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United States
Pandemic Impact on Income Tax
The pandemic wrought economic devastation across the country, forcing states to revise their revenue forecasts and to prepare for the worst. According to The New York Times, new data shows the states ended up collecting nearly as much revenue in 2020 as they did in 2019. A reason behind this surprising outcome was the federal income supplements that allowed people to keep spending, and for states to keep collecting sales tax revenue even when many were jobless, along with enhanced state unemployment benefits. To some extent, the states’ recoveries reflect the timing of events last year. The pandemic started just as many state lawmakers were reviewing initial budget proposals for the coming fiscal year. The proposals, drawn up weeks before the shock, forecast a year of strong tax collections. By the end of July, revenue had recovered to 2019 levels and stayed there.
This map depicts the change in state tax revenue during the pandemic. Click on the map to learn more.
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Israel
Dead Sea Scrolls
Israeli archaeologists discovered dozens of scroll fragments that have been hidden for more than 2,000 years. The fragments were found in an area of the Judean Desert known as the Cave of Horrors and are part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient Jewish religious manuscripts. Scientists managed to piece together the fragments and determined they depict Greek translations of Jewish scriptures from the last three centuries BCE. The Cave of Horrors was first discovered in the 1960’s and was given its name after the discovery of more than 40 human skeletons buried within it. The newly discovered fragments were found during an ongoing Israeli mission to search all the caves in the Judean Desert.
This map depicts the location of the Cave of Horrors in the Judean Desert. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: The Sun
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World
Mapping Ocean Areas to Protect
A new study published in Nature is the first to map ocean areas that could help respond to climate, food, and biodiversity crises if they are strongly protected. The study was composed by an international team of 26 researchers, who identified specific areas of the ocean to strategically conserve. Researchers found if an area comprising 28% of the ocean was declared a no-fish zone, global fisheries could maximize productivity. Shielding these and other regions would safeguard almost 80% of marine species, increase fishing catches by more than 8 million metric tons, and prevent more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the ocean, caused by bottom drawling. Currently only 2.7% of the ocean is considered “highly protected.”
This map depicts the ocean areas of the world that, if protected, will benefit life within and outside the oceans. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: Which Spanish city hosted the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade in 1601?
A: St. Augustine, Florida
On March 17, 1601, in the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine on what is now the northeastern coast of Florida, residents paraded through the streets and fired celebratory shots from a canon at the local fort in the world’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade. The record of the celebration was discovered by an archival researcher in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain in 2017. The city is thought to have celebrated Saint Patrick with a feast and parade after naming him the protector of their nearby maize fields.
Source
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Q: Which country was home to the first country-wide rail line in Latin America, starting service in 1837 with a 17-mile (27-kilometer) railway?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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