Gerald Garcia

The Tucson Citizen: readable, likable, my friend, the intelligent choice. The Citizen was my first publisher’s position. It is where I got my feet wet – and my underwear and pants, too, the day the pressroom blew up.

It has been more than 20 years since I departed my beloved Citizen. It was a difficult decision: Stay at the Citizen and Tucson or return to College Station, Texas, to parents, grandparents, Texas A&M, Aggie football. To Texas we went.

I have missed the Citizen from that day.

I remember the heyday of great journalism at the Citizen, some of the best, if not the best, that I have been associated with.

A couple that stand out:

• From Guatemala to Madison, Wis., the so-called Underground Railroad, an undertaking of enormous proportions by dedicated Citizen staff members who chopped their way through the jungles of Guatemala, the jungle of streets in Mexico City, the treacherous mountains and jungle of back roads in northern Mexico, crossing the border undetected through a jungle of tunnels with guides and political refugees and reaching safe houses in Tucson, northern Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Illinois and Wisconsin.

• The New Pueblo, a moving account of life in Tucson.

In describing The New Pueblo to our readers, I wrote, “It explains life as life itself rather than a metaphor of life. . . . The New Pueblo tells us about Tucson’s early years, how we progressed to the present and about our future.”

The New Pueblo was mountains of research. It was sending reporters to San Jose, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; and Phoenix. It was interviewing countless residents of Tucson, its leaders – elected or otherwise, discussing opportunities and formulating consensus about the future of our beloved “Old Pueblo.”

And, while the projects were important and something to behold and be proud of, it was the reporters, the people (the faces) of the Citizen that I ultimately remember.

Mark Kimble, Mr. Reliable; Chuck Bowden, he could make a subject and a predicate sing; Dale Walton, the managing editor for the ages; Judy Carlock, Miss Steady Hand; Carla McClain, if it was a medical issue, she had the cure.

Douglas Kreutz, a reporter’s reporter; Joel Rochon, he could take a drawing and bring it to life; P.K. Weis, the lens of his camera found the perfect image; Julie Szekely, she could dress you up and get it for you at the least cost.

Corky Simpson, who could take you from a screen pass to a bounce pass with a flick of the keyboard; Jeff Smith, talented, eccentric and way too out there for my taste; and the many other faces of the Citizen who made my job easier, my work pleasant and my life fulfilled.

Then, there is Tucson: majestic and magnificent. The memories: vivid, like yesterday.

The Tucson Mountains. The Valley. Some 320 days a year of crystal-clear, blue skies. The Dove of the Desert. Saguaros. The unrelenting heat of summer.

Skiing Mount Lemmon on a wintry Saturday morning and taking a swim in the backyard pool that afternoon. Brilliant sunsets, the most powerful anywhere. The desert, indescribable, fearful and fearless.

The Ball Busters, my Sunday morning golf group, which leads to the people – the faces – of Tucson:

Joel Valdez, a gentleman’s gentleman; Dick Moreno, fun-loving; Jim Click, wheel and deal, with a heart of gold; Warren Rustand, brilliant and savvy.

Mary Peachin, poised, glamorous and art to spare; Edith Auslander, compromising, negotiating, but always getting it right; and the many others who touched my life and influenced it forever.

I am saddened that the Citizen will be shuttered and a golden era of southern Arizona journalism will pass. I am saddened that Tucson is losing its friend, its intelligent choice.

To my friends in Tucson, I bid you a continued great adventure in the New Pueblo. To the Citizen, with tears in my eyes, I say “30.”

Gerald Garcia Jr. is president and CEO of AIMS Worldwide Inc., based in Fairfax, Va. E-mail: ggarcia@aimsworldwide.com

C. Donald Hatfield

In 1986, the Gannett Co., owner of the Tucson Citizen, asked me to come to Tucson as editor and publisher. I was then editor and publisher of the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch, also a Gannett paper.

I was eager to make the move even though my wife, Sandy, and I would be leaving family and coming to a city we had never seen and where we knew no one. I promised her we would return East to family in four years max.

