Flashback: Giffords Was One Of Two AZ Reps Who Protested Brewers Medicaid Cuts

Vigils show impact of shooting
Tucson — To be here in the Parking Lot of the University of Arizona Medical Center is to know just how profoundly this town has been impacted by Saturday’s shootings, which killed six people and injured 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). As Saturday turned into Sunday, a small group gathered in darkness around a makeshift candlelight vigil accentuated by flowers, hand-written notes and photos of Giffords and John Roll, the U.S. federal District Judge who died i...

Sheriff Who Suggested Talk Shows May Have Incited Attack Was Asked by Fellow Democrats to Apologize for 'Inflammatory' Remarks o
Monday, January 10, 2011 By Terence P. Jeffrey Arizona's Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik (AP Photo) (CNSNews.com) - Arizona’s Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who on Saturday suggested radio and television Talk Shows were somehow responsible for inciting a man who may be mentally disturbed to kill six people and wound 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), once blamed policymakers for violence in his county because they had stopped institutionali

Brown says he'll cut $12 billion in spending
(01-10) 10:14 PST San Francisco -- Calling for a "vast and historic" reworking of State Government finances, Gov. Jerry Brown Monday said he would release a $127.4 billion state Budget for the 2011-12 Fiscal Year that includes dramatic Spending Cuts of $12.5 billion - including as much as a 10 percent cut in take-home pay for most State Employees. Brown's office vowed his Budget proposals will protect one key area - kindergarten through 12th grade education - from any spending cuts. The gover...

Jerry Brown Budget: Governor Announces Deep Cuts, 5-Year Extension Of California Taxes
Sacramento, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a Budget Monday that would slash funding to most areas of State Government and maintain a series of Tax Increases for five years to close California's huge Budget Deficit. The Democratic Governor released his first Budget proposal since winning election last fall. He called for $12.5 billion in Spending Cuts, including reductions in welfare, Social Services, Health Care for the poor and a combined $1 billion cut to the University of Californ...

Obama calls victims' families in Arizona
President Obama is calling the families of Victims from Saturday's Mass Shooting in Arizona, and will continue to do so throughout the week, the White House said. "The President is assuring them that all is being done to try and get to the bottom of this," said a White House statement. "He is offering his full support and thoughts and prayers on behalf of himself, Michelle and the entire nation." Obama is also speaking with lawmakers, and receiving updates on the shooting that left six people d...

We Can Not Fear Free and Open Debate
My family and I were shocked and saddened when we learned of the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, her staff and constituents. Gabrielle is a hard worker, a talented legislator and a genuinely dear person. She is universally liked in the House and every member who served with her feels deeply for her, her family and all those involved. We are praying for her recovery, the recovery of all those injured and comfort for the families of the fallen. This attack was an unspeakable act of violence a...

A Week in History: Grand Canyon Becomes Monument, Nixon Is Born
Jan. 9, 1913 Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, is born in California. Jan. 10, 1946 United Nations holds its first General Assembly meeting with 51 nations. Jan. 11, 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt declares Arizona's Grand Canyon a national monument. Jan. 12, 2010 An Earthquake strikes Haiti just outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, killing more than 200,000 people. Jan. 15, 1559 Elizabeth I is crowned queen of England at the age of 25. Check out this month's best polit...

Giffords Intern Talks Tucson Tragedy
College junior Daniel Hernandez was just days on the job when the shooting took place. He rushed in to help Victims including Democratic Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. See photos of the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting in Arizona. Take the poll: Is Political Rhetoric to Blame for Arizona Shooting? Follow the money in Congress. ...

Slain Federal Judge Was Champion for Greater Court Resources
U.S. District Judge John M. Roll, who was killed in the Arizona shooting Saturday, was a bystander in the attack aimed at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to news reports. It was not a coincidence, however, that he had come to the Grocery Store where Giffords was holding a meet-and-greet that morning; he came to talk with Giffords about greater resources for his court, The National Law Journal reports. "Such a discussion would have been typical for Roll," The NLJ explains. "He ...

Glenn Reynolds: The Real Victims of the Arizona Mass Shooting are Conservatives
courtesy of Teh Sadly In today’s Wall Street Journal, Putz says that people like Gabrielle Gifford’s husband Mark Kelly, in denouncing the “angry Rhetoric” on the right — are dishonest and indecent. To paraphrase Justice Cardozo (“proof of negligence in the air, so to speak, will not do”), there is no such thing as responsibility in the air. Those who try to connect Sarah Palin and other political figures with whom they disagree to the shootings in Ari...

Arizona says Latino studies class illegal
In Arizona schools, it’s apparently OK to study black culture, Asian culture and American Indian culture, but offer a class in Latino culture and you put your School District at risk of losing significant state funding, according to an article in Friday’s New York Times. An aide to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said on a conservative radio program Sunday that last year’s much-maligned ads by Palin’s PAC showing rifle crosshairs over 20 Democratic Congressional Districts ...

Giffords environmental advocacy
By now you know the basic story: Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head on Saturday while appearing at a "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson. The shooting killed six, among them a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl. Giffords herself seems to be responding to stimuli despite being gravely injured. The suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, is in custody, and while we don't know anything definitive about his motives, many Democrats are pointing out that Giffords -- a Blue Dog in a re...

