Ben Yount finally agreed to hold an event here in September! He mentioned your emails! Thanks. _______________________________________________________ By: Diane Benjamin A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” I was at […]
Source: Guns Save Lives http://www.gunssavelife.com/?p=21998 Land of Lincoln Credit Union learns nothing, continues with the same failed policy Land of Lincoln Credit Union at 115 Susan Drive in Normal, IL is proud of their “NO GUNS” signage. For many months, they have stuck with their sign advertising themselves as not welcoming to card-carrying good guys […]
By: Diane Benjamin August 2nd I wrote a story about Bloomington’s Liquor Commission: https://blnnews.com/2016/08/02/is-tari-declaring-himself-king/ Monday night Tari wants to be granted all power to enforce, permit, and control liquor in Bloomington. From the agenda: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11004 From the packet page 238: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11003 The only “confusion regarding the authority of the local” Liquor Commission has been FOLLOWING […]
By: Diane Benjamin Connect Transit issued their 12 month UN-audited financial statements at their last meeting. Celebrate now – they didn’t lose as much as they budgeted: Page 7: http://www.connect-transit.com/documents/July%2026,%202016%20Regular%20Board%20Meeting%20Binder1.pdf They did lose more than $1 million in June bringing the year total to just short of $10 million. Has ANY local press reported on […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader sent me the following email. The Pantagraph is legendary for getting the facts wrong, but they can’t get their own facts straight? These guys can be trusted to accurately report news? (Note: Another example of why I started BlnNews more than 4 years ago.) . . .
By: Diane Benjamin Almost four years ago, Bloomington voted for Tari Renner as Mayor. He was elected with 5005 votes. Total registered voters were 46,740. The election was stolen by the few people who bothered to vote, a lot of them IWU students who have graduated and left Bloomington. Kevin Lower was elected with 615 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Stevie, How did Cleveland go? In Ohio, where Open Carry is legal, nothing happened! No dead bodies in the street. No shootouts between Trump and Cruz supporters. Even the New Black Panthers didn’t cause any trouble. Shootings happen where nobody can shoot back. Need a “safe space” dude? I can’t want to […]
By: Diane Benjamin A citizen FOIA’d the City of Bloomington for Tari Renner’s calendar. I predict Tari won’t be putting everything on his calendar anymore. See his June calendar here: Renner calendar There are a lot of interesting items – see them for yourself. Some entries are redacted. Tari has some personal items listed, so […]
By: Diane Benjamin The next Board meeting for Connect Transit is July 26th at 4:30. Meetings are held in the Board Room at 351 Wylie Drive, Normal. The packet for the meeting has not been posted yet, but Connect Transit’s year-end was 6/30/2016. This meeting packet will show the total operating losses for the entire […]
By: Diane Benjamin In honor of Steve Vogel’s column today spewing a complete lack of knowledge of concealed carry, and his broadcast of places where people don’t have the right to defend themselves (gun free zones), I suggest you get signs for your yards: Vogel obviously wants to be a victim.
