By: Diane Benjamin One big difference between Mayor Mwilambwe and Mayor Brady: Meetings start at 6:00. I don’t remember time mattering to Mboka. Arbor Day got a proclamation. Trees are wonderful, I’ve got a bunch of them still dropping dead branches from the last ice storm years ago. I hope since Bloomington has two arborists […]
By: Diane Benjamin We spent the weekend in Wisconsin visiting our 4 months old adorable grandson. While northern Illinois is littered with solar fields and wind turbines, we saw none north of the border. We always go through Belvidere instead of Rockford. Besides avoiding paying to leave Illinois and come back, we need a driving […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) City of Bloomington has been doing a lot of surveys. The results are dependents on who completes the survey. In the past, surveys had low participation and therefore did not reflect real citizen values. Remember Bring It On Bloomington? https://blnnews.com/2016/10/13/bloomingtons-award-good/ If you live in Bloomington, this is the link: https://engage.thinkconfluence.com/miller-park-plan 2) […]
By: Diane Benjamin One more thing happened at last Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting. City Manager Jeff Jurgens called again for water conservation. If you are letting faucets drip so your pipes don’t freeze, make sure nobody knows. This is part of slide Jurgens showed, the rest is fuzzy: . In 131 years Bloomington […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/cityblm/334d59458cb7051d070970f18fdb52b10.pdf A Public Hearing and vote are on the agenda to annex 74.5 acres on Lutz Road for a solar farm. Under state law the solar farm can’t be stopped, so opposition isn’t possible. Once built this farm will be using city water to clean the panels. Unless they buy trucked […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois is going to lose the AI war because of the Democratic Party’s war on fossil fuels. AI takes MASSIVE amounts of energy, wind and solar can never produce enough and it’s too expensive. Of course citizens are already seeing the electricity price increases because of these failed policies. Under Illinois law […]
Printed below is what reader sent to me. The writer wants to remain anonymous. Yes, the power generated, just like the wind turbines, will be sent to Chicago. The quality of life in McLean County suffers because Chicago is raping local farmland for electricity they aren’t allowed to generate themselves. In my opinion the County […]
By: Diane Benjamin Do people making laws, like completely eliminating fossil fuels by 2025, ever bother with facts? Wind turbines don’t work without fossil fuels. If the goal was to decrease the temperature, solar farms aren’t the answer. They actually increase the temperature. This link is highly scientific, like using photovoltaic (PV) renewable energy production […]
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 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 Illinois passed a law 4 years ago to make the entire State Carbon Free. Carbon is actually carbon dioxide which means the environmentalists who talked the state into this bill don’t want people living here either. We all exhale it. Suddenly the future requires massive amounts of power wind and solar can’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin According to this story, Ameren rates are increasing 50% from June 1 – September 30: https://khqa.com/news/local/ameren-illinois-customers-face-50-electricity-rate-hike-from-june-1-due-to-new-pricing Do some homework! This is a state website listing alternative suppliers. The Ameren rate is before the 50% increase, you would have to contact the others to see if their rates are increasing. I have no […]
By: Diane Benjamin WGLT published this story concerning the new electric aggregation contract both Bloomington and Normal agreed to: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-04-16/some-electric-bills-in-bloomington-normal-are-about-to-go-up A friend sent me the letter Constellation Energy sent to all customers. It has no information about the new contract, but it does have the price customers paid through 12/31/24: .0785 The WGLT story rounds […]
Guess who the Democrats picked? Progressives are so easy to predict. I called it below. The only guy who can’t prove he’s a Republican This was received by one of the applicants. The others need to check their spam folder if they haven’t seen it. That’s called a punt: By: Diane Benjamin Five people applied […]
By: Diane Benjamin Biden’s war on fossil fuels will be ending. So will the tax rebates and grants for alternative expensive energy. Did you know most solar panels are made in China? They aren’t using them but are more than willing to export them to countries who think solar can replace fossil fuels: https://www.sunsave.energy/solar-panels-advice/solar-energy/where-are-solar-panels-made Tomorrow […]
By: Diane Benjamin Facebook removed this story as soon as it was posted. They called it spam. Last night’s meeting wasn’t as long as the video shows. The commercials before the meeting used 10 minutes and comments by the City Manager, Mayor and the Council lasted another 15 minutes. Jeff Jurgens mentioned this site to […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you think electricity comes from a switch on the wall, keep reading. Illinois thinks 100 renewable electricity is possible. It isn’t. Start with this story to understand the difference between baseload and intermittent production: https://icl.coop/the-difference-between-baseload-and-intermittent-power/ That editorial was in the August issue of Illinois Country Living Magazine sent to Corn Belt […]
FYI: There is nothing in this letter that isn’t either happening now or could have in the near future.
