U.S. House Fails to Reauthorize 20-Year-Old Bipartisan Bill to Fund Rural Schools, Communities

2025 Montana Legislature and Politics

• New medical debt reporting rules could benefit 60,000 Montanans 

  Seven percent of Montanans, roughly 60,000, reported having that debt between 2019 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health research group. That’s slightly below the national average.

• Why are luxury real estate owners getting agricultural tax breaks?

  One situation we looked at in particular is Governor Greg Gianforte’s Bozeman home — which is an agricultural property — and they found that there’s an 11 acre parcel that has his homesite on it, and that pays a total, according to our math, of about $66 in land taxes each year.

• Bill would make corner crossing legal in Wyoming, settling long-running debate

  Measure draws bipartisan group of checkerboard-area Wyoming legislators as co-sponsors.

• What is the Montana Media Act and Why Is It Important To Montana’s Economy?

  The coalition plans to focus its effort in 2025 on securing a sustainable media tax credit or incentive program to support media production in Montana. This is seen as a critical component for growing the industry.

• U.S. House Fails to Reauthorize 20-Year-Old Bipartisan Bill to Fund Rural Schools, Communities

  In Montana, 32 counties received $16 million in 2023, according to U.S. Forest Service data.

Come Home Montana

• Burns Night Supper / Single Malt Festival – 1/25 – Missoula

  Welcome all to the first annual Merle Haggis Scotch and Western Whiskey Festival!  (Also honoring Scottish poet Robert Burns on his birthday.) The night will feature a curated whiskey tasting experience, showcasing single malts from three of Montana’s finest distilleries alongside seven exceptional Scotches. You’ll also enjoy a selection of single malt cocktails and a variety of Scottish-inspired hors d’oeuvres. Whether you’re a seasoned whiskey enthusiast or a casual sipper, this is a unique opportunity to savor a range of exceptional pours.

• $9.4M Washington Foundation Gift Aims to Keep Best Teachers in Montana

  “This gift has the potential to transform K-12 education in Montana, giving our children the support they need to thrive and empowering our educators,” UM President Seth Bodnar said.

• New Tool Helps Local Governments Hire Displaced Federal Workers

  “If there’s ever a time to bring mission-driven talent home, it’s now,” says Quinton Lucas, mayor of Kansas City. Lucas is one of a growing number of local leaders engaging with a new tool that can help them connect with federal workers who have been displaced or are looking for a change.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• The Art of Storytelling – Guy Kawasaki

  Remember, a well-crafted narrative is not just about conveying information, but about taking your audience on a journey that enlightens, inspires, or moves them in some way.

• New Entrepreneurship Centers Are Popping Up Across the Country

  The initiative stems from Right to Start, a nonprofit focused on cultivating American entrepreneurship. Its main message is that everyone should have “the right to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams, a right to start.”

• 2025 RMT-REACH PILOT AWARD PREAPPLICAITON SUBMISSIONS OPEN MONDAY, JANUARY 6

  RMT-REACH intends to fund four pilot projects with up to $50,000 in direct costs each in this application cycle.

Northwestern Energy

• NorthWestern Energy wins Edison award for swift Missoula storm recovery

  The severe thunderstorm on July 24, 2024, with wind speeds of 81 mph, with gusts hitting top speeds of 109 mph.  The winds were as severe as a Category 2 hurricane causing widespread damage and thousands of power outages.

Prospera Business Network

• Prospera Receives $730,000 for Affordable Housing Loan Fund for Gallatin County

  Paul Reichert, Prospera’s Executive Director said, “We are excited to continue supporting County goals to support affordable housing and having additional loan funds available is an important way to support meeting this critical need. Having this tool available is an important step in the right direction.”

Montana Business

• How Smaller Supermarkets Could Transform American Communities

  Half of the American population lives within a 15-minute walk from a grocery store. Yet despite this seemingly short distance, 88 percent of American households drive to the grocery store.

• Behind the Spike in Contract Bundling and How It’s Hitting Small Businesses the Hardest

  This practice of consolidating federal procurement contracts, known as contract bundling, is seen as spurring efficiencies and savings for agencies—and, by extension, taxpayers—as it can create economies of scale. But contract bundling also creates a barrier to entry, as scores of businesses like BMA can no longer vie for contracts, which can become too big and too complex once bundled.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• North Dakota Nearing 100 Percent Fiber Connectivity – What About Your State?

  In one of the most rural parts of the U.S., the Peace Garden State is close to being the first in the nation in which every home and business has (or will soon have) access to fiber service, the gold standard of Internet connectivity.

Housing

• How to Guarantee Seamless EV Charging in Shared Buildings — Right to Plug!

  T&E analysed the regulatory framework in 6 countries (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK), and compiled best to ensure that EV drivers can have seamless access to home charging, whether they live in a house or in an apartment.

