By: Diane Benjamin I previously wrote about large increases in salaries reported to the Teachers Retirement System: https://blnnews.com/2022/05/21/this-needs-explained-by-unit-5-part-2/ Since not every employee of Unit 5 is a member of this pension fund, I also FOIA’d IMRF for salaries reported in 2019 and 2020 by Unit 5. Tracking down who these people are would take forever, […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below is part of a slide presented at the 5/26/22 Unit 5 School Board meeting. Unit 5, and probably all local public schools, take Federal money for meals. The Biden administration now says Federal money will be pulled from Districts that don’t allow boys to use girls restrooms: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/if-schools-don-t-let-boys-into-girls-bathrooms-biden-will-take-their-lunch-money/ar-AAXJFM4 Another source: […]
By: Diane Benjamin 5/25/22 Unit 5 School board meeting video: This video should go viral, no I’m not going to tell you what EDC Director Hoban said. Hoban had just run through all the potential incentives offered to new businesses. The EDC might want to speed this up if they are going to push it, […]
We owe every generation the promises of Freedom and Liberty given to us. We honor members of the military who died for us, but we too must fight. Keep reading: A VISITOR FROM THE PAST by Thelen Paulk I had a dream the other night, I didn’t understand. A figure walking through the mist, with […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://fs25.formsite.com/sbbmho/pjonp5idpy/index.html Eliminating all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion employees and programs isn’t listed anywhere. I could add more, but my reactions are in RED.
By: Diane Benjamin 1) In case you missed this story, librarians in Dunlap got in trouble for reporting a man viewing and printing child porn: https://www.illinoisreview.com/illinoisreview/2022/05/dunlap-library-punishes-two-employees-for-reporting-patron-reportedly-viewing-child-porn.html Understand yet why schools are sexualizing your kids? It’s the agenda! 2) County Board member Jim Soeldner was at the Libertarian’s meeting I attended, so I asked him about […]
By: Diane Benjamin Instead of going to the Unit 5 School Board meeting last night I was at the Libertarian’s meeting. They had 10 candidates confirmed to appear, most of them didn’t. Jim Fisher, running against Scott Preston for the 91st Legislative District was there, Preston wasn’t. Preston had a friend speak on his behalf, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 School Board meeting last night after the Board approved teaching Comprehensive Sexual Education in 8th and 9th grades: Sex Education will remain the same next school year for 8th grade, a new curriculum will be used for 9th grade. Everyone will be able to see what is being taught on […]
Is bullying okay in Ridgeview schools? Are parents too intimated to stand up for their kids? How do parents expect their kids to get an education when teachers and students are allowed to bully? Send your story! Email: [email protected] . . . . . .
By: Diane Benjamin Schools can not use surveys to gather information on students without the permission of parents: https://blnnews.com/2022/05/16/know-your-childs-rights/ Did they get YOUR permission before doing an invasive survey using Panorama? https://blnnews.com/2022/04/20/district-87-and-panorama/ District 87 refused to give me a summary of the results, I doubt I even received the complete survey. The Illinois Attorney General’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Unit 5 School Board is meeting tonight at Normal West – 6:30. Comprehensive Sexual Education is on the Agenda: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1482?meeting=531212 I watched most of the Phase II Community Engagement virtual meeting last night. Way too much of the presentation consisted of what Unit 5 could do if they had more money […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two Council members didn’t bother to attend, Billie Tyus covered for Tim Gleason who also wasn’t there. See if you can figure out who is MIA: Everything passed with little discussion. The video is an hour and 10 minutes long, only because a Township meeting took place before the Council meeting. Obviously […]
Of course Richard Irvin won’t be there because he isn’t a Republican. Darren Bailey, Gary Rabine, and Jesse Sullivan will meet for one hour starting at 7 p.m. WGN-TV is broadcasting the debate, but so are local stations. See how to watch here: https://wibqam.com/2022/05/23/bailey-rabine-sullivan-to-face-off-tuesday-in-illinois-republican-primary-governor-debate/ I predict these three will split the vote which allows Irvin […]
By: Diane Benjamin Evidently State Farm changed their mind, maybe they saw what happened to Disney. Corporations need to stay in their lane. Go Woke Go Broke! https://www.likeacreepyneighbor.com/ Targeting easy to manipulate children with far left ideology violates the rights of parents. The email at the bottom was leaked by a whistleblower. LibsOfTikTOK obtained this […]
By: Diane Benjamin From the 4-26-2022 Community Engagement meetings for Unit 5: Is this what pay freezes and reduced raises looks like? https://blnnews.com/2022/05/21/this-needs-explained-by-unit-5-part-2/ Two more sessions: https://www.unit5.org/ Monday, May 23 — 6 to 7:30 pm – Normal Community High School, 3900 E. Raab Road, Normal Tuesday, May 24 — 6 to 7:30 pm – Virtual […]
By: Diane Benjamin I FOIA’d the agreement from 2005 since the County website doesn’t have documents from back that far. Below is the agreement for the Wind Farm East of Bloomington. My favorite part, besides the noise and blinking lights wouldn’t bother anyone in the area (ha ha ha): Has anyone checked if that money […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1170&Inline=True Tari Renner stacked all the Board and Commission. Mboka continues to just reappoint the same people. No Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Mboka? This item shouldn’t be on the Consent Agenda, it should be pulled for further discussion. Does the City want to risk an abandoned property if the owners can’t use […]
