LOS ANGELES (AP) — One of the conditions for Brooks Koepka to return to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf was a $5 million contribution to charity. That process is underway, with $1 million going to the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation, the primary charity of the Cognizant Classic.
Koepka also designated (with PGA Tour approval) $1.5 million to 10 charities. That included the ALS Bridge Foundation, which longtime Acushnet executive Peter Broome recently launched.
Broome, well known from his 30 years in the industry, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in August 2024. His mission with ALS Bridge Foundation is to accelerate the search for life-saving solutions and close the gap between laboratory discovery and when patients receive treatment.
The foundation is directing 100% of proceeds toward programs that accelerate drug trials, improve diagnostic access, and fuel collaborative research across the United States and Canada.
Part of the fundraising includes an auction of exclusive experiences provided by a list that includes Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Ryder Cup captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald, and CBS announcer Jim Nantz.
Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith and Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki are leading the auction offers in Canada.
The other $2.5 million of Koepka’s contributions will be equally distributed to charities selected by eligible PGA Tour members, such as their foundations or other charities they support.
Eugenio Chacarra was the biggest college star LIV Golf signed when the Saudi-funded league launched in 2022. He was the No. 2 amateur in the world at Oklahoma State, and he won in his first season on LIV.
But it wasn't long before he started contacting various PGA Tour officials, and Chacarra left LIV after 2024 with an eye on getting to the PGA Tour, which he called a lifelong dream.
He gets a start next week as a sponsor exemption to the Puerto Rico Open. His only other time competing in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event was last year in the Scottish Open, co-sanctioned by the European tour. Chacarra is a European tour member from winning the Hero Indian Open last year.
“My goal since I was little is to be on the PGA Tour,” Chacarra said Tuesday. “I’m excited to finally get a chance to play on the PGA Tour. I’ve been working a lot of these couple weeks at home. I needed some time to reset and focus on what’s the most important thing for me right now, that’s to get on the PGA Tour as quick as possible.”
Chacarra, a 25-year-old from Spain, says he has no regrets about joining LIV because he felt that move was right for him at the time.
He said upon leaving LIV Golf, “I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes, how you get major access and ranking points. On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money. It doesn’t matter if you finish 30th or first, only money.”
“I think I was losing a little motivation to get better out there on LIV at the last year I was there, so it was time for me to move on and start a new pathway,” he said on a video call.
His best route to the PGA Tour might be getting one of 10 cards to the leading players in Europe because he plays a full schedule there.
Justin Thomas had his first competition in five months Monday night when he played with his Atlanta Drive team in a TGL match. He took that occasion to announce he will return to the PGA Tour next week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Thomas has been out since back surgery in November. He is keeping expectations reasonable.
“Look, I obviously want to and would love to play well next week, but I’m also understanding that it’ll be almost five, six months since I’ve played a competitive tournament," he said. "So I’m not exactly expecting anything great. But at least everybody else will be struggling with me at Bay Hill, so that’ll make me feel a little bit better, hopefully.”
So much was made of the new tee on the fourth hole at Riviera extending it to 273 yards, the longest par 3 among regular PGA Tour stops.
“A horrible change,” Rory McIlroy said, one of several observations (rarely positive) going into the Genesis Invitational.
The previous time at Riviera in 2024, only 15% of players hit the green in regulation, the lowest on tour that year.
But the change wasn't just about length. The tees were moved to the right with hopes of making George Thomas' original redan feature more accessible, and 30 to 40 yards on the right were recontoured to enhance the redan features.
Also, the green was expanded to 5,792 square feet (it previously was 5,082 square feet).
The greens were exceptionally soft last week, a product of heavy rain earlier in the week that allowed players to take on flags without shots bounding over the green. So another year might be required to get a better sense. The results, however were noticeable.
Players found the green 65.9% of the time for the week. The highest rate was Saturday — the hole played 262 yards, the longest of the week — when 37 of 51 players (72.6%) hit the green in regulation.
