(Guest writer) Christine Thomas is the wife of the former treasurer, Bill Thomas, and the mother of the museum director, Rachel Neisler. Mrs. Thomas apparently thinks it’s OK to purchase books from Amazon on her daughter’s library paid credit card. The library’s PO Box is 568, but said books are sent to Rachel at PO Box 372. Is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Everybody should already know that capitalism isn’t taught to most of the students at ISU. The kids flocked to the last Democratic primary to vote for a socialist. ISU now has an Adventure Center! https://campusrecreation.illinoisstate.edu/adventure/ The Center just opened this month. Click on Equipment Rental A long list of items for rent […]
By: Diane Benjamin Property taxes are destroying the citizens of Illinois. We now have the highest property taxes in the country! http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-illinois-property-tax-rate-0428-biz-20160427-story.html Stop stealing from taxpayers NOW. Your tax and spend policies are forcing people to leave and wrecking the lives of people who can’t. Un-affordable housing is your fault. Normal raises property taxes every […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal is pretending pensions can only be funded with property taxes. They choose to fund them with property taxes and have increased property taxes 11 years in a year to fund them. The goal is to get to 90% funded by 2040. Will they achieve that goal? Not a chance! 2018 numbers […]
By: Diane Benjamin The media dutifully reported the freshman class at ISU is up 10% this year. They mentioned the class is bigger than in recent years, they neglected to report real numbers. Incoming freshman LAST year was down 9.3%: https://blnnews.com/2017/09/07/numbers-lie/ Note that number was reported by the same WGLT who reported this year the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Update – So far NEW is winning, but not by a lot A reader donated enough money to upgrade the website to get rid of WordPress ads. It also gave me access to other formats. I need to know if you like the new format or if you like the old one […]
By: Diane Benjamin H/t a reader A lawsuit was filed last week against the Village of Hudson by Kayley Sprout. She was the police officer fired for being pregnant. https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/25550371/Sprout_v_Village_of_Hudson,_et_al
By: Diane Benjamin At last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting subsidizing rent in the renovated old Junior High on E Washington was approved. The subsidy will be coming from the General Fund, not TIF income. The amount approved was $228,720 over 10 years. Economic Development Coordinator Austin Grammer stated the Comprehensive Plan calls for affordable housing […]
By: Diane Benjamin The video of Dickie at ISU this morning is on Nikita Richards Facebook page. He was here to endorse her. The college Democrats plus Erik Rankin were there too. The crowd didn’t look overwhelming. Dickie came, in his own words, to support a Democrat “traffic cop” to elections. Yes, Dickie, we’ve seen […]
By: Diane Benjamin A couple of days ago a comment was made on Facebook saying Republicans were trying to suppress the vote at ISU, and that’s why kids had to stand in long lines. The person who made that comment must have not realized the election was a primary. Suppressing democrat votes does nothing to […]
By: Diane Benjamin I FOIA’d the bills paid by the Land Use Committee since nothing was included in the meeting documentation. See what was paid here: FOIA_land_use_bills_-_redacted The only thing redacted was the chairman’s signature, the County got the information to me the same day I filed it. I hope in the future it’s just included […]
By: Diane Benjamin Or is the library desperate to remain relevant in the age of internet and e-books?
By: Diane Benjamin Judge Hill issued an arrest warrant today for Michael Cadena. She wants him dragged back to Illinois and imprisoned.
By: Diane Benjamin It’s really hard to say what BN Advantage is, except that they soak up your money. Supposedly it’s a collaboration of government, the Economic Development Council, the Chamber of Commerce, and anybody else who is searching for the “Right Fit” in economic development.
Guest report: Atlanta Taxpayers saved $200,000! Why is that important – besides the obvious? Let’s take a look at their spending and loans over the last 10 years. . 6-28-08: Loan #32997. $100,000 Construction Expenses on Library Annex (Palm’s Grill and Atlanta Library Museum). Library board likes to tell everybody it was done with grants and donations, but they never […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday I attended my first County Land Use Committee meeting. Everything in County government is done in committees, it makes watching what they do close to impossible. By the time items make it to the County Board they will likely be rubber-stamped. This isn’t just a McLean County thing, it’s how most […]
In January of 1776 Thomas Paine published a pamphlet titled “Common Sense.” In it, Paine advocated for the cause of what later that year became the American Revolution. Originally, Paine published “Common Sense” anonymously. And so it is that I come to my fellow residents of Normal as a concerned citizen and taxpayer with a […]
By: Diane Benjamin A new sign went up across the street from the Atlanta Public Library:
By: Diane Benjamin h/t Doug Fansler, Normal resident Besides devouring at least $800,000 a month government stole from you to fund it, Connect Transit is destroying infrastructure. The roads weren’t built for huge buses. The roads weren’t built so buses could make right turns, especially if traffic is sitting in the far lane. Remember when a […]
By: Diane Benjamin I wonder if she was campaigning again on a City computer? The conversation below took place mostly this morning on the WGLT Facebook page. I’m going to post the entire thing with nothing redacted so I can’t be accused of “editing”.
By: Diane Benjamin Think back. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are vying for the Democrat nomination for president. The Illinois primary election was held on March 15, 2016. The Town of Normal has 30 precincts. The entire County picked Hillary Clinton, 26 of Normal’s 30 locations picked Bernie Sanders.
Press packets proving many of the points made were distributed to all members of the press there.
By: Diane Benjamin The Kathy Michael press conference is going to be interesting. The Democrats hired a lawyer to FOIA Kathy Michael’s browser history!
By: Diane Benjamin Tearing down the old Village Hall was approved at the June meeting:
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3047 The financial statements for the year ended 3/31/2018 are being released tonight. Six month old data isn’t ideal and would never be tolerated in the private sector, but at least Normal didn’t hold the information the way Bloomington did last year. Since Bloomington’s year-end was April 30th, their financial statements should […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Nikita’s website: https://richardsmcclerk.com/issues/ Read through the whole website, it’s obvious who was a contributing copy writer! Who claimed the Clerk shouldn’t be counting their own votes? (Like they do) Tari Renner! One of Nikita’s goals – in her own words – is to take elections away from the County Clerk and create […]
Email from Kathy Michael to the press: In light of recent false comments in the article below, and numerous other past disturbing and now deliberate false statements regarding our election process in McLean County by Ms. Nikita Richards, I can no longer stand by and remain silent. The election process in McLean County is being […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the story here: Democrats Local Candidates – Cheri Bustos Some stories have too many lies to ignore. This is one of them. Excerpts: A public relations consultant? Why does the City of Bloomington call her an Employment Coordinator? The truth is too embarrassing? State Officials (Democrats of course) are supporting her? I […]
