By: Diane Benjamin I was contacted by 3 people yesterday who got assessment notices for properties they don’t own. Here’s the explanation, this isn’t a County Clerk error. Kathy is just forwarding information: . Printing error? Hum. Who is going to pay to mail new ones. Guess.
By: Diane Benjamin See the agenda, financial information is crossed off for both June and July because of year end: https://connect-transit.com/file/3810/2025%2008%2026_Meeting%20Packet.pdf Every other year this data has only been delayed 1 month. The Managing Director, David Braun, claimed they are still collecting June bills. When Flex replaces vehicles, the new ones will be electric! Meanwhile […]
By: Diane Benjamin Opticos Designs is the California based consultant who is recommending zoning changes to single family neighborhoods in Bloomington. Note that Normal isn’t doing anything close. Guess what? Opticos is pushing the same talking points in Maryland: https://montgomeryplanning.org/events/what-is-missing-middle-housing-presentation-to-the-silver-spring-community-from-opticos-design/ This event will feature Tony Perez from Opticos Design who is a Missing Middle Housing expert in […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Since Krystle Able calls herself a Democratic Socialist, she of course supports the far left guy running for mayor of New York. She doesn’t know history, most socialists are elected using talking points that sound nice but don’t work. Meanwhile, people who know history are handing out cards in New York […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve done many stories on Opticos and Missing Middle Housing. Review this story, it contains what the Council told staff they wanted back in July 2024 to solve the “housing crisis”: https://blnnews.com/2025/05/31/remember-when-i-told-you-staff-wouldnt-drop-it/ There is ZERO in those instructions about creating “walkable neighborhoods” or hiring a consultant from California. That didn’t stop Jeff […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part 1: https://blnnews.com/2025/08/26/bam-bloomington-residents-put-in-their-place/ I’m going to attempt to track how much money the City is spending relocating Public Works to the former Owens Nursery property. Start with the purchase June 10, 2024: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/f7099398-5bbe-11ee-ae13-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1717791762.pdf . Last night $154,740 was approved for a consultant to create a preliminary design for the “campus”. It won’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is Part 1, a short Part 2 is next. Last night’s festivities were full of misinformation by citizen speakers. Of course that’s why the 1st Amendment exists. It’s vitally important for all people to have free speech and the ability to address their government. Public Comment had to be extended over […]
Links: (Above is a picture) https://www.bing.com/search?q=Department+of+Education+stops+federal+funding+of+workforce+study&pc=GD03&form=GDAVG1&ptag=9309 https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/department-of-education-ends-support-for-political-activism/ar-AA1KU6P5?ocid=BingNewsSerp https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-admin-bans-federal-work-study-funds-from-supporting-political-activism-college-campuses?msockid=27d69318ee1a6ba8370886faef646a80
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://bloomingtonil.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1021/files/agenda/6725 Justin Boyd is getting a Proclamation for serving 9 years on the Planning Commission. The documentation doesn’t say if he’s leaving or if he’s just being celebrated. My question: Is Bloomington better now because of his ‘Planning” than it was 9 years ago? Guess what’s back! . TEN YEARS ago […]
By: Diane Benjamin After looking for months I finally found it! I’ve been saying for a long time when I do find this I can’t wait to burn it! I did yesterday. Below are 2 videos. The 1st one is 3 minutes and 33 seconds and explains most of why I did this. The second […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below are excerpts from a Working Paper compiled by: Read the details at the link above, I prefer visuals: . . Any further comments from me aren’t needed!
Another reader told me to use this link to save money: https://www.ameren.com/illinois/account/customer-service/bill/power-smart-pricing/ This is the cheapest way to save money! A reader told me you can Opt-Out at anytime. As of October 1st would be a good time. By: Diane Benjamin Like really high electricity bills? If you didn’t opt out of either the Bloomington […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1482?meeting=702240 . Remember when they promised to use 33% of the new Sales Tax Revenue to reduce property taxes? https://meetings.boardbook.org/Documents/WebViewer/1482?file=094c40a2-40b3-4c72-913f-21da99d1f3c1
By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/08/13/does-unit-5-own-your-kids/ The email in that story showed Unit 5 hiding facts from parents. The emails below were received by FOIA. If multiple emails are in one picture, start reading them from the bottom. All concern kids deciding they are trans, mental health services are never mentioned. Unit 5 […]
By: Diane Benjamin . Those pictures are from Maroa Il – the site of a former solar farm that didn’t survive storms on 8/18. No reports blame anything but severe storms. https://www.wandtv.com/community/maroa-solar-farm-suffered-significant-damage-from-overnight-storms/article_a6e03577-0e19-480c-bc3c-e931c0e4e753.html I did see a report on Facebook of power outages close to Bloomington. Ameren blamed this solar farm wreckage. The power grid has […]
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/medicaid-enrollment-spending-soar-in-illinois-as-congress-weighs-cuts/ Illinois should be asking why so many more people are on Medicaid instead of complaining about “cuts”. Covid is long over, the people eligible then should now be removed. .
By: Diane Benjamin Last night’s Bloomington Committee of the Whole: Also on the agenda was a discussion of video gaming. Start with the Public Comment at 33:35 from a downtown bar owner that isn’t allowed to have video gaming because of the arbitrary limit on the number of establishments the City set. Now see 2:11:20. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Luckily Alderman won’t be voting on the Middle Missing Housing report tonight, Committee of the Whole is meant to assess policy. It will reveal who believes government solves problems and who knows they don’t however. The Bloomington City Council has approved MANY housing projects, almost all have ZERO action from developers. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin . Illegal aliens will get student financial aid: https://www.mystateline.com/news/local-news/gov-pritzker-signs-illinois-law-granting-financial-aid-access-to-undocumented-students/ Total spent on illegals: $2.5 billion! https://www.illinoispolicy.org/think-illinois-spends-millions-on-migrants-wrong-it-spends-billions/ Enjoy your tax increases – Illinois has illegals to take care of.
