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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.

Sources have disclosed to the media that federal prosecutors have started to consider pressing changes against Julian Assange and other members of WikiLeaks. The case against the whistleblowing organization spans all the way back to 2010 when it published "diplomatic cables and military documents" to present day when it published the CIA's hacking operations in March. The other day, officials told CBS News that the FBI and CIA have started an investigation into those leaks in March.

General Motors has closed down its Venezuela plant after the socialist country seized the plant on Wednesday. Officials swiped the company's "production facilities and car stock," which forced GM to lay off 2,700 workers. The closure comes only a day after Venezuela erupted in more protests that have left at least three dead. President Nicolas Maduro's policies have left people jobless and without food. Bloomberg reported:
GM’s factory was “unexpectedly taken by the public authorities, preventing normal operations,” according to an emailed statement. The Detroit-based automaker said it “strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights.”

A gunman opened fire on the famous Champs-Élysées in Paris and killed one police officer before being killed himself. The attack left two other people seriously injured. ISIS immediately claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack. The Wall Street Journal reported:
The assault began around 9 p.m., an Interior Ministry spokesman said, when a car pulled alongside a police patrol and the gunman jumped out wielding an automatic rifle. Police returned fire, killing the gunman, according to authorities.

CBS News has reported that the FBI and CIA have started an investigation to find the person who provided WikiLeaks with secret documents. The investigation is linked to the WikiLeaks publication of almost 9,000 pages that detailed the CIA'S hacking operations. According to the documents, the CIA uses its own malware to hack into anyone's electronics and spy on them. The agency even has malware from Russia, and other countries, which means agents can make an attack look like it came from that country.

Twenty-two years ago today, at 9:02 AM, a homemade bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK. The bomb killed 168 people, which included 19 children. The attack at the time was the worst terrorist attack on American soil until 9/11. Every single year, us in Oklahoma City remember this tragic attack at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. Survivors and family members of the victims decorate the beautiful chairs that adorn the memorial, one for each victim. I did not live in OKC at the time, but the city has become my home and trust me, you do not have to be from around here to have it affect you.

Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez, 27, hanged himself in his prison cell early Wednesday morning while serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder charge at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, MA. He committed suicide on the day his former team will visit the White House to commemorate their Super Bowl victory over the Atlanta Falcons in February.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has announced he will not run for reelection. He currently serves as chairman for the House Oversight Committee. He wrote on Facebook:
After long consultation with my family and prayerful consideration, I have decided I will not be a candidate for any office in 2018.

The book Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign has revealed candid details about Hillary Clinton's campaign the months leading up to election night and how she dealt with the massive loss to President Donald Trump. Poll after poll showed Hillary with the lead, which rightly had everyone thinking she would win on November 8. But something happened. The quiet Trump supporters came out of the woodwork and handed her a devastating loss. Authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes wrote that the defeat forced Hillary to do two things she never thought would happen: Congratulate Trump and apologize to former President Barack Obama.

British Prime Minister Theresa May stunned many British politicians on Tuesday morning when she called for a snap election on June 8 as a way to help her negotiate through the Brexit process with the European Union. May had said before that she would not hold a general election, but opposition from within the government over Brexit negotiations forced her hand. The London Times reported:
“The country is coming together but Westminster is not,” she said.

As tension rise between America and North Korea, it appears that Russian state TV has decided to side with dictator Kim Jong Un. According to Bloomberg, the Kremlin's top TV guy Dmitry Kiselyov made this proclamation after calling President Donald Trump "just the kind of leader the world needed" a few weeks ago. Bloomberg reported:
In the latest sign of the Kremlin’s abrupt about-face on its erstwhile American hero, Kiselyov pronounced Trump “more dangerous” than his North Korean counterpart. “Trump is more impulsive and unpredictable than Kim Jong Un,” he told viewers of his prime-time Sunday “Vesti Nedelyi” program, which earlier this year carried paeans to Trump for his pledge to warm up relations with Russia.