By: Diane Benjamin Luckily Alderman won’t be voting on the Middle Missing Housing report tonight, Committee of the Whole is meant to assess policy. It will reveal who believes government solves problems and who knows they don’t however. The Bloomington City Council has approved MANY housing projects, almost all have ZERO action from developers. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin . Illegal aliens will get student financial aid: https://www.mystateline.com/news/local-news/gov-pritzker-signs-illinois-law-granting-financial-aid-access-to-undocumented-students/ Total spent on illegals: $2.5 billion! https://www.illinoispolicy.org/think-illinois-spends-millions-on-migrants-wrong-it-spends-billions/ Enjoy your tax increases – Illinois has illegals to take care of.
By: Diane Benjamin Monday night the Bloomington City Council is circling back to the May 27th discussion of Missing Middle Housing. In case you forgot, the City hired a California group called Opticos Design Inc. Some things you need to know: -The report is littered with the term “Best Practices”. That is a ridiculous term […]
By: Diane Benjamin Want to know why the local League of Women Voters are pushing Rank Choice Voting? https://blnnews.com/2025/08/12/league-of-women-voters-accountability-in-question-bloomington-last-night/ Keep reading and find out! Illinois has been talking about changing how people vote for a few years. The way people voted since the beginning of this country isn’t good enough for miscreants, these people want […]
Only people who don’t learn from history, even recent history, would support Mamdani. That includes Krystle Alble who now has 3 jobs. She evidently is still the Executive Director of Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans. Her elected position as Normal Township Supervisor is a full time time job with full time pay, but without oversight […]
By: Diane Benjamin This one only made headlines because the victims daughter used to play in the WNBA. How many other Illinois citizens are killed by illegal immigrants and we never hear about them? https://www.wkrn.com/news/national/former-wnba-players-mother-killed-in-crash-illinois-officials . The story I wrote yesterday is very applicable: https://blnnews.com/2025/08/13/why-does-illinois-love-criminals/ When Corey Cottrell was hit and killed on his motorcycle […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington’s website has a horrible Search Engine. Instead of fixing that problem, IT decided to re-do a part of the website that was actually easy to use. This is what the screen with meeting agenda etc used to look like: It was very easy to find meeting documentation! Look at what they […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington is now dreaming up ways to keep discriminatory DEI policies by calling them other names: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-08-12/city-of-bloomington-to-host-a-free-symposium-discussing-the-future-of-inclusion-and-access Mentioned in the story: (What happened to the .gov extension?) All of the salaries came from OpenTheBooks.com. If you haven’t tried the new format, you should! Michael Hurt salary in 2024: $121,804.15 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Law enforcement is forced by the Illinois government to release criminal illegal aliens, what does that tell you? It should shout citizens and their safety are immaterial. Illinois loves criminals, especially if they are in the country illegally. They will obstruct ICE efforts to deport them. https://cis.org/Vaughan/Which-Sanctuary-Jurisdictions-Have-Released-Most-Criminals That story recaps the top […]
By: Diane Benjamin Source: https://ipmnewsroom.org/illinois-newsrooms-receive-4-million-from-state-through-tax-credits/ The State of Illinois passed a law in 2024 to help fund local media. They claim Illinois has “news deserts”. Heard of Separation of Church and State? Evidently there is no Separation of Press and State. Under this $4 million giveaway the Pantagraph received $140,000 for “qualified journalists” and $10,000 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 is hiding what goes on at school from parents. See this email for proof: At school your child can pretend to be anything they want and Unit 5 will affirm it. They will also make sure parents never find out. Don’t let these psychopaths give your child ANY mental health […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington meeting was 15 minutes last night. Brady, Mosley, and Straza were together somewhere and attended remotely. The only interesting thing was 1 public comment by Diana Hauman on behalf of the League of Women Voters. They claim to be non-partisan but aren’t. The City Council is supposed to be non-partisan […]
By: Diane Benjamin Ever had someone say something on social media that offended you? Ever had a day something on social media DIDN’T offend you? The case below is from Will County. Greg Anzelc wanted an Order of Protection against Jim Lanham because of what was said on Social Media: . Below are excerpts from […]
By: Diane Benjamin We spent the weekend in Wisconsin. We saw ZERO gas stations with gas over $2.95 a gallon. The roads are extremely better than Illinois, obviously freezing and thawing is just an excuse. There was a lot of road work being done. The area we were in received 7 1/2 inches of rain […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the Illinois Report Card for District 87 Bloomington High School: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/School.aspx?source=trends&Schoolid=170640870250001 If the goal is education they flunked. 77% graduate anyway. The District 87 website has many curriculum links. This is one for English: https://www.district87.org/o/bhs/documents/faculty-%26-staff/english/english-syllabi/455251 This is on the list, Freshman Literature and Composition: Freshman_Lit_Comp_23-24_-_BHS.pdf . Night is a biography of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Go to the bottom of this page: https://mcleancountyil.gov/109/Filing-an-Assessment-Complaint I believe the State of Illinois is behind raising local assessed values. In their brilliance they thought McLean County properties were undervalued. When you see numbers like 1.0918 it means your assessed value is going up 9.18%. I explained in this story how property […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Teacher’s Unions don’t need money to get their candidates elected to local school boards. They didn’t have to spend a dime last April because only their candidates ran. Unions now control the schools. https://www.illinoispolicy.org/august-is-teacher-union-opt-out-time-what-you-need-to-know/ Excerpts: Illinois teachers’ unions spend little on representing teachers, what should be their core focus. So why should teachers […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unless “Chad” is now a female name, the local League of Women Voters have let men conquer their spaces. Maybe they can’t find enough women to fill roles in the organization. Maybe they should change their name to reflect who they really are. The League is going to study the two local […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you missed yesterday’s story, read it now: https://blnnews.com/2025/08/05/bloomington-quit-celebrating-mlk-day/ Many of the leaders of this Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion event are associated with Illinois State University. That is important to remember while reading this story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-08-05/isu-to-digest-u-s-attorney-generals-message-on-unlawful-dei ISU is figuring out how to comply with demands to end unlawful discrimination. The US Attorney […]
