Sunday, May. 21, 2006
Numbers
$17,316 Total value of personal gifts to President Bush last year, including a $5,474 bicycle
$39,722 Value of gifts to Vice President Cheney, including a $6,125 Colt revolver
40,000 Average number of people on the official Medicare and Medicaid websites at any moment on May 15, the last day to enroll in the government's drug-benefit plan
89% Proportion of senior citizens on Medicare who signed up for drug coverage before the deadline; 4.5 million still had not
130 Confirmed eye infections in the U.S. linked to Bausch & Lomb's ReNu with MoistureLoc contact-lens solution, recalled last week
$70 million Projected cost of the worldwide recall, in addition to a possible $1 billion in lawsuits
1-c- Amount Jacqueline Williams of Flint, Mich., owed her energy company when her power was shut off for seven hours last week
0.08% Proportion of U.S. households without electricity--nearly 100,000 homes
$905,100 Sale price on eBay of a house owned and occupied by Elvis Presley for 13 months before he moved to Graceland. The buyer: psychic Uri Geller, who wants to turn it into a museum
600,000 Number of visitors to Graceland each year
Sources: Washington Post (4); AP; New York Times; AP; U.S. Census Bureau; AP; the Times of London