Month: September 2020

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

UPDATE: Heard about the guy charged with 32 molestation charges?

h/t a reader Also in the video: 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 people who need bailed out so […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

One Normal Place TIF proves fake news is easy

By: Diane Benjamin I downloaded the TIF report for you. See yesterday’s story for directions on how to look up information on the Comptroller’s website yourself: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/29/normal-pay-attention-uptown-tif-report/ This story will prove TIF reports can say whatever the Town of Normal wants them to say. When a TIF doesn’t generate enough money to pay the bills, […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

What really happened to the ISU Football Coach

By: Diane Benjamin See this article from The Blaze: https://www.theblaze.com/news/college-football-coach-blm-sign?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook Excerpts: Read the rest of the story for more sad details you probably don’t know. ISU now has national coverage from multiple news outlets. Every local news service reported he quit. He didn’t.

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Normal Pay Attention: Uptown TIF Report

By: Diane Benjamin All the Financial Information for the Town of Normal is now posted on the Comptroller’s website. It includes reports on the FIVE TIF districts. This site is for citizens because they are in a much easier to read format. The reports used to be easy to find, the Democrat Comptroller redesigned the […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Chateau Water bill

By: Diane Benjamin I think I got more questions yesterday about the closed Chateau water usage than about Bloomington supplying water to Rivian. You should be more concerned about Normal actually publishing plans to run THEIR water to Rivian. If you missed the story: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/28/see-if-you-can-spot-anything-strange/ Under FOIA I can’t ask questions, I can only request […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington: You did this to yourself

By: Diane Benjamin The radicals are back demanding a Welcoming City Ordinance. Public comment was filled with people who think ICE needs permanently banned from doing their job in Bloomington. They held a mini-rally outside City Hall featuring a Chicago professor, your two radical aldermen, and Ward 5 Candidate Patrick Lawler. Since they all think […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Update: 2 things ISU might not want you to see

By: Diane Benjamin Susan Kalter: Hopefully this is the last story about Susan Kalter. See all previous stories here: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/16/isu-did-susan-kalter-lie/ I made a final attempt to determine if Kalter was lying about being told by an ISU lawyer the All Facility meeting didn’t have to comply with the Open Meetings Act. I was told she […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Is Normal abusing taxpayers?

By: Diane Benjamin See the previous story: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/28/see-if-you-can-spot-anything-strange/ That story shows the largest purchasers of Bloomington water. I see three locations in Normal that are getting water from the City of Bloomington: Rivian, Bromenn, and Firestone. All three have been buying water from Bloomington for a LONG time, Mitsubishi before Rivian. So why does Normal […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

The REAL Chemberly Cummings

By: Diane benjamin h/t a reader Besides borrowing money at 97.74% interest, Chemberly’s actions on the Normal Town Council prove she isn’t fit to serve if you are looking for fiscal responsibility in government. You didn’t know about the loan? See detail here: https://blnnews.com/2019/09/16/part-2-why-chemberly-isnt-fit-to-serve/ Below is the back side of the campaign literature her minions […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Critical Race Theory at ISU?

By: Diane Benjamin President Trump banned the teaching of Critical Race Theory in all Federal Departments because it’s Marxist ideology. It is meant to destroy social norms to create an undefined utopia. It rejects the Declaration of Independence, the teachings of Martin Luther King, and of course Christianity. It destroys without ever saying what it […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington Monday night

By: Diane Benjamin The audit is done, not released though: Evidently the City doesn’t think they have to print the P-Card spending list anymore, just 1 big amount. Amazon purchases are listed without a descriptions – pages of them. Link to Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=25260 Agenda: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1090&Inline=True Tari wants to re-appoint Rob Fazzini to the […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Connect Transit SCORES!

By: Diane Benjamin https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nMCbsR02FZVZZcIO2k0rG8eyPHwSKrFI/view The Connect Transit Board met on September 22. Success! Over $1 million lost in August: A few of the listed expenses: Why does an “essential service” have to advertise? See PDF page 55 – they still think they can recruit more people to give up driving to ride the bus: What […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Early Voting starts tomorrow. DON’T!

by: Diane Benjamin In my opinion voting in September for an election in November is lamebrained, dim-witted, and unintelligent. There will be “October surprises”, the presidential debates don’t even start until next week. The ONLY reason to vote now is to pretend you investigated all the candidates and have determined which ones represent your values. […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

And now for Bloomington last night

By: Diane Benjamin The building codes discussion wasn’t very interesting until they got to sprinklers retro-fitted in old buildings – mostly downtown. If more than 300 people attend events they might be requiring sprinklers within the next 3 years. Evidently they want to see a lot more empty buildings downtown! Even Jenn Carrillo knows that […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Normal Comedy show Part 2

By: Diane Benjamin See Part 1 here: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/22/normal-council-the-best-comedy-show-in-town/ Everybody wants to pull things from the Omnibus Agenda now. Remember the 10 minute meetings? They are long gone. Scott Preston pulled approving the fire protection agreement with ISU just to gloat about how well the Town and ISU work together. Stan dared to ask if the […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Normal Council: The best comedy show in Town

