4th-grade slaughter. Updating coverage: Police say all the victims of a gunman’s rampage at a Texas elementary school—at least 19 children and two teachers—were in the same classroom.
■ The Washington Post: The killer was “a lonely 18-year-old who was bullied over a childhood speech impediment, suffered from a fraught home life and lashed out violently against peers and strangers recently and over the years” …
■ … and who’d warned on social media that “kids should watch out.”
■ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce addresses Texas’ governor: “People told you this would happen” …
■ … as it has, with at least 85 dead in Texas massacres over the last five years.
■ Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wants more guns in schools.
■ The Mass Shooting Tracker counts at least 252 such crimes in the U.S. since the start of the year.
■ The Onion, again (and again and again): “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
‘I am tired of the moments of silence. Enough!’ Ex-Bulls champ and now Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr—whose father died in a 1984 terrorist attack—devoted his pregame news conference to an exasperated appeal for tighter background checks for gun buyers.
■ See it here.
■ A heartbroken President Biden pleaded for Congress to stand up to the gun lobby: “Where in God’s name is our backbone?”
■ Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, in a Senate floor speech that went viral: “Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate … if your answer as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing?”
■ Open Secrets: Guess which party encompasses all the top congressional recipients of pro-gun lobbying money.
■ The Brady Campaign makes it easy to tweet at them.
In memoriam. In the face of congressional inaction, Biden was set today to mark the second anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the knee of Minneapolis police by signing a presidential order aimed at racism and excessive force in the nation’s local police departments.
■ A candlelight vigil was planned for tonight.
Hunt for a killer. Chicago police have released surveillance images of a man sought in the Monday night stabbing death of a CTA passenger.
■ An NBC 5 investigation concludes that Chicago police are far more likely to stop investigating a hit-and-run crash altogether than they are to solve it.
‘A crime-ridden … hellhole.’ That’s Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey describing Chicago in one of last night’s two debates.
■ See three candidates on the WGN-TV debate here.
■ See three other candidates on NBC 5 here.
■ Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson gave away grocery coupons in the city and suburbs this morning.
(Wilson giveaway line outside Pete’s Fresh Market in Oak Park, 10:06 a.m.)
Trump slump. Yesterday’s primary votes brought what the AP sees as “two devastating blows” to the ex-president’s “crusade for vengeance” …
■ … but his lying former press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, emerged on top in the Arkansas Republican primary for governor.
■ Politico: How Gov. Brian Kemp crushed Trump in Georgia.
Chicago’s crapshoot. The City Council this morning was poised for a vote on the location of a casino—a deal one lawmaker calls “actually worse than the parking meter deal.”
■ Does it seem the council has a lot of meetings this week? That’s because it does.
Nice work if you can get it. Chicago Ald. Michael Scott is quitting the council to join the scandal-scarred Cinespace Chicago Film Studios (November link), which is based in his ward.
■ Cook County Board members have voted themselves 10% raises, with increases automatically in the years to come.
Willis Tower rebirth. After a half-billion-dollar rehab, Chicago’s tallest building is ready for its closeup.
■ A Sun-Times editorial sounds an alarm about “an ordinance authorizing outdoor music events with amplified sound—but without the usual permits.”
‘That was bullshit.’ After journalists on a sports-talk panel for the Cubs-owned Marquee Sports Network cried foul about censorship of remarks critical of the team …
■ … the network says the show will now air live and “completely unedited.”
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