Big industry there? Is this more of a rural community? Give us a sense of what people are like there.

Yeah, it's about, the population is about 105,000 now.

oregon so there's not many big cities east of the cascade mountains but we're the biggest um ben's grown a a lot in recent decades uh including a lot of people moving here from bigger cities seattle portland san francisco la uh and frankly they move here in many cases um to avoid crime uh and keep their kids safe and to live in a community where you can walk your kids to school And that's what's really tragic.

One of the things that's really tragic about this is it's a community school.

I'm sure you thought to yourself, if you're going to ever have to do this, what's going through your mind watching him?

Yeah, I feel for all the, you know, law enforcement and elected officials that are dealing with this.

I mean, obviously what they're dealing with is way less than affected families, etc.

But it just is a community gripping tragedy and of the type that there is no rationalization.

What are you hearing? What do you know thus far?

Well, I'm hearing the same.

I'm here in my home office, two blocks away from the school, which is where I was when I heard that the shooting had occurred.

I didn't hear any gunshots.

I didn't even hear the sirens.

And I walked over there and on the way there...

So I have young kids, but they don't go to this school.

But what goes through your mind when five people in Bend, Oregon, died in a school shooting? Again, most people never think it happens to them or around them.

You as someone who understands this community, you as someone who has led this community, how do you think they go from here when the thing that they've trained for, the whores, have actually come true to their doorstep?

Yeah, I have young kids.

They don't go to Silver Rail.

I'm talking to you right now two blocks from the school.

However, I don't know where everything goes from here.

My kids go through, at their school, training for active shooter situations, and even the fact that they have to train for that is horrifying.

And I guess the one little bit of solace that we get out of what happened here in Bend yesterday is that...

What does it say about us as a country that this continues to happen? It is a uniquely American problem that our children die by guns all the time.

Did you hear or see anything today, and, and what, what are your thoughts right now?

Yeah, I do live two blocks away.

I was here in my home office.

Uh, I did not hear gunshots.

I did not hear sirens.

I got a call about half an hour after the event happened a- and, um, walked over there, and I'll tell you, the thing that struck me about the scene half an hour after it happened was how quiet it was.

There were hundreds of parents, at least dozens of law enforcement officers and paramedics, and it was quiet.

When you were in office, was an attack like this something you and law enforcement officials, uh, obviously were concerned about, routinely prepared for?

Mayor, first of all, tell us what you have seen, what you have heard there on the scene.

Well, I was sitting here in my home office when this event happened, and I had no idea it had happened until someone texted me about half an hour later, and I walked over to the school.

And the first thing that struck me was the silence.

There were tons of parents gathered around.

And I do have young kids.

They don't go to that school.

But there were parents who did have kids at that school who were in a daze, understandably.

I

Would you mind telling my audience what's going on at Silver Rail Elementary and what's happened over the last two hours?

I'm actually back home right now, which is two blocks away from the Silver Rail Elementary.

What I saw...

I just got back here.

What I saw was obviously a lot of distraught parents.

Um, it was oddly silent.

No one was saying much, uh, understandably, uh, given the enormity of what had transpired.

Uh, did you hear any of that while you were at the scene?

What's going on now?

I had the same thought, Lars.

Um, well, what's going on is that the, uh, even though La Mota and its owners, uh, Aaron Mitchell and Rosa Cazares, uh, still owe, uh, millions of dollars to the state of Oregon in back taxes, the, uh, scheme that the state of Oregon uses to verify licenses for marijuana sales allows people to continue to renew licenses if they are on a payment plan for their back taxes.

Are there some brand new rules that were designed just to benefit, uh, Casseras and Mitchell?

Yeah, so back in 2023 when Kotek and other recipients of La Mota largesse were trying to distance themselves from the company and Mitchell and Casseras, Kotek announced new, uh, rules to hold cannabis companies accountable and make sure everyone was playing on a fair playing field.

Uh, but the rules that she instituted contained this, um, payment plan loophole I would call it.

Um, so it, it really hasn't had any effect whatsoever, uh, [laughs] as far as keeping people with massive tax debts from, uh, getting licenses.

Now, DOR has, or OLCC has de-certified I believe 36, they told me, um, cannabis li- uh, retailers since the new rules went into place, but obviously La Mota, ironically, [laughs] was not one of those companies.

Or am I, am I being, am I being too generous in my blame, blame, blame sharing? [laughs]

[laughs] Well, she, she's the one that directed the state of Oregon to join the environmentalist lawsuit that is leading directly to an increase of 6.3% of the electricity rates that, uh, Oregonians are gonna pay over the next two years.

Um, she's blaming Trump because Trump withdrew from a Biden agreement, which was essentially an agreement between a bunch of groups, including the Biden administration, that don't like the dams and wanna tear out the, the Lower Snake River dams.

Um- And reduced on its own power generation from the dams.

Trump properly, in my, in my view, tore that up when he got it back into office, and so Kotek and the environmentalists, uh, sued to again restrict power generation in the dams.

Of course, the minute we get past the election, I'll go right back to backing data centers, because she knows which, which side the bread gets buttered on.

Tina Kotek is nothing if not, uh, overreactive to, uh, situations where she thinks she's on the wrong side of some focused public opinion.

And so that's why she's doing what she's doing on dams.

Would you mind describing that for my audience?

Yeah, sure thing.

So there's a small party in Oregon called the Pacific Green Party.

That's a very progressive party.

It's small.

Like I said, only about 8000 registered voters are members of that party.

But the Pacific Greens have nominated a guy named Brett Smith to run for governor.

And what does that tell us about where her campaign for re-election stands?

Who is he and what's he all about?

Well, he's 28 years old.

As you said, on June 1st, so a little over a week ago, he saw fit to try to burn down a main power transmission line outside of Fossil, Oregon.

and a structure in Fossil Oregon and some other stuff around Fossil Oregon.

And it turns out, as we reported exclusively at Oregon Roundup this morning, he did that, prosecutors allege, because he was declaring war, as he put it, against the United States and wanted to cause suffering, destruction, and terror as an act of war and terrorism to burn down the empire, that's a quote, The charging documents filed in Wheeler County.

So how should we handle it when the guy appears to be a little bit loony, but maybe serious about what he's doing?

Well, it appears based on the charging documents that he was, whatever his mental health state is, he was radicalized by these political issues.

He said that he believes that He burning down this stuff and fossil is part of him being a combatant against the United States in wars in Cuba, Palestine and Iran.