By: Diane Benjamin At the last meeting (September 8th) Kevin McCarthy pulled approving the bills from the Omnibus Agenda just so he could state “it is just a report”, everything spent was already approved in the budget. Last night Kathleen Lorenz pulled the same item so she could give the same speech. Who’s turn will […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

WGLT campaigning for Normal’s elites

By: Diane Benjamin It was September 2nd when the Normal Town Council brought their hammer down on ISU large groups. Soon after the student athletes marched through campus demanding the athletic director’s resignation for daring to say: Redbird Lives Matter. The ISU Social Justice warriors think only Black Lives Matter can be uttered, true Marxists. […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington: Tonight’s discussions

By: Diane Benjamin https://tinyurl.com/Committee-of-the-Whole If you haven’t figured it out, anything discussed at Committee of the Whole meetings is already a done deal. It’s a setup for upcoming votes. First on the agenda is a riveting discussion of changing the building codes. Included are links to previous meetings: I have no intention of watching them, […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

The Jenn’s running for the County Board

By: Diane Benjamin How Jenn describes herself on her Alderman Facebook page: How FIVE candidates running for the County Board describe themselves: Notice anything? All Jenn progressives The Democrat Party left you. Progressives want to run your life, they don’t think you are smart enough to run your own. Of course they think you are […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Normal – Monday night’s fleece

By: Diane Benjamin http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3742 The semi-annual Cost of Living raises for employees are being delayed until April. (After the election?) Have they ever gotten a COST of Living decrease? The other big one is adding another $.04 gas tax. The minutes on PDF page 9 don’t adequately reflect the discussion that happened during the September […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Back the Blue because some in town don’t!

By: Diane Benjamin Today: This announcement brought out the police haters in the Hispanic wing of Black Lives Matter: Roy countered with this: September 27th: Connie Beard, Chairman of the McLean County Republicans announced that on Sunday September 27 the County is invited to honor McLean County  First Responders by attending a rally at the […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Interesting things found in Normal’s financial statements

By: Diane Benjamin http://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/17188/CAFR20-FINAL-DOC The best information is often in the disclosures added after the financial stuff that is purposely difficult for average citizens to understand. Look at PDF pages 219 and 220. Normal could have printed these in landscape mode, like they did on other pages, but that would make it too easy to […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Try READING it!

Today is Constitution Day On this day in 1787 the final draft of the Constitution was signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention. It is a magnificent document that few follow these days. Today is the perfect time to re-read it, or for Jenn to read it for the first time. https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/full-text

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Jenn is my Poster Child!

By: Diane Benjamin I remember years ago when I mentioned “limited government” some people didn’t understand what that means. Politicians are constantly claiming they will save us from whatever and they actually make the whatever worse. Just this week Minneapolis citizens and their leadership are wondering why the police don’t show up when called. Other […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

ISU: Did Susan Kalter lie?

By: Diane Benjamin It takes FOREVER to receive FOIA’s, so now you have to think back. Susan Kalter is the chair of the Academic Senate at ISU. She wanted to hold a faculty meeting that wasn’t open to the media and didn’t comply with the Open Meetings Act. See all previous stories here: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/28/susan-kalter-explain-your-meeting-to-the-attorney-general/ In […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Normal’s debt

By: Diane Benjamin http://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/17188/CAFR20-FINAL-DOC From Normal’s just issued financial statements as of 3/31/2020: Note the Long-Term total debt – $224,909,947. It increased more than $25 million in 1 year. What makes up that debt? $84,320,000 is bond debt, the IEPA loan doesn’t have interest expense. PDF page 31 Below is a chart showing the biggest […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

100% renewable? Not going to happen

By: Diane Benjamin Maybe the local “environmentalists” missed the California brown outs. They are all in on 100% renewable, too bad it doesn’t provide enough power to keep people from having to unplug or get involuntarily unplugged. Below is one of the currently inoperable turbines east of town. All that black at the top is […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington going socialist

By: Diane Benjamin In case you forgot, Tari Renner endorsed Daniel Biss a committed socialist for governor. https://blnnews.com/2017/09/05/tari-still-supporting-biss/ Jenn Carrillo and Jeff Crabill are democrat socialists. Many of the rest lean left, some farther than others. Two socialist candidates have already announced they are running next April. It’s still really early but nobody in Bloomington […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

We are being lied to about MANY things – the FAIR TAX is one of them

See this link: https://wirepoints.org/heres-the-central-misleading-claim-constantly-made-about-the-fair-tax-proposal-quicktake/ Excerpts from the article: Don’t be deceived: The State of Illinois can not live within their means. The Progressive Tax Amendment is just the latest scheme to get more of your money. Instead of reforming un-affordable pensions, they want more of your money. Jobs will be lost and more people will […]