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CNN
 — 

The gun allegedly used by a 6-year-old boy to shoot his teacher at a Newport News, Virginia, school was legally purchased by the child’s mother, officials said.

The boy took the firearm from his home to school in his backpack Friday, Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said Monday.

The teacher was “providing class instruction when the 6-year-old child displayed a firearm, pointed it at her and fired one round,” Drew said at a news conference. “There was no physical struggle or fight.”

The teacher was shot in the chest, through her hand, the chief said. She is in stable condition, he said.

Drew declined to comment on whether the gun had been secured in the home, saying more interviews and investigation were needed.

The boy is under a temporary detention order and is being evaluated at a local hospital.

“We have been in contact with our commonwealth attorney and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man,” Drew said Friday.

Once all interviews are conducted, police will present the information to the commonwealth attorney’s office to determine whether there will be any charges against the parents, Drew said.

The teacher was first identified by her alma mater, James Madison University, as Abby Zwerner.

The school, Richneck Elementary, will be closed this week to give students “time to heal,” the school announced.

The police chief, Newport News mayor and the school superintendent on Monday praised the response by Zwerner, school staff and other teachers after the shooting.

The police department received a call at 1:59 p.m. on Friday that a teacher had been shot, Drew said. When officers entered the classroom where the shooting happened five minutes later, they saw the boy was being physically restrained by a school employee.

The 6-year-old was combative and struck the employee restraining him, and officers took control, escorting him out of the building and into a police car.

The wounded teacher made sure all her students made it out off the classroom just after the shooting, Drew said. She was the last to leave her classroom, making her way to the administration office.

Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones discussed meeting heroes while a Marine and said Zwerner would be welcomed among them anytime.

“Abby was faithful as a teacher,” Jones said. “She ensured that everyone was accounted for and that she was the last one to leave.”

“What we saw were teachers who took immediate response to secure their students,” Newport News Public Schools Superintendent George Parker said. “To make sure they separated themselves from a potential threat – and they responded accordingly.”

The elementary school had an emergency plan in place that allowed for immediate medical care for the injured teacher, Parker said Friday.

“While no amount of planning can guarantee that a tragedy such as this will not occur; please know that our collective efforts and preparation resulted in immediate medical care for our faculty member, no injuries to students, and a safe and efficient reunification process for our families and students,” Parker said.

Police investigation underway after 1st grader shot his teacher

The school does not have a resource officer assigned to it, district officials told CNN on Monday. Only middle schools and high schools have a resource officer on campus, the district said, while elementary schools have security guards who do not carry weapons.

Richneck Elementary shares a security guard with a neighboring school, and the district could not tell CNN which school the guard was when the shooting happened.

The district also could not tell CNN if there were any disciplinary actions against the 6-year-old prior to the shooting.

As the investigation continues and police probe how the young boy gained access to a firearm and what led up to the shooting, community members are grappling with what happened.

“It’s a very difficult thing to process,” Mayor Jones told CNN on Sunday. “The fact that we have a 6-year-old individual with the ability to bring a gun into school and harm his teacher – something that we’re still grappling with.”

The mayor would not comment on the child’s family or their involvement with the investigation.

“There’s a lot of questions that we have to answer as a community,” the mayor added. “Up with, how a 6-year-old was able to have a gun, know how to use it in such a deliberate manner … The individuals responsible will be held accountable. I can promise that.”

Police chief answers questions after he says 6-year-old shot teacher at school

Friday’s shooting was the first of 2023 at a US school, according to analysis by CNN. But shootings in US schools have become far more common than they are in any other country. In 2022, there were 60 shootings at K-12 schools, the CNN analysis shows.

Still, school shootings by a suspect so young are relatively rare. According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks shootings in American schools going back to 1970, there have been three other cases in which the suspect was as young as 6: in 2000, 2011 and 2021.

Students and a grandmother who was at the school described the harrowing moments in the aftermath of Friday’s shooting.

“We were doing math … an announcer came on, she was like, ‘Lockdown, I repeat lockdown,’” said fifth grader Novah Jones, who was not in the room where the shooting happened.

