With summer ending, the 2016 elections are starting to heat up. And, as usual, tax policy is a hot-button issue, as political candidates from both sides of the aisle claim their plan is more “fair.” But what does a fair tax system look like? Which states actually have the fairest tax systems?

WalletHub analyzed and ranked the 50 states based on the fairness of their state and local tax systems — including income taxes, sales and excise taxes, and property taxes. To rank the states, Wallethub used the results of a nationally representative online survey of 1,050 individuals to assess what Americans think a fair state and local tax system looks like. Our analysts then compared public perception to data on the real structure of tax systems in all 50 states.

We believe this is the first ever ranking of state and local tax fairness that matches representative data on what Americans consider “fair” with real data on the structure of state and local tax systems.

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Kyle Ploehn is an artist, illustrator and writer living in Billings Montana. He likes to spend the few hours he isn't painting hiking the mountains of Montana.

The second part of a series of owls painted in the style of scratchboard illustration. I continue to explore my fascination with owls in this piece and push the acrylic medium in different ways. These images are almost ghosts, fragmented memories of great birds in search for something lost in time. I've always been a fan of haunting, misunderstood ghost stories of displaced people always searching for the ones they lost. I kind of feel that stories like that are fading, replaced by more crowd pleasing horror ghosts and reality shows of ghost hunters. So my owls are lost ghosts searching for the misplaced sense of wonder in the unknown.

The original is still available, an 18x24, framed for $650.

8x10 matted to 11x14 prints are available for $45. Contact me at [email protected], if you're interested in purchasing a print.

Grizzly and black bears are thick in the Flathead, Swan and Tobacco valleys, biologists for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said Friday.

And with the big bruins come conflicts and warnings, the managers said.

Both black and grizzly bears are at lower elevations now, looking for food that will provide them with the layer of fat they need in order to survive the winter in their dens, the biologists said.

Female grizzly bears with young are especially in need of additional food, because they have been nursing their cubs and need the extra calories.

FWP provided this accounting of recent grizzly bear management actions in the Flathead, Swan and Tobacco valleys.

Near Eureka, at least one young grizzly bear was seen feeding on apples and walking through yards. Traps were set for that bear, but it hasn’t been captured yet.

West of Fortine, landowners buried a dead horse and noticed something later dug it up. They put up a trail camera and three different grizzly bears were photographed at the site.

One of the grizzlies was wearing a radio collar that isn’t functioning properly. In an attempt to capture that bear and change the collar, two culvert traps were set.

MORE>>>Billings Gazette

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/grizzly-bears-abundant-in-northwest-montana-on-hunt-for-fat/article_74f91ac8-ba52-5d9c-beb0-b95e482b19ba.html#ixzz3mHZklafA