State-News
States Confront School Violence, AI Backlash and a Costly Winter
World & Security
Three children and one adult were killed Thursday at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, according to preliminary information from a law enforcement source. The shooter was a 16-year-old male already shot and killed inside the school when police arrived around 1 p.m.; a Bend Police Department spokesperson said it “may have been a bystander.” The first 911 call described an unknown man shooting into a car, then callers reported someone inside the building. Medics took at least two people to hospital. The Bend-La Pine district closed all schools on Friday. Former mayor Jeff Eager, speaking for a town people move to because it feels walkable and safe, called the attack “unimaginable.”
A jammed rifle interrupted what prosecutors describe as a two-year plot against a Hindu worship centre in Aurora, Illinois. They say 19-year-old Alexandros Paporakis had targeted the temple for two months; an eight-page manifesto identified him as “a sociopathic white supremacist Neo Nazi filled with hatred, fantasizing about mass murder nearly every day.” On Sunday an AR-style rifle jammed as he tried to shoot a man from a car. He texted a Taco Bell co-worker that the man was “certainly saved by his God today” and that he intended to “retry when I fix this.” Co-workers called 911. Police found a rifle, magazines, 300 rounds, a gas can and Nazi ephemera. He is charged with making a terrorist threat and illegal gun possession. U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi said his family was at the temple that day.
In northwest Harris County, an ICE agent was placed on administrative leave after an SUV struck Miguel Parra Hernandez during a Saturday pursuit; Hernandez underwent surgery for a broken leg. Two men fled a truck; one escaped. ICE named a different man as the original target. Hernandez’s lawyer says her client does not know him. California spent Thursday in a more seasonal emergency: utilities cut power so Santa Ana and Sierra winds would not turn lines into matches. PG&E reported nearly 62,000 customers dark in 26 counties; Southern California Edison had 19,000 more offline and was considering shutoffs affecting as many as 245,000. Near Dellona, Wisconsin, a Piper PA-46 crashed Tuesday night after the pilot reported ice on the wings. All six people aboard, including a 13-year-old, were killed.
Markets & Economy
Japan is writing a cheque large enough to make a state treasurer sit down. GlobalFoundries said it will open two factories in Malta, New York, with up to $21 billion in Japanese financing, a deal the company tied to the Trump administration’s trade agreement with Tokyo. About $10 billion would accelerate a plant expected online in 2029; another $10 billion is described as an upper limit for a second fab. The firm will reallocate a $955 million CHIPS Act award toward silicon photonics and related work, and the Commerce Department is to receive an equity stake. At the other end of the country, the Port of Los Angeles handled a record 1,042,652 TEUs in September — its busiest month in 118 years — with loaded imports up 19 percent from a year earlier.
Pennsylvania is spending on the waterfront. Governor Josh Shapiro announced $371.5 million in state capital funding for PhilaPort, meant to unlock $466 million more from private investors and federal grants for an $837 million expansion, the largest in the port’s history. Officials say the project would create more than 6,000 jobs and expand container capacity by 122 percent. California voters, by contrast, are being asked to tax a different kind of capital. Proposition 40 would levy a one-time 5 percent tax on the net worth of people worth at least $1 billion who were California residents on 1 January 2026. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates tens of billions in revenue, 90 percent for health care, and projects the state could lose less than $1 billion a year in income-tax revenue if billionaires leave. Governor Gavin Newsom is among the opponents.
Maine is not arguing about billionaires. It is staring at heating oil near a record $6 a gallon, roughly 80 percent higher than a year ago, in the most oil-dependent heating market in the country. More than 57 percent of Maine households use heating oil; in Aroostook County the share is nearly 70 percent. A standard 275-gallon tank now costs upwards of $740 more to fill. Avec Community Action expects more than 7,600 LIHEAP applications in The County — more than a quarter of households — and is scheduling interviews into February, with 1,200 unanswered voicemails. The state’s heating-assistance pot is about $42 million. As CEO Jason Parent put it, there is “an incredible amount of panic.”
Technology & Industry
Ohio already ranks fourth in the country for data centres, with nearly 200 of them, and hyperscale projects are arriving faster than townships can invent the right questions. A Bowling Green town hall heard industrial hygienists warn about round-the-clock noise, lighting, diesel generators and cooling systems that are “semi” closed-loop at best. Township officials noted that property tax is often their only revenue — and that abatements for Meta, Amazon, Microsoft or Google are treated as a given. Maumee’s mayor said her residents do not want a centre even if the city is hungry for cash. A state research group created in February has yet to give grassroots governments much to work with.
