He Wants Lotto Prize Money to Go for Welfare--His

--Lotto winner Charles J. Weaver may have to share his new wealth--close to $1 million--with a few thousand neighbors. Weaver won the May 20 Lotto drawing for $978,433, and now the city of Waterbury, Conn., says it has a legal right to a piece of the prize. Weaver, unemployed for 15 years because of a heart condition that requires him to wear a pacemaker, learned that the city Department of Public Assistance wants him to pay back the welfare aid he has collected as far back as 1957. Weaver, who lives in a public housing apartment, said he isn’t about to part with his prize money. “They ain’t going to get a dime from me. Not a thing,” said Weaver, who will receive $48,922 a year for 20 years. “If I give you something, I don’t want it back. That won’t be fair.” City Corporation Counsel Francis M. Donnarumma has recommended that the welfare department seek reimbursement from the 55-year-old Weaver, but officials have not yet computed how much he received from the city. Connecticut law allows a municipality or the state to seek reimbursements from welfare clients, Donnarumma said.

--A great-great-great-grandson of Statue of Liberty designer Frederic Bartholdi said he gets a “weird” feeling when he sees pictures of people looking at the New York City monument. The designer used his own mother as the model for the statue, and 9-year-old Joey Bartholdi of Tracy, Calif., said its face resembles his and that of his 12-year-old sister. “It’s weird,” Joey said. “It sort of seems like everyone is lined up at my head and looking at it.” Joey and his sister, Lisa, said they started collecting statue memorabilia when they first learned of their historic ancestor three years ago. They even obtained a stamp with a picture of their bearded great-great-great-grandfather on it. “Shave off that beard and that would be my dad,” Lisa said.

--Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark is taking part in an expedition to film nomad tribes in Mongolia and northern China. A private member of the eight-man Danish expedition, the prince will work as a film assistant under expedition leader Col. Soren Haslund-Christensen and film director Erik Frohn Nielsen. The prince, who is 18 and newly graduated from high school, is to partake in “the myriad of practical jobs to be done on the expedition on equal terms with the other expedition members,” Haslund-Christensen said.