By: Diane Benjamin The County Board saw a computer rendering of the new Animal Control building last night. It will be 15 miles south of Bloomington. The video shows the inside layout too. One thing not included is outdoor runs for the animals. Farnsworth designed the building with the budget they had, outdoor runs will […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night George Wendt presented a commendation at the County Board meeting to a new FIFTEEN YEAR Old Eagle Scout. Most recipients are around 17, but that’s not the story. Jonathan Kunkes Eagle Scout project was a portable classroom for Pepper Ridge Elementary in honor of his sister who died at age […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Rules Committee didn’t bother to meet to correct the stunt Democrats played in February, so the Public Comment policy is still illegal and not on the Agenda tonight to fix. In case you forgot: https://blnnews.com/2024/02/16/county-must-see-public-comments/ Elections: This primary election will prove Illinois’ voting season is a complete waste of money. Turnout […]
By: Diane Benjamin Meetings of the McLean County Behavior Health Coordinating Council have been suspended. See this story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2024-03-08/bhcc-meetings-suspended-indefinitely-as-its-reportedly-not-fulfilling-its-mission Excerpt from the article: . That isn’t stopping BHCC from wanting to hand $100,000 to Stepping Stones at the YWCA. I have no problem with that program. I do have a problem with handing them money […]
By: Diane Benjamin HB 4198 is one giant step towards Illinois becoming an ALL VOTE BY MAIL state. HB 4198 provides that each election authority may decide to mail a LIVE vote by mail ballot to all qualified voters instead of sending notices and applications for permanent vote by mail status. A person who has never […]
I just received this, if the Bloomington Election Commission is holding a public test I wasn’t notified:
By: Diane Benjamin More from this story on the local Housing Assessment: https://blnnews.com/2024/03/05/ignoring-the-elephant-in-the-room/ PDF page 32 – copied and reformatted since the paragraph is difficult to read: Poverty levels have increased in McLean County over the last 5 years, Bloomington and Normal. Poverty is measured by the Official Poverty Measure (OPM), which measures pre-tax income […]
By: Diane Benjamin The McLean County Regional Planning Commission hired an Indianapolis firm to conduct a local housing survey. The draft version is available here: https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/a2/83/4592f3f04409bcdd453644d32b78/draft-final-rise-plan.pdf Comments can be made on this document until 3/14. I’m not close to going through all 97 pages, but problems are pretty easy to see. The chart on PDF […]
By: Diane Benjamin Submit witness slip OPPOSING HB 4198 which is sponsored by Carol Ammons(D, Urbana) and is one giant step towards Illinois becoming an ALL VOTE BY MAIL state. Please take action by Tuesday. 3/5 by 2PM. Jimmy Carter opposed vote by mail decades ago because fraud was easy! HB4198 provides that each election […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) In April I will have been writing for TWELVE YEARS. Actually page views went over 10,000,000 a few years ago, but lots of views aren’t officially counted because many of you are Following BlnNews.com and getting an email for every story written. All of those reads aren’t included in the totals. […]
By: Diane Benjamin YOUR government is advertising benefits to people who are here illegally, in a foreign language, and sending you the bill. Want to know why you can’t find a doctor? This billboard is on the West side of BLOOMINGTON: See the link stated above: https://abe.illinois.gov/abe/access/ Abe Lincoln would be appalled! Browse around that […]
By: Diane Benjamin I can think of 3 recent times democrats changed the law in Springfield to benefit government, this isn’t “democracy”. I’m not a republican but I will never be a democrat because of oppression like this. The first one was the Town of Normal conspiring to pass a law to exempt ONLY Normal […]
Evidently free dinners don’t motivate voters, at least not those voting in the 88th House District. Chuck Erickson’s opponent tried it here, few showed up for FREE FREE FREE food. Conservative voters know nothing is FREE. Since the majority of the district is in McLean County, maybe voters sent the message they want representation FROM […]
By: Diane Benjamin Just so everyone is clear when Charlotte Alvarez shows up at another public meeting: She is getting paid by taxpayers. From the Illinois Comptroller website: https://illinoiscomptroller.gov/financial-reports-data/find-a-report/state-contracts The $1,200,000 was for FY 2021 – right when the border was opened. Coincidence? The $579,000 was for FY 2023. Another coincidence? The $253,926 is also […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Stay tuned for the NEXT story – Breaking News 2) The hearing in Springfield on banning pre-2010 diesel engines got canceled! This is likely the reason, thanks to everyone who filed a witness slip. 3) Dick Durbin posted this on X yesterday. Dickie doesn’t understand local governments don’t spend money on […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the entire agenda here: https://go.boarddocs.com/il/trivalley3/Board.nsf/vpublic?open McLean County was going to allow a whole 15 minutes for public comment at meetings. So generous of them considering the County is huge and the population is over 170,000 people. Tri-Valley School District is miniscule in comparison. Below is what Tri-Valley has on the agenda […]
By: Diane Benjamin Evidently many people wanted to speak at Public Comment last night concerning the LRS/Henson transfer station. They were not allowed to speak, Chair Catherine Metsker explained why at 5:35. Jackie Beyer was allowed to speak. She gave a first hand account of what happened at the Rules Committee and the Executive Committee […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is a post that is on NextDoor. The writer talks about not getting mail, lost mail, and “busted up” packages. Voting by Mail is too risky if you expect your vote to count! Drop off you completed ballot at the election office or vote early in person instead of trusting the mail.
