Friday / Weekend Open Line

Friday, June 12th. This year’s Cereal City Festival kicks off this evening with a parade in downtown Battle Creek, Michigan. But the highlight of the festival, in the city that bills itself as the Cereal Capital of the World, is the world’s longest breakfast table. On Saturday morning, hundreds of volunteers will be serving breakfast in shifts to perhaps 70,000 people — greater than Battle Creek’s population of about 52,000. The festival will continue with concerts, a foot race, and events to help supply food banks. Battle Creek is the birthplace of America’s cereal industry, and six of the 41 breakfast cereal makers in the U.S. are located in Michigan. Battle Creeks’ Kellogg’s and Post companies are prominent in the industry, which generates $11 billion worth of product annually You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the ‘America’s Economy’ mobile application at <www.census.gov/mobile>.

Saturday, June 13th. This date 64 years ago was a Wednesday, and it can be assumed that computer technicians and engineers at the Census Bureau were a bit nervous about the day to come. On June 14, 1951, the first commercial computer, the 13-ton UNIVAC I, began its 12 years and 73,000 hours of number crunching for the bureau. The successful startup was used to process data from the 1950 Census of Population, and launched today’s digital revolution. Now, almost 84 percent of America’s approximately 117 million households have computers, and about 64 percent have hand-held computing devices. Whether desktop or hand-held, over 74 percent of U.S. households use the Internet. Computer manufacturing in the U.S. grosses nearly $10 billion per year. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sunday, June 14th. The American dream of owning — and keeping — a home got a lifeline this week in 1933 with passage of the Homeowners Loan Act. The act provided emergency relief in the depths of the Great Depression, helping homeowners ward off foreclosure. The act also created a system of federal savings associations to facilitate home construction, consumer savings, and affordable mortgage lending. At the time, less than half of the country’s homes were owner-occupied. Today, their owners live in a bit over 55 percent of America’s 133.5 million housing units. Another 31 percent are rented. The rest are vacant or seasonal housing. Current home ownership stands at 63.7 percent, down from a peak in 2004 of 69.2 percent. Profile America is in  its 19^th  year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.