WASHINGTON – Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is returning to Capitol Hill today to help kick-start a longshot campaign to expand criminal background checks to all commercial firearms sales.

Similar legislation that sought to expand background checks failed to get a hearing in the House last session. With the GOP expanding its majority and winning control of the Senate, prospects for the bill may be even more unlikely this session.

Still, Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson of California predicted the legislation would pass if GOP leadership would let it come to the House floor for a vote.

Under the current system, cashiers at stores selling guns call in to check with the FBI or other designated agencies to ensure the customer doesn’t have a criminal background. Many lawmakers want to expand such checks to sales at gun shows and purchases made through the Internet.

Giffords, a Democrat from Arizona, has become an increasingly active player in the gun-control movement since being shot in the head as she met with constituents in Tucson nearly four years ago.

Firefighters battle blaze in their dorm

SALT LAKE CITY – Firefighters are used to alarms in the middle of the night, but the smoke doesn’t usually come to their front door.

When a group of Salt Lake City firefighters cracked open the door of their upstairs dorm room early Tuesday, they found smoke from a fire that erupted at their own station.

They closed the door and jumped on the room’s fire pole to flee the flames, then quickly returned to the building with a firetruck to battle the blaze.

Investigators were trying to determine what caused the blaze, which left the second floor of the building with heavy damage. It started in a utility room with a soda machine where linens and rags are stored, and the fire spread to the kitchen and the building’s vent system.