“I was scared … it was like my first lockdown and I didn’t know what to do, so I just hid under my desk like everybody was.”

Novah at first believed there was a man with a gun at the school, she said in a CNN interview with her and her mother.

“I was thinking that … a man was going to shoot us,” Novah said.

A faculty member ran into the main office to say a teacher had been shot, said Lawonda Sample-Rusk, who was picking up her grandsons at the school when the shooting happened.

She was frightened gunfire had erupted in one of her grandsons’ classrooms, she said. “I was about to walk down to their classrooms myself, but then the teacher who was shot ran into the office,” Sample-Rusk told CNN. “She was saying ‘Call 911! Call 911!’”

The teacher fell to her knees, Sample-Rusk said, and crawled behind a desk. A receptionist used a code word over the intercom to tell other faculty the school was going into lockdown.

Three or four other people were with the teacher, Sample-Rusk said, each helping to give her aid.

“The wound was in her chest area and everybody was taking turns applying pressure on her wound and trying to keep her aware,” Sample-Rusk said, adding first responders arrived a few minutes later.

Parents hurried to the scene as news spread of the shooting, living through a nightmare families of students at so many other American schools have shared.

When Mark Anthony Garcia found out about the shooting, he raced to the school, where his son is in second grade.

“There was police helicopters everywhere outside, traffic was jammed up,” he told “CNN This Morning” on Monday. “Then there was a 2-mile radius cordoned off of parked cars and people running, trying to actually get to the scene.”

Garcia’s son, Mark Jr., said his teacher heard the shooting and shepherded his class back to their classroom, “and then when we got there, we all stayed quiet.”

“Two people were crying,” he said. “And when the cops came, we were marching to the gym.”

Following the shooting, all students at the school were evacuated from their classrooms with their teachers and taken to the gymnasium, where they were with counselors and officers, the police chief told CNN affiliate WTKR.

Though she was able to return home safely, Novah said she had trouble sleeping that night, worried that “he still had the gun and he was going to come to my house.”

“I had like flashbacks,” Novah said.

Licensed therapists are available to help parents with tips for talking with children, counseling services and resource referrals, Richneck Elementary said in an update on its website.

Correction: A previous version of this story overstated the number of shootings last year in K-12 schools. It is 60.

CNN
 — 

Much of California can’t soak up another drop of rain. Yet the state is getting pummeled again with torrential downpours and ferocious winds, causing power outages and treacherous travel conditions.

More than 34 million Californians are under a flood watch Monday – about 90% of the state’s population and 10% of the US population.

Parts of the central California coast got walloped with 1 to 1.25 inches of rainfall per hour, the Weather Prediction Center said. Monday’s rapid deluge also led to reports of mudslides and rockfalls in the Diablo Range.

And hurricane-force wind gusts topping 74 mph thrashed states across the western US. More than 37 million people are under wind alerts Monday in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming.

A 132-mph wind gust lashed Oroville, California. Residents in Washoe City, Nevada, were hit with a 98-mph gust, the Weather Prediction Center said.

TRACK THE STORMS

“Expect widespread power outages, downed trees and difficult driving conditions,” the National Weather Service in Sacramento tweeted. “Now is the time to prepare if you have not already!”

Already, more than 138,000 homes, businesses and other power customers had no electricity Monday, according to PowerOutage.us.

And the central California coast could be at risk of a tornado, CNN Meteorologist Dave Hennen said.

The severe weather is part of a relentless parade of atmospheric rivers slamming the West Coast.

California is now extremely vulnerable to flooding because much of the state has been scarred by historic drought or devastating wildfires – meaning the land can’t soak up much rainfall.

And after an onslaught of storms since late December led to deadly flooding, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Sunday: “We expect to see the worst of it still in front of us.”

Two bouts of major rainfall are expected to hammer the West Coast over the next few days – without much of a break between events for the water to recede.

The system is part of an atmospheric river – a long, narrow region in the atmosphere that can transport moisture thousands of miles, like a fire hose in the sky.

The atmospheric river slamming California on Monday could result in a 1-in-50 year or 1-in-100 year rainfall event near Fresno, the Weather Prediction Center said.

