Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday called for a special legislative session to focus on gun violence after a former Virginia Beach city employee opened fire at a municipal building on Friday, killing 12 people. The Democrat, speaking at a news conference, said he would seek to pass “common sense public safety laws,” like universal background checks, banning assault style weapons, and increasing penalties for leaving firearms around children.

Eastern Virginia Medical School said Wednesday that the investigation into whether Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, appears in a 1984 yearbook photo of a man in blackface was inconclusive. The law firm hired by the school said it could not “conclusively determine” the identities of the man wearing blackface or the man next to him in a Ku Klux Klan hood. Investigators also could not determine how the photo was placed in the yearbook but found no evidence it was a mistake or prank.

Chicago elected its first African American female mayor on Tuesday. Late results showed Lori Lightfoot, 56, winning in all of the city’s 50 wards against another African American female candidate, Toni Preckwinkle, the Cook County Board President and a longtime City Council member. Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor who has never been elected to public office before, will also be the first openly homosexual person to hold the office.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Wednesday that puts a moratorium on capital punishment, delaying the execution of 737 death row inmates. The order also closes the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison and effectively withdraws the state’s lethal injection protocol. The moratorium will last as long as Newsom is governor.

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.