MATR Newsletter – August 15, 2022
The state with the best education wins!

Come Home Montana

• Montana & Washington Career Opportunities – Derivatives Development Engineer, Electrical Technician, Standards Engineer – REC Silicon

  Work at the forefront of silicon innovation, where ingenuity and initiate are highly valued. REC Silicon materials are shipped worldwide to help energy and technology providers shape the future.

Great Falls Development Authority

• Great Falls Economic Development Top 10 for 8-14-22

  Fifteen artists participated in a mural workshop on Friday to kickoff ArtsFest Montana 2022 in Downtown Great Falls. The artists will be creating new outdoor murals downtown throughout the week. See TheElectric and KFBB.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• The elephant in the room which is destroying family farms, rural communities and democracy

  For the last three decades, roughly 40 U.S. family cattle operations have gone out of business every day. It’s time to end the talk and campaigning and actually fix the problem.

• What the CHIPS Act means for Montana – Butte’s REC Silicon

  Significant to Montana is the bill’s support for silane gas production, which is used to produce semiconductors. The world’s largest supplier of the gas, REC Silicon, has a factory on the outskirts of Butte. REC Silicon employs nearly 300 people at the facility and has been recognized by the White House as a potential candidate for domestic expansion of silane gas production.

• MEDA Fall 2022 Conference – Mon, Nov 14-16 – Great Falls, MT, USA

  Please Join Us at The Newberry in Great Falls this November to learn about local and national trends impacting economic development. Hot topics include housing, workforce, business, and talent attraction. Benefit from networking and professional development opportunities.

• Don’t Miss Out: MEDA August 12 Newsletter – Fall Conference And Much More

  Please Join Us at The Newberry in Great Falls this November to learn about local and national trends impacting economic development. Hot topics include housing, workforce, business, and talent attraction. Benefit from networking and professional development opportunities.

• One Western town’s solution to wildfires? Community.

  “There’s a choice: We can burn the land on our terms, or we can let nature burn everything – and we won’t like the effects.”

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Duluth, Minnesota Ponders A Major Bet On Open Access Fiber

  Last April, the Duluth Economic Development Authority signed a $65,000 contract with Entrypoint LLC to examine the possibility of building a community-owned fiber network in Duluth. The result: a new Digital Access Master Plan that proposes the city spend $7-9 million to build a pilot open access fiber network in Lincoln Park next year.

• Few eastern Montana projects in $258 million broadband proposal

  An initial project ranking would award more than half the grant money for broadband buildout to Charter Communications, drawing criticism from small telecom providers.

Montana Businesses Seeking Investment or For Sale

• Oddfellow Inn and Farm near Helena, Montana is up for sale for $2.89M

  The sale price is $2.89 million and includes the 20,288-square-foot inn on 41 acres, 30 bedrooms, four kitchens, four wells, surface water rights to Seven Mile Creek, a wine cellar, a pond, an orchard and livestock.

Housing

• New world’s tallest timber tower crowned in the USA

  Move over Mjøstårnet, the Ascent, by Korb + Associates Architects, has officially been recognized as the new world’s tallest timber tower by the CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat). Located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the residential high-rise reaches an impressive maximum height of 86.6 m (284 ft).

Montana Business

• Montana Hospitals Facing Unprecedented Financial Crisis

  In the first quarter of 2022, Bozeman Health reached a financial barrier, according to Brad Ludford, Chief Financial Officer of Bozeman Health. By June, the hospital was running at his nearly $15 million loss, pushing the hospital to a breaking point. As a result, CEO John Hill announced a major layoff of the executive team.

2023 Montana Legislature and Politics

• Montana legislators to weigh in on special session for $1.5B surplus

  The letter requesting the special session sets out three goals: Rebates of up to $1,000 for Montana resident homeowners who paid property taxes on a primary residence in 2021 and 2020; rebates of up to $1,250 for individual taxpayers and $2,500 for couples filing jointly; and a payment of $100 million to reduce Montana’s bonded debt.

Government News & Events

• On a Montana mountaintop, this lookout watches for fire – and hope

  With snowpack shrinking and wildfires growing more frequent, climate change can stir panic. But this veteran fire lookout has a fresh and calm perspective, informed by her joy, hope, and experience in the wilderness.

Non-Profit News

• Montana Nonprofit Association Annual Conference – ‘Gather 2022’ – 9/21-23 – Online —9/28-29 – Helena

  Gather with us – in the way that works for you.

  In-person and/or online, we will gather for inspiring speakers, dynamic breakout sessions, and creative networking.

Washington State Business

• Exotic Auto Manufacturer For Sale – Barchetta Business: Be Your Own Boss

  His Barchetta 3500 pays homage to the vintage Maserati racers of yesteryear, offering the same care and attention to detail you would expect from something thoughtfully built to order. Each car takes between four and six months to construct and he typically builds just one car per year.

Transportation

• Wireless EV Charging Update: Siemens & MAHLE Team Up

  “Wireless charging of electric vehicles is emerging as a major market for the future. In addition to making life considerably easier for drivers, who no longer have to fiddle with cables and connectors, it is a crucial requirement for the autonomous mobility of tomorrow.

Cool Stuff That’s Coming

• Hydrogel that outperforms cartilage could be in human knees in 2023

  Current treatment options are usually limited to pain medication, physical therapy, or if things progress too far, a total knee reconstruction. But if the Duke team’s new work pans out, a better option might soon be available.

Energy and Climate Change

• Experts warn California of a disaster ‘larger than any in world history.’ It’s not an earthquake.

  A new study says that as the Earth warms, a massive California flood gets more likely — one that would swamp Los Angeles, displace millions and cause historic damage.

• US climate bill includes massive, game-changing green hydrogen incentives

  The US Inflation Reduction Act is poised to kickstart a global hydrogen revolution. Among the bill’s many climate-focused provisions are tax credits that will make American green hydrogen the cheapest H2 in the world, as low as US$0.73 per kilogram (2.2 lb).

• Video – Hank Green Talks About – The Biggest Deal in Climate History Almost Didn’t Happen

  The thing about this bill is that it’s going to keep having a huge impact on the country for many many years and, mostly, we will not even notice. That’s what happens with almost all good legislation.

• Meat has a big carbon footprint. The Inflation Reduction Act ignores it.
  The historic climate legislation is a missed opportunity to cut food emissions, but it can show us how to navigate the messy politics of meat.
• Innovation in solar panels generates 1,000x more power

  Unlike silicon, ferroelectric crystals do not require a so-called pn junction to create the photovoltaic effect, in other words, no positively and negatively doped layers. This makes it much easier to produce the solar panels.

Social Media, Connectivity & Communications

• Google is making these changes to its search engine to fight misinformation

  Tech-savvy digital natives may be more confident at the keyboard, but a broad swath of people across generations and continents — around two thirds — said they believe they are bombarded with false or misleading information online every week. And not all of them deal with it in the same way.

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