Pleading Guilty
Percentage of all criminal defendants in the United States who forgo a trial by pleading guilty: 97 Percentage of U.S. convicts exonerated last year who had previously pleaded guilty without a trial: 17
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Calorie Information
Chance that an American fast-food customer uses posted calorie information to make food buying decisions: 1 in 6
Read moreRich America
The 400 richest Americans have as much wealth as all 41 million African Americans.
Read moreA bad year for bees
Colony collapse disorder, the mysterious scourge that has been killing off honeybees since 2005, has suddenly become a lot more deadly. This past winter, as many as half of all hives succumbed to the disorder—up from one third annually in recent years, and between 5 and 10 percent when hives were healthy. “It is a catastrophe in progress,” beekeeper Steve […]
Read moreAir Pollution
Portion of Americans who live in areas harmful levels of air pollution: 1/2 Number of the top five most polluted cities in the country that are in California: 5
Read moreArmy Qualification
Just 30 percent of Americans aged 17 to 24 are eligible to become soldiers, according to the U.S. Army. The remaining 70 percent of young people are either too obese or are disqualified because they have a criminal history or didn’t finish high school.
Read moreFood Stamp Benefits Spending Has Gone Up
The government spent $74.6 billion on food stamp benefits last year, up from $30.4 billion in 2007. With 15 percent of Americans now receiving food stamps, the program’s budget is equivalent to the combined budgets of the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the Department of the Interior.
Read moreTravel Time
68.4 – The number of minutes Americans spend traveling each day, per capita, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number is down from 74.4 minutes in 2003.
Read moreWartime bomb defused
Residents were evacuated, trains diverted, and flights briefly suspended this week as police experts defused a 220-pound bomb left over from World War II. The Soviet ordnance was found at a construction site near Berlin’s main train station, which is located in a relatively sparsely inhabited quarter close to the former dividing line between East and West Berlin. Such finds […]
Read moreBarrel of monkeys
A wild rhesus macaque who’s stalked Tampa Bay for three years bit and scratched an elderly woman. “He gets up in my tree and starts shaking it because he wants to be fed,” said Jeff Seilbach, a neighbor of the attacked woman. “If you don’t feed him, he cops an attitude.”
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