Quick hits:
• Better than “Someplace Special”: A consultant told Stockton officials that “The Event City” brand name could be the economic winner. But where’s all the events?
• Project of Regional Concern. The federal government is supplying $517,000 to clean up an abandoned mercury mine at Mount Diablo. It appears mine silt gets into the Marsh Creek watershed.
• Already the fall election campaign? Republican congressional candidate Dean Andal plans to walk door to door in Tracy on April 19.
• Belly dance to motherhood: Because belly dance movements mirror those of labor, some women are using it in delivery rooms. The pelvic gyrations help disperse the pain of contractions and propel the baby into the birth canal.
Numbers:
• 2:44: The time Wednesday morning when the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters office tallied the last ballot in Tuesday’s presidential primary
election, more than five hours before the count was expected to be finished.
• 110,450: The number of eligible San Joaquin County voters who cast ballots in Tuesday’s presidential primary.
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• 15: The number of days in a community work project former San Joaquin County Sheriff Baxter Dunn got by pleading no contest to a misdemeanor drunken driving charge.
• 37 million: The number of Californians.
• 25 million: The number of Californians who get a share of the water from the Delta.
• 38,000: The number of low-level workers in the former Baath Party who can return to Iraqi government jobs and claim government pensions.
• 2,200: The weight in pounds of a prehistoric rodent that roamed the South American coastal areas.
• $25 million: The amount the state spent in 2007 to screen and evaluate new inmates’ mental state, none of whom appear to have been committed to a state institution.
• 1,076: The number of new State Department and diplomatic jobs proposed by President Bush for 2009.
