Preview -- World News Tonight 08/22/01
Aug. 22 -- Peter Jennings is on the road. Elizabeth Vargas anchors the broadcast tonight and World News Tonight head writer Steve Alperin has our preview.
Good Afternoon.
We certainly have variety in the program tonight. Everything from new tapes of John F. Kennedy to African fertility badges … the future of social security hanging in the balance to an epic food fight in Spain.
There are 200 million reasons for the lead story. $200 million is the size of tonight's Powerball Lottery Jackpot. The odds of winning are 1 in 80 million. That's about as likely as getting hit by lightning on a sunny day … twice.
Lotteries have always been about dreams and necessity. They were used to finance the Great Wall of China and George Washington's Continental Army. Nowadays they're used by states to finance important social programs. However, some people believe the government's reliance on the lottery is unethical. They say it encourages compulsive gambling and takes money from poor people who don't have it to spend in the first place. Dan Harris looks at the debate.
The federal budget surplus has all but vanished. That's the headline from Washington today. If it?s true, that would amount to a staggering change in the political landscape. This is one of those stories with genuinely colossal importance. It affects every level of government and every American. It is also complicated, and has the potential to be what we call a real MEYGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) if we don't do our job well. White House correspondent Terry Moran has had his calculator out.
We've been listening to history today. Specifically some newly released tapes of President John F. Kennedy talking about his priorities for the American space program in 1961. At the time, Kennedy was embarrassed. The Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had just beaten the U.S., becoming the first man to orbit the earth. "I'm not that interested in space," JFK said. The tapes reveal that he was intensely interested in beating the Russians. The best way to do it? Get to the moon before they do. Not everyone in the Kennedy administration agreed. James Walker has our report.
