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.

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.

SIERRA VISTA — A 16-year-old is in critical condition after local law enforcement officials said he was taken to a desert area east of Sierra Vista and beaten with a two-by-four.

Steven Lee Townsend, 18, of Tucson has been taken into custody after he told Tombstone Marshal’s Office deputies that he assaulted the 16-year-old male victim on Monday, said Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.

SIERRA VISTA — Two men, including one from Sierra Vista, have been charged with robbing two banks in Marana.

Dan Snider, 34, of Sierra Vista  and Jacob Villescas, 32, of Tucson were taken into custody after a confrontation in front of a Chase Bank in the 12000 block of Thornydale Road on Thursday. Both are charged with two counts of armed robbery and two counts of aggravated robbery, Marana police Sgt. Tim Brunenkant said.

TUCSON — A federal grand jury in Tucson has returned a 4-count superseding indictment against U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer (CBPO) Luis Carlos Vasquez, 32; Victor Stuppi, 40; Jesus Antonio Chavez-Bustamante, 25; and Karla Beatriz Prieto, 23, all of Douglas; and Saul Lizarraga-Roldan, 37; and Marcos Abraham Sandoval-Lizarraga, 22, both of Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to import marijuana and importation of marijuana.

PHOENIX — With both sides invoking the memory of the Tucson shootings, the Senate voted 21-8 on Thursday to expand where people can carry their guns.

SB 1201 would make most public buildings places where weapons are permitted. It would allow gun owners to ignore the “no weapons’’ signs now posted on most buildings unless visitors also had to either go through metal detectors or be screened by security personnel with hand-held wands.

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.”

 SIERRA VISTA — Lucky Wishbone, Tucson’s first fast food restaurant, will be expanding beyond the Old Pueblo for the first time when they open a new location in Sierra Vista later this year.

“We’ve been getting a lot of requests to be in Sierra Vista for quite a while,” said Josh Jacobsen, whose family is one of three separate groups that own and operate the seven Lucky Wishbone restaurants in Tucson. “We were looking at our options and Sierra Vista was just at the top of the list.”