BNSF derailment cause unknown
A BNSF train derailed near a small town north of Sandpoint, railway spokesman Gus Melonas said Tuesday.
There were no injuries, Melonas said.
About 13 of the train’s 105 grain cars derailed at 11:15 p.m. Monday night, Melonas said. Two cars remained upright and 11 tipped over.
The cause of the derailment has not been established, Melonas said. The train was traveling about 22 mph in a 50 mph zone.
About 40 trains use the line each day. The tracks were reopened Tuesday evening, according to Melonas.
Amtrak was busing passengers on its Empire Builder train between Libby, Mont., and Spokane.
The freight train originated in Wolf Point, Mont., and was bound for Kalama, Wash., Melonas said.
HEBER CITY, Utah
Searchers find plane, body
Searchers on Tuesday located the wreckage of a twin-engine plane and the body of a pilot who crashed in the Uinta National Forest after reporting engine trouble.
The Cessna 310 flown by Dr. John C. Oakley, 60, a neurosurgeon from Billings, disappeared Monday afternoon.
Weather prevented a search Monday night in the rugged area east of Heber City, where at least a foot of snow fell during a spring storm.
The wreckage in a ravine was spotted from the air at noon, but it took until 4:30 p.m. to reach the site.
Searchers snowshoed for about five miles to the wreckage, where Oakley’s body was found.
The plane was en route from Billings to Cedar City when air traffic controllers lost contact with Oakley, who was flying in blizzard conditions and reported engine trouble.
Oakley was a neurosurgeon at Yellowstone Neurosurgical Associates and medical director of the Northern Rockies Regional Pain Center.
Culdesac, Idaho
Beloved turkey Rufus killed
For six months, Rufus the wild turkey served as unofficial greeter, pet and tourist attraction at the Jacques Spur Junction Cafe.
But someone turned him into dinner on the opening day of turkey hunting season Saturday.
“I heard the shot and got up to look down the street and saw a guy wrestling with a turkey,” Sarah Berna, a waitress at the northern Idaho cafe, told the Lewiston Tribune. “I knew it was Rufus.”
Berna said the hunter was an older man who drove an older model Chevy Blazer with Idaho plates, parked about 50 yards from the cafe in Culdesac. Rufus put up a fight, Berna said.
Rufus was the last member of a five-bird flock that appeared in the area in October, eating grain that blew off semitrucks. He eventually discovered that food was easier to find in the parking lot of the cafe.
Compiled from wire reports