Numbers

MORTALITY

11.4

Mississippi's infant-mortality rate per 1,000 births in 2005, the highest in the nation. The U.S. average for 2003, the last year for which data have been compiled, was 6.9

17.0

Mortality rate of nonwhite babies in Mississippi. The infant mortality rate among whites is 6.6

FOOD AID

70 million

Number of people the U.S. fed through its federal aid program in 2006, compared with more than 100 million five years ago. The U.N. World Food Program estimates that there are 850 million hungry people in the world

18%

Percentage of the U.S. corn crop used for ethanol production in 2006. Corn, a key crop for food aid, will increasingly be used to make ethanol, thus further reducing the amount of food shipped

HURRICANE KATRINA

$3.6 billion

Tax dollars the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasted by awarding Hurricane Katrina contracts to companies with poor credit histories and bad paperwork

12,000

Estimated number of homeless people who need shelter in New Orleans on any given night. There were 6,000 before Hurricane Katrina

AUTOS

2.35 million

Vehicles sold by Toyota worldwide in the first three months of 2007

2.26 million

Vehicles that GM sold over the same period, the first time Toyota passed GM in quarterly sales

Sources: New York Times (3); Associated Press; USA Today; Christian Science Monitor; Washington Post (2)