Giffords Staffer Memorial Shadowed by Gun Debate, Boston Attack

Gabe Zimmerman

WASHINGTON - Amid a national debate on gun control, a meeting room in the Capitol was dedicated today to a congressional aide killed in the 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz.

Gabe Zimmerman was killed when a gunman opened fire at a constituent meet-and-greet event hosted outside a Tucson supermarket by then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, killing six and shooting the congresswoman in the head. Giffords, her former staff members, and husband Mark Kelly were among those in attendance at the ceremony for her lost colleague.

"He was called the constituent whisperer," Kelly said. "Because if there was ever a grumpy or agitated constituent at the office or at an event, Gabe was the only person that could figure out how to console them. He had a gift with people."

The afternoon event was not intentionally timed with the national debate on gun rights, but Kelly, an astronaut who has taken an ardent role as a gun control activist with his wife since the tragedy, remarked on the coincidence.

"Some people say that a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun," he continued. "I always remind people that there was a good guy with a gun at the Safeway that morning. But in the chaotic 15 seconds that unfolded where 33 rounds were shot, he didn't have any time to react."

Kelly said it was "no surprise" to him to learn that Zimmerman reportedly ran towards the gunfire unarmed during the shooting.

Giffords had difficulty speaking at the event due to head injuries she sustained in Tucson, and allowed her husband to speak on her behalf. The ceremony was also attended by Zimmerman's family, Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker John Boehner, and representatives Nancy Pelosi, Jeff Flake, Steny Hoyer, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and Ron Barber - the last a former staffer for Giffords and her successor in office.

Along with the remembrance of Zimmerman today came an added tone from the bombings Monday at the Boston Marathon.

"You probably more than anyone in this room today can understand how the people in Boston feel today," Biden told the assembled family. "Lots of times we're united in our victories, but more often we're united in our tragedies. It gives you a window into how difficult things are for other people."

Although he admitted words of encouragement in a time of tragedy could seem "hollow," he recollected a conversation with his own mother following the death of his first wife and daughter in a car accident.

"She said, 'Joey, if you look hard enough something good will come out of everything bad,'" he said, gesturing to Gabe Zimmerman's father, Ross Zimmerman. "We will come out of what's happened in Boston stronger, and believe it or not you will be stronger. He's in your bloodstream, pal. He's part of you. There's no way - there's no way it ever goes away."

Ross Zimmerman said the fact that the dedication of the room to his son would come a day after the attack on the Boston Marathon was "strange and surreal," as he and his son were avid marathon runners. But he asked for future lawmakers roaming the halls of congress to see the plaque hanging in the Zimmerman Meeting Room and remember the ideals of public service for which his son strove.

"An echo of Gabriel will persist, perhaps for centuries," Ross Zimmerman said. "That isn't worth the loss but the echo is good and true."

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Analysis: EU needs "who lost Italy" debate on austerity

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European policymakers should be asking themselves "who lost Italy" after a grassroots revolt against austerity, unemployment and the political elite caused an electoral earthquake in the euro zone's number three economy.

Instead, most are insisting that their policy mix to fight the currency area's debt crisis is right, even though the latest EU forecasts have pushed any prospect of meaningful economic recovery in southern Europe back into the middle distance.

A surge in support for anti-euro populist Beppe Grillo and the surprise resurrection of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on an anti-austerity platform in last week's election have plunged Rome into political deadlock.

Italy, which had been governed by respected technocrat Mario Monti for 15 months since Berlusconi's last government fell, is far from the worst affected by the three-year-old debt crisis.

Unemployment there stands at 11.7 percent, less than half the rate of Greece and Spain, where one of every two young people is without a job.

If a milder recession and less severe spending cuts and tax rises can cause such a social and electoral revolt in Italy, the risks of an explosion in Greece and Spain ought to be greater.

Yet the official reaction from Brussels and Frankfurt is to act as if nothing, or almost nothing, had happened.

"The crisis is not yet over and efforts must not be relaxed," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint statement with Monti two days after the election.

At a Reuters Summit on the future of the euro zone, Barroso appealed to European leaders to stay the course and "not give in to populism". Despite the bleak growth forecasts, structural reforms were starting to bear fruit, he said.

Barroso reeled off figures showing current account deficits in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece were shrinking and Ireland was back in surplus. Exports from Spain and Portugal were rising and the labor competitiveness gap between northern and southern Europe was narrowing.

Those numbers have a flipside. Payments imbalances are down mostly because those countries' imports have shrunk due to sinking demand. The labor cost gap has declined largely due to mass layoffs in southern states rather than productivity gains.

Exports account for less than 20 percent of the Iberian countries' output, less than half Germany's ratio and too little to offer a fast track to recovery.

SOCIAL CRISIS

While the European Central Bank removed the danger of a financial meltdown of the euro zone with its bond-buying plan, there is now a growing risk of a social crisis that could lead to one or more southern countries leaving the currency area.

"I absolutely think it can get a lot worse," said Clemens Fuest, the incoming chief of Germany's respected ZEW economic research institute.

"There is really the current plausible scenario for a break-up of the currency union. It may very well be that in these countries at some point the population will say 'we don't believe things will get better'," he told the Reuters Summit.

