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Nation in brief
Compiled from Times wires Mom sought in videotaped beating of childMISHAWAKA, Ind. -- Police searched for a mother and her 4-year-old daughter Friday after the woman was captured by a department store security camera punching the girl in the head and shaking her violently. "We want to get the girl the medical attention she needs," police Chief Anthony Hazen said. "We want to get her to an emergency room and let them examine her. That's our biggest concern right now." Police identified the woman as Madelyne Gorman Toogood, age 24 or 25, and the child as her daughter Martha Toogood. Toogood was charged Friday with battery to a child. Her attorney briefly telephoned police Friday, investigators said. Police did not know the attorney's location. "The attorney is aware of the serious nature of this, and we hope that the discussion will lead to the woman turning herself in," St. Joseph County Prosecutor Christopher Toth said. The video, broadcast nationwide, showed the woman placing her daughter onto the back seat of a sport utility vehicle in the parking lot of a Kohl's store, then pummeling, slapping and shaking the girl for several seconds. The Sept. 13 episode happened after the woman left the story angry over being refused a cash refund, authorities said. A doctor who saw the tape said the child could have suffered head, neck and brain injuries, said Mike Samp, a police investigator. Toogood's sister, 31-year-old Margaret Daley, who authorities say was with her at the store, was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse. Police said relatives of Toogood were not helping with the search. "They've said they are going to cooperate, but so far they haven't given us any ironclad information or produced the little girl," Hazen said. He said several locations were under surveillance. Police received more than 1,000 calls about the video, which was first aired Wednesday night by local stations seeking the identity of the woman and girl. The vehicle shown in the video had Texas license plates, and police eventually found it at a Mishawaka apartment complex. Police said it was not registered to either of the women shown on the tape. The Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram reported Friday that Toogood is believed to be an Irish Traveller. Irish Travellers are descendants of a nomadic ethnic group that came to the United States in the 1800s to escape the potato famine, roaming the country by horse and wagon in search of itinerant work. They are devout Roman Catholics who share biblical names, marry within the group and speak their own dialect. Most of the men make their living in home-improvement and business-repair work, such as paving, painting and roofing. Toogood also is wanted on unrelated warrants in two Texas towns, authorities said. Senate approves Bush nominee for federal courtWASHINGTON -- The Senate has unanimously agreed to promote New York City Judge Reena Raggi to a federal appellate court as it debates what to do with the rest of President Bush's judicial nominees before adjourning. The Democratic-controlled Senate on Friday approved Raggi's nomination, 85-0, to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senate has confirmed 78 Bush nominees to the federal appellate and district courts, with 49 nominees awaiting a vote. Two nominations have been rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. Space station needs more resources, panel saysWASHINGTON -- The international space station will never be a first-class research laboratory if recent decisions to reduce its crew size and scientific equipment remain in effect, says a report by a panel of experts. NASA officials, however, said that the agency was considering further expansion of the orbiting outpost and that it was determined to make it productive scientifically. Allard Beutel, a space agency spokesman, said NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe had seen the report from a panel of the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, and will consider it as NASA reviews how to conduct the best science on the station. Cost overruns on the station led NASA to decide last year to scale back the station until it found ways to curtail spending on it. The agency said it would stop construction on the station when it reached a "core complete" configuration, now set for 2004, that would allow the station to function with a three-person crew. NASA deleted from the station a rescue spacecraft that could accommodate a crew of seven, a living module that would have allowed a crew of six or seven and several research facilities. The report said that although NASA's stated goal for the space station "is to create a world-class laboratory, it is the opinion of the task group that the actions taken in regard to crew time, equipment, facilities and logistics make this unlikely." Judge annuls marriage of Alzheimer's suffererDENVER -- A judge annulled the marriage of a woman with Alzheimer's disease after concluding that her husband, accused of spending nearly $300,000 of her fortune in Las Vegas, was only after her money. Denver District Judge John Coughlin ruled Thursday that Glenna Birmingham, 79, was not mentally competent when she wed 41-year-old Wando Stevens in Las Vegas on New Year's Eve. He rejected claims by Stevens that the two were in love. Relatives of Birmingham, a retired Denver pediatrician, say she does not remember getting married to Stevens. "She doesn't remember Stevens, she doesn't remember her marriage, she doesn't want to be married to him," said Robert Gilmartin, the woman's nephew and court-appointed guardian. Elsewhere . . .TORNADOES STRIKE INDIANA: Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes raked Indiana on Friday, damaging dozens of homes, flipping cars and uprooting trees. Many minor injuries were reported. Ten to 12 houses were destroyed and an apartment complex was damaged in Ellettsville 50 miles south of Indianapolis, state Trooper Jackie Taylor said. GOVERNOR'S SON PLEADS IN 'FIGHT CLUB': The 18-year-old son of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt pleaded guilty Friday to charges related to an alleged "fight club" in a Mormon meeting house and was ordered to serve 40 hours of community service. Chase Leavitt and scores of mostly high school age people sneaked into a church gymnasium in December to stage the fights, charging admission to spectators, authorities said. 'ROLLOVER' SUIT SETTLED: California's first "rollover" death trial involving the Ford Motor Co. and Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. has been settled for an undisclosed sum, a lawyer said. The companies did not admit wrongdoing. $9.8-MILLION BREAST IMPLANT SETTLEMENT APPROVED: U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood authorized Thursday a $9.8-million settlement between Dow Corning and the federal government for medical expenses stemming from breast implant-related injuries.
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