Optimism reigned after U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ first interview since her assassination attempt, both for her recovery and her political future.

Smiling and cheerful, fussing with her interviewer's hair and nestled in the arms of her husband, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords displayed remarkable progress from the shocking images of her the day after she was shot in the forehead outside a Tucson supermarket.

But she still struggled to form complete sentences and said, with her husband's help, that she wouldn't return to Congress until she was "better."

Despite lingering questions over whether she will seek re-election, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ campaign is raising and spending the kind of money that some observers say is a clear indication she’s gearing up to return to Congress.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords plans to spend much of her birthday working on her rehab regimen.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has not yet been given details of the Jan. 8 shootings in Tucson, Ariz., that wounded her and 12 others and killed six people, including a staff member, according to her chief of staff.

Rallies for and against Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik are planned Friday at the Sheriff's Department headquarters in Tucson.

Judge Larry A. Burns of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California has been designated to oversee United States v. Jared Lee Loughner, in Arizona's U.S. District Court, said David Madden, a spokesman for the Ninth Circuit Office of the Circuit.

Riding high from her victory in the election, Gov. Jan Brewer was expected to lay out an ambitious policy agenda to start her first full term as governor. But in the wake of the tragic shooting in Tucson, Brewer deferred on her annual address to call for prayer and mourning for the victims of the mass shooting that targeted U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

President Obama on Sept. 9 offered what could be his administration's last direct attempt to convince Americans to rally around his health care plan, offering an outline Democrats found encouraging. But even as Democrats hope for a new wind on health care, Republicans were largely unswayed, with Arizona Rep. Trent Franks calling the address "divorced from reality completely."