McIlroy played it 2 under for the week — two birdies and two pars.
Michelle Wie West played her last tournament outdoors in the 2023 U.S. Women's Open at Pebble Beach. The former Women's Open champion and still one of the biggest names on the LPGA will return indoors as part of the WTGL to start later this year.
Wie West is an investor in TGL's Los Angeles team.
“I think success for me is really to use WTGL as a platform to keep growing the game,” she said. “I want to see more young girls play the game, and hopefully when they turn the TV on and it’s not just men playing TGL, it’s women, I think that does so much to grow the game.”
Her other goal?
“Be better than Kevin Kisner,” she said, adding at one point she will be nervous about what comes out of her mouth while wearing a microphone.
Wie West joins previous LPGA players who have signed on for the tech-infused indoor league, including world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, Lydia Ko, Charlie Hull and Brooke Henderson.
The WTGL is to start in December, giving the women their own stage with the possibilities of mixed events once it gets established.
Charlie Woods, the son of Tiger Woods who has committed to play at Florida State, has Players Group Management representing him for name, image and likeness deals. Players Group Management also is handling NIL with another Florida State commitment, Miles Russell, the No. 11 amateur in the world. ... Jimmy Roberts is the 2026 recipient of the Tim Rosaforte Distinguished Journalist Award, presented to the longtime NBC Sports host and reporter at the Cognizant Classic on Tuesday. ... Adam Scott, who finished fourth at Riviera on a sponsor exemption, moved to No. 5 on the “Next 10” list of those eligible for the next signature event at Bay Hill. He withdrew from the Cognizant Classic this week. ... PGA of America vice president Nathan Charnes now holds a seat on the PGA Tour board after the president, Don Rea, had his responsibilities reassigned to focus on PGA member priorities. Charnes is in line to become PGA president this fall. ... Marco Penge has won the Seve Ballesteros Award after his European tour peers voted him player of the year. Penge won three times on the European tour in 2025.
All six winners on the PGA Tour this year already were eligible for the Masters.
“Everyone always says the hole looks small when you’ve got pressure. I thought it looked pretty big. I felt good in that moment.” — Jacob Bridgeman on his 3-foot par to win at Riviera for his first PGA Tour title.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Jacob Bridgeman poses with the winner's trophy after winning the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
Adam Scott, from Australia, hits from the fourth tee during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address at 9 p.m. ET is likely to be a test run of the message Republicans will give to voters in November’s elections for control of the House and the Senate.
The president and his party appear vulnerable, with polls showing much of America distrusts how Trump has managed the government in his first year back in office. In addition, the Supreme Court last week struck down one of the chief levers of his economic and foreign policy by ruling he lacked the power to impose many of his sweeping tariffs.
Though Trump is expected to focus on domestic issues, his intensifying threats about launching military strikes on Iran over its nuclear program cast a shadow over the address.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will give the Democratic Party response following Trump’s speech. California Sen. Alex Padilla, who made national headlines last year after being forced to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents, will deliver the party’s response in Spanish.
The Latest:
Speaker Mike Johnson will display George Washington’s gavel during the State of the Union.
The U.S. Capitol Historical Society says it’s the first time the gavel will be displayed during the president’s speech to Congress. It will sit on the rostrum in honor the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
Washington used the gavel in 1793 to lay the cornerstone of the Capitol building, according to the Historical Society. It’s been maintained ever since by the Potomac Lodge No. 5, a Masonic Lodge in Washington, D.C.
“At the Capitol site, Washington stepped into a dug trench, laid a silver plate onto the ground, and set the cornerstone atop it,” the Capitol Historical Society wrote in a news release. “He was accompanied by brethren who conducted a Masonic ritual with corn (a symbol of nourishment), wine (a symbol of refreshment), and oil (a symbol of joy). Witnesses then chanted and celebrated until night.”
Rep. Katherine Clark, the House Democratic whip, says she will skip the State of the Union address and instead attend an alternative event.
