NEWS BRIEFS

California to reduce Guard troops at border

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was slated to pull several hundred National Guard troops from the state’s border with Mexico on Monday in an apparent rebuff to President Donald Trump’s characterization of the region being under siege by Central American refugees and migrants, FoxNews reported. The move comes despite his predecessor’s agreement – along with other past and current border state governors – to send troops to the border at the Trump administration’s request. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown originally approved the mission through the end of March, but qualified that the state’s troops “will not be enforcing federal immigration laws.”

Va. governor says he won’t step down

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam told “CBS This Morning” on Sunday that “I’m not going anywhere,” despite earlier this month apologizing for posing in a racist yearbook photo featuring a man in blackface and another person wearing a Ku Klux Klan uniform. Northam — who admitted to wearing shoe polish on his face for a different costume — later claimed to “believe now” he was not one of the figures in the yearbook photo. Northam said he’s heard calls for his resignation, but has decided to stay in his job because his state “needs someone who is strong, who has empathy, who has courage and who has a moral compass.” The controversial photo appeared in the governor’s 1984 Eastern Medical School yearbook page above the caption “Goose, Coonman.”