By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written before about Trustee Karyn Smith stating at a Council meeting and in emails the Town of Normal has close to 450 miles of roads. She even compared it to driving to Cairo Il and back. Actually it’s 289 miles to Cairo, so that example is an exaggeration. Round trip would […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=25362 I thought there was a deadline for City of Bloomington employees to retire if they wanted to spike their pensions, but evidently it’s still happening: These two employees will receive much higher pension benefits merely because nobody at the City stopped them. This fleece has cost Bloomington taxpayers MILLIONS of dollars […]
By: Diane Benjamin The first floor of One Uptown Circle has never had a tenant. The second floor is rented by the Town of Normal for close to $36,000 a month. Need a place to live? WGLT estimated taxpayers got stuck with 60% of the cost of this building. https://blnnews.com/2020/01/03/1-uptown-circle-the-old-story/ Instead of affordable housing, Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal plans to spend gas taxes on bike paths, Constitution Trail, and Connect Transit instead of roads. People who DRIVE on those ROADS pay the gas tax – therefore other vanity spending should only happen with that money when the roads don’t look like this: If the Town doesn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin $270,944,173 Again this year Bloomington’s finances are on the Illinois Comptroller’s site BEFORE the City gets around to releasing the CAFR (financial statements). The fiscal year ended 4/30/2020 – almost 6 months ago. Why rush? What do they show? Bond Debt: 47,780,000 IMRF pension debt: 12,821,451 Police Pension Debt: 77,693,023 Fire Pension […]
Details tomorrow!
By: Diane Benjamin BlnNews.com now has a ton of history – all the way back to early 2012. Here’s a nugget you might have forgotten: Bloomington didn’t have a gas tax until 2014. They didn’t have an Amusement Tax either. Fazzini and Fruin voted for for both. The gas tax only meant nothing had to […]
By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 21: Citizens can no longer know how employees with PCards spend your money. A list is no longer published. You won’t know who ate on your dime and who traveled and to where with your money. Remember when Tari proclaimed over and over “There are no free lunches” except he […]
By: Diane Benjamin One of the worst roads in Bloomington was scheduled to be resurfaced this year. The calendar of work kept changing. The last time I checked Hershey Road was scheduled for October, now it isn’t: https://www.cityblm.org/government/departments/public-works/bloomington-streets#ad-image-1 By spring parts of Hershey will be an off-roading adventure. West Oakland was also in really bad […]
By: Diane Benjamin Ward 5 is now left with one far left candidate for alderman. Mike Straza is dumping his alderman campaign to run for mayor. https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/mike-straza-announces-bid-for-mayor/ Straza was the Treasurer for Responsible Cities PAC – the PAC the so responsible Normal Mayor Chris Koos helped form. Responsible? More like attempting to hide Irresponsibility! The […]
Since they are having trouble getting the word out: Friday 9am to 3pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm at the Moose Lodge on IAA Drive in Bloomington Kitchen items, dishes, Christmas and Halloween décor, games, toys, books, small furniture items, lamps, power tools, pet items, sporting goods…way too much to list. Tables are full and […]
Flying around I saw quite a sight: Does he think he can rescue Bloomington from a really bad blight? Former Alderman Jim Fruin getting people to sign Petition for office before the deadline. Is it for Alderman or maybe for Mayor Looks like Jim again wants to be a player! Fill us in Jim, don’t […]
Below is Tari’s announcement on the City of Bloomington website. Announcing a political decision on a taxpayer owned website? Renner forgot a few facts about his tenure as Mayor. The total budget when he took office was $167,000,000. https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=2014 The total budget now is $230,320,572. https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=24730 That is $63,320,572 spent by government instead of the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council had a short meeting, only around an hour. Did you miss Tim Gleason’s announcement Bloomington got named the happiest city in America? This is actually from five months ago, but here’s the announcement: https://www.zippia.com/advice/happiest-city-each-state/ Since the City is full of happy people and all the problems are fixed, […]
Maybe in a year or two the case of Darren Bailey against Governor dictator Pritzker will get to a court Chubby has to believe. Pritzker lost yesterday in Circuit Court in Springfield. The Clay County case which ruled Printzker’s executive orders illegal stands. See this Edgar County Watchdogs story for details: https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2020/10/governor-pritzker-loses-motion-to-vacate-darren-bailey-case-clay-county-order-stands/?fbclid=IwAR2rMYnYbBcF_BS7b1ekm3FV4yxg3Owhx1dfoq1ILNZfL0NHYDUzIm4N-5I Meanwhile Bailey’s attorney, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal has gone from 10 minute meetings with no discussion before spending millions of dollars to bloviating just to hear themselves talk. I can’t possibly recap everything that happened, so I will pick what I think is important. The other media can fill you in on what the Town thinks happened. Last […]
By: Diane Benjamin Of course the media won’t ask questions and officials in Normal won’t publicly say anything about it. But, instead of suing Bloomington when they dissolved the west side sales tax sharing agreement (Metrozone), Normal appears to be plotting. Of course they are using your money for payback. A pattern is developing, even […]
. . Enter email address below: . . . . . . .
