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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 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."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 29, 2017 9 Comments
On Wednesday afternoon, MLB umpire John Tumpane witnessed a woman climb off the side of the Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA, and knew something just wasn't right. He explained to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that others around him couldn't tell him what was going on and that's when he decided to do something. He confronted the woman and asked her "what was going on" She told him she "just wanted to get a better look of the city from this side." Tumpane knew that wasn't the case. He continued to the Post-Gazette:

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 29, 2017 73 Comments
President Donald Trump took to Twitter to unleash his anger on Morning Joe and its hosts Mika Brzezinki and Joe Scarborough. He wrote that he heard the show "speaks badly" of him, but wants to know why "I.Q. Crazy Mika" and "Psycho Joe" went to Mar-a-Lago for three nights around News Year Eve and asked to meet with him. Then Trump claimed Mika "was bleeding badly from a facelift" so he said no. Of course Mika didn't let this stand and responded on Twitter.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 28, 2017 28 Comments
James O'Keefe's Project Veritas dropped the second video of a series to expose the media's bias against President Donald Trump. This video catches CNN's Van Jones, one of the more prominent leftist contributors, admitting the Trump-Russia narrative is mostly a "nothing burger." Yesterday's video showed a CNN producer calling the narrative "mostly bullsh*t."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 28, 2017 6 Comments
Social media took off late Tuesday night after video caught a helicopter circling Venezuelan government buildings, including the Supreme Court. Reports indicate that the helicopter "fired 15 shots at the Interior Ministry, where scores of people were at a social event, and dropped four grenades on the court, where judges were meeting." President Nicolas Maduro immediately slammed the attack, which he called a coup attempt. But other theories have come to light with the opposition saying Maduro staged the coup attempt as a way to crackdown on his opponents and grab more power.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 28, 2017 6 Comments
The Petya ransomeware took off yesterday across the globe, affecting state-owned and private businesses in Russia, Europe, and the U.S. The BBC has now reported that it "may have started via corrupted updates on a piece of accountancy software." The ransomeware hit Ukraine hardest since it attacked the country's "power grid, banks and government offices" and disrupted some flights at Kyiv's Boryspil Airport. Other companies hit included pharmaceutical giant Merck and Russia's state owned energy company Rosneft.
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