Written by Diane Benjamin - editor
Month: August 2024
Weekend comedy
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I wonder what the reward is?
By: Diane Benjamin This was texted to a college student, they picked the wrong recipient:
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Library cost taxpayers $25.2 million but can’t video a meeting
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this meeting? . Don’t look for video because the library has no way of broadcasting or taping meetings. Expect more meetings to be held there when transparency isn’t wanted. If you just want the basics about this meeting, read any media recap like this one: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2024-08-29/police-leaders-field-questions-from-the-public-on-hiring-accountability?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook If you want more keep […]
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2 emails the City redacted
By: Diane Benjamin I’m not done covering Recycled Furniture for Families. I have one more FOIA outstanding. Past stories: https://blnnews.com/2024/08/22/recycling-furniture-for-families-path-funding-crisis/ https://blnnews.com/2024/08/15/outsourcing-fail-foia-report-part-3/ https://blnnews.com/2024/08/14/foia-report-part-2/ https://blnnews.com/2024/08/09/foia-report-part-1/ I can’t believe the City didn’t realize I had emails from alderman after the Director reached out to them for help. FOIA’s wouldn’t cost the City so much time and money if […]
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This is a story Facebook removed, that means it’s important
By: Diane Benjamin Mark Zuckerberg is still interfering in elections regardless of his latest statements. The Center Square is alternative media, so of course it has to be censored. We deserve fair elections, do the facts show they will be? If you get a voter’s registration card in the mail for someone who does not […]
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Want to know more about Property Taxes? Filing a complaint?
By: Diane Benjamin The Supervisor of Assessments will be holding public information sessions around the County. https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/DocumentCenter/View/27876/Public-Information-Session-News-Release-2024 . This link has information on filing an assessment complaint: https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/109/Filing-an-Assessment-Complaint Filing a complaint is part of the public information sessions. Keep in mind, every unit of government can refuse to raise your property taxes by just requesting […]
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This is what throwing away $1 million+ looks like
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader This pic is from February 2024 at a body shop in Carlock: , The same electric bus is still sitting in Carlock deteriorating: . Why is it parked so close to other vehicles? Safe? .
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Hey People: Social Media won’t do anything about Property Taxes!
By: Diane Benjamin Unless government fears you they will continue to fleece you. Taxpayers are the bottom of their food chain. They don’t care what expenses you have or that you can’t afford groceries – their needs are superior to yours. Below are a ton of comments that I redacted all identifying information for. People […]
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Bloomington: Nobody noticed the record Connect Transit Loss
By: Diane Benjamin Last night Nick Becker, Jenna Kearns, and Kent Lee didn’t attend the meeting. That is 1/3 of your elected representatives not representing their wards. Since every vote is pre-planned it doesn’t really matter anyway. Democracy! PSCRB Board member Surena Fish wants to make sure the public knows about this meeting tomorrow: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/cityblm/2f098c7371fcadaa33ede54dd302dbd50.pdf […]
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Tonight: Beginning of the End for Market Street Garage
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight Bloomington finally gets to destroy the Market Street garage. The documentation doesn’t say where people parking there now will park during construction of Connect Transit’s transfer center and new parking garage. Excerpts: https://d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net/cityblm/0e86386b97bf1b532c53aec744be92750.pdf The documentation claims the City has spent $870,000 in the last 5 years fixing the garage. Is the […]
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The Rivian EV Fire
By: Diane Benjamin The fire was not in the plant, it was in a lot. If you haven’t seen the video or reports – go to this link: https://insideevs.com/news/731281/rivian-factory-fire-r1s-r1t/amp The fire involved many more than “several” vehicles. It looks to me like barriers were put around vehicles that were parked close together. That kept the […]
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New Chuckles from the League of Women Voters
By: Diane Benjamin Read their entire story here: https://shorturl.at/d8UQ8 The ERA wasn’t introduced to Congress 101 years ago. It was discussed by women who got the women’s right to vote passed. It was brought to Congress by feminists and passed bother Houses in 1972. It needed to be ratified by 38 states, and expired in […]
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Weekend Wit
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NCHS 1969 – Special Reunion this weekend
By: Diane Benjamin Why is this one special? Because a beloved chorus teacher will be the guest of honor. According to the organizer of the reunion, Kathy Siracuse: Mr. McFarland had a robust personality and a ton of enthusiasm that inspired his students to sing their hearts out for him. He was truly beloved by […]
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Recycling Furniture for Families: PATH Funding Crisis
By: Diane Benjamin Organizations that relied on funding through PATH administration of grants were crushed when PATH failed them. Recycling Furniture for Families isn’t the only one, they are just the only one that reached out to me for help. PATH is no longer responsible for grant applications. The McLean County Center for Human Resources […]
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Illinois Treasurer’s unclaimed Property is a joke
By: Diane Benjamin The first joke is companies send your refund directly to Michael Frerichs ICASH site without every trying to send it directly to you. It is probably spite for canceling service. Check the site and see if it happened to you: https://icash.illinoistreasurer.gov/ Unless the person listed is deceased, getting that money back is […]
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Top Crimes Summary: Bloomington IL 3-Year Trends
By: Diane Benjamin Below are crime stats for three years through July. Source: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-491 Since the 3 charts are difficult to read and compare, I summarized some items: . . .
