The latest from Arizona

U.S. cites evidence of assassination plot
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Piece by piece, details of the weekend rampage in Tucson are beginning to emerge: The heartbreaking tales of people slain on a sun-splashed morning, the courage of those who overpowered the gunman and the state of mind of the suspect, a young man who the authorities say had plotted for weeks, and perhaps longer, to assassinate a member of Congress. As the full scope of the tragedy sank in Sunday, it also had rekindled a national conversation, sparked by the outspoken sheriff of...

Former Unabomber/Moussaoui Lawyer to Defend AZ Shooter
Quite a client list you’ve got there, Ms Clarke. (Salon) — Judy Clarke, the attorney who represented “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski, will defend Jared Lee Loughner, the young man authorities say tried to fatally shoot Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Loughner, 22, the College Dropout who went on a shooting rampage Saturday morning in Tuscon, Ariz., has been charged with five federal counts, including the attempted Assassination of a member of Congress. Additional ...

Moment of Silence Observed for Tucson Victims
Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. (CBS) As the investigation continues into 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, the main suspect in the Tucson shooting of Congresswoman Giffords, Dean Reynolds reports on the other Victims. Grade school Student 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green is the youngest victim of the Tucson shooting. John Blackstone reports on her story. Politico Reporter Molly Ball discusses the shooting in Tuscon, Arizona that killed 6 people and injured 13 others including Congresswoman Gabri...

Obama leads moment of silence for shooting victims
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has presided over a national moment of silence for severely injured Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the people who were killed during an Assassination attempt against her. On the White House South Lawn, Obama was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama and White House staff members on a cold morning. The moment was marked at the U.S. Capitol and elsewhere around a nation still coming to grips with the tragedy. Giffords is in intensive care at a Tusc...

Obama leads moment of silence at White House for victims of Arizona shooting
 WASHINGTON -- President Obama led a moment of silence Monday morning from the South Lawn of the White House to mark the tragic shooting in Tucson that left six people dead and 14 people injured in Arizona. Shortly before suspected gunman Jared Loughner, 22, was expected to appear in court to face charges in the massacre, a bell chimed three times at 11 a.m. on the White House grounds. The President and First Lady Michelle Obama led the nation in pausing to remember those killed and injured, ...

Obama leads moment of silence for shooting victims (AP)
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has presided over a national moment of silence for severely injured Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the people who were killed during an Assassination attempt against her. On the White House South Lawn, Obama was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama and White House staff members on a cold morning. The moment was marked at the U.S. Capitol and elsewhere around a nation still coming to grips with the tragedy. Giffords is in intensive care at a Tuscon ...

Updates on the Gabrielle Giffords shooting for January 10th, 2011 (Photos)
Two days ago a gunman opened fire at a public event hosted by United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).  Giffords was shot in the head, but subsequently rushed to the Hospital and is still alive following surgery.  A doctor at the Hospital stated he was “very optimistic” on Giffords’ condition.  Six other people were killed from the shootings, including a nine year-old girl and United States Federal District Judge John M. Roll. Fourteen people were ...

Jared Loughner: Focus on delusions, not politics
(01-09) 21:10 PST San Francisco -- Posting strange and paranoid messages on the Internet and fixating on the end of the world, accused gunman Jared Lee Loughner appeared to be more driven by a delusional mind than a real interest in politics, Mental Health experts said Sunday. "I doubt people who say this is about politics have a good understanding of Mental Illness," said Dr. Bob Dolgoff, medical director of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center's Mental Health division. "It could be Conspiracy th...

Vigil
Outside the University Medical Center in Tucson Saturday night. The Safeway Supermarket where six people were killed and 13 wounded in the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was still cordoned off when I arrived in Tucson on Saturday afternoon. Although Jared Lee Loughner’s alleged plan to assassinate the Democratic and Jewish Congresswoman had apparently failed, he had succeeded in turning the La Toscana Village Shopping Mall into an appalling yellow-taped crime scene. Fiv...

Mark Kelly Statement: Gabby Giffords' Husband Addresses Arizona Shooting
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' husband Mark Kelly, a NASA Astronaut, issued a statement on the shooting on Sunday evening. He suggests that people who want to help make a donation to the American Red Cross or a Tucson-based food bank, "two organizations that Gabby has long valued and supported." The full statement is below. * * * * On behalf of Gabby and our entire family, I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Arizona and this great nation for their unbelievable outpouring of su...

Arizona massacre shoots down GOP rhetoric
When House Majority Leader Eric Cantor postponed the vote scheduled Wednesday to Repeal Health Care reform, it came as no surprise hours after Jared Lee Loughner had sprayed a crowd with bullets from his Glock 19 pistol. While the obvious reason may be out of respect, one can not discount the possibility this tragedy may be the price our country must pay to return political discourse to some semblance of civility. What happened two days ago should be a wakeup call to politicians and me...

Op-Ed: The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel
Shortly after November's electoral defeat for the Democrats, pollster Mark Penn appeared on Chris Matthews's TV show and remarked that what President Obama needed to reconnect with the American people was another Oklahoma City bombing. To judge from the reaction to Saturday's tragic shootings in Arizona, many on the left (and in the press) agree, and for a while hoped that Jared Lee Loughner's Killing Spree might fill the bill. With only the barest outline of events available, pundits and report...