By: Diane Benjamin Proof COVID is over, Bloomington employees are back to traveling: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/27940/637884879474800000 Go to PDF page 130 and following see for yourself. Don’t miss this one: $6754.00 for ONE Conference. I could say I hope more than one person went for that price, but then I’d have to ask why more than one […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part 1: https://blnnews.com/2022/05/21/this-needs-explained-by-unit-5-part-1/ Things to know: All of the data came from the Teachers Retirement System Not every employee of Unit 5 is in TRS Some employees earning minimal amounts (less than $1000) were deleted for clarity The main list has 923 employees A list at the bottom has another 44 with […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part 2: https://blnnews.com/2022/05/21/this-needs-explained-by-unit-5-part-2/ —— Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/05/18/unit-5-big-raises/ OpenTheBooks.com shows: In 2019 Unit 5 had 2059 employees – total salary: $85,561,545. In 2020 Unit 5 had 2024 employees – total salary: $90,070,590 That is a huge increase in salaries with fewer employees than the previous year. I FOIA’d the data Unit 5 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is an email received by Jeffrey Wynn from Unit 5: In case the print is too small, Dan Lamboley claims in this email the new High School curriculum to align with Comprehensive Sexuality Education is complete. Since part of the curriculum is complete, Wynn next asked for copies of what will […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Remember the lady in Normal with YELLOW water? https://blnnews.com/2022/05/17/normals-yellow-water/ Yesterday it was a beautiful shade of green: 2) Now we know why Jamie Mathy stepped down from his Ward 1 seat, he wants tax breaks to redevelop a building downtown. The building has been empty for a long time, so as […]
By: Diane Benjamin McLean County recently added solar lights to “Stop Ahead” signs in the country: The twinkle-sized lights flash yellow, but they don’t show up very well in daylight. It breaks my heart that a young man is dead because a semi-driver ran the stop sign at Leroy-Lexington blacktop and Route 9. Since the […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t Doug Fansler Remember these? https://blnnews.com/2021/08/19/mia-common-sense-in-normal/ Doug FOIA’d Normal for how many the Town has purchased and how much they cost. Since 2017 they have ordered a bunch of them. The Town has ONE sign at 6 locations. The signs and stands evidently don’t last long. 8/2/17 Bought 2 for $342.45 8/22/17 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 didn’t have many attend their 2nd round of Community Engagement sessions last night. They really want to put a property tax increase on the ballot in November. They need attendees to get yes votes. From a person who did attend, video is not available: Kristen Weikle lamented unfunded mandates. They […]
By: Diane Benjamin Voting 6 weeks before the actual election date is merely a ploy to bank votes from uniformed voters. Do not vote now, the ballots aren’t even available yet to preview before you vote. The ballots were likely delayed by petition challenges. Only those who want to be uniformed vote before campaigning even […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 has another Community Engagement meeting tonight! 6-7:30 at Parkside. See the other two meetings in this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/05/18/middle-of-the-road-college-at-veterans-pkwy/ Maybe somebody will ask them to explain this: Remember Superintendent Kristen Weikle claiming on video nobody got 7+% raises between 2019 and 2020? https://blnnews.com/2022/05/07/unit-5-word-salad/ OpenTheBooks.com showed total salaries increased 7.9%. Since their […]
Police claim they have a right to protest. Any accidents yet?
By: Diane Benjamin I probably have at least 100 stories since 2012 on road conditions. Tari Renner ran for office promising to fix them – twice. https://blnnews.com/2018/01/24/its-the-roads-stupid/ In 2012 the City passed an Action Plan that included “smooth rides on quality well-maintained street”. https://blnnews.com/2015/02/26/if-you-like-your-roads-you-can-keep-your-roads/ In late 2013 or early 2014 the City borrowed $10,000,000 for […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when Kathleen Lorenz made an impassioned plea for the Council to communicate better? https://blnnews.com/2022/05/03/kathleen-now-hears-what-we-hear-when-watching-meetings/ That happened on May 3, 2022. (Two weeks ago!) Evidently she didn’t mean it. When I posted the story about Normal requesting another $6 million for the underpass, Stan Nord emailed the Council asking what they knew. […]
By: Diane Benjamin There is MUCH more to cover from last night’s meeting, stay tuned. How many people did this guy speak for last night? Just hit play: Donna Boelen had one of the many “comments of the night”. Tim Gleason stated again only Rowe Construction bids on road work. Donna thinks out of town […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal has another water problem in an older section of the Town. Stan Nord brought it up in Council comments last night. Pam Reece claims the Town has been trying to help the woman who has contacted them over and over. Her home also had severe flooding last year that wrecked her […]
By: Diane Benjamin This won’t be the only story from the Normal Town Council meeting last night. How did employees get to Diamond Star? How did they get to Mitsubishi? Neither had bus service. Who wants bus service now? How many of those buses will be empty for the low low price of $1,000,000? General […]
By: Diane Benjamin This document is amazing. Parents have rights too, schools have to provide you with ALL materials used to teach. Schools can’t use surveys to gather information on your kids without your permission. We know they are breaking that one! Schools can’t sell your child’s information without your consent. Schools can not discriminate […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.normalil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4300 The Feds decided to print money and hand it out to local governments. Tonight Normal wants to hand another $200,000 to Connect Transit from those American Rescue Plan Funds. But wait – this isn’t a one time gift: (PDF page 53) Why is Normal doing this? Not only so “1 rate […]
By: Diane Benjamin In yesterday’s story I neglected to say the audio and video of this meeting don’t mesh. The first 16 minutes has no sound. Need some IT help County? Ask Bloomington, they use the same room. Refer back to this story, Sheriff Sandage is tired of Sharon Chung stirring up trouble in the […]
By: Diane Benjamin This story is Part 1 on the County Board meeting this week. Part 2 is tomorrow. Know who this guy is? That is Democrat County Board member Jim Rogal. Rogal talked the Board into delaying a vote on a new solar farm for only one reason: He wants to force (intimate) them […]
