You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
4 congressmen
Rep. Patrick Meehan, Republican of Pennsylvania, will likely face an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Meehan reportedly used taxpayer money to settle a complaint by an aide that he made repeated romantic overtures towards her, and grew hostile when she did not reciprocate. Meehan was, until these accusations came out, on the House Ethics Committee that’s investigated the sexual misconduct cases of at least four male members. [The New York Times, The Boston Globe]
86 patients
China is testing cutting-edge gene therapy technology on human beings, with at least 86 Chinese patients having had their genes edited so far. China’s regulations on experimenting with humans are considerably more lax than many other countries’. [The Wall Street Journal]
1,062 Twitter accounts
Twitter has discovered another 1,062 accounts linked to a Russian agency that tried to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and will email 677,775 users who followed the accounts, or retweeted or liked one of their tweets. [Bloomberg]
69,359 jobs
Employment at U.S. breweries in 2017, up dramatically from 27,805 in 2001. The reason: Craft breweries are among the best American economic stories of the last decade. Smaller businesses are taking up more and more of the beer market. [The Atlantic]
$10 million
While the Democratic Party is in pretty good shape and seems poised to do well in the 2018 midterms, the Democratic National Committee is a different story. Eight months ago, the DNC promised to invest $10 million to rebuild state Democratic parties. That hasn’t happened. More to the point, the DNC didn’t have $10 million on hand as of the end of November. This kind of financial shortfall could make it harder to take advantage of what looks like a good year for Democrats. [Vice]
$20 million
“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” is on a roll, and this is typically a quiet time of the year at the box office. “Jumanji” pulled in $20 million this past weekend in North America, hitting around $317 million domestically and $385 million abroad. It’s now Sony’s fifth-highest grossing movie ever. [Variety]
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