Numbers in the news

67

Nutritionsts were alarmed to report that Americans passed another milestone on their obesity path in 2006. Some 67 percent of adults are now either overweight or downright obese.

Experts caution overweight people against putting their faith in diets and instead recommend lifestyle changes. More than half of dieters gain back all of the weigh they lose, plus additional pounds, within six months.

300

Pending state budget cuts could have a major impact on independent living programs for the disabled in Cameron, Elk, Potter and McKean counties.

Bob Mecca, executive director for Life and Independence for Today (LIFT), says the current state budget would strip $50,000 from LIFT, which serves about 300 disabled residents of the affected counties.

325

There are a handful of ginseng hunters in the region.

American dealers pay about $325 per pound for the wildgrown root.Asian buyers will pay upwards of $500.

Agricultural scientists estimate that Pa. ginseng hunters harvest about 2,000 pounds of the dried ginseng root in an average year.

58

Women comprise 58% of college graduates over the past three years, yet their average salaries for comparable work lag far behind men's pay.

"Gender Wage Gap Day" was observed this past Tuesday. It signifies how far into the new year the average woman has to work in order to earn the same pay a man receives for a similar job from from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 of the previous year.

1.3M

With the federal tax deadline's passage, the media once again carried many stories on Internal Revenue Service audit practices. The IRS has raised the number of audits planned for 2006 tax returns to 1.3 million. It amounts to about 1% of total returns filed. Odds of being audited increase with income and complexity of one's return.