Fresh Loaf

Number of hot meals required by law to be served to county inmates daily: 2

Number of weeks that Clayton County inmates have gone without hot meals: 5

Amount of money requested by Clayton County to replace three massive “kettles” for cooking and reheating food: $60,000

Amount of money spent by the Clayton’s jail on each inmate’s meal: $0.82

Total spending on food and other supplies distributed by Hosea Feed the Hungry in 16 Georgia counties, three states and abroad since 1971: $3 billion

Number of years that Hosea Feed the Hungry has been serving Thanksgiving Day meals to needy Atlantans: 38

Dollar amount of federal and state assistance the organization receives to fund its programs: 0

Amount of money given to Hosea Feed the Hungry by T.I., Bow Wow and other hip-hop stars: $150,000

Number of months that Clayton County’s inmates could be fed for $150,000: 3

Sources: AJC.com, Hosea Feed The Hungry

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Number of 911 calls the Atlanta Police Department received between May 10 and July 31 of this year: 243,938

Number of calls 911 staffers kept on hold for an “unacceptable” amount of time during that time period: 30,813

Percentage of Atlanta 911 calls that were placed on hold in December 2008: 33

Longest period of time, in minutes, that WSB-TV/Channel 2 found a 911 caller was reportedly placed on hold: 38

Number of minutes a West End home burned in May before firefighters were dispatched by the 911 call center: 17

Number of minutes Rachel Wittenburg waited for a 911 operator in September while her daughter suffered a seizure: 7

Average number of seconds in which emergency calls are answered, according to former call center director Miles Butler in August: 12

Number of seconds it’s considered “acceptable” for a 911 caller to wait on hold: 40 seconds

Number of calls placed to Atlanta 911 in 2008 that were “abandoned” by the caller: 55,591

Atlanta’s 2008 crime ranking among 268 cities with more than 100,000 people: 14

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Police Department, WSB-TV

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Estimated number of teenage prostitutes working in Atlanta in 2009:  334

Estimated number of teenage prostitutes working in Atlanta in 2007: 251

Estimated minimum number of children at risk for sexual exploitation in the United States: 200,000

Rank of Atlanta among cities with children living in extreme poverty, as of the 2000 census: 1

Estimated percentage of street youth nationwide who engage in “survival sex”: 28

Number of studies that the U.S. Department of Justice has conducted on child prostitution: 0

Price of sex with a 14-year-old Atlanta prostitute profiled in a 2005 study [PDF]: $25

Fine for pimping minors in the state of Georgia, prior to 2001: $50

Maximum for pimping minors after the passage of Georgia’s Child Sexual Commerce Prevention Act of 2001: $10,000

Sources: New York Times, Atlanta Women’s Agenda

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Estimated number of metro Atlanta office jobs lost in the last three years: 50,000

Number of square feet of vacant commercial office space in metro Atlanta: 24 million

Number of years real-estate experts estimate it might take to fill the region’s empty office space: 12

Estimated cost of two full-page Wall Street Journal ads purchased by the Buckhead Coalition to market vacant condos and commercial spaces: $554,000

Number of years since Atlanta’s annual population growth was as small as it was over the past year: 19

Number of single-family building permits issued in 2009 in Atlanta, as of September: 114

Number of single-family building permits issued in Atlanta in October 2006 alone: 178

Number of years real-estate experts estimate it could take to fill vacant condos in such intown areas as Midtown and Atlantic Station: 4

Number of floors proposed for a new Midtown office tower that law firm Alston & Bird may build: 30

Sources: Atlanta Business Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Number of Georgia jobs created or retained by the national stimulus package: 23,879

Estimated number of jobs created or retained nationally by stimulus money: 1 million

Current Georgia unemployment rate: 10.2 percent

Georgia unemployment rate at the end of 2008: 7.5 percent

Current national unemployment rate: 9.8 percent

Amount of money allocated to 18 Georgia agencies by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: $3.2 billion

