Gabrielle Giffords Resigns From Congress

Gabrielle Giffords Resigns From Congress, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., resigned from Congress this morning, a little more than a year after being shot in the head at close range.

“This past year my colleagues and staff have worked to make sure my constituents were represented in Congress,” Giffords wrote in her letter of resignation. “But If I can’t return, my district deserves to elect a U.S. Representative who can give 100 percent to the job now.”

Giffords slowly made her way to the House floor, walking with a slight limp as she was surrounded by the House Democratic leadership team, including close friend Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. The room was silent as a small group of journalists captured the moment.

“Every day, I am working hard,” Giffords wrote as she concluded her letter. “I will recover and will return, and we will work together again, for Arizona and for all Americans.”

The moment carried great emotion as a number of House leaders paid tribute to Giffords.

Members shed tears on the House floor, and Giffords hugged her chief of staff, Pia Carusone, who has led constituent services since the congresswoman’s injury.

Giffords’ appearance on the floor was just the third since her injury. She returned Aug. 2 to vote in favor of the debt limit and attended President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.

“I love Gabby Giffords,” Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said. “Gabby’s beauty is in the heart, in the soul, in the spirit. The House of Representatives of America has been made proud by this extraordinary daughter of this House, who served so well during her tenure here, who felt so deeply about her constituents and cared so much for her country. Gabby, we love you. We have missed you.”

Giffords looked on as Hoyer paid tribute and responded, “and I miss you.”

“We focus on her, she is our friend,” Pelosi, of California said. “We look at her remarkable recovery with great pride. She also carries in her need for recovery, the sorrow of so many others who lost their lives.

“The apparent physical recovery that we see is something even more than we could ever imagine for the challenge that congresswoman Giffords has faced. God gave her a very special mission. He gave it to Gabby Giffords because he knew she could carry that burden because he had blessed her with so many, many gifts and a very loving family to make her the person that she is.”

Celebrity Genealogy

Celebrity Genealogy, With genealogy often cited as the second most popular hobby, I’ve never understood why it’s been largely ignored on TV. We’ve got channels dedicated to everything from golf to going green, but aside from shows such as History Detectives and Antiques Roadshow that occasionally incorporate a dash of family history, genealogy has been badly neglected. Finally, that’s about to change.

Active and armchair genealogists across the country — not to mention those who can’t know enough about their favorite celebrities — will soon be treated to two shows offering a combined 11 episodes of prime time programming. Starting on February 10th and running 8:00-9:00 p.m. for four Wednesdays will be Faces of America, the latest PBS series by Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. Just two days after this series winds down, Who Do You Think You Are? (WDYTYA) will ramp up for seven episodes (Fridays, 8:00-9:00 p.m.) on NBC.

I suppose now might be an appropriate time to confess that I’m not a disinterested party as I conducted research for both of these series and had the opportunity to write the companion book, Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History, for one. Still, I can honestly say that my excitement would be as high even if I had had nothing to do with them. Genealogy will make for great TV for one simple reason: there’s no such thing as a boring family. This is reality television that was scripted before TV existed.

Both shows offer considerable, multicultural star power that will appeal even to those who have never looked up a census record or interviewed an older relative. The PBS line-up includes Yo-Yo Ma, Queen Noor, Malcolm Gladwell, Eva Longoria Parker, Mike Nichols, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Meryl Streep, Stephen Colbert, Louise Erdrich, Kristi Yamaguchi, Elizabeth Alexander and Mario Batali, while the NBC one includes Lisa Kudrow (who also happens to be the show’s executive producer), Susan Sarandon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Spike Lee, Brooke Shields, Emmitt Smith and Matthew Broderick.

Though both are celebrity roots shows, their formats are quite different. Both are participatory in nature with celebrities traveling to learn about their heritage, but Faces of America will feature Dr. Gates revealing many findings with his guests (much as he did in African American Lives I & II and Oprah’s Roots), while WDYTYA — a wildly popular import from the U.K. — follows celebs on journeys of self-discovery.

