You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
157 people
157 people died Sunday when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa. The passengers were aboard Boeing’s 737 max airplane, which has been the company’s fastest-selling model of all time. But the Ethiopian crash is now that model’s second major, fatal crash in less than six months. [Bloomberg]
27 percent
The gold-standard of Iowa political polls released a new survey over the weekend, and Iowa Democrats remain most supportive of former vice president Joe Biden. Twenty-seven percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers say Biden is their first choice, even though he has not officially declared he’s running. Sen. Bernie Sanders is close behind with 25 percent. [Des Moines Register]
$455 million
At some point we are surely going to tire of seeing Marvel movies. This weekend was not that time. “Captain Marvel,” the latest superhero yarn from Marvel (which shares a corporate parent with FiveThirtyEight) made a record $455 million worldwide, the highest opening-weekend tally of any film with a woman as the protagonist. [Hollywood Reporter]
0 New York endorsements
As you can see on FiveThirtyEight’s 2020 endorsement tracker, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is not doing well in attracting public support from other politicians. No Democratic official has supported her presidential campaign, and perhaps most tellingly that includes New York politicians. Other candidates have already shored up support from home-state colleagues, but Gillibrand is the only senator running for president who hasn’t picked one up. [Politico]
$8.6 billion
It’s budget season in Washington, which means the president will be sending his requests to Congress — requests Congress is under no obligation to heed. One of those requests will be $8.6 billion in extra funding to build a barrier on the southern border. This new request almost certainly won’t make it past the Democratic-controlled House, so it seems more likely to be a kind of opening bid for a new budget fight to come. [The Washington Post]
6 percent
What’s for dinner? And, just as importantly, who’s making it? Six percent of Americans now say they get food delivered to them every day, and more than a third of people are ordering more delivery than they did a year ago. Venture capitalists are salivating at what this might mean for startups in the food-delivery business. [Wall Street Journal]
March 20
FiveThirtyEight is having a Politics Podcast live show! It’s in New York City on March 20, and the whole crew will be there. Or, to put it in SigDig terms: Four panelists, over a dozen candidates to talk about, one night only in New York City. We’d love for you to join! Tickets available right here: [NYU Skirball]
From ABC News:
News headlines today: Mar. 11, 2019
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