MATR Newsletter – May 3, 2021
The state with the best education wins!

May the Fourth be with you…. Tomorrow

Corona Virus Information

• The Premonition – A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis

  Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Montana Department of Commerce

• Montana Economic Transformation and Stabilization and Workforce Development Advisory Commission Meeting – Tuesday – May 4 – 9AM

  IMPLEMENTING THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT; PROVIDING APPROPRIATIONS AND ALLOCATIONS OF FEDERAL FUNDS AND OTHER FUNDS AVAILABLE BECAUSE OF THE RECEIPT OF FEDERAL FUNDS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2021

Great Falls Development Authority

• Great Falls Economic Development Top 10 for 5-2-21

  Experiencing workforce challenges? Curious to know what tools and resources are available to bolster your existing workforce attraction, development, and retention strategies? Introducing the Workforce Webinar Series: Connecting Employers to Vital Resources Addressing Workforce Challenges. Check out the video announcement, and head over to GrowGreatFallsMontana.org/Workforce to learn more and register.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• In Quebec, Child Care Is Infrastructure

  Canada announced its intentions to create a national child care system and to “learn from the model that already exists in Quebec.”

• MEDA Summer Conference – 6/29-30 – In Person and Virtually –

  It is time to identify priorities and build strategies based on the Montana Next Generation of Community and Economic Development Tools study.

• More Americans Are Leaving Cities, But Don’t Call It an Urban Exodus – Some very surprising statistics

  National migration rates are likely still at historic lows.

• D.C. is working on a futuristic plan: Less parking, taller buildings and a transformed city

  If the vision is carried out, it could turn D.C. into a place where fewer people drive cars, more pavement used for parking shifts to outdoor restaurant seating, and some people even pay a toll to drive downtown. The plan envisions a city where Metro stations are public gathering places, apartment buildings have stoops where people congregate, and taller buildings abut older single-family houses.

• Tester introduces bill opposing change to metro population size

  In a news release, Tester said the proposed change is “shortsighted.”

The Telecommuting and Gig Workforce in Montana

• Want to Move to Our Town? Here’s $10,000 and a Free Bike.

  With offers of cash, housing and a budding talent pool, smaller cities and states hope to get in on the ground floor of a new era for remote workers.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Rural, Native Communities Partner With Telecoms for Broadband
  The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North and South Dakota and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma have partnered with Nokia and NewCore to extend Internet access to tribal households, businesses and schools.
• How Starlink, Project Kuiper and other satellite broadband providers could change society

  Imagine a world where high-speed internet blankets every corner of the globe, transforming the way people access health care, education and entertainment. That’s the promise of up-and-coming satellite broadband — an ambitious and controversial plan to connect far reaches of the planet.

• Bipartisan Tester Bill to Bolster Rural Broadband Workforce Advances

  “My bipartisan legislation will not only help folks in rural and frontier communities obtain the skills they need to get good-paying jobs close to home but will also help expand rural broadband at a moment when it’s never been more important to ensuring frontier communities can succeed in a 21st century economy,” said Tester. “Getting this legislation through Committee is a strong first step, but I’m not going to stop pushing until this bill lands on the President’s desk and is signed into law.”

Housing

• How to Strengthen Housing Safety Nets

  In their paper “Bolstering the Housing Safety Net: The Promise of Automatic Stabilizers,” the authors propose policy reforms that could help people stay in their homes during times of economic distress and support affordable housing construction and rehabilitation.

Montana Business

• City of Helena countersues Treasure State Internet & Telegraph

  According to the city’s filing, TSI&T did not install conduit deep enough, did not reseal trenches, cut through curbs instead of drilling underneath them and did not clean work sites, leaving debris in the streets and conduit protruding from the ground.

• Bozeman, Montana based Quiq Has Acquired Snaps, A Leader In Conversational AI

  Quiq helps brands present their customers with consistently jaw-dropping customer experiences across SMS/text messaging, rich messaging, web chat, and social channels.

Funding and Building your Business

• ‘The silver tsunami is coming’: Inside the quest to help seniors age at home

  The pandemic accelerated the adoption of telehealth and at-home devices. But are they here to stay?

Come Home Idaho

• Why Idaho is Not For You

  Idaho is not the fastest-growing state in the country; we’re number two according to the latest census. The following is a list of reasons why Idaho is not the place for you.

• Booms in Idaho, Utah buck the curve of slowing U.S. growth

  In Utah, births largely drove the fastest growth in the country over the past decade. In neighboring Idaho, newcomers from California and other states helped it capture the second spot.

Idaho News & Events

• Some Idaho child care providers will close Monday. They’ll march to stay open long term

  Child care providers are worried the funding won’t be approved before the legislative session comes to an end, leaving an already struggling industry with nowhere to turn.

• Idaho’s Keith Tresh on Why CISOs Must Be ‘Better Sales People’
  Cybersecurity awareness can’t happen without clear messaging. Keith Tresh, CISO of Idaho, explores why a strong cyber defense strategy depends on CISOs learning to speak other agencies’ languages.

2021 Montana Legislature and Politics

• The 2021 Montana Legislature’s last-minute laws

  “I’ve never seen so many bills that have been dead somewhere else come back on a conference committee jammed in some bill that has nothing to do with them,”

Government News & Events

• The Fed helped fuel a stock market boom that benefited wealthy Americans — and left behind everyone else

  Low-interest policies helped stabilize the economy, but they also set off a multitrillion-dollar run-up in markets, which overwhelmingly benefited the richest 10 percent of Americans

• Biden Seeks Unprecedented Investment in Passenger Rail

  The president is famous for his love of riding trains. He’s ready to put serious money into the Amtrak system, proposing billions more than have been spent throughout its entire 50-year history.

• U.S. Labor Secretary supports classifying gig workers as employees

  “These companies are making profits and revenue and I’m not (going to) begrudge anyone for that because that’s what we are about in America. But we also want to make sure that success trickles down to the worker,” he said.

City Club Missoula

• City Club Missoula Discussion: Sowing Local & Sustainable Food Systems in the Garden City Monday, May 10th, 2021 – 11:30AM – Zoom

  Join City Club Missoula as we hold a timely conversation with some of the most dynamic leaders in Missoula’s sustainable food systems movement. Learn more about the current state of affairs; how different organizations are working in creative ways to expand resources; and what it takes to meet the challenges we face today.

Transportation

• ‘Commuter Rail’ Must Adapt to the New Commute

  The sharp historic division between commuter rail and other forms of transit has limited the ability of regional rail systems to serve more users.

Energy and Climate Change

• “We The Power” – Patagonia launches campaign to spark renewable community-led energy

  The We the Power campaign also demonstrates the advantages to people and the planet that this clean energy transformation could bring, through a new documentary of the same name.

• This Colossal Solar Mountain Can Power Nearly Any Location on Earth

  A power upgrade in the Nevada desert could change the world.

MATR Newsletter Supporters: