Sixteen players won $22,892 each in Second Division, including a MyLotto ticket sold in Rotorua. One lucky player in Auckland also won Powerball Second Division, taking their total winnings to $48,659. The biggest win was a trio of tickets that shared the $1m Lotto first division pool, each worth $333,333. The weekend’s $20 million Lotto Powerball was not struck but 16 players won $22,892 each in Second Division, including one in Rotorua. The 16 Powerball multimillionaires in 2024:January 27: $17.25 million - MyLotto, CanterburyFebruary 10: $8.3 million - MyLotto, Hawke’s BayMarch 2: $12.3 million - MyLotto, OtagoApril 13: $30.16 million - MyLotto, WellingtonJune 8: $7.18 million - Pak’nSave Wairau Rd, AucklandJune 8: $7.18 million - Woolworths Metro, AucklandJune 8: $7.18 million - Royal Oak Mall Lotto, AucklandJune 8: $7.18 million - MyLotto, AucklandJune 8: $7.18 million - MyLotto, AucklandJune 8: $7.18 million - Shop Rite Dairy, HamiltonJune 8: $7.18 million - New World Hastings, HastingsJune 12: $4.5 million - MyLotto, WaikatoJune 19: $5.5 million - Impulse Snacks & Lotto, TaranakiAugust 10: $44.06 million - MyLotto, AucklandSeptember 7: $17.07 million - MyLotto, AucklandSeptember 11: $4.3 million - MyLotto, Auckland-Rotorua Daily Post.

While overall sales at US DSW stores fell 3% in the most recent quarter, sales of athletic footwear, including Nike, rose 16%. The positive momentum at sneaker chains across consumer categories - from fashion, to family, to speciality - underscores the optimism for athletic footwear writ large, if not for Nike. “Once you discover that you can wear sneakers for almost everything, you hardly ever go back to heels”, Foot Locker chief executive Mary Dillon said last month. Some of the increased competitiveness in athletic footwear can be attributed to factors precipitated by Nike. Foot Locker has said it expects a “return to growth” with Nike this year.

Christopher Luxon fine-tuning the boot camps model. This would see the estimated number of young offenders jump from 60 to 102 per year, creating a $16.5m shortfall. What went wrong with the last boot campsThere are many lessons from the past, both here and overseas: a 2022 international paper said boot camps were “not effective at reducing recidivism”, while a 2018 New Zealand paper said boot camps “do not work”. Hardline boot camps might even make matters worse, given how most of the participants are likely to be neurodivergent. The previous National-led Government brought back boot camps in 2010, but within a few years reoffending rates within 12 months were more than 80%.

The NZ Herald’s original true crime podcast, Chasing Ghosts, is back to explore the notorious decades-long catfishing scheme conducted by one New Zealand woman. In April 2011, a woman was found to have tricked dozens of teenage boys and young men across Christchurch with fake profiles - into starting romantic relationships online. The perpetrator, Natalia Burgess, was eventually caught and jailed for two years and two months in 2013 - but journalist David Fisher learned that wasn't the end of the story. While I considered it was a possibility, I kept an open mind until I gathered the evidence. The evidence was unequivocal - it was most definitely Natalia Burgess at it again."

Photo: Supplied / NZ PoliceGun crime is up in Auckland, and police data shows illegally owned guns are the problem. The South Auckland suburb of Manurewa had the most reported firearms offences in the first six months of 2024, with 102 reported, up by 11 offences from 2023. Both suburbs saw more firearms offences reported than at the same time in 2023. More than 90 firearms offences were reported where the offender was a patched or prospect gang member. As of last month, 145 firearms offences committed in the first six months of this year were under investigation.

