Cockroaches, Rats and Mice: These Are the Country’s Most Infested Cities
New York really is the most infested city in the country, at least according to a Bloomberg analysis of Census Bureau data on cockroach, mouse and rat sightings.
The Big Apple doesn’t lead in any of those individual categories. Homes in Tampa, Fla., have the most roaches, and those in Seattle may have the most rats. Philadelphia houses had the most mouse sightings in the country. But when Bloomberg combined all three categories, New York came out with the highest cumulative score.
Perhaps surprising given the economic state of the city, Detroit residents were the least likely to report seeing a mouse, rat or roach.
Related: The Top 9 Summer Insects to Avoid and How
The data covered only 25 metro areas, so some large cities like Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco don’t appear on the list.
Roaches appear to enjoy nice weather. Nearly 40 percent of homes in Tampa had evidence in roaches in the past year, followed by Houston and Austin. Cities with the fewest roach sightings were Seattle, Minneapolis and Detroit.
Mice, on the other, hand, seem to prefer the northeast. Nearly 20 percent of Philly homes had evidence of mice, followed by Baltimore and Boston. Tampa, Jacksonville, and Las Vegas had the lowest percentage of mouse sightings.
More than 20 percent of homes in Seattle and Austin had rats, with Miami rounding out the top three. Richmond, Va., Hartford, Conn., and Minneapolis had the lowest level of rat sightings.
All those vermin lead to big business. Last year, the U.S. pest control industry generated nearly $7.5 billion in revenue, a 3.5 percent increase year-over-year.
Bloomberg reported that the data also showed a difference in infestation levels of homes with families living below the poverty line and minority families, which were more likely to report evidence of rats and roaches.
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Quote of the Day - October 16, 2017
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Monday, President Trump said:
"Obamacare is finished, it's dead, it's gone ... There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore."
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Poll: Trump Tax Cuts Favor the Wealthy; Deficit Should Be Higher Priority
Trump and the GOP still have work to do if they want to convince Americans that their tax plan won’t mostly help the rich. A CBS News Nation Tracker poll released Sunday finds that 58 percent say the tax reforms being discussed favor the wealthy, while 19 percent say it treats everyone equally and 18 percent say it favors the middle class.
The poll also found that 39 percent say that cutting the deficit should be a priority, even if it means taxes stay the same. About half as many people said cutting taxes should be prioritized even if the deficit rises.
The poll, conducted by YouGov, surveyed 2,371 U.S. adults between October 11 and 13. Its margin of error is 2.5 percent.
Coporate Tax Cut Could Be Phased In
House tax writers (at least some of them) are worried that slashing the corporate tax rate found will push the deficit higher in a hurry – an analysis by the Tax Policy Center found that cutting the rate to the stated goal of 20 percent would cost $2 trillion over a decade. One way to soften the fiscal blow would be to phase in the reduction over three to five years. House Republicans say such an approach would reduce the size of the lost revenue by half.
Larry Summers: GOP Tax Claims Are 'Made-Up'
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers isn't happy with the Republican tax plan, and it's not just because he has a different set of ideas as a Democrat. More fundamentally, he says Republicans are making false claims: “When you have -- and I hate to be in a position of using this word about our government -- when you have senior economic officials making claims that are made-up ... it’s very hard to have a dialogue, and compromise, and get to a good place.”
Summers is also worried about the effects of a tax cut for the rich during a time of considerable social turmoil: “There’s a lot of unhappiness and anger out there … It’s really hard to see why focusing a corporate tax cut on those at the very high-end is going to do much to assuage that anger.”
How Much Did Mike Pence’s NFL Walkout Cost Taxpayers?
Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to attend an NFL game between the Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers yesterday and then leave after some 49ers players kneeled during the national anthem was quickly criticized by some as a planned piece of political theater — and a somewhat expensive one at that. “After all the scandals involving unnecessarily expensive travel by cabinet secretaries, how much taxpayer money was wasted on this stunt?” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) tweeted Sunday afternoon.
The answer, CNN reports, is about $242,500: "According to the Air Force, flying a C-32, the model of plane used for Air Force 2, for one hour costs about $30,000. Pence's flight from Las Vegas to Indianapolis Saturday took about three hours and 20 minutes, so it cost about $100,000. Pence then flew from Indianapolis to Los Angeles on Sunday, which took about four hours and 45 minutes, costing about $142,500."
President Trump defended Pence’s trip, tweeting that it had been “long planned.” CNN also reports that some of the costs of Pence's flight from Indianapolis to Los Angeles will be paid back by the Republican National Committee because the vice president is attending a political event there.