Welcome to Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
1 sanctioned athlete
Not even the rough-and-tumble world of competitive tug of war has escaped doping scandals: The World Anti-Doping Association has processed 107 drug tests for the sport, one of which led to a sanction. [FiveThirtyEight]
12 years
Sheldon Silver, the former New York Assembly speaker, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a corruption case. He’ll also face a $1.75 million fine and will forfeit $5.3 million in ill-gotten gains. Somehow, six of the last seven New York state legislative majority leaders have been convicted on criminal charges. [ABC New York]
16 nominations
“Hamilton,” that awesome play none of us will ever get tickets to but still play on Spotify nonstop, has been nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards. Also, we kept ol’ Hambone on the $10 bill, so he’s doing pretty OK right now. [Vulture]
32
Number of people kidnapped by pirates this year so far compared to 15 in all of last year. With ransoms up to $400,000, it’s brisk business for hijackers, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy group. [BBC]
53%
With 53 percent of the vote statewide, Donald Trump has won the Indiana Republican primary and, barring a major shift in the forthcoming states, has become the presumptive nominee of the GOP. Also, Sen. Ted Cruz has dropped out. Wow. [ABC News]
1 million condoms
New York City is sending Puerto Rico 1 million NYC-branded condoms to combat the spread of the Zika virus. [New York Magazine]
If you haven’t already, you really need to sign up for the Significant Digits newsletter — you can be the first to learn about the numbers behind the news! How great does that sound? You should totally do it.
And if you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.