Month: April 2022
Just because it’s Friday: Tammy Duckworth
By: Diane Benjamin I contacted Sen Tammy Duckworth when the left was pushing for legislation enshrining Roe v Wade in Law. This was her response – she wants abortion decisions to remain between a woman and her doctor: I email her again a few weeks later about mandatory vaccines enforced by OSHA. Unlike abortion, she […]
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Planning Commission: soccer and the electric vehicle myth
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington Planning Commission packet from April 6th: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/27751/637846706526470000 This meeting was not on video because it was held in the Osbourne room of the Police Station. If all new vehicles will soon be required to be electric, why would anyone build this: This was on the agenda, it will be around Market […]
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College-School-Mulberry crash history
By: Diane Benjamin Thanks again to Doug Fansler who started me off mapping crashes in the area from this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/04/05/isu-kids-show-up-for-public-comment/ All of the maps below are from Normal’s new Open Data Portal, access it at the bottom of the main screen: https://normal.org/ Page down to IDOT McLean County Traffic Crashes. Start with the number […]
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Making EV’s affordable: free electricity
By: Diane Benjamin The data below was FOIA’d by Doug Fansler from the Town of Normal. Guess who is paying to charge Electric Vehicles? That would be the taxpayers of Normal, State of Illinois (ISU), and Heartland College district taxpayers. Maybe after paying way more for an EV than a gas powered vehicle free electricity […]
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Follow-up to ISU/College Ave story
Lots of students at ISU found this story last night and today and left comments. Please read the comments and respond if you choose. I responded to a few, I left the rest for you guys. Check back often, I expect more to be added.
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Porn Star Speaker
By: Diane Benjamin A conference was held March 15th-16th in Schaumberg: ASCD Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Conference presented in partnership with Illinois ASCD. It looks it can be attended virtually April 13th-14th. This note is in the brochure for Illinois teachers – it qualified for Professional Development credits: See the brochure for this event here, I […]
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Is Normal paying staff when they aren’t working for Normal taxpayers?
By: Diane Benjamin I FOIA’d a list of all organizations Town of Normal employees are members of. The Town is not required to produce documents that don’t exist even if a FOIA them, so obviously this list is kept by the Town. Chances are good the Town is paying for memberships in many of these […]
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Comment from a teacher in Florida
By: Diane Benjamin Last night I saw a teacher in Florida comment on Facebook that teachers were leaving in droves. I asked her why, below is her response. Is this what teachers here have to deal with? It’s not just Florida; it’s a nationwide problem. Student behavior is out of control. Many parents have not […]
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Mental Health was most of Normal’s meeting
By: Diane Benjamin Keep in mind you are paying higher Sales Taxes because of this County experiment. I said “experiment” because the County isn’t following a model, they are building a program from scratch. To have any idea where your money is going you need to watch the entire presentation and questions/comments portion of this […]
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ISU kids show up for Public Comment
By: Diane Benjamin Since the Normal Town Council meeting was shorter than usual, one ISU kid only had to wait about an hour to speak since he was off agenda. He brought 15-20 other kids with him that didn’t speak. This guy is a freshman Political Science major at ISU. He’s worried about crossing College […]
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Survey in THREE Languages
By: Diane Benjamin The McLean County Regional Planning Commission launched a new survey you MUST take. Those who believe government solves every problem will be taking this survey. If you believe in limited government, your thoughts need to be included too. The intro says it will take 15-20 minutes, it will take that long only […]
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Normal tonight – Mental Health!
By: Diane Benjamin https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4265 Chris Koos is back to traveling at taxpayer expense: The agenda is pretty slim, taxpayers will get an update on your last Sales Tax rate increase: PDF page 44: The Council will be holding an Executive Session (Secret meeting) to discuss personnel issues. This has to be about specific employees, not […]
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Why Bloomington will have a Water Park instead of just a pool
By: Diane Benjamin Flash back to October 16, 2018 – Committee of the Whole meeting. Funny how expanding the library and O’Neil Park were both discussed at this meeting. Minutes: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/21017/636854797697530000 The library didn’t get Council support. Building a Water Park instead of just replacing the pool did. When easily less than 20% of registered […]
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It’s past time for TRUTH to be all that matters
By: Diane Benjamin I was in the room yesterday when the 3 person McLean County Electoral Board issued their ruling. The first of the three members who gave her opinion was a Democrat – Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Koll. Koll was adamant that courts where there was clearly no fraud or intent to confuse voters […]
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Weekend Whop
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Nobody thrown off the ballot
By: Diane Benjamin Original story about the petition challenges is in this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/25/5-things-you-need-to-know-3/ The 3 person board ruled all County Board candidates will remain on the ballot. Court cases were cited concerning numbering pages. They showed not numbering pages did not threaten election integrity, candidates were not removed for this technicality. The vote was […]
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Like Unit 5 salaries, here’s District 87
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 story: https://blnnews.com/2022/04/01/unit-5-did-esser-funds-inflate-salaries/ The numbers on the graph again come from Open The Books and from the ISBE School Report Card website: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=studentcharacteristics&source2=enrollment&Districtid=17064087025 Enrollment decreased in 2020 and 2021. Employees increased a lot in 2021, but the average salary crashed. District 87 also needs to report where ESSER Funds were spent. […]
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Unit 5 – Did ESSER Funds Inflate Salaries?
By: Diane Benjamin The chart below came from Open The Books. The number of employees and total payroll reported to Teachers Retirement Fund also came from Open The Books. The number of students each year came from this story – note enrollment DECREASED: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/04/unit-5-enrollment-is-decreasing/ Average salary is just Math. Even with enrollment down, salaries saw […]