Amount of that allocated money spent by those agencies so far: $702 million

Amount of money spent per job created or retained across the state: $29,380

Georgia’s median income for an individual: $40,760

Sources: AJC.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau

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Estimated damage caused by last week’s the flood, in millions of dollars: 250

Level at which the Chattahoochee River reaches “flood stage,” in feet: 14

Peak crest of the Chattahoochee near Vinings on Monday night, in feet: 28.1

Years since the Chattahoochee has reached that height: 90

Number of flooding records broken last week: 9

Number of flood-related deaths: 9

Number of feet that Lake Lanier rose in the week leading up to the flood: 3.5

Difference in the depth of Lake Lanier last week vs. the lowest point of the 2007-2008 drought, in feet: 17

Number of months between Gov. Sonny Perdue’s 2007 prayer service for rain and President Obama’s call to Perdue pledging help for the flood: 23

Sources: AJC.com, lanier.uslakes.info

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Number of new coal-fired power plants proposed nationally since 2000: 200

Number of proposed coal-fired power plants canceled or postponed from 2007 to 2008: 83

Years since a new coal-fired power plant was built in Georgia: 20

Rank of Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer among nation’s dirtiest coal-fired plants: 1

Estimated number of new Georgia jobs to be created by 2020 thanks to a federal clean-energy bill: 13,300

Estimated annual savings for the average Georgia family under the clean-energy bill, in dollars: 340

Estimated annual CO2 reduction in Georgia under the clean-energy bill by 2020, in tons: 12 million

Percentage of nation’s total energy consumed by Southern states: 44

Percentage of total national population represented by Southern states: 37

Sources: American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Earth Policy Institute, Georgia Tech, Environmental Integrity Project

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• Estimated cost of the new 14th Street Bridge in Midtown, which opened Sept. 3: $88.5 million
• Number of months that commuters lost the use of the east-west route across I-75/85: 16
• Number of months ahead of schedule work crews completed construction: 4
• Number of motorists, at most, the previous bridge served each day: 18,000
• Width, in feet, of the new bridge’s sidewalk to accommodate pedestrians: 15
• Number of bike lanes created with new bridge design: 0
• Number of Midtown bike lanes cyclists could safely use to access the new bridge: 0
• Number of east-west MARTA routes that operate in Atlanta: 1
• Estimated number of hours Atlanta motorists waste in traffic each year: 57

Sources: Georgia Department of Transportation, Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, Midtown Alliance, Texas Transportation Institute

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Number of Georgia Tech students suspected to have contracted swine flu in the first two weeks of classes: 150

Number of cases confirmed: 12

Number of cases confirmed at the University of Georgia in a 12-day period in August: 20

Percentage of swine flu cases that end in death: 0.4

Percentage of regular flu cases that end in death: 0.1

Percentage of the 1918 Spanish flu cases that ended in death: 2

Percentage of swine flu cases in pregnant women that end in death: 6

Number of people who have died from swine flu in the U.S., since April 2009: 500

Number of people who have died from being hit by a car, truck or bus in the U.S., in 2008: 4,378

Sources: Associated Press, AJC.com, Reuters, MedicineNet.com, USAToday.com, Fatality Analysis Reporting System

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Total amount lobbyists spent wining, dining and wooing state lawmakers in May, June and July: $193,000

Number of days General Assembly was in session during those months: 0

Amount lobbyists for Georgia Power, and the natural gas and beverage industries spent on House Republicans’ annual retreat: $26,000

Number of lawmakers who went on a lobbyist-paid trip in July to visit Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, Calif.: 4

Amount lobbyists spent to charter boats for lawmakers during a coastal conference in June: $528

Amount the Georgia Food Industry Association spent packing a state senator’s “hospitality suite”: $545

Amount lobbyists spent on one night of “entertainment” for the House Republican Women’s Caucus: $935

