NATIONAL BRIEFS

NEW JERSEY: Carl Lewis disqualified

The state's top election official ruled Tuesday that nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis is ineligible to run for state Senate because he failed to meet the four-year state residency requirement for candidates seeking elected office. Secretary of State Kim Guadagno ordered Lewis' name stricken from the June Democratic primary ballot. Guadagno, who is also lieutenant governor under Gov. Chris Christie, noted that Lewis said he paid income taxes in California, was registered to vote there until recently and has business offices there. He owns a home in Pacific Palisades. Lewis said the ruling would be challenged. The former track star, 49, grew up in New Jersey and has owned homes in the state since 2005. He has been a volunteer track coach at the high school in his hometown of Willingboro since 2007, and he has had a New Jersey driver's license since 2006.

IOWA: Ron Paul takes first step

Republican Ron Paul said Tuesday in Des Moines he is forming a campaign exploratory committee as he moves closer to running for president. The Texas congressman, who ran unsuccessfully in 2008, could now find himself in a more crowded field of candidates preaching a similar message of small government and limited federal spending. He is the fifth candidate to take the formal step toward organizing a campaign. He finished fifth in Iowa in 2008 and did not get more than 10 percent of the vote in any state, losing the nomination to the more moderate Republican Sen. John McCain.

COLORADO: Bomb suspect arrested

A man suspected of leaving a homemade bomb at a shopping mall, initially raising concerns about a possible Columbine-inspired plot, was captured Tuesday without a fight after he was spotted in a Starbucks having coffee. Earl Albert Moore, 65, is alleged to have planted a pipe bomb and propane tanks last week in the Southwest Plaza Mall in the south Denver suburb of Littleton. FBI agents said they have found a motive, but they refused to reveal it Tuesday.