"Empire" star Jussie Smollett was brutally attacked by 2 men who beat him up, put his head in a noose and screamed, "This is MAGA country."

Sources directly connected to Jussie tell TMZ, the actor arrived in Chicago from New York late Monday, and at around 2 AM he was hungry and went to a Subway. We're told when he walked out, someone yelled, "Aren't you that f***ot 'Empire' n*****?"

The 2 men -- both white and wearing ski masks -- viciously attacked Jussie as he fought back, but they beat him badly and fractured a rib. They put a rope around his neck, poured bleach on him and as they left they yelled, "This is MAGA country."

Jussie was taken to Northwestern Memorial where he was treated. He was discharged later Tuesday morning.

https://www.tmz.com/2019/01/29/empire-star-jussie-smollett-attacked-hospitalized-homophobic-hate-crime/

Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible. Starting to make a turn back? Great!

When President Trump brings senators, New York friends or other guests to the Oval Office, he occasionally opens a door near his desk summoning guests to follow. Flashing a grin, he wants his friends to see where Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton reportedly began their sexual encounters.

“We’ve remodeled it since then,” he said on a tour in December, a person with direct knowledge of the event said. In another visit in 2017, Trump told a TV anchor, “I’m told this is where Bill and Monica.?.?.” — stopping himself from going further, according to a new book by former White House aide Cliff Sims, “Tale of Vipers,” which was obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its publication Tuesday.

Three other people who have embarked on a tour with Trump say he has made similar comments regarding Clinton and Lewinsky, laughing and making facial expressions. The subject often leads to lengthy, sometimes crass conversations, aides say.

Often spending days ensconced in the presidential residence, Trump relishes giving tours to acquaintances and strangers by the hundreds, bragging all the while about improving it while he lives there, according to nearly a dozen visitors and current and former White House aides, most of whom requested anonymity to reveal details of the private events. With dangling new chandeliers and imported art work added during his tenure, sightseeing with guests in the White House is among his favorite activities, they said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/want-to-see-the-lincoln-bedroom-trump-relishes-role-as-white-house-tour-guide/2019/01/28/fe1254b0-20f7-11e9-bda9-d6efefc397e8_story.html?noredirect=on

California banned 'personal belief' vaccine exemptions for children entering school three years ago. But a disturbing trend has emerged.

Alyssa Hernandez often worries about her 2-year-old son, Noah, when they leave their Sacramento, California home. The little boy, who had a liver transplant when he was 6 months old, cannot get vaccinated against a number of diseases, including highly contagious measles, because his immune system is suppressed due to the transplant.

“I’m scared to take him out,” Hernandez said. “I’m scared to have him go to school, because you don’t know what’s around.”

As parts of the U.S. experience some of the worst measles outbreaks in years — largely due to parents who don't vaccinate their children — that fear is understandable. The World Health Organization has ranked resistance to vaccinations as one of the top 10 threats to public health in 2019.

In California, an increasing number of parents are finding ways to avoid immunizations for their children, with the the surprising assistance of medical doctors, a recent study found.
Noah Hernandez on the day he was born in 2017. Noah was born with a serious liver disease and had a transplant when he was six months old. Alyssa Alimena

Despite a California law passed after the 2015 Disneyland measles outbreak that got rid of the "personal belief" vaccine exemptions for children entering school, pockets of low vaccination rates have developed in the state. A number of counties are reporting rates lower than 90 percent, the number needed to achieve herd immunity, which occurs when enough people are vaccinated against an infectious disease to protect others in the community who are not.

That is likely due to a surge in medical exemptions— a doctor's note allowing a child to go to school without the required vaccinations, according to research published October in the journal Pediatrics. In some schools the medical exemption rate is as high as 20 percent, according to the California Department of Public Health.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/some-doctors-helping-anti-vaccine-parents-get-medical-exemptions-n963011?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.

The President will make remarks regarding the shutdown in the Rose Garden today at 1:30pm. This will be an open press event.