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In Case the citizens of Normal Forgot
By: Diane Benjamin The property Normal is going to build a new Fire Station on is 1.69 acres. Normal paid $450,000 for it even after area residents petitioned the Town to just move it across the street: https://blnnews.com/2020/06/04/normal-isnt-listening/ It could have been located by the Town owned dog park, of course the opinions of citizens […]
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Safe Communities in Sick Societies
By: Diane Benjamin The meeting was short, the video includes 15 minutes of commercials before the meeting started. Only one Public Comment at last night’s Bloomington Committee of the Whole – Surena Fish. She spoke on a couple issues but the big one is downtown becoming more dangerous because addicts and vagrants aren’t afraid of […]
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Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of “Open The Books”, passed away over the weekend.
By John Kraft & Kirk Allen https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2024/08/adam-andrzejewski-ceo-and-founder-of-open-the-books-passed-away-over-the-weekend/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEwSB1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHb4gzC8E9DAs26VKfclGqu5MgdJy517SSqPVDsyYh22zHhuc3pWRyj_ZOw_aem_SbwKryDxo4FkwoAPmDGMNw On August 19, 2024 Hinsdale, Ill. (ECWd) – With deep sadness, we report that Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of Open The Books – “Every Dime. Online. In Real Time.” passed away over the weekend. As former candidate for Governor of Illinois, Adam campaigned on his vision of Every Dime. […]
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Short Committee of the Whole tonight
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/4a84d78a-5bc1-11ee-ae13-0050569183fa-d854eb82-3702-4140-9de6-ac3a8e3f379d-1723674910.pdf Usually Committee of the Whole meetings are a setup for some big spending plan. This one isn’t. Two presentations that won’t take long:
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Rent control – More to the Story
By: Diane Benjamin Communities can already control rent increases – Quit raising property taxes! Quit pretending the needs of government are superior to the needs of people actually earning the money you take. People need to quit electing big government spenders who created the current destructive inflation by printing money. This would be Game Changing […]
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Bloomington’s Fitch rating downgraded
By: Diane Benjamin Normal took a huge hit by Fitch: https://blnnews.com/2024/08/15/normal-is-no-longer-rated-aaa/ Bloomington took a much smaller hit and now has the same rating as Normal AA. Excerpts below, the ability to tax you to death does impact government credit ratings. Did you know the population is declining? You can read the rest of the report […]
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Weekend Wackiness
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My Assessed Value, probably yours too
By: Diane Benjamin All levels of Illinois government can’t collect enough money. They have needs, yours are immaterial. That is what happens in a one party state where taxpayers are immaterial other than PAY IT! Just wait until the County Board goes blue! Know what an equalization factor of 1.1143 means? The assessed value of […]
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The REAL Reasons Rents are so high
By: Diane Benjamin Everyone’s first thought is property taxes. The fleecing of property owners on unrealized gains does contribute, that is no different than taxing you on stocks that have increased in value but you haven’t sold them. To pay taxes you would have to sell. Of course, if the value decreases you don’t get […]
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Normal Is No Longer rated AAA
By: Diane Benjamin Fitch Ratings, the smallest ratings agency, has always been the only one to have Normal at AAA. On August 12th they downgraded Normal to AA. That is a huge drop – skipping over AAA- and AA+. https://www.fitchratings.com/research/us-public-finance/fitch-downgrades-normal-il-idr-to-aa-from-aaa-due-to-criteria-change-outlook-stable-12-08-2024 It looks to me like long term debt caused the downgrade and Fitch changing how […]
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Outsourcing Fail – FOIA Report Part 3
By: Diane Benjamin The email below shows where the problems started. PATH was not equipped to continue required paperwork after the death of their CEO. It appears no one was cross-trained to prevent the disaster that resulted. Many people lost their jobs when the paperwork to continue 988 service wasn’t submitted on time. Non-profits who […]
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Kathleen Lorenz’s new job
By: Diane Benjamin I found this while looking for something else. I wonder if buying a hotel to house the homeless was her idea? Since she’s running for mayor of Normal, voters should know if she supports it. Does she know the tent city grew because the first camper was allowed to stay? Does she […]
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The Blessent arrest – video
h/t a reader It evidently has to be watched on YouTube. Of course Facebook deleted it.