A moderate risk – level 3 of 4 – of excessive rainfall covers over 26 million people in California, including in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Fresno, where rain could fall at 1 inch per hour.

The San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County has risen 14 feet in just over four hours and is in major flood stage. Parts of the county will experience “widespread flooding at shallow depths,” and the city of Santa Cruz will have serious flooding, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and US Geological Survey.

The threat will shift further south Tuesday, with a level 3 of 4 risk centered over Los Angeles.

“While some of the forecast rain totals are impressive alone, it is important to note that what really sets this event apart are the antecedent conditions,” the National Weather Service office in San Francisco said.

“Multiple systems over the past week have saturated soil, increased flow in rivers and streams, and truly set the stage for this to become a high impact event.”

In Sacramento County, officials warned “flooding is imminent” and issued evacuation orders for the Wilton community near the Cosumnes River before roads become impassable.

Wilton residents also had to evacuate during last week’s storm, when exit routes flooded quickly, officials said.

El Dorado, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara and Alameda counties have issued evacuation warnings or recommendations for some areas due to possible flooding and other safety risks as forecasters warned of swelling rivers.

Residents in all all areas of Montecito, parts of Santa Barbara and Summerland are being ordered to evacuate immediately due to the threat of the ongoing storm, the local fire department announced Tuesday.

Montecito is a haven for the rich and famous, including Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex; Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres.

Santa Barbara County authorities are advising residents to “be prepared to sustain yourself and your household for multiple days if you choose not to evacuate, as you may not be able to leave the area and emergency responders may not be able to access your property in the event of road damage, flooding, or a debris flow.”

Newsom on Sunday asked the White House for an emergency declaration to support response and recovery efforts.

“We are in the middle of a deadly barrage of winter storms – and California is using every resource at its disposal to protect lives and limit damage,” Newsom said in a statement. “We are taking the threat from these storms seriously, and want to make sure that Californians stay vigilant as more storms head our way.”

This storm system arrives on the heels of a powerful cyclone that flooded roads, toppled trees and knocked out power last week to much of California. Earlier, a New Year’s weekend storm system produced deadly flooding.

At least 12 Californians have died from “storm-related impacts” such as flooding since late December, the governor’s office said.

“Floods kill more individuals than any other natural disaster,” California Emergency Services Director Nancy Ward said Sunday. “We’ve already had more deaths in this flood storm since December 31 than we had in the last two fire seasons of the highest fire acreage burned in California.”

Flood-related deaths can happen when drivers attempt to cross standing water.

“Just a foot of water and your car’s floating. Half a foot of water, you’re off your feet. Half foot of water, you’re losing control of your vehicle,” Newsom said.

“We’re seeing people go around these detours because they don’t see any obstacles – they think everything is fine, and putting their lives at risk or putting first responders lives at risk.”

For anyone who doesn’t need to travel during the peak of this storm, “please don’t,” California Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot said. “Be prepared for power outages and other interruptions. Have those flashlights, the candles, batteries, charge cell phones at the ready.”

Already, flooded roads, toppled trees and downed power lines are making travel difficult, California Highway Patrol said. Some fallen trees crushed cars and homes over the weekend.

California is experiencing “weather whiplash,” going from intense drought conditions to now contending with its fifth atmospheric river, Newsom said.

Much of the state has already seen 5 to 8 inches of rain over the last week. Two to 4 more inches of rain are expected across the coasts and valleys – and even more in mountains and foothills through Tuesday.

Rising from swelling rivers could spill over and inundate communities.

The rainfall over the weekend brought renewed flood concerns for streams, creeks and rivers. The Colgan Creek, Berryessa Creek, Mark West Creek, Green Valley Creek and the Cosumnes River all have gauges that are either above flood stage or expected to be in the next few days.

“The cumulative effect of successive heavy rainfall events will lead to additional instances of flooding. This includes rapid water rises, mudslides, and the potential for major river flooding,” the National Weather Service said Monday.

