Summary: Arizona’s new immigration law, which allows law enforcement officers to stop people and demand proof of legal immigration status, is having a ripple effect across the nation as state legislatures in at least 15 states introduce legislation closely modeled on Arizona’s law. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 5, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the U.S. was preparing a major attack on the Taliban to reverse their gains in the Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan, that militants were being squeezed in their Pakistan sanctuaries, and that the Afghan government was trying to draw them into peace talks. Meanwhile, in Iraq, a bomb on a parked motorcycle exploded on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala, killing at least 20 Shiite pilgrims and wounding 110.

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Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 4, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that three U.S. special operations soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in northwest Pakistan, drawing unwanted attention to a U.S. program for intelligence gathering and training Pakistani Frontier Corps paramilitary forces to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida — a little-publicized mission because of local opposition to American boots on the ground in Pakistan.

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Summary: More than 20,000 Yemenis filled the streets of Sanaa for a “day of rage” rally, demanding a change in government and saying President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s offer to step down in 2013 was not enough. The protest movement in the Middle East and North Africa also appears to be gaining momentum in Jordan, Syria, and Algeria. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 3, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, at a political forum in Rochester, Minn., made the wild claim that President Obama’s health reform proposals, beyond being “the crown jewel of socialism,” could lead to “gangster government” and “absolute abject corruption,” with people terrified to speak out against the government for fear of being blacklisted for denial of health care.

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Summary: Heavy gunfire reverberated in central Cairo as supporters and foes of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak continued to face off at Tahrir Square, where chunks of concrete and Molotov cocktails were employed as weapons in the escalating crisis. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 2, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: The Government Accountability Office reports that just 32 miles of the nearly 4,000-mile U.S. border with Canada is adequately secured, according to an assessment by the Border Patrol. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 1, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that a female suicide bomber walking among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 54 people and wounding around 117.

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Summary: As Egyptians take to the streets to call for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, some analysts caution about the prospect of protests in Egypt spreading across the Arab world, with popular revolt erupting in Middle Eastern countries such as Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and even Saudi Arabia, with grave implications for regional stability and U.S. national security interests. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 31, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Special Forces working with Afghan commandos clashed with Afghan troops manning a snow-covered outpost and called in an airstrike, killing four Afghan soldiers in a case of mistaken identity. Separately, an Afghan interpreter killed two U.S. service members at a combat outpost and U.S. soldiers shot and killed an Afghan imam when his car approached a convoy.

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Summary: Islamic leaders rallied at least 15,000 people against an American consular official arrested in the shooting deaths of two Pakistanis and warned the government not to cave in to U.S. pressure to release the man, who has been named as Raymond Allen Davis. … Kandahar deputy governor assassinated in Afghanistan. … Deadly Kabul grocery store bombing targeted Xe (Blackwater) employee. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 30, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in a new audiotape, called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming.

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Summary: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits. Veterans of Foreign Wars said Bachmann was “totally out of step with America’s commitment to our veterans”; Veterans for Common Sense said they were “outraged” that Bachmann’s proposal “would leave veterans twisting in the wind”; and Disabled American Veterans called Bachmann’s ideas “ill-advised,” “nothing short of heartless” and “wrong-headed.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 29, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that an unrepentant Tony Blair defended his decision to join the United States in attacking Iraq, invoking the discredited neocon argument before a panel investigating the war that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks made the threat of weapons of mass destruction impossible to ignore.

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Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 28, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: MSNBC Hardball’s Chris Matthews was so outraged about Michele Bachmann’s ignorance about the U.S. Constitution and American history that he called her a “balloon head” and lambasted Tea Party Express co-founder Sal Russo for inviting the airheaded Bachmann to give a televised response to President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address. One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 27, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Americans were becoming increasingly fed up with Congress, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and the federal government.

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