Gabrielle Giffords

More than five months after she was shot in the head while greeting constituents, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was released Wednesday from the Houston hospital where she had been undergoing physical therapy. The Arizona congresswoman will travel from a Houston suburb to the hospital each weekday for physical therapy, officials said. "Congresswoman Giffords has shown clear, continuous improvement from the moment she arrived at TIRR [Memorial Hermann Hospital] five months ago," Dr. Gerald Francisco, the hospital's chief medical officer, said in a statement.

She was scared to touch the stranger writhing outside the Safeway grocery store, blood streaming from a bullet wound in his upper left thigh. But he looked at her with pleading eyes and forced out a "help me. " "If I don't do something," she thought, "he's going to die. " Anna Ballis inched away from the folding table she'd ducked under while a gunman was spraying bullets into a clutch of bystanders. The gunfire had halted and people were shouting, "Got him!" Ballis recognized one of the wounded people splayed around her: Gabrielle Giffords, the local Democratic congresswoman, who'd been chatting with admirers on this blue-skied January morning.

TUCSON - City- or county-sponsored gun buybacks - often used in larger cities to entice people to give up their handguns - have become effectively pointless in Arizona with legislation signed by Gov. Jan Brewer. The bill prohibits cities and counties from destroying any guns that come into their possession; instead, the firearms must now be sold to federally licensed dealers. The law started out as a set of guidelines on how government agencies should handle property that was confiscated, used as evidence, or turned in to law enforcement agencies, with an eye toward generating money for strapped programs.

A lawyer for Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner urged a federal appellate panel Thursday to allow him to remain at a federal lockup near his family in Arizona rather than return him to a prison hospital in Missouri, where he has been treated against his will with anti-psychotic drugs. Loughner's rights to refuse unwanted commitment and medication were being violated at the Missouri facility, defense attorney Ellis M. Johnston III said. Loughner can get any necessary sedation at the federal prison in Tucson, where he remains under suicide watch, Johnston said.

WASHINGTON -- Ron Barber, a onetime aide to former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was sworn into office as the newest congressman from Arizona -- a bittersweet moment that closed one era in the state's political history and opened another. The Democratic victory in the special election for Giffords' seat was a tempered one. Democrats in the House cheered their newest colleague Tuesday, but both parties welcomed Barber to the House as they paid tribute to Giffords, whose rising career came to a sudden halt after she was shot in the head at a 2011 meeting with constituents outside a Tucson grocery store.

Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington announced Saturday that he would resign his seat in Congress so that he could focus on his campaign for governor. Inslee, a Democrat, has represented Washington's 1st District in Congress since 1999. He also served a single term representing the 4th District from 1993 to 1995. His resignation will take effect March 20. "I am not one for half-measures or halfhearted efforts," Inslee said in a statement from his campaign. "I am going to leave everything on the field.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Tuesday. Kings of Leon has canceled the rest of its U.S. tour after singer Caleb Followill was deemed "unfit" to finish. ( Los Angeles Times ) Now that this debt-ceiling mess is getting cleared up, can we please focus on the tense talks between AMC and Sony over the fifth (and possibly) final season of "Breaking Bad"? ( Los Angeles Times ) BET has said "No more Mo' " to "The Mo'Nique Show. " ( Los Angeles Times )

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Monday. Robert De Niro is shy about certain things. But talking about Donald Trump isn't one of them. ( Los Angeles Times ) Movie audiences preferred the week-old "Rio" to the new "Madea" and "Water for Elephants" on Easter. ( Los Angeles Times ) Video game "L.A. Noire" is coming soon, and it should be glorious. ( Los Angeles Times ) Is this guy the new Susan Boyle? The producers of "Britain's Got Talent" sure would like him to be. ( Huffington Post )

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A surprise appearance by Gabrielle Giffords provided an emotional lift to an already celebratory atmosphere on the Democratic convention's closing night, as the former Arizona congresswoman appeared onstage to lead the hall in the Pledge of Allegience. Giffords, who was critically wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt during a constituent event in her district, walked deliberately on stage, and with only occasional support from her friend and former colleague, Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida.