NATION IN BRIEF

Redesign Is Urged For Shopping Carts

CHICAGO -- More than 24,000 U.S. children were treated at hospitals last year for shopping-cart-related injuries, prompting the American Academy of Pediatrics to call for carts to be redesigned.

Most injuries occur when children are not strapped in and fall while standing in carts. But the design of many shopping carts makes them prone to tipping over even when children are properly placed in the seating area, said Gary Smith, an emergency room physician and chairman of a committee that wrote the academy's new policy.

"The best we can do is to caution parents that these injuries are very real, they're very frequent, and if you have a possible alternative" to standard carts, use it, Smith said.

Alternatives include strollers, wagons, and carts some stores provide that have plastic mini-cars or trucks attached to the front, allowing children to ride much closer to the ground.

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· ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Bob Casey Jr.'s lead over Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) in their hotly contested Senate race has narrowed, according to a new statewide poll.

The poll found that 45 percent of those questioned supported Casey, the Democratic state treasurer, while 39 percent supported Santorum. The poll of 550 registered Pennsylvania voters was conducted by Allentown's Morning Call newspaper and Muhlenberg College.

In mid-June, a Quinnipiac University poll of 1,076 registered voters found Casey leading Santorum 52 percent to 34 percent.

· Nearly 90 percent of those convicted of violent felonies in large urban areas between 1990 and 2002 pleaded guilty, the government reported. A study by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics also showed that 38 percent of violent felons had previous felony convictions. Rapists were least likely to already have a prior conviction on their record.

The study examined crime figures from the nation's 75 most populous counties, ranging from Los Angeles and Pima County, Ariz., to Pinellas County, Fla., and Maryland's Montgomery County.