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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 August 03, 2016 23 Comments
The U.S. sent $400 million to Iran in January just as the country decided to release four Americans. The administration claims they did not pay a ransom, but many have raised their eyebrows. President Barack Obama said the payment "represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a decades-old dispute over a failed arms deal signed just before the 1979 fall of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi."

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 02, 2016 5 Comments
The Dallas Police Department lost five officers on July 7, but instead of people backing away from the job, the department still receives applications from people to join the force. Officials received 467 applications days after the attack with more coming in each week.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 02, 2016 11 Comments
Jessica McClard in Fayetteville, AR, decided to open the Little Free Pantry in her neighborhood, which supplies food and hygiene items to those in need. She said:
“I check on it about once every day because it’s at the church,” McClard told ABC News of the small structure located in front of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville. “I know it turns over in about 30 minutes. That suggests to me that are more people on the demand side than the supply side.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 02, 2016 13 Comments
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued his rhetoric that the West had a hand in the failed coup three weeks ago. Why is all of this important? Turkey is still a member of NATO and the U.S. uses their base to strike ISIS in Syria. He said:
"The West is supporting terrorism and taking sides with coups," Erdogan said, adding that forces unhappy with Turkey's rise as a regional power were behind the coup.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 02, 2016 12 Comments
The Department of Defense inspector general found that the Pentagon cannot maintain proper bookkeeping on expenses, which means they have not audited $6.5 TRILLION they spent on wars, equipment, etc. Lorin Venable, the assistant inspector general wrote:
Army and Defense Finance and Accounting Service Indianapolis personnel did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in third quarter adjustments and $6.5 trillion in yearend adjustments made to the Army General Fund data during FY2015 financial statement compilation. We conducted this audit in accordance with generlly accepted government auditing standards.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 01, 2016 6 Comments
Wyatt Gillette, 8, passed away on Sunday a day after the Marines made him an Honorary Marie at Camp Pendleton in California. He always wanted to become a Marine like his father. https://twitter.com/GinaAHarkins/status/759910248148705280

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 01, 2016 19 Comments
Italian and French Muslims attended Catholic Mass to show solidarity after two ISIS terrorists executed Father Jacques Hamel in his church in northern France. https://twitter.com/Arab_News/status/759740423904591872

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 31, 2016 11 Comments
On Saturday night, Turkish forces and protestors surrounded the Incirlik Air Base, which the U.S. uses to conduct airstrikes against ISIS in Syria. The government claims the incident was merely a safety inspection. https://twitter.com/Conflicts/status/759530079076712448

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 31, 2016 10 Comments
The Olympics start on Friday, but the Brazilian government fired the private firm that should have provided security for the Olympics. The firm Artel needed to hire 3,400 people, but only hired 500. Question is, why did the Ministry of Justice react now instead of earlier? The company also never had experience dealing with a major sporting event.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 30, 2016 3 Comments
One year after saving her life, Officer Patrick Ray joined a tea party with 2-year-old Bexley. He answered a 911 call after the girl choked on a penny. https://twitter.com/Welcome2Hou/status/759121730967220225

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 29, 2016 7 Comments
Texas police officer Michael Kelley has claimed prosecutors on the Sandra Bland case threatened his career if he brought forth evidence of wrongdoing. Kelley, from Prairie View, said he saw "marks on her forehead after a confrontation with state trooper Brian Encinia." The AP reported:
Kelley said he was never contacted by special prosecutors handling the case, and the Waller County district attorney's top assistant said there would be repercussions if he spoke to a Bland family attorney. Prosecutors have strongly denied Kelley's allegations.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 29, 2016 2 Comments
Turkish journalist Mahir Zeynalov spent this morning tweeting pictures and bios of some of the journalists detained by the Turkish government. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems to think they have connections to Fehtullah Gülen, who he blames for the coup, or at least that is the excuse for the round up. https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov/status/759021471045980160

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 29, 2016 11 Comments
Adel Kermiche, one of the terrorists that slit the throat of Father Jacques Hamel in a small town in northern France, recorded his plans to attack a church on the Telegram app:
"You take a knife, you go to a church, you make a carnage," he said. "You slice two or three heads and it's good. It's over."
Another thing. A "spiritual guide" further radicalized Kermiche in prison in 2015.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 28, 2016 14 Comments
What a shock. Judicial Watch discovered that top IRS officials, including Lois Lerner and Holly Paz, knew that the agency targeted conservative groups before they told Congress. Judicial Watch reported:
The FBI documents also reveal that IRS officials stated that the agency was targeting conservative groups because of their ideology and political affiliation in the summer of 2011. According to one senior tax law specialist, “The case seemed to be pulled because of the applicant’s political affiliation and screening is not supposed to occur that way … [Redacted] said he thought the cases were being pulled based upon political affiliations.” And IRS senior official Nancy Marks, appointed by [then-acting Commissioner Steven] Miller to conduct an internal investigation stated, “Cincinnati was categorizing cases based on name and ideology, not just activity.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 28, 2016 6 Comments
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has shut down over 130 media outlets as he continues his crackdown on a failed coup two weeks ago. Erdoğan believes Fethullah Gülen's followers orchestrated a coup that failed miserably. Now anyone he suspects supports the scholar will lose their job or be detained without any proof.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 27, 2016 12 Comments
Due to recent terrorist attacks, German politicians have now asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to deport over 200,000 migrants who failed to gain asylum. Homeland expert Armin Schuster said:
In his appeal for a speeding up of deportations, Mr Schuster said: “Some could get the impression they could get away with anything because they don’t realise how mildly the state reacts to those breaking the law.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 27, 2016 11 Comments
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund has found that shooting deaths of law enforcement has risen to 78% in 2016 from 2015. The majority of those officers died in "ambush-style killings." The report runs from January to July 20 and compares the stats from the same time period last year, which means it includes the Dallas and Baton Rouge officer assassinations. Those killers stated they wanted to kill white cops due to recent killings of black people from cops. Another study showed, though, that police violence against citizens remains unbiased.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 27, 2016 20 Comments
A judge has released John Hinckley, Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster. He must live with his mother in Williamsburg, VA. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said the 61-year-old "no longer poses a danger to himself or others."
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