By: Diane Benjamin I had the unfortunate experience of needing to drive around Bloomington today. I decided to actually look for the Connect Transit flags signifying a stop. Head west on Lincoln from Veterans Parkway. There are so many flags a bus could probably idle between them! The only one I saw that might be […]
Meeting is rescheduled to June 4th. By: Diane Benjamin From the Connect Transit website – they have a monthly meeting scheduled for tomorrow: https://www.connect-transit.com/about/trustees/packet.asp The agenda MUST be posted 48 hours in advance to comply with the Open Meetings Act. It isn’t posted, therefore they must cancel the meeting: Did they fail to post it […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two members of the media were at Tari’s open house last Friday, Maria Nagle from the Pantagraph and Howard Packowitz from WJBC. If the media fails to report news, everyone can pretend nothing happened. Are they protecting Tari? I know every alderman is aware of Tari’s comments. If the public doesn’t demand […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari did show up at his Open House last night. He was surrounded by people who wanted their voices heard on the Connect Transit Board. The conversation turned to “diversity”. Diversity in Tari’s world is people of all skin colors who agree with everything he thinks. Diversity of thought isn’t allowed. Tari’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin The fire at a City owed building at Lake Bloomington was on March 10th. Below is one of the emails I received by FOIA: Another email identified Mr. Penn as John Penn. I wonder if he is still waiting for the Pantagraph to report the fire? Just so you have a small […]
By: Diane Benjamin According to Renner’s interview this morning on WJBC he has been plotting since December to appoint Amelia Buragas and Justin Boyd to the Connect Transit Board. He wants two people who know economic development and have experience spending millions of dollars. (his words) Keep in mind, Amelia wanted to tear down a […]
Scott Miller was the on air guy, it wasn’t FISH. By: Diane Benjamin A guy who calls himself Fish Martin is covering for Scott Laughlin while he is undergoing cancer treatments. This morning he talked about comments to a WJBC story they posted on Facebook. This is the story from the WJBC website: Bloomington City […]
By: Diane Benjamin The proposed building on Uptown Circle will result in the loss of historic buildings on Beaufort – and the mural. What does Normal Get? Farnsworth Group and AFNI jobs will relocate from Bloomington. No new jobs. No growth for the area, just destruction of the mural and historic buildings. Is the war […]
By: Diane Benjamin Being politically correct is dead! Some of the new Bloomington Alderman didn’t get the message. PDF page 169: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21739 Remember when Aldermen became allowed to place items on the agenda with a Council Initiative? They needed to fill out a form and get 4 other members to sign with them. Evidently some […]
By: Diane Benjamin As reported yesterday, at Monday’s Normal Town Council meeting Marc Tiritilli asked Mayor Koos about the vacant seat representing Normal on the Connect Transit Board. Marc claimed he asked for the appointment 5 weeks ago, the seat is still empty at a time it needs filled. Many citizens are not happy with […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is one of those stories I meant to write days ago but didn’t get to it. Since yesterday was Illinois Gun Lobby Day in Springfield, today I got to it. Thousands of people were in Springfield: https://www.ilnews.org/news/state_politics/thousands-of-gun-owners-turn-out-for-lobbying-day-in/article_ed1c396a-50d5-11e9-b951-dfdb2efccee9.html?fbclid=IwAR3AfotxEgqUQ8WjZ30146IZdbBimEozGIk5d77gUK16Lbzq3CpfwvUJZOs There is one thing Democrats don’t get: Criminals don’t care about laws Last […]
By: Diane Benjamin Wednesday nights used to be off limits for school and government activities because many people attended church activities. “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The State of Illinois is likely raising the gas tax .19 per gallon. The total tax will be .38 cents for every gallon you pump. This will chase even more people out of the state and cause travelers and citizens who can fill up outside of Illinois to do so. Democrats never […]
By: Diane Benjamin I don’t know how many people pay attention to the blathering on WJBC by Forum commentators, but what Matejka said about TIF’s is nothing more than government talking points. Matejka is after all Chris Koos’ good buddy. See what he said here: http://www.wjbc.com/2019/03/13/wjbc-voices-understanding-tif-investments/?fbclid=IwAR12JhuXkWjHND1rhHt_Y0UlUjfoszIG6WStPU9lVKiGpM2KofKlh3_DfII One side note first: It’s great to see Democrats […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve been writing about the Coliseum and the lies media repeats for years! CIAM and VenuWorks created their own financial statements. Every local media uses their numbers and repeats them like gospel. Both can say anything they want in those statements – they create them. Numbers reported by both are not accurate, […]
