Chicago's NPR News Source

Giffords' Husband Will Decide Soon If He'll Command Shuttle Flight

“Astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, said Monday [that he will] decide within the next two weeks whether to leave his wife’s bedside and command NASA’s final launch of space shuttle Endeavour in April,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

And the Chronicle adds that:

“Kelly was hopeful that his wife could move to TIRR Memorial Hermann and start a full-fledged rehab program as early as Wednesday. She is currently at Memorial Hermmann’s Texas Medical Center neuro-intensive care unit a few blocks away. “ ‘It’s possible that it could be Wednesday, Thursday or Friday,’ Kelly said. ‘We’re not that sure. ... She has a team of doctors that are discussing the overall situation’.”

Kelly also told the newspaper that Giffords “was better yesterday than the day before. ... I don’t know when she’s going to be doing laps around the building, but it’s coming.”

Giffords (D-AZ), was critically injured on Jan. 8 when a gunman attacked an event she was holding at a Tucson strip mall. Six people were killed and 13, including Giffords, were shot.

Yesterday, 22-year-old suspect Jared Loughner of Tucson pleaded not guilty to the federal charges he faces. Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The Latest
It’s election day, and hundreds of teens are serving as election judges. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a case that could impact more than one million student people in Illinois with college debt. Local groups are stepping up to provide shelter for asylum seekers arriving in Chicago.