MATR Newsletter – October 26, 2020
The state with the best education wins!

Corona Virus Information

• ‘Covid in Rural America Is a Horror Story,’ Says Head of Health Association

  “It’s past time for us to worry about being alarmist,” said Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association. “We’ve got to ring the bells that this is a crisis now going into flu season.”

• Governor Bullock Announces Consumer Complaint Form to Notify Montana Public Health Officials of COVID-19 Violations

  “The Consumer Complaint Form will allow citizens to report their concerns about businesses and events that have not enacted the directives intended to protect everyone,” Governor Bullock said. “All Montanans deserve a safe community and healthy environment, and reporting these concerns means we’re looking out for each other.”

• Dr. Fauci recommends a National mask mandate – Montana sues businesses not complying with mask mandate

  ‘Well, if you mandate a mask, then you’re going to have to enforce it and that’ll create more of a problem.’ Well, if people are not wearing masks, then maybe we should be mandating it.”

• Montana sues businesses not complying with mask mandate

  The state launched a website to allow people to submit complaints against businesses and events that are not complying with health directives. The complaints will be reviewed by the state health department and then sent to local authorities for investigation.

• Daily Resiliency Skills for Front Line Workers During the Coronavirus Epidemic is now available online. Secondary Trauma Activates Resiliency-Training

  This fifty minute ZOOM PRO training is FREE for your staff and front line workers who are experiencing distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of Montana. For other regions it is available at an affordable rate.

Montana Department of Commerce

• Governor Bullock Announces More than $1 Million in Business Development Funding to Create up to 136 Montana Jobs, Train New Workers

  “When Montana businesses grow, our communities and the hardworking Montanans who live and work here have new opportunities to grow as well. These funds will invest in our state’s economy by expanding businesses and creating good-paying jobs to support those businesses.”

• Montana Tourism Partners – Friday Flash 10/23/2020

  Thank you to those tourism partners who have begun the fiscal year 2020 required reporting. This annual process is not only an opportunity to verify and analyze the use of lodging tax funds, but also where the organizations tell the many success stories and share best practices through the evaluation of each marketing method where funds were spent.

Big Sky Economic Development

• How Do You Spell Resilience? B-I-L-L-I-N-G-S – Big Sky Economic Development Annual Meeting Experience and Video Premiere of “Build Beyond…”!

  We’ve asked you each year to “build remarkable.” Now we are, together, called to Build Beyond, and the community and economic development possibilities for us are real and endless when we embrace that calling. Let’s build beyond!

Great Falls Development Authority

• Great Falls Economic Development Top 10 for 10-25-20

  Here is our Top 10 for this week 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.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• MEDA Virtual Fall Conference Summary AND an invite to Happy Hour Nov 6th

  Our first event will include storytelling from those who participated in the Tell Us Something professional development training. Register (don’t forget to save the link) and join us!

• The Bakken Boom in Montana and North Dakota Goes Bust With No Money to Clean up the Mess

  The Bakken oil field appears moving toward terminal decline, with the the citizens of Montana and North Dakota forced to cover the bill to clean up the mess caused by its ill-fated boom.

• On the Horizon: New Unique Business Clusters Will Get Funded; Billions of Dollars of New Investment

  Do a candid research and tech assessment of your region. Do you have unique capacity in one or more of these areas?

• Reduction in Amtrak service worries some Havre, Montana residents

  Amtrak announced in August that it would cut jobs and reduce service in rural communities on the Empire Builder line beginning in October, which includes 12 stations along the Montana Hi-Line.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Big Butter, Big Tech Partner to Build Wi-Fi Access Map

  Land O’Lakes and Microsoft joined forces over the summer to address, among other issues, the rural broadband gap. The two organizations, along with other partners, just released a Wi-Fi access point map.

• After Years of Working to Expand Tribal Broadband, Tester Announces FCC Approval of Montana Tribes’ Spectrum Licenses

  All seven Montana Tribes that applied for licenses were approved

Funding and Building your Business

• 5 Key Elements Of A Business-To-Business Dating Site

  Just like personal relationships, if you are contemplating a business partnership, the first consideration should be the characteristics of the key people involved. In addition, your company engines have to synchronize, which requires changes beyond the honeymoon period. Here are five of the key elements of both:

• This is why we need to ditch the 8-hour workday for good

  Working like this, it’s not unrealistic to get more done in two hours than most people do in a day.

Regional Business News

• Wealthy investors seem to be exploiting land-conservation tax breaks, and the Senate is taking notice

  Conservation easements grant tax write-offs for the worth a bit of land loses to stay undeveloped when it would in any other case change into flats or a big-box retailer, prioritizing what has been described as “cows over condos.”

Idaho News & Events

• Idaho Broadband Task Force
  In May of 2019, Governor Brad Little created the Idaho Broadband Task Force by Executive Order, in order to improve connectivity and broadband infrastructure across Idaho.
• Idaho legislators consider ways to increase air travel

  Lawmakers in Idaho have considered ways to increase air travel in the state as flights have been reduced or eliminated in recent years, stunting economic growth. Horizon Air stopped direct flights from the Lewiston airport to Boise two years ago and discontinued flights to Boise from Pocatello in 2006 and from Idaho Falls in 2010,…

Wyoming Business

• Wyoming Business Council Broadband Enhancement

  Residents of rural Wyoming areas are limited by access, with an average download speed of just 17 Mbps.

• For Wyoming’s untaxed generations, the ‘free ride’ may be over

  With COVID-19 and the coal industry’s collapse, the governor said the state might start abandoning small towns because we can’t afford to maintain their sewers and streets.

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

• Daycares in Finland Built a ‘Forest Floor’, And It Changed Children’s Immune Systems

  Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest’s undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child’s immune system, according to a small new experiment.

2020 Montana Politics

• Montana election officials wrangle early ballot returns — and false rumors

  Perhaps the most aggravating challenge of this election cycle, several election officials said, is the voter misinformation that staffers are forced to intercept and correct.

• San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board : Voter suppression already at work in 2020

  The challenges to American democracy are just beginning.

• COVID, courts and cold: Montana’s Indian Country faces challenges to get out the vote

  Political organizations see time running out to corral every possible unreached or undecided voter. The search presents unique obstacles in Montana’s Indian Country.

• ‘My voice will still be heard’ – The 2020 Election

  With less than two weeks from Election Day, the Missoulian asked voters what is driving them to the polls this year and not what they fear but what inspires them in 2020. You’ve heard from the candidates. Now hear from the voters.

Government News & Events

• Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton Charging Some Businesses Multiple Times for Filings

  Some were charged twice, others several times, making it difficult to say how many businesses were affected.

Workforce Development

• CAN DO Podcast, Maureen Lonergan, Global Director of Training and Certification and Amazon Web Services (AWS)

  Maureen Lonergan, Global Director of Training and Certification and Amazon Web Services, (AWS) has a lot to share about workforce training and education.  Well worth a listen.

Transportation

• Has Elon Musk Really Done It?

  I received this from a 2 Tesla owner who had believed that truly autonomous driving was many years in the future. I believe he’s much less skeptical now…

Energy and Climate Change

• It’s Official: Solar Is the Cheapest Electricity in History

  Tough break for fossil fuels.

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