By: Diane Benjamin The WGLT story about last night’s Normal Town Council meeting doesn’t mention RC McBride voted for the water rate increase: http://www.wglt.org/post/water-fee-increase-solar-group-buy-making-repeat-appearances-normal Readers are left to surmise he did. This one is worse: I reported this story back on February 28: https://blnnews.com/2019/02/28/ag-investigating-town-of-normal-again/ WJBC reported it on March 4: http://www.wjbc.com/2019/03/04/normal-mayor-probed-for-alleged-open-meetings-act-violations/?fbclid=IwAR0mVvQsAVBRPrRVSWllpx_YPGc2YvMk0iHXYXWS0AWvxrBG0FXLxYbmvCg The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Some people in Bloomington admit they are democrat socialist. The “democrat” part is added to make it sound like its real people leading the movement. They are pure socialists, just like the ones who destroyed Venezuela. They want to take your money, attack wealth producers, and hand money to people who didn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Council held a retreat on November 4, 2017. The minutes from the meeting show just how bad a City Manager David Hales was. See them here, rarely do the minutes reflect contentious discussions – you can see some of it here even if they don’t reflect how bad it was: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16276 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Some local media have reported on the grand jury testimony which laid out the case against the 5 former Coliseum Managers. The City of Bloomington continues to claim they did not know about improprieties at the Coliseum until VenuWorks took over in July of 2016. The local media continues to let them […]
by: Diane Benjamin Facts frequently don’t matter because too many people think with their heart instead of their brain. They twist facts to prove to themselves why conservative values are wrong. Any one who thinks government is their friend falls into this category. Government doesn’t exist to solve problem because: 1) it isn’t their money […]
By: Diane Benjamin Earlier this week Scott had Dick Durbin on his morning show (WJBC). Since the Farm Bill just passed, it was a hot topic. The Farm bill is around 80% Food Stamps (SNAP) and nothing to do with farms. The 20% left enables corporate farms, not the little guys – but that’s a […]
By: Diane Benjamin The first day petitions for the City Council could be circulated was August 28th. That’s almost 3 months ago. Amelia Buragas finally decided on the final day that she wasn’t running again. She probably notified Tari a few days ago which led to a frantic attempt to get signatures for a candidate […]
By: Diane Benjamin Long time readers know the former Coliseum managers would issue their financial statements, and then the auditor would issue theirs. The media always reported the CIAM numbers but never the audited numbers. Audited losses were much higher! The media is continuing to report fake news because the audited number from VenuWorks aren’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin City Manager Tim Gleason was on WJBC this morning. The latest example of “leading from behind” is the new pension spiking policy. Non-union employee policy will change AFTER all the union contracts are changed – if they are changed. Those non-union employees are likely management. Instead of setting an example of putting taxpayers […]
By: Diane Benjamin Gerrard is the guy who filed the ethics complaint with the City of Bloomington against Nikita Richards. This morning he left a comment on this site that neither the Pantagraph reporter or the WJBC reporter contacted him before doing stories. He stated he is not behind the Bloomington Deserves Better Facebook page, […]
By: Diane Benjamin I been on the ICMA email list for years. ICMA is INTERNATIONAL CITY/COUNTY MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION. This is the place for managers who think government solves problems. All it takes is money, of course yours. The daily email is a summary of what government is up to, mostly around the country, but also internationally. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The video of Dickie at ISU this morning is on Nikita Richards Facebook page. He was here to endorse her. The college Democrats plus Erik Rankin were there too. The crowd didn’t look overwhelming. Dickie came, in his own words, to support a Democrat “traffic cop” to elections. Yes, Dickie, we’ve seen […]
