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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 June 26, 2018 52 Comments
Men, get you a lady like Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao! Immigration protesters accosted Chao and her husband Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as they left Georgetown University. Chao took none of their nonsense and snipped at them to leave her husband alone.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 26, 2018 20 Comments
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Illinois lost 37,000 residents aged 25 to 54 from July 2016 to July 2017. A total of 115,000 people left during that time period. Eight other states experienced population loss, but Illinois lost the most. How could this happen in a state that has bustling Chicago? Gee, maybe the bad economic policies?

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 25, 2018 27 Comments
It looks like you got your wish, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). She told MSNBC that #TheResistance will "harass them [members of the administration] until they decide that they're going to tell the president, 'No, I can't hang with you.'" Professor Jacobson documented the times that members of President Donald Trump's administration has faced harassment just this past week. Now the Department of Homeland Security has issued safety warnings for its staff after someone left a burned animal carcass on one official's front porch.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 25, 2018 8 Comments
Civil asset forfeiture is one thing that can bring together the left and right. I've documented the few times states have addressed this issue and it's made me happy that the Supreme Court will address this issue next term. Reason explained the case:
The case is Timbs v. Indiana. It arose in 2013 when a man named Tyson Timbs was arrested on drug charges and sentenced to one year on home detention and five years on probation. A few months after his arrest, the state of Indiana also moved to seize Timbs' brand new Land Rover LR2, a vehicle worth around $40,000. A state trial court rejected that civil asset forfeiture effort, however, on the grounds that it would be "grossly disproportionate to the gravity of [Timbs'] offense" and therefore in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids the imposition of "excessive fines."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 22, 2018 18 Comments
When I taught high school English, I realized that education is best handled as locally as possible and developed a hatred for the Department of Education. I've often said I would abolish that department immediately if I ever became president. This may be the first step in the right direction. The White House has proposed merging the Department of Education with Labor after officials spent months reviewing different agencies to figure out how to downsize the government.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 22, 2018 24 Comments
If the media wants President Donald Trump and others to stop calling them fake news then they need to stop being fake news. A Getty photographer snapped a picture of a crying girl a few weeks ago and became the go-to image for the border fiasco. Time used the picture on its cover to bash Trump, but the girl's father said that the child and her mother were never separated. In fact, he told The Daily Mail, "They are safer now than when they were making that journey to the border."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 21, 2018 28 Comments
*UPDATE: The conservative immigration bill failed to pass the House The House began debating on the Goodlatte immigration bill, considered the more conservative one, at 12:20PM ET. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced that the House will vote on the compromise bill tomorrow. It looks like House leadership will meet in the office of Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) ahead of the vote. Chad Pergram tweeted that the House has decided to debate the farm bill between the two immigration bills, which will give House leadership time to persuade GOP members to vote for the compromise bill.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 21, 2018 2 Comments
First Lady Melania Trump has arrived in Texas to visit border facilities. From CNN:
“This was her decision. She told her staff she wanted to go and we made that happen. He (President Trump) is supportive of that, but she told him, ‘I’m heading down to Texas,’” her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told reporters on the flight to McAllen.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 21, 2018 14 Comments
Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit indicted Sara Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife, for allegedly misusing state funds to pay for meals to their residence. From Fox News:
Netanyahu was accused of misusing about $100,000 of public funds for catering services at the prime minister's Jerusalem home while falsely stating there were no cooks on staff, the justice ministry stated.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 19, 2018 19 Comments
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is never one to mince words and she didn't hold back as America withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council. From CNN:
"Human rights abusers continue to serve on, and be elected to, the council," said Haley, listing US grievances with the body. "The world's most inhumane regimes continue to escape its scrutiny, and the council continues politicizing scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in its ranks."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 19, 2018 6 Comments
Labor Secretary Alex Acosta announced a new rule that will help small businesses and self-employed individuals purchase health insurance. From The Wall Street Journal:
The rule makes it far easier for small businesses and self-employed individuals to band together and obtain “association health plans” for themselves and their employees. Many of the plans will be subject to the same rules as larger employers, which means they won’t have to provide comprehensive benefits, such as maternity services, prescription drugs, or mental health care, mandated under the ACA.
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