By: Diane Benjamin A reader sent a link to this video, it fits perfectly with Monday’s Bloomington City Council agenda. Both the Police and Fire Departments will present their annual reports. Of course this will set off the two “Defund the Police” council members. They need to understand the facts, but then facts are immaterial […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Election Commission need to be abolished now. The Executive Director Tim Mitchell is no longer there – effective today. From all appearances he did not give any notice. An employee said by phone Tim chose to work outside the office, whatever that means. I do know the County is moving […]
Below are the results of a poll conducted by Rasmussen and the Heartland Institute. Don’t bother commenting if you are indoctrinated, you need better media. Haters will claim the Heartland Institute is bias, they can’t say that about Rasmussen. POLL: Consumers of Conservative Media Better Informed About Climate Science Rasmussen/Heartland Institute Poll Shows Those Who […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is a map of Normal’s Uptown TIF. Look at the right side, see the area west of Oak St that is not in the TIF? That is Chris Koos’ 2 businesses, he rents the space. https://mcleanil.devnetwedge.com/parcel/view/1427308009/2020 Why were his two businesses carved out of the TIF boundaries? Because it would be […]
Comments from the indoctrinated will be deleted.
By: Diane Benjamin https://illinoisstate.edu/trustees/president-search-committee/ The search committee for the next President was composed of 32 members, click the link above to see the names. This statement is on that site: The search committee reported to the Board of Trustees who made the final determination. Did they tell the new President ISU’s credit rating is Baa2? […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve spent hours re-reading a FOIA I received from Unit 5 in early April. Ask your kids how many time EQUITY is mentioned in school. Nobody is entitled to equity, they are entitled to EQUAL however. Equity means making everyone the same. That philosophy is socialist/marxist, not American where we strive for […]
By: Diane Benjamin Think back to April when the Normal Town Council approved Horton Group for Insurance Broker Services. One thing stood out as suspicious. The Town issued an RFP and received 5 responses with detailed proposals. The meeting documentation was pages of glowing staff praise for Horton but the bids from the other four […]
Earmarks are back! Earmarks are out of control spending for petty projects locals should pay for themselves instead of asking the feds to print money for them. Democrats resurrected them when they took control of the House. https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/columns/tom-kacich-congress-brings-back-earmarks-one-illinois-rep-isnt-on-board/article_449a248d-57e6-5943-9d76-1cea915585df.html A Champaign columnist printed the facts. Excerpts: Among those representing central Illinois, Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, has […]
By: Diane Benjamin His REAL dog! While the new mayor was reading a proclamation his dog tried to steal the show. 13 second clip: As predicted the meeting was pretty boring, nothing was pulled from the Consent Agenda. Mboka laid out a new Public Comment policy at 9:30, he threatened to cut off comments that […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington has been struggling with balancing the solid waste enterprise fund for many years. Don’t forget, until 2005 the taxes you already paid covered the service. The enterprise fund was established only to tax you more until the fund balances. Yearly 3% increases haven’t kept the fund in balance, […]
By: Diane Benjamin I stumbled onto this page weeks ago: https://keywiki.org/Democratic_Socialists_of_America_Bloomington-Normal It proves you should be worried about sending your kids to college at ISU or Heartland. One of the members of the local Democratic Socialists of America was just elected to the Heartland Board: https://www.heartland.edu/about/trustees.html Supporting Bernie Sanders is all you need to understand […]
By: Diane Benjamin Citizens will see the three new Council members for the first time tonight: Sheila Montney, Nick Becker, and Tom Crumpler. Bills and Payroll: Bloomington has been trying to avoid hiring consultants to find candidates, evidently whatever they are looking for hasn’t been found because they are back to paying to find employees: […]
By: Diane Benjamin Warriner St – Home of Public Works Building Reports are these have been parked on Town of Normal property for months. Let’s guess who approved this: The mayor who owns a bike shop? The mayor who constantly bills citizens for more bike trails? City Manager? Public Works Director? More questions: Are they […]
COVID isn’t the first time a vaccine was rapidly developed to fight a disease. All precious pandemics were referred to as “flu” variants. You probably know about 1918, but we had flu pandemics in 1957-1958, 1968, and 2009. This CDC website has descriptions of each along with what age group was targeted: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html The really […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve never gone to County Board member Josh Barnett’s Twitter page until today. He has me blocked! Isn’t that special! Is it because this Republican hangs out with the Democrats on Twitter? You might have forgotten Jeff Crabill is on the Bloomington City Council only because Barnett claimed he was leaving the […]
