You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
15 years
Prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli to 15 years in prison, minimum, for his role in defrauding investors. They asked that the judge consider Shkreli’s behavior in determining an appropriate punishment. This guy, you may remember, became famous for raising the price of an anti-parasite drug by 4,000 percent. Then he made many, many other questionable decisions. [CNBC]
31 Papa John’s franchises
A Denver-area entrepreneur who owned 31 Papa John’s pizza franchises has sold them all, the company said. Peyton Manning, 41, unloaded the franchises two days before the NFL and the pizza company announced that they were ending a partnership. Some fun trivia: Mr. Manning is related to famous NFL quarterback Eli Manning of the New York Giants and apparently played a little quarterback himself! [The Denver Post]
43 percent
Presidents typically experience some turnover during their first two years in office. George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama both saw about a quarter of their initial “top-level” staffs leave within two years. Bill Clinton finished Year No. 2 with about 38 percent of his senior staff rolled over. And George W. Bush saw about a third of his staff turnover. President Trump, meanwhile, has hit 43 percent in about 13 months. [NPR]
5,000 deminers
That’s how many people tasked with getting rid of unexploded mortars, IEDs and other explosives are left in Afghanistan. It was 15,000 four years ago. The problem: money. In 2017, Afghanistan asked the international community for $110 million to assist in efforts to demine the nation. The world ponied up only $42 million, two-thirds of which came from the United States. And the U.S., itself, has cut its funding for demining in Afghanistan in half over the past six years. [The New York Times]
5,400 people
That’s the number of people in Seattle who live on the street, according to one 2017 survey, about half of whom live in their vehicle. A judge ruled in favor of a Seattle man whose vehicle, where he also lived, was impounded to pay for parking debts, saying that the vehicle was covered under the 123-year old Homestead Act. That law says the government cannot force people to sell their homes to pay for a debt. [KIRO 7 News]
$56.6 billion
The monthly U.S. trade deficit rose 5.0 percent to $56.5 billion in January, according to the Commerce Department, surprising economists with the highest trade deficit since October 2008. [Reuters]
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