You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
2 percent
That’s the percentage of Maryland Democrats who said they would support Martin O’Malley, former Maryland governor and Democrat, in a presidential primary against Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, according to a new poll. Needless to say, things do not appear to be well on the home front for O’Malley. [Goucher College]
4 games
A mere four games into the 2015 NFL season and with a record of 1-3, the Miami Dolphins fired head coach Joe Philbin on Monday. The team has performed abysmally on defense despite spending the second most in the league on defensive line contracts. Tight ends coach Dan Campbell takes over as interim head coach. [ESPN]
12 nations
The 12 participating pacific rim nations have arrived at a final agreement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Japan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Mexico, the U.S. and Canada are all involved — notice anyone missing there? — and now all the Obama administration has left to do is get the deal through Congress, so no big.* [The New York Times]
*It is a big.
25 percent
A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine reported that minorities and the unemployed faced 25 percent longer wait times to see a health-care worker. White Americans, on average spent 80 minutes waiting to receive care, while black Americans spent on average 99 minutes. [The Washington Post]
35 percent
Percentage of education debt attributed to Americans over the age of 40, up from 25 percent in 2004. Still, it’s not pretty for the under-40 crowd either: A college-educated head of household under 40 owes more on his student loans per month, on average, than his family spends on groceries. [The Associated Press]
41 games
Raffi Torres of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks was suspended 41 games — half a season — for a brutal (and very illegal) check on Jakob Silfverberg of the Anaheim Ducks in a preseason game. Torres has been, by Deadspin’s count, suspended four times, fined thrice, and warned twice for aiming for the head. [Deadspin]
$1,200
About 45 percent of PriceWaterhouseCoopers employees joined the accounting firm in entry-level positions in the past five years, which means a lot of them are contending with student loan debt. As a result, the company will next year start offering $1,200 per year to recent grads to help pay down their debt. [USA Today]
20,520 words
“Hamilton,” the hit musical about the nation’s first treasury secretary that is absolutely impossible to get tickets for, crams a whole lot of words into its run time. With a 2 hour and 23 minute cast album and 20,520 words of lyrics, the hip-hop influenced musical averages an impressive 144 words per minute. It’s a tough book to memorize, but if my Spotify listening history says anything, I am definitely committed to it. [FiveThirtyEight]
$350,000
Totally-not-gambling daily fantasy sports sites have been hit with their first scandal: A DraftKings employee allegedly leveraged internal information about betting patterns in order to place winning bets at rival site FanDuel, winning $350,000 on a $25 wager. The companies made a joint statement denying any wrongdoing. (Also, full disclosure, DraftKings has advertised on this very column before.) [Deadspin]
$300 million
American Apparel filed for bankruptcy protection, reaching a deal with creditors to cut its debt from $300 million to $135 million. The company has had one quarter of positive net profit since 2010, not exactly a hallmark of a healthy going concern. [Quartz]
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