Conservatives love to lampoon California, the state I’ve been calling home for almost 10 years. This blue state has wasted time and money on silly laws restricting plastic straws, regulating cow farts, providing “mouth-to-snout” resuscitation for endangered pets, and replacing Columbus Day with “Indigenous People’s Day.” We’re the home of Big Taxes and Big Government and Big Compassion and Big Ideas, and conservatives have rightly criticized Californians for dreaming up idealistic programs and policies without considering things such as budgets and the average civilian’s needs.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said Monday that he is withdrawing most of the state’s National Guard troops from the Mexican border. He said he plans to leave 100 of about 360 currently deployed state troops to help the federal government fight drug crime. Withdrawal will begin immediately but may not be completed until the end of March. Former Gov. Jerry Brown, also a Democrat, agreed in April 2018 to deploy up to 400 troops to the border after President Donald Trump requested support from four border states.

The political crisis in Virginia worsened Wednesday when state Attorney General Mark Herring admitted he once wore blackface to a party in college. Herring is second in line for the governorship behind Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who was recently accused of sexual assault, and embattled Gov. Ralph Northam. All three are Democrats.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, is rebuffing calls for his resignation over racist photos in his 1984 medical school yearbook. A photo from his personal page in the Eastern Virginia Medical School publication surfaced on Friday showing two people standing side-by-side, one wearing blackface and another wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe. Northam issued an apology Friday, though he did not say which costume was his. Then, during a Saturday news conference, he denied he was in the photo, though he disclosed he once wore blackface to imitate singer Michael Jackson at a dance contest.

The first commercial marijuana stores in the eastern United States opened Tuesday morning in Massachusetts, more than two years after the state voted to legalize recreational pot. Just two shops opened their doors—one in the central Massachusetts town of Leicester and another in the small western city of Northampton—the first ones approved by state regulators to sell marijuana flowers, pre-rolled joints, concentrates, and edibles to adults 21 and older.

The Washington state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the death penalty violates the state’s constitution.

Fifth and final in a series on the legalization of marijuana

In Greek mythology, Antaeus is the son of Gaea (Mother Earth) and Poseidon, the sea god. People thought he was invincible, but that’s because he kept his feet on the ground: Hercules discerned that secret and beat him by lifting him up so his feet never touched earth.