By: Diane Benjamin Town of Normal agenda for Monday: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3274 This item is listed: Discussions about subsidies is not on the agenda. According to this document, plans for Constitution Trail Centre PUD go back to 2005: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2636 A hotel was always part of the plan. Evidently Normal doesn’t know when you pass plans specifying what […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council is holding a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday. On the Agenda is: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21582 The circus continues with this next: This Board has heard ONE case since it was created, they found the police did nothing wrong. (Their investigation is a secret however) Do the residents around Orchard […]
By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 14 – Bloomington Public Library Board Meeting: The “Active Users” is the only number that has increased. PDF pages 29 and 30 show E-book and computer use are both higher than last year. More space for books is obviously not needed since circulation numbers continue to decrease. The library does […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari did an interview with WGLT two days ago: listen to the 2nd link starting around 10:30 https://www.wglt.org/post/aldermen-pass-budget-struggle-new-spending-designation-0?fbclid=IwAR2Jx7sTc9iwMkVidRvhpYMO1qW6fVsAusw2AvgTqosU6rvBSisBhLRyK84#stream/0 None of the below got covered in the WGLT story. If the current Council thought they were setting a path for spending next year, according to Tari, they are wrong. He claimed budgets are […]
By: Diane Benjamin Did the BCPA have only held 3 events during March? Only 3 reports are listed on the City website. All three lost money and had dismal attendance: http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1702 Other events took place according to the event calendar: http://www.artsblooming.org/events/calendar?cury=2019&curm=3&curd=31&curview=month Zero transparency for those. The losses above do not include salaries and other operating […]
Al Gore is in the movie! His activism on climate change made him filthy rich. That says it all. Funny how he didn’t make the preview. From another reader who walked out after an hour – the theme was capitalism doesn’t work. No surprise there! Another reader claimed an IWU professor required a class to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Diana Hauman is going to represent Bloomington on the McLean County Regional Planning Commission when her term as alderman ends April 30th. The MCRPC site shows two vacancies for representing Bloomington. I do know one of them occurred when Michael Gorman announced he is moving to Chicago. Green Top Grocery will need […]
Construction at the CII East building stopped so long ago you may not remember what it used to look like: https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/15772470/102-S-East-Street-Bloomington-IL/ This is what it looks like now: Close up pic from last summer: The owner, David Bentley, was a Renner lunch buddy before Tari got his PCard yanked. Bentley also sued the City […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Amelia Buragas wants brick streets funding and newly elected alderman Jenn Carrillo posted this today: I think a review of the cost needs to be made. Brick Streets Master Plan: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=9107 There are 3.5 miles of brick streets out of 320 miles of streets in the city, which is 1.1% of all […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written many times about the Illinois Municipal League. This story is from March of 2016: https://blnnews.com/2016/03/29/the-iml-scam/ A reader sends me the frequent newsletters sent by IML to government officials. The latest proves they are pro-government, anti-transparency, and anti-citizens. Both Bloomington and Normal love to spend tax dollars attending their events. […]
Volunteer to End Child Abuse in Bloomington Taking Steps to End Child Abuse is a 5k fun run and 1 mile Family walk, in honor of Jack and Duncan Leichtenberg and to benefit Children’s Home + Aid, Family Visitation Center. April 15, 2012Sunday 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Tipton Park Volunteer opportunities available if you […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council spent around 45 minutes discussing the language for the new Concrete and Asphalt Fund which obviously didn’t mean ONLY concrete and asphalt. See this story for more background: https://blnnews.com/2019/04/06/bloomington-moday-agenda/ Even though City Manager Tim Gleason claimed “concrete and asphalt” around 1:01:00 the ordinance still had infrastructure wording – […]
By: Diane Benjamin Barr is the guy from Lexington who has been charged in at least 3 Illinois counties with taking money from people who hired him to perform some work and Barr either never did any work or never finished what he started. The State’s Attorney’s office in McLean County refused to charge Barr […]
Open The Books has a new interactive map for Illinois which allows users to see Illinois Educators either receiving a salary or pension in excess of $100,000. Click below to see it. Keep in mind the pensions go up 3% every year, Pritzker refuses to put a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot to change it. […]
By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 193: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21525 From an Ordinance on the Consent Agenda – meaning no discussion will take place unless an alderman pulls it: The purpose of this ordinance is to transfer $25,000 from the unused money in the Harriet Fuller Rust Grant fund. The ordinance says it wants to repair temporary gravel […]
