The Live Shot: Television news journalists across the country are reeling after a reporter and cameraman from WDBJ television were shot dead yesterday morning as they were live on the air outside Roanoke, VA. They were killed by a reporter who was fired by the station two years ago and killed himself after a police chase. A woman who was being interviewed was wounded.

The shooting of the reporter, Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman, Adam Ward, 27, was captured on video from two angles, one from Ward’s camera and the other by a camera worn by the shooter. You can see his pistol rise in his point of view before he fires the first shot at Parker. The killer identified as Vester Lee Flanagan, who went by the on-air name Bryce Williams, posted his video of the shooting on his Facebook page soon after the killings.

In a long letter he wrote to ABC News he said, “I’ve been a human powder keg for a while…just waiting to go BOOM!!!!” Flanagan was fired for repeatedly clashing with other employees, but he claimed he was the target of racial discrimination.

Both Parker and Ward were romantically involved with other people at the station. Ward’s fiancée was in the control room at the time of the shooting. Parker’s boyfriend, Chris Hurst, an anchorman, revealed on Facebook that he and Parker were a couple. He wrote, “We didn’t share this publicly, but Alison Parker and I were very much in love. We just moved in together. I am numb. We were together almost nine months. It was the best nine months of our lives.”

Econ 101: Following a rise in world markets, the Chinese Shanghai index bounced back by more than five percent today. After being mostly silent about months of hemorrhaging in their stock market, the Chinese government issued a statement today in People’s Daily denying that Chinese instability has rocked world markets. It said, “China’s capital markets do not have strong interconnectivity with international markets. There is no basis for the view that international capital markets feel the impact and shock waves from China’s capital markets.”

Here in the US the Dow Jones finished up by 619 points yesterday, taking back a good chunk of its losses in the past week. Futures indicate another day on the upswing.

Nation: One of two panda bear twins at the National Zoo died yesterday despite efforts of both the mother and the zoo. Attendants had been alternating the cubs between the mother and an incubator to give the mother time to feed and bond with both. The smaller of the cubs failed to gain weight and died, but zoo keepers believe the twin is still doing well.

>Walmart announced that it will stop selling AR-15s and military style guns to focus on hunting weapons. The company said the change simply reflects customer interests, not the politics of guns.

The Obit Page: Amelia Boynton Robinson, a civil rights leader who was photographed beaten and left for dead in the infamous 1965 Bloody Sunday civil rights march, died yesterday in Montgomery, Ala. at age 104. The photograph of Amelia Boynton, an organizer of the march on Selma, appeared in newspapers around the world. After 17 marchers ended up in the hospital, the Bloody Sunday incident drew support to the civil rights movement.

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