Liberals Blame Sarah Palin for Tucson Shooting Tragedy
The tragic shooting outside a Tucson strip mall, which left six dead and at least a dozen more wounded, is all because of Sarah Palin, liberals are saying today. So far, police have said they cannot find any motive for the attack, which tookplace during a "Congress on Your Corner" event arranged by Conservative Blue Dog Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who represents Arizona's 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House. The suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, has allegedly told authorities he planned the...

9-Year-Old Girl Is Youngest Victim of Arizona Massacre
Christina Taylor Green, who was slain in Saturday's shooting at a political rally hosted by Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was born on Sept. 11, 2001. Her father John Green said, "She was born and she left us in very tragic moments in United States history." See photos of the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting in Arizona. Take the poll: Is Political Rhetoric to Blame for Arizona Shooting? Follow the money in Congress. ...

Knights of Columbus Mourns Death of Judge John Roll in Arizona Shooting
The Knights of Columbus, a prominent Catholic group know for its pro-life work, is today mourning the death of one of the Victims of the Arizona shooting Saturday. In addition to the death of Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Judge John Roll, who was nominated by former President George Bush, was killed along with four other people. Roll, who was the chief judge for the District of Arizona, was a Fourth Degree member of the Knights of Columbus, and was a charter member of a Knights council in ...

Tea partiers balk at blame
Phoenix — Tea Party Activists were solemn but defiant at a rally Monday at the Arizona Capitol marking the opening of the new legislative session. Rally organizer Greg Western led a moment of silence, then read the names of the six Victims killed in Saturday’s massacre, in which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) survived being shot in the head. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset “It’s a day that I will never, ever forget, kind of like the Challenger [space] inciden...

A remap primer
* My syndicated newspaper column is due every Friday afternoon. Since papers publish it from Sunday all the way to Thursday, I couldn’t really write about the tax hike. So, I thought I’d give readers a little remap primer. Here you go… The official Census numbers were released not long ago. The statistics revealed that Illinois will lose one Congressional Seat when the new district maps are drawn. It’s impossible to know exactly what will happen with the new maps since bloc...

Susan Combs says state has $72.2 billion to spend
The Comptroller's revenue estimate is in: $72.2 billion, compared to $87 billion spent by the state two years ago. That would say the Budget shortfall is $15 billion, but only if the state stayed stagnant, which it has not. In the past two years, the state has added about a million more people -- more Children to educate and many more people have signed up for Medicaid. In addition, two years ago, the state grabbed $12 billion in federal stimulus money -- no longer available -- to pay for budg...

Netanyahu extends moratorium on civil conversion bill for six months
An end to intolerance or just the beginning? - The Gabrielle Giffords aftermath Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to extend a freeze on the advancement of a Controversial civil conversion bill that was proposed by the Yisrael Beiteinu party last year. In exchange for the extended Moratorium, the Reform and Conservative movements agreed to hold off on their petitions to the High Court of Justice on the conversion issue. A preliminary reading of the civil conversion bill passed in th...

Up is down, black is white
Tommy is Rae Dawn…: Is America becoming less politically stable? A glance at some foreign Newspapers would certainly give that impression. This is an important economic question. The global primacy of Treasury Bonds and The Dollar stems mostly from the nation’s massive economic might. But confidence in U.S. political stability also plays a role. The shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, though tragic, shouldn’t alter those perceptions — unless Freedom of Speech suff

Moment of Silence Observed Across the Country for Tucson Shootings
(Credit: AP) President Obama led the nation in a moment of silence today at 11 a.m. ET to honor those injured and killed in Saturday's Mass Shooting, which has left Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition. The moment was marked across the country at the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Arizona State Capitol, and elsewhere. Giffords' brother-in-law, Astronaut Scott Kelly, led a moment of silence from aboard the International Space Station. Six people were killed on Saturday af...

Get your story straight, MEPS.
I'll have more to say about the tragedy in Tuscon that killed a 10 year-old girl, a Federal Judge, several others, and critically wounded U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ-8) over the weekend. But in the mean time I think DoD needs to figure out which story they are going with. This: In one of a handful of anti-religious, anti-government videos on Loughner's YouTube page, he says "every United States Military recruit at MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) in Phoenix is rece...

Congressman Thanks Fox News For Responsible Coverage
Rep. Trent Franks, R-ARIZ.: "I am especially grateful to news outlets like fox that they haven't tried to politically tie this altogether and somehow this politically motivated.We really don't know that. I would say if giving the perpetrator more credit than he deserves. The material that I've seen, his statements don't really represent any sort of political philosophy other than bizarre nonsensical kind of hatred that doesn't make any real political sense to me at all. I'm glad that Fox has not...

Tragedy in Arizona
A year ago, we introduced a new school Curriculum, Civil Discourse in the Classroom and Beyond, with this urgent call: "There is a pressing need to change the tenor of public debate from shouts and slurs to something more reasoned." The tragedy in Tucson this weekend reminds us that it's a call that politicians and pundits would do well to heed. We may never get a clear picture of what was going through the confused mind of the Tucson gunman. But as my colleague Mark Potok explained on NPR this ...

Congresswoman's condition stable; 8 hospitalized
Dr. G. Michael Lemole, Jr., left, speaks about the condition of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., as Dr. Peter Rhee looks on at University Medical Center during a news conference in Tucson, Ariz., Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. Giffords was shot in the head the Saturday during a Speech at a local Supermarket. Doctors said Monday that Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords brain remains swollen, but the pressure isn't increasing — a good sign for the congresswoman's recovery. Neurosurgeon Dr. Michael...