You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
8 percent
Paris and Los Angeles are competing for the rights to host the 2024 Olympic games. The International Olympic Committee has finally wised up and realized they should probably pick a city where the population actually wants to host the Olympics. Polling by the IOC suggests that 78 percent of L.A. residents and 63 percent of Paris residents favor their cities hosting the games. The key number for the IOC: 23 percent of Paris residents oppose the games in Paris compared to 8 percent of Los Angeles residents. [Sports Business Daily]
20 percent
Under the GOP health care bill, average premiums for midlevel insurance plans are projected to rise by 20 percent next January. This presents a bit of a pickle for Republican legislators, who could be held responsible for a huge premium hike in 2018 midterm elections. [The Wall Street Journal]
Article 265
In Russia, companies may be able to write off ransoms paid to malware hackers under Article 265 of the Russian Tax Code, provided they can get those shakedown artists to at least give them a receipt. [Bloomberg BNA]
2019
Volvo announced its intention to phase out combustion-only vehicles, with new 2019 models being either hybrids or entirely electric-powered. [Axios]
5,500 artifacts
Prosecutors filed a stipulation of settlement Wednesday with Hobby Lobby. The company bought over 5,500 artifacts, namely clay tablets, that may have been looted from historical sites in Iraq. The company will have to return all of the artifacts and pay the government $3 million to resolve the civil action. [The New York Times]
371,403
Number of new motorcycles sold in 2016, down from 716,268 at the market’s peak in 2006. As baby boomers, who for a long time were the meat and potatoes of the motorcycle business, age out of the market, motorcycle brands are trying to get more starter bikes on the market to recruit new riders. [Bloomberg]
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