By: Diane Benjamin After finding out their plan for 20 County Board districts with one representative each was impossible, the local Democrats now want the entire board to weigh in. “Other business” on the agenda isn’t allowed if they are planning votes. Since their plan was defeated, they now want the number of districts kept […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below are the latest stats from the McLean County Health Department: https://health.mcleancountyil.gov/708/CORONAVIRUS-COVID-19 To understand what is really happening a better chart is required: What does this say? Unless you are over 80 your chances of dying from COVID are miniscule. Why would anyone under 80 get an experimental vaccine? Florida Governor Ron […]
By: Diane Benjamin Connect must be having a difficult time hiring a new General Manager. They are meeting again today in Executive Session to discuss “personnel matters”. Remember the corner by Portillos the buses can’t navigate? A reader received the email below from MARCH stating CT had contacted the Town of Normal for solutions: Nothing […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader I wonder if Kathleen Lorenz thinks this makes the “professional staff” that can’t be questioned look good? That “professional staff” creates the budget, did they skip funding pensions? I wonder what will happen if Stan Nord mentions this at a meeting! I can predict: Link to the Bloomington data: […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Stay tuned, Normal is next. Wirepoints.org analyzed the pensions funding for 175 Illinois communities. Lots of other information is also included. Bloomington received a “D” rating. The results prove how much government has grown in 19 years and how the increased revenue wasn’t used for essential items like funding […]
By: Diane Benjamin The video below is Stan Nord making comments at the end of Monday’s meeting. He is followed by Kathleen Lorenz who is distraught about the tone of this meeting. In other words: Shut up Stan. Animosity on the Council is caused by Lorenz’s lecturing Stan while the rest of the Council snickers. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Anyone who ever watched Bewitched will remember Gladys. She was Samantha and Darrin’s noisy neighbor who thought it was her duty to report the odd happenings she witnessed peering out her window. Normal has Kathleen Lorenz. Unlike Gladys who couldn’t convince her husband witches lived next door, Kathleen has no problem convincing […]
By: Diane Benjamin The McLean County Executive Committee held another meeting last night to discuss redistricting, or as they call it reapportionment. After many public comments, Assistant States Attorney’s Christopher Spanos explained the Democrats 20 single member district plan is unconstitutional. McLean County has an ordinance declaring Board Districts are multi-representative, changing to 20 districts […]
By: Diane Benjamin Make sure you reads to the bottom! https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3962 PDF page 31-39: 104 West North has been leased to Dan Brady and Rodney Davis for many years – same price $1 a year. They are responsible for utilities and insurance. Then there’s this: PDF page 36: So, the Town gets $1 in revenue, […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://bit.ly/3xBrfpA The above link is to a Business Insider story about China monitoring its citizens in order to control them. A Social Credit score is assigned based on your activities, a low score means you are a threat to the regime. The story lists 10 ways China gathers data, I picked 4: […]
By: Diane Benjamin Before Bloomington attempts to regulate what citizens can say at public comment they need to read what the Attorney General’s office wrote: This is a condensed version: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/pac-rejects-public-body-s-limitation-on-4628106/?fbclid=IwAR1IBUY570-nAqltZZP3sNWFh243BbKvVTrK6m7e47vswXUzoMabFqz-l0E Excerpts: The PAC found that because there was no evidence that the comments actually disrupted the meeting, the council could not restrain the speech. In this case, the city council muted two speakers during public meetings. The first speaker criticized a […]
A police report was filed! By: Diane Benjamin I’m not sure why anyone would ever hire Justin Barr, but an area guy did. According to his plea bargain Justin Barr should be in jail for violating his probation. https://blnnews.com/2020/02/27/justin-barr-woodford-and-will-counties/ The victim sent me a copy of a lawsuit filed in April 2021. I don’t know […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this story: https://blnnews.com/2021/04/30/parents-have-your-kids-read-this-book/ The Undefeated isn’t a bad book, but it was written for 6-9 year olds according to the Amazon listing. A District 87 class of 11 year olds read it, they weren’t allowed to take a copy home. The dust jacket claims the book is for: The unforgettable, the […]
