Powerball Jackpot Goes Up (Again!) Tuesday | Patch PM

Stories worth talking about tonight:

Powerball Jackpot Goes Up (Again!) Tuesday

With the astronomical Powerball jackpot now bumped up to $1.5 billion as seemingly everyone in the country buys a ticket, a statistics expert cautions that buying multiple tickets doesn’t significantly boost your chance of winning the big one.

In fact, one statistician says you are much more likely to die in a car crash than win the Powerball jackpot. >>>read more.

High School Students Published in Science Journal

An article written by two Academy of Science (AOS) students, Mehr Kumar and April Xie, has been published in the December 2015 issue of theInternational High School Journal of Science (IHSJS), according to an announcement by Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS).

Kumar and Xie’s research seeks to address the environmental problem of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that result from the more than eight million tons of plastics that find their way into the planet’s oceans each year. >>>read more.

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Mercy Stret: Tours, Exhibits and Events in Alexandria Bring New PBS Series to Life

• City that inspired Civil War medical drama announces new visitor experiences.

Most Virginians Support Higher Taxes for Schools: Poll

• 67 percent of Virginians think public schools aren’t adequately funded, according to the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute.

President Obama to Deliver His Final State of the Union Address

• The president will look back at his administration’s accomplishments in the annual address to Congress and the nation Tuesday night.

Patch PM shares a few of the day’s must-read items from our Virginia and D.C. network. The Patch community platform covers 31 communities across the region.