News in Numbers
Amount of traffic and parking tickets that went unpaid in Washington, D.C., last year.
Total amount of state aid given to the New Jersey cities of Camden, Harrison, Newark, Paterson, Trenton and Union City to help prevent fiscal difficulties in 2014.
Minimum number of new teachers the Philadelphia School District plans to hire for the 2015-16 school year after closing schools and laying off teachers for the past few years.
Amount the beverage industry spent lobbying against a soda tax in Berkeley, Calif., for every vote cast against the initiative. Despite their efforts, voters approved the tax.
Amount spent by the Texas Department of Transportation to reimburse employees for education costs between 2002 and 2015, which is roughly half of the total employee education reimbursement expenses for the entire state.
Amount of time a schizophrenic inmate in North Carolina was held in solitary confinement before dying of thirst last March.
Number of U.S. states that observe a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and a Robert E. Lee holiday on the same day.
Total cost of New York City's advertising campaign telling men to stop “manspreading” (taking up too much space on the subway by spreading their legs widely).
The decline in the number of marijuana seizures by U.S. officers along the Mexico border from 2011 to 2014. States' decriminalization of marijuana is leading Mexican cartels to shift to heroin and methamphetamine production.
Portion of Vermont schools identified as not making Adequate Yearly Progress. Vermont is one of eight states that didn't get a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law and must follow its complicated school improvement processes.
Reduction in criminal summons issued in New York City, compared to this time last year. Police union leaders denied an organized slowdown, but for the past two weeks, the NYPD drastically scaled back law enforcement.
Number of the 16 original directors of the state-based health exchanges that have resigned since the online marketplaces launched.
Value of Nike sneakers that a Massachusetts man gave as bail to Framingham District Court. The man said he lacked money for bail because he was going through a divorce, so the judge let him be creative.
Length of time that the District of Columbia Public Library will spend live-streaming a reading of George Orwell's 1984, as part of a festival called Orwellian America? Government Transparency and Personal Privacy in the Digital Age.
Number of times states increased tobacco taxes between 2000 and fiscal year 2015. During the same period, states raised taxes on alcohol 23 times.
Total amount in bonuses given to the staff of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer last year, despite a half-billion-dollar budget deficit in 2014 and a $1-billion deficit for the next fiscal year.
Number of personal texts sent in 2014 from the city-issued cell phone of the head of the utilities and engineering department of Yakima, Wash. The manager got a 10-day unpaid suspension for unauthorized use of city resources.
Approximate ratio of Christmas trees to people in Oregon. The state sells 6.4 million tress a year, 2 million more than any other state.
Number of students, which is 17 percent of the total number enrolled, who stayed home sick with the flu last Tuesday in the Polk County, Ga., school system, leading the superintendent to cancel classes and start the winter break early.
Amount NASA spent to construct a laboratory tower in Gulfport, Miss., that will never be used. The tower, completed in 2014, was designed to test a rocket program that was cancelled in 2010.
Percent of American eighth-graders who used an e-cigarette in the previous month, compared to 4 percent who had smoked an actual cigarette.
The potential budget deficit of the state of Alaska, where the falling price of oil is causing severe problems for a state budget based almost entirely on petroleum production.
Average amount U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials paid in 2012 to build each of 21 houses for employees in rural Ajo, Ariz., where the average market price of a house was $86,500.
