By: Diane Benjamin If you have swallowed “Climate Change” propaganda, you aren’t looking at facts. Try this one: . Prefer a list? Here it is, a few states don’t match because the above is newer than this list: https://www.factmonster.com/math-science/weather/record-highest-temperatures-by-state In case you forgot, remember when another Ice Age was imminent because of global cooling? When […]
By: Diane Benjamin All the elected officials in McLean County will never tell those of you who don’t bother to vote thanks, so I will. The schools boards love people who don’t care enough to make sure the teacher’s unions don’t get the candidates elected they want. Negotiations are so much easier when those paying […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the first post of what might be many. The County and Tri-Valley are only seeing dollar signs. Tri-Valley will get used to the property tax increases and then, as the farm depreciates which decreases property values, district taxpayers will be taxed more. The same thing happened with wind turbines. Will […]
By: Diane benjamin McLean isn’t the only County, they are one of 62 being sued for selling property seized for non-payment of property taxes. The Edgar County Watchdogs reported the story: https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2025/06/62-counties-clerks-and-treasures-named-in-lawusit-filed-in-federal-court-alleged-property-tax-sale-violations “The Fifth Amendment to the United State Constitution bars the State of Illinois, or any county therein, from seizing property from its owners […]
I heard Rivian laid off salaried workers this week. The number I heard was high. Maybe Government Paid Media can ask for us. Why would anyone relocate here to work where their job isn’t guaranteed? Is Illinois going to cut their funding now? h/t a reader 140 jobs: https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/rivian-cuts-140-manufacturing-jobs-ahead-of-r2-suv-launch–techcrunch-93CH-4113423
By: Diane Benjamin 1) See all Boards and Commission here along with a link to apply: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/government/boards-commissions Some diversity and new blood on Boards and Commission is badly needed. 2) I recently looked up a house that just went under contract. This was on Redfin, progressives want you to be too afraid of the weather […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Pritzker must have figured out he will never be president. Instead he is running for a third term. Illinois should hold more No Kings events – against him. He thinks he is one. He and his party haven’t done enough damage yet. 2) WGLT joined a lawsuit to stop the defunding […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) July 1, 2025 State gas tax is increasing to 48.3 cents per gallon. https://tax.illinois.gov/research/publications/bulletins/fy-2025-23.html Meanwhile Springfield politicians still don’t have enough money so they are considering a per mile tax too. Add another 8 cents per gallon for Bloomington and Normal. 2) The 1% Sales Tax for schools goes into effect […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/departments/human-resources/benefits-at-a-glance Bloomington has job openings: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/departments/human-resources/join-the-team
By: Diane Benjamin After a long line of licensed massage therapists spoke, stating that the ordinance still needed work, the City Council passed an amended version. Public comment begins at 33:25, and the discussion and amendments start at 56:00. Most of the outdated language from the 1970s was removed; however, the ordinance remains a complex […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last Friday I attended the annual Corn Belt Energy meeting. These aren’t boring, they throw in enough humor and fun to keep my interest. (Which they wouldn’t if all they did was read financial statements!) I found out why Corn Belt rates aren’t skyrocketing while Ameren rates are. Corn Belt buys electricity […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/cityblm/a982639c281d15cf5e4ea08f054b02060.pdf Only 1 item on the regular agenda: Existing State licensed massage therapists will not be subjected to licensing by the City: This was common sense. It still does nothing to rescue people being trafficked. The ordinance, including changes, took 25 pages to write. I’m glad the legal department came to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Connect Transit owns a property they don’t need in downtown Bloomington – PIN #21-04-389-006. Connect held a special meeting on June 13th. This information is from the packet for that meeting: https://connect-transit.com/file/3675/06%2013%202025_BoT_Special%20Meeting%20Packet.pdf Connect Transit’s Oakland Avenue property is the former site of Connect Transit’s operations and maintenance facility prior to our current […]
By: Diane Benjamin What is government speak? It’s elected officials or staff who use terms you’ve never heard of before. One example: Road Diet That one was big a few years ago. It means narrowing the roads to slow down traffic. East Washington was put on a road diet so bike lanes could be added. […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Top 25 Illinois companies bringing in foreign labor via H1B visas. See Number 13? https://www.myvisajobs.com/reports/h1b/work-state/illinois . See this link: https://www.myvisajobs.com/h1b/search.aspx?e=Rivian&wc=Normal&o1=Employer&y=2025#google_vignette 89 jobs are listed for Normal. All of them aren’t highly skilled. The list includes software developers, data scientists, product managers, quality manager, various engineers including staff, etc, etc, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below are emails I also receive by FOIA. Does it surprise anyone that Tonya Watkins is no longer a township employee? Note the second email states Krystle Able hired the former acting supervisor as her administrative assistant. . .