We stayed for more than 21.

Fourteen of those years were spent with the Citizen, until my retirement in June 2000. And they were very special years.

The Citizen was not a newspaper that needed to be “fixed” when I arrived. It was an excellent paper with a solid reputation and, as the oldest newspaper in Arizona, an outstanding history.

It had won prizes, produced top-notch investigative stories and harbored many outstanding writers. Its staff possessed, I thought, a rare feeling for the culture of the community it served. It showed in their work.

Newsrooms are a strange conglomeration of diverse individuals of different backgrounds and contrasting views, some with huge egos, some quite unassuming.

They’re made up of talented and creative people who enjoy their work, though most won’t admit it, and they tend to be an irreverent bunch. Despite their differences, they have one wonderful thing in common: They want to find out what’s going on and tell readers about it.

That’s the kind of news staff I found at the Citizen.

We thought of ourselves as the local-emphasis newspaper, the paper that cared most about Tucson. Our motto was, “The Citizen IS Tucson,” and one of our promotions remarked “If you care about Tucson, you have to read the Citizen.”

We covered the local scene like no one else. We expanded our coverage of the arts, sports, business and of what were then referred to as “minorities.”

We held neighborhood meetings to find out what people were thinking and town meetings for teenagers.

We revealed to readers the problems of a cracking Hoover Dam and the crowded unregulated skies over the Grand Canyon. We followed the Arizona Wildcats.

We interviewed the known and the unknown. We met with legends and heroes – think Mo Udall and John McCain.

I cannot tell you what it was like to look up from my desk one of my first days on the job to see Udall, who had come by to welcome me to Arizona. And I enjoyed getting to know McCain as more than a senator and future presidential hopeful.

And Sen. Dennis DeConcini, with whose family my wife and I became close friends.

It was special to know many of those who contributed so much to the community in so many ways – people like Roy Drachman and Jim Click as well as Ray Clarke, Fred Acosta and Lorraine Lee, to name just a few.

I like to think we put out some very good newspapers, that we were strong but fair, respected even when criticized, and that we were a valuable part of people’s lives.

I also like to think we had fun doing it. I know I did.

Serving as the Citizen’s editor and publisher was an honor. And living in Tucson was truly a blessing. It was and is a special place.

And we made special friends. Allen Beigel. Joan Kaye Cauthorn. Drs. John and Helen Schaefer. Stanley and Norma Feldman. So many others. We cannot imagine never having known them.

I have thought a lot about the Citizen since my retirement: the challenges that were faced, the stories that were published – some tough, some touching – the good days and the bad. Now the Citizen’s final chapter is being written. And there is great sadness in its passing. Nobody wants to see a newspaper die, especially this one. For it signals the end of an era, and it creates a void in the community that will not be filled.

But I can tell you that all those who have worn the Citizen’s colors can look back with great pride.

Gracias, Citizen staffers throughout the years. Gracias, Tucson.

Don Hatfield is retired and lives in Huntington, W.Va. E-mail: cdhatfield@comcast.net

Michael A. Chihak

We are as ill-prepared for newspapering’s demise as we were for economic meltdown. An odd comparison, perhaps, because we will recover from economic arrhythmia in relatively short time. Replacing the role of newspapers will take longer, and that threatens democracy.

Newspapers are democracy’s bulwark: constitutionally protected watchdogs. The Founding Fathers knew a free press would sustain democracy so included it among the Constitution’s foremost rights.

The Tucson Citizen’s death and the demise of other newspapers shake the frame upon which democracy sits. Without free-flowing information, the experiment Lincoln defined as “of . . . by . . . for the people” will not endure.

We inherited the right to self-govern, and keeping a check on those who presume to act for us is how we do so. Newspapers are the best at shining light on government.

The Citizen did it for nearly 139 years. Its death and the casting of its fine staff members into the economic diaspora are heartbreaking.

Saying newspapers brought it upon themselves is largely true, but not for the reason you think. Slant – perceived or real – isn’t a factor; newspapers of all political stripe are failing. Business avarice and arrogant resistance to change lead the blame list.