As a life-long and hard-core genealogist, I see this as reason to celebrate. Anyone who’s ever dabbled in family history knows how addicting it swiftly becomes, and if WDYTYA’s success in other countries is any measure, many non-genealogists will suddenly find themselves pulled in by the undertow. So now’s the time for current and budding roots-enthusiasts to start planning their weekly soirees (two shows in the week of March 1st!) to gather with friends, down some popcorn, swap tales of DNA testing Grandpa and purposely getting locked into libraries overnight, and most of all, enjoying these long overdue shows.

Gabrielle Giffords

Gabrielle Giffords, When President George H.W. Bush came to visit in the hospital, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords could only say “Wow!” And another word he had been throwing often at the time, “chicken.”

Months later, when he was shown photos of famous people to see if he recognized faces, looked at Arnold Schwarzenegger Giffords, and answered more or less accurate: “Messin ‘Around. Babies.”

These and other details appear in a new book by Giffords and her husband, who offers the most personal and agonizing slow recovery after being shot in the head at close range.

The memoir, entitled Gabby: A story of courage and hope, Giffords describes efforts in the past 10 months to relearn how to walk and talk, and the painful discovery that six people died in the attack of 08 January from a grocery store in Tucson.

The Associated Press purchased an advance copy of the book, which goes on sale November 15.

Husband of perspective
The book is written from the perspective of her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly. However, Giffords is offered the last chapter – one page of short sentences and phrases called Voice of Gabby in which he says that her goal is to return to Congress.

“I will become stronger. I’m going back,” he wrote.

The book also reveals that the couple, who married in 2007, was trying for a baby. Giffords, 41, had undergone several rounds of fertility treatments in recent years and was hoping to get pregnant in early 2011.

The book does not say whether Giffords will seek reelection next year. Kelly said the couple did not want to rush a decision. The deadline to formally declare their intentions is in May.

The Arizona Democrat was murdered a few days after being sworn in for her third term.

Giffords surprised her colleagues by appearing in the House from 01 August to vote on the agreement of the debt ceiling, but has largely avoided public attention, spending most of their time at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a center rehabilitation in Houston.

In the memoir, tells Kelly trying to tell his wife several times that she had been shot during a meeting with voters. But she did not understand until March 12.

Giffords asked Kelly if he remembered being shot, and she said yes, but he said it was difficult to know if it really did. She described what she remembers with three words: “Shot. Shocked. Fear.”

Later that day, Kelly said six people had died. Giffords was overcome with emotion and had trouble getting through her therapy.

It was not until July, weeks after being discharged from the hospital in Houston to Kelly’s house 25 miles away, he learned that he had died: an official, a federal judge, a 9-year-old Giffords and three others did not.

Christina Greene

Christina Greene, U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona remains in critical condition after being shot in the head by a man who opened fire to his community meeting in Tucson, killing six people including a federal judge.

Giffords communicates by responding to simple commands, “Michael Lemole, chief of neurosurgery at the University of Arizona Medical University, said at a news conference today. She cannot open my eyes and cerebral edema is the biggest threat after a bullet traveled the length of the left side of his brain, doctors said.

“When you get shot in the head and the ball goes through your brain, you’re lucky if you survive and you’re lucky if you wake up,” said Peter Rhee, chief medical officer at the trauma center hospital. “Things are going very well and we are very happy at this stage.”

Costs in the shootings yesterday will be filed today against Jared Loughner, 22, Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said at a news conference in Tucson. It is too early to speculate on motives Loughner, “he said.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said a person of interest whom authorities are still searching “may not have been involved in this incident at all.”

Shooting Death

At least 18 people were killed, and among those who died were U.S. District Judge John Roll and 9 years, Christina Green. Giffords, a Democrat beginning his third term of two years in the House of the United States is in a coma after surviving a bullet in the head and surgery.

It is the only patient who remains in critical condition. Three patients in serious condition, said Rhee.

The dead include Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, helps Giffords, Dorothy Murray, 76; Dorwin Stoddard, 76, and Phyllis Schneck, 79, as the sheriff’s office.

