By: Diane Benjamin Below is the report the County received from the law firm it hired to investigate allegations made by a former employee regarding the solicitation of money on County property. Of course, the complete list of contributors was not reviewed. The elected officials and/or county employees who contributed to the effort to abolish […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you want to buy something and then find out the cost is more than twice what you expected, what do you do? If you’re the Town of Normal and want to save 50 feet with an underpass that vehicles can’t even use, you plow ahead and look for more money from […]
By: Diane Benjamin Posted on Facebook by the Town of Normal: Two points: Don’t forget that many multi-million $$$ project is to save 50 feet. The cost is now way over $23 million. FYI: You still have no one who doesn’t support the project to vote for.
By: Diane Benjamin ILLINOIS! https://www.illinoisworknet.com/LayoffRecovery/Pages/IllinoisWARNData.aspx February isn’t over, those numbers might go higher. No one is guaranteed a job. That includes Federal employees when the national debt is: By the time you click this link it will be higher: https://www.usdebtclock.org/ These layoffs are only for companies with 75 or more fulltime employees. The smaller local […]
By: Diane Benjamin Anyone surprised? The law firm hired by the County to investigate the PAC created to abolish the Auditor’s office didn’t agree with the ethics commission ruling. See the WGLT story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-02-26/mclean-county-ethics-complaint-found-to-be-unsubstantiated-after-attorneys-investigation There is one glaring problem. Talking to County employees is nice but they are not central to what should have been […]
By: Diane Benjamin Read this story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-02-25/home-sweet-home-proposes-50-cabin-village-to-serve-homeless-near-downtown-bloomington Home Sweet Home wants to build tiny houses south of downtown on land Connect Transit owns and abandoned 15 years ago and now leased to the City of Bloomington. Why wasn’t the Transfer station built there? Here Is a faster idea for downtown housing: Tow all of Connect […]
By: Diane Benjamin Board packet: https://connect-transit.com/file/3390/02%2025%202025_BoT%20Meeting%20Packet.pdf The Board hasn’t met since November, this meeting has 3 months of stats. This is what sustainability looks like! Illinois brilliance: New Payment System: 11 of the 12 electric buses were not running as of last December: https://blnnews.com/2024/12/12/status-of-electric-buses-foia-insights/ Connect Transit is buying 12 more buses they call “heavy duty”. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Look up criminal records at this link: https://publicaccess.mcleancountyil.gov/PubAC_SearchCriminal.aspx Christopher Simmons was determined to be the shooter in the weekend triple homicide and then suicide . He has a long history of traffic and DUI violations plus cannabis. He also pled guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge. It looks to me like he […]
By: Diane Benjaminb A motion was made at the beginning of last night’s Council meeting to suspend parts of the Agenda until the March Committee of the Whole meeting. Alderman Danenberger wanted the staff and Council to have the opportunity to attend the candlelight vigil for the weekend murder victims. Aldermen Cody Hendricks seconded the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois Democrats (math challenged) are again pushing for a progressive income tax to fleece high earners. See this story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_a03a425a-f088-11ef-966a-23bfc0c98a8b.html?a Since the left keeps trying to tax the rich simply because they earn more than average, they have no concept of what happens when that is enacted. Facts and a clear history […]
By: Diane Benjamin You need to know Letters to the Editor posted in the paper before elections aren’t grassroot support. Campaigns recruit letter writers or even write sone for people to submit. The purpose is to try to sway public opinion and make people think their candidates are more popular than they are. If you […]
By: Diane Benjamiin 1) I had a cup of coffee at my Bloomington church yesterday. It tasted like dirt, now I know what all the social media posts about the water quality are talking about. The church has to buy a filter just to drink the water we pay a fortune for? We use very […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this story? https://blnnews.com/2024/09/30/will-downs-choose-flooding-over-people/ A developer still hasn’t given up on building housing on a hill on Rt. 150. The above story details how the homes at the bottom of that hill already flood. Building more houses on quarter acre lots will benefit the developer, the people at the bottom of the […]
By: Diane Benjamin More on this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/02/20/instigation-cassy-taylor-and-lizzy-johnston/ Below is an Amended D-2 filing with the State Board of Elections by the committee created to abolish the Auditors office. Note the beginning cash balance. No filings were required until $5000 was raised/spent so all the contributions aren’t listed. I do know where some came from: […]
By: Diane Benjamin 2 very recent stories prove the title. Local corruption big or small will never be prosecuted locally. Start with this one: https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_0d368a40-efa7-11ef-9603-b321af6933ea.html What the local school districts put on their website to convince you to approve a 1% Sales tax was illegal. Evidence of that is the language was changed when people […]
By: Diane Benjamin The McLean County Ethics Commission referred both Taylor and Johnston today to the State’s Attorney for further investigation. This involves the solicitation of donations on County property to get the McLean County Auditor office abolished. I don’t have a lot of details, but they issued a statement that sufficient evidence exists to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The County elections site allows you to see your ballot:. This is everywhere but Bloomington because County taxpayers are forced to fund their election commission: https://mcleancountyil.gov/2023/Sample-Ballots-Normal Normal also has few choices except for mayor. You can’t chose your At-Large Trustees because 3 are on the ballot to fill 3 seats. Your don’t […]
By” Diane Benjamin Early voting starts today. The only people who will show up to vote this early are the radicals. They want votes banked so they can get all people who might support them to vote early. They have 40 days to do it. Nothing about early voting is about giving citizens opportunities, it […]
