mark kelly, her husband, will be aboard the plane with her and dr. peter rhee, and debra colbert, her nurse, and her mom, and a couple of staffers. thelma gutierrez is there in tucson and following the journey as the ambulance went from the hospital to the air force base here. thelma, tell us what will happen now. reporter: well, she will board that aircraft as we had been saying, and you know, this is a challenger aircraft. it is a luxury aircraft that has a very large cabin that we understand is very comfortable, holds 14 people, and very comfortably to make the two hour and 15 minute ride all of the way out to houston. once she arrives in houston, carol, then she will be moved to another hospital there to be checked out. that will happen via helicopter. so she has still a few hours ahead of her, very long journey. one that she has described as
cnn. congresswoman gabrielle giffords leaves the hospital minutes from now. she ll travel by ambulance to a nearby air force base where an air ambulance flight to houston, that s to start the next phase of her remarkable recovery. yesterday her medical team was able to take giffords outside the hospital for the first time. her husband mark kelly at her side, this all coming less than two weeks after the congresswoman suffered a gunshot to the head. optimism about the economy is creeping up ever so slightly. in a new cnn opinion research corporation poll, 24% of americans say the economy is in good shape. 75% say it s not. that s actually a six-point jump since november when just 18% thought the economy was in good shape and 81% said it was poor. president obama has big plan to create jobs. he s forming a new presidential council to be led by general electric chief executive jeffrey immelt. mr. obama leaves for new york later this hour to make the announcement at ge head