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FOIA Report – Part 2
By: Diane Benjamin Continuation of this story: https://blnnews.com/2024/08/09/foia-report-part-1/ The City of Bloomington redacted emails written by aldermen and the City Manager in response to a HUGE problem. Didn’t they realize nothing prevents the person who received those emails from giving them to me? The story concerns a local non-profit called Recycling Furniture for Families. This […]
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Update on James/Michelle Blessent
By: Diane Benjamin FYI: I drove on part of the new Oakland Avenue yesterday. It isn’t done, but it’s a MAJOR improvement! This April 2023 story has been getting a tons of reads the last week or so. https://blnnews.com/2023/04/17/blessent-james-or-michelle/ That told me something is up. It is. The County Records show a Motion to Reconsider […]
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Bloomington’s Short Meeting
By: Diane Benjamin The meeting wasn’t as long as the video shows. It includes close to 14 minutes of commercials before the meetings starts. If you want to know about upcoming events, watch them. 4 people spoke at Public Comment, 3 wanting the Council to go with Mboka’s Liquor Commission recommendation to deny the Liquor […]
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4 things you need to know
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Unintended consequences are never considered when feelings are used to make decisions. Another Krystle Able post has unintended consequences splattered all over it. What is regulated you get less of. Econ 101. As a Democrat County Board member Able increased rents by voting to seize increased property taxes because property values […]
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Bloomington tonight – could be short
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington agenda for tonight: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/f71aedd4-5bbe-11ee-ae13-0050569183fa-d854eb82-3702-4140-9de6-ac3a8e3f379d-1723138430.pdf Only 1 item is on the regular agenda: https://d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net/cityblm/05f44e6d7c7828b2db62b47b19b7427d0.pdf Big government means big bureaucracy. Bloomington’s staff is MUCH bigger than just a few years ago. Something isn’t working right because this item hires a consultant to fix the organizational structure. Below is what they want the consultant […]
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Update: Downtown For Everyone Deleted?
By: Diane Benjamin On a different device I can see this post. I suggest everyone read the comments themselves – especially alderman who will be funding this. The below was posted on Facebook. It was dated June 8th. I said “was” because it disappeared. There were tons of comments not supporting the project. There were […]
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Repeating the same mistakes
By: Diane Benjamin It is likely your public school didn’t tell you the Pilgrims tried socialism/collectivism and found out it didn’t work. https://www.aier.org/article/the-pilgrims-tried-socialism-and-it-failed/ McLean County used to be a beacon of freedom, after the November elections the county will probably have a County Board control by socialists/collectivists, also called Democrats. Lucky you! Your tax dollars […]
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Weekend Snickers
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Net Zero isn’t possible
By: Diane Benjamin I posted a screen shot of the US Debt Clock on July 29th. That was TWELVE days ago. US National Debt then was $35,003,234,351,843. Debt per citizen was $103,827. Today it is $104,225. Debt today: By the end of today the Federal government will have added $150 BILLION to the debt in […]
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FOIA Report – Part 1
By: Diane Benjamin I’m starting with an easy part of the FOIA I finally received yesterday. Evidently no one in legal at the City of Bloomington knows tax returns for non-profits are public information. Every FOIA the City of Bloomington responds to is reviewed by the legal department. They shouldn’t complain about how much FOIA […]
