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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 April 03, 2017 7 Comments
Sources now say that only one explosion occurred between two stations at a St. Petersburg, Russia, underground train station. Ten people have died:
"There was one blast in one site in between (stations) as the train arrived at the Technology Institute station from Sennaya (Ploshchad) station," the source told Reuters.
President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to meet with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the city today.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 01, 2017 8 Comments
Fox News has reported that another doctor has claimed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has retaliated against him after he revealed wrongdoings at the hospital for which he works. Dr. Dale Klein "works" at the Southeast Missouri John J. Pershing VA in Poplar Bluff, MO, but that work consists of staring at a blank wall all day because as he told the inspector general there are "secret wait-lists and wait-time manipulation" at the VA.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 31, 2017 2 Comments
South Korean authorities have arrested former President Park Geun-hye only three weeks after a court removed her from office. Prosecutors have accused "her of bribery and abuse of power." From CNN:
"Major crimes have been ascertained and there is a concern that the suspect might attempt to destroy evidence," Judge Kang Bu-young said in a text message to reporters. "The court recognizes the need, necessity and reasonableness of the suspect's arrest."

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 30, 2017 9 Comments
The Senate Intelligence Committee held its first hearing on possible Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election and its "information warfare." It was revealed that hackers targeted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) during his presidential campaign:
"Former members of my presidential campaign team who had access to the internal information of my presidential campaign were targeted by IP addresses with an unknown location within Russia," Rubio said Thursday. "That effort was unsuccessful. I would also inform the committee within the last 24 hours, at 10:45 a.m. yesterday, a second attempt was made, again, against former members of my presidential campaign team who had access to our internal information -- again targeted from an IP address from an unknown location in Russia. And that effort was also unsuccessful."

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 30, 2017 15 Comments
North Carolina government official reached a compromise to repeal House Bill 2, the controversial bathroom bill that required people to use the restroom of their birth sex. From CNN:
"l support the House Bill 2 repeal compromise," Gov. Roy Cooper said. "It's not a perfect deal, but it repeals House Bill 2 and begins to repair our reputation."

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 30, 2017 8 Comments
Back in October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande warned British Prime Minister Theresa May that the United Kingdom might face a tough time leaving the European Union. Those warnings have come to fruition a day after the UK delivered the official Brexit letter to the EU. Merkel and Hollande demanded to May "that Brexit negotiations must deal with how Britain will leave the bloc" before the countries even think about future negotiations.

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.”
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