Green was the granddaughter of Dallas Green, the director of the Philadelphia Phillies when they won the World Series in 1980, the baseball team said.

President Barack Obama, speaking to reporters in Washington, called the shooting “a tragedy for our entire country.”

“Violence has no place in a free society,” the president said. Obama Mueller sent to Arizona to lead the probe into the shooting.

House Legislation Postponed

Business on the legislative agenda of the U.S. House for the next week is postponed, “said Majority Leader of the House Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia. The House planned to vote Jan. 12 on the repeal of the review of Obama’s health care.

Villec Alex, 19-year volunteer for the campaign Giffords, told reporters at the scene he just feet when the man opened fire. The man broke through a line of people waiting to meet Giffords and asked to speak with her, he said.

Villec, a student at Georgetown University in Washington, said he told the man to go to the back of the group and taking turns. He did, and returned a few minutes later, when he opened fire.

“It was clear that he would do, he went to the congressman,” said Villec. He hid behind a pillar as the shooting continued, and then ran. “I’m lucky,” he said.

Spectators Tackle Gunman

Two people fought the gunman to the ground, “said Richard Kastigar, an office manager for the office of sheriff of Pima County.

“Some people are very brave during this horrific event and approached the shooter sat on him,” Kastigar said.

John McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona who ran against Obama for the presidency, called the aggressor “an embarrassment to Arizona, this country and the human race.”

Giffords, 40, was elected in 2006, Arizona’s 8th congressional district, which includes a 114-mile (183 – km) border with Mexico. She previously served in the Legislature Arizona and has been CEO of the tires of his family and business cars.

Giffords is married to Mark Kelly, pilot of the U.S. Navy and NASA astronaut, and the only member with a spouse on active duty military.

Roll, the judge who was mortally wounded, was appointed to the U.S. District Court of Arizona for the Republican president George HW Bush in 1991. He became chief judge of the court in 2006.

Roll, 63, previously served as a judge in the courts of Arizona and as Deputy Prosecutor of the United States.

“Legal Wise

“We in the judiciary have suffered the terrible loss of one of us,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said in a statement. “Judge John Roll was advised that a lawyer has served selflessly Arizona and the nation with great distinction. ”

The Congressman was holding a congress on your corner “event at the grocery store when the gunman appeared and started shooting.

Tucson resident Roger Whithed, 55, said he lives three doors away from family Loughner and that he and others in the street does not know the family well.

The street is one block walk-in with the cacti and desert plants in the front yard. The house identified as belonging to Whithed family Loughner was cordoned off with tape and blocked with police cars.

Douglas Smith, spokesman for Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky., said Loughner tried to enlist in the army in 2008 and was rejected.

Reflections on social networking sites as the Loughner included statements suggesting that he planned to “prove” something.

“Most people do not seem to understand me, but I’ll prove to everyone how you’re wrong,” read one posting on the Facebook page under his name.

– With the help of Heidi Przybyla, Brendan McGarry, Dan Hart, John Hughes, Tim Homan and Shobhana Chandra in Washington. Andrea Snyder, Ann Hughey Editors

Arizona Shooting

Arizona Shooting, (AP) – Rep. Gabrielle Giffords remained sedated and in critical condition Sunday, investigators sought to understand what motivated a gunman to perform an assassination attempt on Democratic legislators in a rampage that killed six people.

University Medical Center, spokeswoman Darci Slaten told The Associated Press that Giffords had surgery for two hours on Saturday and has not been conscious since the shooting. She said more information would be released at a news conference in which one of the doctors who operated Giffords plans to speak.

Outside the hospital, memorial candles flickered in the capital. Read signs “Peace + Love is stronger,” God Bless America”and “We love you, Gabrielle.” People have also provided bouquets of flowers, American flags and pictures of Giffords.

Authorities said a man attacked Giffords, 40, during a public rally with a semiautomatic weapon about 10 hours Saturday before a busy supermarket Tucson. Arizona federal judge in chief and five others were killed and 14 people were injured, including the Democratic legislature.

