Speedy Trial?
Estimated number of cases pending in India’s court system: 30,000,000
Read moreCategory: Facts & Trends
When going ‘green’ makes people sick
When communities like San Francisco and Seattle began banning plastic bags, said Ramesh Ponnuru, it seemed like a public-spirited thing to do. But’ benign-seeming laws often have unintended consequences— and the plastic-bag ban is now producing a sickening result. The reusable shopping bags that people now use to bring groceries home turn out to be breeding grounds for bacteria carried […]
Read moreShot In The Back
Number of U.S. police officers who have been prosecuted in the past decade for shooting someone in the back: 28 Number convicted: 6
Read moreOh, That Smell
A specimen of the world’s largest flower, the titan arum, is about to bloom at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. To attract carrion insects, the flower emits a stench botanists likened to “a very dead elephant.”
Read moreSynchronicity
Twin sisters Erica and Tashina Ackley, 22, who found out they were pregnant on the same day, gave birth just hours apart in the same Maine hospital. “We thought it would be cool if we had our babies on the same day,” said Tashina, “but we didn’t expect that it would happen.”
Read moreWomen Prisoners Who Are Mothers
Percentage of U.S. women prisoners who are mothers of young children: 61
Read moreSitting on the toilet is hazardous to your health
An astonishing 40,000 Americans are injured each year by their toilet bowls.
Read moreUndocumented Immigrants
About 690,000 of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.—or about 6.3 percent—have been convicted of a felony or serious misdemeanor, according to a new report from the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group.These immigrants, along with the 640,000 who entered the country illegally since Jan. 1, 2014, will be priorities for deportation under new Obama administration guidelines.
Read moreAverage American Income
The average American’s income declined almost 1 percent in 2014, to $64,432.The income of the poorest fifth of the population fell by 3.5 percent, to $9,818, while the income of the wealthiest fifth rose by nearly 1 percent, to $166,048.
Read moreHelping Out Our Neighbors
Homeowners in Centennial, Colo., woke up to a pleasant surprise last Sunday morning: a group of teens who went around shoveling their neighbors’ sidewalks and driveways free of charge. “They did everything: the whole driveway, the stoop, the whole sidewalk,” said one thankful recipient. “You just don’t see that in this day and age.”The high schoolers refused any money that […]
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