News?

I am about sick and damn tired of getting "news" that really doesn't tell me anything. This morning I was looking at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website and found this little tidbit:

40,982 bankruptcies were filed in 2005 in the Northern District of Texas, which encompasses 100 counties stretching from the panhandle to North Central Texas, including Dallas and Tarrant.

Now, 40,000+ bankruptcies is a number which certainly catches the eye! Should I be concerned? Or should I be relieved? It would have been nice if, say, they told me if it was an increase or decrease from the previous year!

I attempted to put my shoddy investigative skills to work, but I ended up in Google bankruptcy hell. I found plenty of forms and bankruptcy lawyers, but none of the statistics which could help me determine if we are above or below our yearly average. I did, however, find a site that told me that Texas had one of the lowest bankruptcy rates in the country in 2003, but it didn't tell me how many were filed that year.

Now, I know the media of today hate to give us real news, but why bother to print something if you aren't going to explain what in the hell in means?!