Nation digest 05/03/05

Florida governor OKs tough child molester bill

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Spurred by the killing of a 9-year-old girl, Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday signed a law imposing tougher penalties on child molesters and requiring many of those released from prison to wear satellite tracking devices for the rest of their lives. The measure gives Florida one of the toughest child-sex laws in the nation. The Jessica Lunsford Act was quickly drafted after Jessica's death was discovered in March and was pushed through by lawmakers outraged that the man accused of killing her was a registered sex offender. It establishes a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life behind bars for people convicted of certain sex crimes against children 11 and younger, with lifetime tracking by global positioning satellite after they are freed.

Heart patient dies after 2,400-mile bike ride

ANDERSON, Ind. -- A man who pedaled across the country after heart bypass surgery gave him a second chance at life has died of a heart attack, one day after completing the 2,400-mile trip. Broc Bebout, a 57-year-old retired engineer, died Thursday on the van drive back to his home in Anderson, about 25 miles northeast of Indianapolis, one day after completing the ride from Carlsbad, Calif., to Brunswick, Ga. His wife, Patricia Brinkman, said bicycling became Bebout's ticket to nearly 20 years of good health after quadruple-bypass surgery at age 39. He also learned to eat right and take care of himself, she said.

Psychiatrist: Highway shooter heard voices

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The man behind a string of Columbus-area highway shootings threw building materials off overpasses and fired at moving cars because he thought it would stop the humiliating voices in his head, a psychiatrist testified Monday. Dr. Mark Mills, a psychiatrist who specializes in legal aspects of mental illness, is the main witness for the insanity defense of Charles McCoy Jr., whose attorneys concede he was behind 12 shootings that terrorized the Columbus area for months in 2003 and 2004. The defense says McCoy did not know the acts were wrong because of untreated paranoid schizophrenia. He pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to aggravated murder and 23 other counts.