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Articles written by Justin Franz


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  • NBC's Dateline to revisit 2017 murder of Broadwater County Deputy Mason Moore

    Justin Franz, Montana Free Press|Feb 1, 2023

    The 2017 murder of a Broadwater County Sheriff's Office deputy will be revisited this week during a special two-hour episode of NBC's Dateline. Producers of the episode say they expect to reveal new information about the perpetrators behind the killing of Deputy Mason Moore along Highway 287 near Three Forks early on the morning of May 16, 2017. After the early morning shooting, the father and son behind it, Lloyd and Marshall Barrus, continued west. Shortly after, officers spotted the two men n... Full story

  • As winter roars, MDT navigates a plow driver shortage

    Justin Franz, Montana Free Press|Jan 12, 2022

    As yet another winter storm wallops western Montana, the Montana Department of Transportation is trying its best to keep the 12,923 miles of road in its care clear of snow and ice. But this year, it's doing that with about 60 fewer people than normal, thanks to a national labor shortage that continues to impact nearly every facet of life.  Fewer drivers means fewer plow trucks on the roads, and that means roads might be snow-covered longer than normal following a big storm. State officials are... Full story

  • Medical Marijuana Users Brace for Shortages as Montana's Recreational Market Opens

    Justin Franz, KHN|Jan 12, 2022

    More than a year after voters approved legalizing marijuana for recreational use in Montana, anyone older than 21 can now walk into a dispensary and buy cannabis. That has medical marijuana user Joylynn Mane Wright worried. Wright lives in Prairie County, the state’s fifth-least-populated county, with nearly 1,100 people. She already drives about 35 minutes to get to the marijuana dispensary nearest her home, which is 2½ hours northeast of Billings. And now she wonders how much more difficult it will be to get the cannabis she uses to... Full story

  • Cities grapple with what legal weed will mean

    Justin Franz, Montana Free Press|Aug 18, 2021

    With five months until Montana's adult-use marijuana market opens up, municipalities from Kalispell to Billings are figuring out what legal cannabis will look like in their communities.   Voters legalized general-use cannabis for adults last November and the Legislature sorted out additional details during its session this spring. It's now up to municipalities to figure out things like which zoning districts dispensaries will be allowed in and whether legal marijuana will be subject to local option sales taxes. Some parts of the state, like...

  • 'This Summer is different'

    Justin Franz, Montana Free Press|Aug 11, 2021

    Firefighters working on the east shore of Flathead Lake thought they had the Boulder 2700 Fire in check as the sun set on Saturday afternoon. The fire started the night before - the cause is unknown but early indications are that it was started by humans - and throughout the day scooper planes hit the blaze with thousands of gallons of water.  Then a warm wind from the north started blowing.  The fire jumped Montana Highway 35 and made a run toward Finley Point, a thin finger of land that...

  • Six months before adult-use marijuana market opens, supply worries loom

    Justin Franz, Montana Free Press|Jul 21, 2021

    A few times a day, someone from out of town will walk into one of Paulson Palmer's three dispensaries in northwest Montana asking if they can buy marijuana. The answer is almost always no.  While Palmer's Fruit Factory can sell cannabis to Montana residents with a medical marijuana card, it will not be legal to sell it for non-medical adult use until Jan. 1, 2022 - a message that might not be clear to out-of-state tourists who may have heard that weed has been legalized in Big Sky Country but haven't closely followed the new law.  For...

  • Realtors report out-of-state rush on Montana real estate

    Justin Franz, Montana Free Press|Jul 8, 2020

    Lydia Seely has wanted to move to Montana ever since her son came here five years ago. The California woman, who works in health care, had eyed properties in the Bozeman area in the past - initially as an investment, but someday as a primary home, she said - but was quickly priced out of the market. Earlier this year, when her son decided to move to Missoula, Seely decided to take a second look. Unfortunately for Seely, she wasn't the only one. According to anecdotal reports, Seely is one of...

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