By: Diane Benjamin It was nice of most the progressives to pose for a pic together. Progressives think government is the answer to every problems. Personal responsibility isn’t required when government can create the future, they just need a ton more money to make it perfect. Nikita Richards announced on Cities 92.9 that she plans […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Illinois Supreme Court just ruled Danville is responsible for injuries a woman sustained because she tripped on an uneven sidewalk: https://www.ilnews.org/news/justice/illinois-supreme-court-rules-city-liable-in-trip-and-fall/article_c7227c6e-9ccc-11e8-945c-6725ad9095d1.html If government stuck to essential services, like maintaining sidewalks, they wouldn’t have a problem. Bloomington has a BIG one. ____________________________________________ WGLT held a forum to discuss local media last week. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois has far more units of government than any other state. Your taxes are higher because of it! In 2014 the Bloomington Election commission violated the Open Meetings Act, the Attorney General didn’t tell them until 2016: AG 12/12/2016 letter This article contains rulings of two more Open Meetings Act violations in […]
By: Diane Benjamin John Butler wants his trial moved out of McLean County because of remarks made by David Hales and Tari Renner. I was also mentioned as a reason because my lawsuit made him look guilty! Yes it did! Since MANY readers are new, this story recaps the information I was able to obtain: […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner was on WJBC this morning. He stated elections should be taken away from the County Clerk’s office and put in the hands of a non-partisan election commission. City elections are supposedly non-partisan. What were the first words uttered by Tari Renner when he was first elected? He announced is was […]
By: Diane Benjamin Erik Rankin is on the McLean County Board. He is also the local Democratic Party Chairman. Democrats are VERY outnumbered on the County Board. VERY! Since Jason Chambers ran on the Republican Party ticket for State’s Attorney, his replacement until the next election has to be a Republican. Ranken was on WJBC […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council LOVES their SECRET meetings – Executive Sessions. They love them so much they won’t release the minutes from when Tom Hamilton was City Manager! Hamilton retired more than 9 years ago. The only reason to not release evaluations etc. is to hide. Some people are STILL on the […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve been writing about the Coliseum (Grossinger Motors Arena) for YEARS. This “White Elephant” has been a constant drain on taxpayers since it was conceived. The losses are huge, theft is being prosecuted, the City failed to oversee operations, economic impact numbers are made up, and new management is doing little to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to this story from two days ago: https://blnnews.com/2018/05/15/foia-fail-again-and-again/ I emailed both the City Clerk and Tari about the ridiculous .50 (fifty cents) charge and use of a disk since previous large FOIA requests have been delivered via Hightail. Yesterday afternoon I received the request digitally. Since the Clerk probably would have ignored […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner was on WJBC this morning with Scott Laughlin. Scott asked Tari about pension funding. Tari had to mention the pension funding award he accepted several years ago. Pension funding was neglected for many years so Bloomington could do fun stuff like the BCPA and the Coliseum. When Tari was elected […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.wjbc.com/2018/04/14/consultant-community-has-room-for-new-sports-venues/ According to the WJBC story. the decision has already been made by the consultants who were just hired: we need a sports complex. The Pony League fields began in 1988 with no tax dollars. Hundreds if not thousands of kids and adults play there every summer. Have you noticed all the […]
It looks like WJBC is going to hide the Tari interview, it isn’t posted. By: Diane Benjamin Tari again forgot he changed the rules for his “Open Houses” on WJBC this morning. Evidently Scott Laughlin forgot too. Funny how the City website still says you have to make an appointment: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/7500/17?backlist=%2fHome%2fComponents%2fNews%2fNews%2f4327%2f18%3fbacklist%3d%252F Did you know […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bruce Rauner will not be able to recover. In his acceptance speech he said Jeanne Ives ran a principled campaign. He didn’t. Illinois is much worse since Rauner has been governor, he doesn’t deserve 4 more years. Besides the lies he told during the campaign, he is responsible for making Illinois a […]
