3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS

* The NBA player with the second-highest net worth was not a well-known all-star. Everyone knows #1 on the list (Michael Jordan: net worth $2.2 billion), but few people outside of the business world know Junior Bridgeman and his $600 million net worth. Averaging just 13 points over a 12-year career, Bridgeman made his fortune after leaving the game. He bought stakes in his favorite restaurant, Wendy’s, and expanded his company, Bridgeman Foods, with other restaurants until selling his stakes to become a Coca-Cola bottler and, now, the president of Heartland Coca-Cola bottling company.

* China’s digital Yuan has now acquired private bank support. In its pursuit of achieving a central bank of digital currency, China has added private banks Tencent and Ant Financial to its current roster of 6 (previously only public, state-owned) banks. The new banks are expected to expand the digital currency’s influence significantly and provide further research. A People’s Bank of China (PboC) spokesperson told Bloomberg that the new acquisitions will “steadily advance the trial pursuant to the overall arrangement of the PBoC.” China has also completed development of a hardware wallet, which will further expand the applicability of its digital Yuan.

* US taxpayers are providing funding for the infamous lab in Wuhan, China suspected of causing the pandemic. The lab (the Wuhan Institute of Virology), which has already received $600,000 from US taxpayers through the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance, will receive additional funding through January 2024, according to the National Institutes of Health. The funds are being used to study… what else? Bat-based coronaviruses. The question is: Why is this money not being spent on US research?

THE NUMBERS 

* 39.7 million – the number of firearm background checks processed last year, according to the FBI. This is the most in a single year since the agency began recording the statistic in 1998. The 2020 total beat out the previous highs of 27 million and 28 million (in 2017 and 2019, respectively) by over 10 million. In 2020, by the way, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, 8.5 million people purchased a firearm for the first time.

* 1.4 million – the number of jobs that will be lost by 2025 as a result of increasing the minimum wage to $15/hr, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. The reduction would come as employers cut jobs from payroll to mitigate losses from increasing costs.

* $950,000 – the prize money being offered by the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies for proof of the afterlife. The institute – founded by real estate/aerospace billionaire Robert T. Bigelow – is challenging scientists in the neurology and psychology fields to write a 25,000-word thesis providing “the best evidence available for the survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death.” Three awards will be given: $500,000 for the #1 entry, $300,000 for #2, and $150,000 for #3.

THE THOUGHTS 

*  “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist.” – Frederick Douglas

* “Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.” – Benjamin Franklin

* “I’m very good at recognizing in others the bad behavior I cannot see in myself.” – Michael Masterson