A Need to Know
A Need to Know
07-31-2023 Edition
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1.????GRAND THEFT AUTO - Motor vehicle thefts in 32 large U.S. cities jumped 34% in the first six months of 2023 over the same period last year and are 104% higher than early 2019 levels. The increase is attributed, in large part, due to a surge in thefts of certain Kia and Hyundai models that occurred after a viral TikTok challenge exposed their weak theft protection, and showed how easy it was to steal these vehicles. Kia and Hyundai are working on fixing these security vulnerabilities in their vehicles. Over the same first six months of 2023, homicides in large cities are down 9.4%. [source: wsj.com]
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2.????CHILDCARE CRISIS - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines “affordable” childcare as care that costs families no more than 7% of their household income. Care.com’s recent Cost of Care Report found that 89% of families spend 10% or more of their income on childcare, while 67% of families spend 20% or more. More than half the families surveyed plan to spend more than $18,000 for childcare this year, and more than 25% have quit a job or dropped out of education to avoid the high costs of childcare. [source: bizjournals.com]
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3.????DOUBLE TROUBLE - Today in the U.S., 3.2% of new deliveries are twin births, which means there were approximately 117,000 twins born among the 3.7 million total U.S. births in 2022. This number is up from the 1980s, when about 1% of all births were twins. 33% of all twins born are identical; with the remaining 67% considered fraternal. Although similar, even identical twins have unique fingerprints. In the history of fingerprint studies, no two people have ever had matching prints, including among twins.
[source: betterhealth.vic.gov.au]
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4.????GLOBE TROTTING - There were 143.1 million active U.S. passports in circulation in 2020, accounting for more than 43% of the U.S. population of 331 million. In 1989, just 7.2 million U.S. passports existed for a population of 245 million, which accounted for a mere 2.9% of the population. [source: bizjournals.com]
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5.????PASSPORT ENVY - The strength of a country’s passport can be measured in the number of countries its holders are entitled to enter under normal circumstances. A U.S. passport currently allows access to 186 countries. That ranks No. 7 among all countries, and is on par with New Zealand, Belgium, Norway, and Switzerland. Japan tops the 2022 list with 193 countries allowed, closely followed by Singapore and South Korea with 192. These rankings change frequently as countries alter their entry requirements. The U.S. most recently took first place in 2014. [source: interestingfacts.com]
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6.????LOTS OF INFLUENCE - A single company, Samsung, accounts for more than 20% of the entire South Korean Gross Domestic product (GDP). This conglomerate has dominated the South Korean economy for years and is a large part of everyday life for most South Koreans. In addition to consumer electronics and appliances, the company also owns medical centers, apartment complexes, and even funeral homes. The U.S. is Samsung’s biggest customer with almost $70 billion in sales annually to U.S. consumers. Samsung’s revenue from its home-base South Korean consumers is just $22 billion, or two-thirds less than its sales in the U.S. [source: techbehemoths.com]
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7.????WINDOW SHOPPING - On average, more than one car crashes into a 7-Eleven storefront every day, according to data revealed in a recent lawsuit where the chain paid out a big settlement to a store customer who was injured by one of these crashes. The Storefront Safety Council says, across all stores in the U.S., there are 100 crashes into buildings each day. About 10% of the crashes are caused intentionally by thieves, but the remaining 90% are true accidents. [source: businessinsider.com]
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8.????GIVE IT A BREAK - Fodors, a highly regarded travel website, publishes an annual list of destinations they suggest travelers avoid. They use three main criteria to develop the list: 1) nature areas that could use a break in order to heal and rejuvenate; 2) cultural hotspots that are plagued with overcrowding and resource depletion; and 3) locations dramatically impacted by water crises. Lake Tahoe, CA was added to this years’ list as overcrowding rapidly overtook the area when COVID teleworkers moved there to work remotely in paradise, and as people with second homes in the area opted to live there permanently. Heavy traffic crushes roads into fine dust. When it rains or snow melts, stormwater transports these fine pollution particles into the Lake, clouding its pristine blue waters. In addition, if you want to sit on a lake beach there now, you have to be in line by 7am to get a spot. [source: fodors.com]
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Written and Copyrighted ? 2023 Mark A. Timmick. All rights reserved. Email [email protected] for subscription information. Although content is developed or drawn from sources believed to be reliable, the information has not been verified as accurate and could contain errors. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. Past performance is not indicative of future results.