By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 114: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1159&Inline=True Are you ready for electricity rates to double? How are your natural gas bills going? Government interference in the markets because of PRETEND Climate Change has only 1 goal: bankrupt you: When nuclear power plants can’t be built which would produce cheaper electricity than solar panels and wind […]
By: Diane Benjamin’ I think the Grossinger Motors naming rights expire next year. It was a 5 year agreement in June of 2017. Expect something really original like Bloomington Arena to replace it. Of course that means new signage. Maybe the City can just paint the name on the building instead (don’t hold your breath). […]
By: Diane Benjamin Is Equity better at Unit 5 schools since Dr. Shelvin was hired for the 2021-2022 School year? Question: What happened to the kids who participated in the restroom destruction challenge they saw on TikTok? Did they get Equity? Did the taxpayers get Equity? Did the kids that didn’t participate see Equity and […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the Normal Town Council meeting last Monday the Sewer tap-on fee maps came up again. Stan Nord is not going to drop this issue until citizens understand it. The Town view is Council passes ordinances that put areas of the Town on the fee map which means developers pay much of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Proving yet again local government has no respect for religion, the Unit 5 School Board held a meeting on a Wednesday night during lent. Churches don’t do Lenten services anymore? Mine does. The video claims this meeting lasted until 2:43 this morning. 75 people signed up for Public Comment. Not everyone stuck […]
By: Diane Benjamin I recently filed a FOIA request with the Bloomington Election Commission. In case you missed this story, the COUNTY pays the bills for Bloomington’s Election Commission: Bloomington Proved BEC is a WASTE of Money The only thing this office does is elections. There might be three elections this year, there might […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal Town Council meetings are supposed to fixed in advance. Trustees know they are expected to vote YES on everything, after all staff is PROFESSIONAL. Representing taxpayers is shunned, staff is always right. Kathleen Lorenz and Scott Preston actually chose to act conservative last night. I wonder if both are afraid of […]
By: Diane Benjamin At last night’s Council meeting Chemberly Cummings was wearing a mask because she was sick. She took it off to speak because Chris Koos couldn’t hear her. The plastic dividers were gone, COVID is officially over since 6 feet apart isn’t happening anymore at Normal Council meetings. Start with this short clip […]
By: Diane Benjamin At tonight’s meeting a budget hearing is being held. Likely no one will show up to speak. Nice. Below are a couple things I found while not looking very hard. https://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/19713/2022-23-Proposed-Budget PDF page 95: That 10.00 is the percentage increase from this year. What is the Town planning to spend $55,000 on? […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember how Chris Koos frequently states payments can’t be discussed because they were all approved in the budget they spent ONE DAY discussing? He even changed the Agenda item from “approve” to “report to receive and file”. I FOIA’d Normal for a list of all organizations their employees are members of. Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the last Normal Town Council meeting the payment for rent of the 2nd floor of 1 Uptown Circle was much higher than usual. I FOIA’d the invoice. I bet you didn’t know you not only pay rent of over $36,000 a month, but you also pay building expenses. I have no […]
By: Diane Benjamin Proving yet again everything is Normal is fixed before Council meetings take place: The Town is going to pass the budget and then raise Water Rates! What is the Water Rate increase doesn’t pass? Won’t that affect the budget Normal? It is guaranteed to pass, Koos and Reece counted noses and they […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last school year Unit 5 has over 1000 fewer students than they had in 2018: As of October 1 of 2021 enrollment was 12,499. I FOIA’d it but was told is was still changing daily. The above number for 2021 is for school year 2020-2021. Whatever the current number is, Unit 5 […]
By: Diane Benjamin See these two links: Rodney Davis joined Adam Kinzinger to support DACA amnesty Rodney Davis supports Red Flag gun confiscation Good in theory, until government starts confiscating guns. President Trump has endorsed Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-IL) for re-election in Illinois’ 15th District. Mary and her husband Chris run a third-generation […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this story for MORE information: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/04/unit-5-enrollment-is-decreasing/ Without Open The Books this data would be very difficult to find! Salary information comes from data reported to pension funds. Checkbook data came from Unit 5. If you haven’t heard, Unit 5 wants you to pay more. Unit 5 needs to toss their Diversity, […]
By: Diane Benjamin I know the Asahikawa Japan group gets tax dollars from Bloomington and Normal: http://bnsistercities.org/about/ This is the group Tari Renner went to Japan with, nobody ever spilled the story of him “acting up” while there. I predict we may have that information in the future. Last I saw both cities threw $10,000 […]
WGLT is reporting Rivian won’t raise the price for existing customers because of the back lash. Losing money on every vehicle sold is better? The Rivian stock price is still down today https://www.wglt.org/2022-03-03/after-backlash-and-canceled-orders-rivian-backtracks-and-wont-raise-prices-for-existing-customers?fbclid=IwAR3ewocgV5DUP_o9H624_U-dCPM3eO6IphJdXTUU8qkXd2DWWUV1DaAEs2w By: Diane Benjamin This story is more about interesting things you should know than anything else. Start with this story: https://www.autonews.com/retail/there-may-be-more-rivians-price-hike-materials-costs Automotive […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this story for context: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/02/unit-5-and-equity/ There was actually only one introductory video, Unit 5 gave me access. It is 1 minute and forty seconds that says almost nothing. So you don’t have to request access I taped it for you. The original quality is almost this bad: The speaker is Dr. […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you haven’t browsed Unit 5’s website, you missed this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cPB0fnxfB3G2Dwp8Cyzawy5_bPej-A-C/view That is an update to their Equity Action Plan. See PDF pages 5 and 6 for what they want to achieve. This paragraph bothers me: The purpose of public schools is to teach. Students should never know the “authentic self” […]
By: Diane Benjamin Rivian raised the price of their midsize electric pickup by 20%, $94,000+. People are canceling orders. https://www.reuters.com/technology/rivian-hikes-vehicle-prices-by-20-citing-inflationary-pressure-2022-03-02/ I wonder if the Town of Normal will cancel their order? TWO candidates aren’t running in the District they live in: Scott Preston (91st) and Kyle Ham (105th). They are searching for the voters they […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the last Normal Town Council meeting Stan Nord asked about the One Voice trip – $1600 each for 3 people, not including air fare. He asked why the meetings can’t be done virtually. The three from Normal will be meeting in person with representatives from this area, other meetings will be […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is a must watch video, it shows what representatives you get when everybody else is too busy to run for office: Jeff wants people who never had slaves to compensate people who never were slaves. His attitude towards blacks makes it sound like they aren’t capable of succeeding because of continuing […]
By: Diane Benjamin Presenting the budget continued last night at the 3 hour City Council meeting. Below is part of a slide that was presented: The Bloomington Election Commission wants $550,000 more this year. No one at the Bloomington Election Commission is elected. They have directors that are appointed by a judge. It appears they […]
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