Retrospection hardly seems worthwhile, but please permit a bit of it. In the latter half of my more than three decades in newspapering, we emphasized business rather than news, boastful of being the only business mentioned in the Constitution.

That missed the point, because while newspaper owners made money, their primacy was to inform, watchdog, nurture democratic ideals and drive stakes into the hearts of faulty notions.

We changed for business. Now newspapering’s breathing is shallow and rattling.

New technologies turned newspapering into a piece of glass, dropping it to the ground to shatter. Newspaper bosses tried putting the pieces back together rather than recognizing each piece as a new opportunity. Now it’s too late.

Mass migration to millions of other information forums and the economic implosion are sending newspapers to death row. Don’t count on midnight pardons.

This threatens us because other forums are not yet able to support democracy – that is, self-government – the way newspapers have.

What Tucson TV newsroom, radio station or blogger will consistently watchdog local institutions? Even at its lowest level of staffing, the Citizen had Tucson’s second-largest number of reporters poking into the goings-on of public entities, more than the combined reporting staffs at local TV and radio stations, weekly publications and news blogs.

The Citizen has been part of the framework supporting democracy. Its demise threatens democratic balance, because other media entities don’t have the resources to pick up the slack, at least not yet.

Some say bloggers, tweeters and easy-to-dislike radio and cable talkers already have replaced newspapers. Don’t be deluded. The information frontier is still like the Wild West. Having the loudest opinion is de rigueur; possessing the facts is passé. Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly compete for narcissist of the week; Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann claim the market on fatuousness. They all have local counterparts, peddling exaggerations and distortions without checks or filters.

Millions buy in, affirming another Lincolnism: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time . . . ”

The contract we inherited as free Americans requires us to live up to the rest of his observation: ” . . . but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

The only way we can avoid being fooled is with unfettered, vibrant, believable sources of information. We must insist on them and help rebuild them sooner rather than later.

Michael A. Chihak was editor and publisher of the Tucson Citizen from 2000 to 2008. He now works in San Francisco as a communications consultant to nonprofits.

Tom Cruise stars as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg in "Valkyrie."

NEW YORK – A Nazi-filled Christmas is not an easy sell.

That’s just one of the challenges Tom Cruise faces with his new World War II thriller “Valkyrie,” which opens Dec. 25. In the film, which portrays the seldom-recalled German resistance to Adolf Hitler, Cruise plays would-be Hitler assassin Col. Claus von Stauffenberg.

It’s a risky film to make and not just because of the sensitive subject matter. Cruise has been trying to rehabilitate his image – and few PR experts regularly advise donning a German army uniform to engender warm feelings.

On the other hand, “Valkyrie” is also a serious, suspenseful film. Can it help put Cruise back on top?

In a recent interview, Cruise and director Bryan Singer downplayed the bad pre-release buzz for “Valkyrie.”

The film’s release date repeatedly changed. Early ads showing the similar appearance of an eye-patched Cruise and Stauffenberg were mocked online. At one point, German Defense Ministry officials said the production couldn’t shoot at Berlin’s Benderblock memorial to the Nazi resistance because of Cruise’s beliefs in Scientology – which isn’t recognized as a religion in Germany. (The statements were quickly recanted and shooting went forward.)

Cruise, 46, is familiar with uncontrollable spirals of bad publicity – and not just in the last few tumultuous years. He has long been dogged by rumors about his personal life and has been through productions (like 1988′s “Rain Man,” he points out) that seemed doomed before they were released.

“It’s nice to be able to have people talk about the film, as opposed to us reading about the film,” Cruise said. “It is what it is. And I understand it. I do understand it.”

His recent bout of bad publicity started with that fateful appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show in 2005. Then there was the awkward interview with “Today” show host Matt Lauer. The following year, Paramount Pictures severed its 14-year relationship with him.

“As I’ve said, I want an adventurous life,” said Cruise. “And yet I’ve gotten a little bit more adventure than I bargained for.”

