Malta News

MALTA - Many small towns in eastern Montana are fighting to remain vital, with aging populations, shrinking school enrollments and fewer jobs to keep high school graduates in the area.

MALTA - Folks in this Hi-Line agricultural community are so proud of their history that they're extending the centennial celebration across the summer.

Laurin Howard Bruckner, 84, of Malta, a longtime Phillips County farmer and rancher and World War II Army veteran, died of natural causes Tuesday in Billings.

CUT BANK - Officials in Cut Bank are asking residents to be patient as construction gets under way in July on the latest phase of the city's water distribution project.

MALTA - June Louise Borch, 76, a homemaker and caregiver who enjoyed spending time with her children and grandchildren, died Tuesday at a Billings hospital from injuries received in a May 8 automobile accident in Malta.

MALTA - Phillips County authorities have been searching for a 58-year-old Billings man believed to have drowned in a reservoir northeast of Malta .

SACO - Gary L. Olson, 67 of Saco, a retired meat cutter who enjoyed flying his single-engine aircraft and watching rodeos, died of a heart attack Saturday in Saco.

Amateur paleontologist Nathan Murphy, a commercial fossil hunter whose discovery of the world's best-preserved dinosaur brought scientific acclaim, will serve 60 days in jail for stealing an ancient raptor fossil from private land.

Phillips County authorities have been searching for a 58-year-old Billings man believed to have drowned in a reservoir northeast of Malta.

A Billings man went missing Sunday evening in the Nelson Reservoir northeast of Malta.

DODSON - Clifford Ellsworth Munson, 93, a lifelong Dodson-area farmer who enjoyed sports of all kinds, farming, reading, playing cards, traveling, and music, died of natural causes Saturday at the Hi-Line Retirement Center in Malta.

MALTA - I.W. "Pearlie" Taylor, 94, a nurse, rancher, farmer and homemaker, died of natural causes Wednesday at her daughter's home north of Saco.

ATLANTA - Police say Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament was mugged outside an Atlanta recording studio.

DODSON - Catherine M. Haubrich, 98, a homemaker and cook who was active in her church, and enjoyed knitting and gardening, died of natural causes Saturday at her home in Dodson.

Nate Murphy mixed a real talent for discovery with brazen deceit, until a slip-up with an Australian geologist brought him down.

THE jig was up when Julie became Sid Vicious. Unravelling one of palaeontology's more outrageous swindles would take more than two years.

Jess Hall and Andrew Johns unintentionally got to experience Swift Current's kindness last week after their journey to Calgary came to an abrupt end a few kilometers south of Swift Current.

BOZEMAN - A woman has died from injuries she suffered in a barrel racing competition held in connection with the Montana State University Spring Rodeo.

DODSON - Otto A. "Doc" Scheffelmaer, 82, a retired ranch hand who enjoyed spending time with his wife and grandchildren, died of natural causes Sunday at a Malta hospital.

Murphy also pleaded guilty earlier this month in state court, where he was charged with stealing a fossil from private land in order to sell it.