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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Sep 22, 2017 |
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." -- H.G. Wells, writer (21 Sep 1866-1946)
Webinar: Which Are The Best States For Data Innovation--and How Can Other States Learn From Them? - 9/26 http://www.matr.net/ev ... =6563
Big Sky Economic Development
Gov. Steve Bullock
- Special Invitation--IEDC Economic Development Training For Community Leaders - 9/26 -Billings
We are fortunate to have been offered an opportunity to have IEDC provide a special economic development training session to Community Leaders in Montana.
Montana Department of Commerce
- Montana Governor Steve Bullock on Cassidy-Graham amendment: "We need to fix healthcare, not destroy it"
"This last-ditch effort to rip healthcare from thousands of Montanans and millions of Americans is insulting to all of the folks trying to work across the aisle to find meaningful solutions," said Governor Bullock. "We need to fix healthcare, not destroy it."
Montana Office of Tourism & Economic Development
- Governor Bullock, Commerce Department Director Haxby-Cote Celebrate 136 New, Affordable Homes in Bozeman
New housing development to provide affordable homes for Bozeman workers and their families
- Montana Receives Federal Grant to Help Businesses Sell Internationally
"By expanding into the global marketplace, Montana's businesses can increase and diversify their sales and create more jobs," said Commerce Director Pam Haxby-Cote. "Commerce has prioritized securing and matching these funds each year to help businesses understand exporting and explore new markets with less risk."
- New Resources Available to Montana Businesses and Communities Impacted by Wildfires
If your business or a business in your area has fallen on hard times because of fire activity or smoke, we encourage you to use and share this resource.
Early Edge Montana
- Big Sky Trust Fund and Workforce Training Grant Updates - Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development Finance Assistance Bureau
The Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund (BSTF) at the Department of Commerce is still accepting applications for fiscal year 2018.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- 10 Characteristics of Preschool-Age Children
A State and Local Data Tool to Inform Policy and Action
VR/AR, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Artificial Intelligence and The Internet of Things
- Possibly Elon Musk's Biggest Idea Yet - Revolutionizing Education
"The leading solutions born from this competition could provide the key to unlocking literacy for children most in need, giving them access to an education they otherwise wouldn't have."
- 4 reasons data is crucial for personalized learning
These resources show how data helps support personalized learning for maximum student achievement.
Energy and Climate Change
- Blockchain: Coming to a Smart Building Near You?
From energy management to billing, blockchain will eventually touch everything in buildings.
Come Home Montana
- Climate report says Montana must adapt to warmer, drier seasons
Montana's average temperatures are increasing, mountain snowpacks are declining, large wildfires are more frequent, and all that is expected to continue in the coming decades, according to a study of climate change within Montana released Wednesday.
- Japan embraces renewable energy as dozens of towns go off-grid
In the last six years, dozens of Japanese towns have worked to decentralize their power generation and storage systems, with many capable of powering themselves for days without sucking power from the conventional grid
- Utilities: Solar Trade Protections Do More Harm Than Good Duke Energy utility-scale solar farm
A utility coalition argues that new trade barriers will undercut the strength of the entire U.S. electricity system.
- Florida residents prohibited from using solar energy after Hurricane Irma
State code requires people to connect their homes to the local electric grid - and when parts of it were damaged after the hurricane, even those homeowners with solar power were legally obliged to sit in the dark.
- The cost of solar power has dropped over 25% in one year
All of this serves as a reminder that, despite the politics of the moment, solar energy continues to rapidly become more cost effective and accessible, paving the way for a cleaner energy future.
Montana Business
- Montana Career Opportunities in the NonProfit Sector - Program Director, Development Director, Web Application Developer, Marketing Associate and more... - Montana Nonprofit Association
MNA's online career center gives member nonprofit organizations an affordable, highly visible, and demographically focused place to post job vacancies.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Program Manager - The Montana Cooperative Development Center
By supporting co-op businesses in even the smallest communities, MCDC is working to revitalize struggling economies across rural Montana.
TED and TEDX Talks
- Montana Made: Diamond Products
Starting in beakers and ending in buckets, these cleaning products are made in Montana and used beyond the state.
