The State with the Best Education Wins!
	MATR Newsletter - Tue Feb 20, 2007

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Public education is an investment in our future. - Matt Blunt

"Halt mandatory education in Montana , says Rick Jore, Chairman of the House Education Comittee." (What impact will this proposal have on Montana Economic Development?) http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html

Boomtown Institute

• The Agurban from Boomtown Institute - Entrepreneurship Week USA
  Entrepreneurship is a hot topic these days.

Come Home Montana

• Montana Career Opportunity - Ad Operations Manager/Ad Trafficker
  Ad Operations Interactive is growing and we are looking for skilled ad ops mangers and or experienced ad traffickers.


• ‘Gateway’ to art. From New Jersey to Anaconda, MT
  “I think opening a business now in Anaconda, the time is right with all that’s going on here,” he said.


• Montana Career Opportunity - Research Assistant / Senior Research Assistant - McLaughlin Research Institute - Great Falls, MT
  The research program focuses on peripheral myelination, and is funded by grants from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the European Leukodystrophy Association. BA/BS degree is required, along with fluency in English.

Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana

• Fifth Graders Learn Business Basics
  Entrepreneurship needs to become a standard part of education nationwide as a way to give students a way to take ownership of their futures.


• Indianpreneur Equity Fund to Assist in Indian Business Development in Montana
  "Many Indian business owners don't have access to the owner's equity that is available to non-native businesses," said Governor Brain Schweitzer. "This Equity Fund will help Indianpreneurs achieve their goals and enhance their community. This is a way to improve the economic climate of Indian country, one business at a time."

Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities

• High-tech jobs abound in Iowa. Why aren't workers filling them?
  "We've had to be a lot more proactive about it," hitting the university and community college circuit to recruit workers as well as advertising the positions

Montana Ambassadors

• Forbes publisher, Rich Karlgaard at Montana Ambassadors Meeting: Heartland will be the place to be
  “That creates a huge arbitrage opportunity for people and businesses,” he said. “That’s where I think the heartland of America is in the early innings of a boom that will last for decades.”

Montana Education Excellence

• From Bangalore to Bozeman: India native excels at tennis, business at Montana State University
  "I grew up in a place with almost five million people," Chigateri said. "Bozeman has a population of about 35,000. I probably had 35,000 people in my neighborhood."

Education

• Dropout returns for robots
  “It is really intense,” Damon said of the competition. “Everyone runs around doing everything at once. Last year, we had to take apart half of the robot and put a new wheel and gear in it and put it back together in two and a half minutes.”


• Yale on $0 a Day: Top Universities Post Free Course Materials Online
  Getting into college may be tougher than it used to be. But top schools are offering a growing number of courses free online.


• Attorney General weighs in on Bitterroot Valley community college. Timeline could push back formation of college to 2009
  The Bitterroot Valley Community College Exploratory Committee will turn in the needed signatures to the regents March 1 to put the formation of a community college district to a vote May 8 during the Ravalli County school elections. Voters at that time will also elect the district's trustees if the proposal is approved.


• New engineering center at Gonzaga University funded by PACCAR
  When it opens in fall 2008, university President Robert Spitzer said the new center would "become the technological heart of our campus." Dennis Horn, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, predicted it would lead to "a significant jump in interest in Gonzaga among engineering students from around the country."


• Program instructs teachers on how to create a safe place for students
  What if there were a proven method for reducing violence, drug abuse and drop out rates for kids? A method tested by two decades worth of real world practice?

Montana Business

• Boom in the Mountains of Montana Creates a Housing Shortage
  Faced with a severe housing shortage for its workers, at least two resorts, the Yellowstone Club and Big Sky Resorts, picked an unusual solution. Each bought a motel it intended to continue operating for travelers, as well as for housing workers and contractors.


• Great Falls to host Made in Montana
  Purveyors of everything from hand-made wooden toys to spaghetti sauce made with buffalo meat will sell their wares at the Made in Montana show in March.


