Local briefs

Thanksgiving meal

planned at VFW

Libby area churches will sponsor the Fourth Annual Thanksgiving Day Dinner on Nov. 28.

The dinner will be from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1548 in Libby, and it’s free and open to everyone.

Take-outs will be available.  The churches would greatly appreciate your contributions of food or labor to help with the dinner.

For further details call Pastor Brent at 293-4522.

Ski group plans

busy schedule

The Kootenai Valley Cross-Country Ski Club has three dates to mark in the coming weeks.

The first date is the ski rental day, which is Saturday, Dec. 7, from 9 a.m. to noon at Libby Elementary School.

The second date will help renters become more familiar with skis, as an instructional day is scheduled for 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, at the Cabinet View Golf Club driving range.

A family fun day has been scheduled for 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 29, at the South Flower Ski Course.

We also decided to add full moon dates to the night skiing calendar.

Grizzly reportedly

shot in self-defense

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks wardens are investigating a reported self-defense shooting of a female grizzly bear with two cubs in the Kraft Creek drainage by a hunter near Condon.  

The grizzly charged the hunter and the hunter fired a shot at the bear within 50 feet. Wardens discovered a deer carcass about 75 yards away from the incident that had been fed upon by the bears. The hunter reported the incident to state officials immediately. Wardens and biologists followed tracks in the snow from the wounded bear on the ground and in the air with a helicopter for several miles as it moved west toward the Mission Mountains.  

At that point the determination was made that the bear was not mortally wounded.

 Hunters are reminded to carry bear pepper spray when hunting in grizzly country.  

Experts say that bear pepper spray is more effective than firearms in stopping a bear.

Would-be robber

halted with bat

A man who tried to rob a Helena casino ended up in the hospital instead after an employee struck him numerous times with an aluminum baseball bat.

Helena Police Chief Troy McGee tells the Independent Record that officers responded to the Copper Club Casino early Sunday to find an employee holding a suspect down in the parking lot.

The employee told police that two men with bandanas over their faces entered the casino, demanded money and began assaulting the employee after he told them to leave.

The man said he triggered the robbery alarm, grabbed an aluminum baseball bat and hit one of the suspects, who eventually fled.

UM rifle round

fire was accidental

A 59-year-old Missoula man who authorities say accidently fired a rifle while in his University Villages apartment on the University of Montana campus faces a charge of discharging a firearm within city limits.

The University of Montana says the man reported the incident to the school’s Office of Public Safety. The man says he was cleaning the .308-caliber rifle about 7 p.m. Friday when it fired.

Capt. Ben Gladwin says the bullet went through a wall and into an adjoining apartment. No one was injured.