Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Oct 25, 2017

Guilty Pleasures:

Get ready for bigger jackpots in the Mega-Millions Lottery.
The folks behind the lottery announced that beginning this weekend, a lottery ticket will cost twice as much --two bucks-- and as a result, have bigger jackpots.
In addition, Mega Millions' grand prize will begin at $40 million instead of $15 million, which is the starting jackpot that Powerball has had for the past two years.

Today's police blotter:

A Florida man is charged with slapping a police horse.
The Orlando Police Department says CASEY WALDNER walked up to 13-year-old IZZY while she was on patrol with an officer. That's when Waldner allegedly slapped the animal on her backside, causing her to spin around. Cops say Waldner took off running, but was quickly caught and charged with injuring a police horse, resisting arrest, and cocaine possession. Luckily Izzy wasn't seriously hurt. (Still)

Weird science:

Chinese scientists are bringing home the genetically-modified bacon. The New York Daily Newssays the team at the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Science have created thinner, leaner pigs. They used the gene editing technique CRISPR --which was kind of inevitable with an acronym like that. The scientists targeted a special protein known for regulating body temperature by burning the pigs' body fat. And presto --they CRISPR'ed 12 healthy pigs that had 24 percent less body fat than normal pigs. (Bartha)