By: Diane Benjamin The ONLY reason I started this site IS the Pantagraph. I watched years of their misreporting that turned to lack of reporting. They messed with the WRONG person! Citizens deserve news, the Pantagraph doesn’t report it unless it fits their purpose. They are completely in bed with local government, Steve Vogel’s daughter was […]
By: Diane Benjamin By now you should know who the Edgar County Watchdogs are. You may not know they also go by the name Illinois Leaks. Tips flow into them from all over the State. All it takes to end the corruption in Illinois is people with inside knowledge to speak up. They posted this story: In The […]
By: Diane Benjamin The jobs lost by the Cub Foods closing aren’t included! FIFTY IT jobs outsourced by Country Companies are. See this report from Reboot Illinois: http://www.rebootillinois.com/2015/06/25/editors-picks/kevin-hoffmanrebootillinois-com/metro-local-illinois-unemployment-rates-may-2015/40089/ The numbers are from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. In May of 2014 Bloomington had 95,600 jobs. In May of 2015 Bloomington had 95,200 jobs. Tari’s illegal budget […]
Bloomington, IL. (ECWd) – http://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2015/06/bloomingtons-pantagraph-should-shutter-its-doors/ The Pantagraph newspaper is doing the citizens of Bloomington, IL. a disservice by advocating for the City of Bloomington to violate the free speech rights of everyone that attends a city council meeting (read how they betray the trust of their readership here). Newspapers have a fundamental responsibility to the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Hales released the report earlier than usual. See it here: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8754 The library continues to report LESS people using it and LESS items being circulated. See pages 45-46 However, the march to build continues. Do you realize it’s YOUR money Bloomington? See page 33. Evidently Tax Receipts were really bad in May. […]
By: Diane Benjamin This video is from the 18th Congressional debate 6-24-15. The entire audio is available here: http://cities929.com/
By: Diane Benjamin The video below is from the 18th Congressional debate held 6-24-15. Audio of the entire debate can be heard here: http://cities929.com/
By: Diane Benjamin This video is from the 18th Congressional debate held 6-24-15. The question concerned attracting millennials to the GOP. Mike’s answer was one of the times the audience applauded even though they were instructed not to. Audio of the entire debate is available at: http://cities929.com/
By: Diane Benjamin The video below is from the 18th Congressional debate held June 24th. If you want to hear audio of the entire debate, it is available here: http://cities929.com/
By: Diane Benjamin This comment by Mike Flynn is one of my favorites from last night’s debate. Darin LaHood refused to say how many terms he would serve. After the debate Fistbump tried to ask LaHood again for a number instead of rhetoric about supporting term limits – he got shoved by LaHood campaign manager.
By: Diane Benjamin The country is $18,000,000,000,000 in debt. I hope I got enough zeros on there for TRILLIONS! No wonder Normal decided to go with the Doug Farr underpass plan instead of the cheaper overpass – they had no intention of paying for it! Chris Koos expects the entire rest of the country to fund […]
By: Diane Benjamin In September, I assume City Manger David Hales will be travelling to Seattle for this years ICMA conference. I’m pretty sure he goes every year, you will be paying the bills. Tari just got back from San Francisco at your expense. Maybe the City motto should be changed to “We see the Country […]
By: Diane Benjamin Most of you probably didn’t see the bird-cage liner story on Monday’s Council meeting. That means you don’t know what they left out – the Edgar County Watchdogs! A few comments from citizens were included, but nothing from the guys who drove 2 hours to defend the rights of citizens to speak. Nice […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader found this video on-line. Thanks Mike. Tari wants the ability to terminate comments from citizens if he doesn’t approve. Watch the video – this is Bloomington’s future. A lady on the Council leaves the chamber and asks citizens to join her outside so they can petition their government for a redress of […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Coliseum contract with CIAM states negotiations for renewal must start the year before the current contract expires. It expires next year, so negotiations are happening. Have you heard anything from Renner? Hales? City Council? NOPE! When your government refuses to communicate with you, you are not just uniformed. You are left to imagine […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington Alderman Kevin Lower will be holding a: Town Hall meeting July 7th – 7:00pm New Lafayette Club on South Main Street Bloomington Agenda Items: Public Comment Rules Ordinance Changes for City Council Meetings Downtown Strategic Plan Front and Center proposed purchase / redevelopment project The Budget Task Force This meeting is […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you have never attended a Bloomington City Council meeting, you really don’t get to see what’s going on. Most of the Council members are busy with other things during Public Comment. It’s no wonder they want rules governing it! At one point Joni Painter passed something to Amelia Buragas. Scott Black […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the video of Kirk Allen, John Kraft, and Judy Stearns speaking at the 5:30 meeting yesterday that was not live streamed. Kirk and John drove 2 hours to be in Bloomington to address the Council on the proposed changes to the Public Comment ordinance. Note, I intentionally filmed non-verbal reactions to the […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the Bloomington City Council meeting last night around 50 minutes was spent discussing the best way to take away your right to speak. I have no idea what they actually voted on, it sounded to me like the changes to the ordinance were tabled until July. But that wasn’t the motion […]