Texas is trying to put the genie back in a very large bottle. Governor Greg Abbott, who last month ordered a halt on data-centre permits pending a review of grid and water effects, said he wants the Legislature to write his restrictions into law in 2027: operators should pay for electrical infrastructure, use water-efficient cooling, report consumption, limit noise, and lose “unnecessary” tax breaks. Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa called the moratorium “just words.” Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, not to be left out of the memo war, sent letters to 156 data-centre developments in more than 30 counties urging them to answer the Texas Water Development Board’s water-use survey. Noncompliance can mean fines and lost permits.
Florida won permission from the 11th Circuit to enforce one of the country’s strictest child social-media laws: no accounts for children under 14, and parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds, on platforms that use both algorithms and addictive features. A 3-0 panel said the law “likely” regulates speech in a content-neutral way. NetChoice was not amused. Several attorneys general are taking a different swing at Silicon Valley. Iowa’s Brenna Bird sued OpenAI under the state’s consumer-fraud law, alleging ChatGPT gives dangerous medical advice and coaches suicide, and noted that Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana have filed their own cases. OpenAI said it has “industry-leading age-specific protections” and wants rules that cover the whole industry, not just one company.
Politics & Policy
Three weeks before Election Day, the Justice Department handed Los Angeles County a password-protected thumb drive — the password, California officials said, arrived on a sticky note — and gave the state 48 hours to determine whether any U.S. citizens were on a list of people the federal government believes are likely noncitizens who were mailed ballots. California mails ballots to all registered voters. Secretary of State Shirley Weber said DHS had claimed 190,000 noncitizens on the rolls over the summer without sharing its methods. Attorney General Rob Bonta called the demand another round of “absolutely false conspiracy theories.” The Associated Press noted that a similar Nevada claim this year produced zero registered noncitizens once names were checked.
The Ninth Circuit, in a different fight with Sacramento, reversed a district judge and told California it may not enforce the “No Vigilantes Act” requirement that federal officers display names and badge numbers. A unanimous panel said the United States is “certain” to succeed on a Supremacy Clause claim because the statute “directly regulates the United States in its performance of governmental functions.” The mask ban in a companion law had already been blocked below. Traffic-law analogies did not survive: the court said the rule applies exclusively to law-enforcement operations, not to conduct any ordinary driver might attempt at a stop sign.
In Ohio, the Tenth District Court of Appeals ruled the statewide EdChoice voucher programme unconstitutional, saying it funds a separate school system, lacks oversight, and is unavailable to many rural taxpayers who still pay for it. About 180,000 students use the programme, expanded in 2023. The ruling lets it continue while an expected appeal goes to the Ohio Supreme Court. Public-school groups called a $1 billion-a-year diversion a “boondoggle” for mostly religious schools; School Choice Ohio called the decision potentially devastating for participating families. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton said public schools “saved my life as a kid.” Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign said he would comment shortly.
Human Stories / Social Trends
Minnesota officials say the state has reached “functional zero” for veteran homelessness: not a boast that no veteran will ever lose housing, but a claim that local systems can identify people quickly and match them to services. A 2010 count found more than 600 veterans without housing; about 150 are on the state’s registry now. Minnesota is the fourth state to make the declaration, after Connecticut, Delaware and Virginia. Todd Smith, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, described coming home disconnected, then homeless with his wife in 2022, before the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans helped them into housing. Governor Tim Walz compared the work to an emergency room you do not shut once the waiting room is empty.
New York’s horse-drawn carriages are heading for a municipal sunset. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin struck a deal on a phased ban taking effect 1 June 2028, after the death last summer of 18-year-old tourist Romanch Mahajan, thrown from a runaway carriage — believed to be the first such fatality in more than 150 years of rides. The Transport Workers Union said the bill offers “no meaningful economic relief,” only a transition plan due in 2027. Horse owners would have to notify the city before disposing of animals and could not sell them for slaughter or another carriage business.
In Illinois, a quieter rescue arrived by mail. Governor JB Pritzker said a $10 million state Medical Debt Relief Program has erased more than $1.4 billion in bills for 694,000 residents — about $1,200 on average, and as much as $900,000 in one case. Combined with Cook County’s programme, officials put the total at $2.4 billion for about 1.5 million people. Residents do not apply; they get a letter. Pritzker said some have broken down crying. It is, he noted, a rare public programme where “every penny that we put in relieves a dollar of debt.” For once, a government mailing people actually want to open.
This daily edition uses stored reporting scoped by publication date, or arrival when publication was absent. Source collection can lag publication.