In brief: New senator to give GOP response

WASHINGTON – Joni Ernst, a newly elected senator from Iowa and a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard, will deliver the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address next week, party leaders announced Thursday.

Ernst, who became a GOP sensation early last year when she launched a television ad touting her experience as a farmer castrating hogs, represents a fresh face for the GOP and a new class of senators who gave the party a majority in the chamber last November.

Ernst defeated Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley in one of the most hotly contested Senate races of 2014, becoming the first woman elected to statewide office in Iowa’s history.

It marks the second consecutive year Republicans have asked a woman to deliver the nationally televised, prime-time speech; Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the House conference chairwoman, delivered the 2014 response.

Lottery worker illegally wins jackpot

DES MOINES, Iowa – An Iowa lottery worker, who illegally played the lottery, won a multimillion-dollar jackpot in 2010 and asked others to help him claim it, authorities said Thursday after announcing fraud charges against him.

Eddie Raymond Tipton, 51, has been charged with two felony counts of fraud in a case where authorities have been trying to identify the winner of the $14.3 million Hot Lotto ticket since a New York lawyer tried to claim the ticket shortly before the one-year deadline in 2011. Tipton, who is the head of security for the Multi-State Lottery Association in Iowa, is being held at the Polk County Jail on a $10,000 cash-only bond.

The Multi-State Lottery Association oversees several popular lottery games, including Hot Lotto and Powerball. Employees are banned from buying tickets or winning prizes.

When attorney Crawford Shaw tried to claim the jackpot, lottery officials confirmed the ticket was valid, but they refused to pay, because Shaw wouldn’t name anyone involved with the purchase and handling of the ticket. Shaw later withdrew the claim and said he didn’t know the winner.

Authorities opened up the investigation to the public in October and released a convenience store video that purported to show the mystery winner as he bought the ticket. A former co-worker of Tipton’s subsequently contacted authorities with the suspicion that it was Tipton in the video.