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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

October 9, 2009

The estimated new cases of breast cancer in the U.S. for 2009 are: 192,370 women and 1,910 men. Estimated deaths are 40,170 women and 440 men.
Source: National Cancer Institute

NY-23: Owens to Raise YOUR Taxes?

Voters in New York’s 23rd congressional district – where a special election has been forced by the appointment of former GOP Rep. John McHugh to be secretary of the Army – may be finding themselves a bit confused. Dede Scozzafava is pro-choice and has supported gay marriage, and has been endorsed by Markos Moulitsas, creator of the liberal Daily Kos blog. But she’s the Republican in the race. The conservative Club for Growth, meanwhile, is backing a third-party candidate,

October 8, 2009

The U.S. Postal Service has 656,000 career employees.
Source: USPS

Going Out of Business?

A new health care ad from a conservative group claims that “Medicare will be bankrupt in eight years.” That gives a false impression. The program does have huge financial problems, but there’s no reason to think it’s going out of business as the word “bankrupt” implies. And …

October 7, 2009

An average of 667 million pieces of mail are processed each day by the U.S. Postal Service.
Source: USPS

FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Sept. 29-Oct. 5

This week, readers sent us comments on medical errors, car insurance mandates and the postal service.
In the FactCheck Mailbag we feature some of the e-mail we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.

October 6, 2009

There were 14.2 million computers in U.S. schools, as of the 2005-2006 school year.
Source: Census Bureau

Targeting Ensign

We’re not ones to doubt that money can influence politics. But uncovering a paying-for-favors scandal takes more than a mere list of campaign contributions and a few committee votes.
That tactic, however, is being used – again – in the health care debate, this time in an ad from the liberal group Health Care for America Now. HCAN’s TV spot, which will run in Reno and Las Vegas for one week on a $110,000 buy, draws a link between Republican Sen.

October 5, 2009

The average annual salary of public school teachers in the U.S. is $50,758. The highest state average is in California ($63,640) and the lowest is in South Dakota ($35,378).
Source: Census Bureau

October 4, 2009

More than half of the United States’ 9.9 billion pounds of total apple production in 2008 came from Washington state.
 
Source: Census Bureau/USDA