MATR Newsletter – January 26, 2023
The state with the best education wins!

Come Home Montana

• Modular home maker coming to Butte, could employ hundreds

  A California company that makes modular homes plans to build an $80 million, 450,000 square-foot facility at the Montana Connections Business Development Park in Butte that could employ up to 150 employees the first year and more after that.

• Montana (and Remote) Career Opportunities – Analyst – Business and Corporate Development, Senior iOS Engineer, Senior Android Engineer and more…. – onX

  Our mission is to awaken the adventurer inside everyone. The call of the wild is in all of us. It provokes exploration. It propels us to ridgelines, coastlines, high crags,…

Big Sky Economic Development

• Need Summer Employees? Hire Youth!

  The Yellowstone County Summer Jobs Program matches participants with a paid position, provides a paid foundational work skills training, and connects students with an adult mentor for the summer.

City of Bozeman Economic Development

• Bozeman mayor’s annual state of the city address highlights some good, some bad

  Bozeman’s economy is strong, but its labor force is under pressure.

Great Falls Development Authority

• Upcoming Trainings With GFDA: Agriculture grant programs, childcare provider training and government contracting

  Check out the upcoming trainings!

High Plains Financial

• Start or grow your business with an SBA 504 loan

  We are Montana’s SBA 504 Lender, High Plains Financial

Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative

• Montana International Trade & Investment Survey

  If your firm has been involved in exporting, importing, or foreign direct investment, would you consider taking a few minutes to respond to the survey?

Prospera Business Network

• Get Back to Business in 2023 With Prospera!

  If you or someone you know has been helped by Prospera, pay it forward by donating to the foundation or joining our membership family.

Montana Business

• Where is child care most expensive? New labor department data breaks down costs by county.

  The data show childcare costs range from 8% to 19% of a median family’s income per child. That’s anywhere from $5,357 to $17,171 per year when adjusted for inflation.

• The Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity to Remake Downtown

  Urban cores around the country were transforming into live, work, and play destinations before the pandemic. The pandemic was a setback for this transformation, but it could also be a rare opportunity. It’s up to city leadership to seize it.

• Yellowstone TV series bringing people, money to Montana’s Bitterroot Valley businesses

  Now that the popular TV series Yellowstone has run for a few seasons, it’s not shocking to see Kevin Costner walking around in downtown Missoula or at the rodeo.

• ‘Yellowstone’ Effect Keeps Growing – Younger Viewers Driving ‘Yellowstone’s’ Cultural and Economic Impact

  Thanks to Taylor Sheridan’s crazy-popular television series “Yellowstone,” a whole new generation of city folk is using phrases like “cowboy up” and looking for the perfect pair of boots to wear to their 9-to-5 desk jobs.

• USDA Offers Grants for Programs to Create High-Wage Jobs and New Businesses in Underserved Rural Communities

  The Rural Innovation Stronger Economy (RISE) program provides grants for job accelerator partnerships that will serve people in low-income and underserved rural communities.

The Telecommuting and Gig Workforce in Montana

• MSU Extension – The Remote Work Certificate course (RWC) Exit Survey

  As we enter into the third calendar year of offering the Remote Work Certificate course, we thought it would be worth looking back on who has taken the course and why.

Senator Jon Tester

• Tester Takes Gavel as Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee for the 118th Congress

  Tester has been a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee since 2007, and is the only member of the Montana delegation who sits on the Committee.

• Getting Dark Money Out of Politics, Overturning Citizens United are Aims of Tester’s First Two Bills of 118th Congress

  Senator reintroduces his Sunlight for Unaccountable Non-profits (SUN) Act and Constitutional Amendment declaring “Corporations Are Not People”

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte

• Montana’s Governor Gianforte in Spotlight at Largest Ever SHOT Show in Vegas

  “Montana has the highest number of firearms and ammunition businesses per capita in the country. With our business-friendly environment, proud Second Amendment heritage, and unmatched quality of life, we’ll recruit more.” Governor Greg Gianforte

• Gianforte touts progress, notes places to improve in State of State

  Gov. Greg Gianforte struck a triumphant tone in his second State of the State address to the Legislature on Wednesday night, outlining a business-friendly first two years in office and laying out his priorities for the legislative session.