By: Diane Benjamin I wonder if Renner is going to make it back from San Francisco in time for tonight’s meeting. Maybe he will pass out souvenirs since taxpayers paid for the trip. By changing the public comment rules tonight, Tari thinks he can limited public complaints. Most of the speakers chastise the Council for their […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner and Chris Koos just got back or are on the way back from San Francisco! I’m willing to bet it was at your expense since they were attending the US Conference of Mayors. This link shows both signed up to attend: http://usmayors.org/83rdAnnualMeeting/PreRegisteredMayorsPhotos.asp I’m just going to list some highlights so you can […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight the City of Bloomington is holding an Executive Session, another one of their secret meetings. Under the Open Meetings Act, they cited this section as the reason for the meeting: (29) Meetings between internal or external auditors and governmental audit committees, finance committees, and their equivalents, when the discussion involves […]
By: Diane Benjamin Why do Tari Renner, David Hales, Dick Durbin and a slew of other so-called leaders love to do interviews on WJBC? Because they can get by with saying anything and are rarely challenged! Low information voters are easily misled by low information media. The latest case in point: Today WJBC is running a NEWS […]
By: Diane Benjamin If the potted plants agree citizens should have no voice in their government – it will happen Monday. Tari attempted to shut down Judy Stearns while she was on the Council. Tari attempted to shut me down with his vile comments on my site. I made a big mistake by not pressing charges against him […]
By: Diane Benjamin What did Bloomington citizens tell their elected officials? Fix the roads and no spending public money on a downtown hotel. The Mayor and Council heard the same mantra over and over, but did they listen? Obviously not. Stay with me here . . . I get the same emails from ICMA – International […]
I remember buzzing around a Council meeting and hearing former Alderman Rob Fazzini say “A gas tax won’t raise the price of gas”. I remember hearing Fazzini was behind the Paradigm fiasco to charge Bloomington and Normal more to haul off garbage so he could turn it into jet fuel. Now I hear Fazzini was advising […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve always thought minutes of a meeting reflect what happened at the meeting. I also believed that minutes were kept as a permanent record for posterity, therefore whoever took them had a duty to make sure they accurately reflected proceedings. Evidently the City of Bloomington doesn’t think so. On their website 2 items are […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s a great morning! It’s so foggy out here in the country I can’t see the wind turbines! I know I have readers who know a lot more about these things than I do, so tell me why many of these monstrosities are developing brown spots. Yep, the pictures aren’t clear. I don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Check out the Coliseum’s Income and Budget numbers from 2006-2007: Income: $3,353,392 fell short of the budgeted $3,580,500. Now look at the numbers from 2014 – 2015: (click to enlarge) Income is over $1.3 Million less, the Budget is over $1 Million less! Admitting defeat? In April 2008 they reported income of $3,251,651 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since a white women can now pretend she is black, and a guy can pretend he is a woman and he/she get an award for bravery, and all of us are supposed to approve and keep our mouths shut: Today I’m pretending to be the Mayor of Bloomington! Here’s what I’m going to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Alderman Tari junior, Scott Black, was just on WJBC talking about the three hour Executive Session last Monday. It ended in the Giebelhausen downtown plan being killed. Evidently the discussion could have been held in public. Black wasn’t shy about what was discussed. Since the meeting was held behind closed doors, the voters will never know who said what and why. Black used […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this post from earlier today: http://blnnews.com/2015/06/16/its-simple-econ-tari/ In just NEW taxes, Tari took $3,680,714 away from taxpayers. What that number doesn’t reflect is the Velocity of Money (Google it) If taxpayers had kept that money, they would have spent it. Much of it would have been spent at local stores. Those businesses would have […]
By: Diane Benjamin Hillary Clinton and the City of Bloomington have a lot in common! Both think they are entitled to decide who is press and who isn’t. The UK’s Daily Mail frequently reports on things the American Press refuses to. One of their reporters was banned from covering Hillary events. The American press is in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari: Congratulate your Economic Development people for bring Hy-Vee to town. It just cost you a Cub Foods. I wonder who Green Top Grocery will put out of business? How many hotels were put out of business when Normal decided they needed a Marriott? What will happen when Normal’s second hotel opens? Still want a hotel in downtown […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve heard for years that Executive Sessions are secret. Council members have been threatened with censure if they talk about anything said behind closed doors. The threats are illegal! Local government has used threats because either they don’t know the law or they want to keep information from the public. Read what the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since no charges have been or will be filed against Fistbump for knocking on Nora Dukowitz’s door, I attempted again to get an un-redacted copy of the police report she filed. See this post for what I previously received: http://blnnews.com/2015/05/28/nora-dukowitz-the-police-report/ The information I received this time remains redacted, but I do have some new parts: […]
By: Diane Benjamin Darin LaHood was defeated when he ran for Peoria County State’s Attorney. This editorial in the Peoria Journal Star calls LaHood’s campaign tactics “improper” and perhaps “unethical”. http://www.pjstar.com/x1657300363/Our-View-A-question-of-judgment LaHood went to the home of a young rape victim trying to get dirt on his opponent. Nobody seems to know how he found out the […]
