State of the Union 2011: Barack Obama to focus on jobs
Posted by Unknown American Political News, Barack Obama News, Democrats, Republicans, USA and Canada News, world news 4:15 AMUS President Barack Obama will call for new public spending to create jobs in his state of the union address, setting up a clash with opponents who say cuts to government are the way forward.
In the president's yearly address to Congress, Mr Obama is expected to call for new investment in education, research and infrastructure.Mr Obama said at the weekend creating jobs was his "number one focus".
Republicans have warned they will reject his calls for added spending.
BBC North America editor Mark Mardell says State of the Union speeches are rarely momentous, but they are opportunities. Last year Mr Obama was watched by 48 million people.
The president can use the speech to condition the debate ahead of his 2012 re-election bid, claiming the mantle of reasonableness and consensus, our correspondent says.
But it is hard to see how Mr Obama can avoid a bitter, bare knuckle fight further down the road, in a Congress where Republicans now control the House of Representatives and have trimmed the Democrats' sails in the Senate, our correspondent adds.
Jared Loughner pleads not guilty to Arizona charges
Posted by Unknown American Political News, Canada Political News, GlobalNews24x7, Jared Loughner, USA and Canada News, world news 4:09 AMThe man accused of the Arizona shooting attack that killed six people and wounded 13, including a US congresswoman, has pleaded not guilty to three attempted murder charges.
Jared Loughner, 22, entered the pleas over the attempted assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and two aides.State charges in the six deaths and other injuries are expected to follow.
Ms Giffords, who was shot in the head, is at a rehabilitation centre in Texas.
Mr Loughner, who has been in jail since the attack, arrived amid high security for his arraignment hearing.
Wearing glasses and an orange prison jumpsuit, Mr Loughner sat quietly through the whole hearing, smiling broadly, the Associated Press reported.
'Remarkable progress'
The 8 January shooting occurred at a meeting Ms Giffords, a Democrat, was holding for constituents at a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona.
Among the dead were a nine-year-old girl and federal judge John Roll. Federal prosecutors are weighing whether Mr Loughner can be charged with a federal crime over his death.
Prosecutors have said Mr Loughner, who had been rejected by the US military due to drug use and suspended from a college amid concerns about his mental health, targeted Ms Giffords for assassination.
Ms Giffords has made what doctors call remarkable progress, and is undergoing a course of intensive rehabilitation at Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital in Houston, where her husband Mark Kelly works as a Nasa astronaut.
Mr Loughner is represented by Judy Clarke, a prominent defence lawyer who represented an infamous parcel bomber and the man convicted of setting a bomb at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. She is known as a fierce opponent of capital punishment

