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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Apr 12, 2016 |
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
Montana Economic Developers Association 2016 Spring Conference - 4/20-22 - Butte, Montana http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Gov. Steve Bullock
Kalispell Chamber of Commerce
- Governor Bullock's Equal Pay Task Force moving dial on fair pay
The Governor's Equal Pay Task Force, with community supporters, has been resolute in its mission to examine the causes of the wage gap and take tangible steps to close it.
Montana Politics & Legislature
- A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity - The Kalispell Chamber of Commerce Travels to China
This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event and we could not be more grateful for the opportunity and invitation from Ambassador Baucus and the Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce.
Montana World Affairs Council
- Montana school tax credit debate continues
The 2015 Montana state legislature passed a law that allows $150 scholarship donations for students attending schools -- both public and private. The donor is entitled to a matching tax credit against state taxes.
Northwestern Energy
- Global demographics and a question of resources
The population growth will be concentrated in the countries and regions least prepared to deal with the multi-faceted challenges their populations will present.
Great Falls Development Authority
- Lewis and Clark County, Montana grants tax break to proposed Helena Valley solar farm
This is one of five utility-scale solar facilities Cypress Creek has under contract with NorthWestern Energy in Montana, said Butch Larcombe, a company spokesman.
Visit Montana - Montana Dept. of Tourism
- ABC News featured Great Falls in a story about Forbes' ranking of the Top 25 Places to Retire To.
"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success." Henry Ford
Energy and Climate Change
- Hundreds of Miles of Bob Marshall Trails to be Cleared After Fire Season
Last year, wildfires burned nearly 100 square miles of wilderness in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. Now, U.S. Forest Service officials face the task of cleaning up the mess left behind and restoring the trails.
- Food and Wine - Best Ice Cream Spots in the U.S. - Missoula, Montana: Big Dipper Ice Cream
Signature Item: Huckleberry ice cream (made with local berries)
- Yellowstone: Explore the world's first national park
Yellowstone National Park contains about half of the world's active geysers, but those are just the beginning of all the sights to see at the park.
- Aiming High in Big Sky Country - New marketing campaign showcases Montana as land of realizing dreams and opportunities
"Our state is a magical place. It's a place that we are all lucky enough to experience every day, living it and breathing it," Honeycutt said. "When tourists come, it's somewhere that always stays with them."
Come Home Montana
- PG&E's Newly Proposed Efficiency Program Is Simple. But It's Based on a Revolutionary Concept
The future of efficiency is at hand.
- Watch Volvo literally steal energy from other cars to power its hybrid SUV
The company laid down a patch of road that would suck up unused energy from cars that passed over it. That power was fed into an awaiting XC90, which was able to drive off the work of other cars.
Montana Business
- Montana Career Opportunities - Human Resources Representative, Director of Field Operations, Outside Plant Engineering Supervisor, Marketing Manager - Blackfoot Telecommunications
In an industry where everyone screams latest! fastest! greatest! we speak to solving, serving and adding value. Because reliable doesn't come from circuits, lines or networks. Reliable comes from people.
- Montana From Above - Breathtaking Video
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir
TEDx Events in Montana
- Rivertop Renewables hits commercial milestone
"Our next step is to prove the markets, so that we can go out and raise funds to build a very large plant. Probably more than 10-times the size of our current plant," he explained. And at that point when we've got that plant operating and we're selling to customers we'll be a profitable chemical company headquartered right here in Missoula."
- The view from Dunrovin: starting guest ranch took leap of faith
Never have I worked harder.
- Butte based InsideMt makes virtual reality a reality
InsideMt has produced promotional content for such clients as Big Sky Resort, ZooMontana and Museum of the Rockies.
- Dire straits: Calls sounded to save MSE in Butte
"It is our number-one priority -- absolute number one," said BLDC Executive Director Pam Haxby-Cote. "We are doing everything possible that this organization and its board of directors can do ... to retain this company and grow it because there is real potential, real talent out there."
- Worries Run Deep as Creston, Montana Water Bottling Plant Seeks Approval
Concerns have been raised in Creston that the water bottling plant could negatively impact surrounding wells.
- Group lists Montana's Smith River as fourth most endangered stream in U.S.
The report says that the Black Butte Copper Project, a mine proposed by the Canadian company Tintina Resources, poses several dangers to the stream, including the leaching of heavy metals and dewatering of a main tributary.
Careers
- Today's TED Talk - Linus Torvalds: The mind behind Linux
In a rare interview with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Torvalds discusses with remarkable openness the personality traits that prompted his unique philosophy of work, engineering and life.
- TED Video: Hugh Evans - What does it mean to be a citizen of the world?
In this uplifting and personal talk, learn more about how this new understanding of our place in the world is galvanizing people to take action in the fights against extreme poverty, climate change, gender inequality and more.
Next Generation Broadband in Montana
- The next hot job in Silicon Valley is for poets
Increasingly, there are poets, comedians, fiction writers, and other artistic types charged with engineering the personalities for a fast-growing crop of artificial intelligence tools.
- Where You Live Could Determine How Long You Live
Higher income has already been linked to greater longevity and better health. A new study by a prominent researcher of mobility suggests geographic location plays an outsized role in life expectancy for lower earners.
- Expresso app will show you everything wrong with your writing
Expresso, currently in beta, lets you closely examine how you write and how often you use certain types of words.
Rural Communities
- Santa Cruz, Calif., Deploys Fiber-Like Wireless Gigabit Internet Through Public-Private Partnership
The city's fiber-like wireless proof-of-concept project may very well drive the movement to municipal fiber.
