Kalter was defeated, those in attendance rejected her agenda, at least that’s what I hear! _____________ An email I received from Academic Senate Chair Susan Kalter: The Dr of (I believe) English is WRONG. She called the meeting, therefore it is subject to the Open Meetings Act. This is no different than Koos inviting 2 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal Mayor Chris Koos isn’t happy with Stan Nord for doing a video showing how far veterans have to travel to get to the VA Clinic if they ride the bus. See this story from yesterday: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/15/veterans-dishonored-by-connect-transit/ To Koos everything is political. Koos obviously has no intent of solving problems, this one […]
By: Diane Benjamin Back in December I did a story about veterans inability to get to the VA Clinic if they must use a bus to get there: https://blnnews.com/2019/12/17/the-va-clinic-and-connect-transit/ Nothing has changed. Normal Trustee Stan Nord posted this video to Facebook explaining the problem. He even measured the path disabled veterans have to traverse to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The latest from the McLean County Health Department: https://health.mcleancountyil.gov/708/CORONAVIRUS-COVID-19 Note what age group isn’t taking the virus seriously. What are the ages of the 4 hospitalized? Not reported. Also not reported is the total number of tests completed – it has to be many thousands. That makes the positive rate ridiculously low. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Other than all Bloomington Police Officers, guess what these 23 have in common: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21565 The link above is to the Total Compensation report for last year. See the column labeled “misc”. Below is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part 1: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/14/bloomington-last-night-3/ Tari wanted the Council to reappoint Ryan Whitehouse to the Connect Transit Board. Jenn Carrillo and Jeff Crabill were opposed because that wanted someone more closely aligned with their ideology. They lost. Whitehouse has now replaced Mike McCurdy as chair. The budget process this year is going to be […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part 2: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/14/part-2-bloomington-last-night/ This almost 2 hour meeting is going to take more than one story. Start with the Pledge of Allegiance. The City solved their Jenn and Jeff signs problem by just not having them on video during the pledge, both appeared right after it ended: A guy named Zac something […]
By: Diane Benjamin Watch this video, you don’t need the sound to realize what is going on: The video was filmed by Normal resident Doug Fansler. The Town of Normal must think bikers and pedestrians have no responsibility to “cross when clear”. Normal expects vehicles where the speed limit is 30 MPH to notice somebody […]
By: Diane Benjamin I compiled these numbers from the Coroner’s Report filed monthly with the McLean County Board Justice Committee. All of the below can be found in the meeting attachments here: https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/478/Justice-Committee I wanted to see what effect the COVID shutdown is having in McLean County. There isn’t enough information in the Coroner’s report […]
By: Diane Benjamin Every notice if a court rules in favor of leftists they and the media jump all over it celebrating, but if it goes against their narrative they ignore it? Bloomington will be meeting on-line again regardless of the ruling voiding Pritzker’s executive orders. Rulings that don’t fit the agenda can be discarded. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and payroll 7-13-2020 A total of $12,599,344.25 will be approved tonight. Unlike Normal, payroll is actually listed. $5,216,642.14 of that amount is employees. $1,633,607.61 is Wire transfers listed at the end, not enough details is available to know what most of them are. I don’t remember the last time somebody asked about […]
By: Diane Benjamin Please share this story! I’ve been asking for this discussion for years, the next local election will FORCE it to happen. Why does local government exist and what powers should it have and NOT have? Obviously Bloomington screwed up big time when the Coliseum was built against the wishes of the citizens. […]
By: Diane Benjamin New Front Page on the Town of Normal website: https://www.normal.org/ See the top right hand corner. Clicking there will take you to a short survey. Hint: Stop building vanity projects with taxpayer money and NONE OF THE ABOVE are not potential answers. Koos and company are rushing to find the money to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Even the democrats know Joe Biden is not inspiring anybody. When he does come out of his basement he speaks incoherently. He’s been in DC for 50 years and now claims he can fix all the countries problems that he has ignored for 5 decades, 8 years as vice-president. The party is […]
By: Diane Benjamin I FOIA’d the Town of Normal concerning permits issued to Rivian from the Town of Normal. This list is just in the last 6 months. Total construction value is over $107 million during that time period. Rivian received taxpayer dollars yet all this construction is not required to pay prevailing wage. Rivian […]
By: Diane Benjamin McLean County won’t go blue because people suddenly love democrats, this story is a lead in to a story I will be doing tomorrow. Stay tuned. If that happens, overnight we will be Chicago. Taxes will go up, bail will be abolished, and spending will dramatically accelerate. The nice County roads will […]
By: Diane Benjamin Other items from Monday’s meeting could be covered, but I won’t! Links to all previous stories are here: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/08/story-6-normal-monday/ Isaac Thorne and Julie Hile made a presentation. Start with this screen shot: Thorne proved Pritzker’s budget is a joke by relying on a $5 billion bailout from the Feds AND the citizens […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tuesday Chris Koos had to run to his favorite taxpayer funded media – WGLT – to complain about Stan Nord. The issue: Stan won’t rubber stamp my appointees! https://www.wglt.org/normal-mayor-pushes-back-appointment-opposition The article eventually got to Karyn Smith who also spoke about not having time to research who Koos’ Connect Transit Board appointee is. […]
By: Diane Benjamin At least the walk will be shorter for Pantagraph reporters if Bloomington City Hall moves some of their offices to the Government Center. Of course we had to find out from the paper: https://www.pantagraph.com//govt-and-politics/bloomington-city-hall-council-meetings-to-move-to-county-government-center You have to read down to find out Connect Transit may chose the old City Hall building for […]
By: Diane Benjamin I tried to wrap up most of what happened Monday night in this story and failed. One more story coming and some things still won’t be covered. Link to all previous stories: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/08/jumping-around-normals-meeting/ This one is number SIX. This was on the agenda: EVERY person on the Council, except Stan Nord, voted […]
By: Diane Benjamin Links to the 4 previous stories: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/08/the-saga-of-mondays-normal-meeting-continues/ Inside information: Rumor (98% confirmed) is Normal was furious with Bloomington when they offered to lease or sell part of Prairie Vista golf course to Fire Juniors for a new soccer field. Prairie Vista already has adequate infrastructure, the new location in Normal doesn’t. Bloomington […]
By: Diane Benjamin Story #3 has links to stories #1 and #2: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/07/trifecta-koos-now-lies/ The meeting was over 3 hours, this story means I’ve made it to the 8 minute mark! Progress. 3 people spoke at Public Comment, two talked about the new soccer complex. Doug Fansler spoke on more than 1 topic, the first being […]
By: Diane Benjamin This meeting will take more stories to adequately cover what happened last night This is #3. #1 https://blnnews.com/2020/07/07/koos-i-dont-care-what-a-judge-says/ #2 https://blnnews.com/2020/07/07/is-koos-fit-to-serve-he-forgot-the-words-to-the-pledge/ Numerous people were appointed to boards and commissions. Koos finally filled the empty seat on the Connect Transit Board. Tim McCue will represent Normal, the seat has been empty for well over […]
By: Diane Benjamin Mike Gilmore of Gilmore Homes built a Tiny House and donated it to the Midwest Food Bank and Spread Truth to help raise money for their mission. You can see pics of this adorable house here plus a lot more information: Tiny House Big Impact_Ticket Champion Orientation Buy tickets here: https://tinyhousebigimpact.com/terms This […]
By: Diane Benjamin As a veteran one would think Chris Koos has said the Pledge of Allegiance so many times it would be impossible to forget. Last night he couldn’t remember the words, maybe because it was at: “One Nation Under God”. Also note instead of saying the Pledge, Chemberly Cummings put a sign on […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Normal Town Council met for over 3 hours last night. I wonder if Chris Koos and Pam Reece know their days are numbered and they are attempting to achieve nirvana before they get kicked out? This meeting will take more than one story! The soon to be ex-mayor took it upon […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/02/bloomington-5-years-and-no-news/ According to the reader: I was working around 807 N Main that you had in an article yesterday. There is no for sale sign on the property. The parking lot in the rear is being used for parking the vacuum trucks for the sewer […]
By: Diane Benjamin Either Normal is spending money they don’t have because of COVID or they have over-taxed everybody and have a huge stockpile of cash. Without ISU students revenues have to be down, but Normal is hiring anyway. I bet they will say: It is in the budget: DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS […]
By: Diane Benjamin The only reason units of government have been allowed to meet on-line instead of in person is because of Gov. Pritzker’s Executive orders: https://www2.illinois.gov/Pages/government/execorders/executive-orders.aspx#y2020 Everything on that page was ruled illegal last Thursday! Pritzker’s authority to act like a dictator expired 30 days after his first proclamation. He made NO attempt to […]
The Pilgrims sailed to an unknown land because they wanted religious freedom, not the state mandated version. The greatest army at the time – the British – weren’t defeated by a bunch of farmers without divine intervention. The Declaration of Indepence, written by Thomas Jefferson, originally contained a line outlawing slavery. The King of England […]
Get the facts from those who have READ the law and been right since MARCH: https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/governors-pritzkers-executive-orders-void-what-does-that-mean
By: Diane Benjamin I wonder if Koos and Reece will admit the Executive Orders issued are now dead? Normal for Monday night: http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3683 Is this in addition to what taxpayers already pay? Misc: It appears the discussion of paying property taxes by the Town of Normal on property that should be exempt must continue: I […]
The Clay County judge ruled today that any orders issued by Pritzker past the 30 days given to him by law are invalid! There are now no limitations on ANYONE in the State of Illinois. You are open, open, open. This applies to schools too – Illinois can not require masks. This also voids any […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington bought this property almost 5 years ago just to control who built on it: The address is 807 N Main, the site of the old Mennonite hospital. In May of 2019 the Council voted to list it for sale with Coldwell Banker after they tried to sell it on a national […]
By: Diane Benjamin Contract Transit met on 6/23/2020: Meeting documentation Can supporters of Connect Transit explain why a system of empty buses with deficits that loses close to 1 MILLION every month is a valid use of taxpayer money? Whatever they say can’t possibly justify this abomination that only gets worse with continued spending on […]
By: Diane Benjamin On June 22 the Town of Normal held a special meeting just to approve submitting a grant request to the State of Illinois for funds to fix West College: http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3668 This plan also included extending the trail, the cost estimate just for the trail wasn’t listed – just the total: If other […]
By: Diane Benjamin Pretending kids don’t need their Mom AND Dad raising them together explains many societal problems. A mom can’t teach a boy how to be a man. Girls need their dads to teach them how men are suppose to treat them. Without these role models as they mature it’s a miracle if paths […]
By: Diane Benjamin Hutsonville School District voted unanimously last night to hire Attorney Thomas DeVore for possible litigation. The Board opposes the “Joint Directives” issued by Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) that include wearing masks, temperature checks, and occupancy limits. The Edgar County Watchdogs have video of […]
