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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 July 09, 2017 28 Comments
The retail crisis continues as Sears and Kmart will close 43 additional stores. Numerous factors have contributed to stores closing, especially online shopping. But believe it or not, one market correspondent has used the situation to criticize President Donald Trump. However, CNNMoney even reported that Sears Holdings "has struggled to stay afloat as customers turn away from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to shop online."

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 08, 2017 15 Comments
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned everyone that the sexually-transmitted disease gonorrhea has emerged as a super bug since the bacteria has started to resist antibiotics. From CBS News:
"The bacteria that cause gonorrhea are particularly smart. Every time we use a new class of antibiotics to treat the infection, the bacteria evolve to resist them," Dr. Teodora Wi, a WHO medical officer specializing in reproductive health, said in a statement.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 07, 2017 19 Comments
The local Philadelphia theater company Lightning Rod Special has announced a new play it will debut in August...a musical comedy about abortion. From Philadelphia Magazine:
The abortion musical has its roots at the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training, where [co-creator Alice] Yorke and the co-creators studied. Yorke says it was there that she developed a character of an “irate gun-toting fetus running around and shouting about how it would kill anyone who tried to hurt it.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 07, 2017 8 Comments
*This post will be updated as more information comes out.* President Donald Trump met privately with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. At first, media thought Trump would not bring up accusations that Russia interfered with our presidential election in 2016. But after the two hour meeting ended, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that is the first topic Trump brought up.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 06, 2017 31 Comments
The Illinois House voted to override Republican Governor Bruce Rauner's veto of the income tax hike and budget bill. This is the first budget Illinois has passed in two years. The House voted 71-42, which is the bare minimum House Speaker Mike Madigan needed, after a security incident delayed the vote for two hours.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 06, 2017 15 Comments
Attorney generals in eighteen states and Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos over the delay of implementing regulations sculpted to protect any federal student loan borrowers defrauded by for-profit colleges. The attorney generals state that DeVos has illegaly delayed these regulations, which should have gone into affect on July 1. From Politico:
The rules, known as “borrower defense to repayment,” sought to make it easier for defrauded student loan borrowers to seek debt forgiveness. They also prohibit colleges from requiring students to resolve complaints against their school through arbitration rather than in court.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 06, 2017 13 Comments
The NHS recorded more than 9,000 incidents of female genital mutilation (FGM) in England between April 2016 and March 2017. The NHS Digital noted the data comes from NHS trusts and general practitioner officers. The Guardian reported:
The findings show that in the last year there were 9,179 attendances in which FGM was either identified, treatment was given, or a woman with FGM had given birth to a baby girl.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 06, 2017 6 Comments
President Donald Trump began his second overseas trip in Poland, a country that has been battered and torn throughout history. But Poland has taken a stance against the European Union when it comes to migrants and those they fear can damage the country. Trump addressed Poles in Warsaw's Krasinski Square, stating that "nations must have the will to protect borders and preserve civilization from those who would destroy it."

