Nation & world

President Barack Obama nominated John Bryson for CommerceSecretary on Tuesday.

Obama taps new

head of commerce

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama nominated former energycompany executive John Bryson as his new commerce secretary Tuesday,a relatively low-profile choice for carrying out Obama's efforts tospeed up the nation's tepid economic recovery.

Bryson, who spent nearly two decades as chairman and chiefexecutive of the major electric utility Edison International, theparent of Southern California Edison, has a large footprint incorporate America. He is a senior adviser to Kohlberg Kravis &Roberts, the big New York private-equity firm, and serves as adirector of Boeing and Walt Disney.

Bryson will replace Gary Locke, whom Obama recently named asambassador to China. The president was said to have consideredGoogle chief executive Eric Schmidt and U.S. Trade RepresentativeRon Kirk for the commerce job.

Woman allegedly

put body in trash

ONTARIO, Calif. - California authorities say a San Bernardinowoman was arrested for investigation of murder after she was seenpushing a trash can with body parts inside.

Police arrested 51-year-old Carmen Montenegro Sunday night in anOntario neighborhood.

Investigators spent Monday excavating the property outside thehome where the body is believed to have come from. A detective saysthey found what may be body fluids in part of the yard.

The home is about 200 yards from where Montenegro was spottedpushing the can and is owned by a relative of hers.

Police were looking into whether the unidentified victim waskilled at the house or elsewhere.

Severed horse

head found in alley

WASHINGTON, Pa. - Someone left a severed horse head in asouthwestern Pennsylvania city.

Officials in Washington, Pa., say the head was found Monday in analley in a densely populated neighborhood.

Councilman Matt Staniszewski says the decomposing head had beenreduced to mostly bone but called the smell "unbearable."

Officials removed the remains and disposed of them. Police areinvestigating.

The city of about 15,000 people is about 20 miles southwest ofPittsburgh.

Sturgeon jumps on

boat, hits woman

FANNING SPRINGS, Fla. - A sturgeon jumped into an airboat on aFlorida river and broke a 25-year-old woman's leg.

Witnesses say the fish was about 5- to 6-feet long and weighedabout 60- to 75-pounds.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers sayTina Fletcher was a passenger in an airboat Sunday when the sturgeonjumped and hit her leg.

According to wildlife officials, this is the fifth report thisyear of a person injured by a jumping sturgeon.

COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS