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After Shooting, Fresh Look at Protecting Lawmakers

Reporting from Tucson — When Gabe Zimmerman visited Washington, D.C., in 2009 for President Obama's inauguration, he immersed himself in the monuments to American history, one of his passions. "When we went to the Lincoln Memorial on a cold damp January morning, the wind whipped through the place and it was freezing cold, but Gabe had to read every single word of the Gettysburg Address," said C.J. Karamargin, a fellow staffer for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who worked alongside Zimmerman in the congresswoman's Tucson field office.chanel outlet That kind of passion was evident in every aspect of Zimmerman's life — in his devotion to his job helping Giffords' constituents, his search for the perfect engagement ring for his fiancee, his newfound zeal for the Byzantine Empire, his hours spent on the Stairmaster at the gym. "He put his all into his work, he put his all into his life," Karamargin said. Zimmerman, 30, was among the six people killed when a gunman opened fire Saturday at Giffords' "Congresswoman on the Corner" meet-and-great with constituents, a regular event that Zimmerman helped organize. He joined Giffords' first congressional campaign in 2006 and joined her staff the following year. Zimmerman's mother, Emily Nottingham, speaking in her cozy Tucson living room, said it was no surprise when he joined Giffords' campaign, because it combined two of his passions. "He's always been interested in government and politics, and it's a good mix of social service and policy," she said, adding that he most enjoyed helping constituents solve problems. "He was always a caring child. It was a good career for him." After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a bachelor's degree in sociology, Zimmerman worked for Arizona's Children, a treatment facility for troubled youth. Then he earned his master's in social work at Arizona State University in Tucson, and joined Giffords' staff. He relished his work, Nottingham said. Karamargin said Zimmerman's background in social work made him a natural for dealing with constituents. "Gabe was unfailingly patient with people. He presided over thousands of constituent cases," he said. "He was helping World War II vets get medals, people with Medicare benefits, veterans with benefits issues. These are the types of things day-in and day-out he did, and he was determined to just do the best he could. He worked hard, he really worked hard." That determination was evident outside of the office as well. "We belong to the same gym, and we would do the stair mill together and, you know, when we were done, I had a couple beads of sweat on my brow and Gabe was drenched," Karamargin said. "You could count the number of stories you climbed. I would do 132 in 30 minutes. Gabe was like 190. He was running up those steps." In his off hours, Zimmerman ran marathons and had hiked across the Grand Canyon multiple times. He was engaged to be married to Katie O'Brien in 2012. The coffee shop chain Starbucks has opened its largest shop on the Chinese mainland in Xiamen. Adjacent to Zhongshan road and Gulangyu, the Starbucks Xiamen flagship store boasts four floors and a total business area of over 400 square meters, reportedly making it the largest store in mainland China. In addition to the display of some old photos of Xiamen, the new Starbucks coffee shop will introduce the traditional tea culture in the southern area of Fujian province, showing strong local flavor. Wang Jinlong, chairman for Starbucks Greater China, told local media that Starbucks has been attaching great importance to the Chinese market and it started merging into local cultures in recent years.ugg boots for clearance Wang also revealed that the company aims to have 1,500 retail stores in China by 2015. Apart from the distribution in coastal cities, it will gradually develop into the inland markets in the future. In Fujian, which is relatively a new market for Starbucks, it has opened two sites in Fuzhou and Xiamen, respectively. Three new Starbucks coffee shops will be launched in Xiamen around the 2011 Spring Festival. TEHRAN — An Iranian airplane carrying more than 100 passengers crashed as it tried to make an emergency landing in heavy snow and fog, killing at least 70 people, official news agencies reported. A rescue official, Heydar Heydari of the Red Crescent organization, said 32 people had survived but that the death toll was likely to rise, the official IRNA news agency reported. Bad weather forced the Boeing 727 aircraft to abandon its first attempt to land as it approached Orumiyeh, a city in West Azerbaijan Province in the northwest, reports said. The plane was circling for a second approach when it disappeared from radar at around 7:45 p.m., state television reported. News reports said the plane, on a domestic flight from the capital, Tehran, tried to land on farmland near Lake Orumiyeh. Witnesses told the BBC Persian language news service by telephone that the plane broke into several pieces on impact but did not explode. A number of passengers were reportedly able to escape from the wreckage unharmed. Heavy snow was said to have been hampering rescue efforts. Iran’s air industry has been plagued by safety concerns for years, at least in part because international sanctions have prevented the country from purchasing new American and European aircraft and spare parts for the ones it has. Iran’s American-built aircraft were purchased before Iran’s 1979 revolution, when the two countries cut off relations. Airlines, including Iran’s flagship carrier, Iran Air, have struggled to keep those planes, as well as aging and often unreliable aircraft bought from Russia and other former Soviet states, in service. In July 2009, a Russian-built Tupolev passenger jet operated by Caspian Airlines of Iran crashed on its way to Yerevan, Armenia, killing all 168 passengers and crew members. In December 2005, 108 people were killed when an Iranian military plane, a Lockheed C-130, crashed into a high-rise housing block outside Tehran. The following November, a military plane crashed on takeoff at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, killing 38 people. Thousands of people turned out in Karachi Sunday to show their support for Pakistan's current blasphemy laws and warn the government against changing the laws. The rally, called by the leaders of several hard-line Islamic groups, closed main roads and markets throughout the city. Demonstrators demanded Pakistan leave its blasphemy laws untouched. They make it a crime punishable by death to insult Islam, the Quran or the