E-mails Show Pima Officials Debated Punishment of Loughner

Pima Community College officials took heat in some quarters (and in some news reports) in the wake of January's shooting of an Arizona Congresswoman by a former student, with some critics arguing that the two-year institution had done too little to respond to the threat he posed. But e-mail messages released Thursday in response to an open-records request by The Arizona Republic show -- as college officials argued -- that they grew increasingly concerned about Jared Lee Loughner's behavior and acted to expel him as complaints from students, faculty members and administrators escalated.