Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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  • report

    The “Christmas Wars”: Holiday Displays and the Federal Courts

    For more information about the Christmas wars, see the recent transcript The Christmas Wars: Religion in the American Public Square. Heated disputes over seasonal religious displays in public spaces have become an American holiday tradition. Indeed, each year, as Christmas and Hanukkah approach, Americans across the country contest the appropriateness of the government sponsoring or […]

  • report

    Headlines of Several Minds on Iraq Report

    What was the treatment of the eagerly awaited Iraq Study Group report across the nation's front pages? To find out, PEJ looked at nearly 200 headlines from Dec. 7, the day after its release. While there wasn’t much good news to tout, these editors seemed almost evenly divided over whether to highlight the report’s critique of the administration or its prescription for change in Iraq.

  • short reads

    Support for Raising the Minimum Wage

    That’s the number of Americans who favor a hefty increase in the federal minimum wage from its current level of $5.15 an hour to $7.15 an hour. The last time Congress raised the federal minimum was in 1997, but many states have now set minimum wage levels above the federal floor.

  • short reads

    Holiday Greetings

    That’s the percentage of the U.S. public that prefers “Merry Christmas” to non-religious welcomes such as “Season’s Greetings.” However, given the choice, a 45% plurality says it does not matter much either way.

  • report

    Civil War: What’s in a Name?

    A mostly insiders-only debate about whether Iraq is in a state of civil war broke out into the open last week when two major news organizations announced that they would henceforth refer to the conflict as a civil war. According to polling in September by the Pew Research Center, much of the public had already reached that conclusion.

  • report

    As Home Prices Cool Down, Homeowners Temper Their Optimism

    Despite a record drop this past year in the median sales price of existing homes, more than eight-in-ten homeowners expect the value of their homes to go up either “a little” (55%) or “a lot” (26%) in the future.

  • report

    Civil War: What’s in a Name?

    IrA mostly insiders-only debate about whether Iraq is in a state of civil war broke out into the open last week when two major news organizations announced that they would henceforth refer to the conflict as a civil war. According to polling in September by the Pew Research Center, much of the public had already […]

  • report

    Do You Know What’s on Your TV News?

    There’s a battle brewing over whether the government should regulate the use of video news releases—prepackaged segments often produced for commercial clients—that look like news reports and sometimes appear on local TV newscasts. This PEJ backgrounder examines the dispute between television industry representatives and their critics.

  • short reads

    Independent Support for Bush

    That’s the percentage of political independents who now say they approve of President Bush’s job performance. Independent voters proved crucial to the Democrats’ victory on Nov. 7.