Now that the United States has officially stopped making pennies, a nationwide scramble is underway among gas stations, fast-food chains, and major retailers to adjust prices and handle cash transactions — a shift that could quietly erode profits for many high-volume businesses. The transition follows President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year to halt production Read More…
Bitcoin was on track Friday to post its first October loss in seven years, breaking a streak that had given the month a “lucky” reputation among cryptocurrency traders. The world’s largest digital currency is set to fall nearly 5% for the month, trading around $66,800 Friday afternoon, as investors pulled back from risk assets amid Read More…
Montana’s manufacturing sector remains a cornerstone of the state’s economy, according to three reports on the state of manufacturing recently released by the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center at Montana State University and authored by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana. The manufacturing sector generated more than $2 billion in Read More…
Dakota Foundry, a vertically integrated grey and ductile iron foundry, has been named one of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce “CO—100 Top 100 Small Businesses in America”, a national recognition that highlights the company’s innovation, craftsmanship, and impact on American manufacturing. The CO—100 designation honors small businesses demonstrating exceptional innovation and influence across the country. Read More…
About 10 years ago, SoftBank released a slideshow presentation on the company’s 300-year plan. “Unknown virus” got one reference, on slide 69 of 133. Perhaps coronavirus will just be a blip in the company’s long-term plan for world domination. Perhaps SoftBank’s vision of investing in artificial intelligence and other dominant technology companies will pay off in the long run, Read More…
BILLINGS — Businesses and nonprofits in all of Montana and Wyoming are eligible for up to $2 million in disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, according to press releases from U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines of Montana and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon. The loans are designed to help businesses stay afloat if Read More…
Industry leaders and educators are hoping to teach the tools of the trades to the next generation of workers. As the Flathead Valley continues to grow, the demand for work in local trade professions like construction has never been higher. But with the aging workforce and fewer new employees entering these fields, local employers have Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — On Monday, Missoula City-County Health officials announced an order closing bars and limiting restaurant service starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday through 8 a.m. Tuesday, March 24. The health department is doing this to follow guidelines set out by the Centers for Disease Control. “It’s not just about money, it’s really about the ethics Read More…
Residential electric rates for one of Montana’s largest rural cooperatives compare well to NorthWestern Energy, when measured at the co-op customers’ average usage, says the co-op’s CEO. “We compete very well, actually,” Yellowstone Valley Electric Co-op CEO Brandon Wittman told MTN News. “So, is it fair to compare? It is, at the correct usage.” In Read More…
The Montana Department of Commerce announced that five Montana communities have been accepted to become affiliate members of the Montana Main Street Program. The program helps Montana communities strengthen and preserve historic downtown commercial districts by supporting economic development, urban revitalization and historic preservation through long-range planning, organization, design and promotion. “The Department of Commerce Read More…
Local developer Mick Ruis is planning to build a major mixed-use development in downtown Columbia Falls. Ruis’ plan will go before the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board on March 10 at 6:30 p.m. and then the Columbia Falls City Council on April 6. If approved, Ruis believes it would be a transformative project for Nucleus Read More…
BUTTE – NorthWestern Energy’s Montana customers are reporting a scam demanding money for a meter change. The criminals leave a phone message saying the customers’ meter will be changed shortly with instructions to call a phone number. When the customer calls the number, they are told there is a fee and service will be disconnected Read More…
Ten entrepreneurs from southeast Wyoming have had their respective lives changed over the past six months. It’s been a hectic, frantic, chaotic and incredible time, one where all 10 men and women, ranging from a college student to a husband-and-wife team, have been working to change the world. Or at least Wyoming to start out. Read More…
WinCo and the owners of the proposed grocery store location paid union members $15,000 to settle a lawsuit against the city of Bozeman, according to court documents. While the lawsuit was between the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 4 and the city of Bozeman, the city did not pay any money in the Read More…
