The U.S. Air Force is weighing whether to put new F-35A single engine jet fighters at the Tucson Air National Guard Station, which will mean the aircraft, which has a higher noise level than F-16s currently flown by the Arizona Air National Guard unit, may negatively impact Fort Huachuca’s Libby Army Airfield and local civilian communities.

SIERRA VISTA — Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition and is being kept in a drug-induced coma except when  doctors at University Medical Center in Tucson need to ascertain whether she can respond to verbal commands.

During a news conference this morning, two UMC doctors said the congresswoman remains in the intensive care unit after being shot through the head Saturday during a Tucson meeting with constituents. The doctors said she is responsive when taken out of a medically induced coma.

BISBEE — Operation Streamline continues to criminalize some illegal immigrants in the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, but one border expert does not believe the program is effective.

During a teleconference hosted by the Immigration Policy Center on Monday, Aarti Kohli, director of immigration policy at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at the Berkeley School of Law, said Operation Streamline is an example of “a misdirected policy.”

PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer is defending Arizona laws which allow the sale of firearms at gun shows without a background check and forbid cities from imposing such requirements.

“We believe our laws are fair and just in the state of Arizona,” the governor said Monday.

SIERRA VISTA —  While Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ seat in the House of Representatives was symbolically empty during the president’s State of the Union address Tuesday, she and the other victims of the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson are constantly in the minds of southern Arizonans.

SIERRA VISTA —  Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is in critical condition after suffering a gunshot wound in which a bullet went through her brain Saturday morning.

 TUCSON — Nineteen-year-old Erika Toledo Ruiz shares the couch with her younger sister Gloria. They’re watching cartoons on a flat-screen TV while their dad rests after his midnight shift at McDonald’s.

It’s mid-afternoon, and Erika still has to pick up her mom from her job at a diner in Tucson.

Erika wants to work in the restaurant business as well. She graduated from Pueblo High School in Tucson last year and is saving money to enter the culinary arts program at Pima Community College.

TUCSON — Rep. Gabri-elle Giffords is opening both eyes, moving both legs and arms, and is responding to friends and family.

Her doctors call it a “major milestone.”

“We’re hoping that she crosses through many more,” said her neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Lemole.

Her remarkable recovery five days after being shot through the head has provided a dose of jubilation after a week that left the nation in mourning.