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The Morning Dispatch
Seattle's Morning Paper · Sunday, October 18, 2026 · No. 4
Three children and a teacher killed at Bend elementary school
BEND, Ore. A teacher who threw her phone at a gunman and then wrestled him, and a father who followed the attacker into the building, ended Thursday's shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, police said. Four people were killed, three children and a teacher, before the 16-year-old gunman was shot dead.
Sources: The Star (Malaysia), wire report, WOWT / Gray News, 1News (NZ)
SK Hynix falls more than 10 percent, Samsung nearly 9
NEW YORK. Twenty of the world's most valuable artificial intelligence and chip stocks lost more than $1 trillion in combined value this week, CNBC reported, as investors fretted over how the costly AI building boom will be paid for and whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again.
Sources: CNBC, Yahoo Finance, BeInCrypto via KuCoin (citing Barchart), La Nacion (AP)
Walk from Westlake Park ends at a voting fair by the International Fountain
SEATTLE. Thousands of people marched from Westlake Park to Seattle Center on Saturday as "No Kings" events returned across the country, ending at a voting fair near the International Fountain. FOX 13 described the Seattle march as the largest No Kings event in Washington that day.
Sources: KIRO 7, FOX 13 Seattle, Copper Courier
Largest shortfall in five years as interest tops $1 trillion
WASHINGTON. The federal government spent $1.99 trillion more than it took in during the 2026 budget year, the Treasury Department reported, the largest shortfall in five years. The gap was $217 billion wider than the $1.78 trillion deficit of fiscal 2025.
Sources: BNN Bloomberg, CTV News
Envelope was never opened; no one was hurt
SEATTLE. A suspicious envelope forced the evacuation of a floor in the downtown Seattle building that houses Rep. Pramila Jayapal's office Friday afternoon. The envelope was never opened, and no one was hurt.
Sources: FOX 13 Seattle, KIRO 7, FOX 13 Seattle (election office)
Vatican reports steady improvement after cancer operation
VATICAN CITY. Pope Leo XIV will lead the Angelus prayer in public on Sunday, his first appearance since surgeons removed part of his right lung, the Vatican said Friday after reporting steady improvement in his condition.
Sources: The Star (Malaysia), Reuters, Al Jazeera, Anchorage Daily News (AP)
Forecasters warned of winds near 100 mph
HAGATNA, Guam. Residents of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands were told to brace for Champi, a storm forecasters expected to reach the islands early Sunday as a Category 2 typhoon, according to the latest available reports. A typhoon warning covered both.
Sources: Scripps News, WCPO (Scripps)
No formal talks or timetable announced
WASHINGTON. President Trump said Thursday that the United States is in talks with Russia and China about reducing nuclear weapons, telling Newsmax in an interview that he would "love to denuclearize if possible."
Sources: Reuters via Internazionale, Business Today
Fed rate hike back in play for late-October meeting
WASHINGTON. Consumer prices rose 3.7 percent in the year to September, up from 3.4 percent in August and above the 3.6 percent economists expected, the government reported Oct. 14. Prices climbed 0.6 percent for the month.
Israel blames a fee dispute between merchants and Hamas
JERUSALEM. Trucks carrying commercial goods have stopped entering Gaza, Israel's military agency for humanitarian affairs said this week, blaming a dispute between Palestinian merchants and Hamas over fees. Israeli authorities said Thursday that no commercial goods had crossed for two days.
Sources: Times of Israel, The National, KSAT (AP)
Forecasters warned of 4 to 8 inches of rain in Colima and Jalisco
MEXICO CITY. Hurricane Trudy churned toward Mexico's southwestern Pacific coast on Friday, Oct. 16, bringing the threat of heavy rain, high waves and landslides, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. A hurricane warning covered the coast from Manzanillo in Colima state to Cabo Corrientes in Jalisco.
Sources: Boston Globe (AP), ITV News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
White House told Congress the hold serves the national interest
KYIV, Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it unfortunate that President Trump has put new U.S. sanctions on Russia on hold, and said he still hopes the measures can be brought back.
Sources: FDD Overnight Brief (citing Reuters), AP News Summary via Union-Bulletin
Nasdaq has its worst week since June
NEW YORK. Artificial intelligence and chip stocks shed more than $1 trillion in value this week, as investors worried about how the AI building boom will be paid for. CNBC counted the loss across 20 of the world's most valuable AI and chip companies.
Sources: CNBC, La Nacion (AP)
Teacher and a parent credited with stopping him
BEND, Ore. A 16-year-old former student opened fire in a classroom at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend on Oct. 15, killing four people, three children and a teacher, police said.
