TV Star Praises Montana for Teaching These Skills

Montana is getting praise from an Emmy Award-winning TV host who's made it his mission to promote the trades, saying our state "gets it", when it comes to encouraging students to pursue a vocational career.

Mike Rowe, who's promoted the trades through his mikeroweWORKS Foundation, joined Governor Gianforte in Great Falls yesterday to mark construction of the Great Falls High School House program's 50th home.

He praised Montana's elected leaders for recognizing the need, and also the potential of trades jobs in the years to come. He says that's critical since, in recent years, for every 5 workers in the building trades that retire, only two more young people take their place.

"I think one of the great benchmarks or metrics that you're going to see in the coming years are which states figure this out first. I'm not an economist, but I don't have a crystal ball, but I can see the writing that's on the wall now. South Dakota gets it. Montana gets it. Texas gets it." -Mike Rowe

Gianforte says an example of that is the Montana Trades Education Credit.

"We'll pay any employer in the state of Montana through a tax credit $2000 per year per employee for up to 50% of the tuition to go to trade school," Gianforte explains.

Appearing on Montana Talks, Rowe also noted that America is just "not delivering on the homes for the people that we have", and a big part of that solution is training students to fill the gap in workers.

"The solution to this is teaching 17, 18, 19-year-old kids how to build a great home under the right kind of supervision with the right kind of tutelage. That's amazing. And if you can't feel good about the youth, if you're looking for a Gen Z story, you can feel great about, how about the fact that they're building our homes for it?"

      Well Fargo is donating $200,000 thousand dollars to help with the program in Cascade County.

RELATED: Surprising Montana Town Shines for Affordable Housing

SNAP help arrives in Montana, more on the way

Some great news for Montanans who depend on SNAP. With the end of the federal government shutdown, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service says it is directing Montana and other states to issue full SNAP benefits for the month of November.

The Montana Department of Health and Human Services says it will make sure SNAP household receive their assistance by November 15th. The agency advises people to check the balances on their EBT cards.

      SNAP payments will return to their regular schedule in December.

Another bad day for Montana winds

It's been another day of brutal winds across parts of Montana, as this week's strong high-pressure ridge moves out, and a cold front, with a big weather change, pushes into the Northern Rockies and the High Plains.

Winds west of the Divide weren't too bad this morning, with gusts around 20 to 25 miles per hour for a time. But other areas, especially in North Central Montana, were a different story. Gusts around Lewistown and the Judith Gap were gusting to nearly 60 early today.

While it's been mild, temperatures are already falling. Snow levels were around 7-thousand feet this morning, but will drop to pass level, and below as we go through the weekend, putting some snow down into the higher valleys.

More on Gallatin County worker's death

Gallatin County Sheriff's Office investigators are now saying a worker died in a workplace accident at the Yellowstone Club when he was hit by a falling pallet of sheetrock.

Deputies say 27-year-old Chance Dutcher of Bozeman was unloading the sheetrock with a truck-mounted crane when the pallet fell off the crane. He died at the scene.