Amount Sierra Club lobbyists spent on lawmakers during the entire year: $0

Number of water-conservation bills that lawmakers approved this session: 0

Sources: Atlanta Unfiltered, State Ethics Commission, AJC

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Number of people arrested during a Missouri town hall meeting on health care reform held by Democratic Congressman Russ Carnahan: 6

Number of Democratic congressmen who have received death threats from or have been hanged in effigy by health care reform protesters: 4

Number of people who “liked” Sarah Palin’s Facebook note accusing health care reform of potentially establishing “death panels”: 6,392

Number of attendees at Georgia Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson’s Aug. 10 town hall meeting: 1,500

Number of attendees at Georgia Republican Congressman Tom Price’s Aug. 1 town hall meeting: 60

Attendees at a joint town hall meeting on health care held by Georgia Republican Congressmen Nathan Deal and Phil Gingrey: 600

Number of attendees at the Deal-Gingrey town hall meeting who were visibly supporting President Obama or health care reform: 1

Increase in uninsured patients at Grady Memorial Hospital so far in 2009, compared to all of 2008: 67,000

Obama’s margin of victory over John McCain in the 2008 election, in which each candidate proposed plans for health care reform: 9,522,083

Sources: Facebook, 11alivenews, AJC.com, house.gov

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June 2009 U.S. unemployment rate: 9.5 percent

July 2009 U.S. unemployment rate: 9.4 percent

Number of months, before July 2009, since the U.S. saw a decrease in unemployment: 16

Number of points by which the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased immediately following the release of the new unemployment data: 142

Average U.S. weekly income, June 2009: $609.37

Average U.S. weekly income, July 2009: $614.34

Last month’s unemployment rate in Georgia: 10.1 percent

Jobs lost in Georgia since around this time last year: 209,500

Increase in Georgia jobs in health care and educational services, according to the most recent statistics: 12,000

Sources: AJC.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington Post

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Number of homeless families relocated from New York through the city’s one-way airline ticket program, since 2007: 550

Amount it costs the city of New York to house a homeless family for a year: $36,000

Amount the city spent to buy plane tickets for the 550 families: $1,000,000

Number of plane tickets the city purchased to relocate a family to Paris: 5

Number of states where families have chosen to relocate: 24

Number of families that relocated to Georgia: 38

Number of states that had more families relocate there than Georgia did: 2

Number of homeless men housed at Atlanta’s Peachtree-Pine shelter: 350

Estimated cost to purchase 350 one-way tickets to New York: $29,750

Sources: New York Times, Sidestep.com

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Number of years since Buford Dam began operations on the Chattahoochee River, creating Lake Lanier: 53

Number of years since Alabama filed the lawsuit that began the “tri-state water wars”: 19

Daily volume of water Atlanta withdraws from the Chattahoochee, in million of gallons: 180

Daily volume of water Gwinnett County withdraws from Lake Lanier, in million of gallons: 150

Duration of metro Atlanta’s most recent drought, in years: 3

Time between official end of drought and state’s lifting of water restrictions, in months: 2.4

Year that Atlanta’s water demands are projected to exceed river capacity: 2030

Daily per capita indoor water consumption in metro Atlanta, in gallons: 69

Daily per capita indoor water consumption for a water-conserving home, in gallons: 50

Sources: Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, AJC.com

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Amount of federal stimulus dollars allocated for Georgia transportation improvements: $1.1 billion

Of that $1.1 billion, amount Georgia will spend on road construction and maintenance: $932 million

Amount of federal stimulus dollars earmarked for MARTA: $63 million

Amount the state of Georgia contributes to the operating costs of MARTA: $0

Number of other states that don’t allocate funding for their major public transit systems: 0

Atlanta’s rank among the country’s most traffic-congested metropolitan areas: 3

Number of cities whose residents spend more time commuting than those in Atlanta: 0

Percent likelihood that an Atlanta driver will express road rage if cut off: 14.4

