Census releases American Community Survey
The U.S. Census Bureau officially released its 2007 American Community Survey today, and it contains a wealth of information about states and cities with more than 65,000 people.
The Census Bureau will release similar information in December for places with populations of more than 20,000. In the meantime, here’s some Oklahoma highlights:
— Oklahoma’s immigrant population (both legal and illegal, since the Census doesn’t make the distinction) grew by 3.5 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to the survey. The agency estimated there were 182,186 immigrants in Oklahoma last year, up from 175,987 in 2006. The state’s population is more than 3.6 million.
— Almost 65 percent of
— Just 5 percent of
— Almost half of
— More than 8 percent of
—
— The median value of owner-occupied homes in
— More than 16 percent of Oklahomans moved to another house inside the state in 2007. That put
— On average,
— In
For more on the latest American Community Survey, click here. You can also read commentary from Census expert William Frey of the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
–Paul
Searchable FBI crime stats
The FBI released its 2007 Uniform Crime Report today. Overall, it showed violent crime down and property crime decreasing for the fifth-straight year.
The full 2007 Crime in the United States offers some interesting facts on crime rates, clearance rates and information about police officers.
You can search for FBI-reported crimes in your community at our online database. There’s also a link from our Your Right to Know page.
–Paul
Public comments to be restricted at OKC School Board?
Keep an eye on developments tonight at the meeting of the Oklahoma City School Board.
One of the items on the agenda is a restriction of public comments about personnel matters. You can read more about the proposed changes here.
It’s interesting to note that this is one of the first actions of new Chairman Kirk Humphreys, who has been widely praised for stepping in after the tumultuous, short-lived tenure of John Q. Porter.**
But it raises some alarm bells for advocates of open meetings and open records. It also comes after the city council in Bartlesville decided not to air the public comments section of council meetings on local cable TV. Are we seeing a pattern here?
Tonight’s OKC school board meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at the school district’s administration building at 900 N Klein.
–Paul
**Clarification at 3 p.m.: Porter was the former superintendent; he has been replaced by Karl Springer. Humphreys replaced former board Chairman Cliff Hudson, who agreed to step down if Porter resigned.
Presidential candidates tag cloud
Following on from yesterday’s post, here’s the latest tag cloud comparing the acceptance speeches of Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. For what some commentators are calling a “change” election, both men used the word “change” pretty freqently. You can view the full tag cloud here.
–Paul
Parsing the VP speeches
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP’s vice presidential candidate, gave a rousing speech last night to Republican delegates in St. Paul, Minn. Her performance came a week after Sen. Joe Biden’s speech to Democrats in Denver.
By now, both of the VP candidates’ words have been absorbed, analyzed and commented on by countless pundits and commentators. But take a look below at just how many similar words each used in their speech:
Palin’s words are in blue, while Biden’s are in that reddish-brown color. The bigger the word, the more times it appeared in each speech.
For the full view of the text analysis, called a tag cloud, go here. (JavaScript required.)
P.S. In the interests of fairness, you can read more about Libertarian Bob Barr’s running mate here. And the Green Party’s VP pick here.
–Paul
