Tuscon Tragedy: President Obama is set to travel to Tuscon on Wednesday to attend and address a memorial service for the victims of Saturday's shootings, The Washington Post reports. While the speech is expected to focus on tolerance, Obama will have to walk a tightrope on whether gun laws and partisan rhetoric are to blame for the tragedy. The Wall Street Journal reports that the father of Jared Lee Loughner, the suspected shooter who appeared before a federal magistrate judge yesterday, may issue a statement. Meanwhile, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who was among those wounded in Saturday's shooting, has been responding to verbal commands by raising two fingers of her left hand and even managed to give a thumbs-up. \
Wife of White House Staffer Killed in Car Crash: Ashley Turton, a lobbyist for the Raleigh, N.C.-based utility giant Progress Energy who was married to the White House liaison to the House of Representatives Dan Turton, was killed yesterday after she was involved in a low-speed crash near Eastern Market. Roll Call reports that according to the major crash investigation unit of the Metropolitan Police Department, the car fire that led to Turton's sudden death was caused by the impact after a low-speed crash. “It’s quite possible that the victim was maneuvering the car and came in contact with some kind of flammable chemical materials,” D.C. Fire spokesman Pete Piringer said.
The Hammer Slapped with Prison Sentence: Former House majority leader Tom Delay (R-Texas) was sentenced by a state judge yesterday to three years in prison for illegally plotting to funnel corporate contributions to Texas legislative candidates. According to The Washington Post, Senior Judge Pat Priest rejected DeLay's impassioned argument that he was the victim of political persecution and was improperly accused of breaking the law for doing what "everybody was doing."
Assange Appears in Court: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made a brief appearance in a London court yesterday and will return next month for a full hearing on Sweden's efforts to extradite him for questioning over alleged sex crimes. Reuters reports that the 39-year-old Australian computer expert, who has infuriated Washington by releasing details of secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his website, has protested his innocence over claims of sexual misconduct against two women.
Lawyers Draw Judges' Ire in Foreclosure Mess: The New York Times reports that with judges looking ever more critically at home foreclosures, they are reaching beyond the bankers to heap some of their most scorching criticism on the lawyers. In numerous opinions, judges have accused lawyers of processing shoddy or even fabricated paperwork in foreclosure actions when representing the banks.
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