by: Diane Benjamin Either the Pantagraph doesn’t think they have enough customers, or they are flaunting their left-wing ideology by email now. I didn’t receive this, but the person who did forwarded it to me. No idea where they got this person’s email address since he hasn’t lived in the area for years. Your desperation […]
by: Diane Benjamin Supporters of Common Core want citizens to believe governor’s got together and made new standards. The following documents proves Illinois adapted Common Core to get Federal RACE to the TOP money. The legislature was never consulted and never voted to accept Common Core. It is also obvious that NOT accepting the adoption […]
by: Diane Benjamin Sunday the Pantagraph scored a two-fer! I already wrote about the more than ridiculous Gary Sawyer, but I can’t give Alan Guebert a pass. He never passes up the opportunity to bash the TEA Party and the GOP House on the farm bill. Alan, you can’t really call the bill a “Farm […]
by: Diane Benjamin I don’t know what Gary’s title is, something like Managing Editor, but today he proved why the Pantagraph is completely irrelevant! The same attitude and lack of information used to write his editorial today pervades the entire paper. It starts with Associate Press’s out-right lies and left bending (not leaning!) approach to […]
This book is NOT connected to Common Core, this is a result of a bill passed in Illinois to require sex-ed education. HB2675 http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?GAID=12&GA=98&DocNum=2675&DocTypeID=HB&SessionID=85&LegID=&SpecSess=&Session= by: Diane Benjamin This text is approved for sex-ed classes, but it is not required. Each school district can pick what they want to use. This book is for ages 10 […]
Guest Editorial By George Rasley, CHQ Editor | 9/27/13 Source: http://www.conservativehq.com/node/14958 In one of author Joel Chandler Harris’ classic Uncle Remus stories, the wily Brer Rabbit avoids becoming lunch and outsmarts Brer Fox by begging not to be thrown in the briar patch – which is where he actually wants to be. President Obama and […]
by: Diane Benjamin Citizens know that gasoline has hit them hard since prices have been over $3.00 a gallon for more than 1000 days. Just 5 years ago gas cost about half of what it does now. What you probably haven’t considered is what the increase has cost government. The City of Bloomington fuels police […]
by: Diane Benjamin I received the following information from the City of Bloomington under the Freedom of Information Act. As a CPA, the issuance of PCards to over 200 employees raises many red flags. I requested a copy of the policy under which employees are expected to operate. Here is part of that policy: I […]
What do you think the annual pension will be for a member of the Internal Revenue Service’s top brass after working 33 years in government? Five figures? Six figures? If you live in Illinois, you likely chose six figures. But according to the Daily Mail, Lois Lerner — of IRS infamy and tea party targeting […]
by: Diane Benjamin In 2009 they supported ObamaCare. How’s that working out for the country? Part-time nation, higher insurance costs, higher deductibles, businesses not hiring . . .the list of destruction caused by Democrats only passing this law is endless. Now they are wrong about supporting a progressive income tax for Illinois. Tax the rich, […]
by: Diane Benjamin While reviewing the Trial Balance received under the Freedom of Information Act for the BCPA, an entry under advertising looked suspicious. For the non-accountants out there, a Trial Balance lists every entry, both income and expenses. Below is the entry – see the one for $193,835.00. It is labeled Like-Kind exchange. […]
by: Diane Benjamin I pledge allegiance to the flag . . . with Liberty and justice for all. A lot of churches, especially Catholic, preach Social Justice. Find that in the Bible and I might buy it. It’s not there. Now the United States Post Office has jumped on the socialism/communism bandwagon! How else is […]
by: Diane Benjamin As previously reported, the State’s Attorney General is investigating an Open Meetings Act violation by the Bloomington Library Board. http://blnnews.com/2013/09/16/states-attorney-demands-answers-from-the-library-board/ One recent appointee to the Board was present at this meeting should have known better. Emily Kelahan had recently completed the Open Meetings Act training: Information received under the Freedom of Information Act […]
by: Diane Benjamin This information was received under the Freedom of Information Act. According to the City of Bloomington, 225 employees have City p-cards. Commerce Bank administers these cards and automatically takes the payment from the City account. A 40-50 page statement of charges is then sent to the City. During 2012, a total off $2,438,480 […]
H.R. 3121 Bill Text | Press Release | Pocket Card | Dear Colleague | Two-Page Summary Section-by-Section | Health Care Standard Deduction Presentation The centuries-old oath taken by health care professionals reads, “Do no harm.” It is time for Washington lawmakers to take a similar approach when working to fix the problems that exist in our broken health care system. Simply repealing […]
Business Execs: Fight for Common Core Before It’s Too Late http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplacek12/2013/09/business_execs_fight_for_common_core_before_its_too_late.html?intc=es By Sean Cavanagh on September 17, 2013 1:04 PM | 6 Comments UPDATED Washington Representatives of major corporations today urged their peers in the business community to take up the fight to defend the Common Core State Standards—and warned them to steel themselves for opposition from some quarters, and apathy from […]
This story is a continuation of the Illinois-ObamaCare scandal previously reported. H-1B Obamacare Illinois Bombshell by: ADAM ANDRZEJEWSKI Billions of dollars of IT contracts are wrapped inside the implementation of Obamacare, with federal tax dollars paying up to 90 percent of the cost for upgrading state Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS). These awards are some […]
by Diane Benjamin A few years, the City of Bloomington was found to be over-paying for insurance – as much as $1.5 million per year! Then mayor, Steve Stockton, and City Manager Tom Hamilton were on the board of RimCo, the company getting all your tax dollars. Where was the multi-part Pantagraph investigation? Did the […]
by: Diane Benjamin Last weekend, if you paid attention to the news, the big story was Muslim Extremists attacking a shopping mall in Kenya. The group taking blame is al Shabaab, a group aligned with Al Qaeda. Today the story turned to this same group entering this country illegally through Mexico to recruit more jihadists. […]