A rebound is fully in the works. Cruise revisited Winfrey – the scene of the sofa – earlier this year. On Monday, he publicly patched things up with Lauer. He started his own Web site, too.

And last week, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his hilarious performance in Ben Stiller’s raunchy summer comedy “Tropic Thunder,” in which he plays a dirty-dancing, foul-mouthed studio head.

With producer Paula Wagner, Cruise reformed the United Artists film studio as a boutique label for MGM. Their first film for UA, last year’s “Lions for Lambs,” was a critical and box-office failure and Wagner exited as chief executive officer in August. The more expensive “Valkyrie” – reportedly made for $90 million, though Singer said $75 million is more accurate – is a considerable gamble for both UA and Cruise.

He jokes at the predicament: “Go kill Hitler on Christmas!”

There were many plots to assassinate Hitler, but the one involving Stauffenberg and many other high-ranking German officers is well-known in Germany. On July 20, 1944 (six weeks after D-Day), Stauffenberg conspired to kill Hitler with a bomb and install a change-of-power scheme called Operation Valkyrie. The plot failed (Hitler would kill himself in April 1945) and about 200 were executed for their involvement.

The film was written by Christopher McQuarrie and his writing partner Nathan Alexander. McQuarrie’s last collaboration with Singer was the widely admired “The Usual Suspects” (1994). After bringing “Valkyrie” to Singer, the two expected to make a “small” film for less than $20 million.

“I love it when he says that,” jokes Cruise. “I laugh at him. All you have to do is read the script. It has the planes, it’s in Berlin. How is this ever a small film?”

Now embracing his instinct for big movies, Singer (who also helmed “X-Men,” “X2″ and “Superman Returns”) said, “You sell the small film and then you go: `We could have cardboard or we could have the metal. I’m just saying.’ It is a bit of a shell game.”

McQuarrie is quick to acknowledge he never expected the film to get made, but believes the result is a “delightfully odd movie” in the tradition of taut World War II thrillers like “The Great Escape,” “The Devil’s Brigade” and “Where Eagles Dare.”

Said Singer: “We always knew that it was a thriller, we always knew that it was for the mainstream. It was not something we were gunning for awards.”

Early reviews for “Valkyrie” have been mixed. Variety said its commercial prospects are “so-so.” The Hollywood Reporter called it “a fine film” that “should enjoy modest success, but if Cruise’s career is seen as momentarily stalled, ‘Valkyrie’ is not the electric jolt he’s looking for as a jump-start.”

Cruise’s Stauffenberg is, like many of the actor’s roles, an embodiment of determination. With a similar steadfastness to Ethan Hunt of the “Mission: Impossible” movies, the striving agent in “Jerry Maguire” or the more demented determination of Vincent in “Collateral,” Cruise’s Stauffenberg is resolute.

“I think there is that part of me, there is that spirit of wanting to engage in life,” said Cruise. “Here’s a guy who worked under tremendous amounts of pressure, and still could be absolutely clear and lucid about his choices and try to push this and drive this forward.”

HONOLULU – A 28-year-old Las Vegas woman is in critical condition after she hit a rocky hill while swinging on a rope at Kipu Falls on Kauai.

The woman is due to be airlifted to The Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu.

Kauai County said in a Friday news release that the woman intended to land in the pool beneath the falls but failed to let go of the rope.

Instead, she hit the side of a hill and fell into the water. Friends and bystanders helped bring her to the water’s edge.

MONROE, Ohio – Police in southwestern Ohio say a police chief mistakenly shot himself in the thigh after giving his daughter a gun safety lesson.

A police report says 54-year-old Middletown police Chief Greg Schwarber was preparing to clean his Glock .45-caliber pistol on Friday and didn’t realize the gun was still loaded.

The report written by officers from neighboring Monroe says the bullet entered Schwarber’s leg just above the knee.

When officers arrived, they found the chief lying on the floor with a towel covering his leg. Schwarber was taken to a hospital for treatment.

The hospital had no record of Schwarber being treated or admitted. A home phone number for him couldn’t be found.