The degree of despair would have to be high to risk leaving the euro area, "but if things continue, if unemployment goes up to 30 percent... in Spain, there certainly is a danger that might happen".

Zsolt Darvas of the Bruegel think-tank in Brussels said southern European countries were trapped in a downward spiral of economic contraction and rising debt for an unknown duration but had no alternative to fiscal consolidation.

The only way out was to alter Europe's fiscal policy mix by stimulating demand in northern Europe, notably with tax cuts in Germany, and giving the European Investment Bank a huge capital increase to lend to companies in southern Europe, he said.

Using the EIB to inject the equivalent of 2-3 percent of gross domestic product a year into south European economies for a limited number of years would be the most effective and politically feasible way to revive growth, Darvas said.

No such plans are under consideration in the European Union, and German, Dutch and Finnish voters remain deeply hostile to any fiscal transfers to southern Europe.

With Germany facing its own general election in September, followed by the usual period of coalition negotiations, it is hard to imagine any major policy shift this year.

EU growth initiatives so far have been on a far more modest scale, including a small boost to EIB capital last year and a recently created 6 billion euro youth employment fund due to take effect next January to support job training and mobility.

Monti warned repeatedly last year that anti-European populists would gain ground in the south unless the euro zone did more to support his efforts and those of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy by bringing down borrowing costs.

Those costs did fall significantly after the ECB announced its bond-buying initiative in September, but Monti's appeal for more financial solidarity from Germany fell on deaf ears.

Whether his election debacle, after European leaders encouraged him to enter the race, will sway minds in the EU remains to be seen.

For the moment, their key priority is to help Ireland and Portugal return to capital markets later this year to demonstrate success for their bailout and adjustment programs.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, also speaking at the Reuters Summit, was one of the rare voices to say the Italian voter backlash showed that austerity had gone far enough and it was time to strengthen growth.

His German counterpart, Wolfgang Schaeuble, a leading advocate of austerity during the crisis, drew no such lesson, saying European policies were not to blame for greater inequality and economic divergence between north and south.

"We need to continue on this path, but we will have setbacks," Schaeuble said.

It may take another, bigger jolt than Italy's election to spur euro zone leaders to change course, if they ever do.

(Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

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Analysis: EU needs "who lost Italy" debate on austerity

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European policymakers should be asking themselves "who lost Italy" after a grassroots revolt against austerity, unemployment and the political elite caused an electoral earthquake in the euro zone's number three economy.

Instead, most are insisting that their policy mix to fight the currency area's debt crisis is right, even though the latest EU forecasts have pushed any prospect of meaningful economic recovery in southern Europe back into the middle distance.

A surge in support for anti-euro populist Beppe Grillo and the surprise resurrection of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on an anti-austerity platform in last week's election have plunged Rome into political deadlock.

Italy, which had been governed by respected technocrat Mario Monti for 15 months since Berlusconi's last government fell, is far from the worst affected by the three-year-old debt crisis.

Unemployment there stands at 11.7 percent, less than half the rate of Greece and Spain, where one of every two young people is without a job.

If a milder recession and less severe spending cuts and tax rises can cause such a social and electoral revolt in Italy, the risks of an explosion in Greece and Spain ought to be greater.

Yet the official reaction from Brussels and Frankfurt is to act as if nothing, or almost nothing, had happened.

"The crisis is not yet over and efforts must not be relaxed," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint statement with Monti two days after the election.

At a Reuters Summit on the future of the euro zone, Barroso appealed to European leaders to stay the course and "not give in to populism". Despite the bleak growth forecasts, structural reforms were starting to bear fruit, he said.

Barroso reeled off figures showing current account deficits in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece were shrinking and Ireland was back in surplus. Exports from Spain and Portugal were rising and the labor competitiveness gap between northern and southern Europe was narrowing.

Those numbers have a flipside. Payments imbalances are down mostly because those countries' imports have shrunk due to sinking demand. The labor cost gap has declined largely due to mass layoffs in southern states rather than productivity gains.

Exports account for less than 20 percent of the Iberian countries' output, less than half Germany's ratio and too little to offer a fast track to recovery.

SOCIAL CRISIS

While the European Central Bank removed the danger of a financial meltdown of the euro zone with its bond-buying plan, there is now a growing risk of a social crisis that could lead to one or more southern countries leaving the currency area.

"I absolutely think it can get a lot worse," said Clemens Fuest, the incoming chief of Germany's respected ZEW economic research institute.

"There is really the current plausible scenario for a break-up of the currency union. It may very well be that in these countries at some point the population will say 'we don't believe things will get better'," he told the Reuters Summit.

The degree of despair would have to be high to risk leaving the euro area, "but if things continue, if unemployment goes up to 30 percent... in Spain, there certainly is a danger that might happen".

Zsolt Darvas of the Bruegel think-tank in Brussels said southern European countries were trapped in a downward spiral of economic contraction and rising debt for an unknown duration but had no alternative to fiscal consolidation.

The only way out was to alter Europe's fiscal policy mix by stimulating demand in northern Europe, notably with tax cuts in Germany, and giving the European Investment Bank a huge capital increase to lend to companies in southern Europe, he said.