By: Diane Benjamin Continuation of this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/02/17/aclu-of-illinois-government-controlled/ I hope by posting this information you realize Illinois uses your tax dollars to further agendas they didn’t state when they ran for office. It also shows NGO’s like the ACLU claim to protect civil liberties while actually only protecting rights government endorse. Finding payments made by […]
h/t a reader Illegal Kathleen Lorenz sign: Unlike Cody Hendricks placing a HUGE sign illegally, this one looks like a yard sign. Maybe this Lorenz supporter doesn’t know it is on public property and therefore illegal. Is Cody’s sign still there? https://blnnews.com/2025/02/12/five-things-you-need-to-know/
By: Diane Benjamin 2 things from last night’s Bloomington Committee of the Whole meeting prove government doesn’t operate with the same mentality as the private sector: 1) . Donna Boelen resigned on December 23rd and was replaced last Monday by Michael Mosley. It must be too difficult to update slides used at Council meetings. (See […]
By: Diane Benjamin Both Cody Hendricks and Tom Crumpler were absent last night from the City Council meeting. Cody did post a campaign video of himself downtown talking about making it great. Since he wasn’t wearing a coat he didn’t film it yesterday. Below are Cody’s latest campaign contributions. If you look at all his […]
By: Diane Benjamin Another “riveting” meeting:
By: Diane Benjamin If you haven’t been paying attention you haven’t noticed the ACLU doesn’t exist to protect your rights. They exist to protect the rights government thinks you should have. A good example is lawsuits against Red States for gerrymandering while not suing Illinois for the same thing. Have you heard of the Roger […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Since Chemberly Harris has little money for her mayoral campaign, I haven’t paid any attention to what she’s doing. https://www.illinoissunshine.org/committees/39918/ Then yesterday a reader told me I needed to see the video she posted to Facebook. I taped a little of it, see her whole video here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563272094358 Harris […]
By: Diane Benjamin H/T Two readers who have been sending information. I’ve got a LOT more information, but start here. Executive Order on Education: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/ Indoctrination funded by the Department of Education – Over $1 billion: https://defendinged.org/investigations/granted/ This is what the money was used for, not education: Illinois Schools listed as receiving funds, The Regional […]
By: Diane Benjamin H/T a reader https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/ILBLOOM/bulletins/3d25b81
See #2. Sharon Chung thinks Illinois corruption is over. She’s funny: https://www.nprillinois.org/illinois/2025-02-13/central-illinois-lawmakers-react-to-former-house-speaker-madigans-guilty-verdict By: Diane Benjamin 1) Continuation of this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/02/13/unit-5-staff-only-meetings-1-sales-tax/ Video of the “staff only” meetings concerning the 1% Salters Tax increase will not exist. I received the response below to that part of a FOIA request: Diane, There are no public records responsive […]
By: Diane Benjamin H/T a reader: . Why are “staff only” meetings scheduled? Isn’t everything “staff” needs to know on the website? https://april1cent.info/ We still don ‘t know who paid for that site, WGLT forgot to ask. https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-02-11/complaints-filed-over-alleged-political-advocacy-on-school-sales-tax-informational-website I filed a FOIA this morning on the meetings. Sometimes I get a same day response from […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) From https://april1cent.info/ The 1% Sales Tax could be use for mental health services. That means your child could be “affirmed” by a “professional” to be anything they “feel”. Parents will not be notified or informed. Do you really want a system that believes in DEI, Social Emotional Learning, and gender change […]
By: Diane Benjamin No wonder trust in government is at an all time low among people who expect Public Servants to actually work for the public. Oaths of office are now meaningless. Did you know the County isn’t going to produce a report on the fundraising at the County to abolish the Auditor until March? […]
By: Diane Benjamin The only eventful part of the meeting was the discussion about changing the language for seats at the PSCRB. (Public Safety Citizens Review Board) About three years ago Mollie Ward wanted 2 seats for 16-21 year old’s. They did have two kids for about a years, in the last 2 1/2 years […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/592d1584-a60f-11ef-ab4b-005056a89546-d854eb82-3702-4140-9de6-ac3a8e3f379d-1738965657.pdf Highlights: I asked AI to summarize this plan: It did warn the money isn’t guaranteed. Regular Agenda: The first item usually gets passed with little discussion. Since the PSCRB has not been able to fill 2 seats with younger people (16-21), the language is being changed to non-youth are not […]
By: Diane Benjamin Few people probably know the McLean County Treasurer’s website has years of payments to every taxing district they collect property taxes for: https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/590/Taxing-Dist-Distribution-Settlement-Shee Someday if I really want a huge project I could compile tax payments to EVERY unit of government on your tax bill. If someone wants this project, or at […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the original verbiage on the April1cent.info website that most of the McLean County schools linked to from their school websites: “Asking” voters to approve is a violation of law as stated in this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/02/09/since-election-interference-isnt-prosecuted/ This is what it says now: . Whoever tipped them off and whoever changed the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nobody is afraid of consequences for breaking election law and misuse of public funds. How long is it going to take McLean County to investigate Lizzy Johnston’s alleged soliciting money on County property to abolish the County Auditor? Another year? Why did Lizzy lawyer up for a State Board of Elections investigation? […]
By: Diane Benjamin According to Krystle Able they do. Below is part of a video of Able imploring ISU students to get out and vote for her April 1st. In this clip she claims local unions support illegals. Evidently the local unions want to lose jobs to illegals. Illegals don’t respect picket lines, they just […]
