MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) – A man accused of tossing a cat into the Winnebago River in northern Iowa’s Mason City has been fined $100. Sixty-nine-year-old William Hill was sentenced on Tuesday. He’d pleaded guilty to abandonment of an animal in a deal with prosecutors who lowered the charge from animal torture.

Authorities say the cat was inside a duffel bag tossed by Hill into the river near a Mason City bridge on March 21. A couple witnessed what happened and soon retrieved the bag. Inside was the adult calico. Hill turned himself in to authorities a few days later.

A new home for the cat, since named Winnie, has been found with St. Paul, Minnesota, resident.

Two valuable, but unclaimed Powerball tickets purchased in Iowa are about to expire. Iowa Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer says the tickets were bought on opposite sides of the state a little less than a year ago. “The first ticket won a $10,000 prize back in the drawing on June 18, 2014. It was purchased at a Casey’s in Council Bluffs,” Neubauer says. “The other ticket won a $20,000 prize. It was purchased at Quillin’s Food Ranch in Waukon and it won a prize in the drawing on June 28, 2014.”

The ticket bought in Council Bluffs will expire at 4 p.m. on June 18, while the ticket purchased in Waukon will expire at 4 p.m. on June 29. The businesses where the tickets were purchased have put up signs reminding customers to check their old tickets. “Somebody won these prizes and we want to see them claimed,” Neubauer says. “That’s why we work so hard to get the word out and hope that we can maybe reach that person at the last minute, jog their memory, and they’ll go home and find that winning ticket.”

In fiscal year 2014, nearly $1.4 million in Iowa Lottery prizes went unclaimed.

(Radio Iowa)