Her husband is temporarily without pay because of the "shutdown", but she wins the lottery: the wife of an official currently unemployed due to the paralysis of the federal government has won 100,000 dollars (about 87,000 euros) and a car in Virginia.
"I could not believe it". "I cried, I could not believe it," Carrie Walls told the Virginia lottery after she learned she had won the draw at the end of last week, according to a statement from Virginia Lottery. In addition to the $ 100,000, this resident of the small town of Ashburn, less than 50 kilometers from Washington, also received a Ford Expedition model car.
Virtually all proceeds from the Virginia Lottery help finance public schools in the state, which it has donated $ 600 million (€ 523 million) in 2018.
Federal employees paid retroactively at the end of the "shutdown". Some 800,000 federal employees are unemployed or working without receiving a salary for 24 days, with President Donald Trump and Democratic parliamentarians failing to agree on a draft budget. On Friday, Congress passed a law guaranteeing federal employees that they will be paid retroactively once the shutdown is over.