DILLON, MT — How do you show a perspective employer what you can do or show examples of work you’ve done? Those are very difficult if not impossible with a traditional resume. However, work on-going at Montana Western in Dillon is making all of that possible. It’s called micro-credentials and Montana Western recently received a Read More…
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — It’s not what you would expect to find in Montana’s heart land. But for more than 50-years, a Tiki bar in Great Falls has been captivating customers from all over the world. In our Montana Moment, we visit the Sip ‘n Dip at the O’Haire Motor Inn. Here on a Wednesday night, “Piano Pat,” Read More…
As baby boomers transition into retirement and new job markets evolve in a strong economy, Montana is following the nationwide trend of a workforce shortage. With Montana’s jobless rate at 3.4% as of December 2019, just below the national average of 3.5%, employers are struggling to fill job vacancies due to a low unemployment rate, Read More…
This year, WaterStreet Company is celebrating its 20th year of business in the Flathead Valley. The Kalispell technology company has quietly grown to include 80 local employees and software clients across the country. In 2020, they expect to eclipse the 100 employee mark. “We’re hiring like crazy,” said WaterStreet’s Vice President of Marketing Erica Schatte. Read More…
Warren Buffett sold more than $800 million worth of Apple stock last quarter, according to SEC filings published on Friday. That might seem like a massive sale, but it’s closer to a rounding error for the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO. Berkshire is Apple’s biggest shareholder with a 5.4% stake worth $72 billion, according to Bloomberg data. Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – Nine Montana communities will share $118,000 through the Montana Main Street Program to support historic preservation, wayfinding, and revitalization plans for their downtowns. “Montana’s vibrant and charming towns are what attracts visitors, keeps residents and encourages downtown business growth,” Montana Department of Commerce Director Tara Rice said. “These Montana Main Street Program grant dollars Read More…
Montana West Economic Development is assisting the property holder of the Gateway Community Center in Kalispell by assigning an employee to serve as interim property manager to help “set the direction for sustainability” at the nonprofit campus. Kim Morisaki, MWED’s director of business development and marketing, began on Feb. 3 and will serve the role Read More…
They can leap tall buildings in a single bound, defend the Earth from myriad alien threats and save the world on a daily basis. These days, they rule the box office and small screen as well. Comic-book superheroes are the gods of modern mythology and they have been a large part of Randy Sheppard’s life Read More…
BILLINGS — Economists with the University of Montana touted Billings’ economic health during a Tuesday luncheon at the Northern Hotel. Patrick Barkey, the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research director, said Billings has had good construction activity, a healthy real estate sector and financial institutions that are doing well. “Billings is the Read More…
NBA legend Kobe Bryant, 41, died in a helicopter crash on Sunday morning in Calabasas, Calif., along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. Seven other people were on board Bryant’s helicopter and were all killed in the tragic accident. Bryant’s impact on basketball is obvious: five-time NBA champion; two-time NBA Finals MVP; league Read More…
Berkadia secured $30.3 million in financing for Talus Apartments, a 288-unit garden-style multifamily community in Great Falls, MT. Seattle-based Investors Capital Group, LLC, was the borrower. The 10-year Freddie Mac loan features a full-leverage loan with partial-term interest-only. Located at 2100 26th St. S, the community was constructed in two phases from 2015 to 2018. Read More…
Two decades ago, four Montana hospitals tried something new. They bankrolled a company to compete with the most powerful insurer in the state. The hospitals wanted to challenge what they described as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana’s “dominating presence.” So they founded insurer New West Health Services in 1998 to cover hospital employees and Read More…
SHELBY, Mont., Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The Port of Northern Montana has recently confirmed that it has a significant amount of low-cost renewable electrical power available at its Data Center Development Park in Shelby. In particular, as a result of a cooperative arrangement with NaturEner USA, there is approximately 10 megawatts (MW) of renewable electrical power currently available at the Shelby Data Center Read More…
TC Energy is moving ahead with plans to construct the Keystone XL pipeline, and it’s getting ready to make a few Montana moves. Terry Cunha, a spokesman for TC Energy, told the Herald on Tuesday that Keystone XL has reached several key milestones. That prompted the company to file a status report with the Read More…
