By: Diane Benjamin Nick Leroy had a short-lived venue called The Stable in downtown Bloomington. Hopefully he knows shows that make money instead of subsidized entertaining for the elites. When is the City going to admit the Coliseum isn’t The Grossinger Motors Arena anymore? Too hard to take the sign down? In case you missed […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this WEEK story: https://www.25newsnow.com/2023/09/07/idot-report-black-latinx-drivers-stopped-by-bloomington-police-disproportionately-higher-rate/ Quote: “McLean County has unfortunately had a history of disproportionally stopping people of color, so this is ongoing. What’s alarming is that the 2022 traffic data showed an uptick,” explains Karla Bailey-Smith, the Central Illinois Chapter of ACLU Illinois which covers McLean, DeWitt and Livingston Counties. I’m […]
By: Diane Benjamin Update to this story: https://blnnews.com/2023/09/06/normal-operating-the-way-citizens-want-it/ Normal garbage fees: Bloomington garbage fees: Bloomington makes garbage and recycling pickup as complicated as possible, they also include discounts for low income: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/departments/public-works/resident-community/solid-waste/garbage-recycling Bloomington offers bulk pickup twice a year and for a fee the rest of the year. The 95 gallon can in Bloomington is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The County Board now has two vacant seats with the resignation of John McIntyre – District 5. The seat vacated by Jeannie Biles – District 8 – hasn’t been filled yet after her resignation in August. Democrat Elizabeth Johnston, currently vice-chair, will be acting chairman until a new election by the Board. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Ever wonder why people keep voting for leftists in cities being destroyed by progressives? See Chicago. Normal is well on their way to defeating all opposition – just like Chicago. The meeting video which includes a short Liquor Commission meeting was 34 minutes long. There was a Public Comment at the beginning […]
By: Diane Benjamin Population of Bloomington as of 7/1/2022: 78,864 https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bloomingtoncityillinois/PST045222 Population of Normal as of 7/1/2022: 52,838 (Many ISU kids who don’t stay all year) https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/normaltownillinois,US/PST045222 Bloomington reported 645 Full Time employees to the Comptroller last year (They want many more) https://illinoiscomptroller.gov/constituent-services/local-government/local-government-warehouse/processsearchresults/?DisplayMode=GETAFR&AFRDesiredData=Population,%20EAV,%20and%20Employees&Code=064/025/30&CFY=2022&Menu=Yes&PrintIt=No Normal reported 369 Full Time employees https://illinoiscomptroller.gov/constituent-services/local-government/local-government-warehouse/processsearchresults/?DisplayMode=GETAFR&AFRDesiredData=Population,%20EAV,%20and%20Employees&Code=064/095/31&CFY=2022&Menu=Yes&PrintIt=No Bloomington population is 39.5% bigger […]
By: Diane Benjamin Connect transit is tired of people noticing the empty or close to empty buses roaming Bloomington-Normal so they fixed the problem. Check out of the new electric buses. h/t a reader They’ve gone from darkened windows to covering them completely. We still know the bus is mostly empty. CT didn’t have a […]
By: Diane Benjamin Let’s call the weeds prairie grass. Of course this is in the middle of Hershey road. I hope the seeds weren’t expensive. I could have given them seeds for free from the garden. Yes, they are now even taller than the last pics.
By: Diane Benjamin I drove back out to where the huge fire was yesterday. The pics below are from the south side of the property. The turbines are across Route 9, there are none south of Route 9 in the this area. If this was a controlled burn the intent wasn’t to burn off the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The fire was on CRP land – Conservation Reserve Program. The Federal government pays farmers not to plant crops, supposedly on environmentally sensitive land. The land the fire was on looks just like every other field except for no crops other than what I call weeds. This land has been CRP for […]