Rank of Atlanta when it comes to seven cities surveyed for rude drivers: 1

Sources: AJC.com, Atlanta Business Chronicle

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Percentage of Georgia adults who qualify as obese: 28

Percentage of Georgia children age 10-17 who qualify as obese: 37

Georgia’s national rank among the 50 states for adult obesity: 14

Georgia’s national rank among the 50 states for childhood obesity: 3

Number of the top 10 most obese states that are in the South: 8

Percentage of national health care costs associated with chronic disease, much of which can be traced to obesity: 70

Percentage by which a metro Atlantan is less likely to become obese if that person lives in a walkable neighborhood: 7

Extra number pounds of pounds the average person packs on when he or she lives in a pedestrian-unfriendly city: 6

Atlanta’s rank, out of 40, on a recent list of pedestrian-friendly cities: 22

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia Tech, Heartland Institute, Smart Growth America, Trust for America’s Health, WalkScore.com

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Number of cars that were damaged as a result of the June 29 parking deck collapse in Midtown: 38

Number of injuries: 0

Number of parking spaces not impacted by the collapse, according to a statement from Atlanta-based Hardin Construction Co., which built the deck, to help “put this incident in perspective”: 1,377

Number of times the deck has been inspected by the city since its 2002 construction: 0

Number of injuries resulting from the December collapse of a bridge at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, also built by Hardin Construction: 18

Number of fatalities from the bridge collapse at the Atlanta Botanical Garden: 1

Amount Hardin Construction was fined by the city for the Botanical Garden collapse: $6,300

Amount that Hardin received earlier this month from the University of Houston as part of a new housing construction project: $50,000,000

Number of parking spaces planned for two new parking decks that the University of Georgia is having Hardin build: 943

Sources: AJC.com, 11alivenews.com, Hardin Construction

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Number of reported burglaries, larcenies and automobile thefts in Atlanta in 2008: 38,978

Percentage increase in Atlanta property crimes in 2008, compared to the previous year: 7.6

Percentage that property crime decreased across the country in 2008: 1.6

Number of times a Poncey-Highland gym was broken into in the first weeks of June: 5

Number of intown bars hit in one night in May by thieves apparently looking for flat-screen TVs: 4

Number of times a Midtown clothing boutique was hit by “smash-and-grab” burglars in May: 2

Total number of burglaries, larcenies and thefts that occurred in Atlanta during the first three months of 2009 (most recent statistics): 7,980

Number of same crimes that occurred during the first three months of 2008: 8,804

Atlanta’s rank in a disputed survey of the nation’s most dangerous cities: 2

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Police Department, FBI Annual Crime Statistics, Real Clear Politics

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Number of years since “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was adopted as federal policy: 16

Number of servicemembers discharged from the U.S. armed services since 1993 because because they were gay: 12,342

Number of times, including a June 8 U.S. Supreme Court decision, that federal courts have upheld the policy: 6

Percentage of Americans in favor of allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces, according to a July 2008 poll: 75

Percentage of Republicans in favor of the policy’s repeal, according to the same poll: 64

Number of years ago a U.S. Navy committee determined gays in the military don’t pose a security risk: 52

Total number of countries that allow openly gay servicemembers: 26

Number of NATO countries, including the United States, that still ban gay servicemembers: 2

Number of Georgia congressmen who are co-sponsors of the policy’s repeal: 2

Sources: AJC, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network

This post has been altered to correct a typo in the number of NATO countries that still ban openly gay servicemembers.

