Fact Finders - Databay Blog

Number of the day, $13.72: Payout for each lottery dollar spent at luckiest store

2011-11-21T09:14:12-05:00

Tribune reporter Lindsay Peterson pried five years worth of data from the state lottery last year for a project called, “How the lottery plays you.”

It’s worth reprising one of the more useful findings from that effort: Where you can find the luckiest lottery…

Number of the day, 140: legal burmese python owners in Florida

2011-11-15T12:25:41-05:00

If you’re a fan of “Swamp Wars” on the Animal Planet network, or you’ve seen news accounts about their exploding population, you’d think invasive burmese pythons outnumber retirees in the Sunshine State.

There are indeed lots of them in the wild.

At up to…

Number of the day, $3.35: gas in Tampa

2011-11-15T12:26:37-05:00

A gallon of gasoline rose a nickel in Tampa during the past week, to $3.35.

That’s also up 2 cents from a month ago and 51 cents from a year ago.

Among the dozen Florida markets tracked by AAA, only Pensacola at $3.34…

Number of the Day, 950: dollars paid by USF Poly to appraise Darth Vader

2011-11-15T12:27:40-05:00

Invoice for evaluating collection

USF Polytechnic paid nearly $1,000 just to learn the value of what has to be one its more obscure possessions: A collection of four life-size figures from science fiction, deemed to be “museum quality.”

Click here to read reporter Lindsay Peterson’s…

Tampa doesn’t make the cut for young grads

2011-09-13T10:49:12-05:00

Tampa doesn’t rate very well in a new “best cities” list, this one rating the best places for recent college graduates to move.

The list, put together by CareerRookie and Apartments.com, is based on each city’s population of people between 20 and 24, the number of jobs…

Using cell phone data to track human movements

2011-08-31T11:14:07-05:00

NPR aired a really interesting story this morning, about how public health researchers tracked cholera victims in Haiti last year using the SIM cards in their cell phones.

“The phone owners remained anonymous, but their whereabouts showed that some 600,000 fled Port-au-Prince within…

Back to school numbers

2011-08-22T14:04:18-05:00

Most students in the Tampa Bay area go back to school this week, and even if you don’t have school-age kids living in your house, the rush back to school is a big deal in several ways. Traffic is likely to be a little heavier as parents and buses ferry…

St. Pete America’s third-angriest city?

2011-07-13T16:01:42-05:00

What’s eating St. Pete? The city ranks as the third-angriest city in America in a new poll by Men’s Health magazine – only slightly better-adjusted than Baltimore and Detroit, which ranked as the country’s angriest city (and for good reason).

Miami (No. 10) joined St. Petersburg among the ranks of…

Tampa metro area among top in population gains

2011-07-12T16:06:18-05:00

The Tampa-St. Petersburg area added nearly 400,000 people between 2000 and 2010, making it the No. 16 metropolitan area in the country in terms of population gorwth, according to a new study by Rice University.

Based on Census figures, the Tampa-St. Petersburg area added 387,246 in the last decade. That…

FSU prof on job since Eisenhower

2011-07-05T07:39:04-05:00

James P. Jones, a history professor who receives $94,460 in salary per year, has been on the payroll at Florida State University since Sept. 1, 1957.

That’s pushing 54 years, longer than any employee at Florida’s four biggest public universities.

Click here to check salaries,…