THE SHOOTING GALLERY: Two children were killed and 17 other people wounded at a Catholic school in Minneapolis yesterday before the gunman took his own life. The children killed were 8 and 10 years old and 14 of the injured were children.

  The shooting occurred during the all-school mass on the third day of school this year at the Annunciation Catholic Church. One witness said it lasted about two minutes and one little boy said his friend covered him and was hit.

  The shooter seems to have fired through the chapel windows and killed himself in the parking lot. 

  The shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, 23, a former student at the school from which his mother retired as an employee. Investigators said Westman had three guns, a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, all legally purchased.

  Westman, who is reported to have been transgender had journal and social media entries that describe the killing of children and a drawing of the Annunciation Church’s sanctuary. The videos also show weapons, bullets and what appear to be explosive devices scrawled with violent language.

  Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said, “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.” Frey said, “We’ve got more guns in this country than we have people and it’s on all of us to recognize the truth and the reality that we can’t just say that this should not happen again and then allow it to happen again and again beyond that.”

  He said that we have to love our children more than our guns. 

POOR HEALTH: The new director of the Centers for Disease Control fought her firing into the night last night in a confrontation with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the White House over vaccine policy. Her lawyer said she was refusing to step down unless personally fired by the President because she had been confirmed by the Senate.

  Dr. Susan Monarez is an infectious disease researcher and the first nonphysician to lead the CDC in more than 50 years. She had been acting director since President Trump took office and was only recently sworn in.

  Monarez is reported to have been troubled by deep staff cuts, resignations, and Kennedy’s firing of the vaccine advisory board, replacing it with anti-vaxxers and skeptics.

  The NY Times reports that at 9:30 pm a spokesman for President Trump, Kush Desai, said in an email that Dr. Monarez was “not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,” and so “the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the C.D.C.”

  Monarez still refused to leave because Trump had not fired her.

  Her lawyers said in a statement earlier Wednesday that Dr. Monarez’s situation at the heart of bigger issues. “It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science,” they wrote. “The attack on Dr. Monarez is a warning to every American: Our evidence-based systems are being undermined from within.”

LA MIGRA: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national wrongly deported to prison in El Salvador, indicted, released and arrested one again to be deported, wants to seek asylum in the US, his lawyers told a federal judge.

  The Trump administration wants to deported him to Uganda, claiming on thin evidence that he’s part of the MS-13 criminal gang. 

  Also on the immigration front, the “Alligator Alcatraz” detainment center in the Florida Everglades will soon be empty, according to  the Associated Press. A top Florida official told the AP that the jail with cages for humans will likely be empty within days even as the administration of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis fights a court-ordered closing.

  The official told the AP that deportments are moving so quickly there’s no one left to hold in detention.

THE REGIME:

— The CIA’s top Russia expert who prepared President Trump for his August 15^th meeting with Vladimir Putin was purged from her job four days after the summit failed to produce a Ukraine peace deal. She was stripped of her security clearance and within 29 minutes her career was over.

  Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a memo saying they are ejecting people they deem guilty of “politicization or weaponization of intelligence to advance personal, partisan, or non-objective agendas.” 

  What that probably means is that the Russia expert told the President and Gabbard something they didn’t want to hear.

THE SANDWICH ASSASSIN: Federal prosecutors failed to convince a Washington grand jury to vote for a felony indictment of the man who threw a submarine sandwich at a federal officer earlier this month. In its “get tough” posture the Department of Justice was going for the max and the grand jury said “no.” 

  It’s the second time a grand jury has refused to vote a felony indictment for a minor infraction.

  The sandwich defendant, Sean Dunn, went viral in a video of him hurling his dinner at an officer in a ballistic vest. The officer might have bit hot with some mayo which failed to penetrate his armor. 

  Prosecutors can still charge Dunn with a misdemeanor, which does not require grand jury approval.

THE SPIN RACK: As artificial intelligence grows at rocket speed, sales for the AI chip maker Nvidia grew 56 percent in the last quarter. It’s the most valuable company in the world. —  Jordan Hudson, the girlfriend of UNC football coach, has filed trademark applications for a “Belecast” media venture and a “Gold Digger” jewelry line.

BELOW THE FOLD: Members of the National Guard sent to Washington to stop crime  have been seen picking up trash in public areas.