You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
1 American city
New York City appears set to become the first American city to implement congestion pricing, charging tolls to drivers who enter busy parts of Manhattan. Legislators have yet to announce the details, but the plan is seen as the key to paying for repairs to New York’s “beleaguered” — which is a very kind word for it — subway system. [The New York Times]
525 miles away
Speaking of transportation, thanks to an incorrectly filed flight plan, a British Airways flight bound for Dusseldorf, Germany, took off, headed in the wrong direction, and landed in Edinburgh, Scotland instead, some 525 miles off target. One passenger realized something was amiss when she saw mountains instead of the “usual German industrial landscape.” [The Cut]
$122 million
One enterprising Lithuanian individual named Evaldas Rimasauskas has pleaded guilty to “wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering charges.” What he did was send Google and Facebook invoices for over $100 million worth of items that the companies hadn’t bought and that he hadn’t provided. The companies paid them anyway. Rimasauskas had reportedly hidden cash away in Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia and Latvia. [Boing Boing]
25 nominees
According to my colleague Nathaniel Rakich, New York has produced the most presidential nominees in history, with 25. Illinois and Ohio run distant second and third with nine and eight, respectively. Notably, the Democratic Party has never nominated anyone from the West, compared to Republicans who have nominated westerners eight times. [FiveThirtyEight]
$22.5 million
The attorney who represented Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with President Trump, has been arrested and charged with attempted to extort the company Nike. Michael Avenatti is said to have threatened to go public before the NCAA basketball tournament with damaging allegations against Nike. Avenatti allegedly offered his silence in exchange for a payment of $22.5 million from the company. [The Washington Post]
1,009 cases
The second worst Ebola outbreak in history, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has topped 1,000 cases according to the Health Ministry there; 629 people have died. A trial vaccine, experimental treatments and “futuristic cube-shaped mobile units” are being used to stem the virus’s spread. However, five of these centers have been attacked recently, including by armed attackers. [NBC News]
From ABC News:
News headlines today: Mar. 26, 2019
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