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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 March 29, 2017 1 Comment
Tuesday, I blogged that funding for a border wall may complicate the budget showdown set for next month. President Trump asked Congress for around $1 billion to start building a wall along 62 miles on the border. Time White House correspondent Zeke Miller asked Press Secretary Sean Spicer if the administration considers funding for a border wall with Mexico a deal breaker when it comes to next month's spending bill:
“That is our request,” press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday when asked if the wall funding is a deal-breaker for a must-pass spending bill.
Unfortunately, a more specific answer is needed since the government faces a partial shutdown if Congress cannot pass a bill by April 29.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 29, 2017 7 Comments
Who doesn't love Mike Rowe?! The Dirty Jobs star has become well known for his videos that encourage people to learn a trade and get to work. For the fourth year in a row, he has launched a scholarship for those who want to learn a certain trade:
“Every year, we do a work ethic scholarship,” explained the 55-year-old on “Fox & Friends" Tuesday. “It’s not huge, but we set aside five or six hundred grand and we put it in a pile and we invite people who want to learn a skill that’s actually in demand to make a case for themselves [such as] an essay, video, references.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 29, 2017 10 Comments
The divorce between the United Kingdom and the European Union has officially begun. Tuesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May signed the letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which allows a member to leave the union. Wednesday morning, British Ambassador to the EU Sir Tim Burrow handed the letter to Tusk. The UK now has two years to leave the EU.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 29, 2017 12 Comments
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike recently revised a report from December that insisted that the group "Fancy Bear," which has ties to Russian intelligence, used malware to hack into Ukrainian artillery. In the same report, the firm said "Fancy Bear" used the same malware to "hack" into the American election. Well, British think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) found that CrowdStrike "erroneously used IISS data as proof of the intrusion." This also calls into question its findings of meddling in our election.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 28, 2017 7 Comments
On the heels of the failed GOP health care bill, Republicans on the Hill have two new battles: tax reform and avoiding a government shutdown. I detailed the tax reform fight Sunday. Funding for Trump's border wall could complicate the looming budget showdown. Among the options for avoiding yet another government shutdown are reeling in Democrat support to stop a filibuster in the Senate and possibly excluding border wall funding in the spending bill. Typically, the federally government is funded on a yearly basis. Current federal funding ends at the end of April and if nothing happens, a partial shutdown may occur. If a shutdown occurs, GOP lawmakers fear they'll be blamed like they were in 2013. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) has encouraged his colleagues to stay focused:
“The government can’t shut down,’’ he said. “If you have a Republican Congress shutting down a Republican government, that’s just about as politically stupid as it gets.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 27, 2017 5 Comments
The head of America's "largest privately held" coal firm has expressed optimism for his industry under President Donald Trump after a meeting held last month. Murray Energy's CEO and founder Robert Murray spoke with The Guardian on Monday. He believes that Trump will stick to his campaign promises for the coal industry by reducing regulations and overturning a few of President Barack Obama's plans related to climate change. It's hard to deny his thoughts as coal communities in Virginia have seen a drastic positive change since Trump became president.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 27, 2017 3 Comments
The Times of Israel reported that the Isreali-American teen arrested for the recent bomb threats against Jewish institutions in America made similar bomb threats at institutions across the world for two years. From Ynet:
According to Chief Superintendant Meir Ohayon of the Israel Police's cyber unit, New Zealand police requested assistance in tracing the source of the calls last September. After getting the relevant details and conducting a preliminary investigation, Israel Police informed their counterparts from New Zealand that they believed that source of the calls was Israel. "At that point, the hunt for the Israeli 'hacker' who drove the world crazy was on," said Ohayon.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 26, 2017 18 Comments
Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) has resigned from the Freedom Caucus over the GOP healthcare fiasco because he wanted to vote for the bill:
“To deliver on the conservative agenda we have promised the American people for eight years, we must come together to find solutions to move this country forward," Poe said through his congressional office. "Saying no is easy, leading is hard, but that is what we were elected to do. Leaving this caucus will allow me to be a more effective member of Congress and advocate for the people of Texas. It is time to lead."

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 26, 2017 38 Comments
The GOP healthcare bill AHCA failed before Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) could even bring it to the floor. Of course, the Democrats have used this opportunity to gloat and take credit on television, even though they hold the minority in the House and Senate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi led the charge.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 26, 2017 2 Comments
Now that the GOP healthcare bill is dead, the administration will more than likely set its eyes on tax reform. However, this could very well end like the healthcare bill. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) insisted that the party has "more agreement" when it comes to tax reform while Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin explained that the "plan to overhaul the U.S. tax code would face smoother sailing" than healthcare. Oh really?

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 25, 2017 12 Comments
If you're an Apple snob like me, I'm pretty sure you became concerned when Wikileaks published documents about the hacking tools the CIA used to sneak into Apple products. A person could not disable the tools even by resetting their phone. But Apple has come out to assure customers that the company has fixed the vulnerabilities in its newer products.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 24, 2017 3 Comments
Last week, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn acknowledged that he worked as a foreign agent with the firm Inovo, owned by Turkish-American businessman Ekim Alptekin, who has links to the Turkish government. The firm hired Flynn to investigate Fehtullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania, that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed for many attempts coups. Today, ex-CIA director James Moosley released a bombshell with The Wall Street Journal, stating he attended a meeting with Flynn and Turkish foreign ministers to discuss removing Gulen back to Turkey. At the time, Flynn served as a Trump campaign advisor.
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