By: Diane Benjamin I couldn’t decide which story to do, so I’m throwing THREE into one story. 1) Are employees fleeing? THREE Manager openings at once! http://www.mcleancochamber.org/chamber/job-openings 2) This one is funny! The Title in the printed version of the Pantagraph was “Visitors center a strain on museum” The on-line version got changed: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/national/government-and-politics/museum-seeks-help-for-route-center/article_97cecedb-3e91-5734-8da3-246c1fa238d6.html “Museum […]
By: Diane Benjamin My next lawsuit is going to be for the AUDIO of the Executive Session where the Attorney General ruled the Open Meetings Act was violated. I will demand the judge listen to the entire audio to insure the City doesn’t redact items that shouldn’t be redacted. Why? Stay with me: See the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Today the bird-cage liner did two stories on the Coliseum. Extensive renovations are happening right now. Concession sales is the major focus. Did CIAM have long waiting lines when they managed? If they did, I never heard it. But a statement by the new manager left something out. He is quoted saying […]
By: Diane Benjamin The media has never reported on my lawsuit against the City of Bloomington and Central Illinois Arena Management (CIAM) – the old Coliseum manager. John Butler was the principal agent for CIAM. Possible fraud or abuse of taxpayers isn’t news. The lawsuit is based on a denied FOIA for the 2014 concession […]
By: Diane Benjamin The ONLY reason I started BlnNews.com is to provide information. I saw first-hand how local media fails to report, investigate, and inform citizens. They pick what to report based on what makes them popular with government. Truth matters and citizens deserve it. Too many people don’t vote because they don’t know what […]
By: Diane Benjamin The climate change believers were unleashed to spew propaganda in the bird-cage liner today. An editorial by two ISU professors called people who haven’t swallowed the communist green kool-aid part of the “cult of ignorance”. These clowns admit to living in a bubble. I agree and it’s funded by taxpayers and […]
By: Diane Benjamin Every 30 days the Pantagraph prints a Letter to the Editor from the most uniformed local personever! If she could get a letter in every week, I’m sure she would. Conservative writers have their letters rejected, many are told they can’t prove what they wrote. Some don’t get an explanation. Meanwhile, divisive […]
By: Diane Benjamin This story expands the previous post: https://blnnews.com/2016/06/27/tari-sees-objects-ripe-for-fleece/ I have emails from Aldermen Diana Hauman and Jim Fruin, Mayor Renner, and JAMES. I believe that JAMES is James Jordan, member of the Liquor Commission. I have MANY emails written by Jim Fruin over the past few years – none of them say JAMES. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Isn’t heroin illegal Pantagraph? How’s that working out? You just did a series on it! They couldn’t help themselves. Today they called for more gun control. Gun control is nothing more than an attempt to keep guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. News Flash: Criminals don’t care what laws you […]
By: Diane Benjamin Government wastes your money! Proof: An unused fire station and unused water tower. $$$$ – MILLIONS – $$$$ poof, up in smoke and nobody in jail. Those are just huge examples of utter incompetence. Many many more exist on a small scale. Just this week Council and staff time were needed for […]
By: Diane Benjamin The agenda screw-up from last Monday will be fixed Friday at a special meeting of the Bloomington City Council. They aren’t approving just one liquor license, they are approving two! Of course, approving the release of the verbatim audio and written account of the illegal Executive Session isn’t on the agenda. On […]
By: Diane Benjamin The approval of a Liquor License was left off the agenda last night. Since the recipient has a Father’s Day event planned, he can’t wait until the next meeting for approval. Therefore the Council is planning a quick meeting whenever they can get 5 aldermen together to approve it. Who dropped the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph needs to explain why an alleged Open Meetings Act violation against the McLean County Health Department is so much more important than the one they also reported this week against the City of Bloomington. That story was quickly buried on their website – comments were NEVER allowed. Comments ARE allowed […]
By: Diane Benjamin Today’s edition has a story on the Attorney General’s ruling about the Bloomington City Council violating the Open Meetings Act: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/ill-ag-city-council-violated-open-meetings-law/article_5dfb7bef-4515-52af-96a9-e8fb37c8abb0.html See this story from June 4th: https://blnnews.com/2016/06/04/renner-is-guilty/ Of course the paper’s version contains errors. The AG ruled the “verbatim recording” must be released in addition to the closed session minutes […]
By: Diane Benjamin Back on December 20, 2013, the Pantagraph thought a sitting Alderwoman filing a complaint against Tari Renner, David Hales, and the rest of the Council was a big story: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/alderman-stearns-alleges-open-meetings-act-violation/article_5b8974e2-6916-11e3-986a-001a4bcf887a.html How about reporting on what happened? Start by hammering Lisa Madigan for taking more than two years to issue a determination! The […]
