Fort Worth Superintendent Melody Johnson ($324,450) is the second-highest paid superintendent in the state according to base salary, according to the latest survey by the Texas Association of School Boards. Houston's Abelardo Saavedra ($327,010) is No. 1. Search the database to find out how much all the state's public school bosses are paid.

Pinal County, Ariz., part of the Phoenix metro area, had the highest growth rate of housing units of any county in the nation as of July 2006, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Hate crime incidents increased nearly 8 percent nationwide in 2006, according to the FBI.

The nation's official poverty rate declined for the first time this decade.

Dallas-Fort Worth had the largest numeric gain of any metro area between 2006 and 2007, increasing by 162,250, according to July 1, 2007, estimates of metro area population size and growth released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Rockwall County was one of 10 counties that gained more than 200,000 residents from 2000 to 2007, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau

Census Bureau annual population estimates.

Sales tax accounts

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for almost 400,000 taxpayers who did not receive their economic stimulus or regular refund checks because of mailing address errors.

The FBI has released its annual statistics on violent crimes like murder, rape and robbery and on property crimes such as burglary and vehicle theft.

A Star-Telegram analysis has found that the location of fast food restaurants in Tarrant County may depend upon a neighborhood's income.

Homeowners across Tarrant County are grappling with fallout from the foreclosure crisis. Residents in four areas of the county have each handled the crisis in different ways And the news is not all bad. Some were able to buy houses at bargain prices. But while the homes remain empty, they are a daily reminder that neighbors and friends face hard times.

Texas had 179 bus crashes from 1997 to 2006 in which at least one person died, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Search crashes here.

Nearly one in every 10 counties in the U.S. are "majority-minority" -- meaning the county had a population with more than 50 percent minority residents as of July 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Search counties here.

More than 100 cosmetologists in Tarrant County have run afoul of state inspectors for failing to keep their equipment clean, working without a license, and other violations. Search for violators here.

Are you paying even more than necessary for gas? Search the state's database and find out if your favorite station has problems with miscalculating its pumps.

Half of the 98 fatal drownings handled by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner since 2004 were people 18 and younger, records show. The following table can be sorted by clicking on the name of each column.