Treatment based on biological markers a vision

President-elect Barack Obama

WASHINGTON – For years, scientists have held out hope that the rapidly evolving field of genetics could transform medical diagnosis and treatment, moving beyond a trial-and-error approach as old as the Hippocratic Oath.

But the vision of individualized treatment based on a patient’s genetic makeup and other biological markers has yet to materialize, even if better use of genetic information has led to advances in cancer care and other areas.

Now the pursuit of “personalized medicine” is expected to get a major push from the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama. As a senator, Obama introduced legislation to coordinate the sometimes conflicting policies of government agencies and provide more support for private research.

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, D-R.I., has introduced legislation in the House that builds on Obama’s.

Obama is also interested in the role that personalized medicine could play as an element of changes in the broader health care system.

“The issue of getting the right treatment to the right person goes with his whole emphasis on health reform,” said Mark McClellan, a Republican health care expert.

Most prescription drugs are effective only in about 60 percent of treated patients, leading to a trial-and-error approach to treatment that not only may be more costly, but can put some patients at risk.

Among patients, the varying responses to medications may be linked to differences in genetic makeup that affect how the body processes a drug.

The practice of medicine could be streamlined if doctors had reliable ways of predicting which drugs would work on which individuals.

NEW YORK – A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when “out-of-control” shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale.

Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.

Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store. When told to leave, they complained that they had been in line since Thanksgiving morning.

Nassau County police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the store doors at the mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the man, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour of Queens, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.

“This crowd was out of control,” said Nassau police spokesman Lt. Michael Fleming. He described the scene as “utter chaos,” and said the store didn’t have enough security.

Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said.

Damour, 34, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 6 a.m., police said. The exact cause of death has not been determined.

A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, where she and the baby were reported to be OK, said police Sgt. Anthony Repalone.

Police said criminal charges were possible in the case, but Fleming said it would be difficult to identify individual shoppers. Authorities were reviewing surveillance video.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a “tragic situation” and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store. It said it tried to prepare for the crowd by adding staffers and outside security workers, putting up barricades and consulting police.

“Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred,” senior Vice President Hank Mullany said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those (affected).”

Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like “savages.”

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,”‘ she said. “They kept shopping.”

Items on sale at the store included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum cleaner for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as “The Incredible Hulk” for $9.

Elsewhere, a woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries, but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.

Shoppers around the country line up early outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving in the annual bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday. It got that name because it has historically been the day when stores break into the profitability column for the full year.

PALM DESERT, Calif. – Two men pulled guns and shot each other to death in a crowded toy store Friday after the women with them erupted into a bloody brawl, witnesses said. Scared shoppers fled but no one else was hurt.

The violence erupted on Black Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving start of the holiday shopping surge, but authorities indicated the shooting wasn’t related to a shopping frenzy.

Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said the fight was not over a toy. He said handguns were found by the men’s bodies, but he released little other information. He would not answer a question about whether the shooting was gang-related.

Witnesses Scott and Joan Barrick said they were checking out of the store when the fight began between two women, each with a man. The women were near the checkout area, but the Barricks did not think the women had purchases.

One woman suddenly started punching the other woman, who fought back as blood flowed from her nose, Scott Barrick, 41, said.

The man who was with the woman being punched pulled a gun halfway out of his pocket, then shoved it back in, he said.

“He pulled his gun right next to me. I turned to look for my wife, and she was already hiding,” Barrick said.

“I was scared,” said Joan Barrick, 40. “I didn’t want to die today. I really didn’t want to die today, and I think that’s what we were all thinking.”

The other man pulled a gun and pointed it at the first man but forgot to cock it, Scott Barrick said. The first man tried to run but was blocked by the line of people, then ran back toward the store’s electronics section as the other man fired his gun, he said.

The first man reached a dead-end in electronics, turned around and ran toward an exit, pulling his gun and firing back, he said.

“He went up to the cash register, he went to put his hand on the thing and he just went phoomp,” he said, indicating the man fell.

He said he did not see what happened to the other man.

Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other.

“I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys “R” Us?” he said. “I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper.”

