1-22-10: Maryland by the Numbers IV

Maryland Morning receives an overwhelming amount of state rankings and statistics from press flacks, research organizations, government officials…and Twitter feeds.

Some of them are quite telling. Others are absurd and often contradictory.

Maryland Morning producers Lawrence Lanahan and Katherine Gorman have once again taken inspiration from the “Harper’s Index” to bring you the fourth installment of Maryland by the Numbers.

Amount of time it took Catonsville author Mike Gesker to compile a 900-page Baltimore Orioles encyclopedia:  about six years
Amount of time it’s taken the O’s to win 900 games: 13 years
Amount of time for the Yankees to win 900 games: 10 years
Number of murders New York City would have had last year, if it had a homicide rate as high as Baltimore’s, according to City Paper’s Anna Ditkoff: 3,092
Number of murders Baltimore would have had last year with New York’s homicide rate: 35
Number of murders Baltimore actually had last year: 238
According to “How News Happens,” a Project for Excellence in Journalism report that studied one week of news in Baltimore last summer, the percent of all local news that week that came from print: about 25 percent
The percent of all new reporting that came from print: 62 percent
The percent of all new reporting that came from television: a little over 25 percent
The percent of all local news that came from television: about 40 percent
The number of stories that the Baltimore Sun produced in 1991: over 86,000
The number of stories that the Baltimore Sun produced in 1999? Less than 35,000
The number of stories that the Baltimore Sun produced in 2009? Less than 24,000
According to the O’Malley administration, Maryland’s rank when you look for the fewest government employees per capita: 10th
The number of layoffs in Gov. O’Malley’s proposed FY2011 budget: 44
The number of vacant positions being eliminated: about 200
Maryland’s estimated budget deficit for next year: about $2 billion
Haiti’s total budget expenditures in 2008: $1.16 billion
The national rank of Maryland’s schools in Education Week’s annual “Quality Counts” report: 1
Massachusetts’ rank: 3
Number of times the word Massachusetts was misspelled (“Massachusettes”) in a widely-aired advertisement for U.S. Senate candidate Martha Coakley: 1
Average price of a wedding in the Baltimore area, according to Bridepop.com: $18,000
Potential net increase to Maryland’s tax revenue from same-sex weddings, according to a UCLA School of Law study: $3.2 million
Maryland’s divorce rate: 10 per 1,000 women
Number of hits on a Google search of “Pat Robertson” and “STFU”: 30,000
Daily viewership claimed by Robertson’s program The 700 Club: 1,000,000

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