THE SHOOTING GALLERY: School’s in session and so are school shooters.

  Four people were killed yesterday at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, about an hour northeast of Atlanta.  The dead were two students and two teachers. Nine others were wounded.

  Chris Hosey, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said the suspect, Colt Gray, 14, surrendered as soon as he was confronted by two school resource officers. They seized an AR-15 rifle. Hosey said Gray would be tried as an adult, although that’s probably not his call.

  Gray was questioned more than a year ago about online threats, but he and his father denied he made them.  

  Police said someone called the high school yesterday morning warning of shootings at five schools and Apalachee would be the first.

  The US has had at least 385 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Even so, local Sheriff Jud Smith said he had come up through the Winder school system and, “I never imagined that I would be speaking to the media in my career over something that happened today, the pure evil that happened today.”

  President Joe Biden said in a statement, “Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.” 

INFLUENCERS: The justice Department announced the indictment two Russian employees of RT, the state-owned broadcaster, and the takedown of a Russian influence campaign known as Doppelganger as Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland ramps up efforts to fight Russian influence on the presidential election.

  “The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power engages in political activities or seeks to influence public discourse,” Garland said.

   Russia may favor Donald Trump in the election because he and running mate JD Vance have spoken against further aid to Ukraine for fighting the Russian invasion.

  The United States said that Russian intelligence agencies have used RT, the state-owned broadcaster, to spread disinformation. The two employees of RT are accused of being behind the distribution of nearly 2,000 English-language videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X, most of which support aims of the Russian government. 

  Garland said the Doppelganger network used sites that impersonated 

outlets like Fox News and The Washington Post while spreading pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine viewpoints.

IT’S POLITICAL: In a stunning but not necessarily surprising announcement, former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who was a member of the House committee investigating the January 6^thinsurrection, announced that she will vote for Kamala Harris to be president. Cheney is still a staunch Republican, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, but she lost her seat in Congress after voting to impeach then President Donald Trump following the January 6^th attack on the Capitol and taking part in the investigation.

  Speaking to students in the hard fought state of North Carolina, Cheney said, “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

  Four years ago Cheney denounced Harris as “a radical liberal” but she said yesterday that, ““I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states.”

BY THE NUMBERS: The latest poll by the Economist/YouGov has Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by two points in a field including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and independent candidates still running.

  Meanwhile a Michigan judge ruled that Kennedy must remain on the presidential ballot, thwarting his attempt to have his voters move to Trump. Polling in several states shows that Kennedy pulls support from Trump, not Harris. At the same time, Kennedy wants to stay on the ballot in states where he is unlikely to damage Trump. 

  Also by the numbers, shares in Trump’s social media company have fallen so far that his onetime $6 billion stake is down to about $2 billion.

THE OBIT PAGE: Jim Riswold, the ad man described as the Michael Jordan of advertising who created Nike commercials featuring athletes Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Bo Jackson, and movie man Spike Lee, died last month at home in Portland, Oregon. He was 66.

  He helped make athletic shoes into everyday footwear.

  Riswold had cancer for 20 years. The iconoclastic pitchman even managed to announce his own death on Instagram with a pre-written statement posted by his children saying, “Okay, I’m dead now.” 

  He created the famous “Bo knows” ads for Nike with baseball and football player Bo Jackson. “Bo knows baseball,” “Bo knows football,” “Bo knows running,” intercut with Bo Diddley playing guitar.

  Riswold said in an interview last year, ““When you come to the realization that advertising is not that important — baked beans are more important — it allows you to drop the pretense and make better advertising.”

 THE SPIN RACK:  President Biden is reported to be preparing on grounds of national security to block the sale of US Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel. — Autopsy results say four of the seven people who died in the sinking of the Bayesian super yacht were trapped in their cabins alive and did not die of drowning. — Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is in the lineup to make his first start Sunday since his heart stopped during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals in January 2023.

BELOW THE FOLD: The commander of a Navy destroyer in the Middle East has been relieved of duty about four months after the posting of a picture of him firing a rifle with the scope mounted backward.The picture became the subject of ridicule on social media and the Navy said that Cmdr. Cameron Yaste was relieved of duty “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command the guided-missile destroyer.”

  He did seem to know which was the front end of the gun.

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