He also shot his district director and fired indiscriminately on employees and others standing in line to talk to Congressman said Mark Kimble, a member of staff communication to Giffords.

“He was not more than three or four feet of the member and the district director, said Kimble, describing the scene as” just complete chaos, people screaming, crying. ”

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said the rampage ended only after two people approached the shooter.

“He was definitely on a mission,” according to Alex Villeca, volunteer activity, Giffords former student.

Police said the shooter was in custody and was identified by people familiar with the investigation that Jared Loughner, 22. U.S. officials who gave his name to the AP spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make public.

His motivation was not immediately known, but Dupnik described as mentally unstable and possibly acting with an accomplice.

His office said a man may be associated with the suspect who was near the scene was sought. The man, who was photographed by a security camera, was described as white with dark hair and 40-45 years.

The assassination attempt left Americans wondering if the politics of division had driven the suspect on the edge.

A shaken President Barack Obama has called the attack “a tragedy for our entire country.”

The Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement Sunday that FBI Director Robert Mueller was traveling to Arizona to help coordinate the investigation.

In a brief statement Sunday morning, Speaker of the House John Boehner said the flags on the House side of the Capitol in Washington will be flown at half mast to honor the slain aid staff Giffords, Gabe Zimmerman. Boehner said the normal business of the House this week was postponed to focus on all action necessary following the shooting.

Strong reaction from abroad as well.

British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed his dismay at the shooting, and added that he shared the conviction of President Barack Obama that “we must never allow hatred and violence to settle political discourse which is open our protection the most secure. ”

Fidel Castro also denounced the attack as horrific. “Even those of us who do not share at all the politics and philosophy (the Obama administration) sincerely desire that no child, judges, legislators and citizens of the United States die of a perverse and unjustifiable, “Castro said in an opinion piece entitled” An atrocity, “published in the Cuban media controlled by the state.

Giffords is a moderate Democrat who narrowly won reelection in November against a tea party candidate who sought him no office in his support for the law on health care. Anger over his position became violent at times, with his Tucson office vandalized after the House passed last revised in March and someone to attend a recent meeting with a weapon.

The authorities said the dead included U.S. District Judge John Roll, 63, Christina Greene, 9; help Giffords Zimmerman, 30, Dorothy Morris, 76; Dorwin Stoddard, 76, and Phyllis Scheck, 79.

The sheriff has blamed the political discourse vitriolic consumed in the country, although it occurs in Arizona.

Giffords expressed similar concerns, even before the shooting. In an interview after his office was vandalized, she referred to the animosity against him by conservatives, including Palin’s decision to list seat Giffords’ as one of the best “targets” in the elections midterm.

“For example, we are on a targeted list of Sarah Palin, but the thing is, that the way she has painted the crosshairs of a sight on our district. When people do that, they must realize that there are consequences to this action, “Giffords said in an interview with MSNBC.

In the hours after the shooting, Palin issued a statement in which she expressed her “deepest condolences” to the Giffords family and other victims.

During his campaign effort to overthrow Giffords in November, Republican opponent Jesse Kelly held fundraisers where he urged supporters to help remove from office by Giffords to join him to shoot a fully loaded M-16 rifle. Kelly is a former Marine who served in Iraq and was described on its website in military gear and holding his automatic weapon to promote the event.

“I do not see the connection” between the fundraisers with weapons and shooting on Saturday, said John Ellinwood, spokeswoman Kelly. “I do not know this person, we can not find any records that he has been associated with the campaign in any way. I do not see the connection.

“Arizona is a state where people own firearms -. It was just a deranged individual”

Enforcement of the law said that members of Congress have reported 42 cases of threats or violence during the first three months of 2010, nearly three times the 15 cases reported during the same period a year earlier. Almost all treaties with the Bill of health care, and Giffords was among the targets.

The shooting cast a pall over the Capitol as politicians of all stripes denounced the attack as horrific. Capitol Police urged members of Congress to be more vigilant about security in the wake of the shooting. Obama has dispatched his chief of the FBI in Arizona.