By: Diane Benjamin Committee of the Whole meeting tonight: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1092&Inline=True Only two items are on the agenda: Creation of a Public Arts Commission Making Juneteenth a City holiday Obviously Bloomington doesn’t believe government is a necessary evil and therefore should only do what is necessary. Every other essential government service like roads, sewers, and water […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader just found this story from May: https://www.bicycleretailer.com/retail-news/2020/05/13/exclusive-sale-greets-protesters-illinois-bike-shop The story is about the citizens who showed up to protest Chris Koos’ business being open while many citizens weren’t allowed to make a living. It even includes his now infamous image taunting the protesters: BUT, The story has a quote from Koos […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Below is what the parking lot at Green Top Grocery looked like around 2:00pm Sunday: The reader told me 8 staff vehicles were parked at the back of the lot. Maybe Green Top customers are too afraid to shop there now, One misstep, say the wrong words, and you […]
Monday night the Town of Normal is finally “fixing” their Public Comment Policy. The Town is making sure it as difficult as possible for citizens: PDSF page 105: https://www.normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/12612/Council-Packet–PDF Right now citizens aren’t allowed to talk about anything not on the agenda. That was obviously illegal and the Town knew it. Instead of just having […]
By: Diane Benjamin Why are they excited about moving to Lexington? No idea, but their customers should be: Driving an easy 15 minutes north will save you 2%! Rent and property taxes are likely cheaper in Lexington meaning merchandise could be cheaper. Is the exodus beginning? .
By: Diane Benjamin It was pretty easy to determine the COUNTY was paying for the Bloomington Election Commission for this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/10/08/you-cant-make-this-stuff-up-bloomington-election-commission/ I emailed the Bloomington Finance Director just to verify and didn’t receive a response until yesterday: That is 7 days after I wrote the story! This is the document they sent, you have […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember the ballot error that caused the Bloomington Election Commission to shut down early voting? https://blnnews.com/2020/10/01/early-voting-suspended-in-bloomington/ I received questions from people who had early voted with the ballot that left off retaining two judges. Some were worried their vote would be invalidated. I emailed BEC to see what the plan is. This […]
Originally posted on BlnNews :
Proving this software was a really bad idea, it was shut down because the parent company was got hacked. The hacker sent offensive emails to users, Illinois State University is mentioned in the story as using the software. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/online-proctor-service-proctortrack-disables-service-after-hack/?fbclid=IwAR2YgGX-lvEdkPSQe27J27J9xm85lI8AC5L0ncdABx-o5ASyj8G47-_a2dU The Proctortrack website has no information, it does guarantee privacy and security…
By: Diane Benjamin Rob Fazzini has been trying to sell his house at 5 Canterbury Court in Bloomington for a long time, Rob is also running for County Auditor as a democrat. According to Zillow, the house was listed in April of 2017 for $309,000: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5-Canterbury-Ct-Bloomington-IL-61701/76980936_zpid/ The pics on-line show the house empty. The listing […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the building Normal moved staff out of and to the 2nd floor of 1 Uptown Circle. Normal now pays a ridiculous amount for rent there. They still own half of the building, two doctors own the rest of it. This is also the building Chris Koos tried to rent for […]
Originally posted on BlnNews :
h/t a reader Also in the video: Jenn Carrillo By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader See one story here: https://hoiabc.com/2020/09/29/grand-jury-indicts-bloomington-man-on-32-child-molestation-charges/?fbclid=IwAR1pafw6ONtSyM0S3A9AEaCVwjNHIz-WtDTzbzwTdWicjYkXtj27D4Oo7SU#.X3R6sTYfjAY.facebook The guys name is Mercedez Byrd, he also had cocaine in his pocket when he was arrested. His Facebook page has numerous videos, in one he is asking for names of…
By: Diane Benjamin Yes, people screw up sentences and words all the time. They normally don’t post videos of themselves doing it on their Facebook page. Chris Koos did. The video below is closed captioned. If you want to hear sound go to his Mayor Facebook page. He confuses his mask with his glasses. Remember, […]
Proving this software was a really bad idea, it was shut down because the parent company was got hacked. The hacker sent offensive emails to users, Illinois State University is mentioned in the story as using the software. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/online-proctor-service-proctortrack-disables-service-after-hack/?fbclid=IwAR2YgGX-lvEdkPSQe27J27J9xm85lI8AC5L0ncdABx-o5ASyj8G47-_a2dU The Proctortrack website has no information, it does guarantee privacy and security however. Evidently that isn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Ward 6 had no representation last night – Jenn Carrillo decided not to show up and nobody said a word about her missing except in Public Comment. Maybe Jenn had to get ready for her court hearing today: She is charged with disobeying a police officer and improper parking on a roadway […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington City Council meeting 10-12-2020 The line for Public Comment took time as it always does on Zoom. Just a handful of people calling for a Welcoming Ordinance and changing the name of Columbus Day showed up. It’s nice to know Bloomington doesn’t have real problems like the person who was murdered […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night – Bloomington City Council – extremely short clip: Where is the WOKE crowd?
By: Diane Benjamin Bullies never go away unless they get squashed! The best defense against a bully is to take them on. Bullies are actually chickens with self esteem problems. Tonight they will be showing up at the Bloomington City Council meeting. First they have hold a little rally outside City Hall: Guess they don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader sent this story: https://ussanews.com/News1/2020/10/11/these-are-the-us-cities-where-workers-make-the-most-relative-to-their-cost-of-living/ The story goes in numerous directions, but it starts with the fact that people who are capable of working remotely are leaving large metro areas. Why live in a shoebox in New York City when you can live for a lot less anywhere else in the […]
The case has been delayed until December. No reason given. By: Diane Benjamin Remember Bart Rogers? He was the number two guy at the Coliseum when CIAM managed it for 10 years. His jury trial is supposed to start on Tuesday, I doubt it will – a settlement is likely in the works. The 2018 […]
