(Continued from page 24)

to death in the nation's first capital punishment since a botched execution in April raised new concerns about lethal injection.
• Marcus Wellons, 59, was executed late Tuesday night at a prison in Jackson after last-minute appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court were denied. Wellons' execution came about an hour before that of inmate John Winfield, who was convicted of killing two women, early Wednesday in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
• Neither execution had any noticeable complications. Another execution, the third in a 24-hour span, is scheduled for Wednesday night in Florida.
• Nine executions nationwide have been stayed or postponed since late April, when Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Clayton Lockett after noting that the lethal injection drugs weren't being administered into his vein properly. Lockett's punishment was halted and he died of a heart attack several minutes later.
• "I think after Clayton Lockett's execution everyone is going to be watching very closely," Fordham University School of Law professor Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert, said of this week's executions. "The scrutiny is going to be even closer."
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The contest for the No. 3 spot in the House GOP has turned into conservatives' last, best shot at joining the congressional leadership after getting shut out of the two top jobs in the shake-up that followed Majority Leader Eric Cantor's surprise primary defeat.
• It's become an intense intramural clash with no certain outcome, as two candidates from different ideological outposts and regions of the country -- a conservative Southerner and an establishment-aligned Midwesterner -- are challenged by a third who could play the role of spoiler for tea party hopes.
• All three -- Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Peter Roskam of Illinois and Marlin Stutzman of Indiana -- were to make their case to rank-and-file lawmakers Wednesday ahead of a Thursday vote.
• The job they're vying for is majority whip, likely to become vacant because its current occupant, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, is the strong favorite to become the new majority leader in a separate vote Thursday if he staves off a longshot challenge from conservative Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho.
• The whip position is perhaps little known outside Washington (or at least was, before Kevin Spacey's scheming portrayal on the Netflix program "House of Cards"), but it entails lining up the votes to ensure victory for the party's legislative agenda.

(Continued on page 26)