Government
- Why More and More People Are Dying Young in Rural America
Drugs aren't the only health risk to rural county residents. They also have higher rates of smoking, obesity, child poverty, and teen births as well as struggle with access to jobs, health care, and physical activity.
Idaho Business
- Senator Jon Tester's Big Sky Rewind - A review of Jon's recent efforts on behalf of Montana
It has been a busy few weeks on the road in Montana.
Oregon Business
- Idaho National Laboratory nuke solution should start with frank, face-to-face discussions
Perhaps it is time to discuss a "Trust, But Verify" approach -- but the prospects for such negotiations will be better when Otter and others start speaking directly to Wasden instead of past him, and all parties work with the Energy Department.
Regional Business
- Oregon vs. Oracle: Legal war gets personal as company goes on the attack
It's come to this in the long, bitter legal fight between Oracle Corp. and the state of Oregon over the botched Cover Oregon healthcare website:
Regional Economic Development
- Why cutting the pay-TV cord turned out to be a good move
Cord cutting is having a clear impact on the industry -- and that can only be good for consumers who have grown sick of paying for dozens, even hundreds, of channels they never watch.
- Corporate America's embrace of gay rights has reached a stunning tipping point
The watershed levels of opposition to recent legislation in Indiana, Georgia and North Carolina has turned the question of "why would a company publicly wade into social issues like gay rights?" into another one: "Why wouldn't they?"
- What Costco shoppers should know before new member credit cards arrive
June 20 marks the date the warehouse club officially switches over from American Express to the new Visa cards, Citigroup said.
- 'Smart Garbage' Startup Cuts City Trash Costs by 40 Percent
The amount of garbage in cities is growing.
Workforce Development
- Explaining the purpose of economic growth
What is the purpose of economic growth? Is it an end unto itself? Or do we look to economic growth and rising incomes to fulfill basic human needs and provide us with improved lives in a broad sense?
Education
- Montana Code School Graduates Start Promising Careers with Montana Technology Companies
Interested students can apply at the Montana Code School website: http://www.montanacodeschool.com.
- Universities aren't doing enough to train the cyberdefenders America desperately needs
None of America's top 10 computer science programs -- as ranked by U.S. News & World Report in 2015 -- requires graduates to take even one cybersecurity course, according to a new analysis from security firm CloudPassage.
MAPS : Media Arts in the Public Schools
- Getting a Student Loan With Collateral From a Future Job
At Purdue University, some undergraduates will have a new option to help finance their degrees: pledging to pay a percentage of their future incomes in return for funds today.
- Got student loans? The Education Department wants to change how you pay them back
"Borrowers saying it's complicated to keep track of their loans has been a running theme for many years."
Montana Education Excellence
- Great MAPS Video - Meals on Wheels Makes a Big Difference for Hundreds in Ravalli County
Congratulations to the students of The MAPS Media Institute http://www.mapsmediainstitute.com/ who produced this video for the Ravalli County Council on Aging's Meals on Wheels program.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- MSU experience contributes to 'Science' article about increasing diversity in STEM
"A recipe for change: Creating a more inclusive academy" describes a six-point program for creating inclusion and equity for faculty, especially in what are called STEM fields --science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- at universities.
Community
- Montana community colleges tout responsiveness to industry
"That is not the speed of education, Nix said at the meeting. That is close to the speed of industry, and this program is just that, industry-driven."
Funding and Building your Business
- Evaluating Affordable Housing Development Strategies
In recent years, planners have developed a better understanding of what this means and how to evaluate affordable housing development strategies.
- Celebrate Islam Week in Missoula, April 25-30
SALAM, Standing Alongside America's Muslims, is a Missoula-based group formed to push back against the hate and fear that unfortunately dominates today's discourse about the world's second-largest religion, with 1.5 billion followers.
- Enlisting Public Libraries to Help Fight Homelessness
A growing number of library systems are adding services for patrons who are homeless, hungry, or suffering from drug addiction or mental illness.
- Butte chosen as sentinel community in nationwide project
Sentinel Communities will be the focus of a new observational research project designed to understand how individual communities are approaching and building a Culture of Health.
Non-Profit News
- Billing by Millionths of Pennies, Cloud Computing's Giants Take In Billions
In other words, you have to be really big to worry about making money off things that are really tiny.
- The real reason women still get paid less
When, then, does the gap persist, and why is it so big?
- Google And R/GA To Speak And Teach About Anticipating The Wave Of The Future, 4/14, Bozeman
The team represents a passionate group of creative thinkers tasked with shaping the future of Google brands by deepening the affection of Google’s users.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Linda Kindrick, Executive Director of the Montana Community Finance Corporation to retire effective April 30, 2016.
During Linda's tenure, MCFC has obtained SBA approval on 142 loans to Montana's small businesses totaling $68,664,000.
- 2016 AERO Sponsorship Packages For a More Sustainable Montana
Support our shared mission of a more sustainable Montana & promote your business with an AERO Sponsorship
- Google.org's Giving $20 Million to Engineer a Better World for the Disabled
From open source electric wheelchairs to multi-lingual keyboards you can control with eye-tracking technology, the chosen projects focus on solutions for disabled people in five main categories: education, communication, mobility, independence, and employment.
HACKING AND VIRUS ALERTS
- 600 smartphones of data can fit in a drop of DNA
A new technique could shrink the space needed to store digital data that today would fill a Walmart supercenter down to the size of a sugar cube.
Transportation
- Adobe issues Flash update to thwart ransomware
The updates address "critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system," Adobe says.
- BMW unveils car-sharing service: Could personal cars become obsolete?
By 2025, new car sales could drop by 40 percent
- How Can Government Officials Clear the Road for Self-Driving Cars?
There are smart steps that states and communities can take to encourage automated driving. There are also some potholes to avoid.
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