The Shooting Gallery: Another Day, another mass shooting. Eight people died and several others were wounded in a shooting last night at a Federal Express facility near the Indianapolis airport.

  Five people were taken to the hospital, one of them in critical condition. The gunman killed himself. It has not been reported whether he was an employee of FedEx.

  One man who witnessed the shooting said, “I see a man come out with a rifle in his hand and he starts firing and he starts yellin’ stuff that I could not understand.” 

  This is the third mass shooting in Indianapolis alone this year and it’s been a bad year across the country. Last month, eight people died in massage parlors in the Atlanta area, and 10 were killed at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.

Russia With Love: The Biden administration placed tough new sanctions on Russia, formally blaming the country for election interference as well as hacking into American government agencies and companies.

  The sanctions levelled against 32 Russian agencies and individuals are intended to be tougher than anything previously done, cutting off the Russian government’s ability to borrow money.  The US expelled Russian diplomats, most of them identified as intelligence agents. The Biden administration also joined with European partners to sanction eight people and entities associated with Russia’s occupation in Crimea.

  Russia is not expected to stand and take it. Their Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said, “Such aggressive behavior will of course receive a decisive response.”

Police Beat: The City of Chicago released police video of an incident in which officers shot and killed a 13-year-old boy who had been carrying a gun.

  The cops had responded to a report of shots fired ended up chasing Adam Toledo. The video shows that although Toledo was beginning to raise his hands, he had a gun in one hand until a split second before the officer fired.

  Mayor Lori Lightfoot was near tears talking about the incident. She called for people to withhold judgement of the police but a said, “We failed Adam.” 

Taking the 5^th: Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin yesterday declined to testify in his murder trial, invoking his 5^th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. It’s rare for a murder defendant to testify.

  The defense rested, having called only two witnesses, one of them a use of force expert and the second a former medical examiner who questioned whether Chauvin caused the death of George Floyd while arresting him.

  Closing arguments are set to begin Monday. 

Court Packing: In the growing fight over the conservative bent of the Supreme Court, several Democratic members of Congress introduced a bill yesterday that would increase the size of the court from 9 to 13. With the court split 6-3 conservative-liberal, that would give President Biden four appointments of liberals to change the balance of the court.

  It doesn’t stand a chance of happening.

  The Constitution doesn’t specify the number of seats on the court. The size has changed six times, from as few as five up to 10. It’s been 9 since 1869. Franklin Roosevelt was accused of “court packing” when he tried to increase it to 15 to outnumber justices opposed to his New Deal.

  This time, again, court packing is going nowhere. Speaker Nancy Pelosi charitably described it as  “an idea that should be considered,” but,  

“I have no plans to bring it to the floor, no.”

Broadcast News: ABC News has named Kimberly Godwin, currently the #2 at CBS News, to be their new president. She’s well regarded at CBS, but ABC is a whole different culture and these are tough organizations.

  The announcement of Godwin’s arrival coincides with the sudden unexplained departure from ABCof Michael Corn, who has presided over the #1 network morning show, Good Morning America. ABCsaid in a coldly-worded statement, “Michael Corn no longer works for ABC News.” There’s a story in there somewhere.

  Back at CBS, news President Susan Zirinsky says she’s returning to hands-on producing after just two years on the job. She’s been at CBS for 40 years.

  CBS has already made the unusual decision to replace her with co-presidents of combined network and local news. What that means is that the standards of one will be higher and the other will be lower.

  Network news is fighting a slow battle with extinction. Combined nightly viewing of all three nets was once about 30 million and now it’s just over 5 million.

Walking While Black: A white Army drill sergeant stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, has been charged with simple assault after confronting a young black man for simply walking through the neighborhood. 

 Video of  Sgt. Jonathan Pentland threatening and shoving the young man has gone viral. “You’re in the wrong neighborhood, motherfucker,” Pentland says. Pentland might be in the wrong Army. He has been suspended from his duties. 

  Protesters chanting on bullhorns showed up at his home and his family left. 

The Spin Rack — Mike Pence’s office says the former vice president had a pacemaker installed. Evidently he has a heart. — Placerville California, once known as “Hangtown” has removed the noose from its city symbol. Some citizens had argued that the city council was surrendering to “cancel culture.” — One of the Louisville police officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor during a  botched drug raid last year has written a book to be printed by a  Christian and conservative publisher. The book by Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was wounded in the raid, is to be called,  “The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy.”

On Again, Off Again: Former NY Yankee Alex Rodriguez and singer Jennifer Lopez got engaged, broke up, got back together, and have broken up again. We did not report it when they got back together because we thought this would be the way it ends anyway. 

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