MATR Newsletter – October 24, 2022
The state with the best education wins!

Come Home Montana

• Montana Career Opportunity – Executive Director/Curator of Paleontology (a combined position) – The Great Plains Dinosaur Museum

  We’re looking for someone who can work with the Board of Directors and our valued staff to maintain and advance our existing fossil collections, make new discoveries and help shape…

Eventgroove

• On Earning & Keeping Trust, Nonprofits’ Greatest Asset

  Regular readers of Nonprofit Advocacy Updates are well aware that public policy challenges can undermine the work of charitable organizations. That’s one reason, out of many, nonprofits need to be transparent and operate ethically. Any action that breaches the public’s trust can hurt all 501(c)(3) if lawmakers push bills that burden charitable operations, impose unrealistic expectations, or apply discriminatory treatment.

Montana Department of Commerce

• From workforce development to robots?  Gov. Gianforte moves ARPA money  from training workers to automation

  “It was a clear intention of the legislature for this money to be invested in workers,” Caferro said. “And at every turn, the administration has failed to invest in Montanans with this money, and it seems to me that they refuse to make taxpayers’ money work for taxpayers.”

Flathead Valley Community College

• Flathead Valley manufacturers turn out breadth of products while facing range of challenges

  Manufacturers are a unique piece of the Flathead Valley economy.

Great Falls Development Authority

• Great Falls Economic Development Top 10 for 10-23-22

  7) Great Falls entrepreneurs met at MT Pints for a Business Pitch event hosted by GFDA. Business Pitch is fun, informal and open to anyone interested in sharing their business idea or project. Follow our Facebook page for details on future Business Pitch events or contact Tony at 406-750-2099.

• Invest Downtown highlights growth and success of downtown Great Falls

  “I moved here about six years ago, and just the change from six years ago to now has been tremendous and the investment that’s being put into downtown, the people that are coming into downtown and opening businesses or expanding businesses downtown. It’s just really great to see the rejuvenation of our main street,” said Christian Leinhauser, the downtown businesses officer for the Great Falls Development Authority (GFDA).

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte

• Gov. Gianforte praises Housing Task Force’s recommendations, calls for starter homes

  Task Force member Sen. Ellie Boldman, D-Missoula, said that housing is a crisis and will likely be the No.1 issue during the upcoming legislative session. She said it’s an issue in both rural and urban areas in the state.

Montana Business

• Listen: How Does Human Composting Work? Does Your State Allow It?

  Human composting, also known as “natural organic reduction,” can be appealing to those who worry about the health of the environment. Cremation leaves a big carbon footprint, while the toxic chemicals used to embalm bodies before burial can leach into the soil.

• Growing Roots Early Learning Center Launches in Kalispell

  Immanuel Lutheran Communities opened a licensed childcare center earlier this month to help meet the high demand while adding another benefit to recruit and retain employees for the assisted living facility

Visit Montana

• Goats and Sheep Are Brawling in the Rockies. Blame Glacial Melt
  The climate crisis may explain fights as disappearing ice fuels interspecies competition—with goats nearly always winning.

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

• Montana Tech, University of Montana, Salish Kootenai College awarded $4.5 million in collaborative grants

  The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project aims to increase the first-year retention and graduation rates for each student cohort, improve transition after graduation to either a STEM career or further higher education, and advance knowledge about issues and factors impacting advancement along the academic pathway.

• How One School Is Beating the Odds in Math, the Pandemic’s Hardest-Hit Subject

  The groundwork was laid before the pandemic, when Franklin overhauled how math was taught.

Government News & Events

• Transportation Department Unveils ‘Good Luck’ Signals For Pedestrians Trying To Cross Intersections

  At press time, Rowcliff clarified the signals did not mean that cars should stop, but rather speed up.

American Prairie

• CBS 60 Minutes – American Prairie: Creating a huge new nature reserve in Montana

  The United States has national parks devoted to canyons and deserts, glaciers and geysers; even underwater coral reefs. 63 national parks in all.

  But somehow, we skipped the American prairie. The grasslands that once stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rockies played a vital role in the lives of Native Americans, White settlers, and an endless variety of wildlife. They inspired explorers and artists, but apparently not park planners.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

• Stuff You Didn’t Know. You Didn’t Know ! Go ahead. Try to lick it!

  The State with the
  highest percentage of people who walk to work:

Events

• Missoula invites community to participate in public summit Thursday and Friday, Oct. 27-28, on the University of Montana campus

  This inaugural summit will bring together a wide range of organizations, city and county offices, neighborhoods, health and education leaders, and other groups. Summit participants will explore opportunities for creating a cohesive and holistic community approach to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion for all.

Transportation

• Local Leaders Will Advise States on Road Safety Under New US Plan

  Following a surge in traffic deaths in 2021, the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration is urging states to work with local leaders and advocacy organizations to assess the most dangerous roads for pedestrians and cyclists, and develop plans to make them safer.

• Your community needs to install fietstrommels!

  It plays a critical role in their mobility system, offering residents a secure and sheltered place to park their bike for about €5 per month.

• NASA Space Tech Could Help EVs Charge In 5 Minutes, But Do We Really Need That?

  The other issue is that for many anti-EV people, it’s just an excuse. You could provide an experience that’s easier and better than gas-powered cars in every possible way, and they’d still come up with some reason to not embrace change. Change is hard, and uncomfortable, and many people are set in their ways or have weird political reasons for not making the switch.

• Driving as a Risk Factor: A New Paradigm

  New strategies are needed to achieve ambitious safety goals such as Vision Zero. This requires a paradigm shift, a change in the ways risks are measured and potential safety strategies evaluated.

• Lower-Cost Tesla Will Outsell All Current Teslas Combined

  Tesla is developing a third vehicle platform that should undercut the cost of goods sold for Model 3 and Model Y similarly to how 3 & Y undercut Model X and Model X. Eventually @elonmusk expects the volume of that vehicle platform to surpass all S, 3, X, & Y vehicle production

• Missoula approves study to convert Bitterroot branch railroad bridge to bike, ped use

  Converting the bridge to bike and foot traffic was included as a priority. Montana Rail Link permitted the city to explore the change, which would complete the Bitterroot Branch Trail from downtown Missoula south to Hamilton – a stretch of nearly 50 miles.

Energy and Climate Change

• Billions of crabs vanished, and scientists have a good clue why

  Oceans are absorbing nearly unfathomable amounts of heat, and higher temperatures boost the odds of a marine heat wave occurring and persisting.

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