Census Bureau U S

The Census Bureau turned over confidential information, including names and addresses, to help the U.S. government identify individual Japanese Americans during World War II, according to government documents released by two scholars Friday. The documents validate long-held suspicions among Japanese Americans that information about them collected under confidentiality pledges was released to the government.

The body of the asphyxiated man was discovered in the backwoods of Clay County, Ky., near an old family cemetery. A rope around his neck was tied to a tree. He was a 51-year-old part-time teacher and a former Boy Scout employee -- a gentle man who, one relative said, never caused any trouble. That would be mystery enough. But the dead man, William E. "Bill" Sparkman, was also a part-time employee of the U.S. Census Bureau. He was found with the word "FED" written across his chest in what appeared to be a felt-tip marker, according to Jim Trosper, the county coroner.

The college education gap between men and women is the narrowest in the generation since Americans started pouring into universities in huge numbers, but there is still a major income disparity between the sexes, the government reported Wednesday. Despite the virtual parity in higher education, women continue to be concentrated in comparatively lesser-paid jobs and earn about 70 cents for every dollar earned by men, the Census Bureau said in its annual report on the status of women. Overall, 27.

Latino and Asian growth in the Inland Empire and other outlying areas is slowing while such traditional gateways as Los Angeles are experiencing a "mini-rebound" in their minority population, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data. Los Angeles County, for instance, saw a net gain of nearly 70,000 Latinos last year, a 1.5% increase in that population after two years of near-flat growth. In contrast, the Latino growth rate in Riverside County dropped by nearly half to 3.

Of all the factors contributing to gangs and their epidemic of violence in Los Angeles, none is more significant than the staggering rates of unemployment in their communities, according to a report to be released today by a team of university-affiliated medical researchers.

Poverty is a reality for three in 10 Americans, but for most of them, it's short-lived, the Census Bureau reports. A new study by the bureau takes an unusually deep look at poverty in the United States, using seven measures to paint a picture more complex than any one statistic might suggest. Over a three-year span, 30.3% of the population lived below the poverty line for at least two months. But just 5.3% of them stayed poor for two full years.

Los Angeles County's population grew last year by a scant 1,419 residents, the smallest expansion in more than 20 years, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. Without an influx of more than 100,000 immigrants last year, the county would have posted a substantial population decline. People moved out of Los Angeles County at a considerably faster rate than they moved in, with 217,000 departing for other destinations in the United States.

California manufacturers and farmers produced $34.7 billion, or 11%, of all U.S. exports in 1988, according to a forthcoming report that breaks down trade data by state for the first time. In 1987, exports originating in California totaled $27.8 billion and generated about 233,000 jobs directly related to the export business, according to the report by the California Department of Commerce. Trade specialists, however, challenged the statistics, saying that they were too conservative.

As the U.S. Supreme Court this week cast a new cloud over the use of sampling by the Census Bureau, results from a test of the controversial counting method here were giving its foes and fans even more to debate. Census officials said that using the statistical method, they counted 403,313 residents in Sacramento during a dry run last spring. Without sampling, which is designed to cut census costs and avoid an undercount, they tallied 349,197 people.

African Americans comprised 12.8% of the U.S. population, or 34 million people, in 1996, the Census Bureau said. About 74% of all African Americans 25 or older had at least a high school education, and 14% had at least a bachelor's degree, the bureau said. In 1995, African American families had a median annual income of $25,970, but the income of 2.1 million African American families, or 26%, was below the poverty level, according to the most recent tabulations by the bureau.

Poverty across Southern California declined significantly during the first seven years of the decade, a period marked by a booming economy, gentrifying neighborhoods and soaring housing prices, according to census data released Tuesday. Bucking a national trend, Los Angeles County's poverty rate dropped notably between 2000 and 2007, the data showed, with the percentage of residents living below the federal poverty level falling from 17.9% in 2000 to 14.7% last year. Similar declines occurred in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

The U.S. Census Bureau's plan to stop producing special demographic reports on the San Fernando Valley would hurt local efforts to generate social and economic improvements, several Los Angeles officials said Monday. The officials said census statistics focused on the Valley and its more than 1.7 million residents help show how the region is distinct from the rest of the city and county. The statistics also help representatives pursue federal and state funds for the area, they said.

Seven California communities made this year's ranking of the 25 fastest-growing big cities in the country, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Lancaster ranked 10th in the country, with a population of nearly 141,000 -- up 5% over the previous year. "We're really the last area in L.A. County that has space to grow," said Steve Malicott, president and chief executive of the Antelope Valley Chambers of Commerce. "We have room and a lot of it."

The Census Bureau turned over confidential information, including names and addresses, to help the U.S. government identify individual Japanese Americans during World War II, according to government documents released by two scholars Friday. The documents validate long-held suspicions among Japanese Americans that information about them collected under confidentiality pledges was released to the government.

The San Fernando Valley lost its bid for secession in 2002. But the U.S. Census Bureau gave the region something of a consolation prize Thursday with the release of the first-ever demographic snapshot of the region. It showed that Valley residents make more money, spend more of it on housing and endure longer commutes to work than the average American.

It ticks along at a remarkably steady pace of about one new person every 10 seconds. With only slight fluctuations, that rate has held remarkably steady for the last 100 years and is projected to continue almost unchanged for 50 more. And in its methodical way, the U.S. Population Clock is now closing in on a milestone. Sometime around the middle of this month, the U.S. Census Bureau clock will ring in the 300 millionth American.

Whites: In Several Cities, No Longer the Majority Highest Percentage of Whites in Los Angeles County Hidden Hills: 89.0% Malibu: 88.5% Westlake Village: 86.6% Manhattan Beach: 85.4% Hermosa Beach: 85.2% * Highest Percentage of Whites Outside Los Angeles County Laguna Woods (Orange County): 94.4% Indian Wells (Riverside County): 93.9% Del Mar (San Diego County): 90.9% Lake San Marcos (San Diego County): 90.9% Pine Valley (San Diego County): 90.

In the four months following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the population of the New Orleans metropolitan area became substantially whiter, older and less poor, and it shrank to less than half its size, according to statistics released today by the Census Bureau. The figures were drawn from estimates of the hurricane-affected areas along the Gulf Coast as of Jan. 1, and cover 117 counties initially designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for individual or public assistance.

The Census Bureau's annual snapshot of economic health in America offered a yellow warning light for the middle class, as an unchanged poverty level and a widening erosion of health insurance coverage tarnished news that household income was finally beginning to rise. Household income rose from 2004 to 2005 for the first time since 1999, the agency said in its report, released Tuesday. But even that news contained a mixed message.

A California community heads the list of America's fastest-growing big cities for the first time in recent memory, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. And, surprise -- it's not in the Inland Empire.