By: Diane Benjamin This email was obtained through a FOIA request. The writer, Jess, served as the temporary township supervisor and chose not to run for election. The previously elected supervisor passed away while in office. Krystle Able was elected township supervisor in April 2025. One unanswered question in this policy is whether employees can […]
Part 1: https://blnnews.com/2025/06/18/olympia-school-district-facts-part-1/ By: Diane Benjamin The Olympia Schools superintendent sent 2 emails about the property tax error: . From Part 1 – enrollment is decreasing. According to this story the District has been deficit spending for a decade: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-05-21/olympia-school-district-frustrated-by-error-that-led-to-incorrect-mclean-county-tax-bills With 110 fewer students since 2018, why do they have deficits? According to Illinois Report […]
Part 2: https://blnnews.com/2025/06/18/olympia-schools-district-facts-part-2/ By: Diane Benjamin This story has facts needed for the NEXT story. If you want the best possible chance of fleecing taxpayers you put a referendum to increase taxes on the Primary ballot where few people bother to vote. The Mclean County schools did that on April 1st to get a 1% […]
By: Diane Benjamin From this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/06/17/committee-of-the-whole-recap/ Bloomington continues exchanging employees with Decatur: From LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cordaryl-patrick-016b3633/
By: Diane Benjamin 3 of the 9 aldermen were absent: Mosley, Danenberger, and Lee. Bloomington has no idea how many local houses are uninhabitable. The goal now is to find out. Relatively new City employee Cordaryl Patrick – Community Impact & Enhancement Director, gave a presentation starting at 22:00. I find it hilarious that this […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/cityblm/1319726fe65c44cda877648ed64432af0.pdf Of course nothing is on the agenda holding elected officials accountable for violating City Code. https://blnnews.com/2025/06/11/elected-officials-vs-city-code-bloomington-fail/ Were all 3 at the the No Kings protest Saturday? They are the local royalty exempt from laws. See the agenda – sound revioting? I will let you know Tuesday unless I nod off […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District (BNWRD) documents weren’t publicly posted, I start this page in 2023: https://blnnews.com/bnwrd-docs/ Last week I received a packet for an emergency repair meeting which involves the sewer by Autozone in Normal. The sewer in this area was built in 1900. The homeless encampment had to be […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Biden illegals are dangerous because they weren’t vetted. Estimated are 500,000 have criminal warrants or convictions in the country they came from. Illegals weren’t given health exams. They weren’t forced to take the COVID vaccine like many citizens were, many have no vaccinations. Why does the left want to keep everyone […]
By: Diane Benjamin Federal law explicitly states that obstructing or otherwise interfering with an ICE arrest is a crime, and anyone involved can be subject to prosecution under federal law, including 18 U.S.C. § 111 for assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal officer and 18 U.S.C. § 1546 for using fake documents to enter or […]
Since many people have asked me what happened to Cat, I asked her to write an explanation. This is it! I left Cities 92.9 because management and I did not see eye-to-eye at all. However, God has been tapping on my shoulder to start my own podcast and media company for quite some time. I […]
By: Diane Benjamin META and Constellation Energy announced the Clinton Nuclear Power plant would provide a lot of electricity for META. https://blnnews.com/2025/06/06/nuclear-could-have-saved-farmland/ See this story: https://dceo.illinois.gov/news/press-release.28370.html In 2023 Pritzker celebrated the opening of a META data center in Dekalb County. This line is in the story: Meta also has upcoming projects in DeWitt and Morgan […]
By: Diane Benjamin Homeless cabins built in other cities like Denver have turned into money pits, attracted more homeless, and dramatically increase police calls: https://denvergazette.com/news/denver-homeless-village-911-calls-crime/article_4c2f35a8-714e-11ef-a8ad-fb8937d29b8c.html See more in this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/05/12/mayor-bradys-1st-meeting/ Remember the huge increase in police and fire calls when tent city sprouted downtown? Remember the trash from the last housing attempt? . Who […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2025/06/09/illinois-lead-water-exceedance-violation That link contains this chart: Leroy just raised water rates for dangerous water. See more in this report: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/670e66c8e7afa4bf3638b217/68430b05cd83a264d510ea9f_PKFL%202025%20Illinois%20Report%20V6.1.pdf Residents of Leroy can continue to sit out local elections. This is the result. Quote from the report – PWS is Public Water System. Note the date all lead […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when Tari Renner’s rubber stamp Council passed a 1% Sales Tax increase? https://blnnews.com/2015/09/16/taxes-increases-would-be-easier-with-truth/ The County wanted a 1/4% for “mental health”. Instead Bloomington raised Sales Tax 1% and took 3/4% for themselves. I believe this tax was mostly to fund the jail expansion but since “mental health” is always the reason […]
By: Diane Benjamin Sometimes I think readers know what I mean when I say Accelerated Payments since I’ve been writing about them for years. Since 1 commentor asked what the numbers in this story mean, I will explain in detail: https://blnnews.com/2025/06/05/bloomington-is-still-spiking-pensions-2/ Bloomington employees are allowed to accumulate sick days (Sick Leave Buy Back). They collect […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the new list of people being prosecuted by the City of Bloomington for breaking City Code: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showdocument?id=28541&t=638139539977443234 . Note your elected officials who violated the same code are not on this list. The next consolidated election will be extremely partisan because there are no penalties for violating that part of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Previous stories: https://blnnews.com/2023/09/30/remember-bloomington-fireman-6/ Right now James Buenrostro is getting paid to not work. He has been since sometime in April. His latest problems began in Indianapolis when many firefighters were there for a convention. Buenrostro’s girlfriend was with in, she has a LONG history of failing to press charges for domestic violence. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night’s meeting featured extensive public comments from licensed massage therapists, who were livid upon learning that the ordinance to combat human trafficking would also require a city license for them—adding, of course, another fee. The staff that proposed it overreached and the Council failed to immediately fix it. They already pay […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/cityblm/e325081d69d63b86f7f93fd1f98579fe0.pdf The city doesn’t care if you’re offended by the Pride community, who assume you care about their personal relationships. However, this pressures you to care. The local Pride party in downtown Bloomington isn’t until August. The City claims: Bloomington is positioning itself to become the first city in the State […]
By: Diane Benjamin The last local election was April 1st. School districts conned voters into thinking their property taxes would decrease if they approved a 1% Sales Tax increase. If anyone ever sees that decrease, please let me know! h/t a reader! Why is Barry Reilly and Vote Yes For McLean County Schools still getting […]