A reader told me Chris Koos heavily advertises his 2 businesses on WJBC and B104. Does this influence how they cover Normal’s government? by: Diane Benjamin Everybody knows the Coliseum is a disaster for taxpayers. It does NOT make money and is a couple million dollars away from even breaking even. The rosy reports published […]
Kurt Schlichter | Sep 23, 2013 I have to admit that the Congressional GOP’s Obamacare defunding strategy has me a little nervous – mostly because it just might work. When the GOP does something clever, I start looking for the other three horsemen of the apocalypse. Designing a strategy starts with understanding the ends you seek. Sure, […]
Wind energy is a horrendous waste of time and money. The federal tax subsidies alone cost America (that’s you, me and future generations who bear this debt load) TWELVE BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR. That doesn’t include the cost of new high voltage transmission lines needed to deal with the big surges from fickle wind and […]
September 21st, 2013 | Author: Posted by Ben Hart One of my favorite websites for learning the truth about the economy is Shadow Government Statistics by John Williams (http://www.shadowstats.com/). What Williams does is show what the economy is really doing based ways we measured economic performance in 2000, 1990, 1980, etc. By doing this, he […]
Some pics from: “The Patriot Post (www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/ )”
Update: Word is already out that today’s vote was a setup for the Republicans in the Senate to kill it. Tell them if they FUND IT THEY OWN it. #DoneWithGOP by: Diane Benjamin First, ignore all the establishment #GOP saying it’s not going to happen. 2 weeks ago they said a vote to defund ObamaCare […]
Thu, 09/19/2013 – 5:03pm | Will Brumleve WATSEKA — The Ford-Iroquois Public Health Department will be required to pay more than $1,000 to a nonprofit watchdog group — and acknowledge that two officials violated the Freedom of Information Act — as conditions of settling two lawsuits filed by the group over the agency’s denial of requests for […]
by: Diane Benjamin “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Over the past 5 years, […]
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently revealed a plan to spend $24 million on additions and improvements to several of the city’s schools. Emanuel’s school projects are reported to include playground upgrades and a brand new school on the city’s southeast side — Emanuel has categorized this initiative as “school modernization.” But the mayor’s latest spending […]
‘DREAMER’ PROMOTED BY DURBIN LAUGHS ABOUT USING US FLAG AS PROP FOR ‘MESSAGING’ A prominent “Dreamer” activist named Alaa Mukahhal took to social media to laugh about her cynical use of the American flag as a prop for “messaging” after her story was highlighted by Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin. In 2012, Sen. Durbin took […]
Common Core Part Of Mao and Lenin Handbooks by Mychal Massie on September 19, 2013 It’s a well-known observation that whenever businessmen come together sooner or later their conversation turns to how to best separate consumers from their money (which is why businesses in reality exist). And in a froward way, similar can be said about what happens […]
The ‘harsh reality’ of how test-driven curriculum affects kids By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 18, 2013 Here is moving testimony that a Long Island parent, Jeanette Deutermann, gave Wednesday to a committee of New York State senators on how standardized test-based education reform negatively affected her children, a second grader and a fifth grader. She also explains […]
Mark Levin’s EPIC monologue on Republicans being forced to defund Obamacare Nobody has said better why ObamaCare MUST be defunded, so instead of recapping why, just listen to Mark yourself: http://therightscoop.com/mark-levins-epic-monologue-on-republicans-being-forced-to-defund-obamacare/ . . .
The buzz is the Bloomington Police Union wanted anybody but the guy David Hales picked to be the new police chief. It’s not about the guy personally, it is about his experience. Why would David Hales hire the guy anyway? Evidently, the Mayor and the Council had no vote. Why do we have elections […]
by: Diane Benjamin Maybe the County Board hasn’t heard household incomes are still down 4.4% since the recession supposedly ended. (http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/082213-668484-household-incomes-still-way-down-under-obama-recovery.htm) I guess they also haven’t heard that the real unemployment rate isn’t what the media keeps spinning, It’s much higher, people have just quit looking for work and aren’t counted. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/dandiamond/2013/07/05/why-the-real-unemployment-rate-is-higher-than-you-think/) 60% of jobs […]
by: Diane Benjamin Check the book they are using. If it is authored by John J. Newman and John Schmalbach, you have a problem. These 2 re-wrote the 1st and 2nd Amendments to say what progressives want them to say. There is NOTHING in the Constitution about separation of Church and State. The 2nd Amendment does […]
Illinois’s Medicaid Scandal A tale of questionable dealings and taxpayer risk By Jillian Kay Melchior Bollywood performers, a Boston boat cruise with an open bar, gifts of cigars and wine — the vendor working on Illinois’s expensive new Medicaid information-technology system entertains public officials in style, according to sources in the Illinois government. These whistleblowers tell National […]
While all eyes are focused on a solution for Illinois’ state-run pension systems, Chicago’s own debt crisis is looming. Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for more than $63 billion in pension, health insurance and other debt. That’s the total debt of the city and its sister governments, as well as Chicagoans’ share of Cook County debt. […]
Type “Hales” in the search box for TONS more information! by Diane Benjamin Don’t jump to the end – it will say where this information is from, but have fun reading until then! All quotes: In both previous evaluations, the council said Hales exceeded expectations, rating him an average of 3.9 out of 5 in […]
#1 The greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history was when there was no central bank. #2 The United States never had a persistent, ongoing problem with inflation until the Federal Reserve was created. In the century before the Federal Reserve was created, the average annual rate of inflation was about half a percent. In the century since […]
