Tucson, Arizona | featured news

A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to killing six people and wounding 13 others, including then-U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, in an Arizona shooting rampage last year and will be spared the death penalty in exchange.

Police have asked the family of a 6-year-old Arizona girl who disappeared from her bedroom to leave their Tucson home after an FBI dog search Monday turned up new information that required a closer examination, investigators told KVOA.com.

A massive search for a 6-year-old Tucson, Ariz., girl who vanished Friday night resumed Sunday morning. Scores of police, FBI agents and deputy U.S. marshals combed the city’s east side for first-grader Isabel Mercedes Celis. Officials tried to determine if the girl was kidnapped or just wandered off. Isabel’s parents last saw her in bed at 11 p.m. Friday, and they discovered her missing when they woke up around 8 a.m. Saturday, Tucson police spokeswoman Sgt. Maria Hawke said.

A 45-foot-long (14-meter-long) paper airplane successfully flew across the desert skies of Arizona -- albeit briefly. The model, which has a 24-foot wingspan, could be the world's largest paper plane, according to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz., which was responsible for the project.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona announced Sunday she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is now aware of who was killed during the January shooting rampage in Tucson that left her seriously wounded, her spokesman said. C.J. Karamargin confirmed Friday that the Democratic politician was told in late July the names of the dead, including her aide Gabe Zimmerman; U.S. District Judge John Roll, a close friend; and 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, the Arizona Republic reported.

The first photos of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot in January were released on Sunday on her Facebook page. The photos of the Arizona Democrat were taken by a professional photographer the day before her cranioplasty surgery in May.

Gabrielle Giffords is nowhere close to returning to Congress. And there remains real doubt whether she ever will. That appears to be the bottom line of an article Thursday in the Arizona Republic that provides the most complete assessment yet of the wounded congresswoman’s current condition. Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman in Tucson in January. Now, six months later, she still struggles mightily to communicate, although her staff believes her comprehension skills are strong. And it remains unclear just how much damage her brain has suffered.

Doctors treating Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords have scheduled a Friday morning news conference to provide an update on her progress.

Arizona has become a national leader in the gun rights movement in recent years as the state enacted law after law to protect the people's right to bear arms nearly anywhere, at anytime.