Sources: The Star (Malaysia), wire, WOWT
Part of right lung removed in Rome
VATICAN CITY. Surgeons at Rome's Gemelli hospital removed the lower lobe of Pope Leo XIV's right lung on Oct. 13, and tests confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer.
Sources: Al Jazeera, The Star (Malaysia), Reuters
Gasoline prices lead the rise
WASHINGTON. Consumer prices rose 3.7 percent in the year to September, above forecasts and up from 3.4 percent in August, the government reported Oct. 14.
Interest costs top $1 trillion
WASHINGTON. The Treasury put the federal deficit for the 2026 budget year at $1.99 trillion, the largest in five years.
Sources: BNN Bloomberg, CTV News
Bulgaria summons Russia's ambassador
SOFIA, Bulgaria. Drones struck two merchant ships off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast on the night of Oct. 12, and one of them sank, with sailors reported missing. Prime Minister Rumen Radev said Bulgaria would summon Russia's ambassador, Eleonora Mitrofanova.
Sources: Meduza, Ukrainska Pravda, The Star (Malaysia), Reuters
Israel and Hamas trade blame over truck fees
JERUSALEM. Commercial shipments into Gaza stopped this week after merchants halted coordination with Israel, according to COGAT, the Israeli military body that handles civil affairs in the territory.
Sources: Times of Israel, The National
By Claude W. Hargrove, Editor in Chief
Bend is a city of about 100,000 people on the dry side of the Cascades, some 175 miles southeast of Portland. On Thursday afternoon its quiet was broken at Silver Rail Elementary, a kindergarten through fifth grade school of roughly 450 children. By the time the shooting ended, four people were dead in a single classroom.
Here is what police have told us. A 16-year-old who had once been a student in the school's special needs program threw a pump-action shotgun over the school fence and climbed after it. A passing truck driver yelled at him, and the boy fired at the truck. The driver was not hurt.
Nasdaq drops 2.1 percent Friday as chip stocks lead the slide
NEW YORK. Wall Street closed out a rough week on Friday, Oct. 16, as another round of selling in big technology companies pulled the major indexes lower. The S&P 500 fell 1.1 percent to 7,659.44 and the Nasdaq composite lost 2.1 percent to 26,140.03.
Sources: La Nacion (AP), Yahoo Finance
Each demand runs more than 50 pages
WASHINGTON. The Federal Trade Commission has ordered OpenAI and Anthropic, two of the biggest artificial intelligence companies, to hand over records about the safety of their AI systems. The agency sent the demands on Wednesday, Oct. 14, Axios reported, and an FTC spokesperson confirmed the action to CBS News.
Profit jumps 68.7 percent as AI demand holds up
HSINCHU, Taiwan. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's biggest contract chipmaker, reported on Oct. 15 that its third-quarter net income rose 68.7 percent from a year earlier to NT$763.06 billion in Taiwan dollars, or NT$29.43 a share. Times of Oman put the profit at about $23.86 billion.
Sources: TSMC, Times of Oman, Vested Finance
Most customers back within hours; cause not yet known
TACOMA, WASHINGTON. A problem at Tacoma Power's Pearl Street substation knocked out electricity to as many as 49,447 customers across Pierce County on Friday, Oct. 16, FOX 13 Seattle reported, citing PowerOutage.com's county count.
Sources: FOX 13 Seattle
Hazmat crews found dangerous levels; buildings reopened by 12:30 p.m.
SEATTLE. Businesses along Ballard Avenue Northwest were evacuated Saturday morning, Oct. 17, after an alarm warned of high carbon dioxide inside a commercial building in the 5400 block, the Seattle Fire Department said.
Sources: FOX 13 Seattle, KIRO 7
Crews pave and set a sign bridge for the express toll lane project
BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON. All northbound lanes of Interstate 405 in Bellevue are closed this weekend between Southeast Eighth Street and Northeast Fourth Street, from 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, until 4 a.m. Monday, Oct. 19, the Washington State Department of Transportation said.
Sources: WSDOT I-405/SR 167 newsletter, MyNorthwest
East Pike shop will be about twice the size of the Fremont original
SEATTLE. Charlie's Queer Books, the Fremont bookstore that opened in November 2023, plans a second shop at 1122 E. Pike Street on Capitol Hill, WhatNow Seattle reported.
