Page 6 - Flathead Beacon // 10.5.16

DATA POINTS
$3,123
Typical median income gains per household in Montana in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Billings and Great Falls metro areas saw the fastest gains in the state, with typical households’ incomes rising 11.9 percent and 8.0 percent, respectively. Last year 6,700 people were lifted out of poverty in Montana and the poverty rate fell by 0.8 percentage points.
$8.15
$48
Price per barrel of crude oil, a 6 percent increase after OPEC announced last week an agreement to cut back production in an attempt to lift global prices. In the last two years, prices have crashed from over $100 a barrel to $40.
THE GOOD
SPENDING BILL
Just days before another potential government shutdown, Congress passed a stopgap spending bill that keeps the government operating through Dec. 9.
THE BAD
BEAR ATTACKS
Two hunters were injured in separate bear attacks in southwest Montana recently. And another man survived after being attacked twice by the same bear in Madison County over the weekend.
MONTANA’S NEW HOURLY MINIMUM WAGE beginning Jan. 1, an increase of 10 cents. An estimated 3,323 workers, or approximately 1.2 percent of the state’s workforce, receive minimum wage. Over half of all workers earning minimum wage are over the age of 25, and over 60 percent of Montana’s minimum wage earners are women.
THIS WEEK’S POLLS FROM FLATHEADBEACON.COM
SHOULD FLATHEAD COUNTY GET A FIFTH DISTRICT COURT JUDGE?
TOTAL VOTES
SHOULD ALL MONTANA CITIES BE ALLOWED TO IMPLEMENT VOTER- APPROVED SALES TAXES?
TOTAL VOTES
WILL THE DEBATES INFLUENCE YOUR CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT?
TOTAL VOTES
178
192
218
69% YES
31% NO
47% YES
53% NO
14% YES
86% NO *READER POLLS ARE NOT SCIENTIFIC
“The ability to disconnect, the serenity value of that, is a park resource that they’ve given away without a thought. They have
ceded the telecommunications programs to the companies.”
Je Ruch, executive director of Washington, DC-based advocacy group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which says Yellowstone National Park has lost ground on a 2009 pledge to minimize cell phone access in backcountry areas.
“Any time I have to choose between the 9/11 victims and Saudi Arabia, I’m going to choose for the 9/11 victims.”
Sen. Jon Tester to NPR after he and the rest of Montana’s delegation voted to overturn President Barack Obama’s veto of a legislation that will allow victim’s families to
sue members of the Saudi government suspected of
playing a role in the 9/11
attacks.
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OCTOBER 5, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM