Welcome to another round of Thursday Numbers! Are you ready for some football? The NFL season starts tonight!

If this is your first time reading “Thursday Numbers,” this is where I take a look at the numbers that are in the news (in descending order) and provide commentary (sometimes spiked with a little sarcasm).

This week I write about U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter, unemployment, coffins, fruit salad, Barbie dolls, NASCAR, alligator season, Raquel Welch, Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judicial Council, Obamacare, Tester anniversary, math wins, the NFL season, plus a lot more so please read on!

672,000

The U.S. Attorney for Montana, Michael Cotter, penned an opinion piece saying, “In fiscal year 2013, the office of the Montana U.S. Attorney saw its budget reduced by 12 percent, with $672,000 being stripped away.”

When there’s no money in the bank, stuff like that happens, Mr. Cotter. My suggestion to Cotter and other U.S. Attorneys is to stop prosecuting athletes who shoot themselves in the butt with a needle and lie to congress about it, and quit prosecuting people who use medical marijuana.

See how easy it is to save a buck…

323,000

That is the number of people who filed new claims for unemployment last week according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s a decrease of 9,000 from the week before.

30,000

According to this report, “A $30,000 coffin comes equipped with speakers and a Spotify music streaming account.”

It’s a party!

15,000

Students at the University of Massachusetts made a 15,000 pound fruit salad for the start of classes. There were “150 varieties of fruit” used to make the salad.

6000

Mr. Jian Yang owns 6000 Barbie dolls. Find out why HERE.

I don’t have anything to add to this…

2,500

Kelly Heaphy, the girlfriend of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Mike Skeen, was fined $2,500 for slapping driver Max Papis. She is also suspended from NASCAR events indefinitely.

NASCAR has become a lot like professional wrestling…

1957

On this date in 1957, “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac was published.

727

It’s alligator season in Mississippi and one group killed a gator weighing 727 pounds. It was 13 feet long.

That might keep me out of the water…

73

Raquel Welch turns 73 years old today.

63

John S. Adams of the Great Falls Tribune yesterday reported “The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judicial Council’s July 2 final order involving two separate misconduct complaints against [chief U.S. District Judge Richard] Cebull was due to be made public today after a 63-day review period.”

I think they are waiting for Adams to go away…

56

According to a story in National Journal, a poll “found that young adults are the most supportive of the health care law across age groups. A full 56 percent of adults 18-29 approve of the law.”

The approval goes down with older groups of people.

36

On Tuesday, Jon and Sharla Tester celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary.

Congrats…

34

A new poll from Gallup found that “Math (34%) is the clear winner when Americans are asked to say which school subject has been most valuable to them in their lives, followed by language arts — English, literature, or reading (21%) — and science (12%).”

I don’t think they asked about physical education classes…

17

There are 17 weeks during the NFL regular season which starts tonight with Baltimore at Denver.

And, everyone is undefeated!

By the way, check out my column, AFC West: 2013 Predictions, on Yahoo! by clicking HERE.

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