Dallas Morning News:
As the Bidens visit Uvalde, residents struggle with grief, call for action
At Ofelia’s Mexican Restaurant, townspeople find a moment of solace, but worry about growing anger and resentment
This town is about quiet country life, surrounded by ranches and abundant wildlife. But the one thing residents are most proud of and devoted to are their children.
“I knew all the little kids that died,” said restaurant server Sergio Guerrero, who greeted with familiarity every customer arriving here. “I even used to give them [each a quarter] for the candy machines.”
A little girl came to check on him and he got down on his knees and hugged her.
“Be strong,” the girl told him.
“No one told us” defense falls apart.
San Antonio Express-News via Houston Chronicle:
'We looked like cowards': Police officer opens up about response to Uvalde shooting
A Uvalde police officer who stood outside the classroom where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers [said] that not all officers agreed with the decision to not enter the classroom and take out the shooter.
"There was almost a mutiny," the officer told PEOPLE. "We were like, 'There's a f---ing gunman in the school, we hear gunshots, and we're just going to stand here with our thumbs up our asses?' We wanted to go in and save lives. It was the most frustrating situation of my entire career."
The officer also said they felt like cowards.
"It sucks that we look like we were cowards, because we weren't cowards," he said. "But that's nothing compared to the fact that little kids died and maybe we could've done something to save them. I wish we had known what to do. I wish someone had told us what to do."
This can’t be covered up by Gov. Abbott, Ted Cruz or anyone else.
NY Times:
From Sandy Hook to Uvalde, the Violent Images Never Seen
Frustrated Americans ask whether the release of graphic photos of gun violence would lead to better policy. But which photos, and who decides?
After Lenny Pozner’s six-year-old son Noah died at Sandy Hook, he briefly contemplated showing the world the damage an AR-15-style rifle did to his child.
His first thought: “It would move some people, change some minds.”
His second: “Not my kid.”
NY Times:
The U.S. Justice Department will review the law enforcement response to Uvalde shooting.
“The goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
Velina Tchakarova/Twitter:
There won't be any peace negotiations no matter how often Germany & France (small-size countries in Europe have no geopolitical weight) call Putin. Once Russia establishes control over Donbas & reaches its war goals in the this phase, Moscow will unilaterally declare ceasefire.
Preventing Russia from winning in this critical phase of the war requires the heavy weapons deliveries to Ukraine to sustain the Russian attacks. If Ukraine has to give up on territories in Donbas for the sake of Western appeasement, this won't stop the war. On the opposite.
NY Times:
Lawyer Who Plotted to Overturn Trump Loss Recruits Election Deniers to Watch Over the Vote
A central figure in the scheme to reverse the 2020 election is mobilizing grass-roots activists into an “army of citizens” trained to aggressively monitor elections.
Now [Cleta] Mitchell is prepping for the next election. Working with a well-funded network of organizations on the right, including the Republican National Committee, she is recruiting election conspiracists into an organized cavalry of activists monitoring elections.
Spectator:
James looks at whether [PM Boris] Johnson is ‘doomed’ ... and concludes that the Prime Minister is fast approaching his point of maximum vulnerability, where the buzz around his position in Westminster goes from just idle chit-chat to something more serious. What should worry the Prime Minister’s allies the most, he points out, is that this trickle of letters does not appear to be coordinated: it seems to be individual MPs making up their minds to turn on the PM.
If the threshold of 54 letters calling for a vote is reached, then those around the Prime Minister remain pretty confident he is going to win it. But what’s harder for them to sound equally strident about is the prospect of him then remaining leader of the Conservative party until the next election – let alone having much chance of winning it. There have been various (pretty rubbish) attempts to distract from Johnson’s woes over the past few days, including the divisive plan to return to imperial measurements (Sam Leith deals with that here) and the resurrection of the grammar schools debate, which has become a sure-fire symptom of a government in trouble. The next steps are usually for ministers to announce plans to give more protection in law to homeowners who defend themselves against burglars and to give local people higher priority on council housing waiting lists. Other policies which are in fact already in operation but provoke a nice distracting debate will soon follow. What won’t, though, is a change in focus from the central problem, which is that the government is increasingly working to protect the Prime Minister – rather than delivering on the real ‘people’s priorities’.
And also:
That’s DOJ, not Jan 6 Committee. This is grand jury stuff, not “let me run out the clock” stuff.