INDICATORS

KEVIN G. HALL MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS - Over the past quarter-century, and
especially in the last 10 years, America's very rich have grown much
richer. No one else fared as well. In 2004, the richest 1 percent of
households - 719,910 of them, with an average annual income of $326,720
- had 19.8 percent of the entire nation's pretax income. That's up from
17.8 percent a year earlier, according to a study by University of
California-Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez. The study, titled "The
Evolution of Top Incomes," also found that the richest one-tenth of 1
percent of Americans - 129,584 households in 2004 - reported income
equal to 9.5 percent of national pretax income. However, median, or
midpoint, family income rose only 1.6 percent between 2001 and 2004,
when adjusted for inflation, according to the Federal Reserve. Median
family real net worth - a family's gross assets minus liabilities - rose
only 1.5 percent during those four years. Those are very sluggish
income-growth rates compared with the four years between 1998 and 2001,
when median family income grew by 9.5 percent and median family real net
worth grew by 10.3 percent.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15912820.htm

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UNCONSTITUTIONAL SECRET FISA WARRANTS APPROVED

1980 - 322
1990 - 595
2000 - 1012
2005 - 2072

UNCONSTITUTIONAL NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS

Non-judicial warrants issued by the Justice Department

2005 - 9200

PERCENT OF DEFENSE BUDGET THAT IS CLASSIFIED

17%

NUMBER OF FOIA REQUESTS

42% more pending requests than in 2002

AMOUNT OF TAX DOLLARS RECOVERED THANKS TO WHISTLEBLOWERS

1990 - $40 million
2000 - $1119 million
2005 - $1425 million

NUMBER OF LAWS PASSED BY STATES SINCE 9/11 RESTRICTING ACCESS

616

http://opengovernment.org

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FOX NEWS - A new survey by Parks Associates shows that teenagers are
less likely to communicate via e-mail than any other demographic.
According to the study, less than one-fifth of the 13-17-year-olds
surveyed profess to using e-mail to communicate with friends, compared
to 40 percent of adults aged 25-54. The study shows that instant
messaging is the dominant form of communication for teenagers, with
one-third of teens relying on the messaging system, compared to only 11
percent of adults.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227721,00.html

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