By: Diane Benjamin Saturday when I was driving across Bloomington my vehicle said the temperature was 92. When I passed the airport it jumped to 94. At my country house it was only 89. What that proves is “record temperatures” depend on where the temperature is taken. This story is in the latest issue of […]
By: Diane Benjamin People lie. Politicians lie. Freedom of Speech is written into the 1st Amendment because the authors thought people were smart enough to hear all sides, inform themselves, and then make decisions based on informed thought. There is no such thing and Mis and Dis information. There are only elites who want to […]
By: Diane Benjamin A whopping 30 people attended the EV Townhall! If that isn’t funny enough, read WGLT’s article about the event: https://tinyurl.com/EV-Townhall 10 people were on the panel for the 30 attendees. Of course claims were made about EV’s and Climate Change. Facts are immaterial. Get some: https://climateataglance.com/climate-at-a-glance-natural-vs-human-contributions-to-greenhouse-gases-and-global-average-temperatures/ The article got really funny with […]
By: Diane Benjamin Inflation has stolen close to 20% of your buying power – just since 2021: . Inflation will continue unless government policies change. Facts: https://www.bidenomics.com/ According to GasBuddy, the cheapest local gas is at Huck’s on West Oakland – $3.39. Three years ago gas was more than $1 less a gallon. https://www.gasbuddy.com/go/gas-prices-2021-year-in-review According […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader sent me this link to a Daily Wire story: https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-universities-are-teaching-students-to-blow-up-oil-pipelines-records-show Excerpt: At Illinois State University, students in an English class are required to read only four books, one of which is “How To Blow Up a Pipeline.” Another is a book on Marxism by Friedrich Engels, whom Vladimir Lenin called “the […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this story: https://www.25newsnow.com/2024/01/30/peoria-public-schools-is-expecting-15-electric-buses/?outputType=amp Quotes: Peoria Public Schools District 150 has received almost $6 million in federal grants to add 15 electric school buses to its fleet. PPS Transportation Director Josh Collins says the grant will cover the cost of all 15 buses and a small portion of the infrastructure required for charging stations. The district […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the official talking points the Connect Transit General Manager posted on Facebook: I received a tip that had NOTHING to do with a parts shortage, I filed a FOIA request on January 8th. It was due last Monday but Connect extended the request until the end of business next Monday. (1/22/24) The […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Jeff Fritzen’s case against the Town of Normal and High Haven for how the special use permit was approved got tossed out of court: https://www.25newsnow.com/2024/01/04/judge-throws-out-ex-normal-town-councilmans-cannabis-dispensary-lawsuit/?outputType=amp Hilarious quote from the judge: Judge Foley wrote: “Case law is clear that a home rule municipality is not bound by its own procedures, unless in doing so the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Read the text of SB40 that is law in Illinois as of 1/1/2024: https://ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=103-0053 Subsidized housing will be required to have EV charging stations even though people who live in subsidized housing wouldn’t be living there is they could afford an EV. New construction and renovated multi-family housing will be required to install charging […]
By: Diane Benjamin Australia is destroying forests to erect wind turbines. This video shows the destruction of the environment while pretending to save it: It all revolves around the myth the atmosphere is going to burn up because of carbon. Of course the rest of that carbon is left off to make it sound like […]
By: Diane Benjamin These things only exist because of the FAKE WAR on fossil fuels while they require fossil fuels to work. In case you missed this story: https://www.thecollegefix.com/more-than-1600-scientists-and-other-scholars-sign-no-climate-emergency-declaration/ I’ve done many stories about oil leaking from turbines. Where do you think that leaking oil ends up? You think it stays on the turbine? It […]
By: Diane Benjamin A total of 1,609 scientists, professors and other scholars have signed on to a new declaration that argues there is no climate change crisis. https://www.thecollegefix.com/more-than-1600-scientists-and-other-scholars-sign-no-climate-emergency-declaration/ That didn’t stop Normal City Manager Pam Reece telling WGLT Normal has been affected by Climate Change: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-09-22/climate-change-impacts-noticeable-in-bloomington-normal Reece claims the trees were affected by heat and […]
It is impossible for me to cover all local units of government myself, therefore I am going to quit covering Normal. If anyone actually cares about schools, I need help there too. Your part-time mayor driving a vehicle taxpayers paid almost $74,000 for and putting regular plates on it instead of government plates didn’t make […]
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 I was shocked when Connect Transit picked Proterra as their electric bus supplier. It appears the Board members appointed by the mayors of Bloomington and Normal didn’t bother to do a simple Google search. Plenty of stories were easily available detailing the problems with these buses and cities that quit using them […]
By: Diane Benjamin So far this fiscal year the federal government has spent $1.61 TRILLION more than it collected in taxes. That is why inflation will continue. That didn’t stop Normal from applying for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. They want $100,000 and will find out in November is they get […]
By: Diane Benjamin No the science isn’t settled. Real science is never settled. The “science” of Climate Change is computer models and non-scientist Greta Thumburg angrily proclaiming we have 8 years before the world is destroyed. For decades clowns have been claiming the same thing. Predictions have not come true, just stealing your freedom to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The climate change pushers ignore facts. When they claim the earth is burning because of fossil fuels they use temperatures since the 1960’s when a new ice age was being predicted. They will not tell you the 1930’s were hotter than now! https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/bloomington-normal/month-august Why were the 1930’s so hot? It certainly wasn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you haven’t opted out of electric aggregation in Bloomington and Normal you are paying than than you could have because both councils chose the higher “green energy” rate. At the last County Board meeting they did the same thing. The Board voted 16-3 to pay $41,776 more for “green” electricity than […]
By: Diane Benjamin It is a glorious beautiful morning! The Canadian smoke is gone for now. Since there is close to NO wind the turbines aren’t turning. I found a newspaper yesterday from October 8, 2006. Then Gov Rod Blagojevich flew in via helicopter to announce a $2.2 million grant to build the first 120 […]
By: Diane Benjamin If the citizens of Normal want to believe their government works for them, go for it. The below is from the World Economic Forum website. They are pushing a Smart City plan for cities worldwide. They have “experts” who plan for cities and then members fall in line with the plan. FYI: […]
