Governing.com: Daily Digit

Number of U.S. cities and counties, out of 1,790 surveyed, that have done anything to address the needs of aging baby boomers, according to a report by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging:

Increase in the number of passengers who rode the Empire Builder, the Chicago-to-Seattle line that is Amtrak’s most popular overnight route, for the fiscal year that ended in September:
4.3%

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune, 10/30/06

• Costs to federal, state and local taxpayers associated with teenage child-bearing in the United States in 2004:
$9.1 billion

• Savings to taxpayers in 2004 due to the one-third decline in the teen birth rate between 1991 and 2004:
$6.7 billion
Source: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

• Annual salary that members of the Los Angeles City Council, who now make $150,696 and already are the highest-paid city council members in the nation, will receive as of Jan. 1, 2007:
$171,648

• Salary members of Congress will receive as of Jan. 1, 2007:
$168,500

Source: Los Angeles Times, 10/27/06

• Percentage of citizens who don’t show up for jury duty nationally:
20%

• Percentage of no-shows in Miami:
90%

Source: Christian Science Monitor, 10/17/06

Increase in tuition and fees at four-year public universities over the past five years, according to the College Board, which reported a 6.3 percent increase from 2005 to 2006:
35%

Source: Los Angeles Times, 10/25/06

• Number of U.S. cities and towns that either have municipal wireless Internet projects underway or are planning them, according to Muniwireless.com:
About 300

• Number of those communities whose projects are advanced enough to provide at least some service to consumers:
About 100

Source: Wall Street Journal, 10/23/06

Median annual income among black households in the borough of Queens, N.Y., the only county with a population of more than 65,000 in which the household median income of blacks is higher than that of whites, according to U.S. Census Bureau data:
$52,000

Source: New York Times, 10/1/06

Number of former Republicans who will be on Kansas’ November ballot as Democrats:
9

Source: Washington Post, 10/19/06

Number of years it would take the city of Los Angeles to fix its backlog of broken sidewalks at current funding levels, according to the chief of the city’s Bureau of Street Services:
83

Source: Los Angeles Times, 10/19/06

Number of judges, out of a total of 485, that Colorado’s Commissions on Judicial Performance have recommended for retention since 1998:
478

Source: Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System

•Pounds of cheese made last year in Wisconsin:
2.4 billion

•Pounds made in California, triple the amount of 15 years ago, putting the state on course to surpass Wisconsin as the nation’s top cheese producer:
2.14 billion

Source: New York Times, 8/30/06

Years in the future when scientists say the Big Island of Hawaii, including 13,796-foot-high Mauna Kea, will have sunk entirely into the Pacific Ocean:
80 million

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 10/14/06

Increase in alcohol-related motor-vehicle crashes on Sundays in New Mexico since the state lifted its ban on Sunday packaged-alcohol sales:
42%

Source: American Journal of Public Health

Annual cost to Phoenix of removing non-recyclable trash that residents toss into recycling bins:
Nearly $1 million

Source: Arizona Republic, 10/8/06

Number of Idaho creeks, canyons, peaks and springs that include the word “squaw” in their names, 13 of which the Coeur d’Alene Tribe is pushing to have removed from maps of the state:
93

Source: Spokane Spokesman-Review, 10/6/06

• Campaign funds reported in July by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, the Republican candidate for state comptroller:
$3.5 million
• Campaign funds reported by her Democratic challenger, former state Rep. Fred Head:
Zero

Source: Houston Chronicle, 10/9/06

South Dakota’s unemployment rate at the end of the second quarter of this year, the nation’s lowest:
3%

Source: Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 10/6/06

• Population of New Orleans as recorded in the 2000 census:
454,863
• Current population of New Orleans, according to a survey by the Louisiana Recovery Authority:
187,525
• Number of officers on the New Orleans police force before Hurricane Katrina:
1,668
• Current size of the force, of whom 109 are on sick leave:
1,425

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 10/5/06, 10/6/06

Reduction in municipal water use by residents of New York City since 1979, a period during which the city’s population increased from 7.1 million to 8.2 million:
28%

Source: New York Times, 10/3/06

Number of state legislators leaving office this year due to term limits:
268

Source: Stateline.org, 10/2/06

Percentage of cases involving contributors to Ohio Supreme Court justices’ election campaigns over 12 years in which justices who received contributions from the parties involved or from groups that filed supporting briefs voted in favor of those contributors:
70%

Source: New York Times analysis, 10/1/06

Number of Florida middle-school students, led by Gov. Jeb Bush, who read “Peter and the Starcatchers,” a book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, out loud at the same time, breaking the Guinness world record for “Most People Reading Aloud Simultaneously in Multiple Locations”:
300,000

Source: Orlando Sentinel blog, 9/29/06

Amount states receive in federal block grants per welfare recipient, up from $7,000 when Congress approved welfare reform a decade ago:
$16,000

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8/21/06

• Amount the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation says taxes and fees have increased under Republican Gov. Mitt Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the GOP candidate for governor:
More than $700 million

• Amount Romney says taxes and fees have increased:
$260 million

• Amount Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick says taxes and fees have increased:
$800 million

Source: Boston Globe, 9/27/06