- Longtime industry member finds home for outdoor retailer in Bozeman
Even for Montana, Valone said, "Bozeman has a lot of stuff that's unique to it," which made it the perfect place to open the shop.
- Where's your food from? Mountain Meat Shares looks to source locally grown animals raised humanely.
It's one step in her push to bring ethics back to eating and ensure the animals destined for the dinner table have lived a fulfilling life.
Government
- Today's TED Talk - What intelligent machines can learn from a school of fish
In a visionary talk, she presents her work creating artificial collective power and previews a future where swarms of robots work together to build flood barriers, pollinate crops, monitor coral reefs and form constellations of satellites.
North Dakota Business and Economic Development
- Trump Administration Rejects Study Showing Positive Impact of Refugees
Trump administration officials, under pressure from the White House to provide a rationale for reducing the number of refugees allowed into the United States next year, rejected a study by the Department of Health and Human Services that found that refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues over the past decade than they cost.
- How The Latest Senate Trumpcare Bill Threatens K-12 Education
"Negative implications for entities that rely on state support, including school districts, cities, counties, and public higher education institutions could be more significant given their generally more constrained budgetary flexibility."
- Montana budget director recommends $229M in spending cuts
The Legislative Finance Committee will consider the proposed cuts next month before Gov. Steve Bullock makes his final recommendations.
- Missoula Notebook: Gianforte and his communications team must do better
I checked Gianforte's own press releases and found that none of them have included a contact number for media inquiries, much less a name. This is hardly an oversight on Gianforte's part but rather, it suggests an attempt to shut the public out and limit its ability to interact with Montana's only member of Congress.
- University of Montana Law Professor Talks Recent Voter Fraud Allegations
"It is not the way our Constitution addresses our right to vote to assume that when someone makes a mistake that they're breaking the law." - Anthony Johnstone, UM Law Professor
- Montana's Governor Steve Bullock would consider special session on budget
Gov. Steve Bullock said Wednesday he needs a "willing partner" to call a special legislative session and address the state's budget revenue shortfalls.
- Trump hires campaign workers instead of farm experts at USDA
President Donald Trump's appointees to jobs at Agriculture Department headquarters include a long-haul truck driver, a country club cabana attendant and the owner of a scented-candle company.
Oregon Business
- Williston Economic Development wins award for its video folders
"Not only did they work to provide a necessary service to their community," he said, "but also, their participation in the awards program sheds light on their stellar projects, which other communities can use as a benchmark."
Regional Business
- My 20-mile walk around Portland
'Walking is how I've come to understand not only cities, but my place within them'
Regional Economic Development
- Creative Solutions to the Rural Doctor Shortage
What if, instead of fighting the uphill battle of recruiting more doctors, we figure out alternatives that will keep us healthy and increase the number of high-paying community jobs?
- Podcast - How Big Data and Analytics Can Transform Manufacturing
Manufacturing companies are fast realizing that data and analytics can help tremendously in improving operational efficiencies and business processes.
Montana Education Excellence
- Venture-capital group sues over Trump administration's delay of foreign-entrepreneur rule
The National Venture Capital Association sued the Trump administration over its delay of the International Entrepreneur Rule, which would have allowed foreigners who had an ownership stake in a startup U.S. business to live and work in the U.S. for 30 months or longer.
Community
- All are Invited - Grand Opening Of The New Missoula College - 9/22 - Missoula
Speakers will include Gov. Steve Bullock, Commissioner of Higher Education Clay Christian, UM President Sheila Stearns and MC Dean Shannon O'Brien.
- University of Montana Presidential Finalist: Andrew Feinstein
"Something is happening here between your sophomore and junior year, as I'm imagining, where they're just leaving campus - - and you can't help them continue to graduate if they're gone. So, I'd like to spend a lot more time understanding what's going on on this campus regarding retention. Even more so than recruitment. Because if the students stay here and they graduate, that's going to increase your enrollment very quickly," Feinstein explains.
- Cutting teachers for dummies: How to maximize pain and minimize profit at UM
"I thought I was pretty set, being teacher of the year and all," he told Lucy Tompkins of the Montana Kaimin. "Guess again."
