Trump’s State of the Union calls for bipartisanship
After a two week delay, President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address to a divided Congress on Feb. 5, 2019.
In his address, Trump called for Democrats and Republicans to work together to pass laws and announced that he would be meeting with Kim Jong-Un for a two-day summit in Vietnam. Trump also addressed New York’s new abortion law and called on Congress to pass a law banning “late-term abortions.”
During the 81-minute speech, Trump denounced Antisemitism and honored two Holocaust survivors.
Guests at Trump’s speech included Joshua Trump, an 11-year-old boy who was bullied over his last name as well as Debra Bissell, Heather Armstrong, and Madison Armstrong, relatives of Gerald and Sharon David who were killed in their Nevada home last month by an undocumented immigrant. When speaking about the slain couple, Trump said, “Not one more American life should be lost because our nation failed to control its very dangerous border.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other female Democrats wore white to acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment which made it legal for women to vote.
Virginia leadership admits to wearing blackface
Both Virginia’s governor and attorney general have admitted to wearing blackface in college.
The controversy started when a page from Governor Ralph Northam’s 1984 medical yearbook surfaced showing a man in a KKK robe and a man in blackface standing side by side. Initially, Northam admitted to appearing in the picture, but the following day claimed he was not either of the men in the photo. In the same statement, Northam admitted to wearing blackface around the same time the picture was taken for a Michael Jackson dance competition.
A few days after on Feb. 6, Attorney General Mark Herring revealed that he had also worn blackface in the past.
Northam, a Democrat, has faced calls from both sides of the political aisle to resign. Herring has also called for Northam to resign, but Northam insists he will continue his tenure as governor.
Herring plans to run for governor of Virginia in 2021.
‘Young and the Restless’ star dead at 52
Kristoff St. John is dead at the age of 52.
An autopsy was completed, but St. John’s cause of death has been deferred as “pending additional investigation.” Officers of the LA Police Department confirmed that police responded to an incident on Feb. 3, regarding a possible alcohol overdose.
His son, Julian St. John, died by suicide on Nov. 23, 2014, and St. John was hospitalized in 2017 after threatening to kill himself.
St. John had starred on ‘Young and the Restless’ since 1991 and got engaged to model Russian model Kseniya Olegovna Mikhaleva in August 2018.
