The Week by the Numbers: January 5-11, 2014
By Matt Phifer
3 – Players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
On Wednesday afternoon the Baseball Hall of Fame announced its 2014 class of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas. Maddux and Glavine both gained fame pitching (Maddux for the Braves and Glavine for the Braves and the Mets.). Thomas, who played with the A’s, Blue Jays and White Sox is the first player to spend most of his career as a designated hitter to be elected to the Hall of Fame. A player must receive 75 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in order to be elected to the Hall of Fame.
4 – Year extension of U.S. funding to the International Space Station
The White House and NASA announced on Wednesday that they would extend funding for the International Space Station four more years to 2024. This will allow the space station to continue conducting research, solidify the market for commercial space systems and lay the groundwork for deep space exploration. The extension will add four years to the working life of the station, but will require the budget approval of the president and Congress each year from 2021 to 2024.
74,000 – Jobs added in December
The December jobs report revealed that 74,000 jobs were added in the month of December, the weakest job growth since January 2011. The low growth was disappointing to economists who were expecting 193,000 additional jobs. The unemployment rate did fall in December to 6.7 percent, but that was mostly associated with people leaving the labor force.
At least 70 million – People affected by the Target security breach
On Friday, Target announced that more people than previously thought may have been affected by the security breach in which personal information was taken from customers’ credit and debit cards. The original number of 40 million was increased to at least 70 million with the possibility of as many as 110 million people being affected. The 70 million number represents around one-third of all American adults. Target discovered while investigating the security breach that data collected over time on 70 million people and stored separately from in-store data was also stolen. The stolen information could be used to set up counterfeit cards, withdrawal money from accounts or to make purchases.