Raffles

The oldest, and still Texas Lottery very popular, form of lottery in America is the raffle, or local drawing. Next to Bingo, raffles are the country’s biggest fund raisers for charity. Fraternal organizations, veterans’ groups and almost every other kind of organization in the country have benefited at some time from a raffle of some sort. Many raffles have automobiles valued at $2,000 to $15,000 as prizes, with the raffle tickets seffing from a low of 10 to a high of $100. Some drawings have $50,000 and $125,000 homes as their top awards. And, I have known of some raffle tickets on estates that have sold for as much as $1,000 each.

Harriet Miers in Texas Lottery Board Commission

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press routinely prepares a summary of the First Amendment and media-related cases handled by nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. "Because White House Counsel Harriet Miers has not served on the bench or participated in significant appellate cases, her record on these issues is almost non-existent," said Reporters Committee Executive Director Lucy A. Dalglish.

Only one incident involving access to government proceedings came to light during a search of Miers' background. While serving on the Texas Lottery Board Commission in 1997, Miers voted to fire a lottery agent in what the agent alleged was a secret meeting. The agent sued for a violation of the state's open meetings statute and the case settled without a financial settlement, The New York Times reported. The fired agent was later awarded $750,000 in a suit against the lottery's operator, Gtech, but it remains unclear whether the later suit was related to an open texas lottery meetings violation.