Housing

• Missoula Mayor Hess condemns Flathead commission’s take on homeless

  “This statement lacks compassion and demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the root causes of homelessness,” Hess said Monday night.

• Flathead officials get pushback after calling on community to stop helping homeless people – “It’s a lifestyle”

  A letter signed by county commissioners called homelessness a ‘lifestyle’ and blamed a Kalispell shelter for the increasing number of people on the streets.

Montana Biotech

• Montana’s McLaughlin Research Institute aims to establish one of the nation’s first rural clinical research centers

  While much of their research has focused on using mouse models as a way to dissect the genetic basis of susceptibility to neurodegenerative diseases, they are on the path towards a much bigger goal, in the hopes that it will bring all sorts of benefits to the Treasure State. That goal is establishing one of the nation’s first rural clinical research centers, which will be aimed at expanding clinical research in neurodegenerative diseases.

Incubators and R&D

• A breakthrough system can see through walls by using Wi-Fi routers

  Researchers have been working on ways to “see” people without using cameras or expensive LiDAR hardware for years.

Idaho News & Events

• Idaho National Laboratory opens application period for 2023 K-12 education grants

  INL’s K-12 STEM program cultivates Idaho’s education landscape by leveraging partnerships and resources to grow science, technology, engineering and math opportunities for all. The program seeks to align future workforce needs with STEM education in Idaho. Over the past decade, INL has awarded nearly $5 million to support STEM education in Idaho.

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

• Nonprofits release free tool to detect AI-written student work

  It enables teachers (or anyone else) to copy and paste text and within a few seconds receive a determination on whether the work in question was written by ChatGPT.

• Yale’s hugely popular happiness course is revamped for teens

  The class focuses on things teens can do to feel happier — making social connections, maintaining a sense of free time and being more ‘other’ oriented

• Iowa Legislature passes bill to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for families’ private school costs

  Opponents in both chambers hammered Republicans over the legislation, arguing it would harm public education while unfairly benefitting private schools that lack accountability and can pick and choose which students they will accept.

2023 Montana Legislature and Politics

• Missoula County opposes bill banning government-created solar-ready zones

  HB 241 would prohibit local governments from requiring that new buildings be constructed with the wiring and other components that would allow for upgrades to solar power or electric-vehicle charging.

Government News & Events

• National Threat Assessment Center releases latest report, “Mass Attacks in Public Spaces: 2016-2020”

  One-quarter of mass attackers driven by conspiracy theories or hateful ideologies, Secret Service report says

• Redesigning Streets for Livability: A Global View

  An excerpt from the introduction of the recent book, “Streets For All: 50 Strategies for Shaping Resilient Cities,” edited by Vinayak Bharne and Shyam Khandekar.

Non-Profit News

• Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords announces launch of new Montana Coalition of Gun Owners for Safety

  The Montana chapter of Gun Owners for Safety (MT-GOS) is made up of 137 gun owners who are “committed to supporting sound and reasonable regulations that prioritize the safety of the citizens of Montana” consistent with the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

• Amazon just introduced RxPass, a Prime benefit that provides generic medicines for $5 a month

  When you sign up for RxPass, you’ll have to get your prescription through Amazon Pharmacy’s service, or transfer an existing prescription to Rx People who use Medicare or Medicaid are not currently eligible for Amazon RxPass.

Transportation

• No More Car Ownership? First-of-its-kind study shows how traffic pollution impairs brain function

  The Scottish government announced it planned to ban car ownership as a part of its campaign to reduce per-capita driving by 20 percent by 2030.

• Why Not Cover Ugly Parking Lots With Solar Panels?

  In France, a plan to cover swaths of asphalt with photovoltaics will bring renewable energy even closer to urban areas where it’s needed.

• Viewpoint: Why Missoula’s Higgins Avenue (speed limit 25MPH) needs to change (What about Reserve Street – Speed Limit 45MPH!)

  These problems are largely the result of a singular focus to move cars.

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