The week at a glance...United States

San Gabriel, Calif.

Cabinet hit-and-run: Commerce Secretary John Bryson, who was cited for felony hit-and-run in a series of car crashes, said this week that he is taking an indefinite leave of absence to deal with health problems. A dazed and confused Bryson, 68, allegedly left the scene of two separate accidents in the Los Angeles area last week, and was later found unconscious behind the wheel of his car. He was taken to a local hospital, where a Breathalyzer test found no traces of alcohol in his body. Commerce officials said Bryson had a seizure, which led to the collisions. The Cabinet secretary informed President Obama that he was taking an immediate medical leave, in order to “focus all of my attention on resolving the health issues that arose over the weekend.” His deputy, Rebecca Blank, will be the acting secretary in his absence. Blank has already served in that capacity, filling in after former Secretary Gary Locke left to be ambassador to China.

Tucson

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Giffords aide wins: Ron Barber, the handpicked candidate to fill the seat of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, easily won a special election this week to finish her term, giving a psychological boost to Democrats after the failed effort to unseat Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Barber, a former aide to Giffords, almost lost his life in the January 2011 shooting rampage that also severely wounded her and led to her stepping down. Barber, 66, defeated Republican Jesse Kelly, 30, by a 52 to 45 percent margin. The two men will face off again in November, in the election for a full two-year term in a newly configured congressional district. “Life takes unexpected turns,” Barber told supporters at a victory party, as Giffords hugged him and kissed his forehead. Giffords resigned her seat in January to focus on her recovery. Six people were killed in the shooting and 13 others injured, including Barber.

Fort Collins, Colo.

Raging wildfires: A lightning strike in drought-stricken high terrain ignited the third-biggest forest fire in Colorado’s history, killing a 62-year-old woman in her burned mountain cabin this week and destroying more than 100 other buildings. Residents in an evacuation center in nearby Loveland awaited word from fire authorities about the fate of their houses in the 68-square-mile blaze. “It’s a bit like waiting to see if you’ve got cancer,” Steve Babcoke, 70, told The Denver Post. The Colorado fire, which shrouded Denver, 60 miles to the south, in pungent smoke, was one of 19 burning throughout the West, where winter snowfall and spring runoff have been unusually light this year. More than 1,000 firefighters were at work containing a 56-square-mile blaze in southern New Mexico, and other fires were burning in California, Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona.

Washington, D.C.

Holder in contempt? The House Oversight Committee will vote next week to determine whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents in the Fast and Furious “gun-walking” investigation. If the committee approves the citation, the matter will likely be scheduled for a full House vote—only the fourth time in 30 years that Congress has initiated a contempt action against an executive-branch member. The Justice Department maintains that it has cooperated fully with the investigation, but committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) says tens of thousands of pages of documents have been withheld. In the botched operation, federal agents allowed the purchase of 2,000 allegedly illegal guns in the hope of tracking them to a Mexican drug cartel. Two guns later turned up at the crime scene where U.S. Customs Agent Brian Terry was killed. Democratic members of the committee have dismissed the probe as a “witch hunt,” but Issa maintains that Holder “has failed to meet his legal obligations.”

Tallahassee

Voter purge battle: The Justice Department filed suit this week to stop Florida’s controversial voter purge, claiming that a list of suspected noncitizens is “outdated and inaccurate,” and that the purge is a violation of federal voting laws. Republican officials in Florida, a battleground state that was won by George W. Bush in 2000 by about 537 votes, have directed county election boards to investigate up to 2,600 voters they consider “suspicious.” State and county officials say they have found 141 noncitizens on the voter rolls so far, but more than 500 others have been identified as legal voters, one of them a “flabbergasted” 91-year-old, Brooklyn-born World War II veteran. About 87 percent of those on the “suspicious” list are minorities, said The Miami Herald, and minorities account for over half of the 87 confirmed noncitizens who have been removed from the rolls. Defending the purge, Gov. Rick Scott said, “This is not a partisan issue,” but a step toward “fair elections in our state.”

Sanford, Fla.

Zimmerman’s wife charged: Florida prosecutors this week arrested the wife of neighborhood watchman and murder suspect George Zimmerman, charging her with lying about the family’s finances during her husband’s bond hearing. Seminole County sheriff’s deputies picked up Shellie Zimmerman, 25, at her home and took her to the same jail where her husband is being held on a second-degree murder charge in the February shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. Shellie was charged with perjury, a third-degree felony that is punishable by up to five years in prison. “This court was led to believe they didn’t have a single penny,” said prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda, which he said was “a blatant lie.”