In the Nation

CHICAGO - Chicago-area Democratic officials have failed to unite behind a single candidate for former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s seat in Congress.

Robert Storman, a spokesman for one of the Cook County Democratic officials voting in Saturday's slating session, said that none of the more than a dozen candidates was able to get a majority of votes. That means the Democrats will have an open primary.

Among the Democratic candidates to replace him are a state senator recently arrested for carrying a gun into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and a former congresswoman who challenged Jackson earlier this year.

Jackson resigned from the U.S. House last month, citing his battle with bipolar disorder. The primary is set for Feb. 26. The general election will be April 6.

- AP

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - Hours before a gunman opened fire at a Connecticut elementary school, police in Oklahoma arrested a teenager for allegedly plotting to attack his high school and trying to recruit classmates to help him.

Police in Bartlesville, a community about 40 miles north of Tulsa, arrested Sammie Eaglebear Chavez, 18, shortly before 5 a.m. local time on Friday on charges of conspiring to cause serious bodily harm or death. He remained in Washington County Jail on Saturday on $1 million bond, and he is due in court Jan. 11. Court documents did not list an attorney for Chavez.

Layne Jones, an assistant principal at the school, alerted police to the alleged plot on Thursday, according to a probable cause statement. A student told authorities that Chavez had tried to "recruit other students to assist him with carrying out a plan to lure students into the school auditorium where he planned to begin shooting them after chaining the doors shut," police said.

- AP

LAS VEGAS - A man shot and fatally wounded a woman, then killed himself Friday night at the Excalibur hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, sending frightened patrons fleeing.

Las Vegas Police Lt. Ray Steiber said the man shot the woman, who was a vendor at the hotel's concierge desk, and then turned the gun on himself. The man was found dead at the scene. The woman was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Steiber said the relationship between the shooter and the victim wasn't immediately clear. The shooting happened as the hotel's registration desk was busy on a Friday night with the National Finals Rodeo and other events in town. Steiber said patrons scattered at the first sound of gunfire, and no one else was wounded.

- AP