RACIST ATTACK: Investigators say they have found racist writings on the home computer of a man who shot three Black people dead in a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida over the weekend. The local sheriff said Ryan Palmeter, 21, “hated Black people.”

 Palmeter killed himself after the shootings.

 He had come to the store with a handgun and an assault rifle decorated with white swastikas. Palmeter had been able to legally buy his guns, despite being involved in a 2016 domestic violence incident and being involuntarily committed for a 72-hour mental health examination in 2017. 

THE WAR ROOM: Ukrainian forces are advancing through what Ukrainian and US sources suggest may be the most challenging series of prepared Russian defensive positions, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Several reports say the Ukrainians now believe that they will be able to advance more quickly into Russian-occupied territory. It’s some of the most optimistic war news of the summer.

ORANGE ALERT:  Lawyers for Donald Trump are expected back in court today to argue about radically conflicting proposals for a trial date in the case accusing him of attempting to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the January 6^th insurrection.

  Special counsel Jack Smith proposed going to trial January 2^nd — Trump’s team says they have to review 11.5 million pages of documents and have asked for a trial in April 2026. Trump says he’ll be President again by then.

AFTER THE TWISTIES: Gymnast Simone Biles has won a record eighth US all-around gymnastics title to become at 26 the oldest gymnast to win the championship. Biles came back to the sport this year after quitting two years ago with what’s called “the twisties,” a debilitating mental loss of orientation to where an athlete’s body is in the air.

THE OBIT PAGE: Bob Barker, the cheerful host of the television game show “The Price is Right,” who invited contestants to “Come on down!” for 35 years, died over the weekend at age 99.

  Barker first hosted “Truth or Consequences.” He started with “Price” in 1972, becoming a household name. He said the show, based on the contestants guessing the price of everything from peanuts to Pontiacs, held the audience because everyone is interested in prices. He said of himself that he barely knew the price of anything.

  Barker was also a devoted animal rights activist. He ended every episode of “The Price Is Right” by saying: “Help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered.” — David LaFlamme, a founder of the band It’s a Beautiful Day and a figure in the 1960s Haight-Ashbury acid-rock scene, has died at 82. A classically trained musician, LaFlamme infused the group’s music with the plaintiff sound of electric violin. Their song “White Bird” is a lasting token of the era, but it never hit #1 on the radio play charts because it was six minutes long. 

THE SPIN RACK: Russian authorities say that DNA testing has confirmed that Wagner Group mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board the private jet that went down north of Moscow last week. It was always assumed that he was one of the 10 dead, and that Vladimir Putin is probably behind the suspicious crash. Prigozhin’s fans have been publicly grieving.  — Thousands of people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in. Washington on Saturday to mark the 60^th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther king Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. — Donald Trump’s campaign says he raised $7 million in the days immediately following his Georgia arrest. — Two more horses have died at the Saratoga Race Track in upstate New York. That makes 12 deaths since July 13^th. — West Point is set to open a time capsule left beneath a monument on the campus in the 1820s.

BELOW THE FOLD: Searchers for the fabled Loch Ness monster over the weekend say they heard three distinct underwater “gloops” but neglected to record them. Nessie is so elusive it’s as if she doesn’t exist.  

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