In The News

Tourists can pay $65 to take a guided tour of Los Angeles gang turf. They do need to sign a waiver.

A British Department Store has launched a registry for couples calling it quits. It is being sold as a way to help friends "begin a new life".

At least 13 states have active secessionist movements - The Atlantic Monthly

Good new an old space shuttle can be yours for 28.2 Million, down from 42 Million. - Washington Post

In the 174 minutes of an average football telecast viewers see about 60 minutes of commercials, 75 minutes of players huddling or milling around between snaps, 17 minutes of replays and just 11 minutes of actual football - Wall St. Journal.

32 of 50 US Governors use Twitter. Governor Schwarzenegger has the most followers at over 1.6 million. USA Today

55 million Americans have become ill from swine flu. About 11,500 have died. Only one in 5 Americans received the swine flu vaccine. - Associated Press

53% of Americans with at least $250,000 to invest worry they will outlive their retirement income. - Bloomberg.com

The movie "Avatar" broke the world box office record in just 39 days. It brought in $1.86 billion at that point.

A California elementary school has taken dictionaries out of the classes because a parent complained there was a definition for "oral sex".

A Texas town of 250,000 lost it's only local bookstore recently. The next closest town with a bookstore is 150 miles away.

The Federal government spends $2.00 for every $1.00 taken in. USA Today

Bank Robberies were down 20% on 1999. - USA Today

After doing a remake of the 1985 song "We are the World" rapper Lil Wayne, who was involved with the new recording, said "I don't know how to sing".

Tickets to the first Superbowl in 1967 were $12.00 each and the game didn't sell out. Auction prices for the 2010 Superbowl hovered around $2,700. - New York Times

A New York woman filed a lawsuit against her former supervisor claiming he "Frequently broke wind".

The highest paid employee in Madison WI was a bus driver who earned $159,258 in 2009, including $109,892 in overtime and other extra pay. Seven other bus drivers made more than $100,000 in 2009.

About 5 billion was wagered both legally and illegally on the 2010 Superbowl. - Philadelphia Inquirer

University of Southern California has offered a football scholarship to a a schoolboy quarterback. The boy can't sign the letter of intent until 2015 because he is 13 and in 7th grade. - LA Times.

The Average American Family will spend nearly $1,000 on cable TV, Internet and video games this year. This is up from about $770 in 2004. When you add in the average cell phone yearly bill of $1,000 Americans pay as much to stay connected as they do for gasoline. New York Times

Credit card debt has fallen and fewer "new cards" have been opened. Accounts fell 46% from the prior year. USA Today

The famous swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated has generated about 1 billion for it's parent company since the issue's inception in 1964. In 2009 the online version drew 46 million views. Marketwatch.com

68% of New York City residents in a recent survey said they'd overheard a neighbor having sex.

At one point in February 49 states of the 50 in the US were partially covered with snow. The lone hold out was Hawaii. - Associated Press

The components in the cheapest Apple Ipad will be about 229.05 and it will retail for $499. It will give apple a gross profit margin of 54%. Typical margins are 15-25% in the industry. - Business week

40% of AT+T's wireless broadband capacity is taken up by just 3% of the networks users. - The Economist