See the follow-up story: https://blnnews.com/2019/06/13/chateau-hotel-and-conference-center/ By: Diane Benjamin Remember at the end of May when I reported the City owns the Jumer’s Conference Center? https://blnnews.com/2019/05/28/value-of-city-properties-2019/ It looks like $3 million was sunk into it. So what is its status? The City is leasing it and getting NOTHING for it. From my FOIA cover document: […]
By: Diane Benjamin The information I have looked at so far only creates more questions. This is one: This address is an auto repair shop. Shop class? Conferences are huge, I don’t know why 2 went and one paid more: Your property taxes at work: Note: The invoice says annual fee for 3 people. Evidently […]
Audio below By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington’s mayor is having a bad couple of weeks. Tari was on WJBC this morning talking about his Clarence Thomas comment, of course social media is to blame. The WJBC reporter who was at the meeting asked Tari for a comment but he refused. Howard Packowitz should have included it […]
By: Diane Benjamin Received by FOIA: 08-2017 The Walmart charges are for 48 of these, no mention of who is using them or why they were bought separately. The other highlighted items are for eclipse glasses. All of the below are food receipts – some not itemized. Legally, all receipts must state the purpose of […]
By: Diane Benjamin On a tip from a reader I FOIA’d 2 years of credit card charges from District 87. I’m not anywhere close to looking at everything yet. I will post items I found as I go through the files. Start with this one from July 2017: No, Barry Reilly didn’t spend all that […]
By: Diane Benjamin Jenn Carrillo had her “pride” flag at the beginning of the meeting. She sits right next to the mayor, he said nothing. Maybe he doesn’t know displaying a personal flag that is larger than the American flag is offensive and violates the US Flag Code. If you missed last night’s story, see […]
By: Diane Benjamin Strike #1 was Carrillo’s attack on a new downtown business. She got hammered during public comment and will again tomorrow night when the downtown businesses are meeting with her. More on tonight’s assault on her mouth in the morning. Strike #2 was this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/4/7 That statement is an excerpt from the US […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.connect-transit.com/documents/BUDGET%20DOCUMENT%20-%20Final_Revised.pdf I read it so you don’t have to. It reads like a socialist dream, Connect wants to be “a sought after expert in transportation solutions”. (PDF page 11) That won’t happen with huge empty buses! Excerpts: PDF page 7: (You need to see that last one!) PDF page 11: PDF page 13: […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21959 Tari Renner’s list of proclamations will take longer than the business portion of the meeting. Public Comment will be interesting because Citizens to Ensure Fair Transit will be back. The Connect Transit budget is scheduled to take effect on July 1st with both towns having oversight. It has yet to be […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s hard to understand why the General Assembly in Springfield opens each day of session with prayer, but they do. When a Catholic Bishop in Springfield announced the leadership would not be allowed to take communion, Mike Madigan’s response was: “I don’t go to church anyway”. Duh, Mike. That is obvious. After […]
By: Diane Benjamin A guy named Troy Eads is the Police Chief in Hume Illinois. Anybody know why a town of 380 people needs a Police Chief? He is also the Chairman of the Edgar County Emergency Telephone System Board. The Edgar County Watchdogs published a picture of him possibly drinking on the street in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Maintenance seems to be lacking at the wind farm east of town. I wonder if Darin LaHood saw the mess when he visited last week? Did sound like it since he praised wind energy. The black is OIL! Many of the turbines look just like this!
