"The average number of fatalities in Montana over the last 10 years is 49. 2004 presented a significant dip to 39," said Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly.
Half of those who died on the job in 2005 worked in the agricultural, forestry and fishing industry, while seven died in the construction industry.
Transportation accidents accounted for 19 of the 50 fatal occupational injuries in 2005, while eight deaths were due to assaults and violent acts. Seven deaths were due to falls, the Labor Department said.
Forty-five of those who died at work were men.
GREAT FALLS - A former employee of the Brick Casino is charged with theft and burglary for allegedly taking $33,000 from the business eight days after quitting his job.
Kevin Swan was charged Tuesday and is jailed on $50,000 bail.
The robbery occurred late Sunday. Surveillance cameras caught a man about 6-feet-4-inches tall wearing a cowboy hat and mask enter the building, walk back and unlock the office using a set of keys that had been reported missing, and leave with a backpack over his shoulder.
Current Brick Casino employees identified Swan by his stature and the way he moved, court records said.
Surveillance video also caught a vehicle identified as Swan's leave the parking lot immediately after the masked man exited the building.
GREAT FALLS - A California woman was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in federal prison for trafficking methamphetamine in Montana.
Perla Icela Cuevas Lugo, 33, supplied two people with a pound of meth, which was brought from California to Great Falls in early September 2005 and sold for $10,000, court records said.
U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon sentenced Lugo to 210 months in prison and five years of supervised release.
HELENA - The family that saved the Craig Bridge from the scrap pile last year has an agreement with St. Paul's United Methodist Church to move an 1880s brick house from church property, rather than having the church tear down the building.
The church had planned to raze the house to clear more room for parking, but the Lewis and Clark County historical society urged the church to reconsider.
Under the agreement with Scott Nelson, the church will remove asbestos from the old house and give Nelson 18 months to move the house to the old State Nursery property west of the city.
Nelson will give the church storage space and the church will reimburse the Nelsons around $24,000 once the structure is moved off the property.
If the house isn't moved within 18 months, Nelson must pay the additional costs of having it torn down. A contractor demolishing the old church building offered a discount on razing the house if the work could be done while their equipment was still on site.
"We've given them a liberal timeframe to move the building," said Dennis Cates, chairman of the board of trustees with St. Paul's. "They're the first party that has stepped forward with a contract and their dollars, guaranteeing that if it can't be done, they'll fund the additional costs of demolition."
Nelson said moving the house will involve wrapping it with banding ties and shoring up the interior with beams.
The three-story brick house is across the street from the Cathedral of St. Helena. It was built in the 1880s by Paul Shober, a miner and legislator.
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