A large portion of the Democratic Caucus is planning to not attend the president’s speech, and Clark is one of the highest ranked in leadership to make that move.
“Rather than listen to Donald Trump lie to the American people, I will be hearing from the people of my district about their personal experiences with skyrocketing costs, new barriers to health care, dismantled Social Security services, and brutal cuts to medical research,” she said in a statement.
In the era of written messages, Americans could read the president’s report to Congress because newspapers around the country routinely reprinted excerpts or full text.
Then came mass media, allowing Americans to hear and see the president in real time. Radio audiences first heard Calvin Coolidge’s State of the Union in 1923. Truman followed with the first televised address in 1947. Lyndon Johnson moved to prime time in 1965.
Cable network expansion led to televised focus groups. Select voters listened and reacted word by word — a breakthrough in public opinion research.
George W. Bush’s White House offered the first livestream address in 2002. Barack Obama’s White House set a new curve in 2013 by adding infographics to the stream.
And now, in the social media age, snippets of the speech and commentary circulate widely — from power players and everyday voters — even as the president still speaks.
Speaking at a news conference with Senate Democrats, Dani Bensky said she and other victims want the Department of Justice to release “every single file,” to investigate those “who caused harm to so many victims” and to properly redact their information when files are released.
Bensky has said she was sexually abused by Epstein two decades ago. She said Tuesday that she felt victimized again when her information was exposed in a recent release of Epstein’s case files.
Schumer said “the American people deserve the truth and survivors deserve accountability.”
The president’s annual message was once a catch-all report of the executive branch, especially in the era when it was written.
That changed over the first half of the 20th century. In 1921, Congress passed the National Budget and Accounting Act, which effectively required the president to submit a separate budget proposal — even if Congress never acts on it. The Employment Act of 1946 paved the way for a separate economic report from the administration.
The latter change dovetailed with the advent of the television political era, with Truman’s televised speech in 1947.
The speech has remained policy-heavy since then but presidents from Truman forward have been freer to make an inherently political pitch for their agenda — speaking in front of Congress but clearly aiming beyond the House chamber to voters at home.
Jeffries says Trump should use his speech “as an opportunity to apologize to the American people for breaking every single promise that he made — particularly his promise to lower the high cost of living on Day One.”
Affordability has been top of mind for many lawmakers after Trump late last year called affordability a “hoax.”
“Nobody out there in America believes it’s a hoax, because far too many people are struggling to live paycheck. to paycheck,” Jeffries said.
While inflation has cooled some, dropping to 2.7% in January, the cost of food, gas, and apartment rents have soared after the pandemic, with consumer prices still about 25% higher than they were five years ago.
Following a classified briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the escalating tensions with Iran “an extraordinarily serious time.”
Warner said Trump should “make the case what our country’s goals are, what our country’s interests are and how we’re going to protect American interests in the region.”
One of the traditions of a president’s State of the Union is the customary lunch with anchors from the major television networks.
Usually off the record, the lunch is a chance for the president to fill in top newscasters on his thinking ahead of the high-profile address.
This year, Trump invited three other outlets to the lunch: Breitbart, Newsmax and NewsNation. Leavitt said all those outlets “deserve a seat at the highly coveted table.”
LBJ delivered the first prime time State of the Union in 1965. Networks gave Republicans a response time the following year and have done so since.
Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and House Minority Leader (and future President) Gerald Ford of Michigan shared that first response.
The role often goes to perceived rising stars (Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will follow Trump). But it’s a thankless task. The president has the pomp and circumstance of the House chamber — impossible scenes and effects to replicate.
Results vary widely. Some, like Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams in 2019, get mostly positive reviews only to fade from the spotlight. Others, like Marco Rubio in 2013, get panned — and end up as secretary of state and a potential presidential contender.
Only Ford, George H.W. Bush (1978), Bill Clinton (1985) and Joe Biden (1986) have later given a State of the Union address themselves.
