Friday / Weekend Open Lines


U.S. based manufacturers receive new orders every month worth close to a half-trillion dollars. To underscore the health and prospects of this economic sector, today is the third annual Manufacturing Day, with activities staged across the country by American companies. The focus is a series of open houses to show the breadth and vitality of American manufacturing innovation and quality, and illustrate the need for skilled employees. Currently, over 11 and quarter million Americans work in this sector. The 2012 Economic Census found nearly 296,000 manufacturing establishments in the U.S., doing nearly $5.6 trillion dollars of annual business. The economic census, the most comprehensive survey of our economy is taken at five-year intervals, and dates back in several forms to the year 1810. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the ‘America’s Economy’ mobile application at www.census.gov/mobile

Saturday, October 4th. For those who believe that beer is proof that a higher power loves us and wants us to be happy, a great chance for bliss is found in Denver. The 2014 Great American Beer Festival wraps up today in the Colorado Convention Center. Some 49,000 people are attending this latest celebration, which began in 1982 in Boulder, and moved to Denver in 1984 to accommodate the burgeoning interest. The festival includes one-ounce samplings of 3,500 beers from more than 700 domestic commercial and microbreweries. Meanwhile, thousands of beers are engaged in competition for festival medals in about 85 different categories of brew, with the winners announced today. America’s 880 brewing establishments employ nearly 28,000 people in the art of beer making. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at http://www.census.gov.

Sunday, October 5th. National Hispanic Heritage Month continues, and much media prominence given to this 54 million-strong community centers on the growing heft of the Hispanic vote in elections. Already 17 percent of America’s population, it is projected to number nearly 129 million by the year 2060. In the 2012 election, over 11 million Hispanics, or 48 percent of those eligible, cast ballots. This is a decline from 2008, when just under 50 percent of eligible Hispanics voted. But the 2012 figure did surpass the percentages in the 2000 and 2004 elections, which reached 45 and 47percent, respectively. Nearly 62 percent of the eligible public cast their ballots in the 2012 elections, down from nearly 64 percent in 2008. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <http://www.census.gov>.