You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
29 percent
That’s the percentage of New Jersey Democrats who said Sen. Bob Menendez deserved to be reelected, compared to 42 percent who said he did not, according to a Quinnipiac University survey. Menendez’s federal corruption trial recently ended in a deadlocked jury, and he’s still a favorite to win reelection, especially if no one challenges him in the Democratic primary. [FiveThirtyEight]
246 seats
Number of seats in the German parliament controlled by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU party (out of 709). The liberal FDP party pulled out of talks with Merkel’s bloc to form a governing coalition, throwing German politics into chaos. Merkel said she would prefer a new election rather than lead a minority government. [BBC]
$275 million
Reported bid for The Weinstein Company, the producer and distributor previously helmed by Harvey Weinstein. Interestingly, the bid comes from Maria Contreras-Sweet, who led the Small Business Administration during the Obama presidency. It includes a majority-female board (helmed by Contreras-Sweet) and a fund for Weinstein’s victims. [Deadline, Wall Street Journal]
$85.4 billion
The Justice Department sued on Monday to block AT&T’s bid to buy Time Warner, saying the deal would stifle innovation and increase TV bills. AT&T will defend the $85.4 billion merger in court. On either a related or unrelated note: Time Warner owns CNN, which the Trump administration has repeatedly derided, and President Trump said the deal should be blocked during the 2016 campaign. [The New York Times]
$97 billion
Cost of the B-21 program, the Pentagon’s next-generation bomber project, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It’s here where I’d normally give some added context regarding the B-21’s capabilities and weapons systems, but it’s mostly super classified. All we have is a heavily redacted report on the B-21 from the Pentagon’s inspector general. [Bloomberg]
$504 billion
A new White House estimate put the true cost of the opioid epidemic at $504 billion in 2015, much higher than recent estimates. The study factored in the health care and economic costs of both prescription drugs and illicit drugs like heroin. [The Associated Press]
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