You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
7 percent
Independent restaurants — be they fast food or fast casual — have seen a seven percent increase in their Yelp scores over the past five years, while the chain stores have been losing critical steam. Fast food chain restaurants are down 16 percent over the past 5 years on the platform and fast casual chain restaurants are off about a 10th of a rating point. [The Washington Post]
26 governors
Of the 36 that will be up for election in 2018, that’s the number of state chief executives who have a seat at the table when it comes to congressional redistricting. This gives Democrats — who were largely boxed out of the process in 2010 — an opportunity to make long-term gains this coming year. [FiveThirtyEight]
72 percent
Snap Inc, which makes the app Snapchat, saw fourth quarter sales jump 72 percent, beating analyst estimates, with average revenue per user rising 46 percent. [Bloomberg]
93 percent
The VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term exchange-traded note (XIV) is a complicated financial product that, essentially, allowed buyers to bet against market volatility. Normally, this was a somewhat simple way to make gains in a somewhat boring market. Monday, which was volatile as hell, was a massacre for holders of the note, which fell 93 percent Tuesday, wiping out almost all of the $1.9 billion invested in it, and prompting Credit Suisse to plot the eventual termination of the note. [CNBC]
More than 1,400 chemical sites
That’s the number of sites in the federal Toxic Release Inventory that handle large amounts of hazardous chemicals and also happen to be in areas FEMA says have a high risk of flooding. A further 1,100 sites are in areas of moderate risk of flooding. [The New York Times]
$25 million
An appeals court upheld a $25 million settlement that President Donald Trump will pay to resolve several lawsuits that alleged fraud in his for-profit real estate seminars dubbed “Trump University.” One attorney, Sherri Simpson, wanted to take Trump to trial over $19,000 spent on classes. [POLITICO]
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