FRANKLIN, Ind. -- Severe storms flooded central Indiana with as much as 10 inches of rain and spawned damaging tornadoes in Wisconsin and Chicago's southern suburbs on Saturday.

Wisconsin had a few minor tornado injuries, though none were immediately reported near Chicago. And Indiana had been spared any reported deaths or injuries due to flooding.

"At this point, mercifully, we believe all Hoosiers are secure," Gov. Mitch Daniels said at a news conference. "We hope that will continue."

Daniels declared an emergency in 10 counties as the Coast Guard was called in from the Great Lakes to help with flooding that has forced hundreds of people from their homes. No injuries or deaths have been reported.

COLUMBIA, N.C. -- A wildfire that has burned nearly 31,000 acres in eastern North Carolina may smolder for months as it burns decayed vegetation that makes up the soil in the area, a state official said Saturday.

The fire, about 40 percent contained, continues to burn in the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, about 70 miles south of Norfolk, Va. The spread of the fire across more than 48 square miles slowed over the past few days. Winds remain light, but it continues to threaten about 80 homes and businesses.

No injuries or structure damage have been reported.

The blaze burned an additional 1,000 acres -- 1.5 square miles -- on Saturday. Firefighters must build 25 miles of containment lines before it can be fully controlled, officials said.

North Carolina Forest Service spokesman Bill Swartley warned that temperatures near 100 degrees this weekend would keep conditions ripe for the blaze.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Al Franken won a resounding endorsement for the U.S. Senate on Saturday from Minnesota Democrats, quickly dispatching with concerns about jokes that offended some and promising a tough challenge to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

"To the people of Minnesota, let me say this: I'm not a perfect person," said Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" writer and performer. "I'm not going to pretend to have all the answers. But I'll tell the truth, I will keep my spine, and I will work for you."

Franken's only competitor, college professor and peace activist Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, withdrew after Franken passed the necessary 60 percent threshold on the first ballot. Nelson-Pallmeyer proposed that delegates unanimously back Franken, putting him over the top.

Franken's show of strength came as something of a surprise after a rocky few weeks in which some Democrats, led by U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, criticized a racy column he wrote for Playboy magazine in 2000 and, earlier this week, joking comments he was reported to have made about rape that were included in a 1995 New York magazine article about "Saturday Night Live."

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has spread to 16 states, federal health officials said Saturday.

Investigations by the Texas and New Mexico Departments of Health and the U.S. Indian Health Service have tied 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico to raw, uncooked, tomatoes.

"We're seeing a steady increase," Deborah Busemeyer, New Mexico Department of Health communications director, said Saturday.

An additional 50 people have been sickened by the same Salmonella "Saintpaul" infection in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Investigators are trying to determine if raw tomatoes also are responsible for the illnesses in those states, said Arleen Porcell, a CDC spokeswoman.

The source of the tomatoes responsible for the illnesses has not been pinpointed, but health officials in Texas and New Mexico said none of them was grown in those two states.

At least 23 people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported, she said. Patients ranged in age from 1 to 82.

HOUSTON -- Astronauts debuted the international space station's newest piece of equipment Saturday during a successful but very limited test.

Space shuttle Discovery crew members Akihiko Hoshide and Karen Nyberg moved two of the six joints on the Japanese Kibo lab's robotic arm for the first time, maneuvering them very slightly with a series of commands.

"The very first maneuver was completed successfully," Hoshide told Japanese flight controllers near Tokyo.

Full deployment of the 33-foot arm will be done after Discovery leaves the station next week. However, it won't be used for any actual work until after the launch into orbit next year of the billion-dollar lab's third and final section -- a "porch" for exterior experiments -- and a second, smaller robotic arm.

After he and Nyberg finished testing the robotic arm, Hoshide reflected on what Kibo means for Japan.

"It's a big milestone. We have our own house here now," Hoshide said during a series of media interviews Saturday.

LOS ANGELES -- Leaders of Hollywood's second-largest actors union approved a new contract with studios that grants actors more money for Internet work -- an issue that sparked a crippling writers strike this year.

The board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists approved the three-year deal late Friday, and it will go to the union's 70,000 members for ratification this month, the union said Saturday. The existing contract was set to end June 30.

The agreement "makes sense for all performers," AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon said in the statement. "AFTRA members now have the opportunity to vote 'yes' for higher pay, improved working conditions, and continued right of consent for use of excerpts in New Media."

The 120,000-member Screen Actors Guild, which is the larger and more combative of Hollywood's two actor unions, continues to negotiate with the studios. It still has the power to shut down Hollywood film production.