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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 October 24, 2016 40 Comments
There is a possibility that Texas, a state typically owned by Republicans, could turn blue next month since Donald Trump only leads Hillary Clinton by three points. However, Clinton only leads Trump by three points in Florida. From CBS News:
The poll numbers show voters’ frustration about the dialogue in the race – and what may amount to a wasted opportunity for both. Sixty-nine percent feel Donald Trump is talking about things that he, himself cares about, while fewer, 46 percent say he’s talking about issues they care about. Clinton has much the same gap.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 23, 2016 12 Comments
Billy goats. Black cats. Bartman. The 2016 Chicago Cubs have eliminated those curses and jinxes when they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 in the National League Championship Series on Saturday night to advance to their first World Series since 1945. https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/790023493668642816 Why is this so important? Why is this such a big deal? As a lifelong diehard crazy Cubs fan, I will tell you. Let me take you on a journey through the tortured past of the Cubs because for the first time in forever, it's not as painful to look at these incidents.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 21, 2016 6 Comments
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) chapter in Florida has sued Broward County Supervisor of Elections Dr. Brenda Snipes after citizens said their mail in ballots did not include Amendment 2 to legalize medical marijuana:
It asked a county court judge to require that the elections office distribute new ballots to all voters who have received vote-by-mail ballots and to include information that explains that Amendment 2 had not been included on previous ballots.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 21, 2016 12 Comments
Russian officials asked three states if they could attend polling stations during the Nov. 8 election while Kremlin propaganda sites like Russia Today reported that Russia's Central Elections Commission even asked the State Department for permission to watch the polls. The State denied a request even came through:
"Any suggestion that we rejected Russia's proposal to observe our elections is false," Toner said, noting that allowing foreign observers is up to individual states. Russian officials could have participated in an observer delegation through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Toner added, but declined to do so, making their new complaints "nothing more than a PR stunt."

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 21, 2016 3 Comments
Wikileaks has dumped a few emails with President Barack Obama's personal email address that he used in 2008 when it published more emails from Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. At the time of these emails, Podesta served as co-chair of Obama's transition team. https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/789188917736071169 Obama used the email address [email protected] when he had a Blackberry.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 21, 2016 13 Comments
Earlier this month, the United States District Court in Baltimore charged ex-NSA contractor Harold Thomas Martin III with removal of classified documents and theft of government property. Officials have revealed that Martin took over 500 million pages of records and secrets over two decades. The Justice Department will probably charge Martin with other crimes, "including violating the Espionage Act." The latest DOJ document does not say if Martin shared this information, but made it known he had the ability to do so.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 20, 2016 26 Comments
GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump caused a stir during Wednesday night's debate when he said he would keep everyone "in suspense" over decision. Well, he made one today: https://twitter.com/ABC/status/789145871208161281

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 20, 2016 0 Comments

Faking sick? Stay off social media because employers have decided to track down supposed sick employees on social media to see if they're really sick: A new Careerbuilder survey found that more than a third of bosses have caught an employee lying about being sick by...

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 20, 2016 16 Comments
Last week, Wikileaks published an email from then-CNN contributor Donna Brazile, now DNC chairwoman, giving the Hillary Clinton campaign a question before a town hall event. On Wednesday night, after the presidential debate, Fox News host Megyn Kelly confronted Brazile over the email. Brazile denied she did this and quickly played victim:
MEGYN KELLY: You're accused of receiving a debate question whether a CNN town hall where they partnered with TV One that you had this question on March 12th, that verbatim, verbatim was provided by Roland Martin to CNN the next day. How did you get that question, Donna? DONNA BRAZILE: Well, Kelly, as I play straight up and with you, I did not receive any questions from CNN.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 20, 2016 9 Comments
Holy cow, this story keeps going back and forth. I'm getting whiplash. First, Wikileaks said Ecuador cut Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's internet access at its embassy in London. Then the anti-secrecy website said sources claimed Secretary of State John Kerry did it. Today the Ecuadorian government said it cut the internet to stop the website from influencing the presidential election since Wikileaks has been publishing Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta's emails. Now NBC reports that the U.S. did have a hand in the internet outage "after U.S. officials conveyed their conclusion that Assange is a willing participant in a Russian intelligence operation to undermine the U.S. presidential election."

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 19, 2016 10 Comments
In May, Texas and 12 other states filed suit against the Obama administration when it issued a transgendered bathroom policy across the nation in public schools. U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor put a freeze on the policy in August when he found the "administration did not follow proper procedures for notice and comment in issuing the guidelines." Well, today, Judge O'Connor rejected the "administration's request to narrow a nationwide injunction banning enforcement" of the policy." He made a few changes to his original ruling, but now the Department of Education cannot "bring new cases enforcing transgender students' access" to these "intimate facilities."

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 19, 2016 15 Comments
Indiana officials have started an investigation into possible voter fraud after people noticed their voter registration cards had incorrect information. Secretary of State Connie Lawson released this statement:
“We ran a report in the Statewide Voter Registration System and found thousands of dates of births and first names were changed. These records were changed on paper forms, at the BMV and online. At this time, my office is not sure why these records were changed, but we have evaluated the Statewide Voter Registration System and have found no indication it has been compromised. We believe this may be a case of voter fraud and have turned our findings over to the State Police, who are currently conducting an investigation into alleged voter fraud.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 19, 2016 22 Comments
The Ecuadorian government admitted it cut off and limited Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's internet access as a way to stop interfering with the U.S. presidential election. The anti-secrecy website has been publishing emails from Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta's Gmail account, including transcripts from her speeches to Goldman Sachs. The government had enough, but also expressed its continued support of Assange:
“The Government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. It does not interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favor any particular candidate,” Ecuador said in a statement.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 18, 2016 17 Comments
Someone placed a naked statue of Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with hoofed feet and a Wall Street banker trying to suck her breast, in Manhattan. It caused fights between those who supported the artist and offended women. https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/788403600028528640
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