Left on the table: Nearly $11 million in lottery winnings in Louisiana went unclaimed in the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to Louisiana lottery officials. The Times-Picayune reports unclaimed prize money totaled $8.5 million the year before. One theory about unclaimed lottery winnings is that people don’t check their numbers closely enough to see they have won a little prize money. Another theory is that Americans in the cyber age are getting less efficient at holding on to physical things, like small lottery tickets. Read the full story here.
Food for thought: Apple is expected to introduce the next iPhone model on Wednesday, setting the stage for a critical test of wireless carriers’ efforts to bend the economics of the popular device to their advantage. At stake, as The Wall Street Journal reports, is how profits in the wireless industry get divvied up and to what degree the carriers reap a return on investments in their newest networks. In just half a decade, the iPhone has become one of the most important influences on the profits of carriers like AT&T and Verizon, and its influence is growing. Get all the details in the full story here.
Child’s play: In a storm of mobile product launches emerges a new competitor: tablets for tots. That’s the niche Toys R Us hopes to carve out for itself to compete against Apple’s iPad or Amazon’s Kindle Fire with a $150 kid-oriented tablet called the Tabeo, The Washington Post reports. The release by the toy retailing giant highlights the race to grab the attention and wallets of the youngest tech consumers, who are taking to smartphones and other gadgets. Check it out here.
Today’s poll question: Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater wants to hire a private company to advise him on the best way to collect more than $1 billion owed to state government by college students, companies and others. Do you agree with him?
