You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
26 percent
Percentage of U.S. law enforcement officers employed in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, California and Hawaii. These states have one unique thing in common, which is that there is no legal authority to revoke the occupational licenses for police officers who were sacked for misconduct. This has several effects, namely being that disgraced officers can just move to a different state or a smaller municipality to get back a badge. [Reason]
50.23 percent
A plebiscite in Colombia to approve or reject a peace deal brokered over four years of negotiations with the FARC guerrilla group ended with the deal being narrowly defeated. The final numbers saw 50.23 percent of the country voting to reject the deal to 49.76 percent in favor. Voting matters. [The Guardian]
145 mph
Hurricane Matthew, currently a Category 4 hurricane, is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico with winds reaching 145 mph. It’s on track to hit Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba today. [The Associated Press]
1992
The Buffalo Bills, coached by Rex Ryan, defeated Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots 16-0 in Foxborough. The last time Belichick was shut out at home was Sept. 27, 1992, when he was coaching for the Browns. [ESPN]
$1.5 million
A 5-gallon bucket of gold flakes was stolen from the back of a truck in Manhattan last Thursday. The bounty of flakes was bound for a Canadian refinery. It weighed 86 pounds, so police are presumably putting out an APB for people who do not skip leg day. [Gothamist]
$915,729,293
That’s the loss declared by Donald Trump on his income tax return from the year 1995. The New York Times obtained some of the GOP presidential nominee’s tax records from an anonymous sender. That sizable loss could mean Trump potentially avoided paying any federal income tax for the three years before and the 15 years after the filing, according to IRS rules at the time. [The New York Times]
CORRECTION (Oct. 3, 10:50 a.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly described tax documents obtained by The New York Times. The Times was sent several pages of Donald Trump’s 1995 state returns, not federal.
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