Thanks for stopping by to read “Thursday Numbers!”

If this is your first time reading “Thursday Numbers,” this is the column 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 Billings Schools, unemployment, broken ballot machine, Jeannette Rankin, road trips for Montana high school football teams, Steve Daines & the House, Billy Graham, the internet, John Bohlinger, John Walsh, Peter Brady, voter turnout, taser wager, Veterans Day, campaign contributions, Kansas City Chiefs, born in Van Nuys, and a lot more so read on!

122,000,000

The Billings Gazette reported that “Billings (MT) voters approved School District 2’s $122 million construction bond on Tuesday night.”

It’s always nice to see support for public schools…

336,000

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there were 336,000 new claims for unemployment filed last week, which was a decrease of 9,000 from the week before.

Decreases are a good thing…

98,000

Cascade County (MT) spent $98,000 for a “ballot machine” to, guess what, count ballots. The Great Falls Tribune reported that the new machine broke down Tuesday night before all the votes were counted – and this election had a very low turnout.

It seems to me that during almost every election the Cascade County elections office has problems. If Cascade County beats the other major counties in Montana in getting their votes counted, it’s a surprise. It may be time to change leadership in that office. It is not running too smoothly.

1916

On this date in 1916, “Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.” (AP)

600

According to Rocky Erickson of the Northern Sports Network, three Montana high school football teams will travel about 600 miles each to play in quarterfinal playoff games this weekend. Erickson reports that Culbertson/Bainville will travel 593 miles to take on Charlo, Baker will travel 637 miles to Big Fork, and Superior will travel 648 miles to take on Wibaux.

Those miles are ONE WAY.

308

Steve Daines served 308 days in the U.S. House before he announced he would run for U.S. Senate. During the 2012 election season, Daines first announced he was running for U.S. Senate and then changed his mind and ran for U.S. House. Before that, he was a Lt. Governor candidate.

Some are asking if he will ever be happy…

95

The Reverend Billy Graham turns 95 today. (AP)

God bless Billy Graham and thank you…

87

According to Gallup, 87% of all U.S. adults use the internet.

Many of those people actually believe everything they read on the internet, too.

77

That’s the age of former Republican Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger who announced he was running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat.

56

Christopher Knight (Peter Brady) from “The Brady Bunch” turns 56 today. (AP)

There are many of us who will need a moment to think about this…

53

That’s the age of Lt. Gov. John Walsh who is running for U.S. Senate.

51

That’s the age of Congressman Steve Daines (R-Mont.) who announced he was running for U.S. Senate on Wednesday.

46

According to KRTV (CBS) in Great Falls, the voter turnout for the Great Falls (MT) city election was 46%.

I guess election officials finally repaired their expensive abacus…

42

My football parties are boring! According to this report, “John Grant, a 42-year-old Chicago Bears fan, and his wife Nicole, a Green Bay Packers backer, made a taser wager on the game at Lambeau Field. If the visiting Bears won, the couple agreed, John would be able to tase Nicole for three seconds.”

Guess what? The Bears won, Nicole was tased, and it made her unhappy. So she called the police…

Fun times!

11

Monday, November 11, is Veterans Day 2013!

Honor them…

10

After Republican Steve Daines announced that he would run for U.S. Senate, I received an e-mail from the John Walsh (D) campaign asking, “Will you contribute $10 or more today to help show ‘Shutdown Steve’ Daines that Montanans want a U.S. Senator that puts service over self — not the other way around?”

Since they are only asking for $10, they may have seen my bank account…

9

The Kansas City Chiefs are 9-0 this season. They have a bye this week and then play Denver.

Check out my column on Yahoo! about the upcoming matchup HERE.

3

Right after Steve Daines announced that he was running for U.S. Senate instead of the U.S. House, the John Lewis (D) campaign for the U.S. House sent me an e-mail saying, “Chip in $3 or whatever you can right now to help us build the foundation we need to win in 2014.”

Asking for $3 is more evidence the Democrats are monitoring my bank account…

2

According to his bio in several Lee Newspapers, Rep. (and now Senate candidate) Steve Daines was born Aug. 20, 1962, in Van Nuys, Calif. His parents moved to Montana when he was 2 years old.

I chuckled at the Montana Democrats saying Daines is a, “A 5th generation Montanan from Van Nuys, California…”

I love politics…

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