Latest Montana news, sports, business and entertainment:

BANK FRAUD Kalispell woman sentenced for bank fraud Missoula, Mont. (AP) A 47-year-old Kalispell woman has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for embezzling more than $227,000 from two companies she did bookkeeping work for.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molly also ordered Judy L. Hammack on Friday to pay $223,000 in restitution.

Hammack had pleaded guilty earlier to bank fraud.

Prosecutors say Hammack took more than $157,000 from a masonry company and more than $70,000 from a construction company.

Hammack told investigators she took the money by inflating her paychecks, writing checks to herself, forging her employers' signatures and having her employers pre-sign checks before entering fraudulent amounts.

SMOKESTACK DEMOLITION State says Asarco smokestack demolition was safe EAST HELENA, Mont. (AP) The state Department of Environmental Quality says the demolition in August of three smokestacks that towered over the Asarco lead smelter in East Helena for decades didn't produce negative health effects.

DEQ Director Richard Opper says air sampling tests confirm that the demolition was carried out safely and successfully.

The agency also found that the demolition did not violate the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, designed to protect public health.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency also examined the samples and says the low concentrations of chemicals and short duration of inhalation exposure would not be expected to cause health problems.

Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com BUS STRIKE Mediator to help school district, bus drivers BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) A federal mediator has been called in to help settle differences between school bus drivers and Billings School District 2, meaning buses will be rolling on Monday.

Superintendent Jack Copps says he sent an automated telephone call to parents of 15,000 students on Friday to let them know.

Teamsters Union Local 190 represents 82 drivers who work for First Student Inc., a private company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, that has the contract to drive buses for the school district.

The contract expired July 1 and negotiations have so far failed.

Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com INVESTMENT POOL Flathead County pulls money from investment pool KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) Flathead County has taken its money out of the state's Short-term Investment pool program due to low interest rates.

County Treasurer Adele Krantz says the county had about $35 million in the program at the beginning of the year.

Krantz says the county can get a higher interest rate by putting the money in local banks.

The Short-term Investment pool program is a statewide money pool where government agencies must keep their surplus money and where cities and counties can invest their surpluses.

Information from: Flathead Beacon, http://www.flatheadbeacon.com DINOSAUR DISPUTE Horner: Too many dinosaurs called unique species BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) A noted Montana paleontologist is putting forward a theory that says up to a third of classified dinosaur species are really just juveniles or subadults of already known species.

Jack Horner, director of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, recently published research co-authored with Mark Goodwin of the University of California, Berkeley, in the peer-reviewed online science journal PLoS ONE.

Horner says he and Goodwin focused on dome-headed dinosaurs and theorize that those dinosaurs went through vastly different forms of head hardware as they aged.

Horner says the changes occurred so dinosaurs could signal species difference to other dinosaurs as well as their sexual maturity. Horner says the dinosaur skulls appear so different at various ages that they were incorrectly classified as unique species.

Horner says CT scans of dinosaur skulls backs up the theory.

Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com BULL TROUT COUNT Bull trout numbers dropping in MT's Swan drainage KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) Bull trout numbers in northwest Montana's Swan River drainage have dropped to their lowest level in 17 years, as introduced lake trout appear to be outcompeting and eating their native cousins.

Predatory lake trout were first introduced to Flathead Lake in the early 1900s, part of an attempt to produce a commercial fishery strong enough to encourage settlement in the area.

For nearly 30 years, scientists have gone to the Swan to count "redds" the underwater nests where bull trout lay their eggs.

This year's Swan drainage redd count 366 is the lowest since 1992. Nearly 400 were counted last year, 521 the year before that.

State fisheries biologist Tom Weaver warns continued declines of bull trout are likely there if the non-natives spread farther.

Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com CM RUSSELL COLLECTION Okla. museum buys CM Russell collection GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) An Oklahoma museum now owns the most comprehensive collection of items made, used or owned by renowned western artist Charlie Russell.

The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center sold the collection of more than 13,000 items in September to The Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa.

The items range from drawings and scale models to illustrated letters and a holographic will. Sketchbooks, poems, vintage photographs with celebrities, paintbrushes and palettes, six-guns and leather chaps also are included in the collection, the price of which was not released.

Anne Morand is chief curator for the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. She says the institution did not bid on the collection because "it was way beyond what we could afford." Information from: Great Falls Tribune, http://www.greatfallstribune.com (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 11-08-09 0330CST | save this article / add to your favorites list