Crumpled oil tankers lie beside the railroad tracks after a fiery derailment on June 3 prompted evacuations from the tiny Columbia River Gorge town in Mosier, Ore. (Gillian Flaccus/AP)

OREGON

Broken bolt caused ﬁery derailment

Railroad officials say at least one broken bolt holding a rail in place caused the fiery derailment of a Union Pacific train moving volatile crude oil through the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon-Washington border.

Union Pacific spokesman Justin Jacobs said Saturday that the company filed a report Friday with the Federal Railroad Administration citing one or more broken bolts as the cause of the June 3 derailment.

Jacobs said the bolt is used in curved sections of track and that the company is not aware of any previous failures.

He said the company is in the process of checking similar bolts in curved sections of its 32,000 miles of track in 23 states.

No one was injured in the derailment, but the tiny town of Mosier, Ore., was evacuated.

— Associated Press

Charge is dismissed for refuge occupiers

A federal judge has tossed a charge of using and carrying a firearm in the course of a crime of violence for eight people involved in the occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that David Fry’s defense lawyer, Per C. Olson, argued that the charge be dismissed for his client and seven others, including Ammon Bundy and Ryan Bundy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said at a hearing that the charge would be a “close call” for the court.

Olson said the men face less exposure to possible prison time if they are convicted on the remaining charges.

There is no minimum prison sentence for convictions of conspiracy to impede federal officers and firearms possession in a federal facility.

The Ammon Bundy-led takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge began Jan. 2 and lasted nearly six weeks.

— Associated Press

One of two escapees from Nebraska prison captured: One of two convicted sex offenders who broke out of a Nebraska prison this week was captured Saturday after an intensive manhunt, while the other remains at large, a Nebraska State Patrol spokeswoman said. Armon Dixon, 37, jailed on a total sentence of 158 years for multiple offenses including sexual assault, drug possession and robbery, was taken into custody. The inmate still at large, Timothy Clausen, 52, was serving a 51-year sentence for crimes including sexual assault of a child. The two, wearing their prison uniforms, escaped from the Lincoln Correctional Center and stole a pickup truck.

Snake found in moving car in Arkansas: An Arkansas woman escaped injury and managed to safely stop her car after a four-foot-long rat snake came out of her dashboard and slithered across her feet as she drove on Interstate 49. Kelly Swisher said the snake first slithered back into the dashboard but then came back out and made its way into the back seat, allowing her to get off I-49 and out of the car.

— From news services