News in Numbers
The area that the rash of wildfires afflicting California are now responsible for burning statewide since Sunday, Oct. 8. For the sake of comparison, that area is larger than the 304.8 square miles that comprises all five boroughs of New York City.
The number of times Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said "invest" or a variation of the word during a budget speech. He even used it three times in one sentence: “Because Chicago has been willing to invest in our young people, invest in our future, and address our long-term fiscal challenges, businesses have shown the confidence to hire in Chicago, move to Chicago, invest in Chicago and start up in Chicago.”
The number of proposals -- out of a total of 2,012 that were submitted -- that will move forward for review by the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, a body that meets once every 20 years to consider changes to the state constitution suggested by citizens of the state. The proposals that will be advanced represent less than 0.3 percent of the total that were filed, down from 18 percent the last time the commission met, in 1997.
Amount of time some victims of Hurricane Irma have had to wait in line for food-stamp benefits from the state Department of Children and Families. Tens of thousands of people across the state -- including 50,000 at one site alone -- have camped out for hours, often in hot temperatures, in the past week, overwhelming state workers.
Number of buildings destroyed by wildfires in California in the past week. One blaze alone, the Tubbs fire, has incinerated more than 5,100 structures, making it the single most destructive fire in state history.
Average monthly tax revenue that North Dakota has received from the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Maximum time period the city of Denver will offer rent and utility assistance to low- and moderate-income residents facing potential eviction or loss of a home. The new program starts in November.
Time that parents can be sentenced to jail if their child violates any city law, including bullying, in North Tonawanda, N.Y. The law took effect Oct. 1.
Cities that celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day yesterday. Berkeley, Calif., was the first to make the switch -- in 1992 -- but most of the rest of the cities adopted the new holiday only in the past three years.
Settlement the pharmaceutical company that makes EpiPen has agreed to pay the federal government, 49 states and the District of Columbia. The company was accused of underpaying rebates to Medicaid and Medicare.
Early estimate of Hurricane Maria's damage to Puerto Rico. The island was already bankrupt before the storm hit, with $72 billion in debt.
Election-related tweets in the 10 days before Donald Trump won the presidential race that were from fake, junk and hyper-partisan sources and targeted at West Virginians. A new study shows those sources also targeted 10 other swing states with misinformation.
Amount Texas state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, who was been charged with corruption, spent on an online psychic.
States that are expected to run out of funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program by the end of the year. Congress let the program expire this weekend but is hoping to reauthorize it in the coming weeks.
People who have had their driver's license revoked in just five states because they have court debt. Only four states require officials to determine whether defendants can afford to pay fines before suspending their licenses.
Portion of Arizona state lawmakers who are women, which is the highest female representation of any legislature in the country. Nationally, only a quarter of state legislative seats are held by women.
Major metro areas with the highest black-white segregation that are in the Rust Belt.
Money Florida lost by suspending tolls to help speed up evacuations and relief efforts for Hurricane Irma. It amounted to more than $45 million.
Amount of time HealthCare.gov will be shut down on every Sunday but one during open enrollment for maintenance. Critics have accused the Trump administration of intentionally making it harder for the Affordable Care Act to succeed by also shortening the enrollment period and cutting funding for advertising and navigators, people who help others buy ACA insurance.
Time it took Gatorade to settle a lawsuit from California accusing the company of false advertising for implying in an online game that drinking water slows runners down. The game has since been disabled, and the state is now $300,000 richer.
Illinois state lawmakers who have either resigned this year or said they won't seek re-election, which is about 15 percent of the General Assembly and an unusually large exodus. Many have cited the state's political gridlock and increasingly angry citizenry as reasons for moving on.
States that would face federal funding cuts in 2026 if the Graham-Cassidy bill to repeal Obamacare becomes law. Almost all of them expanded Medicaid. Meanwhile, most of the states that didn't expand Medicaid would see an increase in federal funding.
Democratic governors and state attorneys general who are women, which accounts for 20 percent representation. The Democratic Attorneys General Association hopes to increase that number and recently launched "the 1881 Initiative" -- named for the first year that a woman ran, unsuccessfully, for state AG -- to help.
Day that Baltimore's bike-share service will reopen. It shut down this weekend because so many bikes were stolen that the company is installing additional locking devices.
Drop in Louisiana's median income from 2015 to 2016. The only other states where it declined were North Dakota and Wyoming.
Uninsured rate in Texas last year, which was the highest in the country and double the national average. The high number of people without health insurance can be blamed on the fact that the state did not expand Medicaid, has a large immigrant population and has a lower-than-average rate of employers who offer health coverage.
Portion of men's drop in the labor force that a new study suggests can be blamed on the opioid epidemic.
Municipal finance officers who said they are better able to meet the financial needs of their communities -- down from at least 80 percent in each of the last three years.
Homes and businesses -- most of which are in Florida -- that lost power due to Hurricane Irma, as of Monday afternoon. "We’ve never had that many outages, and I don’t think any utility in the country ever has," said the chief executive of Florida's biggest electric company. Utilities said it could be weeks before power is fully restored.
