery for carpal-tunnel syndrome with a perforated esophagus that became infected and required chest and neck surgery, the decision is welcome news. The jury awarded Kalitan $4.7 million in damages, about $4 million of which are non-economic damages, CBS Miami reported.

The court’s decision follows a similar ruling made last year in the state Supreme Court, in which limits on non-economic damages in wrongful-death cases were rejected.

Across the country, medical malpractice lawsuits paid out approximately $3.6 billion in 2013 alone. In Florida, under the medical-malpractice law that then-Gov. Jeb Bush passed in 2003, the maximum medical malpractice payout is set at $500,000.

With this decision, Florida’s medical malpractice caps are at risk of being shot down in even more courts across the state. Attorney Crane Johnstone of Fort Lauderdale’s Schlesinger Law Offices told the Washington Times that this ruling could pave the way for similar cases seeking to overturn the medical malpractice damages cap. At the same time, the 4th District Court of Appeal’s decision could be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, as well.