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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.

President Donald Trump and his administration continues to crack down on Iran, but this time it took aim at terrorist group Hezbollah, which relies on Iran. The sanctions will also try to dim Iran's influence across the Middle East. From the Treasury Department:
“Hizballah is a terrorist organization responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans. It is also Iran’s primary proxy used to undermine legitimate Arab governments across the Middle East. The Administration is determined to expose and disrupt Hizballah’s networks, including those across the Middle East and West Africa, used to fund their illicit operations,” said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin. “The Treasury Department will continue to sever Hizballah from the international financial system, and we will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hizballah’s financial support networks globally.”

Last October, Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more when he opened fire on a concert crowd in Las Vegas, a city with cameras everywhere. However, we know almost nothing about this case and it's about to get worse. Clark County Nevada Coroner John Fudenberg has refused to obey a court order and release Paddock's autopsy.

In January, Chelsea Manning announced she filed papers to run for the Senate in Maryland, making her an opponent of Sen. Ben Cardin. It turns out, Manning may not be eligible to run because "she is on a technical form of unpaid active duty." This goes against "Department of Defense regulations that prohibit military personnel from seeking public office."

Can we finally STOP taking Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff seriously? Of all people, Morning Joe's Mika Brzezinski finally brought the arrogant man down a peg or two over his comments on US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. From The Washington Examiner:
"I’m gonna go as far as to say that you might be having a fun time, playing a little game dancing around this," Brzezinski said, "but you're slurring a woman. It’s disgraceful"

President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff John Kelly said on Fox News Radio that the president will release House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes' memo soon. From Fox News:
In a radio exclusive, White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly, joined Brian Kilmeade at the White House to talk about President Trump's first State of the Union address. Kelly discussed President Trump taking the handcuffs off of the military in Afghanistan, working on a bipartisan solution on DACA, why his heart breaks over identity politics in America and President Trump releasing the Nunes memo "pretty quick and the whole world can see it."

The Guardian has reported that the FBI has a second President Donald Trump-Russia dossier that allegedly corroborates some information in the Christopher Steele dossier. One caveat: Cody Shearer, an activist close to failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's camp, authored this one.

The DNC has received another blow as it tries to pick up the pieces after Hillary Clinton failed miserably in November 2016. After less than a year at her post, DNC CEO Jess O'Connell has stepped down. It seems that there's no controversy surrounding her departure, but it just adds more chaos.

The Democrats have another opportunity to take a seat in the House of Representatives since House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) has announced he will retire at the end of his term. He has represented New Jersey's 11th district since 1995.

The West has done everything they could to prevent an all out war with North Korea by slapping the communist kingdom with sanctions after sanctions. Now it appears that sanctions have started to work since the military happy country has cut back on its military exercises mainly due to the sanctions on oil imports.