Helena, MT - Montana's Department of Labor and Industry announced a new $70,000 WIRED (Workforce Innovation and Regional Economic Development) grant awarded to its Apprenticeship and Training Program. The grant is designed to help labor groups train technical instructors in 'green' coursework.

"This is a great investment in our 21st century workforce," Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Keith Kelly said. "This grant allows instructors to be trained in rapidly changing technologies, giving a competitive edge to Montana's apprentices."

Labor-affiliated apprenticeship programs provide a high quality classroom instructor training environment for approximately 48% of all registered Montana apprentices, but these training programs currently have limited budgets to upgrade instructors to compete in 'green' and energy efficient technologies. The new WIRED grant funding will provide an estimated 20 active labor-affiliated apprenticeship programs with an additional $3,500 per program to offset the cost for this new instructor training.

Havre - Montana State University President Geoff Gamble announced that, subject to approval by the Montana Board of Regents, Frank Trocki will be the new chancellor for MSU-Northern. Gamble and Trocki have been in Helena today to meet with Montana University System leaders and then will travel to Havre, where Gamble will introduce Trocki and his wife Joan to the campus and the community. Trocki's appointment will begin in late July.

"Frank Trocki is a great choice for the students of Northern and the Hi-Line community. I have confidence he will bring vision and strong leadership to the task of making Northern the best it can be for students," Gamble said. "In addition, Frank and Joan will, I know, be a wonderful addition to the Havre and Hi-Line communities."

Trocki, 62, is currently vice president of business development for Lincoln Educational Services/Lincoln College of Technology in West Orange, N.J. He has a doctorate of education from West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va., and a master's and bachelor's in industrial technology from Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Mass.

The annual field day at the Central Agricultural Research Center in Moccasin will be held Thursday, July 9.

Field tours will run from 9:30 a.m. through 1:30 p.m. with a noon lunch break. Lunch will be provided by area agribusinesses.

Agricultural research presentations will cover cereal grain variety development, a tool for developing economic fertilizer use strategies, Ley farming (reduced input), wheat rotations with camelina, camelina research results, high and low energy consumption crop production methods, nematodes in cereal rotations, crop plant diseases and other pests, and forage species (annual and perennial) and production methods.

Presenters include Chengci Chen, Clain Jones, Phil Bruckner, Luther Talbert, Max Burgess, Peter Zuck, Mary Burrows, Kent McVay, Kevin Wanner, Karnes Neil and Dave Wichman and other agricultural experts from Montana State University.

HELENA - The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) recently settled enforcement actions against the CHS, Inc. Laurel Refinery and the ConocoPhillips Company Billings Refinery for failing to comply with their Montana Air Quality Operating Permits and Montana Air Quality Permits at their refineries. CHS paid a $165,000 administrative penalty and Conoco paid a $351,500 administrative penalty to the DEQ as part of the settlements.

Conoco's permits state that stack emissions can not exceed an opacity of 20% averaged over six consecutive minutes. Conoco's continuous opacity monitoring system data indicated 109 hours (1,090 individual six consecutive minute exceedances) of opacity greater than 20% from April 27 to May 2, 2007. For approximately 49 of these hours, the opacity was 100%. In addition, data indicated the continuous compliance limit was also exceeded on April 29, 2007. Conoco also failed to perform daily calibration drift checks and daily calibration drift assessments on their continuous emission monitoring systems for a 38-day period between September 12, 2006 and October 20, 2006.

On June 30, 2009, the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy (Advocacy) filed a comment letter on a Discussion Paper issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), "Leases: Preliminary Views."

Links: A copy of Advocacy's letter and a fact sheet summarizing the letter.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - The offices of Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester announced that 15 Montana community health centers will receive $6.7 million from the Jobs-Stimulus Bill.

The following community health centers will receive money:

·    Ashland Community Health Center - $293,820
·    Bullhook Community Health Center in Havre - $332,110
·    Butte-Silver Bow Community Health Center - $784,170
·    Cascade City-County Health Department in Great Falls - $438,020
·    Central Montana Community Health Center in Lewistown - $251,610
·    Community Health Partners in Livingston - $559,295
·    Custer County Community Health Center in Miles City - $268,657
·    Flathead City-County Health Department in Kalispell - $241,438
·    Glacier Community Health Center in Cut Bank - $336,625
·    Lewis and Clark City-County Health Department in Helena - $469,345
·    Lincoln County Community Health Center in Libby - $435,220
·    Missoula City-County Health Department - $571,545
·    Montana Migrant Council in Billings - $433,855
·    Sweet Medical Center in Chinook - $333,300
·    Yellowstone City-County Health Department  in Billings - $951,680

The money will be used to upgrade the health center facilities and purchase new, state-of-the-art equipment.