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Author: Mary Chastain

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Mary Chastain

Mary is the resident libertarian. She covers stories in every vertical, but her favorite thing to do is take on the media. She saw its bias against the right when she was a socialist.

Mary loves the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, tennis, cats, Oxford comma, Diet Coke, and needlework.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 15, 2018 40 Comments
Welp, that didn't last very long. The Senate has ended its debate on immigration as the lawmakers have rejected BOTH proposals in front of them: one from President Donald Trump and the other from the bipartisan clique, the Common Sense Coalition. The lawmakers rejected amendments from Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Chris Coons (D-DL) and another one from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA).

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 15, 2018 63 Comments
BuzzFeed News dropped a bombshell today with a report that the FBI received a warning last fall from a YouTube vlogger and bail bondsman about a comment from a Nikolas Cruz. He supposedly said, "I'm going to be a professional school shooter." 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz attacked students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Wednesday and killed 17 people. Officials charged him with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 15, 2018 24 Comments
The Common Sense Coalition, made up of eight Democrats, eight Republicans, and one Independent, has struck a bipartisan deal on immigration even though they know President Donald Trump will likely veto it if it reaches his desk. (I feel like this is the tenth bill that has come up on this subject) It includes a few portions from Trump's bill, but lacks other "pillars" the president has emphasized like eliminating the diversity visa lottery.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 14, 2018 9 Comments
Authorities have taken a suspect in custody after a shooting at the NSA complex this morning in Fort Meade, MD. The FBI does not believe this is terrorism, but authorities do not have a motive. The driver is in the hospital while officials have two men in custody who were with the driver.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 13, 2018 34 Comments
President Donald Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn has come back into the news after The Washington Examiner's Byron York reported that former FBI Director James Comey told Congress the department doesn't think Flynn lied to them. Remember the fiasco is over him allegedly speaking to to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition period in December 2016:
On Jan. 24, 2017, two of Comey's FBI agents went to the White House to question Flynn, and there was a lot of speculation later that Flynn lied in that interview, which would be a serious crime.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 12, 2018 5 Comments
Vice President Mike Pence told The Washington Post on his way home from the Olympics that the U.S. is ready to open talks with North Korea after a discussion with South Korean President Moon Jae-in:
The frame for the still-nascent diplomatic path forward is this: The United States and its allies will not stop imposing steep and escalating costs on the Kim Jong Un regime until it takes clear steps toward denuclearization. But the Trump administration is now willing to sit down and talk with the regime while that pressure campaign is ongoing.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 12, 2018 20 Comments
Donald Trump, Jr.'s wife Vanessa is at a New York City hospital after she opened an envelope with white powder. From ABC7NY:
The letter was addressed to Donald Trump Jr. and sent to the couple's apartment on East 54th Street in Manhattan. His wife, Vanessa, opened the letter just after 10 a.m. She and two other people were decontaminated by firefighters at the scene and taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 12, 2018 17 Comments
President Donald Trump has rolled out the budget for 2019, written by budget director Mick Mulvaney. While it demands cuts to federal spending, it avoids balancing the budget within 10 years. Infrastructure received the main point of the budget for $1.5 trillion and cutting red tape. Trump tweeted out that after the country spent $7 trillion in the Middle East, it's time to start investing in America.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 09, 2018 27 Comments
On Thursday, Ed Henry at Fox News dropped a story about how Sen. Mark Warner (D-NV), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, exchanged texts with a Russian oligarch regarding a meeting with dossier author Christopher Steele. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) dismissed the report because he claimed that Warner made the texts known to the committee. So is this a big deal? Maybe, maybe not. It does raise a few questions like, as Kimberley Strassel points out, why did he want to avoid a paper trail? Why did Steele need to use this oligarch to reach Congress?

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 09, 2018 4 Comments
Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN) has announced he will retire at the end of the year, which means the GOP has an opportunity to take a House seat away from the Democrats. This puts a dent in the Democrats plan to retake the House as they have pounced on districts of GOP representatives who have decided to retire.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 09, 2018 31 Comments
Here's a hint: If you're going to help lead a movement against sexual harassment, don't sexually harass anyone. California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia gained fame after she led the #MeToo movement at the California Capitol. Time magazine even featured her in its the "Silence Breakers" issue at the end of 2017. Now a former staffer has accused her of sexual misconduct when he participated at a legislative softball game with her.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 07, 2018 29 Comments
On Monday, I blogged about how Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked the FBI to declassify the criminal referral he and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sent to the DOJ over dossier author Christopher Steele. The FBI approved a less-redacted version and Grassley released it on Tuesday, including some parts of the documents that detail why the two senators believe Steele misled the FBI. However, the portion about Steele's second dossier that had information from an associate of the Clintons and member of the State Department remains the same. In other parts, it supports claims that the FBI used Steele's dossier to receive a surveillance warrant on carter Page.
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