Why He Did It
Mon Jan. 10, 2011 8:21 AM PST Why did Jared Lee Loughner target Gabrielle Giffords for Assassination? Nick Bauman talked today to a friend of Loughner's, Bryce Tierney, who says that Loughner held a bizarre grudge against her: He [] describes Loughner as being obsessed with "lucid dreaming"—that is, the idea that conscious dreams are an alternative reality that a person can inhabit and control—and says Loughner became "more interested in this world than our reality.&q...;

Times Goes to Left-Wing SPLC to Suggest Shooter Had 'Far-Right' Leanings
Monday’s front-page story from Tucson, the site of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Murder of six others, began with concerns from suspect Jared Loughner’s college classmates about his bizarre and aggressive behavior, but the Times switched to the role of politics in his life. Times reporters treated as an objective source of facts an unlabeled left-wing group that reliably finds right-wing “hate” wherever it looks on the right. Sure enough, the Sout...

Congresswoman's Husband Thanks Americans
Mark Kelly, the Navy captain and Astronaut whose wife, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, was gravely wounded in an Assassination attempt, has issued a statement thanking Americans for their support and encouraging Charitable Donations to a local community food bank in Tucson and to the American Red Cross. “On behalf of Gabby and our entire family, I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Arizona and this great nation for their unbelievable outpouring of support,” Captain K...

Giffords' husband: 'Little that we can do but pray'
The office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) released a statement late Sunday from her husband, Navy pilot and Astronaut Mark Kelly, thanking well-wishers for their support and suggesting ways that Arizonans can help in this difficult time. Here is the full statement: On behalf of Gabby and our entire family, I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Arizona and this great nation for their unbelievable outpouring of support. Gabby was doing what she loved most - hearing fr...

Giffords Husband Releases Statement
On behalf of Gabby and our entire family, I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Arizona and this great nation for their unbelievable outpouring of support. Gabby was doing what she loved most — hearing from her constituents — when this tragedy occurred. Serving Southern Arizonans is her passion, and nothing makes her more proud than representing them in Congress. Like all Americans, we mourn the loss of Judge John M. Roll, Christina Taylor Green, Dorothy Morris,...

Gabrielle Giffords' Husband Mark Kelly Says "Gabby Was Doing What She Loved Most...There Is Little We Can Do But Pray"
Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly ​Astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who remains in critical condition after Saturday's shooting, has issued a statement. Via Giffords' website, Kelly says, "There is little that we can do but pray for those who are struggling," and suggests reaching out to Tucson's Community Food Bank and the Red Cross if you'd like to make a positive gesture. Full statement after the jump. "On behalf of Gabby and our entire family, I ...

Tragedy in America
I know I'm supposed to cover only Republican politics in South Carolina, but recent events have prompted me to address a broader subject. Saturday morning in Tuscon, AZ, Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (D - AZ) was attacked by a lone gunman at a political rally where the Representative was meeting with some of her constituents outside of a Grocery Store.  The suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, killed 6 and wounded 14 others. My prayers go out to the Victims and their families. A tragedy like this takes us...

Sheriff Says Gunman Acted Alone
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona authorities say the gunman accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six others acted alone. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Sunday that there is no evidence that anyone other than 22-year-old suspect Jared Loughner was involved. Authorities earlier cleared a suspected accomplice, a Cab Driver, of involvement. Dupnik said the cab driver walked into the Tucson Safeway store with Loughner because the driver didn't have change for a $20. He ...

Political vitriol - The second-hand smoke of the new millenium (Video)
Is the Mental Health of Jared Loughner relevant to the national debate over whether or not political vitriol has the potential to increase violence against politicians and ordinary citizens? Asserting that a young man who randomly gunned down innocent people in a Supermarket Parking Lot is mentally unstable is an exercise in ridiculous redundancy. Stable, rational people don’t go on random killing sprees - duh. Jared Loughner is as rational and sane as political operatives and c...

Analysis of the insanity defense for alleged Giffords shooter Jared Loughner
Today the alleged shooter behind the Tucson shootings, Jared Loughner, will be taken in for a preliminary hearing on the charges against him.  Loughner has been charged with two counts of Murder of killing a federal employee, two counts of an Attempted Murder of a federal employee, and one count of trying to assassinate a member of Congress.  Charges from the state of Arizona are expected to follow for murders and attempted murders of the non-federal employees.  This article will ...

Patricia Maisch (61) Hailed as Hero for Disarming Arizona Shooting Gunman
Source: CBS TUCSON, Ariz. (CBS/KPHO/AP) Four people are being hailed as heroes after Saturday's Mass Shooting in Tucson that left six dead and 14 others wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Daniel Hernandez used his hands to stop the bleeding from congresswoman's head. Roger Salzgeber and Joseph Zamudio tackled the suspect, Jared Loughner. But it was a 61-year-old woman who grabbed the magazine and Handgun from the gunman that witnesses said helped prevent further tragedy. "It was one sho...

Kristol Cries "McCarthyism" Over Palin Criticism
In the aftermath of this weekend's Shooting Spree in Tucson, Arizona, leaving six dead and Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition, a heap of criticism is being leveled at the right's queen of Controversy: Sarah Palin. The former Alaska Governor has been blasted for a map on her political action committee's website (since taken down) depicting gunsights over the districts of twenty lawmakers who voted for the Health Care Reform Bill. One such gunsight targeted Giffords'...

Obama leads moment of silence after shooting
WASHINGTON (AP) — A somber President Barack Obama led a moment of silence on Monday for a nation stunned by an attempted Assassination against an Arizona congresswoman that left her seriously wounded, several other injured and six people dead. On a frigid Washington morning, the president and First Lady Michelle Obama walked out of the White House to the sounding of a bell at 11 a.m. Both wearing overcoats, they stood next to each other on the South Lawn, each with their hands clasped, hea...