- Opinion: From the frying pan into the fire: How the UM president search went off the rails before it even started
Is this a real search, for a real president, of an actual university?
Funding and Building your Business
- Is It Time for U.S. Citizens to Learn More About the World?
"Thirty-one of the 78 (40%) Nobel winners working in America were born outside the U.S."
Connectivity & Communications
- Google brings its resources for founders and startups to a single site
What's maybe even more interesting about the new site, though, is that it also features a section about best practices.
- Meet the Woman Who Broke Silicon Valley's Gender Barrier--and Built a $1.5 Billion Tech Company
The Silicon Valley gender narrative is firmly entrenched: Women don't get computer science degrees and don't start successful tech companies. Don't tell Therese Tucker any of that.
- How These 10 Women Are Redefining What it Means to Be a Feminist Founder
From self-driving cars to upscale cannabis, these entrepreneurs are building the next wave of innovative companies.
- This CEO's marriage of ice cream and architecture
She discussed what she hopes to accomplish with the brand and how leading a company the right way is so important to ongoing success.
- The story behind Square's bank charter application
"Over 67% of our [customers] can't get financing anywhere," she said. "And so we are their sole source of financing. ... We think that enables us to serve an underserved market in a way that very few others have."
Government Technology
- Your Internet isn't getting any faster, but the government might soon call it 'high-speed' anyway
A looming change in the way officials define Internet service may soon prompt the Federal Communications Commission to change its mind and say that, in fact, it looks like consumers are doing just fine, thank you very much.
- New Report Details Gaps in Broadband Subscription Rates Across Country
The Brookings Institution has mapped broadband availability and subscription rates at the neighborhood level. The digital resource highlights the need for better connectivity across the United States.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- The Next Big Technology to Transform Government
Some say it will have a bigger impact than the internet.
- Global support for TM Forum "City as a Platform" Manifesto Good Thinking
The manifesto outlines 11 fundamental principles for deploying city platforms and is designed to accelerate the development of smart cities and act as guidelines for those setting public policy.
- National Day of Civic Hacking Events Aim to Be More Inclusive - Are any Montana communities hacking this year?
The fifth annual National Day of Civic Hacking is Sept. 23, and participating civic technologists across the country will, as always, host a series of volunteer events in their cities and states.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- A Reader's Guide To The 2017 Montana Book Festival - 9/27-10/1 - Missoula
This year, festival director Karla Theilen is carrying forward several traditions established by festivals past, including popular events like Pie & Whiskey and an erotic fan-fiction reading.
HACKING AND VIRUS ALERTS
- 3D-printable synthetic muscle is three times stronger than you
We've overcome one of the final barriers to making lifelike robots.
Transportation
- Hackers Hid Backdoor In CCleaner Security App With 2 Billion Downloads -- 2.3 Million Infected
The tainted application allows for download of further malware, be it ransomware or keyloggers, with fears millions are affected.
- Senator Tester, Dept. of Justice team up to offer tips for Montanans affected by Equifax breach
At the conference Tester and Mattioli provided instructions on how residents can protect themselves in the wake of the breach.
- Bozeman law firm representing Montanans impacted by Equifax breach
In Montana, attorneys believe that number to be about 368,000, which is about 1 out of 2 people over the age of 18.
Events
- Bozeman loosens parking requirements to spur development in 'Midtown'
City officials have said cutting down the space and money developers have to put into parking will bring more business to the area they describe as underdeveloped.
- Proterra's Electric Bus Breaks a World Record for Range--1,100 Miles on a Single Charge
If you think Tesla's 300-plus-mile battery range for its electric cars is a big deal, here's a new world record that triples that figure.
- 101 ways to improve transportation in your city
These small things can make a big impact
- Ohio Turns to Private Sector Data Analytics for Smarter, Safer Streets Transportation
The Ohio Department of Transportation wants better, easier-to-analyze transportation data.
- Project aims to improve transportation in Bozeman
"As Bozeman grows, instead of having to go build out all of these additional five-lane roads and widen our streets and build more parking, we can look at ways to use what we have more effectively."
- Cubicle Wars 2.0, 10/04, Missoula
- Webinar: Which Are The Best States For Data Innovation--and How Can Other States Learn From Them? - 9/26
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