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Rank of Atlanta among 10 cities when it comes to the highest percentage of arrestees who tested positive for drugs last year: 6

Rank of Atlanta when it comes to the highest percentage of arrestees who tested positive for cocaine, specifically: 1

Percentage of New York City arrestees who tested positive for cocaine: 27

Percentage of Atlanta arrestees who did: 40

Number of cities, besides Atlanta, that had more arrestees test positive for cocaine than marijuana: 0

Percentage of Chicago arrestees who tested positive for marijuana: 48

Percentage of Atlanta arrestees who did: 39

Number of cocaine packets found last week on a man in the Turner Field parking lot: 118

Number of cocaine and money-laundering counts filed in late May against a Georgia criminal defense attorney: 40

Sources: U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, WSB-TV, Fulton Daily Report.

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Number of Chrysler dealerships targeted for elimination nationwide by June 9: 789

Number of GM dealerships estimated to be eliminated nationwide by late 2010: 1,110

Chrysler dealerships set to close in metro Atlanta: 3

Chrysler’s net loss in 2008: $16.8 million

Amount Chrysler has received in federal loans: $4 million

Estimated minimum number of job losses as a result of GM and Chrysler cuts: 100,000

Estimated number of jobs that will be created at a new Kia parts plant in West Georgia: 7,500

Rank of Chrysler among 17 major automakers when it comes to the fuel economy of its 2009 line of passenger vehicles: 13

Rank of Kia: 3

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WSB-TV, NBC-Augusta, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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Number of confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States, as of April 30: 109

Number of U.S. states with confirmed cases of swine flu, as of April 30: 13

Number of confirmed human cases in Mexico, where the unknown strain originated, as of April 30: 97

Number of cases in Georgia as of April 30: 1

Number of confirmed deaths in Mexico from swine flu as of April 30: 7

Number of confirmed deaths in U.S., as of April 30: 1

Number of Tamiflu courses the federal government has released in response to the outbreak: 12.5 million

Total number of Tamiflu courses the federal government has stockpiled: 50 million

Number of people who died from swine flu during a 1976 outbreak: 1

Sources: ajc.com, cdc.gov, who.int, abcnews.go.com, The Associated Press

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Number of state employees laid off this fiscal year: 345

Number of state employees who were furloughed in late February: 24,969

Percentage by which the number of furloughed employees has increased since then: 27

Total number of employees in the state Department of Corrections: 13,500

Number of days Department of Corrections employees are required to take as unpaid leave in the first half of 2009: 2

Total number of employees in the state Department of Transportation: 6,000

Number of days DOT employees are required to take as unpaid leave in the first half of 2009: 1

Total number of employees in the University System of Georgia: 40,000

Number of days that University System employees are required to take as unpaid leave: 0

Sources: AJC.com, www.macon.com, www.dot.state.ga.us, www.usg.edu

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Number of cities in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller housing index: 20

Number of cities in the report that showed monthly and annual home price declines: 20

Amount, in percentage, home prices dropped nationally since January 2008, their largest decline: 19

Amount, in percentage, metro Atlanta home prices dropped since January 2008: 14.5

Amount, in percentage, that Phoenix home prices dropped: 35

Percentage of Atlanta’s population affected by property crimes and violent crime, respectively: 6.6, 1.6

Percentage of Phoenix’s population affected by property crimes and violent crime, respectively: 5.9, .74

Percentage increase in the average home price in Inman Park in early 2009 vs. early 2008, according to Trulia.com: 20

Percentage decrease in the average home price in Old Fourth Ward, over the same time period: 28

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Standard & Poor’s, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Trulia.com

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Number of counties in Georgia: 159

Number of Georgia counties with an unemployment rate in the double digits, as of March 25: 87

Percentage of working-age Americans who are jobless: 8.1

Percentage of working-age Georgians who are jobless: 9.3

Percentage of working-age Georgians who were jobless this time last year: 5.4

Number of consecutive months Georgia’s unemployment rate has been higher than the national average: 16

Jenkins County’s jobless rate (in percentage), the state’s highest: 21.3

Oconee County’s jobless rate, the state’s lowest: 6

Number of Georgians unemployed and looking for work: 445,500

Sources: Georgia Department of Labor, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Capitol Impact

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