By: Diane Benjamin More on this story: https://blnnews.com/2024/02/14/a-legal-public-comment-policy-isnt-on-the-county-board-agenda-blame-democrats/ All of the proposed changes before the Rules Committee were written by Democrats. The rule changes were theirs, you need to know that to see why Val Laymon’s motion to reconsider violated Robert’s Rules of Order and Board rules. The proof is right in the document the Democrats proposed changes […]
By: Diane Benjamin I wrote this story about the Rules Committee meeting, but there is more to the story: https://blnnews.com/2024/02/09/what-happened-at-the-county-rules-committee-meeting/ Besides Democrats attempting to weaponize the County Board against Republicans, numerous other changes were presented. Most were discarded because Republicans objected to their nonsense. Now we know why this meeting is not on video! Democrats don’t want you to […]
Audio is now available – over 2 hours. I may or may not listen. The problem with audio is listeners might not be able to tell who is talking. There are three Public Comments at the beginning you need to hear. The first 30 minutes resembles “Who’s On First”. https://mcleancountyil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/10027 By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2024/02/05/weaponizing-the-county-board/ The Rules Committee met […]
By: Diane Benjamin District 87 students score well below State averages in English and Math. See last year’s scores here: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=trends&Districtid=17064087025 The district spends $15,000 per student for this substandard education. (Click District Snapshot at the link above) 34% are chronically absent, the graduation rate is an appalling 79%. I find it fascinating that WGLT can normalize stories like […]
By: Diane Benjamin Members of the McLean County Democrat Party on the County Board are proposing new rules for meetings and members. The new Public Comment policy allows citizens to sign up at least 15 minutes before meetings. However, the allotted time is still only 15 minutes, which is ridiculous for a county as large as […]
By: Diane Benjamin You need to hear this Public Comment by Rosanna Pulido Tuesday night in Springfield. She is a long time anti-illegal immigration activist – and American Hispanic. Springfield put all the documents she discussed and distributed on their website: http://www.springfieldcityclerk.com/Government/PDFHandler.ashx?itemID=4826&itemType=MeetingAtt Don’t miss pages 4-6! Just hit play – a must listen:
h/t a reader See petitions in this story: https://blnnews.com/2024/01/29/its-not-the-states-job-to-parent-your-kids/ Why do schools need to know your child’s sexual orientation? To exploit the answer? From Unit 5’s 2021 Equity Audit, feelings change daily especially in kids. Unit 5 wants to affirm self-identities with no guidance from parents: (note developing – what did they develop?)
By: Diane Benjamin One Earth Energy is now courting Gibson City for Co2 sequestration. See this article: https://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/environment/gibson-city-companys-proposed-co2-pipeline-concerns-environmental-group/article_60f24002-2192-589e-a42a-4d3824f3707d.html Excerpt: Pamela Richart said a number of companies are eager to proceed with such projects because of the tax credits available from the federal government. “Developers can get $85 a ton for this and make billions of dollars,” she […]
By: Diane Benjamin Sometimes people deserve to be laughed at. Start with this meme from Able’s Facebook page: . Israel is a foreign country that was attacked on October 7th. They don’t care what Chicago’s mayor says! Maybe Israel should call out Chicago for all the daily violence and schools that don’t educate – just babysit. Progressives just want chaos. […]
By: Diane Benjamin How did Rep Sharon Chung and Senator Dave Koehler write the exact same letter on the same day?