By: Diane Benjamin April 30th marks the 7th anniversary of BlnNews. It has evolved over time and will continue to evolve. One thing I will no longer tolerate is re-writing history to fit somebody’s agenda. Lately several people have tried to claim Hitler wasn’t a socialist – of course the reason for the re-write is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The budget will be passed with ZERO priority based funding discussions. The City staff writes the budget, the Council members nod their head in agreement. Nothing can ever be cut, the priorities are what the City wants, not citizens. Houseal Lavigne & Associates has already received $125,000 to rewrite the Zoning Code. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is what the failure by the Bloomington City Council to change the Sick Leave Buy Back policy has cost you. Penalties began to be charged in 2012, they are assessed for allowing employees to spike their pensions with pay for unused days off. Received by FOIA from IMRF: (the final cost […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below is what Connect Transit reported for February: PDF page 10 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f2onCQqMAcgBJYz2K8wJRQemNshaqk2T/view What is the point of a transit program that budgets a loss of almost $12,000,000 a year? Insanity maybe? Bloomington is giving Connect $610,000 a year for operating expenses. Normal is giving them $300,000 for the same. Both also […]
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos must have taken his defeat Tuesday harder than he’s publicly saying. Two new Trustees that have called out the “Plan” to buy people to move Uptown will be seated May 1. Chris claimed he doesn’t take it as a rebuke of Town policies. It was of course, but dictator types […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21517 5 more employees are spiking their pensions- Sick Leave Buy Back: The $1,600 charged by the EDC (not including travel) so Tari could attend One Voice didn’t cover the expenses: Did you know when you use a credit card the merchant gets charged a fee for processing? Fees vary, hopefully somebody […]
By: Diane Benjamin This guy ran for Normal Town Council – note the shirt: He was wearing this shirt on election night. He is a graduate of Illinois State University. So is Jenn Carrillo, a self-called democrat socialist. How many other kids leave ISU as socialists? Is Illinois State University creating socialists on purpose? Our […]
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos didn’t get the lesson from two years ago when he only defeated Marc Tiritilli by 11 votes. Last night the voters in Normal sent a baseball bat to the head message: We demand a new direction! Two of the top three winners took on the Koos and company agenda, Stan […]
By: Diane Benjamin I wasn’t at all upset when the Democrats won back the US House last year. We now get to see their far left lunacy for two whole years. If the GOP had held all branches of government they would have lost big in 2020. With Democrats advocating killing babies born alive, reparations, […]
By: Diane Benjamin It really isn’t difficult to stop employees from pocketing your money. The City of Bloomington leaders buried their heads underground when they were repeatedly told about CIAM, evidently ISU did the same thing at Bone Student Center. Pantagaph article: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/woman-accused-of-stealing-from-isu/article_e6587ca4-0cf7-531b-b17d-1b3b4ec87c73.html#tracking-source=home-breaking A woman is accused of stealing $161,000 going ll the way to […]
By: Diane Benjamin More from the overlords here: https://blnnews.com/2019/04/02/turnout-very-low-and-more/ Chris Koos got the shock of his life when he only won by 11 votes two years ago. He is even more scared now, facts are pesky things people aren’t supposed to bother with. Koos found out people do care. Below is an email sent by […]
By: Diane Benjamin If 10% of voters in Bloomington bother to vote I will be surprised! Turnout is making elections a waste of time. I voted this morning. Eight races were listed – only one had a choice. I leave uncontested races blank since my vote doesn’t matter anyway. Yes, we will end up losing […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two candidates in Normal have been busy putting up signs by polling places. The only reason to do this is to try to catch a few extra votes from uniformed voters. I do know if the signs have been placed illegally, they are being taken down. I saw the same thing in […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3262 Where radicals go to meet twice a year, the cost of conferences isn’t included: Special clothing required? What got appraised and for what purpose? Below are payments made to developers for one of Normal’s 5 TIF districts. The available information is a year old, we won’t have current info for many […]
I realize Bernie Sanders (and other socialists) loves to mislead people, his followers are trying to pass on his lies. I think three have attempted to comment so far. Sweden and other countries in the area are not socialist, they are capitalist countries with a lot of wealth they decided to redistribute. They also realized […]
Self proclaimed socialist and social justice warrior Jenn Carrillo posted this yesterday: She must have no idea what alt-right means. She has no idea what it means to be American either. It proves why voting for her is like voting for Maduro in Venezuela. It also proves she is unfit for office. As a former […]
By: Diane Benjamin Campaign signs are illegal to display on Public Property. Isn’t this Public Property? Guess who owns the property connected to this Public Property! Page down . . . . . ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ The Mayor of Normal! Of course the signs are for his three chosen candidates: Shields, McBride, and Lorenz.
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