The State with the Best Education Wins!
	MATR Newsletter - Tue Dec 24, 2013

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Whose woods are these, I think I know, his house is in the village though. He will not see me stopping here, to watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer, to stop without a farmhouse near, between the woods and frozen lake, the darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake, to ask if their is some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. --- Robert Frost

May the warmth and joy of the holidays be with you and yours. Russ

TEDx Events in Montana

• TEDx Talk - Paul Piff: Does money make you mean?
  It's amazing what a rigged game of Monopoly can reveal.

Northwestern Energy

• NorthWestern Files Application for $900 Million Dam Buy
  The Public Service Commission says NorthWestern Energy has filed a formal application for its proposed purchase of 11 hydroelectric dams from PPL Montana for $900 million.

Visit Montana - Montana Dept. of Tourism

• New Montana Tourism Assessment and Planning Program Development Work to Begin January 2014
  The Montana Department of Commerce today announced that the community of Ennis has been selected to assist the Montana Office of Tourism, the Montana Main Street program, and the MSU Extension's Community Development Program in designing a tourism assessment and planning program for use statewide in future years.

Great Falls Development Authority

• 2014 Great Falls Means Business, 1/8, Great Falls, Montana
  Join Governor Bullock and GFDA Investors to learn what strategies we are employing locally and statewide to grow and diversify our economy. We will share current activities and report on projects underway.

Come Home Montana

• WebFilings and Apptus looking for talent for their Montana operations
  "We decided to open a Bozeman office because we found high-quality talent living there," said Matt Rizai, WebFilings CEO. "Our employees are critical to our success and we feel fortunate to be part of the Bozeman community."


• Want to work in Glacier National Park? Now's the time to apply
  Job openings at Glacier National Park - and at all national parks, and for other federal agencies - are posted at usajobs.gov.


• Montana Career Opportunities - Business Development Manager, Programmer/Software Engineer, IT Technician 2 - Blackfoot Telecommunications Group
  We offer rewarding careers along with the opportunity to live and work in picturesque western Montana.

Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana

• Mark Cuban: Entrepreneurship will explode outside Silicon Valley
  "Talk about your company and why it's special. Do not talk about your personal or family hardships. They are irrelevant."

Montana Business

• Baucus as Ambassador in China could help Montana commerce
  Webb Scott Brown, executive director of the Montana Chamber of Commerce, said Baucus' appointment will be good for Montana and the nation. "We're excited about the opportunity for Montana to have someone of Max's stature on the world stage," he said.


• Montana's economy sees stronger growth in 2013
  Like last year, Montana should end 2013 with a stronger economy than earlier predictions, Barkey said, about a 2.7 percent growth rate.


• Bitterroot Valley economy on its way up from the bottom
  "It seems like the last three years everyone was just working on staying in business and doing what they had to to make that happen," Foster said. "Now people are starting to hire some new employees. They are doing a little bit of expansion and some capital improvements."

Idaho Business

• eCommerce Support LLC barred from operating in Idaho
  The Idaho Attorney General's Office has barred a Boise-based e-commerce training business, eCommerce Support LLC, from operating in Idaho.

Other Economies

• "Six Californias" - Tim Draper Wants To Split California Into Pieces And Turn Silicon Valley Into Its Own State
  Getting such a measure on California's wacky ballot will be no easy task.

Regional Business

• Bullet Time Ventures - TechStars' David Cohen, Mark Solon Target $150M Venture Fund
  Bullet Time Ventures 2014 L.P.'s managing directors include Cohen and Mark Solon, co-founder of Highway 12 Ventures, according to the SEC filing.

Regional Economic Development

• Where Working-Age Americans Are Moving
  The data shows that as they age, Americans continue, in general, to shift to suburbs, and later smaller communities, looking to buy homes and start families.


• When Driving Wanes, Local Economies Gain
  People who drive less give less money to distant oil corporations, but give a lot more to the local economy.

Workforce Development

• Job skills gap widens at high cost to U.S. economy
  "Here's a good article on the challenges of bridging the skills gap. A recent OECD report put these challenges in a global context. In the first assessment of adult skill levels across developed countries, the the OECD pointed to the importance of addressing this challenge."

Funding and Building your Business

• ZooTown Co-Working Co-op First Friday Open House, 1/3, Missoula, Montana
  We're getting closer to opening our bootstrap location.


• Mind the Gap Between Business and IT
  Business and IT are increasingly out of sync, as falling barriers to technology acquisition enable business units to get what they need on their own.


• The Smartest Entrepreneurs Bootstrap Their Startup
  We all want to have our vision realized sooner rather than later, but it can be a big mistake to bring in investors rather than patiently building your business at a slow, steady pace (organic growth).

Energy and Climate Change

• Lights Flicker for Utilities
  Utilities must spread their high fixed costs for things like repairing the grid over fewer kilowatt-hours, making solar power even more competitive and pushing more people to adopt it in a vicious circle.


• Is solar the 'new Utah gold rush'? New projects poised to come online
  Utah is getting in on the action with several projects slated to come online next year, and the Tooele Army Depot is soon poised to tap into the sun with a 1.5 megawatt project.


• Americans are buying less electricity. That's a big problem for utilities.
  Something very unusual has been happening to the U.S. electricity sector over the past three years.

HACKING AND VIRUS ALERTS

• Missoula Internet security expert at LMG Securitywarns: "Think before you click"
  "Companies get hacked every day and it's important to remember that, for every company you hear about getting hacked there's 99 others that you're never going to hear about," Davidoff said.

Transportation

• Self-driving car tests approved in Michigan
  It now means companies like Nissan, Ford and Google, among others, are able to test their autonomous vehicles on public roads, furthering research into self-driving cartechnology.


• A Triumph for Transit in Cincinnati Could Mark Major Policy Shift
  "We're going to have a streetcar," Mayor John Cranley announced at a press conference yesterday, just a little more than a month after he made a declaration that the streetcar project would be scrapped in favor of funding other city services.

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