Good morning; on the Beacon today, Flathead Distillers, producer of Flathead Vodka, is part of a small but expanding fraternity of micro distillers in Montana. Lido’s got a great photo of the Montana Music-Media Project benefit concert at the Eagles Lodge in Kalispell Friday. An Oregon man who posted photos of his big game kills on a website has been convicted of poaching near his father’s home in Trout Creek and ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution. And Ivan Keeney lands a monster pike in Smith Lake, while Flathead County owes local deputies thousands of dollars in back pay in our weekly news index of what’s up, down and in between.
A U.S. citizen who had recently returned from a five-month trip to his native Pakistan, where he had a wife, was arrested at a New York airport on charges that he drove a bomb-laden SUV meant to cause a fireball in Times Square, federal authorities said. An environmental group has filed another legal challenge over the federal government’s decision not to give the sage grouse protection under the Endangered Species Act. Authorities say a 28-year-old Connecticut man died while skiing near Bozeman‘s Bear Canyon Trail over the weekend. The Missoulian’s Michael Jamison looks at how the trial date of Greg Barkus could affect Rep. Denny Rehberg’s reelection effort. The Montana U.S. Attorney’s Office will be getting three new full-time prosecutors for Indian Country cases, U.S. Attorney Mike Cotter announced Monday. Great Falls police officers serving a warrant in a burglary case discovered 40 cats in the suspect’s trailer house. And the Helena IR covers a flight from Helena to Salt Lake City diverted when a man tried to enter the cockpit claiming to be an alien. Luckily, a cowboy saved the day.