MATR Newsletter – May 18, 2022
The state with the best education wins!

Come Home Montana

• Montana Career Opportunities – City of Bozeman

  Bozeman is called “the most livable place” for good reason. Enjoy world-renowned fly fishing, dramatic mountains for hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, skiing, hunting, and backcountry exploring, Yellowstone National Park,…

• MT or WA Career Opportunity – Enterprise Account Executive – State/Gov – Submittable

  Submittable is looking for a government focused, Enterprise Account Executive to join our growing team in Missoula, MT or Seattle, WA. This position is open to remote candidates. We are…

• Montana Career Opportunity – Government Contracting Officer – Big Sky Economic Development-Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC)

  Join Our Internationally Accredited Economic Development Team     GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING ADVISOR Are you ready for an opportunity to apply your business skills in a new way? Are you passionate…

Northwestern Energy

• Built with 3D printers, these wind turbine blades are completely recyclable

  The method could greatly reduce the weight and cost of wind turbine blades in the future.

Big Sky Commerce

• Volunteers wrap up after removing 40 tons of trash under Missoula’s Reserve St. Bridge – Missoula ‘s Reserve St. Public Working Group Meets Every Tuesday at 9:00

  “We thought we might come down for a day and clean up this area like we have in years past, but it was more than we thought,” said Kevin Davis, organizer of the cleanups and head of the Reserve Street Public Working Group.

• Missoula ‘s Reserve St. Public Working Group Meets Every Tuesday at 9:00

  Mission Statement: To improve functionality and livability in Missoula’s busiest corridor for all citizens with a focus on traffic safety, mobility options, and chronic homelessness.

Great Falls Development Authority

• Great Falls Economic Development Top 10 for 5-17-22

  Here is our Top 10 for last three weeks celebrating work and successes to grow and strengthen the Great Falls regional economy — Montana’s Golden Triangle. And, sharing business resources and skill-building opportunities to empower your success. Sorry to fall so far behind. Hectic, but great days!

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Big Sky Business Insight Summit to address housing and child care challenges – 5/18-20 – University of Montana, Missoula

  The agency estimated it costs an average of $9,515 per year for infant care.

The Telecommuting and Gig Workforce in Montana

• Training for Remote Job Opportunities – June 6-10 – Helena, Montana

  We are very excited about this opportunity and thank MBAC, MDLI and others for moving this model forward with the session scheduled for Helena.  The general goal is to offer this program along with the MSU Remote Work Certification throughout Montana.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• States Can Now Line Up for Federal Broadband Infrastructure Funds

  The BEAD program, which is part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that was passed in November 2021, represents the single largest federal investment in broadband expansion in U.S. history.

Housing

• Will you be the lucky one who buys this Great Falls house built by high school students?

  High School House students prepare for the 44th Open House that will take place from 11 a.m. to noon on May 19. This home is in the heart of downtown Great Falls at 316 5th Ave. S. Students from C.M. Russell and Great Falls High Schools worked together to learn the skills necessary to build a single-family home from the ground up.

• Can $949K buy a piece of the true Missoula, Montana?

  What’s not clear is how this tribe will react when they discover the realities of the luminous western lifestyle The Reed is peddling: For example, the fact the ski season is truncated for lack of snow, or the fact the “premium powder “they flog is likely recycled dishwater. The fact that Montana’s wild rivers are drying up, and its fabled trout streams are running at 70 degrees. The fact Missoula air quality mostly hovers between “unhealthy” and “hazardous.” Or that the fire season now accounts for the better part of the summer. Will this sub-iconic Montana still be worth sticking around for? Will the iconic views The Reed “seized” be worth a cool million? And how “urban chic” can the Hip Strip remain, when the artisans, chefs and business people who made it can’t afford to live there?

Funding and Building your Business

• CBS Sunday Morning Video – Student debt: Is a degree worth the financial strain?

  Student debt has become a national crisis, with 43 million Americans carrying more than $1.7 trillion in debt. With some questioning the value of a college degree, efforts are being made to eliminate college from many corporations’ job requirements, while promoting skills training for “new-collar jobs.”

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

• The case for revolutionizing child care in America

  Roughly 85% of the physical brain is formed in the first three years of a child’s life. Kindergarten — and even preschool — may be too late for interventions to try and close an opportunity gap that begins to open up at birth. She argues we need to start much earlier.

• Accelerate Montana Invites Job Site Ready Applicants – Fast Track to Construction Jobs

  “Employers are eager to hire employees who have the skills that Job Site Ready students walk away with,” Lechman said. “We are excited to now offer valuable rapid training and expand it to locations across the state.”

Government News & Events

• Montana changes course, applies for food assistance money

  Lawmaker quizzes health department on the slow payout of other federal funds

Transportation

• Traffic Fatalities Set Records as Pandemic-Era Road Carnage Shows No Signs of Stopping

  An estimated 42,915 people died in automobile crashes in 2021, according to recent federal data. The increasing fatalities continue a trend that began with the outset of the pandemic.

• AI traffic light system could make traffic jams a distant memory

  The system uses deep reinforcement learning, where a program understands when it is not doing well and tries a different course of action—or continues to improve when it makes progress.

• Ryse Recon eVTOL may soon be flying across a ranch near you

  Farmers and ranchers have a lot of land to cover, and a lot of work to get done in a day. The Ryse Recon was designed with those facts in mind, as it’s being made to quickly fly rural users from place to place.

• 2WD electric Ultra Bike stores range-extending fuel in its huge wheels

  This modular motorcycle is built to tackle just about anything, with torquey electric motors driving huge balloon tires at the front and rear. It can cross water in amphibious mode, and handle serious distances with a range-extending generator and two huge fuel tanks in the wheel rims.

• Favorite Rhetorical Tools Used To Spread Anti-EV Misinformation

  Disinformation experts tell us that the trolls aren’t necessarily trying to convince us that their version of reality is true. Often, the goal is simply to confuse and sow distrust so people aren’t sure what to believe — in other words, to create Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD). That’s why so many of the pernicious posts begin with something like this: “Don’t get me wrong, I’m a great believer in EVs — but I’m a little concerned about….”

• MUSK SEE: Three Reasons Why Congestion Decreases When Cities ‘Delete’ Road Lanes

  A wildly inaccurate comment from Elon Musk about the traffic impacts of deleting lanes for drivers is prompting a conversation about the little-known phenomenon of “reduced demand” — and how advocates can better debunk common congestion myths that powerful, but often ill-informed, people continue to promulgate.

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