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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 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.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 18, 2018 9 Comments
I blogged last week that Seattle's city council pulled its head tax less than a month after the members passed it after legitimate pressure from Amazon, Starbucks, and other businesses. I detailed in my blog the trouble with unnecessary corporate taxes such as fewer new jobs and less expansion. Despite this, the cities that make up California's infamous Silicon Valley wants to pass its own head tax.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 15, 2018 53 Comments
President Donald Trump will approve a plan that will impose a 25% tariff on Chinese technology products, which is worth around $50 billion. From The Washington Post:
Although the import levies affect less than 10 percent of the $505 billion in Chinese goods that Americans buy each year, Trump’s new trade barriers mark a historic change after three decades of deepening ties between the world’s two largest economies.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 15, 2018 19 Comments
So this morning President Donald Trump gave an impromptu interview on Fox & Friends. He said he wouldn't sign the moderate immigration bill that will go to the House floor next week. Now a White House official said the president misunderstood the question. From The Hill:
"Yes, we fully support both the Goodlatte bill and the Leadership bill. The President misunderstood the question this morning on Fox News," the source said in an email. "He was commenting on the discharge petition/dreamers bill — not the new package. He would 100 percent sign either Goodlatte or the other bill."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 14, 2018 24 Comments
Just because North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un met with President Donald Trump, shook hands, and signed a vague agreement doesn't mean the sanctions against the evil regime will disappear right away. From Reuters:
"President Trump has been incredibly clear about the sequencing of denuclearization and relief from the sanctions," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters after meeting South Korea's president and Japan's foreign minister in Seoul.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 13, 2018 17 Comments
Less than a month after they passed it, Seattle's city council voted to repeal the corporate head tax after facing legitimate pressure from companies like Starbucks and Amazon. The tax would have forced companies that make "more than $20 million a year pay an annual $275 tax per employee." The council predicted the tax would raise $47 million a year for "affordable-housing and homeless services." The city council planned to use that extra tax money to counter the city's growing homeless problem.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 13, 2018 16 Comments
A new Politico/Morning Consult Poll shows the public's image of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has hit an all-time low. Now 53% of the public view him "in an unfavorable light." Maybe because the investigation has gone for over a year and all the charges have led to everything but collusion? Maybe because the American people care about the economy more than anything else?

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 12, 2018 25 Comments
I just rolled my eyes so hard I'm shocked they're not stuck in the back of my head. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) surgery resident Eugene Gu, 32, became an internet star after he sued President Donald Trump for blocking him on Twitter. Gu tweeted his support for Colin Kaepernick, the ringleader of the NFL's anthem-kneeling protest. Now Dr. Gu claims Vanderbilt refused to renew his contract politics and racism instead of taking responsibility for his actions. Gu's claims don't tell the whole story. The hospital refused to renew Gu's contract due to disciplinary action for "work performance and professionalism."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 12, 2018 105 Comments
President Trump and Kim Jong Un met at the luxurious Capella Resort on Sentosa island in Singapore and their warm handshake and smiles seem to signal that the days of name-calling and North Korean rocket launching may be over.
“Nice to meet you Mister President,” Kim said as he sat alongside Trump, against a backdrop of North Korean and U.S. flags, beaming more broadly as the U.S. president gave him a thumbs up. Trump said he was sure they would have a “terrific relationship”
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