Sources: WhatNow Seattle, Wikipedia (background)
Flatstick fills the old school's whole second floor with a mini golf course
WOODINVILLE, WASHINGTON. Flatstick Pub opened its newest and largest location this weekend inside the restored Old Woodinville School, a 1909 landmark at 13205 NE 175th Street. The grand opening weekend runs Friday through Sunday, Oct. 16 to 18, with a ceremonial first putt held at noon Saturday.
Sources: MyNorthwest, WhatNow Seattle
All-you-can-eat Japanese barbecue due by early 2027
BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON. Wagyu House, an all-you-can-eat Japanese barbecue restaurant, will open on Level 2 of Lincoln Square North in downtown Bellevue, in the space Din Tai Fung occupied for 14 years. Its parent company, Chubby Group, confirmed the plans.
Sources: MyNorthwest
Highs in the upper 50s expected through month's end
SEATTLE. Western Washington is in for a mostly dry week, with sun breaking through the fog most afternoons. KIRO 7 forecasters expect foggy mornings and variable afternoon clouds early in the week.
Sources: KIRO 7, FOX 13 Seattle
Strauss opera returns to McCaw Hall for the first time since 2002
SEATTLE. Seattle Opera opened its new season Saturday night at McCaw Hall with Richard Strauss's 'Salome,' the first of five performances that run through Oct. 31. It is the company's first staging of the opera since 2002.
Sources: McCaw Hall, Seattle Center, OperaWire
Band announced the singer's death on social media
ST. LOUIS. David Surkamp, the lead singer of the progressive rock band Pavlov's Dog, died unexpectedly on Oct. 13. He was 73.
Sources: KTVU FOX 2, FOX 29
Belgian pop star's 'Instinct' is her first album in more than four years
NEW YORK. Two new albums reached listeners on Friday, Oct. 16: 'Instinct,' the third album from Belgian pop singer Angele, and 'Looks Like Rain,' from country singer Jesse Daniel.
Sources: Saving Country Music, Melodic Magazine, L'Eclaireur Fnac (Angele release)
An AirTag led searchers back to LouLou standing in the snow
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA. A dog named LouLou was found alive about 50 hours after an avalanche in Chugach State Park, near Eklutna Lake outside Anchorage, swept her and two hikers off a mountain ridge.
Sources: Alaska's News Source, FOX Weather, Scripps News
Kids want to be Dolly Parton
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA. Buddy the Unicorn is the most searched Halloween costume in the country this year, according to Google's annual Frightgeist rankings, which the company posted on Oct. 14.
Sources: Google blog, KIRO 7, Time Out
Muse Spark Open runs on linked M5 Ultra Mac Studios
MENLO PARK, Calif. Meta has released Muse Spark Open, a large artificial intelligence model that it worked with Apple to run on Apple's M5 Ultra Mac Studio desktop computers, the companies' leaders announced Thursday, Oct. 15. CNBC reported that users can link two to four of the machines for coding or agent work.
Sources: iPhone in Canada, ProPakistani, Techmeme (CNBC headline), CNBC
MAI-Base-2 trained 38 days on 16,000 Nvidia chips
REDMOND, Wash. Microsoft's in-house artificial intelligence group said Oct. 15 that it has finished the first major stage of training for MAI-Base-2, its next foundation model, according to reports on the announcement.
Sources: Crypto Briefing, Pasquale Pillitteri
xAI, Meta and Nvidia among the month's releases
SAN FRANCISCO. Artificial intelligence companies have released 20 new models from 16 providers so far in October, according to a count by the tracking site BenchLM cited by AF.NET on Oct. 15.
Sources: AF.NET, The Hans India
McMillian picks off Darnold, Lutz hits 53-yarder to win it
DENVER. The Denver Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks 17-14 in overtime Thursday night, Oct. 15, when Ja'Quan McMillian intercepted Sam Darnold and Wil Lutz kicked a 53-yard field goal to end it.
Sources: KOMO News, FOX 13 Seattle, East Idaho News (AP), Newsweek
Seattle ends a five-game road trip at 5-3-1
SUNRISE, FLORIDA. The Florida Panthers beat the Seattle Kraken 8-3 on Saturday night, Oct. 17, handing Seattle its second straight loss.
Sources: ESPN NHL scoreboard, ESPN Kraken schedule
Savannah Bananas will play 79 stadiums, including two fields at once at Notre Dame
SEATTLE. Banana Ball is coming to T-Mobile Park, KIRO 7 reported, as the Savannah Bananas unveiled a 2027 tour that will visit 79 stadiums in 74 cities. No Seattle dates have been announced.
Sources: KIRO 7, Hawaii News Now (Gray), AZFamily
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