The nation in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip.”

President Barack Obama, urging Congress to raise the federal debt limit quickly.

Article, 1A

Bush home after 2 months in hospital

HOUSTON - Former President George H.W. Bush was released from a Houston hospital and went home Monday after spending nearly two months being treated for a bronchitis-related cough and other health concerns, a family spokesman said.

Bush, 88, the nation’s oldest living former president, was admitted to Methodist Hospital on Nov. 23. His stay included a week in intensive care last month.

“I am deeply grateful for the wonderful doctors and nurses at Methodist who took such good care of me,” Bush said in a statement released by spokesman Jim McGrath.

“Let me add just how touched we were by the many get-well messages we received from our friends and fellow Americans. Your prayers and good wishes helped more than you know, and as I head home my only concern is that I will not be able to thank each of you for your kind words.”

Bush had been in the hospital for about a month before his office disclosed in late December that he was in intensive care because physicians were having difficulty controlling a fever that developed after the cough improved.

His office said on Dec. 29 that he had been moved back to a regular hospital room.

Since then, his condition had continued to improve and he has been undergoing physical therapy to rebuild his strength.

Adult charges filed in school shooting

FRESNO, Calif. - A 16-year-old student who was teased by his California high school classmates for his red hair, social awkwardness and bookish appearance will be charged as an adult over allegations he shot a classmate with a shotgun and tried to shoot another.

Bryan Oliver pleaded innocent to two counts of premeditated attempted murder and three counts of assault with a firearm in the attack Thursday at Taft Union High School that left another 16-year-old wounded, the Kern County district attorney’s office said.

“It was just the factors of the case,” said Mark Pafford, the chief deputy district attorney, about the decision to charge Oliver as an adult.

“The severity of the actions, the injuries to the victim, that a firearm was used. Those are the things we considered.”

The potential penalty for just one count of premeditated attempted murder with a firearm is 32 years to life, Pafford said. If he had been charged as a minor and convicted, he would be held until his 23rd birthday.

Judge convicts boy of father’s murder

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A boy who was only 10 when he fatally shot his white supremacist father was convicted Monday of second-degree murder by a judge who said the child knew what he did was wrong.

Riverside Superior Court Judge Jean Leonard weighed the severity of the crime against whether the amount of abuse and neglect suffered by the boy, now 12, played a significant role in the slaying of 32-year-old Jeff Hall, a regional leader of the National Socialist Movement.

“This was not a complex killing,” said Leonard, who heard the case without a jury.

“He thought about the idea and shot his father.”

The boy’s stepmother told authorities that Hall had hit, kicked and yelled at his son for being too loud or getting in the way.

The Associated Press has not named the child because of his age.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 01/15/2013

Upcoming Events