The State : Lottery Hits $50 Million

The prize in the next Lotto drawing climbed to $50 million and touched off a frenzyof ticket-buying, a California Lottery spokeswoman said. It is the biggest jackpot in more than a year and the third-largest ever. No one has won the jackpot since a $10.7 -million prize was claimed Aug. 26, and the jackpot has mounted in three successive drawings withoutwinners. Sunday’s sales for the Wednesday drawing raked in $1.7 million, the biggest ever for that day of the week since the lottery hauled in $858,364 on Aug.21, 1988.