Ray Turner, 20, said he was two aisles away when two women began shouting and screaming at each other and he had a clear view of the fight until a crowd clustered around them. Both women had children, he said.

“We thought it was just a fight and then someone yelled, ‘He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun.’ You really couldn’t see nothing because there was a crowd,” Turner said.

Rafael Gomez, 11, said he and his father had been in the store about 20 minutes before the shooting but were in a nearby Pizza Hut when they saw people pouring out of the store screaming.

“We just saw them running and crying. I was kind of scared,” Rafael said. “We got lucky.”

Toys “R” Us issued a statement expressing outrage over the violence.

“We are working closely with local law enforcement officials to determine the specific details of what occurred,” the statement said. “Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to associate the events of today with Black Friday.”

The Barricks and others remained at the scene long after the shooting because investigators would not allow cars to be taken from the parking lot until a crime-scene reconstruction was completed.

Palm Desert is a resort town about 120 miles east of Los Angeles.

Milken

WASHINGTON – Historically stingy with granting pardons, President George W. Bush is facing a flood of requests for presidential pardons or sentence commutations on his way out of the White House.

Junk-bond king Michael Milken, media mogul Conrad Black and American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh are among more than 2,000 people who have applied to the Justice Department seeking official forgiveness.

But with Bush’s term ending Jan. 20, some lawyers are lobbying the White House directly to pardon their clients. That raises the possibility that the president could excuse scores of people, including some who have not been charged, to protect them from future accusations, such as former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or star baseball pitcher Roger Clemens.

Those who have worked with Bush predict that will not happen.

“I would expect the president’s conservative approach to executive pardons to continue through the remainder of his term,” said Helgi C. Walker, a former Bush associate White House counsel.

Last week, Bush issued 14 pardons and commuted two sentences – all for small-time crimes. That brought his eight-year total to 171 pardons and eight commutations granted. That is less than half as many as President Bill Clinton or President Ronald Reagan issued.

Under the Constitution, the president’s power to issue pardons is absolute and cannot be overruled.

Margaret Love, former Justice Department pardon attorney under Clinton, said Bush has never seemed interested in flexing his power to pardon.

“There’s no reason to think based on the pattern of his grants to date that there are going to be any irregularities or surprises at the end of his term,” Love said.

Black

Lindh

Parker

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. – Edna Parker, who became the world’s oldest person more than a year ago, has died at age 115 in a local nursing home. She was 115 years, 220 days old when she died Wednesday, said Robert Young, a senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records.

Parker was born April 20, 1893, in Indiana and had been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest person since the 2007 death in Japan of Yone Minagawa, who was four months her senior.

HOUSTON – A Houston hospital spokeswoman says former first lady Barbara Bush was in good condition after undergoing laparoscopic surgery for a perforated ulcer.

Ami Felker, a spokeswoman for The Methodist Hospital, says Bush was in high spirits Thursday afternoon as she was moved to a patient room from the intensive care unit.

The former first lady was hospitalized Tuesday after experiencing abdominal pain.

Dr. Pat Reardon says surgeons closed a nearly 1.5-centimeter hole caused by an ulcer.

Reardon says the first thing Bush did after she woke up from the surgery was tell him a joke.

The 83-year-old former first lady is expected to remain in the hospital until next week.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Better to be the main attraction than the main dish.

“Pumpkin” the turkey was honored as the grand marshal of Disneyland’s Thanksgiving Day parade Thursday, a day after being pardoned by President George Bush at the White House.

The 45-pound tom and National Turkey Federation Chairman Paul Hill then flew first-class from Washington to Los Angeles.

After the parade, Pumpkin and his backup bird, “Pecan,” moved into their winter residence next to the theme park’s seasonal display of live reindeer.

The two retired turkeys will live out their days at a coop for celebrity turkeys at Disneyland’s Big Thunder Ranch.

Anti-government protesters guard a barrier at a checkpoint outside Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok early Friday morning. Protesters occupying Bangkok's two airports braced themselves for a raid Thursday night after a state of emergency was declared by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.

