Montana’s answer to elf on a shelf…

Happy Holidays

Corona Virus Information

• More than $700,000 in COVID-19 relief money available for Montana artists

  The Montana Arts Council is dispersing close to $719,000 in coronavirus relief money to organizations, musicians, writers, performers and artists all across the state who have lost income.

• Gianforte sends letter to lawmakers outlining his office’s COVID protocols

  While the state has been under a mask mandate since the summer, lawmakers have say over the rules that govern how they operate in their chambers and while conducting legislative business.

• Missoula County Public Schools Video – Learning in our Hybrid and Online classrooms.

  This video takes you on a tour of Missoula County Public Schools in person and online classrooms in the Fall of 2020. Students and teachers are doing a great job staying connected and engaged with learning, even during a global pandemic.

Come Home Montana

• Far Off Broadway – The Alpine Theatre Project (ATP) in Montana’s Flathead Valley attracts top-caliber entertainment talent relocating from big cities.

  As more artists have gravitated to the area in recent years, the valley has increasingly become an entertainment hub, with more artists realizing they can maintain their professional careers while calling Montana home base.

• Montana Career Opportunity – Development Director – Flathead Valley Community College in Beautiful Kalispell, MT

  The Development Director develops fundraising campaigns, oversees management and outreach of Annual Fund and Corporate Giving programs. The Director is also responsible for cultivating relationships for recruitment and stewardship of planned and direct gifts from donors, foundations, and organizations; and directs and manages the Alumni and Friends Council and Association.

• Montana Career Opportunities – School Counselor or Social Worker, Grade 6 Long-Term Substitute, Gifted and Talented Teacher, PC Network Technician, and more… – Missoula County Public Schools

  METHODS CHANGE.  UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES DO NOT.  The mission, vision and core beliefs of MCPS are the foundation for the future of our schools.  We will create an inspired 21st Century Educational Culture that improves lifelong student achievement, develops remarkable educational leaders and engages the Missoula community in the future of its children.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Study: Montanans’ enthusiasm for tourists waned in 2020

  For the first time this year, Hutcheson and her staff had to make it a point to tell people that bear spray isn’t a repellent that you spray on your kids like insect repellent.

• Helena Senator Terry Gauthier to seek study on nuclear power in Montana

  A state senator says he will ask in the upcoming legislative session for a study on the merits of allowing small modular nuclear reactors in Montana in an effort to provide clean energy and tap into existing infrastructure. Sen. Terry Gauthier, a Republican who represents west Helena and in his second term in the state…

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• FCC awards $126M for Internet in rural Montana – Now what? Questions remain about final product

  The six companies will have six years to make high-speed Internet available to about 46,000 unserved locations in Montana. “If I’m a customer, I might be bothered that the company that neglected me for all these years is now going to be the company that’s going to save me.” Geoff Feiss

• America Needs More Open-Access, Middle-Mile Broadband Networks – Montana Law Stands In the Way of Progress

  “If we build it, will they come?” The report claims the answer is “yes” based on evidence in several states, including Virginia, Nevada, Massachusetts, Illinois and Washington.

Montana Business

• Impossible Foods CEO says the meat industry will be obsolete in 15 years — ‘That’s our mission’

  “This is why I think people are increasingly aware plant-based products are going to completely replace the animal-based products in the food world within the next 15 years. That’s our mission. That transformation is inevitable,”

Montana Biotech

• Marshall Bloom Named to Montana BioScience Alliance Hall of Fame

  “Each year we choose one person to enter into our Hall of Fame. We are thrilled to honor Dr. Bloom this year and to recognize his contributions to Rocky Mountain Laboratories and Montana.”

Regional Business News

• CBS 60 Minutes – How the Sutter Health hospital system grew to gain market power and drove up California health care costs and was followed by other systems

  They’re like the bully on the block. They were able to bully everyone else to conform; it was my way or the highway.

Government and University TechTransfer

• Term Sheet Recommendations for Launching University Life Science Startups

  Here is a set of best practices, meant to benefit universities and VCs more broadly.

Wyoming Business

• It’s time for Wyoming Governor Gordon to stand up to his party’s far-right fringe

  Wyoming needs common-sense governance to avoid derailing entirely during these unprecedented times. Though Gordon has shown an occasional willingness to pump the brakes, he has kept the train on track for crazy town.

• As Western states move away from coal, Wyoming clings to it

  Wyoming residents and businesses enjoy among the lowest rates for electricity because most of the state’s power comes from burning coal, but those cost dynamics are changing quickly, making coal a liability.

Rural Communities

• After generations of disinvestment, rural America might be the most innovative place in the U.S.

  Stop trying to save Rural America.

Connectivity & Communications

• Amazon launches Live Translation mode for Alexa

  Amazon says that Live Translation can interpret between a number of dialects in real time, including English and French, Spanish, Hindi, Brazilian Portuguese, German, or Italian.

Transportation

• Walmart and Gatik Switch to Fully Driverless Deliveries in 2021

  After 70,000 miles (112,650 km) of logged driving with a person there just for safety measures, the companies now deem the system safe enough to power itself sans-human, going completely driverless on that route.

• Automobile Dependency: An Unequal Burden

  Automobile-dependent planning has changed automobiles from a luxury into a necessity. Excessive vehicle costs leave many households without money to purchase essential food, shelter and healthcare. They need more affordable transportation options.

• What Secretary Pete Could Mean for the US DOT

  “If anybody says we shouldn’t subsidize trains — think about just how many ways we subsidize driving which is among the most carbon intensive things we could be doing.”

• GM’s Barra accelerates by $27 Billion ‘all out pursuit of global EV leadership’

  GM plans to increase spending on electric and autonomous vehicles to $27 billion by 2023, up 35% from previous disclosed plans, she said. The automaker also plans to speed the launch of a dozen new electric models.

• Full-throttle electric snow bikes quietly tear up Alpine powder

  French startup MoonBikes Motors is carving some space between the e-snowmobile and e-dirt bike categories, creating a full-throttle electric snow bike meant to travel lightly and deliver sharp, explosive exhilaration on the snow.

• Zoox reveals autonomous ride-sharing boxcar with no steering wheel

  “We’re reinventing personal transportation.”

• Electric Vehicles and the How They’ll Be a Part of the Power Grid: Roadmaps From California and New York

  How utilities and states with the biggest EV ambitions plan to make them a part of a cost-effective, reliable and clean energy-powered grid.

Energy and Climate Change

• How to recycle Amazon packaging (yes, all of it)

  Amazon does provide guidelines around the topic and customers in the U.S. whose orders are fulfilled by Amazon can click on any order in the Amazon app and scroll down to the bottom to view recycling or discard instructions.

• Denmark’s Wind-Powered Vertical Farm Will Produce 1K Tons of Greens a Year

  The farm will adopt hydroponics tech to grow foods with little water and not require the use of any pesticides.

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