In the Nation

TEXAS

Boehner 'nudged'

Jeb Bush to run

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) said Monday that he has "nudged" former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to seek the GOP nomination for president in 2016.

With various potential candidates jockeying two years out, the top Republican in Congress delivered the strongest hints about his preference for the White House while cautioning that the talk was a bit premature.

"Jeb Bush is my friend. I think he'd make a great president. I've nudged him for some time," Boehner told the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Ted Cruz of Texas have been mentioned as possible presidential candidates.

Boehner said he expects to keep his leadership position in 2015 but stopped short of committing to serving a full 13th term in Congress. - AP

OHIO

Life sentence upheld

A teenager who fatally shot three students in a school cafeteria didn't have his constitutional rights violated when he was given a prison sentence of life without parole, an appeals court said Monday while providing new details about the shooting, including the killer's assertion he was never bullied. The court ruled unanimously to uphold the sentence handed down to T.J. Lane after the shooting at Chardon High School, in northeast Ohio, in February 2012. - AP
ARIZONA

Officer dies in crash

An off-duty Mesa police officer driving home from work and a wrong-way driver who may have been impaired were killed early Monday in a head-on collision on a Phoenix-area freeway ramp. Authorities are awaiting autopsy results to identify the wrong-way driver and the level of drugs or alcohol, if any, that were in his body at the time of the crash, said Carrick Cook, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. - AP