BUTTE – United Airlines estimates it would need $1 million in guaranteed revenue over two years from Butte before it would consider adding a second flight from Bert-Mooney Airport to Denver. This more than the $380,000 Butte’s Tourism Business Improvement District, or TBID, was asked to raise. TBID officials are planning to send a survey Read More…
Online advertising is saving entrepreneurs and small business owners significant time and money, creating more efficiencies and effective uses for the limited capital they have on hand, and playing a positive role in driving new sales growth and revenues. These are the findings of a new survey conducted by TechnoMetrica for SBE Council in “The Read More…
JCPenney announced Friday that the retailer is planning to close its location at Southgate Mall. The department store is expected to close in April 2020. In a press release sent Friday afternoon, Washington Prime Group, the owner of Southgate Mall said prior to the JCPenney closing announcement they executed an agreement to gain control of Read More…
BELGRADE, Mont. – Montanans are ready for takeoff to the country music capital Nashville, Tenn. for the state’s first direct flight to Music City, USA. Montana’s busiest airport, Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, is getting ready for a new direct flight to Nashville through Allegiant Airlines. You can start booking flights now for nonstop service, with Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — Governor Steve Bullock and the U.S.D.A Rural Development State Director Charles Robinson will help celebrate the completion of Montana Craft Malt, a facility that will produce thousands of tons of malt from Montana-grown barley. The facility, inspired by a market analysis report and a variety of grant and technical assistance programs through the Read More…
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Friday that it had placed one of its tenured professors on paid administrative leave after finding that he “purposefully failed to inform MIT” that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was source of two donations in 2012 to support the professor’s research, and that the professor got a $60,000 personal gift from Epstein. Read More…
For the past 18 consecutive months, the U.S. has led the world’s crude oil production. It surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia in June and August of 2018. One year later, the U.S. surpassed its own production record by 14.6 percent. The U.S. leading crude oil production for the first time since 1973 “demonstrates how the Read More…
BILLINGS, Mont. – The Billings Logan International Airport will offer two additional flights from Billings to Portland, Oregon and Dallas, Texas in 2020. The airport announced American Airlines is adding a second flight from Dallas to Billings, beginning April 7, 2020. The flight will arrive at 8:41 p.m. and depart at 6:30 a.m. the following morning. American Read More…
The pain kept coming for hedge funds in 2019: if they weren’t being killed off, they were bleeding cash or wringing out dismal returns. The industry is now on track to record more closures than launches for a fifth straight year, a blow to a market that once minted millionaires at a heady pace. More Read More…
BOZEMAN — Montana’s ban on flavored vaping products has been in effect for about a week and already some people have found a way to get around it. “Having customers having access to a safe product, you know, that’s the goal,” said Freedom Vapes co-owner Ron Marshall. After one day of a 120-day temporary ban Read More…
Kevin Washington, a minority owner of CryptoWatt, the cryptocurrency mining plant in Butte, says he’s “the biggest victim, by a mile” of the plant’s majority owner, Matthew Goettsche, who has been indicted in connection with an alleged $722 million Ponzi scheme. In a telephone interview Saturday, Washington said he is trying “at all costs” Read More…
Montanans earning the minimum wage will see the rate increase to $8.65 per hour beginning January 1, 2020. The 2019 minimum wage in Montana is $8.50 per hour. Currently, 29 states and D.C. have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. A press release from the Governor’s office says that an Read More…
Montana has experienced 461 oil and gas spills since 2015, according to a new factsheet by Environment Montana Research & Policy Center These accidents have released a total of 6 million gallons of wastewater and 298,000 gallons of oil onto Montana land and waterways. “The research is clear: when you drill, you spill,” said Skye Borden, Read More…
Dennis Muilenburg, the CEO of Boeing, resigned Monday morning after a string of malfunctions in Boeing’s 737 Max airliner led to the worst year on record for the plane-maker. Boeing has struggled to rectify issues related to its 737 Max, which President Trump grounded in March after two crashes took the lives of more than 300 people. Read More…
To celebrate his graduation, Nicholas Balcken will likely raise a glass — of Blackfoot River Brewing Company beer. On Friday, Balcken became the first participant in the Montana Registered Apprenticeship Program to receive a Professional Brewer Certificate. With this credential, the Blackfoot River Brewing Co. employee said, “I hope to be able to develop better beers and improve my Read More…
Congress sends sending bills to Trump — Holiday presents from ME