Biotech

• Parkinson’s Disease Could Be Treated With Magnetic Discs

  This approach, recently published in Nature Nanotechnology, shows promise as a minimally invasive alternative to traditional DBS.

Incubators and R&D

• Korean scientists repair cancer cells to become normal, healthy

  In a groundbreaking development, researchers at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) unveiled a new technology that treats colon cancer without killing cancer cells.

The Creative and Cultural Economy

• MPG Ranch Newsletter: Issue III

  MPG Ranch promotes conservation through restoration, research, education and information sharing.
  Our researchers specialize in restoration and ecology. We seek new ways to understand and restore lands affected by invasive weeds, herbicide use, and other management practices that create disturbances. MPG works closely with local conservation groups and researchers to offer educational opportunities to students of all ages.

Regional Economic Development

• ‘Where’s the leadership?’ Author slams Zuckerberg over ending Meta’s fact-checking program

  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a series of major changes to the company’s moderation policies and practices Tuesday, citing a shifting political and social landscape and a desire to embrace free speech. Professor and author Scott Galloway joins Morning Joe to discuss.

Regional Business News

• The No Buy Year: Spend and Save Meaningfully in 2025

  Like it or not, that’s just the truth. Our society grew around wealth and the pursuit of it. And some folks are fed up with living in a money-first-people-last culture, so they’re doing something about it: The No Buy Year.

  A no buy (or low buy) period helps you to gain awareness of how the market manipulates, self-control over your own spending, and helpful habits to live more intentionally.

Wyoming Business

• ‘Make Carbon Dioxide Great Again’ law would ban carbon reduction efforts in Wyoming

  Senate File 92 would declare that “Carbon dioxide is a foundational nutrient necessary for all life on earth,” according to the bill. “Plants need carbon dioxide along with sunlight, water and nutrients to prosper. The more carbon dioxide available for this, the better life can flourish.”

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

• You can now designate dollar-for-dollar credit on your state income taxes to Montana’s schools

  This bill allowed Montana taxpayers to receive a dollar-for-dollar credit on their state income taxes, up to $200,000 per year, for donations to Montana public school districts to support Innovative Educational Programs.

Montana Media Coalition

• Montana Nonprofits by the Numbers – Multiple Communities and Dates – Register Today

  Coming to a community near you! If you can’t make our annual Nonprofit Day at the Capitol on January 30th, swing by in Kalispell, Missoula, Bozeman, or Billings for a roundup of nonprofit trends, impact, and needs in 2025.

City Club Missoula

• City Club Missoula Presents: College Athletics: Navigating NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) and the Transfer Portal – 1/13 – Library

  OUR MISSION is to bring together people to inform and inspire citizens on issues vital to the Missoula area community through public forums that encourage the discussion of new ideas and the free exchange of thought.

Tell Us Something

• Tell Us Something presents live storytelling on the theme “Hold My Beer” – 1/13 – The George and Jane Dennison Theater University of Montana Missoula

  Eight storytellers will share their true personal stories without notes on the theme: “Hold My Beer”.

Transportation

• Can American Drivers Learn to Love Roundabouts?

  They save lives, reduce traffic delays and cut emissions. Still, communities often resist them. Can cities get drivers to turn the corner on circular intersections?

• Bordeaux, France plans to have two million solar panels overhang 45km (28 miles) of road

  Bordeaux’s ring road could generate enough electricity for 420,000 homes if ambitious plans to cover it with solar panels receive the green light.

• Save Lives on Our Roads Using the Safe System Approach

  The five elements of the SSA — safe roads, safe speeds, safe users, safe vehicles, and post-crash care — can be used as a framework for considering safety in any stage of planning, designing or implementation of a safer transportation system.

Energy and Climate Change

• USA Can Recycle 90% of Wind Turbine Mass

  This research will help guide over $20 million in investments previously announced from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to advance technologies that address this gap.

VR/AR, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Artificial Intelligence and The Internet of Things

• NVIDIA Unveils STUNNING Mini Supercomputer, AI Agents, World Model (CES 2025)

  NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang unveils the new 50 series of GPUs, predicts an agentic 2025, shows off new AI models, and so much more!

• Nvidia’s $3,000 ‘Personal AI Supercomputer’ Will Let You Ditch the Data Center

  Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also announced new AI tools for creating autonomous agents during a keynote address at CES.

• What America’s top economists are saying about AI and inequality

  We want to have systems where humans and the machine work together to create better outcomes rather than assuming that the machine can do everything.”

Social Media, Connectivity & Communications

• Meta now lets users call women ‘property’ and gay people ‘mentally ill’. “I really think this is a precursor for genocide”

  Users are also now permitted to state that protected characteristics don’t or shouldn’t exist, or are inferior.

• Meta is getting rid of fact checkers. Zuckerberg acknowledged more harmful content will appear on the platforms now

  Kaplan, a prominent Republican who was elevated to the company’s top policy job last week, acknowledged that the Tuesday announcement is directly related to the changing administration.

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