They’re Back!

By: Diane Benjamin Remember the Responsible Cites PAC? https://blnnews.com/2020/09/02/the-document-you-must-see/ Mayoral candidates Chris Koos in Normal and Mike Straza in Bloomington had to pretend to leave the group when they decided to run. Now Responsible Cities is pretending they don’t already know what candidates they are going to endorse. For mayor it will be Chris Koos […]

Does Normal Advertise Your Business?

By: Diane Benjamin Or is it just the Friends and Family that get mentioned: (Facebook) The rest of you serfs don’t deserve accolades for just trying to hang on when government doesn’t care about your business. (Especially if you are a restaurant) April 2021: Vote to end the Normal Friends and Family Plan! Picking winner […]

Did Koos notice?

By: Diane Benjamin The Supreme Court ruled the Constitution doesn’t get thrown out the window because of a virus – no matter how deadly people think it is. Justice Neil Gorsuch strongly criticized the court’s previous approach. He wrote: “It is time—past time—to make plain that, while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is […]

History Friday (local)

By: Diane Benjamin Figure out LIMITED Government yet? I remember posting about limited government years ago and getting comments like “you don’t want police and fire”. Obviously that isn’t what LIMITED Government means. Government uses your money for their folly because they can. You would have much more money in your pocket if government only […]

Introducing: The REAL Kathleen Lorenz

By: Diane Benjamin Of course we know the local elections are not non-partisan. Koos and Renner don’t hide the fact they are Democrats. Carrillo and Crabill don’t hide they are socialists. Scott Preston is involved with the local GOP party. The association list goes on and on. When elected, ideology isn’t suddenly thrown out the […]

BEC outshines the Town of Normal

By: Diane Benjamin The last day to file for the Bloomington or Normal councils was yesterday. There is still time to file for school boards. The Bloomington Election Commission was lightning fast posting the petitions of of those running for office: https://www.becvote.org/wordpress/petitions-challenges/ Petitions for Normal were filed with the Town Clerk. Evidently they are SECRET […]

Far left out in force again

By: Diane Benjamin Public Comment was filled with the far left again wanting special treatment for illegals. Of course they hate Donna Boelen’s Welcoming America initiative because it doesn’t ban dealing with ICE. I wonder how Corey Cottrell’s family fells since he was killed by an illegal? https://blnnews.com/2019/07/12/corey-cottrell-memorial-ride/ The far left doesn’t care that Corey […]

Answers to questions I’m being asked: Bloomington

By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday I got an email from a citizen after they saw leaves being collected in their neighborhood on Sunday. They wanted to know if staff was being paid overtime to do it. I’ve also had inquiries about staff emptying garbage cans on Sundays in parks. I asked Public Works about both. The […]

Bloomington Agenda tonight

By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner won’t be doing a proclamation tonight about being thankful this Thursday, but he will be doing one declaring November 28th Small Business Saturday. I wonder if bars and restaurants qualify? What small businesses haven’t been put out of business yet Tari? Some items on the Consent Agenda: Bloomington will authorize […]

Rivian: Not the nice guys

By: Diane Benjamin A total of 28 companies are now together to force Washington DC to mandate ONLY electric vehicles sales by 2030. Rivian is one of them: https://carbuzz.com/news/tesla-joins-forces-with-rivian-and-lucid?fbclid=IwAR1YXsy5C8YHQnRkDVCHzySENQ_LlyCPIfarQdNj-lFG7vPd2F52hXTv6_E Rivian wants to force you to buy a ridiculously priced vehicle because they produce it. How about we all grow radishes and get a law passed […]

Tari: Forget your oath of office?

