Associated Press - February 9, 2010 11:44 AM ET
HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A new budget forecast predicts that state coffers face a more than $60 million deficit by the middle of 2011. But the governor's office notes the state still has $324 million in the bank right now, and his office expects the budget balance by the middle of 2011 will be closer to zero.
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - The trial of a Great Falls man accused of shooting his landlord to death has been delayed, while he undergoes another evaluation at the state mental hospital. Mark Frantzich is charged with deliberate homicide in the Sept. 6 shooting death of 32-year-old Lence Mortensen of Idaho Falls, Idaho. His trial was scheduled to start Monday, but court records say he's been diagnosed with schizophrenia and taken to the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs.
Information from: KFBB-TV, http://www.kfbb.com
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - The city of Lewistown has placed a six-month moratorium on opening any new medical marijuana businesses, while officials decide how to regulate the businesses within the city limits. Lewistown has one medical marijuana dispensary that opened at the beginning of the year, and that business will be allowed to stay open.
Information from: KFBB-TV, http://www.kfbb.com
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - New DNA evidence has led to the arrest of Montana man in the fatal shooting of his common-law wife last July on Interstate 82 in Washington state. At the time, Stephen Harwood said they were shot and robbed by a hitchhiker. Sheryl Huntley was shot in the head while Harwood was shot in the hand. The couple had lived in Thompson Falls, Montana. Harwood was arrested Monday in Butte and was to be returned to Yakima, Washington to face trial.
Information from: Yakima Herald-Republic, http://www.yakima-herald.com
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