By: Diane Benjamin I don’t comment on NextDoor but reading the comments is interesting. Somebody posted this story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2024-01-16/bloomington-mayor-says-migrant-arrivals-are-an-opportunity The comments below prove the immigration extremists showed up at the County Board meeting to protest Chuck Erickson’s ordinance. The opposite side stayed home and vented on their keyboard. Which side affects votes by elected officials? Obviously, not most of these […]
By: Diane Benjamin I didn’t get a chance to watch Bloomington’s Committee of the Whole meeting until yesterday. The City has the same goal they’ve had for decades: Get people downtown. All the empty buildings will never be developed until you comply, so your tax dollars will be “invested” yet again. If at first (or second or third) you don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Public Access issued a ruling yesterday finding the County Board Executive Committee violated the Open Meetings Act on November 13th when they didn’t let Jackie Beyer speak. The County policy demanding people sign up 24 hours in advance to speak violates OMA. The County tried to claim that even though the written policy on […]
By: Diane Benjamin The video is linked in this story: https://blnnews.com/2024/01/14/pritzker-we-dont-have-places-for-more-migrants/ If you listen to the whole interview, around 24:00 Pritzker claims Trump didn’t sign the optional loyalty oath. He claims that means Trump doesn’t believe in the Constitution. That must mean local Democrat District 8 candidate Eric Hansen doesn’t either. He didn’t include a signed and notarized copy […]
By: Diane Benjamin The only “political games” being played are by the Biden administration who opened the borders to create chaos. Pritzker blames Republicans, specifically the Texas governor who has sent a tiny percent of his illegals north to states and cities who SAID they are sanctuary cities! Who is lying JB? Did JB remove Illinois sanctuary status? […]
By: Diane Benjamin Beginning the path to being REAL NEWS started when WGLT reported this: https://blnnews.com/2023/11/17/3-things-you-need-to-know-4/ . Unit 5 won’t tell you how many of those students are ‘immigrants”, they claim they don’t ask. This week WGLT did journalism again: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2024-01-11/immigration-advocate-says-dozens-of-bused-migrants-are-already-living-in-mclean-county Bused illegals from the southern border are already here! The Immigration Project can’t say exactly how many however: […]
By: Diane Benjamin The most revealing item of the night happened during County business that had nothing to do with immigration. After the two hours of liberal bloviating, the Finance Committee had an item on the agenda allowing a fee to process applications for reduce property taxes to affordable housing investors. This was prompted by new State […]
By: Diane Benjamin Quite a show last night! Two hours of liberals calling Chuck Erickson all kinds of names, claiming the ordinance was an election stunt, and spouting false information about what the ordinance would have done. All it said is TAXPAYERS (you) won’t be forced to pay for housing and food for illegals who arrive on buses […]
By: Diane Benjamin The email below was obtained by The Center Square: https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_922707b0-b002-11ee-abc9-f3e3d06dcb75.html Cathy Beck doesn’t want you to know – see the last line of her email! She’s already planning to use taxpayer money to care for the (illegal) immigrants. There are empty buildings in downtown Bloomington, Beck wants to hide them in the country were there […]
By: Diane Benjamin From 2009-2010 Democrats controlled all 3 branches of government. Joe Biden had the same thing in 2021 when the Senate was 50-50 giving Kamala Harris the tie breaking vote. They could have legalized illegal immigrants and DACA and recipients all by themselves, they didn’t even try. If they care so much about “migrants” why didn’t they? […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since the Constitution hasn’t been repealed, leadership needs to be held accountable for violating it. (Easy grounds for Biden impeachment) Article IV, Section 4: More than 8 million illegals crossing the southern border since Biden took his Oath of Office is an invasion. There are close to 2 million more got-aways we know nothing about. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember back when neither Bloomington or Normal had a local Motor Fuel Tax? Are the roads better since both are now fleecing you at the gas pump? Mostly what the Local Motor Fuel Tax did was allow both to spend taxes you already pay on items other than roads – and then claim […]