“I recognize every one of you. I know every one of you,” Trump said as the players entered. “Big guys,” he observed.
Trump stood by his desk and shook hands with the players as each one approached. They wore dark long-sleeved tops with “USA,” the American flag and the Olympic rings on the front and light colored pants.
Their gold medals hung around their necks.
The teammates posed for a photograph on the South Lawn and also took in the collection of presidential portraits Trump installed along a walkway between the White House residence and the West Wing.
Democratic leaders say negotiations with the White House over reopening the Department of Homeland Security are at a stalemate as they demand changes to federal immigration enforcement.
The department’s funding expired Jan. 30. Schumer said Tuesday that Democrats “have heard crickets” from the White House since they sent a proposal to end the shutdown last week.
He said the White House “has not budged on the key issues” like requiring agents to take off masks and obtain warrants before entering homes. Federal agents shot and killed two protesters in Minneapolis last month.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that “until that changes, the DHS funding bill is not going to move forward.”
“There hasn’t been any real, recent communication with the White House,” Jeffries said.
Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump will call on Democrats to reopen the department in his State of the Union speech Tuesday evening.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said there will be some members who sit in “silent defiance,” and others who choose not to attend Trump’s speech.
“Some are coming and some are not,” Senate Democratic Leader Schumer said.
Speaker Mike Johnson had criticized those boycotting, but Jeffries said it’s each member’s choice based on what makes the most sense for their constituents back home.
Jeffries said the Republicans, in the majority in Congress, are in no position to lecture because rather than operate as a separate and co-equal branch of government, they’re a “reckless rubberstamp” for Trump’s agenda.
Trump will announce as part of his State of the Union that tech companies involved in artificial intelligence are agreeing to pay higher electricity rates in areas where their data centers are located, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the speech.
The official said it would be one of many announcements related to the economy.
Data centers tend to use large volumes of electricity, creating a concern that they could lead to higher prices for households at a time when affordability is a leading concern for the electorate. The Wall Street Journal first reported the president’s plans to discuss.
—-Joshua Boak
Trump invited the team to his State of the Union address after it brought home a gold medal by defeating Canada at the just-concluded Olympics in Italy.
It was not immediately clear if Trump would hold a press appearance at the White House with the members of the team.
The address comes on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Olga Stefanishyna, said she expects that Trump, who has made ending the war a priority and whose advisers have been mediating peace negotiations, will touch on the conflict in his address.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained maximalist demands, insisting Kyiv pull its forces from four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured. Trump argues it’s inevitable that Russia will win control of the Ukrainian territory and has pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal to save lives.
“We do not expect that … everything we heard before will change into something new, and you know we will hear something extremely like positive or you know inspiring,” Stefanishyna told reporters. “But at the same time, we want President Trump to hear us ahead of the speech that, you know, despite all the complexity and tragedy of what is happening in Ukraine, still Ukrainian people very much rely on his leadership.”
Some Democrats in Minnesota’s congressional delegation are using their privilege of inviting guests to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech to protest his administration’s immigration crackdown.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minneapolis, invited four people impacted by Operation Metro Surge. They include Aliya Rahman, a disabled U.S. citizen who was filmed being pulled from her car by ICE officers on her way to a medical appointment; and Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights School Board, who championed 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, an Ecuadorian boy who was detained with his father and sent to a detention center in Texas.
But GOP Rep. Pete Stauber, from northeastern Minnesota, invited two conservative YouTubers — Nick Shirley and David Hoch — whose report alleging fraud at Minnesota child care centers caught Trump’s attention and provided an impetus for the surge.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel will be worth watching for anyone wanting clues about their standing.
Trump has publicly backed all three but each is under public scrutiny.
Noem survived a shakeup of Trump’s immigration crackdown. But she did not testify during DHS congressional hearings after two citizen protesters were killed in Minneapolis.
Bondi defended the president in a congressional hearing over the Jeffrey Epstein case files but has drawn criticism even from some Republicans for her handling of the matter.
