Unexpected result from Wolfram|Alpha?

Questions
,
1

Why would I get a population statistic for Oregon as 7X10^12? I ran the inquiry several times and it returned same number.

2

Hi Patrick,

What exactly do you mean by “freeform inquiry”? How are you running the “inquiry”?

3

mynotebook

4

Query is malformed, so it is misinterpreted, spaces are required around the state abbreviation

WolframAlpha["population of" <> " OR " <> "(US state)"]

Not

WolframAlpha["population of" <> "OR" <> "(US state)"]