• Total Label USA of Whitefish, MT begins $10 million expansion
  Four years ago, Farris retired and moved with his wife, Beth, to the Whitefish area, along with their now 7-year-old son Jack. After a while, Farris began listening to local economic development experts, who convinced him to open another label plant in the Flathead. Then his son Chris, who studied neurobiology; daughter Janet Henderson, who studied molecular biology; and architect son-in-law Scott Henderson decided to move to Whitefish because of the quality of life and begin new careers at the plant.

Montana Economic Development

• What makes Townsend, MontanaTownsend, Montana? (Hint...it's the water...)
  “A community needs to tell a concise story, but you have to live up to your story,” said Brian Obert, in explaining the branding exercise. He is program manager for Montana Business Assistance Connection — formerly Gateway Economic Development Corporation.


• Rep. Denny Rehberg to Lead Montana Trade Mission to Italy with the Montana World Trade Center
  “We work hard, before, during, and after our trade missions because the Montana World Trade Center does a tremendous job of connecting Montanans with the international community and these trade missions have a proven record of economic success,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “I’m excited about the opportunities on this particular trade mission and eager to do all I can to open doors for Montana businesses.”


• Halt mandatory education in Montana , says Rick Jore, Chairman of the House Education Comittee. (What impact will this proposal have on Montana Economic Development?)
  John Taylor Gatto, an author and former school teacher from New York, said compulsory school attendance had its roots in prewar Germany and was a type of "mind control" used by elitists to "socially engineer" a large group of easily controlled consumers and citizens. He warned the committee not to confuse "schooling for education."

Funding and Building your Business

• "Role Players in the Innovation Ecosystem" Dispatches from the Frontier Musings on Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  Originators and Entrepreneurs Create Differentiated Products and Business Plans


• Venture capital firms consider invention contests
  The idea is to spur innovation and give the venture firms a chance to see prospective technologies and business plans ahead of other venture investors, said Wes Raffel, a partner with Advanced Technology Partners.


• Beyond Bootstrapping
  There is an alternative to bootstrapping or raising capital from strangers. I’ve made three investments in the past few years using a different model. I call it “The Third Way.”

Oregon Business

• Investing - Few of the millions the Legislature has marked for venture capital get back to Oregon
  Four years after the Legislature pushed the state-run pension fund to plow $100 million into Oregon-based business startups, only $7 million has found its way into businesses and just a fraction of that into businesses in Oregon.

Regional Business

• Qwest laid off about 100 IT employees, report says
  The company cut about 1,300 jobs in 2006, including 600 in Colorado.


• Science needs entrepreneurs, says Google founder Larry Page
  "Let's talk about solving some worldwide problems. Let's get people really motivated,"

Regional Economic Development

• Planners and Child Advocates Agree: Smart Planning Should Promote Neighborhood-Centered Schools
  "The challenge for all of us is to make certain that when new schools are being built they are being built with the understanding that even if we do not have the joint uses together right now, in the future they will become joint-use facilities simply out of necessity."

Utah Economic Development

• State entices with tax rebates. Utah's economic development initiative could result in $4 billion windfall in tax revenues
  The state has awarded $67 million in tax rebates over the past 1 1/2 years to entice 28 companies to relocate to Utah, creating 8,000 new jobs, officials in the Governor's Office of Economic Development reported Friday.

Idaho Business

• Boise software firm, Mobile Dataforce lands government contracts
  MobileDataforce makes software that allows users to fill out forms from the field on handheld devices and synchronize the information on the forms with their office database. It markets its products to government inspectors, contractors, utility workers and health-care providers.


• "Emerging Trends In Economic Development", 3/8-9, Boise, ID
  This is to let you know of an exciting and affordable training opportunity presented by the Idaho Economic Development Association (IEDA).