Using the EIB to inject the equivalent of 2-3 percent of gross domestic product a year into south European economies for a limited number of years would be the most effective and politically feasible way to revive growth, Darvas said.

No such plans are under consideration in the European Union, and German, Dutch and Finnish voters remain deeply hostile to any fiscal transfers to southern Europe.

With Germany facing its own general election in September, followed by the usual period of coalition negotiations, it is hard to imagine any major policy shift this year.

EU growth initiatives so far have been on a far more modest scale, including a small boost to EIB capital last year and a recently created 6 billion euro youth employment fund due to take effect next January to support job training and mobility.

Monti warned repeatedly last year that anti-European populists would gain ground in the south unless the euro zone did more to support his efforts and those of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy by bringing down borrowing costs.

Those costs did fall significantly after the ECB announced its bond-buying initiative in September, but Monti's appeal for more financial solidarity from Germany fell on deaf ears.

Whether his election debacle, after European leaders encouraged him to enter the race, will sway minds in the EU remains to be seen.

For the moment, their key priority is to help Ireland and Portugal return to capital markets later this year to demonstrate success for their bailout and adjustment programs.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, also speaking at the Reuters Summit, was one of the rare voices to say the Italian voter backlash showed that austerity had gone far enough and it was time to strengthen growth.

His German counterpart, Wolfgang Schaeuble, a leading advocate of austerity during the crisis, drew no such lesson, saying European policies were not to blame for greater inequality and economic divergence between north and south.

"We need to continue on this path, but we will have setbacks," Schaeuble said.

It may take another, bigger jolt than Italy's election to spur euro zone leaders to change course, if they ever do.

(Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

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Yahoo memo sparks debate on pros and cons of working at home

LONDON (Reuters) - An internal memo at Yahoo Inc introducing a ban on working from home has sparked a debate on whether remote working leads to greater productivity and job satisfaction or kills creativity and is just a chance to slack off.

Working remotely has become commonplace due to technology and has been welcomed particularly by people with young families or those facing long and expensive commutes.

Statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labour show nearly 25 percent of full-time workers did some work at home in 2010.

A survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) found 59 percent of UK companies in 2011 offered some kind of teleworking, a jump from 13 percent in 2006, with small companies leading the trend to help cut office costs.

But Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer has ruled that staff can no longer work from home from June this year, as outlined in the widely leaked internal memo which appeared on newspaper websites and online forums on Tuesday.

"Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussion, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home," said the memo attributed to Yahoo human resources head Jacqueline Reses.

Asked about the memo, a Yahoo spokesman said the company does not comment on internal matters.

Mayer, 37, who returned to work two weeks after the birth of her first child last year, was brought to Yahoo from Google to revive the company's diminishing fortunes.

Her decision to clamp down on remote working met a wall of criticism from proponents of a flexible workplace to improve the work-life balance, boost motivation, and keep women at work.

"It's incredibly disappointing," said Jennifer Owens, spokeswoman for website Working Mother, adding most women were delighted when a pregnant Mayer took over the helm of Yahoo.

"Her plan ... is to lead her workforce back to the last century by banning work-from-home policies across the company."

STEP BACKWARDS

Richard Branson, head of Virgin Group, said the move by Yahoo! undermined the trust that staff would get their work done wherever, without supervision, as working is no longer 9-5.

"This seems a backwards step in an age when remote working is easier and more effective than ever," Branson wrote in a blog on the Virgin website.

"If you provide the right technology to keep in touch, maintain regular communication and get the right balance between remote and office working, people will be motivated to work responsibly, quickly and with high quality."

Britain's BT Group, one of the first UK companies to adopt teleworking, said about 69,000 of its 89,000 staff were equipped to work flexibly of which about 9,400 are home workers.

The company said this led to benefits like accommodation savings, increased productivity and reduced sick absence, adding 99 percent of women returned to BT after maternity leave.

"Our flexible working policies can also achieve a better balance between work and family commitments, which can be especially important for those with young families or caring responsibilities," a BT spokesman said.

Flexible working was cited in a careerbuilder.com survey released last month as one of the most important factors in job satisfaction and staying with a company.

The Harris Interactive survey of 3,900 U.S. workers between November 1 and 30 last year found 59 percent said flexible schedules were important and 33 percent cited the ability to work from home over having an office or a company car.

Guy Bailey, CBI's head of employee relations, said flexibility can be a real win-win for companies and their staff, acting as a recruitment and retention tool for businesses and letting staff balance their working and home lives.

"However, it needs to work for both parties, so home-working arrangements will understandably vary from company to company," he told Reuters.

A 2011 survey of 1,500 workers in 15 European nations commissioned by Microsoft Corp found only 52 percent of people trust colleagues to work productively away from the office.

This was reflected in comments by some former employees of Yahoo who backed Mayer, saying she was making the right call because many employees were abusing the system.

Several unnamed ex-employees told the website Business Insider that Yahoo's large remote workforce led to "people slacking off like crazy, not being available, and spending a lot of time on non-Yahoo projects."

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Paul Casciato)

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