It’s a $17-Million Bedtime Story

Ron Miller can relax now. The 36-year-old Little York, Ill., man turned in one of the four winning tickets for Illinois’ record $69-million Lotto jackpot. “I feel better now than I did yesterday,” Miller said. When he realized his was a winning ticket in the drawing Saturday, Miller said, he “kept it on the headboard of the bed” all night and put it in a safe on Sunday. Miller, who is part-owner of a hog-buying firm in Monmouth, Ill., said he will share his portion of the prize with his sister and brother. Also claiming a share of the jackpot was a Chicago engineer who said he had a hard time convincing his family of his good fortune. Dan Dixon, 38, and his wife, Mary Ann, plan to share their winnings with her parents, brothers and sister in New Jersey. Dixon said the family buys chances on big jackpots all over the country, and he bought 15 tickets for the Illinois game. “I sat down at the kitchen table Saturday night and checked all the tickets except one,” he said, “and then we got to one with a perfect match.” Dixon said he called the rest of the family and “nobody believed me.” Each of the winning tickets is worth $17.5 million, to be paid over 20 years at $864,000 a year. The other winners have yet to be identified.

--An earlier lottery winner is learning that good luck can be the cat’s meow. Sheelah Ryan, winner of the biggest single jackpot in a U.S. lottery, dipped into her $55-million prize and donated $1,000 to University of Central Florida students in Orlando who are trying to find homes for more than 100 stray cats. “She said she is really interested in the project because the students have gotten involved in something positive,” said Bill Morris, project coordinator. Ryan, 63, of Winter Springs, also has set up a foundation for needy people. She won the jackpot in the Florida lottery Sept. 3, 1988.

--Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou has filed a libel suit in London against Time Inc. over an article in the March 13 issue of Time magazine, his American attorney, Leonard Boudin, said. Boudin said the suit stems from a report in the magazine’s international edition about Greek banker George Koskotas’ charge that Papandreou drained the Bank of Crete, in Athens, of millions of dollars in payoffs made to him and party officials. “The international edition had a little different story than the American edition of Time, and it was accompanied by a lurid cover (photo) showing Koskotas behind bars,” Boudin said. Koskotas, jailed in Massachusetts, is fighting extradition to face embezzlement and forgery charges in Greece. A Time spokesman had no comment.