Wyoming Business

• Wyoming ethenol from wood chips plant being designed would be first of its kind
  Ethanol is widely produced today from corn and other food crops and used as an additive to gas and diesel fuel. Making fuel from wood chips and other nonfood crops is more difficult but has the potential to significantly alter the nation's dependence on oil.


• Wyoming call center caters to S. Koreans. Eleutian Corp.
  "Our biggest difficulty now is finding enough teachers and getting them trained," said Holiday, whose distance learning company will match students in South Korea with teachers more than 5,800 miles away in Wyoming.

Other Economies

• States look to tax on business for cash
  The states' economic situations drove each to look more closely at the decline in corporate tax revenue brought on by the post-2000 recession. State tax directors believed the drops in corporate taxes had been out of proportion in poor economic times.


• Sowing seeds for state's growth. Venture Center could draw dollars, attention
  "This will be a public-private partnership that will be significantly staffed, and its goal will be to put the great new companies in Wisconsin together with venture capital from all around the country," Doyle said in an interview.


• South Carolina is fueling new business. Venture capital funds will give needed boost to home-grown firms, but state still lacks large-scale investors.
  This is a worthwhile effort that will provide opportunity for new businesses. With wise investing and continued support from the state, this program, along with InnoVenture and other efforts, will improve the climate for venture capital investing in South Carolina. That will help everyone as it provides energy for a state economy that needs to grow.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

• The Web's Best Online Calendars
  Online calendars help you keep your life in order no matter where you are. They hold all of your info securely on a web server. Log in with a password and your schedule accessible from anywhere.

Small Diameter Timber Utilization

• Logging lightly: Woodland Restoration Inc. of Missoula takes easy-on-the-landscape approach to thinning
  “This isn't old-time traditional logging,” he said. “It's not about getting the cut out. Nearly all the people we work with are conservation-minded. They just want to do what's best for their lands.”

Non-Profit News

• Nonprofit seeks jobs for homeless
  He said he could even act as a sort of employment agency, helping people find work and then supplying them with tools, clothes and equipment, "whatever is needed to get them a job."

Energy

• Burning news in Townsend, Montana schools. The new boilers are on fire!!!
  Because Townsend schools was among the first schools to convert to biomass boilers, the district garnered grants and loans that covered much of the $425,000 installation cost. Not only does the school save money, said Superintendent Brian Patrick, it’s also earning it.


• No place like (a green) home
  Think hydronic heating, electrochromic windows, desiccant cooling and LED or light-emitting diode bulbs. If that's not enough, you could always go for tankless water heaters or combined photovoltaic and hot-water panels.


• U.S. Conference of Mayors Leading the Way On Climate Protection
  The U.S. Conference of Mayors is committed to substantially reducing cities' contributions to climate pollution with actions that make sense for your city, your environment and the economy. But it is an effort that depends on community-wide actions - individuals, businesses, schools, commuters, governments - in short, everybody.

Connectivity & Communications

• Former Homeland Security Chief Slams Interoperability Progress
  "To be five and half years after 9/11 and be no further toward a national, broadband, interoperable communication system in my judgment is inexcusable," Ridge said in an interview with Government Technology Magazine.

Community

• A Comprehensive Affordable Housing Strategy Is More Than Just Inclusionary Zoning
  Participating on Oakland’s Inclusionary Housing Blue Ribbon Commission, a home builder points to the futility of inclusionary zoning and lists effective alternatives that should be included in a comprehensive approach to building affordable housing.

City Club Missoula

• Missoula City Club - Mayoy John Engen: city can handle potholes and global warming
  “I think we can fill potholes and grow poplars at our wastewater treatment plant that drink nitrogen and breathe CO2,” Engen explained. “I think we can write tickets for drivers running red lights while designing a green building for our police department.

Cool Stuff That's Coming

• A Tool Worthy of Batman's Utility Belt
  A small, powerful rope-climbing device can pull a person up 30 stories in 30 seconds.

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