Six states hold primaries Tuesday testing President Trump’s grip on the GOP, with high-profile races in Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

A former Virginia assistant principal is on trial on felony child neglect charges after prosecutors say she ignored warnings that a 6-year-old student had a loaded gun before the child shot his teacher in 2023.

Jury selection began Monday in Newport News in the trial of Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School. Parker, who has pleaded not guilty, faces eight felony child neglect charges tied to the shooting of first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner, according to The Associated Press.

Prosecutors allege several school employees warned Parker that the student might have a gun, but she failed to take action before the shooting happened, the outlet reported.

Parker’s defense has argued she is being unfairly blamed for broader failures that preceded the shooting.

ATTORNEY SAYS VIRGINIA SCHOOL MISSED WARNINGS BEFORE 6-YEAR-OLD SHOT TEACHER

Prosecutors brought one count for each of the eight bullets loaded in the gun. If convicted, Parker could face up to five years in prison for each count, AP reported.

The shooting happened on Jan. 6, 2023, when authorities said the 6-year-old student shot Zwerner while she was teaching. 

She was hospitalized for nearly two weeks and underwent six surgeries after the bullet narrowly missed her heart. She still has limited use of her left hand, according to the AP.

TEACHER SHOT BY 6-YEAR-OLD TELLS JURORS SHE NEVER PULLED CHILD FROM CLASS AS DEFENSE EXPERTS BACK OFFICIALS

In November 2025, a jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in a civil lawsuit against Parker, alleging the former administrator dismissed concerns that the student may have brought a gun to school.

In a statement to Fox News Digital at the time, Zwerner’s legal team said the verdict marked a “major step forward in Abby’s long road of healing.”

During the earlier civil trial, Parker’s attorneys argued the shooting was “unforeseeable” and maintained she did not have a legal responsibility to protect Zwerner from the attack.

KENTUCKY TO CONSIDER BILL THAT WOULD HOLD PARENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR CHILDREN’S GUN CRIMES

Zwerner is expected to testify in the criminal trial, AP reported.

Authorities said the child got the gun from his mother’s purse after climbing onto a dresser. The student’s mother was previously sentenced to nearly four years in prison. 

Fox News Digital’s Julia Bonavita, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The following is kind of a made-up story, but required reading for anyone with a 2028 fixation.

I don’t mean that it’s fictional. This Axios piece is based on real reporting.

But it’s just another angle out of a thousand possible angles about who might win the next Democratic nomination.

I’m an Axios fan. I’ve written many such stories myself. It’s what you do when there’s no hard news about an event that won’t start for another year and a half.  You’ve got to keep feeding the beast.

AOC, ASKED ABOUT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, SAYS HER AMBITION IS ‘WAY BIGGER THAN THAT’

(In fairness, Axios’ first three stories yesterday were about the war, Donald Trump’s suit against the IRS and congressional maneuvering.)

So this is one of those in-between stories, for days when there are no hard-news developments.

We used to call this the “invisible primary.” But that term has to be retired. In the era of X and Instagram, of group chats, of powerhouse podcasts, nothing is invisible anymore. Anyone can go on Substack and try to draw a following, with varying levels of insight and accuracy. Few “scoops” last more than two minutes in this echo chamber.

AOC TAKES PAGE FROM BIDEN PLAYBOOK IN DODGING INTERVIEWS WITH NATIONAL PRESS

And you probably know the history involving name ID. At the end of 2007, Rudy Giuliani was the GOP front-runner. Hillary Clinton, who everyone expected to win, was leading Barack Obama 45 to 27%.

At the end of 2003, Howard Dean led the field with 23%t, more than double his closest rivals. John Kerry was in sixth place, with 4%. That Kerry guy easily won the nomination.

Now Axios puts the spotlight on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna:

“Veterans of Bernie Sanders’ two presidential campaigns are splitting their allegiances between a pair of Democrats vying to inherit his progressive movement…”

The California congressman “has taken a slightly more centrist view than Ocasio-Cortez on issues such as crime and immigration. He’s hired key members of Sanders’ 2016 campaign–the best known is 2016 campaign manager Jeff Weaver–which had a relatively moderate brand on immigration and guns — and didn’t fear going negative on Hillary Clinton.”

AOC “has tapped strategists behind Sanders’ effort in 2020, when the Vermont senator moved left on social issues to back policies such as decriminalizing border crossings by unauthorized immigrants, and largely avoided bashing Joe Biden.”

So this is mainly about recruiting little-known operatives. “Old Bernie” vs. “New Bernie.”

The news peg, if there is one, was the New York congresswoman’s shot at MTG: “I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and antisemite, on the issue of what is good for Gazans and Israelis.”

Based on an AtlasIntel survey, Ocasio-Cortez leads the Democratic field with 26%, and Khanna came in tenth at 0.9%. So this narrative might help him.

Personally, I don’t think AOC is going to run. She recently said she’s more interested in pushing such agenda items as health care than in holding office. I’m not saying she can’t run, or that she can’t win the nomination, though she’d get clobbered in a general election. But she’s not openly lusting for it the way Kamala Harris is.

Of course, any Democrat with a pulse has got to be tempted by Donald Trump’s sinking poll numbers.

In the latest New York Times/Siena College survey, the president’s approval rating has sunk to a second-term low of 37%. (Keep in mind that each such declaration only applies to that media outlet’s own previous poll, leading to overlapping ALL-TIME-LOW headlines.)

Nearly two-thirds say going to war with Iran was a mistake, and 64% disapprove of his handling of the economy. 

Trump won’t be on the 2028 ballot, of course, but Trumpism certainly will.

Meanwhile, the approval of Trump nominee Kevin Warsh as Fed chair doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll get his longstanding wish of reduced interest rates. In fact, quite the opposite.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES

On Maria Bartiromo’s Fox show, an analyst, Ryan Payne of Payne Capital Management, said there is increasing pressure on the Fed to actually raise interest rates.

“The bond vigilantes have spoken, and what they’re telling you is the Fed probably has to raise rates here just to keep inflation in check because, clearly, right now we’re pricing in a much different market than we were just two weeks ago.” 

Bartiromo agreed: “Yeah, it’s true and, of course, the president continues to say that this is a temporary situation.”