Patel, after taking heat over the Epstein files, as well, is getting renewed attention after traveling to Milan for the Olympics even as he previously critiqued Democratic officials’ use of government resources to travel.
Trump notably did not call on either Noem or Bondi during his last Cabinet meeting that featured agency heads praising the president.
Leavitt said on X that Charlie Kirk’s widow will be one of the president’s guests.
“The president will call on Congress to ‘firmly reject political violence against our fellow citizens’ with Charlie Kirk’s widow in the chamber,” Leavitt posted.
Trump spoke at Kirk’s Arizona memorial service, where Erika Kirk said she forgave her husband’s assassin “because it was what Christ did. And is what Charlie would do.”
The president said during the service that he held a different view: “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry. I am sorry, Erika.”
The White House says the guests who will sit with the first lady in the House gallery during the speech include:
Ten-year-old Everest Nevraumont, a student at the Alpha School in Austin, Texas, where learning is powered by artificial intelligence. Everest is a public speaker and advocate for AI education who gave a TEDx talk on how she uses the technology in her learning.
The first lady champions the use of AI and launched the Presidential AI Challenge, a White House-sponsored contest for students.
Foster care advocate Sierra Burns, 24, of Greenville, South Carolina. Burns grew up in foster care and benefited from the first lady’s Foster Youth to Independence Program. Last year, Melania Trump secured $30 million in funding to help young people transition out of foster care.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver Tuesday night’s Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union from Colonial Williamsburg, invoking the historic backdrop as she frames her message.
Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum with restored 18th-century buildings and interpreters, is seen as the center of Virginia’s early opposition to British rule. Spanberger’s team says she plans to draw on that legacy and connect it to the country’s current political moment.
In her brief rebuttal, Spanberger is also expected to emphasize affordability — the message her team credits with helping her secure a double-digit victory in flipping a previously Republican-held office.
The women of the House Democratic Women’s Caucus and their guests, including a number of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, are dressing in all white for the address this evening, modeling themselves after the early 20th-century women who pressed for the right to vote and other rights.
“Tonight, when Donald Trump looks out into the chamber, he will see a wall of white,” said Democratic Rep. Jill Tokuda of Hawaii.
Some lawmakers are also wearing pins that express support for Epstein survivors and call for the release of case files on Epstein that do not redact information on his associates.
“We are standing here in solidarity so that we are not forgotten,” said Sharlene Rochard, one of the survivors,
The House speaker said Democrats protest everything, from the president’s joint address to the administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown.
“It’s shameful,” Johnson said.
He said the Democrats have nothing to offer but their “TDS agenda” — what the president’s supporters call “Trump Derangement Syndrome” by those opposed to the president’s policies.
Johnson says Trump called him Sunday night saying the needed to make changes.
“’We need some more guests,’” the speaker recalled Trump saying.
The visitors’ gallery was already full, Johnson explained, with waiting lists of those trying to get tickets for seats.
“’Mr. President, how many people are you talking about?” the speaker asked.
“The whole team,” he said Trump told him.
Johnson said they’ve been working out logistics and are going to “squeeze in” the gold-medal winning hockey players. “It’ll be a great moment,” he said.
The gold-medal winning women’s Olympic team declined Trump’s invitation to attend.
Sen. Alex Padilla will deliver the Democratic Party’s Spanish-language response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union on Tuesday night, elevating a California Democrat who made national headlines last year after being forced to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents.
Padilla had confronted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a Los Angeles news conference, attempting to speak out about immigration raids that sparked protests in California and across the country.
The son of Mexican immigrants, Padilla said in a statement that his response will focus on “a better path — one that lowers costs, safeguards our democracy, and reins in rogue federal agencies.”
The Spanish-language response comes as Democrats try to reclaim ground with Latino voters ahead of the midterms, after Trump increased his share of Latino support in 2024 compared with 2020.