Slaten said that nine injured were treated at the hospital.

Giffords spokesman said Chief Karamargin also help, Zimmerman was killed and two other staff members were killed, but Giffords should survive. Zimmerman was a former social worker that has served as Director Giffords’ community outreach.

The little 9-year-old daughter who died was the granddaughter of former Phillies manager Dallas Green Phidadelphia, now an adviser to the executive team he has managed to World Series championship in 1980.

“It was a young and talented girl with a bright future. His untimely death weighs heavily on our hearts,” team president David Montgomery said Sunday. The Phillies of the name of the girl was said Christina Taylor -Green; authorities in Arizona gave a different spelling, Christina Greene.

Greg Segalini, an uncle of the girl, told the Arizona Republic that a neighbor was going to the event and its guests, and because she had just been elected student council and was interested within government.

Christina, who was born September 11, 2001, was involved in various activities ranging from ballet to baseball, and had just received his first communion at Saint Odile Catholic Church in Tucson Catholic Diocese of Tucson officials told The Arizona Daily Star.

His date of birth undoubtedly helped interest income of the girl in politics, her mother, Roxanna Green, told the Star. She was one of 50 babies born on September 11 featured in a book entitled “Faces of Hope.”

“She was born back East and September 11 there are all those affected, and Christina Taylor has always been very aware. She was very patriotic and wearing red, white and blue was really special to her,” said his mother.

A former classmate as a pot-smoking loner described Loughner The suspect, and the army had tried to enlist in December 2008 but was dismissed for undisclosed reasons.

The federal law enforcement were considered versions of a MySpace page that included a mysterious “friends Goodbye” message issued hours before the shooting and urged his friends to “please do not be angry cons me. ” In one of several YouTube videos, which presented the text on a dark background, describes Loughner invent a new currency of the United States and complained of the illiteracy rate among people living in Congressional District Giffords in Arizona.

“I know who heed government officials and people,” writes Loughner. “Almost all people who do not know the exact information of a new currency are not aware of mind control and methods of brainwashing. If I have my civil rights, then this message would not be (sic). ”

In the middle-class neighborhood of Loughner – on a five-minute ride from the scene – sheriff’s deputies had blocked many of the streets. The neighborhood is located just off a busy street in Tucson and is bounded on the landscaping of the desert and palm trees.

Neighbors said Loughner lived with his parents and kept to himself. He was often seen walking his dog, almost always wearing a hooded sweatshirt and listening to his iPod.

View Loughner’s MySpace profile says he attended and graduated from school in Tucson and took college courses. He did not say if it was used.

High school classmate Grant Wiens, 22, said Loughner seemed to be “floating in life” and “do his own thing.”

“Sometimes religion has been brought or drugs. He smoked marijuana, I do not know how regularly. And it was not too keen on religion, from what I could tell, “said Wiens.

Lynda Sorenson said she took a math course with Loughner last summer on the campus of Pima Community College Northwest told the Arizona Daily Star that he was “obviously very upset.”” He often disrupted class with bursts of nonsense, “she said.

In October 2007, Loughner was quoted in Pima County for possession of drug paraphernalia, which was dismissed after completing a diversion program, according to online records.

Giffords was first elected to Congress amid a wave of Democratic victories in the 2006 election, and was mentioned as a possible candidate for Senate in 2012 and a prospect for governor in 2014.

She is married to astronaut Mark E. Kelly, who piloted space shuttles Endeavour and Discovery. The two met in China in 2003 while they were serving on a committee there, and were married in January 2007. Senator Bill Nelson, chairman of the Senate Commerce space and science subcommittee, said Kelly is training to be the next commander of the Space Shuttle mission scheduled for April. His brother is currently aboard the International Space Station, said Nelson.

Associated Press Writer Amanda Lee Myers and Terry Tang in Tucson, Jacques Billeaud, Bob Christie and Paul Davenport in Phoenix, David Espo and Matt Apuzzo, Eileen Sullivan, Adam Goldman and Charles Babington in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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