Tari, It’s wonderful that the Illinois Policy Institute rated Bloomington’s website 100% on their 10 point scale. It’s great that citizens can see information without filing FOIA requests. But that’s just a website Tari, and only 10 things IPI thinks are important. You now have the opportunity to prove you are really transparent. (Of course, […]
Re-posted only to change how it was originally posted. By: Diane Benjamin The Attorney General finally ruled on the Open Meetings Act Violation filed in 2013 by then Alderwoman Judy Stearns! A couple of weeks I wrote about Madigan’s failure to rule and asked readers to call. https://blnnews.com/2016/05/19/madigan-too-busy/ I know at least a few of […]
By: Diane Benjamin 2013 is the budget Tari inherited when he took office. 2017 is all his. I hope the local media quits letting Renner state he isn’t doing anything new and the budget is just increasing 2% per year. Both are lies. Look at Legal expenses: 2017 Total Legal $1,325,308 FY 2017 Budget Detail […]
By: Diane Benjamin Actually, the Pantagraph didn’t even acknowledge receiving this one. The author didn’t give me a name, they go by earlyriser54 here. From the writer: This letter was submitted via e-mail on May 24th. Not printed, no confirmation from Pantagraph to verify the author. I made certain that all required information was included, but […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph continues to reject Letters to the Editor without stating a reason. Some of the top read stories on BlnNews.com are rejected letters I have printed. Letters to the Editor have existed for hundreds of years to give citizens a voice. If the Pantagraph silences you, send your letter to me. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The sub-title for BlnNews is News Nobody Reports. Citizens are tired of getting news from government sponsored sources who never express independent thoughts or do any investigations. I can prove it. Today BlnNews crossed ONE MILLION page views: Obviously a lot of people want real news. Are you willingly to help keep […]
By: Diane Benjamin Some points of law are never settled because government refused to act. Lisa Madigan’s Public Access office is doing just that. Remember many years ago when Judy Stearns filed a complaint against Tari Renner for violating the Open Meetings Act? It was right after he got elected. He decided winning an election […]
By: Diane Benjamin For all new readers, back in 2012 I studied how Normal acquired all the properties for Uptown. I included how many they bought and how many properties they GAVE away. This is one recap: https://blnnews.com/2012/07/03/who-gave-normal-permission-to-buy-give-away-properties/ According to the bird-cage-liner, Normal is still at it. The Town bought three properties on North School […]
By: Diane Benjamin I rarely write about Normal because the citizens never get outraged. What does it take? Bankruptcy? Tonight: Chris Koos had to know the Mitsubishi plant was already sold to a liquidator, but took a trip funded by you to Germany anyway: Hope the Council enjoyed eating at your expense: Do residents […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner was quoted in today’s paper: “No tax dollars that we’re currently getting will go to this project”. Judy Markowitz said the same thing about the Coliseum. She hired consultants – they were WAY OFF projections: https://blnnews.com/2016/02/11/the-tale-of-the-coliseum-tari-a-hotel/ Tari, please explain where the money to pay SB Friedman to consult came from? […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph sells papers by printing feel good stories complete with heart-grabbing pics. The objects get their names in print and therefore buy copies for family and friends. If some actual news was mixed in they would sell a lot more, but they can’t afford investigative reporting. (Or they chose not to) […]
By: Diane Benjamin Luckily I have a huge network of people who want the truth told. The local media has failed miserably at being government watchdogs. Below is a post that WAS on Tari’s campaign Facebook page from 2013. It has since disappeared. It was sent to me MONTHS ago by a reader who copied […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph has a long history of “floating” ideas fed to them from local government. It’s always the first step in making happen what government wants to happen. Watchdogs they aren’t. The last example was “sharing sales tax” – first mentioned in the paper and expanded since. Sunday more ideas were floated […]
The writer sent this message to the Pantagraph strictly to make a point. He knows it will never be printed. Since it won’t be, he sent it to me so all of you can see it. You are actually reading it before the recipient, he got an automated “Out of Office” message until 5/2. […]
Printed with permission from the writer: —–Original Message—– From: Terry/Dewi White Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2016 1:49 PM To: Pantagraph Letters Subject: Bloomington’s leaders, Infested with liberals. As a lifelong resident of Bloomington, I’ve observed our cities leaderships has gotten progressively worse. Our current leadership is infested with liberalism and if you don’t know what […]