By: Diane Benjamin WGLT posted this NPR story: https://www.npr.org/2025/07/15/g-s1-77658/national-poll-shows-widespread-american-support-for-federally-funded-public-radio As the title states, a national poll showed widespread support for tax dollar funded public radio. Of course NPR says federally funded instead of tax dollar. You have to read to the bottom of the story to find out the survey was conducted on-line. The story […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington obviously doesn’t believe in Martin Luther King’s vision of not judging people by the color of their skin. It appears they think no person of color is capable of succeeding on their own merits. In the latest version of expanding government and wasting money on non-essential events, see […]
By: Diane Benjamin I don’t track every artist fee anymore. At some point I might just FOIA all them. If people only look at event reports they would think the BCPA makes money. Listing actual expenses must be too difficult and too transparent. The first payment was a deposit, total artist fees for this show […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/illinois-dirtiest-cities-report-20795970.php Did Bloomington make the list because of infrastructure and resident dissatisfaction? Note higher scores indicate dirtier conditions. Most of these reports cover Bloomington-Normal as one city. This story doesn’t say if both are considered. I drove to the west side of Bloomington yesterday. The State part of West Market Street appears […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m seeing lots of posts on social media like this one: Rent is becoming unaffordable: https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/rent-is-becoming-unaffordable-to-illinoisan-according-to-new-report/ Water rates in Bloomington have now increased 66% in less than 2 years. Next May 1st the 100% increase will be in effect to fund “generational investment”: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/departments/water/resident-community/water-rate-increase-and-capital-project-updates Items on the same Bloomington bill, like garbage, […]
By: Diane Benjamin All of the township multipliers will be posted here soon: https://mcleancountyil.gov/109/Filing-an-Assessment-Complaint I hear Randolph Township has the highest annual property tax multiplier: 10.70 That does NOT mean your property taxes are going up. It means the people picked in local elections (that few people bother to vote for) will be deciding to […]
https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_3e27d777-f68c-47be-ac50-d64a99e509ea.html Quote: The nine-page memo clarifies that federal anti-discrimination laws apply to programs that involve discriminatory practices, including DEI policies. Organizations that receive federal funding are subject to federal anti-discrimination laws and must ensure that their programs do not discriminate against race, gender, religion and more, the memo added. By: Diane Benjamin More to this story: Illinois-Discriminates-Against-White-Males/ […]
By: Diane Benjamin This link contains of list of schools nationwide that has Nonconforming Transgender Policies: https://defendinged.org/investigations/list-of-school-district-transgender-gender-nonconforming-student-policies/ Page down to Illinois, there are a lot of districts listed. Yes, Unit 5 is one of them but District 87 isn’t. Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Policies openly state that district personnel can or should keep a student’s transgender status […]
By: Diane Benjamin Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion requires discrimination. CEI is an Illinois government Commission on Equity and Inclusion. This quote is from a document produced as a result of a survey on procurement in the private sector: By addressing these challenges head-on, CEI will help pave the way for a more inclusive, equitable, and […]
. When the Berlin Wall fell, nobody ran east toward communism. Sonny must have missed that history lesson. Your kids have probably missed it too. There is always a segment of society that hates freedom and will actively try to steal it. Communists believe they are smarter than you and should therefore rule. If you […]
By: Diane Benjamin Council members do NOT have a right to demand items be placed on the agenda. Aldermen have a procedure for doing it called Council initiatives. The public would know who is behind items and the Council has to vote to consider items at future meetings. Mollie Ward knows the procedure, maybe the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night’s meeting will take at least one more story. I don’t know when I will get to another story, so stay tuned. Bloomington voted unanimously to suspend payment of the 0.25% sales tax to the county for at least one year, intended for mental health services—primarily because the county holds more […]
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 h/t a reader for the video Monday night Bloomington will consider the same pause in funding to the County for mental health that Normal did: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/cityblm/334d59458cb7051d070970f18fdb52b10.pdf The Behavior Health Coordinating Council (BHCC) was changed to a secret group in 2024. Advising on spending millions of dollars in secret is a huge part […]
By: Diane Benjamin Being below State standards is pretty difficult to accomplish, this district is way below. The dark green is State: . Learning the basics is evidently not required for graduation: . Community Colleges are forced to teach the graduates of this school because the District didn’t: . The teachers can’t be blamed because […]
By: Diane Benjamin Locally we still haven’t been told when the airport is going to start taxing the county. If you forgot, Democrats got that passed in Springfield with members that don’t represent rural McLean County. That used to be called Taxation Without Representation. Assessed values are about to go up again. Since the area […]
By: Diane Benjamin The McLean County Planning Commission starts with a flawed assumption: PDF page 7 This plan is designed to guide growth, ensure the efficient use of resources, and maintain a balance between urban and rural areas for the next 20 years. McLean County isn’t growing. Numerous websites show the same as below. Pretending […]
