You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news. This is Anna Maria Barry-Jester, filling in for Walt Hickey, our most significant leader, for a couple of days while he gets a little R&R.
1.5 percent vacancy
5,000 residential units were destroyed last year when wildfires ripped through northern California. Most of those homes have yet to be rebuilt, in part because of a dearth of construction crews. As a result, rental prices have shot up by as much as 30 percent, and there’s a vacancy rate of just 1.5 percent for residential structures. [Governing]
2 days
You have a little extra time to file your taxes this year. The usual Tax Day (April 15) falls on a Sunday, and the next day is Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in D.C. That means you have until midnight on April 17 to get your papers to the man. [Quartz]
63 percent price hike
There’s a new California law that requires drug companies to give major purchasers a 60-day notice for significant price hikes, and it’s already yielding results. A generic medication used to treat glaucoma is about to go up in price by 63 percent. A solution that’s inhaled to prevent asthma attacks will go up by nearly 50 percent come May 1. Still unknown: Whether people will push back about the higher costs. [Politico]
94 stores
That’s the number of Winn-Dixie and Bi-Lo grocery stores that will be closed when its parent company files for bankruptcy. That announcement follows on the heels of the Tops grocery chain’s bankruptcy filing last month. The grocers’ debt is at least partly a result of being bought by hedge funds that, in several cases, have leveraged millions of dollars against the stores. [New York Times]
100 sneakers
HQ Trivia, the mobile game show and daily audition reel for Scott Rogowsky, recently struck a $3 million dollar sponsorship deal with the upcoming “Ready Player One” movie and another deal with Nike. HQ will be hosting various games to go with the deals, including at least one with a $250,000 pot and another worth $100,000. There will also be a “prize that money can’t buy” for 100 participants, which, according to promo materials, is probably a pair of limited edition Air Max shoes. [The Verge]
22 million viewers
CBS’s Sunday night news show “60 Minutes” had 22 million viewers Sunday night, its highest ratings in nearly a decade. The draw? Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who alleges to have had an affair with President Donald Trump. More people tuned in to the interview than watched either the Golden Globes or the Grammys this year. [New York Times]
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