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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 December 14, 2016 24 Comments
This little bill flew under the radar, didn't it? While the Democrats deal with infighting and President-elect Donald Trump chooses his Cabinet, the House of Representatives quietly passed H.R. 4919, also known as Kevin and Avonte's Law. This law allows the attorney general to hand over money to local law enforcement agencies to develop human tracking devices:
The programs mission would to find “individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, or children with developmental disabilities, such as autism, who have wandered from safe environments.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 13, 2016 15 Comments
Google and Cuba finalized their deal to bring servers to the Communist island to allow high speed internet for users. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt signed an agreement in Havana on Monday with Cuba’s state telecommunications company, La Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA, concluding months of talks. The Google servers in Cuba will store content such as popular YouTube videos, allowing the content to be delivered more quickly to Cuban users. The move is the latest to improve internet access for the country of 11.2 million people, which has long been one of the world’s most isolated nations.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 13, 2016 7 Comments
The Bay Pines VA Healthcare System in Tampa Bay, FL, left the dead body of a veteran in an unused for shower for nine hours before transporting it to the morgue. The Tampa Bay Times reported:
Once the veteran died, hospice staff members made direct verbal requests to an individual described as the transporter for the body to be moved to the morgue. The transporter told them to follow proper procedures instead by contacting dispatchers. That request was never made, so those responsible for taking away the body never showed up. At first, the body was moved to a hallway in the hospice, then to a shower room, where it stayed, unattended, for more than nine hours.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 13, 2016 22 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen former Texas Governor Rick Perry as his Secretary of Energy. Perry served as agriculture commissioner in Texas before he became governor in 2000. His term ended in 2015. He ran for president in 2012 and 2016.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 13, 2016 31 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state. Trump said:
“His tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for Secretary of State,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “He will promote regional stability and focus on the core national security interests of the United States. Rex knows how to manage a global enterprise, which is crucial to running a successful State Department, and his relationships with leaders all over the world are second to none.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 12, 2016 11 Comments
Former Philadelphia Rep. Chaka Fattah has received 10 years in prison for racketeering, fraud, and money-laundering after his conviction on June 22. A jury found Fattah guilty "on 22 counts related to misspending federal grant money and for schemes linked to an illegal $1 million loan he received from a friend to help fund a failed 2007 mayoral campaign in the city."

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 12, 2016 15 Comments
Actions speak louder than words -- or at least that's what Pepsi's latest endeavor to expand into the health food department seems to suggest. People say they want healthier foods, but Pepsi has found that people prefer taste over nutritional information. Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi wants to make the company a "health juggernaut," but to keep up with the consumer wants, the company has increased the sugar content of its products.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 09, 2016 7 Comments
EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove will tell the EU interior ministers on Friday that experts have found 1,750 ISIS jihadists have come back to Europe to perform terrorist attacks:
Up to 35 percent have returned - some with 'specific missions' - and 50 percent remain in the battle theatre, which amounted to between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 09, 2016 5 Comments
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill introduced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) that protects FBI whistleblowers. Chaffetz said:
"While a great many changes remain to be made in how DOJ and the FBI respond to whistleblowers, this commonsense clarification is not minor. If implemented, it would have far-reaching implications in protecting whistleblowers at the FBI, just as Congress intended in 1978 in the first whistleblower protection law.”
Case after case has shown the FBI did not not protect its whistleblowers as well as other departments. Whistleblowers often faced retaliation and threatening emails. A few even lost their jobs all because they wanted to expose wrong doings in their divisions.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 08, 2016 14 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, as his Secretary of Labor. His company owns Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. Puzder has long criticized the Affordable Care Act and workplace regulations, which he claims "have stifled growth in the restaurant industry." He also pushed back against raising the minimum wage past $9 an hour.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 07, 2016 22 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump has picked retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security, who has become well known for his bluntness. Trump has now picked three generals for positions within his administration:
General Kelly, 66, who led the United States Southern Command, had a 40-year career in the Marine Corps, and led troops in intense combat in western Iraq. In 2003, he became the first Marine colonel since 1951 to be promoted to brigadier general while in active combat.
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