By Julia Shumway | Editor
Our hearts are breaking for Bend, where three elementary school children and one teacher lost their lives in a senseless shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School yesterday. Another student and a teacher are receiving medical treatment at St. Charles, police said yesterday, and further updates are expected today.
The Capital Chronicle’s mission is to provide deep, thoughtful coverage of state policy and politics, so we’re not your best source for information on the tragedy in Bend. For that, turn to local news outlets including The Bulletin and Source newspapers, TV stations KTVZ and Central Oregon Daily and OPB, which maintains a bureau in Central Oregon. They all employ reporters who live and work in Bend and will be there covering the community long after the national media moves on.
We’ll follow policy impacts after the immediate shock and grief, including asking how or if this latest tragedy in a state with some of the nation’s strictest gun laws, in a city that endured a mass shooting at a grocery store less than five years ago and at a school with recent security upgrades will affect state policies or funding. But for now, our thoughts are with my former Bend neighbors and everyone affected by this devastating incident.
News tips, feedback or questions? Email us at [email protected]
By Joni Auden Land, Courtney Sherwood, Emily Cureton Cook, Troy Brynelson and Jen Baires | OPB
People wait outside of Silver Rail Elementary School, in Bend, Ore., on Oct. 15, 2026. A shooting occurred at the school, leaving multiple victims, including children, officials say. (Photo by Eleanor Moseman for OPB)
Three children and a teacher are dead in Bend after a 16-year-old with a long gun shot them at Silver Rail Elementary School, police said Thursday. The suspected shooter, who has not been identified, is also dead. Police said a community member shot the alleged assailant after seeing him enter the school.
By Alex Baumhardt
Republican Brad Hicks (left), Democrat Denise Krause (center) and Independent and Green Party candidate Clay Bearnson are all running to represent Oregon’s 3rd Senate District in the 2026 midterm election. (Photos courtesy of the candidates)
More than $1 million in just the last month has poured into two candidates’ campaigns for a southern Oregon state Senate seat being vacated by a Democrat who narrowly won it in 2022.
By Shaanth Nanguneri
From left, Realtor and retired officer Adam Baker, pharmacy owner Pat Hubbell and West Linn high school teacher Michael Sugar are all vying to replace Rep. Annessa Hartman, D-Gladstone, in an Oregon legislative swing seat. (Photos courtesy of each campaign)
Three Oregon City residents are all in the race to seize control of the Clackamas County-area swing seat held by state Rep. Annessa Hartman, the outgoing Democratic lawmaker who declined to run for reelection while battling cancer.
By Katie McKellar | Utah News Dispatch
A federal judge has issued a preliminary ruling blocking the Trump administration from moving the U.S. Forest Service’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City while the rest of the lawsuit over the relocation plays out in court.
FROM OUR D.C. BUREAU
MORE FROM THE CAPITAL CHRONICLE
Thanks for reading Your Daily Chronicle. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.