2019 Books of the Year

[ Dec. 7 ] I cannot begin to estimate the value of WORLD’s reading lists. They should be required reading for anyone seeking leadership in our federal government. So many are ignorant of history and seem dedicated to repeating it. Thank you for being an information source worthy of investment. —Karen Woods / Muskegon, Mich.

More income, more debt

$923

Median weekly earnings of wage and salary workers in the third quarter of 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Earnings have risen steadily since the fourth quarter of 2017, when median weekly earnings stood at $854. Meanwhile, the BLS reported that the unemployment rate in November fell to 3.5 percent, a 50-year low as the U.S. economy added 266,000 jobs. A Dow Jones survey of economists had predicted an increase of 180,000 jobs.

‘The slow work of God’

[ Nov. 23 ] Thank you to Jamie Dean for an inspiring and hopeful article about WORLD’s Daniel of the Year, Michael Miller, and his ministry in Honduras. His comment that preaching to a “broken population” means you deal with “very significant loss and disappointment” was a reminder I needed as a teacher at a nonprofit school in Virginia. The world is broken, but God is not. —Rachel Hood / Grundy, Va.

USDA approved

An accident by employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture left a fictional nation on a list of trade partners on the agency’s website. A USDA spokesman said an agency employee accidentally added the Kingdom of Wakanda, a fictional East African nation in the Marvel superhero movie Black Panther, during a staff test. A New York–based software engineer first discovered the error and published it to social media on Dec. 18. The website has since been updated to remove Wakanda from the USDA’s agricultural tariff tracker.

‘We became a self-licking ice cream cone.’

Stormed

$0

The cost to become owner of The Skagway News, an Alaskan newspaper with two staff members. The publisher is giving away the small-town newspaper to anyone willing to run it.

30%-50%

The increase in nighttime light intensity in U.S. suburban areas due to Christmas decorations, according to NASA.

11

The number of consecutive AFC East division titles that the New England Patriots have won, the most of any NFL team.