BANGKOK, Thailand – Protesters occupying Bangkok’s two airports braced for a raid Thursday night after Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat declared a limited state of emergency authorizing police to take back the terminals.

Meanwhile, rumors swept the city that the military would instead stage a coup to end the monthslong standoff between the People’s Alliance for Democracy and the elected government, which the alliance has vowed to topple.

Thousands of tourists have been stranded since Tuesday, when protesters overtook the airport and flights in and out of the capital were grounded. The group first seized Suvarnabhumi International Airport, then the smaller Don Muang Airport on Wednesday.

Somchai did not say when authorities would move in, but even before his announcement, protesters donned goggles and helmets, and first-aid stations handed out surgical masks in anticipation of a police raid. The group’s “guards” were patrolling the area with slingshots and metal batons. Many also carried concealed handguns.

Speculation that the military would stage a coup intensified after Thailand’s powerful army commander Gen. Anupong Paochinda suggested Wednesday that Somchai call new elections, and the prime minister rejected the idea. The whispers were further fueled by press reports Thursday about tank movements, which the military later said were only a training exercise.

In September 2006, the military ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup after months of protests by the alliance. The group says Somchai, who is Thaksin’s brother-in-law, is merely the former leader’s puppet.

They accuse Thaksin and his allies of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin is in exile, a fugitive from a conviction for violating a conflict-of-interest law.

The protests, which gathered pace three months ago when demonstrators overran the prime minister’s offices, have paralyzed the government, battered the stock market, spooked foreign investors and dealt a serious blow to the tourism industry.

The state of emergency, which is limited to areas around the two airports, empowers the government to suspend some civil liberties, including restricting the movement of people and prohibiting mass assembly.

PORTLAND, Ore. – It may be a small step, but a day meant to honor American Indians’ contributions acknowledges a history and culture that many say is often overlooked.

For the first time, federal legislation has set aside the day after Thanksgiving – for this year only – to honor American Indians in the United States. Few celebrations are planned this year, but backers say they hope to make the commemoration annual.

Frank Suniga of Salem, Ore., a descendent of Mescalero Apache Indians, said he and others began pushing in 2001 for a national day that recognizes his and other tribes’ heritage.

“I thought, ‘Why aren’t we on the calendar – us Indians?’ ” Suniga said.

Suniga, 79, proposed his idea to a cultural committee that is part of the Portland-based Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. The organization took on the cause of a commemorative day, as did the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C., and other groups.

Congress passed legislation this year designating the day as Native American Heritage Day, and President George W. Bush signed it last month.

The measure notes that more Americans Indians than any other group, per capita, serve in the U.S. military. It also cites tribes’ artistic, musical and agricultural contributions.

“The Indians kept the Pilgrims alive with turkeys and wild game,” Suniga said. “That’s the reason it was attached to the Thanksgiving weekend.”

After the Thanksgiving weekend, Suniga said, he and other advocates plan to lobby to place the Native American Heritage Day on the nation’s calendar annually.

Both the Portland and D.C.-based organizations said they would support an annual commemorative day. It isn’t certain, however, that all tribes would agree the fourth Friday in November is the best day to recognize their contributions and traditions.

“The question is should it be the day after Thanksgiving?” said Joe Garcia, director of the National Congress of American Indians. “Thanksgiving is controversial to some people.”

The holiday, which has its roots in Massachusetts, marks a 1621 feast in which English settlers and Wampanoag Indians celebrated and gave thanks for their harvest, but it was followed by centuries of battles and tense relations between the United States and tribes.

Recognizing American Indians the day after Thanksgiving, the Native American Heritage Day Act of 2008 says, emphasizes the nation’s relationship with tribes now.

“I think the recognition is important,” Garcia said, “and the most important thing it does is give a little more perspective from the American Indian side.”

Cleora Hill-Scott, executive director of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, agrees. But she also said that because the Native American Heritage Day law was passed last month, few – if any – tribes in the region have planned events to commemorate the day.

“What’s difficult is this day is going to come and go without much being done.” Hill-Scott said. “It’s a baby step in the right direction.”