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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 24, 2017 39 Comments
The Daily Caller reported that the FBI has taken the smashed hard drives from the home of Pakistani-born Imran Awan, a former IT aide that worked for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). The Capitol Police took "computer equipment tied to the Florida lawmaker." A source told The Daily Caller "that the FBI has joined what Politico previously described as a Capitol Police criminal probe into 'serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network'" by Awan, his wife Hina Alvi, and his brothers Abid and Jamal. Officials suspect these four people “accessing members’ computer networks without their knowledge and stealing equipment from Congress.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 24, 2017 22 Comments
Social media erupted on Sunday when a poll showed musician Robert Ritchie, aka Kid Rock, up by four points over incumbent Democratic Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow. Delphi Analytics, whose website just launched this month, released the findings:
Of respondents who stated a preference between Debbie Stabenow and Robert Ritchie, 54% stated they would vote for Ritchie while 46% said they would vote for Debbie Stabenow. These results could indicate that Ritchie is a popular figure in Michigan, Debbie Stabenow is unpopular, or some combination of concurrent trends. The relatively large, 44%, number of undecided respondents may be due to the early stages of the campaign.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 22, 2017 2 Comments
George Romero, the father of the zombie horror genre, passed away last Sunday at the age of 77. Romero burst onto the scene in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead, which cost only $100,000 to produce and broke a barrier when he casted an African-American male in the lead heroic role.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 21, 2017 1 Comment
The FBI and Dutch authorities have successfully shut down AlphaBay and Hansa, two of the largest marketplaces on the dark web, which sold drugs, firearms, malware, and forged documents. AlphaBay, which the FBI seized, "allegedly serviced some 200,000 users and 40,000 vendors." It disappeared earlier this month with Attorney General Jeff Sessions describing the seizure as "one of the most important criminal investigations of the year."

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 21, 2017 12 Comments
The Department of Justice decided to eliminate the $3 million fine that Harley-Davidson received from President Barack Obama's administration to fight pollution. The money was supposed to go "to an American Lung Association project promoting cleaner-burning cook stoves." The company reached an agreement with the government last August to pay that fine along with a $12 million fine for the "manufacture and sale of around 340,000 illegal motorcycle tuners."

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 20, 2017 21 Comments
New York City users of the pet-sitting app Rover have discovered that dog-sitting without a kennel license is illegal in the city. New York Daily News reported:
The health code bans boarding, feeding and grooming animals for a fee without a kennel license — and says those licenses can’t be issued for private homes.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 20, 2017 34 Comments
OJ Simpson has received parole for his 2008 conviction of an armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers. From Fox News:
Commissioner Tony Corda begins. He says Simpson committed a crime and was sent to prison. He says Simpson has no prior convictions and is low risk. He has community support and has heard from Simpson and his victim. "The question is if you have served enough time in this case." Corda votes to grant parole.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 19, 2017 3 Comments
People rejoiced when the Illinois legislature passed a budget bill mainly aimed at education. I blogged about eduction funding for grades K-12 earlier this month. Public universities have their own problems. Yes, the state has its first budget in two years, but its the first budget in two years:
"You don't get one year's funding and have people say, 'Oh, Illinois is totally fixed now,' " said Rachel Lindsey, interim president of Chicago State University. "I don't think it would be in our best interest to think of ourselves as out of the woods just yet."

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 19, 2017 41 Comments
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has kept his word. The Department of Justice has expanded its asset forfeiture program that will allow authorities to seize a citizen's property even if they have not been charged with a crime. The DOJ's program can even apply in the fourteen states that have banned civil asset forfeiture without a criminal conviction.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 19, 2017 8 Comments
The investigation into female genital mutilation (FGM) in Michigan has now spread to five other states after authorities identified possible new defendants. The lawyer for Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, the woman charged with performing FGM on numerous girls, disclosed this information in new court documents "to show the complexity of the case and explain why" the court should release her client "from jail to prepare for trial.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 19, 2017 19 Comments
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is entangled in a new controversy only a week after the public lashed out at officials for refusing to release video footage of crimes over fears the videos would incite racism. Recent reports indicate that BART has seen double the amount of rapes in the first six months of 2017 than all of 2016.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 18, 2017 23 Comments
Just as states have finally taken steps to stop civil asset forfeiture, Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to take the federal government a few steps back. In a speech to the National District Attorneys Association, Sessions announced that this week the Department of Justice hopes to issue "policies to increase forfeitures."

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 18, 2017 13 Comments
Saudi Arabia is a country that oppresses females, treating them as second class citizens. Recently, authorities arrested a young woman who wore a skirt and crop top in public. Her head was not covered. The video, posted to Snapchat, "show the woman walking through an ancient fort in Ushayqir, a village in Najd province about 95 miles from the capital, Riyadh," reports the Washington Post.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 17, 2017 14 Comments
Sen. Bernie Sanders's wife Jane has taken a page out of failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's book by screaming 'sexism' at Brady Toensing, the man who filed a complaint alleging Mrs. Sanders committed bank fraud while president for the now defunct Burlington College. From The Boston Globe:
“I find it incredibly sexist that basically he’s going after my husband by destroying my reputation, and that’s not OK,” she said in her first interview about the man responsible for an FBI probe that centers on her leadership at Burlington College, a small liberal arts school on Lake Champlain that she led from 2004 to 2011. The college closed last year as it struggled to pay its creditors and lost its accreditation.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 17, 2017 26 Comments
The Catholic nuns of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in West Hempfield, PA, have built an open air chapel on their land as a last effort to stop a company from building a natural gas pipeline on their property. From Philly.com:
A federal judge agreed this month that the pipeline’s parent company, Williams Partners, can condemn a portion of the order’s property for an easement. A hearing in U.S. District Court of the Eastern District in Reading is scheduled for Monday morning.
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