By: Diane Benjamin If you watched the video of last Monday’s meeting, you saw Trustees and a mayor trying to silence the new members: Stan Nord and Karyn Smith. Kathleen Lorenz even told them they should sit back and watch how things are done instead of questioning. Below is “how things are done”. It isn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader told me the paper has an article about a new musical at Heartland Community College: Gypsy. Will the self-appointed head of the speech police, Jenn Carrillo, attack them the way she attacked a fledgling downtown business when they had Gypsy in their name? Bills and Payroll from the first meeting […]
I received a response from Parks Director Jay Tetzloff, it has been added at the bottom. By: Diane Benjamin I’ve been hearing for weeks about mowing not being done in many of the Bloomington Parks. I’ve been cutting the City some slack because of all the rain. Not anymore! You are paying more in taxes […]
Where in France does the American flag still proudly fly? Where is there a sacred stretch of American soil? In Normandy of course where America landed to deliver the crushing blow that would vanquish the Nazi evil and save France, then the western world. Yes, in Normandy, the tiny villages still remember the American, British, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Before I get to Billy, did you know Robert Brady Sr filed bankruptcy? This discharge report lists everyone who got taken by Brady: Brady Discharge – with creditor list What’s Billy up to? Every wonder how politicians earn a paycheck and somehow end up rich after they have been in office awhile? […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t: a Reader From the Connect Transit website: https://www.connect-transit.com/about/our_fleet.asp Connect Transit has 5 small buses people can schedule to use at a higher cost. How often are these 5 buses used? PDF page 11: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CbmR9DiMsXr6XQ1U_8AaLtGKH9yGbh_x/view The 5 buses average 3 boarding per hour. That means a large percentage of the time the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember the $100 a month lease for the property at 305 S. Linden? Remember Normal was going to pay $5000 to have internet installed? Normal would be forced to pay property taxes on that property too, the rent likely would not have covered both the taxes and internet. (See original story: https://blnnews.com/2019/04/14/is-normal-handing-out-a-cheap-lease/) […]
By: Diane Benjamin There are no shows posted on the event calendar for Grossinger Motors Arena until September. Luke Combs is scheduled for the 27th. The only other events are two shows of Trolls Live in November. https://www.grossingermotorsarena.com/events-and-tickets/calendar Tonight’s event was moved to the Castle Theatre. This event was held in May – another […]
By: Diane Benjamin Know what that dark spot is? Long time readers will: OIL. This turbine is east of the Leroy-Lexington blacktop just south of Route 9. Usually they keep the ones along busy roads clean, the ones with less traffic going by are worse. Even Green technology needs oil. I wonder if AOC knows? […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part 1: https://blnnews.com/2019/06/04/a-three-minute-meeting-takes-almost-2-hours/ Craig Stimpert spoke about the proposed changes to Normal’s Public Comment policy. See 16:45. Two years ago Craig forced them to change their “only speak once in 45 days” rule. He was back last night to request “germane to the agenda” be removed too. He also objected to the […]
Part 2: https://blnnews.com/2019/06/04/normal-part-2/ By: Diane Benjamin Before Stan Nord and Karyn Smith were elected, Normal’s Council meeting last night would have lasted 3 minutes. There was no business on the agenda to be discussed. A Trustee would have motioned to pass the Omnibus Agenda the others would have fought over who could “second” it the […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s official! Illegal immigrants can now live, work, and take your tax money without fear. The Constitution gives the feds the right to control immigration, since laws don’t matter in Illinois Democrats have usurped the Federal government. Living as a legal citizens in Illinois means you get to pay expenses for people […]
By: Diane Benjamin Stan Nord was on WJBC this morning with Scott Miller. The article below only recaps the conversation they had about Connect Transit. Nord also explained why he paid the tap-on fees instead of filing a lawsuit. The conversation ended with Stan asking both Bloomington and Normal to eliminate their Local Motor Fuel […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CbmR9DiMsXr6XQ1U_8AaLtGKH9yGbh_x/view In April of 2018 Fixed Route Passengers per hour were 22.66. This April the total was 26.31 per hour. More riders must mean higher losses: The Operating Deficit for April of 2018 (fewer riders per hour) was only $865,139.24. April 2018 reports __________________ In March 2019 the Operating Deficit was $878,211.21 Cash from […]
By: Diane Benjamin I still haven’t seen any media coverage of the fire at Lake Bloomington. That would make sense if the loss was inconsequential, but it wasn’t: Source: Fire Inventory by Category Note: The above document contains $6,300 for personal items. The worksheet does not include replacing the building. The City paid $11,500 to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yes, during a City Council meeting in both cities: Segments of government have been trying to remove religion from society for many decades. Remember what the wall says at the History Museum? Your religious beliefs are to be kept in church, not in public. Freedom of Religion is disappearing rapidly, it no […]
