Numbers

By Melissa August, Val Castronovo, Matthew Cooper, Daren Fonda, Lina Lofaro, Benjamin Nugent, Desa Philadelphia, Julie Rawe and Alain L. Sanders

$762,000 Amount the Justice Department has spent thus far on the custody battle over Elian Gonzalez

$8,000 The Justice Department's cell-phone bill, as of April 30, for Elian-related calls made by agents who specialize in mediating community conflicts

182 Years since Mississippi became a state

94 Years Mississippi has been without an official state flag, judges ruled last week, owing to a legal technicality

438 Years until the five naked-eye planets--Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune--again reach alignment with the sun and the moon, as they did last week

74 Scrabble score for the word syzygies--alignments of three or more heavenly bodies

$1 billion Cost of a B-2 Spirit, the world's most expensive bomber

$8.88 Cost of Wal-Mart lawn chairs used by B-2 pilots for power naps during 30-hr. missions to Kosovo

Sources: Justice Department (Elian); New York Times (flag); Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Scrabble (syzygies); USA Today (B-2)