Quote for today…

One day your heart will stop beating, and none of your fears will matter. What will matter is how you lived. – Henri Junttila

Welcome to “Thursday Numbers!” If you are a first-time visitor, this is the weekly column where I look at the numbers in the news (in descending order) and provide commentary sometimes sprinkled with sarcasm and humor.

This week’s topics include the Mega Millions lottery, COVID numbers, unemployment, Guilfoyle’s speech, vehicle crashes, Biden approval numbers, TWW poll results, Great Falls homeless, interest rate, gas prices, and more!

279,000,000

That’s the jackpot for Saturday’s Powerball lottery. (Source)

273,000,000

That’s the jackpot for Friday’s Mega Millions lottery. (Source)

You can’t win if you don’t play…

1,012,607

That is how many people have died in the United States from coronavirus, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There have been 85,941,856 cases across the country so far. The first death in the USA was reported on February 29, 2020. (Johns Hopkins)

Last week, the death total was 1,010,521.

229,000

In the week ending June 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 229,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 3,000 from 229,000 to 232,000. The 4-week moving average was 218,500, an increase of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 750 from 215,000 to 215,750. (DOL)

Note: On Thursdays, this column is published right after 6:30 a.m. (Montana time), so I can post the latest unemployment numbers.

60,000

The Washington Post reported that Kimberly Guilfoyle, a fundraiser for former president Donald Trump and the fiancee of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., spoke for less than three minutes at the rally on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the Capitol riot. For her appearance, she was compensated $60,000 by Turning Point Action, a conservative nonprofit led by Charlie Kirk, according to two people with knowledge of her compensation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

Great work if you can get it…

400

Automakers reported nearly 400 crashes over a 10-month period involving vehicles with partially automated driver-assist systems, including 273 with Teslas, according to statistics released Wednesday by U.S. safety regulators. (AP)

I guess sleeping while driving one of these vehicles is not safe yet…

81

This week’s poll question asked, “Should ZooMontana host the Drag Queen Story Hour?” (Background)

Here are the results:

YES: 81%
NO: 14%
UNDECIDED: 5%

Thanks for participating!

40

According to FiveThirtyEight.com, that is President Joe Biden’s current approval rating. (Source)

Last week, Biden’s approval rating was 40.5%.

5-0

The Great Falls city zoning commission voted unanimously (5-0) to recommend that the City Commission deny a request from the First United Methodist Church at the corner of 2nd Street North and 6th Street to operate a tent encampment for the homeless. (The Electric)

After watching the live stream until some dummy at the city switched to the city commission work session, one thing I noticed is that Great Falls has some cold-hearted bastards in our community. Great Falls lacks leadership and compassion.

0.75

The Federal Reserve is accelerating key interest rate hikes in light of record-high inflation. On Wednesday, the central bank announced a rate increase of 0.75% — a sign it is acting more aggressively to fight rising consumer prices. It’s the first time since 1994 that the Fed has raised the rate that much. (NBC News)

0.084 – 11.35

That is the average price per gallon of gas around the world as of June 13, 2022. (Source)

In the USA, the average price on June 13 was $5.19. The week before (June 6), the average price in the USA was $5.03.

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