Los Angeles officials say the costs of police overtime and cleaning up local parks due to the Occupy protests have nearly doubled to $5 million, as cities across the country continue to tally the protests’ price tag.

City officials initially said the cost would be $2.6 million, but Los Angeles Councilman Mitch Englander told NBC Los Angeles the figure had grown, with the bulk of the cost attributed to overtime for law enforcement.

 

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"At a very difficult time financially with the city, at a time we're talking about laying off civilian LAPD and fire personnel, this is going to have a dramatic effect on the city budget," said Englander, chair of the public safety committee. "For every action the city takes, there is a cost."

 

 

 

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The two-month camp in the city closed Nov. 30.

Other events in the city also racked up millions of dollars in cost: the 2010 Lakers Parade was estimated at $1.8 million and the Michael Jackson funeral came in at $3.2 million in 2009, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Other cities have spent from tens of thousands to millions of dollars in police overtime and cleanup costs. In New York, the tally reached $17 million through mid-March, DNAinfo.com reported, citing police testimony at a city budget hearing. In Oakland, the city had paid $3.7 million through Feb. 27, according to a report by Oakland Local.

Of the money the cities said they spent, Justin Wedes, of Occupy Wall Street, noted: "America doesn't need to spend millions of dollars on a paramilitary response to citizens exercising their First Amendment rights in public space."

Most of the Occupy camps across the country were shuttered over the winter, but protesters continue to hold marches and demonstrations against income equality, corporate greed and political corruption. Their latest national action, held on May Day, brought thousands of people into the streets.

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Venus Wilson has been fantasizing about winning the Mega Millions lottery. The first thing she would do? "Faint!" the security officer said at her post outside of JPMorganChase in Midtown Manhattan on Friday. "Then, when I get up, go get my check, and go shopping."

Wilson, 31,  has bought seven lottery tickets. Other than passing out, she's got big plans if one ends up being a winner: She'd invest in real estate, but first, she would make sure her friends and family were taken care of.

"I would donate to St. Jude's for cancer research, for breast cancer, do stuff like that. Because come on, why not? Don't be stingy. God didn't bless you with it for no reason. Help people out. And I would pay off my parents' doctor bills, and I would help family and friends," she said. "Then I would go crazy [shopping]. I swear -- I would go crazy."

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She also has plans to keep the cash flowing: Wilson wants to open soul food restaurants and laundromats, and get an accountant to invest her leftover winnings.

"You have to keep it coming. A lot of people, they win all that money, and then they're broke," she said. "Some people don't believe in the lotto. But look at the gold pot. It's like the leprechaun with the rainbow. That pot of gold is beautiful right now," Wilson said.

Wilson was among the New Yorkers canvassed Friday about the first thing they would do if they won Mega Millions, which has hit $640 million.  Hundreds more gave their responses on our Facebook page.

What to buy when you win the jackpot

'A dollar and a dream'
Therese Schoenwandt, 29, has been swept up by the lottery fever. The nursing student got engaged two weeks ago and sat in Barnes & Noble on Friday, flipping through "Wedding Planning For Dummies." 

"I've never done a lotto ticket before. I usually don't believe in that stuff," she said. "It's all over the papers, and it's all over the news. Yesterday when I saw people lining up outside stores for it I said, 'You know what, I'm going to buy a ticket.' Peer pressure!"

Her first act if she wins: Pay off her mother's mortgage in Brooklyn. The she will plan her wedding, and put the rest in the bank.

Ivan Martinez, 50, who was handing out fliers in Manhattan's diamond district, had high hopes of helping out his family back home in Puerto Rico with the one ticket he purchased earlier in the day. "It's a dollar and a dream," he said.

Richard Gallo, a 47-year-old customer service representative in the watch industry, said if he won, the first thing he would do is jump in the car and drive. "Before I even turned the ticket in, I would take a trip. Wherever I ended up, I ended up. Basically just to step away from everything, think about it and come back. You get caught in that whirlwind."

Others weren't as confident about the dream's possibility. "It's all fixed," said a man who refused to give his name but was filling out his numbers for a ticket. "Do you know anyone who's won? It's all fixed, if you ask me." Then he continued filling out his ticket.

On our Facebook page, many readers weighed in: "Sign the back of the ticket. Then go on a vacation to clear my mind while deciding who a good financial adviser would be to go to," wrote Christopher Ringen. 

Others said they would pay off debt for family and friends or their churches, or donate to animal shelters. For some, though, it was just about making life a little more comfortable: "Never fly coach again," wrote Rebecca Hayes.

But not everybody has bought into the hype. "It doesn't really attract me," said Louis Carrasquillo, 50, a sales rep at Montecristo Cigar Shop on 5th Avenue in New York.

"Have I thought about it? Probably. I passed by the booth and I thought it would be great, but I'm just a working person. I'm not really a gambler."

If he did win that kind of cash, he would give money to his church for a new school and cafeteria, he said.

But Carrasquillo said he was turned off by some lottery tips he heard from a newscaster: "If you're going to get divorced, get divorced before you win. What's that about? Change your phone number, 'cause you're going to hear from family members you haven't heard from. You gotta be kidding me."

Why even skeptics are rushing to buy a Mega Millions ticket

Mega Millions is played in 42 states plus Washington, D.C. Friday's drawing happens at 11 p.m. ET. The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever won was $390 million in March 2007, when the prize was split between two tickets sold in Georgia and New Jersey.

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The Mega Millions lottery hit $540 million on Thursday, and people endured long lines for a chance at winning the hefty jackpot – an amount that could rise as more tickets are sold for Friday’s drawing.

“I have never seen so many people inside one store,” Jessie Rae Vaglivielo, a clerk at Hallelujah Junction, a one-stop gas and convenience store in Honey Lake, Calif., near the Nevada border, told msnbc.com on Thursday. It was her fifth day on the job and she didn’t have time to talk -- she was selling tickets to dozens of people who had lined up.

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Vaglivielo laughed when asked if she was going to buy a ticket. "No, I don't play," she said, adding "but there are a lot of people here who do, and I gotta go."

At a 7-Eleven in the Bronx, Leisa Aspes said she sold at least $1,000 in tickets during the morning rush hour on Thursday. She described conversations at the store as lively, bursting with dreams of winning.  

“That’s all people have been talking about all morning,” she told msnbc.com. “People are talking about what they would do if they won. I made sure to buy my tickets.”

Nobody matched all six numbers in Tuesday's regular draw, and the total jackpot has been growing since. With a $540 million total, the lump sum payment is estimated at $389.8 million, according to lottery officials. Winners can also take payments annually for 26 years.

Mega Millions raises tough question for job seekers

Mega Millions is is played in 42 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Players pay $1 for a ticket and must pick five numbers from 1 to 56 plus a Mega number from 1 to 46 to win the jackpot. The odds of winning are 1 in about 176 million, according to the official Mega Millions website.

The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever won was $390 million in March 2007, when the prize was split between two tickets sold in Georgia and New Jersey.

This story includes reporting by msnbc.com's Sevil Omer.

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