Trump speaks days after the Supreme Court invalidated his tariffs imposed as national emergency measures, leading him to reup levies under different statutes.
Woodrow Wilson, the president who revived in-person congressional address, addressed lawmakers on tariffs weeks after taking office in 1913. It wasn’t his official annual message (that would come months later). But, like Trump, Wilson wanted to mold Congress and public opinion.
Unlike Trump, Wilson wanted income taxes on the wealthiest Americans to lower tariffs imposed through his Republican predecessors – including one of Trump’s favorites, William McKinley.
Wilson urged the U.S. to “build up trade” while trusting “the whetting of American wits by contest with the wits of the rest of the world.”
In 1917, Wilson asked Congress in-person to declare war on Germany. Trump is considering military action against Iran and has taken action in Venezuelan — but not sought congressional approval for either.
From the end of John Adams’ presidency in 1801 to the start of Woodrow Wilson’s in 1913, the State of the Union was a mere letter ferried down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Adams’ successor, Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, was considered a more comfortable writer than speaker and sought to avoid spectacles that he associated more with monarchy than a democratic republic.
So, to satisfy the Constitution’s requirement that the president “shall from time to time” apprise Congress on “the State of the Union,” the third president wrote to lawmakers instead of addressing them in person.
Thus began a century-plus tradition of written presidential read on Capitol Hill by congressional clerks.
Wilson bucked that tradition, viewing in-person speeches to Congress as a valuable presidential megaphone to shape public opinion and congressional action. Every president since has addressed joint sessions of Congress.
“He will call on Democrats in Congress to reopen the Department of Homeland Security,” Leavitt told reporters, blaming Democrats for the department’s shutdown and calling the situation “despicable.”
She said Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel are in the Northeast and working without pay as a result of the shutdown to help authorities restore power to hundreds of thousands of people after the blizzard.
DHS funding lapsed on Jan. 30 as Democrats demanded changes to federal immigration enforcement.
The shutdown is also affecting several agencies within the department, including the Coast Guard, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration.
The White House and Democrats have been negotiating potential changes to ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies after federal agents fatally shot two protesters in Minnesota.
But the two sides appear to be at a stalemate after the White House rejected the latest offer from Democrats last week.
Democrats are attempting to get ahead of Trump’s anticipated celebration of lower crime rates during his State of the Union speech.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said the drop is because of initiatives taken at the local level — not the aggressive steps from the White House.
“While mayors would welcome a federal partner who works with them, and not against them, the Trump Administration has done nothing to help,” Lucas said in a statement. “In fact, it has actively made our cities less safe.”
Lucas, who leads the Democratic Mayors Association, said the administration has “recklessly attacked our cities, undermining them at every turn.”
The president blasted the three Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices who sided against his tariffs.
He’ll almost certainly have them sitting in front of him Tuesday night. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett are regular attendees at the State of the Union.
When reporters asked Trump about his appointees, Gorsuch and Barrett, he declared their tariff votes “an embarrassment to their families.”
Trump has been similarly personal on the debate stage during campaigns. But he has a history of avoiding conflict with rivals — real and perceived — when they’re in the room. He was especially chummy with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office after previously calling him a communist.
President Barack Obama notably criticized the court during a joint address after its Citizen United decision that expanded big money in politics. Roberts shook his head, visibly perturbed by Obama’s critique.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said House Democrats intend to carry on the legacy of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The Brooklyn congressman also invited Vonetta Rougier, a bus operator and a caregiver for her family, from his district. He said she is “picking up extra shifts just to keep up with the skyrocketing price of housing, food and healthcare.”
He he is also welcoming Marina Lacerda, who is among the Epstein survivors attending as guests of the Democratic Women’s Caucus.
Containers are stacked at the Port of Long Beach Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Allyson Phillips, the mother of Laken Riley, is hugged by President Donald Trump, during an event to proclaim "Angel Family Day" in the East Room of the White House, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Shown is the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, ahead of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
