Thanks for joining me today on Robertson’s Reporings! This week, the controversy continues on whether the popular Christmas song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is inappropriate or not. Multiple polls have been put up with results saying that people want the song off of radio stations because of the “inappropriate nature of the song’s lyrics.” Some examples of the song lyrics that people complain about include “Say what’s in this drink?” and “The answer is no.” Many people believe that the woman singing the song feels pressured to stay. This issue began years ago, and history is repeating itself this year when a Cleveland radio station received a complaint about the lyrics of the song. Many other radio stations across America decided to stop playing the song, but our local Christmas music stations, such as 99.5 and 99.1, remain unchanged.

Over the past few weeks, there has been talk of a partial government shutdown. President Trump threatened to shut the government down after being refused the grant to build a stronger wall around the border. On December 18, the White House stated that they were willing to work with Congress in order to avoid this shut down. A situation similar to this happened in December of 2017 when the government could not agree on funding, so it went into a partial shut down. When the government shuts down, nobody that works for the government will receive pay, national parks will be closed, and many monuments would also close. In the end, the House of Representatives approved a bill devoting 5.7 billion dollars for the wall being made to separate America and Mexico. However, the Senate still has to pass this bill, and this is very unlikely because the majority of the Senate is democrats unlike our president, a republican. This standstill may cause the government to shut down on December 21.

On Wednesday, December 19, the North Carolina House of Representatives completed the vote to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill stating that a photo identification is required in order to vote. The majority of members of the North Carolina Senate and House of Representatives are republican; however, Governor Cooper is a democrat. During the recent November elections, locals voted to make a voter ID necessary to participate in the voting process. Shortly after, our governor vetoed this bill, but this past week the Senate and House of Representatives voted to override this veto making the bill a law.

On December 20, Greensboro received continuous rain with clouds covering the sky all day. This is because a winter storm on the Gulf Coast is worsening and can cause problems for Americans planning on traveling over the holiday season. Severe thunderstorms, flooding, and heavy rain are to come in the East Coast with possible tornados. In the cities to the north of Tampa, up to six inches of rain is expected while in a small areas in West Virginia, six inches of snow is expected. This goes to show that ice, rain, and snow will be expected throughout the East Coast.

Also on December 20, President Trump pulled over 2,000 United States troops from Syria. The president is facing major pushback by many military generals stationed in Syria, politicians, and citizens who believe that our troops are needed to keep peace in the Middle East. In order to prevent Middle Eastern citizens and the United States citizens from being attacked by ISIS, the U.S. troops are fighting the terrorist group so that they cannot keep growing. In 2011, Former President Barack Obama pulled troops out of Iraq which caused ISIS to expand. This has led many public speakers to express their concern for the issue because they do not want history to repeat itself. See you in 2019 on Robertson’s Reportings, coverage you can count on!