You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
1.69 medals
Norway is leading the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games in medals so far — at least when you normalize for population. Norway has won 1.69 medals for each million of its citizens, more than three times as many as the nation in second place, the Netherlands. [Bloomberg]
$2,700
Wisconsinites Donna and Michael Nicholson have both given max contributions to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in her 2018 re-election bid. Who cares? Well, the donations are notable only because Kevin Nicholson, their son, happens to be a Republican running to unseat Baldwin. [CNN]
At least $90,000
Scott Pruitt appears to have a predilection for first-class travel and few qualms about charging it to the taxpayer, a Washington Post investigation found. For example, Pruitt spent $1,641.43 on a first-class seat to fly from D.C. to New York in June. A couple of days later, in a hurry to get from Cincinnati to New York (to then catch a flight to Rome), Pruitt and several staffers spent $36,068.50 on a military flight. All together, his travel costs for that brief stretch of early June were at least $90,000. [The Washington Post]
$375,000
The Republican National Committee is declining to return contributions from alleged serial sexual harasser Steve Wynn, who has stepped down as RNC finance chair and resigned from his company, Wynn Resorts. Wynn donated $375,000 to the RNC last year alone. [CNN]
11 million guns
That’s how many firearms were manufactured in America in 2016, up from four million a decade ago. But gun ownership is concentrated among a small number of Americans these days. And the firearms industry is slumping because, get this, Donald Trump was elected. Without former President Barack Obama in office — or Hillary Clinton in his stead — fears of a gun crackdown have eased and sales have slumped. Remington Outdoor Co., a major manufacturer of guns that has been around for more than 200 years, announced on Monday that it would file for bankruptcy protection. [Bloomberg]
$9.8 billion
Advertising budget for Unilever, one of those giant, less-known conglomerates that own super well-known products (for example, Dove and Ben & Jerry’s). Unilever is one of the biggest advertisers out there, and a quarter of that massive advertising budget is spent online. The company has put Facebook and Google on notice, threatening to pull advertising from digital platforms that “create divisions in society or fail to protect young people” and facilitate racism, sexism, fraudulent news and extremism. [CNN]
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