By: Diane Benjamin Monday night the Bloomington City Council is circling back to the May 27th discussion of Missing Middle Housing. In case you forgot, the City hired a California group called Opticos Design Inc. Some things you need to know: -The report is littered with the term “Best Practices”. That is a ridiculous term […]
By: Diane Benjamin Want to know why the local League of Women Voters are pushing Rank Choice Voting? https://blnnews.com/2025/08/12/league-of-women-voters-accountability-in-question-bloomington-last-night/ Keep reading and find out! Illinois has been talking about changing how people vote for a few years. The way people voted since the beginning of this country isn’t good enough for miscreants, these people want […]
Only people who don’t learn from history, even recent history, would support Mamdani. That includes Krystle Alble who now has 3 jobs. She evidently is still the Executive Director of Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans. Her elected position as Normal Township Supervisor is a full time time job with full time pay, but without oversight […]
By: Diane Benjamin This one only made headlines because the victims daughter used to play in the WNBA. How many other Illinois citizens are killed by illegal immigrants and we never hear about them? https://www.wkrn.com/news/national/former-wnba-players-mother-killed-in-crash-illinois-officials . The story I wrote yesterday is very applicable: https://blnnews.com/2025/08/13/why-does-illinois-love-criminals/ When Corey Cottrell was hit and killed on his motorcycle […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington’s website has a horrible Search Engine. Instead of fixing that problem, IT decided to re-do a part of the website that was actually easy to use. This is what the screen with meeting agenda etc used to look like: It was very easy to find meeting documentation! Look at what they […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington is now dreaming up ways to keep discriminatory DEI policies by calling them other names: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-08-12/city-of-bloomington-to-host-a-free-symposium-discussing-the-future-of-inclusion-and-access Mentioned in the story: (What happened to the .gov extension?) All of the salaries came from OpenTheBooks.com. If you haven’t tried the new format, you should! Michael Hurt salary in 2024: $121,804.15 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Law enforcement is forced by the Illinois government to release criminal illegal aliens, what does that tell you? It should shout citizens and their safety are immaterial. Illinois loves criminals, especially if they are in the country illegally. They will obstruct ICE efforts to deport them. https://cis.org/Vaughan/Which-Sanctuary-Jurisdictions-Have-Released-Most-Criminals That story recaps the top […]
By: Diane Benjamin Source: https://ipmnewsroom.org/illinois-newsrooms-receive-4-million-from-state-through-tax-credits/ The State of Illinois passed a law in 2024 to help fund local media. They claim Illinois has “news deserts”. Heard of Separation of Church and State? Evidently there is no Separation of Press and State. Under this $4 million giveaway the Pantagraph received $140,000 for “qualified journalists” and $10,000 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 is hiding what goes on at school from parents. See this email for proof: At school your child can pretend to be anything they want and Unit 5 will affirm it. They will also make sure parents never find out. Don’t let these psychopaths give your child ANY mental health […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington meeting was 15 minutes last night. Brady, Mosley, and Straza were together somewhere and attended remotely. The only interesting thing was 1 public comment by Diana Hauman on behalf of the League of Women Voters. They claim to be non-partisan but aren’t. The City Council is supposed to be non-partisan […]
By: Diane Benjamin Ever had someone say something on social media that offended you? Ever had a day something on social media DIDN’T offend you? The case below is from Will County. Greg Anzelc wanted an Order of Protection against Jim Lanham because of what was said on Social Media: . Below are excerpts from […]
By: Diane Benjamin We spent the weekend in Wisconsin. We saw ZERO gas stations with gas over $2.95 a gallon. The roads are extremely better than Illinois, obviously freezing and thawing is just an excuse. There was a lot of road work being done. The area we were in received 7 1/2 inches of rain […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the Illinois Report Card for District 87 Bloomington High School: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/School.aspx?source=trends&Schoolid=170640870250001 If the goal is education they flunked. 77% graduate anyway. The District 87 website has many curriculum links. This is one for English: https://www.district87.org/o/bhs/documents/faculty-%26-staff/english/english-syllabi/455251 This is on the list, Freshman Literature and Composition: Freshman_Lit_Comp_23-24_-_BHS.pdf . Night is a biography of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Go to the bottom of this page: https://mcleancountyil.gov/109/Filing-an-Assessment-Complaint I believe the State of Illinois is behind raising local assessed values. In their brilliance they thought McLean County properties were undervalued. When you see numbers like 1.0918 it means your assessed value is going up 9.18%. I explained in this story how property […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Teacher’s Unions don’t need money to get their candidates elected to local school boards. They didn’t have to spend a dime last April because only their candidates ran. Unions now control the schools. https://www.illinoispolicy.org/august-is-teacher-union-opt-out-time-what-you-need-to-know/ Excerpts: Illinois teachers’ unions spend little on representing teachers, what should be their core focus. So why should teachers […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unless “Chad” is now a female name, the local League of Women Voters have let men conquer their spaces. Maybe they can’t find enough women to fill roles in the organization. Maybe they should change their name to reflect who they really are. The League is going to study the two local […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you missed yesterday’s story, read it now: https://blnnews.com/2025/08/05/bloomington-quit-celebrating-mlk-day/ Many of the leaders of this Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion event are associated with Illinois State University. That is important to remember while reading this story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-08-05/isu-to-digest-u-s-attorney-generals-message-on-unlawful-dei ISU is figuring out how to comply with demands to end unlawful discrimination. The US Attorney […]
