OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Department of Labor says BNSF Railway Co. violated federal law when it disciplined a worker in Iowa who was sick and took doctor-ordered leave. The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration says BNSF disciplined a conductor at its Ottumwa station in retaliation for the sick time. The company has been ordered to pay $12,000 in damages, remove disciplinary information from the worker’s record and provide whistleblower rights information to its employees.

WILLIAMS, Iowa (AP) — Officials are investigating a manure spill in north-central Iowa caused by a pipeline break. The state Department of Natural Resources says the spill was discovered Monday by a farmer harvesting corn near Williams in Hamilton County. The farmer reported finding liquid manure pooled in his field. The DNR says a break in an underground manure pipeline at a Prestage Farms operation led to the spill.

SALIX, Iowa (AP) — The driver of a semitrailer was sent to a hospital after his vehicle struck an Interstate 29 overpass in Iowa. The crash happened Tuesday morning at the Port Neal Interchange near Salix. A sand silo being carried by the semitrailer struck the bottom of the overpass. The silo went into the medium and struck two parked cars. The semitrailer continued on for about 100 feet and hit a construction crane. The driver was taken to a local hospital.

LOGAN, Iowa (AP) — A murder trial has begun for an 18-year-old charged in the death of a 5-year-old boy outside a rural home where they were foster children. Lawyers for Cody Metzker-Madsen plan to use an insanity defense in the 2013 death of Dominic Elkins. Authorities say Elkins was killed while the boys were playing outdoors at their home near Logan, in western Iowa. He died as a result of blunt-force head injuries and drowning.