Your goal today:  Do something nice and don’t get caught.

2023 Montana Legislature and Politics

• Montana children need more investment in early childhood programming

  Every day, 30 babies are born in Montana. That is an entire classroom of future fourth graders born per day. By fourth grade, only 11 of these kids will read proficiently and be on track for future academic success. The other 19 will struggle to read at grade level and may fall behind in school. How these children spend their early years matters.

Corona Virus Information

• MIT and Harvard engineers develop face mask that detects COVID-19

  Researchers from MIT and Harvard have demonstrated a cutting-edge biosensor technology by developing a face mask that can detect SARS-CoV-2 in a wearer’s breath within just 90 minutes. The sensor technology can be programmed to detect any kind of virus or toxin and is small enough to be integrated into clothing fabrics.

Come Home Montana

• Sidney, Montana – “People don’t understand that if they come here they’re going to have a good time.”

  Sidney, Montana’s Young Professionals chapter put on a conference to showcase their town. Here’s what we learned from showing up.

• Summit Career Center – Tuition Free Career Training and More!

  Summit Career Center is up to a 6-month tuition-free (yes, free!) personal and professional training program, resulting in certification in your chosen career. We are an independent nonprofit organization, whose mission is to help you find and start a new career.

• Request for Proposal Food and Agriculture Business Specialist – Two Year Contract – Prospera Business Network

      Prospera Business Network is the leading non-profit organization advancing and supporting community-centered economic development in southwest Montana. Our focus is helping people start and grow their business – in turn strengthening our region’s economy and communities.   Prospera is formally designated Gallatin and Park County’s Certified Regional Development Corporation (CRDC), and is home…

Montana Department of Commerce

• The Small Business Webinar Series: Targeting Alternate Talent Pools – July 1 – 11:30 – Webinar

  We’ll explore how seeking out underserved or untapped communities can help get your organization to full staffing.

Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development

• Montana launches push for visitors to recreate responsibly

  Too many visitors  do not know how to recreate responsibly.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Take on tomorrow: The secret to high-performance economic development organizations

  Smart EDOs are betting on continuous learning to upskill their teams in the face of emerging upheaval. To help them adapt, we turned Wavteq Institute’s transformative in-person training and pedagogy into a scalable platform for organization-wide coaching over the last two years.

• CAN DO Season 4 Recap: What lessons did the Pandemic Teach us?

  Please listen to the Pearls of wisdom from a great collection of business leaders on what the Pandemic has taught us.  Well worth a listen.

• New Water Wars Are Coming to the American West

  Water has been generating conflicts and controversies in the US for centuries, but the American West could be heading toward the most severe water shortages and skirmishes in the nation’s history.

• Nanohaven technology selected for SBIR Phase 1 innovation award!

  The grant’s purpose is to develop and test a technology that will oxygenate nutrient-impaired water in off-grid settings.

• Park County, Montana Releases Growth Plan As Population Booms

  Population booms and skyrocketing costs of living are hitting cities all over the state. Park County passed a wide-ranging new growth policy earlier this month designed to deal with the effects it’s experiencing locally. Montana Public Radio reporter Nick Mott flew over the area with officials trying to get a handle on what that growth…

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• New telemedicine option coming to Montana

  Nurx is one of the nation’s largest digital clinics. Through their apps and websites, women can request services such as birth control to be delivered right to their home.

• Elon Musk’s Starlink to Deliver Internet Nearly Worldwide Within Weeks

  “We recently passed the strategically notable number of 69,420 active users,” Musk joked. “We’re I think on our way to having a few hundred thousand users, possibly over 500,000 users within 12 months.”

• Schools and libraries can apply for FCC broadband relief funds starting Tuesday

  The $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, created through President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, will provide funding for schools and libraries across the country to buy laptops, tablets, Wi-Fi hotspots and broadband connections to help students and teachers access the internet for distance learning.

• 172 Organizations Calls on Congress to Increase Broadband Speeds with Future Proof Fiber

  A federal program by Congress that emphasizes delivering future-proof infrastructure can enable not just ubiquitous fiber wireline access, but also make possible ubiquitous wireless services that rely on fiber optics including 5G, next generation Wi-Fi, and their future iterations.

Funding and Building your Business

• Kickstarter Is Moving to a Four-Day Workweek

  The crowdfunding platform will try out the new schedule next year and is joining an effort to encourage other business owners to follow suit.

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

• Harvard, MIT Part of $800 Million Deal to Push Access to Online Education

  2U will acquire substantially all of edX’s assets for $800M in cash. Together, 2U and edX will reach over 50 million learners globally, serve more than 230 partners, and offer over 3,500 digital programs on the world’s most comprehensive free-to-degree online education marketplace.

Rural Communities

• One in Four Rural Americans Can Be a Part of the Climate Solution and Earn Money – Through Their Forests

  The Biden administration has an opportunity to help small forest owners become a more significant part of the carbon markets, earn an income on their land, and help with carbon sequestration.

Government News & Events

• California adds 5 states, including Montana, where it won’t send employees on official business, citing anti-LGBTQ discrimination

  “We’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of discrimination and bigotry in this country,”

Transportation

• The biggest Electric Vehicle reveals of 2021 (so far) from Tesla, Ford, and more

  It’s been a big year for electric pick-up trucks and compact SUVs.

• Tesla unveils its new supercomputer (5th most powerful in the world) to train self-driving AI

  Tesla is claiming some fairly insane specs on this new cluster, which should make it roughly the fifth most-powerful computer in the world:

• At this intersection, drivers have to ask the bikes to stop

  In more bike-centric countries, like the Netherlands, it’s the bikes and pedestrians whose travel gets prioritized.

Cool Stuff That’s Coming

• Self-healing concrete eats CO2 to fill its own cracks in 24 hours

  The idea with self-healing concrete is to intervene in this process while the cracks are still tiny, sealing up the material to prevent not just a catastrophic collapse, but expensive maintenance or a complete replacement of the structure.

Energy and Climate Change

• Extreme heat and the ongoing aridification of the West

  The news has been full of references to ongoing western drought and predictions of yet another extreme wildfire year. Even so, in reality, the story is worse.

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