BONNERS FERRY - A hunter from Nevada was killed Friday morning after being attacked by a grizzly bear wounded by another hunter on the Idaho-Montana border, authorities in Montana said.

Lincoln County sheriff's officials identified the attack victim as Steve Stevenson, a 39-year-old from Winnemucca. A hunting companion, 20-year-old Ty Bell, shot the grizzly bear to death during the attack.

Stevenson, however, could not be saved.

Lincoln County Undersheriff Brent Faulkner said in a statement that a hunting party consisting of four adults entered the remote Buckhorn Mountain from Idaho and split into two groups.

Bell encountered a bear that was thought to be a black bear, although it was later discovered to be a young boar grizzly, the statement said. Bell shot and wounded the bear. They tracked it into area of heavy cover, where Stevenson was attacked.

Bell shot the bear multiple times and eventually killed it. Bell was able to call dispatchers in Boundary County to report the incident shortly after 10 a.m.

Global Positioning System coordinates placed the incident directly on the state line, Lincoln County officials said.

Stevenson's body was evacuated by helicopter and taken to the Montana State Crime Lab for an autopsy. The bear carcass was also evacuated and will be taken the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks in lab in Bozeman, Mont., for a necropsy.

The other half of the hunting party was not identified by Montana authorities. The rifle season for black bear in that section of Panhandle opened on Thursday, Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials said.

Buckhorn Mountain straddles the state line northeast of Moyie Springs.

"That trail weaves in and out of Montana," said Wayne Wakkinen, a senior wildlife research biologist for Fish and Game in Bonners Ferry.

A U.S. Border Patrol helicopter flew Boundary County sheriff's investigators to the scene, which was subsequently determined to be in Montana's Lincoln County. Officials also worked to reach the site by land from the Deer Creek drainage in Boundary County.

Grizzly bears in the continental U.S. are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The attack comes a week after federal prosecutors dropped criminal charges against Jeremy Hill, a 33-year-old Porthill resident who killed a grizzly cub he perceived as a threat to his family in May. The cub was with two other bears.

Hill's prosecution attracted the national spotlight after scores of Boundary County residents and elected officials in Idaho rallied to support Hill. The case against Hill was later dropped after he paid a $1,000 fine for a noncriminal infraction.

Earlier this week, Idaho's federal delegation introduced legislation which seeks to amend the Endangered Species Act to permit the killing of a grizzly if it's done in self-defense or the defense of another.

The legislation proposed by Idaho senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, in addition to Congressman Raul Labrador, is being referred to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee.

The lawmakers contend ESA regulations which make it extremely difficult to legally take a grizzly in the act of self-defense or the defense of a companion.

"This legislation will allow an individual to act in self-defense without having to mount a costly defense for their actions, if done appropriately. This is a common-sense change that needs to be passed," Risch said in a statement announcing the legislation.

It was not clear Friday if Bell will be prosecuted.

Idaho lottery sales hit record

CALDWELL (AP) - Lottery sales are increasing in Idaho and across the nation, and some people are attributing it to a poor economy that has more people willing to bet a little on the slim chance of a big payoff.

Idaho set a record for lottery sales during the 2010 budget year, with $147.2 million spent on lottery tickets. That's up from $130.5 million spent on the lottery in 2007, according to The Idaho Press-Tribune.

The state wasn't alone in seeing increases - financial records show that of state lotteries that end their budget years in June, 28 of 41 had higher sales than the year before, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Seventeen states set all-time sales records.

David Chaplin, an associate professor of economics at Northwest Nazarene University, said "desperation is what's driving the increase."

He described it as "that notion that 'what do I have to lose in this kind of environment?"'