MATR Newsletter – January 10, 2022
The state with the best education wins!

Eating too much cake is the sin of gluttony. However, eating too much pie is O.K. because the sin of pie is always zero.

Come Home Montana

• Montana hospitals recruit international nurses to fill pandemic shortages

  More than 90% of Avant’s international nurses choose to stay in their new communities, Hudson said, but Billings Clinic hopes to better that mark. Welcoming them to the city will be critical, said Sara Agostinelli, the clinic’s director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. She has even offered winter driving lessons.

Northwestern Energy

• As part of the US’s new aid package, 7 major utility companies including Northwestern Energy have pledged not to cut off service to customers who ask for help.

  According to the Labor Department’s consumer price index, electricity and natural gas prices are about 11 percent higher than they were a year ago. Meanwhile, according to the Energy Information Administration, residential heating oil prices are up 40% from a year ago.

Great Falls Development Authority

• Great Falls Economic Development Top 10 for 1-9-22

  1) 23 companies announced projects either starting or opening in 2022! We heard from military, education, healthcare, manufacturing, food and ag process, distilleries (yep two of them!), and more. 2022 is going to be a great year for Great Falls. You can view the entire Ignite presentation here. See Great Falls Tribune story and KRTV.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Corporations Are Consolidating Water and Land Rights in the West

  With farms, ranches and rural communities facing unprecedented threats, a worrying trend leads to a critical question: Who owns the water?

• A regional economic development strategy and why commercial real estate should care

  The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act currently under consideration by Congress authorizes the EDA to receive approximately an additional $10 billion in future years for projects, including regional technology hubs.

The Telecommuting and Gig Workforce in Montana

• A lot more recruiters are hiring tech workers from nonacademic backgrounds

  Almost 40% of people who are hiring for positions in tech this year said they regularly recruit developers from nonacademic backgrounds, up significantly from 23% in 2021.

Housing

• Habitat for Humanity, University of Montana partner to build 3D-printed homes

  Habitat for Humanity and UM will partner to raise the $60,000 needed for the printer.

• They turned a one-car garage into a stunning ADU to house their parents. You can too

  Working with a budget of $175,000 for the building, the architects designed a simple pitched structure with a flat-roofed, modern attached carport that can be used as a covered patio.

• Why some cities are operating legal homeless tent camps even in the dead of winter

  Affordable housing in Missoula, pop. 70,000, is scarce. There is less than a 1% rental vacancy. And the median home price crept above half a million dollars in late 2021. Clark lived in her car until it got impounded.

Montana Business

• Climate change is helping invasive species take over trout habitats in Montana – Washington Post

  A study in Science Advances shows that Montana’s changing climate is causing native trout to dwindle — and facilitating the rise of invasive species.

TechLink

• Our experts top eight technology picks for January 2022

  You can work with us, for free, to license partially-developed technology.

Funding and Building your Business

• A Hertz Lawyer Just Said 6 Words the Company Should Hope Its Customers Never Hear

  Don’t let anyone who represents you talk like this.

Come Home Idaho

• Idaho struggles to fill state jobs, with 2,500 openings

  Idaho’s overall state employee pay continues to lag behind market levels.

Come Home Wyoming

• Wyoming’s brain drain, youth exodus slowed during pandemic

  The rate at which millennials left Wyoming decreased from 2019 through 2020, but there’s doubt those changes will stick or are indicative of future trends.

21st Century Education Initiative – “You Should Care…”

• Why Education Is About To Reach A Crisis Of Epic Proportions

  Almost half of teachers are thinking about leaving their jobs. Where does that leave America?

Rural Communities

• A neglected California city reinvents itself with electric cars — and plots a roadmap for the nation

  Converting low-income communities to costly electric cars is one of the biggest climate challenges facing the state and the nation. But the rural city of Huron, California, and the urban community of Rancho San Pedro show that it can be done.

Tell Us Something

• Tell Us Something – CALL FOR STORYTELLERS! In our return to live in-person events, we need storytellers! THEME: STONE SOUP

  We are so excited to be returning to in-person storytelling events this year! Help us make 2022 a great year by voting on themes that you’d like to see at the events.

Careers

• Your helpfulness at work is hurting your job performance

  You can still be the go-to colleague at work but, at minimum, set up boundaries to stave off “collaboration overload.”

Transportation

• How Pete Buttigieg Wants to Help Companies Build the Future of Transportation

  “We very much live in a time when innovation is reshaping how people and goods move to where they need to be,” Buttigieg said. “We should plan proactively to support the growth of new ideas and to make sure that Americans share the benefits.”

• Responding To The Washington Post Hatchet Job On Electric Cars & Winter Driving

  An editorial writer and columnist for the Washington Post wrote a screed attacking electric cars this week. His heavily slanted piece was filled with misinformation. Here’s the truth about driving an electric car in winter.

• You May Be Able to Own a Self-Driving Car After All

  Some players are shifting, subtly, to a new business strategy—selling automated features directly to consumers.

Energy and Climate Change

• Fighting Climate Change in the Kitchen

  With more cities banning the use of natural gas in new buildings, cooks are discovering the benefits of electric appliances.

• The internet is killing the environment. These students came up with a brilliant design fix

  To reduce the carbon footprint of the internet, students partner with Google and Microsoft to rethink the world’s data centers.

• Missoula’s energy-hungry treatment plant set for 1,200 panel solar array

  The project will use a third-party financing system, which means the city will not pay for the installation.

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