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 05, 2017 15 Comments
James O'Keefe's Project Veritas released another undercover video featuring CNN's New Day associate producer Jimmy Carr, who doubles down on his comments from a previous video from Project Veritas and criticizes New Day host Chris Cuomo. "I mean granted, anything I've said to you I would defend on the record," he told the Project Veritas investigator. "I don't think I said anything wrong." Carr was captured in previous videos calling President Trump a clown, calling American voters stupid as shit, and saying Kellyanne Conway looks like she got hit by a shovel.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 05, 2017 4 Comments
A Politico/Morning Consult poll has found that the majority of voters support President Donald Trump's travel order. Politico reported:
Asked whether they support or oppose the State Department’s “new guidelines which say visa applicants from six predominately Muslim countries must prove a close family relationship with a U.S. resident in order to enter the country,” 60 percent of voters say they support the guidelines, and only 28 percent oppose them.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 04, 2017 18 Comments
Last week, the European Court of Human Rights caused international outrage when the judges decided to side with British courts to remove life support for 10-month-old Charlie Gard, refusing to allow his parents to take him to America for trial therapy, even though they raised more than $1 million for it. Gard suffers from a rare genetic condition, which has caused brain damage, and he cannot breathe on his own. The Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life also decided to side with the UK courts instead of taking a stand for Gard's life. After immense criticism, Pope Francis released a statement urging Gard's parents to do everything they can to save their child's life.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 04, 2017 14 Comments
The Illinois Senate has just approved the massive income tax hike, two days after the House approved it. This bill will permanently raise the income tax 32% from 3.75% to a little under 5%. It also raises the corporate tax rate from 5% to 7%. Republican Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed the bill this afternoon. The Senate voted to override Rauner's veto 36-18. Now the bills go back to the House, which will vote tomorrow.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 03, 2017 20 Comments
Just days after a judge demanded Illinois pay $293 million toward Medicaid bills, the state's House decided to permanently hike the income tax rate by 32%. 15 Republicans voted for the bill, which Illinois Policy documented on Facebook. But Republican Governor Bruce Rauner announced that he will veto the bill if it lands on his desk:
"Under Speaker Madigan's direction, legislators chose to double down on higher taxes while protecting the special interests and refusing to reform the status quo. It's a repeat of the failed policies that created this financial crisis and caused jobs and taxpayers to flee" Rauner said in a statement.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 02, 2017 38 Comments
I've been blogging about the mess that is my home state of Illinois and just as I thought...it managed to find a way to make things worse. Illinois legislators cannot agree on a budget. It closed the "fiscal year $6 billion in the red." The state also has "unpaid bills to state contractors and vendors that's reached about $14.5 billion and roughly $130 billion in unfunded pension liabilities." S&P downgraded the state's credit rating to a step above junk. Then the state's GOP leader resigned on Friday. A judge has ordered Illinois to pay $293 million towards Medicaid bills just as the state entered its THIRD FISCAL YEAR without a budget.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 01, 2017 9 Comments
Healthcare reform has taken center stage once again, but tax reform still lurks in the background. It's yet another issue that Congressional Republicans cannot agree on, mainly on the border adjustment tax. But there's a tax deduction the Republicans may eliminate that could cause problems and possible resistance among lawmakers, including within the party: interest deduction. The Wall Street Journal has pointed out that taking away "the deduction that companies get for interest they pay on debt" affects everyone from those on Wall Street "to wheat farmers in the Midwest looking to make ends meet before harvest."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 30, 2017 12 Comments
James O'Keefe's Project Veritas released part three of its explosive investigation into CNN and its obsession with the Russia-President Donald Trump narrative. This video contains two parts surrounding New Day associate producer Jimmy Carr. He speaks to two investigators and tells them that Trump "is a clown," thinks voters are "stupid as sh*t," and guarantees that Trump has paid for abortions. O'Keefe then shows how Carr's New Day program edited a segment with Trump voters that made one man appear to be a conspiracy theorist.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 30, 2017 21 Comments
Congressional Republicans cannot agree on health care reform, which has caused frustration and anger among the American public. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) sent a letter to President Donald Trump with a suggestion in the event members cannot reach an agreement when they return from Independence Day break: Repeal Obamacare now. Work on the replacement later.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 29, 2017 20 Comments
The House passed two bills today: One is known as Kate's Law that increases penalties for illegal immigrants who keep trying to re-enter the United States, especially those who have criminal records. The second denies federal grants to sanctuary cities. From Fox News:
Kate's Law is named for Kate Steinle, a San Francisco woman killed by an illegal immigrant who was in the U.S. despite multiple deportations. The two-year anniversary of her death is on Saturday. President Trump called the bill's passage "good news" in a tweet, adding "House just passed #KatesLaw. Hopefully Senate will follow."
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