By: Diane Benjamin Vowing to uphold both the Constitution of the United States and the State of Illinois is beyond the left. Tari Renner proved that again at the emergency Liquor Commission meeting yesterday. See the short video clip as reported by Cities 92.9: https://www.cities929.com/2020/11/21/bloomington-mayor-renner-whines-at-liquor-commission-hearing-about-the-states-attorney/?fbclid=IwAR3IAg490VjyNCDqMzrrp8xgykB7fmsDgfxZdlbgmHMyl4m6kPGO9oEyrO0 Tari expect State Attorney Don Knapp to enforce Pritzker Executive […]

History Friday

By: Diane Benjamin One hundred years ago tomorrow America celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock. Tomorrow should be celebrated as the 400th anniversary, but those re-writing history don’t want celebrations. The enemies within want to destroy the civil and religious freedoms that formed the United States. In case you think […]

Voting for Democrats costs you money!

By: Diane Benjamin It should be obvious, but evidently too many people think government needs your money, so they vote democrat. How many tax increases does the State of Illinois have to hand you before you figure out government is working for itself – NOT YOU? Illinois Democrats have no intention of fixing the unaffordable […]

Really need a $20 million library rebuild?

By: Diane Benjamin Of course the current meeting room is frequently booked – it’s free. Does that mean taxpayers should build 2 more free rooms? The big reason given for the Bloomington Library expansion is it was built decades ago for a smaller population. That doesn’t explain the consistent decrease in circulation since 2013, except […]

Koos is going to run a nasty campaign

By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday Chris Koos posted this on his official Mayor’s Facebook page: Marc’s response: Koos obviously doesn’t understand the difference between the TOTAL Sales Tax Rate and the LOCAL Sales Tax Rate. Other taxing bodies like to take money too. Going to say the debt you racked up isn’t a problem next Koos? […]

More campaigning during Normal meeting

By: Diane Benjamin Normal managed to have an almost 2 1/2 hour meeting. Much of it was spent trying to straighten out YOUR thoughts about the Town government. Kathleen Lorenz reiterated again payments can not be discussed because they were already approved in the budget. Pam Reece gave a long diatribe about a payment to […]

Bloomington last night

By: Diane Benjamin The far left are the only voices being heard by the Council. Policy is therefore being run by them because few regular citizens bother to call in for public comment. There was another line of leftists that thought they would get a Welcoming Ordinance when that wasn’t what Donna Boelen’s initiative was. […]

Chris Koos CAMPAIGNS during the council meeting

By: Diane Benjamin Koos had already posted on his official Mayor’s Facebook page that if re-elected he wouldn’t take the wage increase he talked the council into passing. That alone is campaigning on public property, but he did it again at the meeting last night. He got the date wrong – his wage increase was […]

Bloomington Hoarding Cash?

By: Diane Benjamin The Financial Statements for Bloomington appeared on-line with no fanfare. Usually the auditor makes a presentation to the Council, I didn’t see that happen this year. https://www.cityblm.org/government/departments/finance/financial-statements The information is always moldy by the time they get around to putting it on their website. The year-end was 4/30/2020, more than 7 months […]

Bloomington Tonight

By: Diane Benjamin Meaning it is already a done deal, the Council will hear a presentation on expanding the library: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1095&Inline=True I bet you didn’t know expanding the library will great a prosperous downtown – just like the Coliseum, the BCPA, resurfacing the roads, Wayfinding signs, the Visitor’s Center, and planters did. Long time readers […]

For those wanting to Defund the Police:

By: Diane Benjaminb LAPD Forced To Dissolve Sexual Assault Unit Amid Budget Cuts The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is preparing for a drastic reorganization as it’s forced into a $150 million budget cut. According to LAPD Chief Michel Moore this week, the department will immediately have to cut an estimated 350 positions. He said […]

History Friday

By: Diane Benjamin This is something I have wanted to do for a LONG time. We aren’t being taught our founding documents which allows threats freedom. We have people attempting to steal liberty and too many who don’t understand why America is different from every other country. Here we believe in the individual not some […]

Normal: Property taxes aren’t going up!

By: Diane Benjamin Since the April elections are close, your property taxes aren’t being raised! It appears part of the property tax revenue that normally goes to the General Fund is being diverted to pensions. In past years if pensions needed more money Normal would just charge you. It should be alarming to Town leaders […]