MATR Newsletter – September 12, 2022
The state with the best education wins!

Come Home Montana

• For sale: God, guns and separatism in the American Redoubt in Montana and Idaho

  In a preparation checklist, Rawles recommends that new arrivals to the American Redoubt sell or donate extravagances like jewelry and televisions, research the geography and microclimates of their new settlement, and “bring your guns.”

• As countries (and states) try to attract digital nomads, locals say ‘not so fast’

  Digital nomad culture is clashing with local culture.

• Montana Career Opportunity – Director of Community Engagement and Destination Stewardship – Glacier Country Tourism Regional Tourism Commission

  This position is responsible for leading key community engagement and stewardship GCT initiatives, ensuring Western Montana’s growth and sustainability, while improving quality of life.

Big Sky Economic Development

• Thank You for Attending the 2022 Annual Meeting and Rock31 & Big Sky Economic Development Grand Opening Celebration!

  We are so excited to begin this new Era of Big Sky Economic Development and Rock31.

  We invite you to come see us at our new home, 201 N Broadway!

  Let’s Build Remarkable, Together!

Great Falls Development Authority

• Montana State Small Business Credit Initiative 2.0 Application Portal Opens TODAY!!

  Launching a new low interest loan product in participation with your bank or credit union. This product helps small businesses get the support they need to start, expand, innovate, and create jobs. Funds are very limited and will be on a first come first served basis.

Montana Technology Innovation Partnership

• SBIR National Conference, M2M Innovation Summit, Regional Events – September news from MTIP

  The SBIR/STTR Fall conference, co-located with the DefenseTechConnect in National Harbor, Maryland, will be held September 26 – 29, 2022.  Ann Peterson will be attending and a guest panelist in the SBIR Innovation Conference line up.

Montana West Economic Development

• Land More Conversations with Your Ideal Prospects Thursday, September 15, 1 – 2 p.m. Location: MWED Conference Room, 44 2nd Ave. W, Kalispell

  Business growth via relationship building is taking place online more than ever creating a much more competitive landscape. Join us to learn from industry experts, how to tackle the hardest part of revenue growth – creating awareness that eventually turns familiarity into relationships with your ideal prospects.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Newly appointed Helena city commissioner, Andy Shirtliff aims to ‘protect and preserve’

  “I work for the people of Helena, and we have to face the problems at hand with an eye on the future,” he said. “I will respect the voters’ wishes who elected Eric. He was the top vote-getter last year.”

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• New Broadband Maps are Coming. Will Agriculture Be Left Behind Again? 

  A new federal broadband map is on the way and is supposed to include a list of all buildings that could benefit from broadband access. But a recent change calls into question whether agricultural structures will be included in that list.

Montana Businesses Seeking Investment or For Sale

• Belgrade, Montana Based TowHaul Corporation Acquired by Federal Signal

  For over 40 years, TowHaul has been dedicated to designing and manufacturing the most reliable, efficient and adaptable heavy-duty, off-road specialty metal extraction support equipment, including its signature front- and rear-loading lowboy trailers, multi-purpose gooseneck equipment, dragline bucket transporters, and road-conditioning trucks.

Montana Business

• Climate change threatens Montana’s trout habitat and tourism industry, study says

  Montana could lose as much as 35 percent of its cold-water trout habitat by 2080, a new study says.

Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana

• Venture Capital Finds Sweet Returns in Bees

  At least 15 bee-related startups have raised funding in the past couple years, per Crunchbase data. Collectively, they’ve brought in over $165 million to date for business models that range from AI-enabled robotic beehives to biotherapeutics for ailing bees. We list them below:

Incubators and R&D

• Lab-grown Wagyu beef morsels could be coming to a meat market near you

  The company claims that it’s possible to exceed the marbling requirements for natural Wagyu beef. Additionally, those standards can be consistently maintained throughout each production run. What’s more, although the finished product currently takes the form of small cubes, it could reportedly be printed in any size or shape.

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

• Teacher shortages are real, but not for the reason you heard

  The pandemic kicked off the largest drop in education employment ever.

• 21 Charts That Explain How America Is Failing Schools

  As conceived by America’s founding fathers, public education was supposed to bind together a nation of immigrants from disparate classes. But public schools today are at the center of controversy, over curricula, security protocols, mask mandates, and more. As of June, only 29% of Americans—and just 14% of Republicans—put their trust in them, the lowest level since Gallup began asking the question in 1973.

• University of Montana plans college restructure within next year

  Mahdavi, who started at UM this summer, said there will be no budget or staffing cuts. She added that the management structures of the newly configured schools will be coordinated with the Union Faculty Association, the union of all professors, and each school’s deans.

STARS Montana Early Education Program

• ZerotoFive Montana – Child Care Innovations Webinar Series: Head Start as a Partner

  Join us and our special guests, Kathy Rich with the Montana Head Start Collaboration Office and Karen Filipovich with the Montana Head Start Association, to learn more about Head Start and some of the innovative community solutions that exist around the state.

2023 Montana Legislature and Politics

• Montana nuclear power advisory council plan changed at ’11th hour’

  Advocates of the new bill, which would have to be approved by the 2023 Legislature, said the failed proposal was a “nuclear plan killer” that would hamper efforts to bring clean, efficient nuclear power to Montana.

City Club Missoula

• City Club Missoula – Getting Schooled: Perspectives on Public Education in Montana – 9/19 – 11:30 – In Person and Streamed

  The panel, featuring State Representative David Bedey, McCall Flynn, the Executive Director of the Montana Board of Public Education, and Lance Melton, Executive Director of the Montana School Board Association, will cover such topics as the roles of school boards, parental involvement, curriculum development and content, as well as teacher accreditation and licensure requirements.

Careers

• As the Planet Warms, Canada Faces an Influx of Climate Refugees

  Advocates want the government to allow more climate-related immigration and to consider those migrants “protected persons.”

Transportation

• Ditch The Plane, Take The Night Train

  People who travel by train leave a carbon footprint 50 times smaller than those who fly.

Energy and Climate Change

• California Embraces A New Approach To Community Solar

  A new law in California greatly expands the policy incentives for community solar which will reward projects that include battery storage.

• Concrete is more polluting than flying. Here are 4 innovative ways to clean it up

  The concrete industry’s emissions have doubled over the past two decades, and demand is rising fast. Microalgae, carbon capture, and other innovations could help clean it up.

• Is nuclear power a green solution? Why world tilts toward ‘yes.’

  Nuclear power is getting a rethink as a way to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in an energy-hungry, yet warming world. Germany, California, and Japan are recent examples of the change.

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