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Texas Is The Best State In The Country To Make A Living, Survey Says

David Lee
/
Shutterstock.com
Texas has been named the best state in the country to make a living.

Five stories that have North Texas talking: Texas tops another list; General Motors is expanding its Arlington SUV factory; learn all about tacos; and more.

Texas has been named the best state in the country to make a living. It moved up from second place in 2014. MoneyRates.com, a personal finance site, compiled the list. The site “considered average wages, taxes, cost of living, unemployment rate, and incidents of workplace safety incidents (including illness, injuries, and deaths) for each state,” Forbes reports. MoneyRates.com says Texas “scored well across the board” on employment factors. “Although average wages in Texas was only slightly above the national average, workers in Texas get good value from those wages,” the site says. “The cost of living in the state is below average, and there is no state income tax. On top of those economic considerations, only one state (Louisiana) had fewer incidents of workplace illness, injuries and fatalities.” Washington ranked No. 2; Wyoming was No. 3. Virginia and Illinois rounded out the top five. Hawaii was ranked the worst state to make a living. Hawaii sure is beautiful, but it’s expensive – housing in particular – and salaries don’t make up for the high costs, MoneyRates.com says. By the way, here's our bucket list of 39 things you should do in Texas before you die.

  • General Motors will announce Tuesday that it's spending more than $1 billion to expand an SUV factory in Arlington. The company wouldn't comment on specifics of the investment. But it has scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. to be attended by the company's labor relations chief and the United Auto Workers vice president who handles GM. Demand for GM's big SUVs has been so strong that the plant can't make them fast enough. The Arlington factory has about 3,800 hourly workers on three shifts making SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade. Sales of the SUVs are up more than 10 percent through June, according to Autodata Corp. [Associated Press]

  • Tacos, tacos, tacos! It’s Taco Tuesday. At 1 p.m. on KERA’s Think, Lesley Téllez, author of Eat Mexico, and Whitney Filloon, editor of Eater Dallas, will talk about tacos in North Texas – and where to find the best ones. And then at 6:30 p.m., they’ll appear at a taco talk:  Dallas Tacology: The Tortilla’s Tale in Big D panel at El Come Taco in Dallas. Buy a ticket for tonight’s panel here. Here’s what event organizers have to say: “From the cash-only hole-in-the-wall joint to the fancy gourmet taquería, Dallas is obsessed with tacos. But how did they get here? How have they gone from crunchy shell to gourmet fillings? And why? What’s next?” Also scheduled to appear at tonight’s taco talk: Carmen Cuellar Summers, with El Chico, and José R. Ralat of The Taco Trail blog.

  • You can make your reservations for DFW Restaurant Week. The list of participating restaurants has been released. (Here’s the list.) The 18th annual event starts Aug. 10, but you should start making reservations now since spots fill up quickly. More than 125 restaurants are participating. The beneficiaries are North Texas Food Bank and Lena Pope.

  • David Letterman made a surprise appearance in San Antonio Friday night. The San Antonio Express-News reports: “Late-night talk show legend David Letterman made his first public appearance since retiring in May onstage Friday night at the Majestic Theatre with Steve Martin and Martin Short. The appearance had not been announced prior to the comedy concert. A bearded Letterman stunned the house by walking on and joining Martin and Short for the last part of the show. Those lucky enough to be in the audience even got to hear Letterman do a Top Ten list about Donald Trump (he conveniently had the list in his coat pocket) and praise the ‘beautiful city of San Antonio’ and the Spurs.” [San Antonio Express-News]

Photo: David Lee/Shutterstock.com

Eric Aasen is KERA’s managing editor. He helps lead the station's news department, including radio and digital reporters, producers and newscasters. He also oversees keranews.org, the station’s news website, and manages the station's digital news projects. He reports and writes stories for the website and contributes pieces to KERA radio. He's discussed breaking news live on various public radio programs, including The Takeaway, Here & Now and Texas Standard, as well as radio and TV programs in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.