The moisture is expected to sink southward Monday night, making flooding “increasing likely” over the Southern California coastal ranges Tuesday, the weather service said. Fierce winds are expected to accompany the storm as it pushes inland.

“Valley areas will likely see gusts as high as 45-50 mph, with gusts greater than 60 mph possible in wind prone areas,” the National Weather Service in Reno said. The Sierra Ridge could receive peak gusts between 130 to 150 mph Monday.

For those at higher elevations, intense snow and ferocious winds will be the biggest concerns.

Parts of the higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada have gotten more than 100” – or 8.3 feet – of snow in just the past few weeks, the Weather Prediction Center said.

Now, another 6 feet of snow is expected in some parts of the Sierra.

As the storm pushes inland, more than 5 feet of snow could fall along the Sierra Crest west of Lake Tahoe, the weather service said.

The heavy snow and strong winds could lead to near whiteout conditions on roads.

Tokyo
CNN
 — 

Japan is grappling with the biggest drop in living standards in nearly a decade as inflation continues to soar.

The world’s third largest economy reported its worst real-wage decline in more than eight years on Friday, a day after its leader asked businesses to hike workers’ pay at a level above inflation.

Japan saw a 3.8% year-on-year fall in inflation-adjusted wages in November, data published by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed. It’s the biggest fall since May 2014, when a consumption tax hike at the time caused a 4.1% decline, according to data published by the ministry.

The latest drop comes as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urged bosses to accelerate raises for workers, warning that the economy risked falling into stagflation if wage rises continued to fall behind price increases. Stagflation describes a period of high inflation and stagnant economic growth, which undermines people’s purchasing power.

“The core of a virtuous economic cycle lies in wage growth, and must be realized at all costs. Companies must generate profits and then properly distribute them to workers,” Kishida said Thursday while speaking at a New Year gathering hosted by Japan’s three major business lobbies. “Consumption will grow, business investment will grow and further promote economic growth.”

Raising wages by 3% or more a year is a core goal of Kishida’s administration. The prime minister, who took office in late 2021, noted that while corporate profits had ballooned in the past 30 years, salaries failed to keep pace with that growth.

Japan’s largest labor organization, known as Rengo or the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, is now demanding wage increases of 5% at this year’s talks with the management of various companies, Kishida added.

Wages in Japan have largely hovered at the same level over the last decade, according to the latest data published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Meanwhile, the average wage in many other countries has risen during the same period, OECD data shows.

Rising commodity prices and the weak yen are prompting companies to pass on higher costs to shoppers at the fastest pace in decades in Japan.

The country’s core consumer price index, excluding fresh foods, rose 3.7% in November compared to a year earlier. It was the highest increase since December 1981, according to a December report by the Daiwa Institute of Research.

CNN
 — 

And so, it all comes down to this. On Monday evening, either the Georgia Bulldogs or the Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs will be crowned college football’s best team.

After five months of grueling action – and two extraordinary semifinals – one team will etch their name into college football history at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

For Georgia, this is a chance to enter the record books. As defending champion, Georgia can become the first team to win consecutive national titles since the competition reformatted in 2014.

With Stetson Bennett at the helm, the Bulldogs have once again leaned on their stout defense to go undefeated this year. This is a team peppered with future NFL talent, notably defensive tackle Jalen Carter, tight end Brock Bowers and corner back Kelee Ringo.

For TCU, this year’s success has been much more of a surprise. With a first-year head coach – Sonny Dykes – at the helm, TCU became the first team to play for a national championship after entering the season unranked.

Max Duggan at quarterback has been a big reason for the team’s success, coming second in the Heisman Trophy voting this season, finishing with 3,546 passing yards, 32 passing touchdowns and six interceptions, as well as 461 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns this year as he helped TCU to the fifth highest scoring defenses.

And with Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson at cornerback – one of college football’s top defensive backs – and Dylan Horton heating up, the TCU defense has also shown its resilience.

The two college team have not faced off since 2016 – when Georgia won 31-23 – but if they can replicate the excitement they both brought to the semifinals, fans are in for a treat.

Georgia Bulldogs vs. TCU Horned Frogs: Monday, January 9, at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN