1) Gun Violence
11,364 - Gun deaths in 2016, as of October.
50% - Percentage of Americans affected by gun violence each day who are black men.
2,919 - Teens and children who have been killed or injured by guns as of October 2016.
1.4M - US firearm deaths from 1968 to 2011, compared with the number of US military deaths (1.2 million) in every armed conflict from the Revolutionary War to the invasion of Iraq. (Source: The Nation, November 7, 2016).
2) Prisoner Population
There are 2.2 million Americans in prisons and local jails. Many received long sentences for drug crimes.
191,476 - Number of federal prisoners. 46% of federal prisoners are drug offenders. More than a third of them had no or minimal criminal history.
Drug-Offender Sentencing - The average prison sentence for federal drug offenders is 11 years and 4 months.
Sentences imposed for drug offenses (2012)
1 year or less - 1%; 1-5 years - 22%; 5-10 years - 31%; 10-20 years; 34%; 20+ years - 13%.
Clemency Count
President Obama has commuted 774 sentences during his presidency, including those of 266 individuals serving life sentences.
Commutations by most recent 2-term presidents
13 - Reagan; 61 - Clinton; 11 - G.W. Bush; 774 - Obama (Source: Time, November 7, 2016).
3) Depression by the Numbers
3 million - Adolescents ages 12 to 17 in the U.S. who had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. This number has increased over time. In 2006, it was 7.9% and increased to 12.5% in 2015.
Depression experience by gender
Female - 19.5%; Male - 5.8%.
Anxiety by the numbers
6.3 million teens ages 13 to 18 who have had an anxiety disorder. That number represents 25% of he population in that age group in 2015.
Anxiety by gender
Female - 30.1%; Male - 20.3%. (Source: Time, November 7, 2016).
4) Welfare Reform
"In 1998, shortly after welfare reform, 65 percent of TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] spending went directly to cash benefits for poor families; today, that number has dropped to just over a quarter."
"Since 1996, the share of single mothers with neither income nor cash benefits has risen from 12 to 20 percent. Meanwhile, the number of families in deep poverty has grown from 2.7 million to 3 million."
The number of families living on $2 a day has risen 159% since 1996.
Less cash goes directly into poor people's pockets: in 1998 it was 65%; in 2014 it was 26%.
Percentage of poor families with kids getting benefits: in 1996 it was 68%; in 2014 it was 23%.
(Source: The Nation, October 10, 2016).
Welfare as we knew it
"When the 1996 welfare reform law created the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, nearly 80 percent of its funding went to the traditional elements of welfare -- cash assistance, promoting work, and child care. Today, states spend nearly half their TANF funding on unrelated areas, including, as Marketplace has reported, crisis pregnancy centers and college scholarships for upper-middle-class kids." (Sources: Mother Jones, November/December 2016, Marketplace, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities).
5) Anti-Militia Laws
"Forty states have laws that limit or prohibit private military groups or paramilitary training; however, there is no record of these laws being invoked." (Source: Mother Jones, November/December 2016).
6) Google's Tax-Avoidance Journey
"Apple just received a rap on the knuckles from the European Commission for its tax-avoidance scheme ... but the company is far from alone in hiding and hoarding its profits. Google, Apple's Silicon valley neighbor, has an even more labyrinthine web of tax havens at its disposal. Follow Google's peripatetic 'intangible capital' on its worldwide journey:"
*"Google US transfers 'intangible capital' to Ireland Limited, registered in Ireland.
*Ireland Limited, for Irish tax reasons, technically resides in Bermuda, where its 'mind and management' are supposedly located.
*Ireland Limited licenses Google technology to affiliates in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. For example, Google France pays royalties to Ireland Limited in order to use Google tech.
*Ireland Limited then takes the profits from these royalty payments and transfers them to Google BV, a shell company in the Netherlands. This transfer is tax-free because both Ireland and the Netherlands are members of the European Union.
Google BV pays it all back to Ireland Limited (which is technically located in Bermuda, remember?)
*In Bermuda, the corporate tax rate is a big, fat O percent. End result: Google's effective tax rate on foreign profits is in the single digits because it all happens in Bermuda. Ah, paradise..." (Source: Julia Mead, "How to Make a Double Irish Dutch Sandwich, The Nation, November 7, 2016).
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