Very rich and very poor in California, and more

Very rich and very poor in California

California is now home to 111 billionaires, by far the most of any state, and they personally hold assets worth $485 billion, more than the entire GDP of all but 24 countries in the world. Yet the state also suffers the highest poverty rate in the country (adjusted for housing costs), at 24 percent.

Forbes.com

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The TSA's “behavior detection officers”

The Transportation Security Administration has spent some $1 billion training thousands of “behavior detection officers” to look for facial expressions and other nonverbal clues that would identify terrorists. But more than 99 percent of the 30,000 travelers identified and detained as suspicious by TSA officers each year are let go without any charges, and not one has been linked to any terrorist plot.

The New York Times

No winners for Warren Buffett's challenge

None of the millions of fans who submitted brackets will beat the 9.2-quintillion-to-one odds and win Warren Buffett’s $1 billion prize for perfectly predicting each winning team in the NCAA college basketball championship tournament. All entries, in fact, got at least one game wrong in the first round of 32 games.

CNN.com

High suspension rates for black preschoolers

About 8,000 toddlers were suspended from U.S. preschools in 2011–12, and 42 percent were black—even though black children make up only about 18 percent of children enrolled in preschool programs.

Politico.com

The popularity of book clubs

An estimated 5 million Americans now actively participate in book clubs throughout the country.

The New York Times