Prophet Mohammed. A number of banners at the rally stated support for Muhammad Mumtaz Qadri, accused of shooting the governor of Punjab province earlier this month. Qadri was a bodyguard for Gov. Salman Taseer, a liberal lawmaker who spoke out against the blasphemy laws. Qadri told police he assassinated Taseer because "he did blasphemy of the Prophet Mohammed." A bill is now before the Pakistani parliament that would change the current blasphemy laws. It calls for a tighter definition of the term, to avoid cases like that of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was sentenced to death under the law. A court found the 45-year-old woman guilty of defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed during a 2009 argument with fellow Muslim field workers. Sudanese expatriates came by the bus load to the North Side on Sunday, jamming the lobby of a condo building for a vote that will shape the destiny of a land many were forced to leave. They were taking part in a referendum to determine whether southern Sudan should secede from the north and form a new nation. Some said it was the first time they and their families had been able to cast a ballot regarding the affairs of their homeland. "My father voted in his village," said David Deng, 30, of Chicago, who left southern Sudan when he was 6. "He is 80 years old and never voted in his life." Southern Sudanese have long felt subjugated by the north, and the economic and religious strife produced a 22-year civil war. That officially ended in 2005 with a peace agreement that promised a referendum on independence. The day finally arrived Sunday, and the excitement reportedly spilling over in the streets of Juba, Sudan's southern capital, was reflected in Chicago. The city is one of eight voting sites in the United States, and Sudanese came from across the Midwest for a joyful day of democracy. "For all the blood that has been shed, all the people who didn't make it, the least I can do is ride a bus and cast my vote," said Mach Makuei, 25, of Grand Rapids, Mich. He said he has not been in Sudan since his family fled for a Kenyan refugee camp when he was 7. Luol Deng, a native of Sudan who became a star basketball player for the Chicago Bulls, dropped by the voting center early Sunday afternoon. His foundation had paid to bring two buses of voters from Grand Rapids, and he said he hoped to bring still more before the referendum ends Saturday. "My whole life my country has been at war," he said. "I want people to be able to go home. A lot of lives have been lost, and here is a chance to make a difference." Voters were asked to mark their ballots with a fingerprint for unity or separation. Those interviewed at the center expected that the result would not be close.us a burberry outlet "I can't find anyone looking for unity," said Baraka Kubaya, 49, of Chicago. "Everyone is looking for separation." Yet some who cast ballots said even if secession, as expected, easily carries the vote, many difficulties will remain. The north might not readily grant independence to the oil-rich south, they said. And even if it does, southern Sudan would essentially be starting a nation from scratch, with little of the infrastructure needed by a modern state. Julia William, 27, of Grand Rapids, said independence could mean trouble for her family. They have been fighting to reclaim land and cattle unfairly confiscated by the national government, she said, and if the south breaks away, she had little hope that they would be able to regain the property. Moments after returning from visiting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at the hospital, the congresswoman's six-time campaign chairman said Sunday that he is confident that she will survive, though the extent of her recovery remained unclear. "The doctors are pretty clear that we just have to wait and see," Mike McNulty told CNN in an exclusive interview. The impact on Giffords' family has been huge, he said. Asked how her husband, astronuat Mark Kelly, was faring, McNulty said, "He is a Navy combat fighter and he can take about anything, but this is a terrible experience." Asked about Giffords' ability to survive a 9mm slug to the head, McNulty said, "I can only think that God has more important things planned for her in the future." Even as he acknowledged that the motive for the shooting remains unknown, McNulty faulted Giffords' opponents in last year's elections for stirring up emotions in the campaign to an unacceptable level. "There were rallies around her office that seemed designed to intimidate her staff, which simply doesn't seem very American to me," he said, though he added that he never felt threatened. Who is Jared Loughner? Doctors: Giffords able to communicate uggs on sale store Timeline of Arizona mass killing Gallery: Shooting at Giffords event RELATED TOPICS The rallies were organized by members of the Tea Party around Giffords' support for President Barack Obama's health care bill, he said. "There was a level of vituperation that no one has ever seen, and there was, you know, the famous incident of people showing up with handguns and losing control of handguns that just fall in the street and brandishing handguns." He added, "That's where the Tea Party, I think, went over the edge. They thought it was fun to talk about using your firearms to solve political problems, and I don't think that's fun." Tea Party advocates have condemned Saturday's shootings. "These heinous crimes have no place in America, and they are especially grievous when committed against our elected officials," said Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express. "Spirited debate is desirable in our country, but it only should be the clash of ideas. An attack on anyone for political purposes, if that was a factor in this shooting, is an attack on the democratic process. We join with everyone in vociferously condemning it." McNulty credited Giffords with having a special ability to work from the center with all sides in politics, a strength that served the Democrat well in an overwhelmingly Republican state. "If you look at the demographics, you would not think that she could get elected," he said. "The way she inspires people reminds me a little bit of when I worked for Mo Udall (the former Democratic Arizona congressman) and the people that worked for Ted Kennedy (the late Democratic senator from Massachusetts) -- people who would walk through a wall for the people they believed in. But, unlike them, she doesn't inspire by leading from one of the fringes. "She is a genuine centrist and being inspirational from the center is not that easy, but she can do it and she causes people to just simply love her."