You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
2 misdemeanors
Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama, a Republican, has stepped down after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges — failing to file a major contribution report and converting campaign contributions to personal use — related to an extramarital relationship he carried on during his term. [NPR]
3
Despite an effort that took $300 million and more than 10 years, a United Nations-backed tribunal prosecuting crimes related to the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge led to the conviction of merely three people. [The New York Times]
9
Number of retail bankruptcies so far in 2017, equal to the number from all of 2016. Brick-and-mortar stores are struggling because of the rise of online shopping, Americans moving their discretionary income to eating out rather than shopping, and malls just not really working like they used to. [The Atlantic]
27 individuals and entities
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced enforcement actions against 27 entities and people who were paid to post bullish articles about biotech stocks and did not disclose that financial relationship. Of the 27, 10 are fighting the actions and 17 settled, with financial penalties. [Axios]
83
Forty-nine-year-old Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court on Monday, filling the seat previously occupied by Antonin Scalia. The projected age of departure for Supreme Court justices has been steadily rising and is now about 83. [Bloomberg]
United Express Flight 3411
A man was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight Sunday, and the brutal affair was caught on video. United had overbooked the flight and did not sort that out before boarding. When a doctor was told he had to leave the flight, he said he did not want to, which ended with him getting bloodied up and dragged off the airplane like an animal. It’s an ongoing story. [The Associated Press]
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