Slog AM: Shooter Kills Four in Bend, White Powder Mailed to Washington State Elections Office, a Stupid Flying Car

Four dead in Bend shooting: A 16-year-old boy allegedly entered Bend, Oregon’s Silver Rail Elementary School with a long gun, opened fire, and killed three children ages 5, 8, and 11, and a teacher. Another child and another teacher were injured. A bystander saw the boy “blasting his way into the school,” followed him inside, and shot and killed him.

Shout out to our corrupt oligarchs! Amazon, Microsoft, and T-Mobile donated a collective $20 million to fund President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project. This should be all the fuel Rep. Shaun Scott needs to revive his dream of a statewide big business payroll tax.

Another one for the guillotine: A proposed class-action lawsuit alleges Expedia drove up hotel prices by “artificially inflating hotel rates by prohibiting hotels from offering lower rates elsewhere,” the Seattle Times reports. According to the lawsuit, hotels pay a fat commission to Expedia, which they recoup by raising prices. If a hotel doesn’t follow the rules, Expedia will punish it by moving it lower in search results.

It’s so 2001 again: A letter filled with an unknown white powder was sent to the Washington secretary of state’s election division. Law enforcement intercepted it before it got to its intended destination. But c’mon, please do not mail anthrax to the election workers. Or anyone, for that matter!

No contract for Washington Appellate Project: WAP, the state’s only non-profit appellate public defense law firm—one which handles 40 percent of Washington’s public defense appeals—hasn’t reached a deal for a new contract with the Washington State Office of Public Defense (OPD) and may have to close its doors by the end of the year, the Urbanist reports. New caseload standards set statewide and worked into the proposed OPD contract will limit how much time an attorney can spend on one case, further stressing an already stressed and under-resourced WAP. The contract dispute caused WAP to file a lawsuit against OPD.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, Washington Post photographer in West Bank: A mass coordinated attack occurred in the West Bank when dozens of black-clad, masked Israeli settlers descended upon Palestinian villagers as they were harvesting olives. They set groves ablaze and slung rocks. They also attacked veteran WaPo photographer Heidi Lavine in her clearly marked “PRESS” vest, knocking her to the ground, taking her phone and camera, and kicking her repeatedly. Village youths helped push the attackers back, and another journalist was able to run to help Lavine. He said the settlers had beaten her “nearly to death.”

Public executions for people who have abortions: That’s what new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia believes in. Zacharia sat on the advisory board for the White Rose Resistance, an extremist anti-abortion organization that advocates for executions “in the public square” for anyone who has an abortion and for pro-choice Americans to lose their right to hold office. Zacharia sat on the board up until this year.

You might be thinking, “Wow, a lawyer believes those things?” And you’d be wrong. Because despite Trump referring to her as a “distinguished attorney,” and despite Zacharia describing herself as a lawyer and having “lawyer” in her Instagram bio, Zacharia never passed the bar exam.

A flying car? Elon Musk unveiled what he’s calling the world’s first flying car. Flying? Buddy, that looks more like falling with style.

Proving why it should pass: Mega-rich California residents are spending big to defeat a ballot proposition that would levy a one-time 5 percent tax on any California resident worth more than a billion dollars. The revenue generated would fund mostly health care programs, with some going toward education and food assistance. The opposition campaign has raised more than $340 million and is spending $1 million a day to defeat the proposition. Donors include “Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, crypto magnate Chris Larsen and several prominent venture capitalists,” reports the Guardian. California, you better do the right thing and make these knobs pay up. There is no such thing as an ethical billionaire and these bozos are proving it.

Matt Gaetz sued for sex trafficking: Two women filed a federal civil lawsuit against ex-Florida Congressman and former Attorney General favorite Gaetz for allegedly participating in a sex trafficking scheme “involving young women, drugs, and traveling across state lines,” reports the Miami Herald. It’s the same sex scandal that put the kibosh on his Attorney General dreams. He resigned from Congress while a bipartisan House Ethics Committee investigated his misconduct. Now, to deal with the lawsuit, Gaetz has attempted to dox the women who filed it. He posted a photo of three women in bikinis with the name of one woman, though he said later he wasn’t sure any of the women in the photo were the women suing him.

Good for them: The Milwaukee Brewers just swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. They’re headed to their first World Series since 1982. They’ll play either the Tampa Bay Rays or the Cleveland Guardians.

I don’t want to hear anymore about Kelly Clarkson or that $15,000 animatronic bird she wanted to buy: This is all that needs to be said on the matter.

I will leave you with this: A New York City Teamster who dedicates skateboard tricks to other unions.