A few weeks ago, I wrote that Christopher Luxon and the National Party were likely in a stronger political position than they appeared to be in headline voter polls. My assessment was that while party support hadn’t changed significantly since the election, Luxon’s favorability had improved and his party had an upper hand on voters’ top issues. This undercurrent of support may eventually translate into some stronger poll performances, particularly as interest rates come down — or so I thought. Well, on Friday an updated Taxpayers’ Union–Curia poll threw cold water on my hot take, with the National Party’s worst result in that particular poll since August 2023. A previous TPU–Curia poll report, which was released in full, also showed health as being one of Labour’s stronger issues, although National was still ahead.

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A lot still rides on the next set of inflation figures to be released in the coming week. The June quarter 2024 CPI figures, released in July, showed the rate of annual inflation slowing to 3.3% from 4.0% in the March quarter. It's universally expected that the September quarter figures are going to show an annual inflation figure of under 3%. Remember that in June 2022 the annual inflation rate actually got as high as 7.3% and it made its way back down only slowly at first. Well, a 'headline' annual inflation rate as close to the targeted 2% 'midpoint' of the 1% to 3% range as possible would be very encouraging.

Teenager and woman seriously hurt in Ōtara incident overnightPolice are investigating after two people were taken to the hospital with serious and critical injuries following an incident on Wymondley Rd, Ōtara. Video / NZ Herald

Twelve years after bludgeoning his stepfather to death with a cricket bat, Christchurch man Christopher Gleeson has given an explanation for his “disgusting act”. He returned later armed with a cricket bat and struck Moore three times on the side of his head. Gleeson then drove to Howzat cricket centre in Christchurch where he dumped his “bloodied” cricket bat and tried again to withdraw cash. Then, he turned up for his club cricket match, telling teammates his dad was “ill and unhealthy” and “unlikely to survive the weekend”. He said he has learnt more about what led up to the offending from completing that programme,” said Parole Board panel convenor Kathryn Snook.

There was a dip in activity at the latest auctions monitored by interest.co.nz. We tracked 289 residential property auctions over the week of 5-11 October, down from 343 the previous week and 356 the week before that. However numbers remained well up from where they were over winter and the sales rate also held on to recent gains, with 119 properties selling under the hammer, giving an overall sales rate of 41%. So far the spring sales rate seems to be settling at just over 40%, compared to an average of around 30-33% over winter. Details of the individual properties offered at all of the auctions monitored by interest.co.nz, including the selling prices of those that sold, are available on our Residential Auction Results page.

Team NZ, on the other hand, have had the luxury of holding back their best until now. It is certainly the most extreme in terms of how narrow it is front to back below the top metre. The Brits’ foils are not dissimilar but not as radical in their design as the Kiwis. There is no doubt that the Kiwis will have brand new sails on for this Cup match. The Kiwis will go in with confidence in the changes they have made and an expectation of a speed advantage.

Killer of RNZ journalist released, despite still being high riskThe man jailed for almost 13 years for killing RNZ journalist Phillip Cottrell has been released, despite still being high risk and disengaging with rehabilitation. The senseless and pointless killing of RNZ Journalist Phillip Cottrell was made worse by the gormless swagger and bravado of the immature man child Nicho Waipuka during the trial and afterwards. Nicho was sentenced to 12 years and 10 months and because of a quirk of National Party vengeance, he manages to exemplify all that is wrong with our prison system. What makes Nicho so terrifying is that in all the years inside prison, he has not done one day of rehabilitation. An endless loop of hate, revenge and suffering and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering, and more hate, revenge and suffering on and on and on it goes.

Much of my immediate family lives in Asheville and Black Mountain, NC. While everyone is thankfully safe, this disaster struck much closer to home for me than most. There is lots that needs to be done for disaster relief, and I’d encourage folksThis is a re-post from the Climate Brink ...

“The first thing people always ask, is ‘Is there any news?” Or ... ‘How are your babies?’ As if they’re back. These people - they don’t know Thomas at all, half of them have never met him ... None of them have met the kids. Tom Phillips, top left, and his three children came to national attention when they disappeared in September 2021. I’m lost without them. “They were my world, my reason for being - and that was my only job in life, was my children.