By: Diane Benjamin The agenda for last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting was extremely light, Tari hadn’t planned to make it back in time from the US Conference of Mayors. Serious issues couldn’t happen without his presence. Judy Stearns returned to Public Comment last night, only four people spoke. Three of the four represented what […]
By: Diane Benjamin The McLean County Chamber of Commerce is proving again they do not represent voters and taxpayers – they represent government. Chris Koos announced on Facebook that he was endorsed by them for reelection. The Chamber website doesn’t say anything about the current election endorsements. Just in the last few months Koos threw […]
By: Diane Benjamin Friends of government and preferred community investors always get a break. Normal doesn’t care that everybody else pays more so they can give breaks to people/groups/companies they approve of. Private investment flees when free market competition doesn’t exist. Why invest when government works against you by providing freebies to competitors? Many people […]
By: Diane Benjamin Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials, commonly seen in within governments that practice Mixed Economics. Today Mary Ann Ford of the Pantagraph reported on a study by a group called Good Jobs First. They touted […]
by: Diane Benjamin The editorial staff at the Pantagraph does a Cheers and Jeers column every Friday. I thought there was hope when they jeered the City of Bloomington for the failed retreat posting and the cost/inconvenience it caused. Today all hope was dashed. Not one mention in the column about the failed joint Council […]
by: Diane Benjamin Mayor Transparency Renner has no clue how capitalism works. He prefers the crony kind. Businesses he wants to exist will, the others can survive on their own, or just die. Renner wants a downtown hotel. He thinks people will want to rent rooms in a downtown that has to be power-washed every […]
by: Diane Benjamin The Political Action wing of the Chamber just held a Conference Call. I received an invitation, so I called in. They made it clear at the beginning that no press or bloggers were allowed on the call, so participants could speak freely. (Tee Hee) The speaker said they are in favor of […]
by: Diane Benjamin It’s completely ridiculous that people from all political persuasions can’t sit down and reach common ground. It doesn’t help that both sides are prone to LIE and EXAGGERATE the truth for their uniformed minions. I read leftist emails and sites because I need to know what they are saying. Sometimes it is […]
by: Diane Benjamin While reviewing the Trial Balance received under the Freedom of Information Act for the BCPA, an entry under advertising looked suspicious. For the non-accountants out there, a Trial Balance lists every entry, both income and expenses. Below is the entry – see the one for $193,835.00. It is labeled Like-Kind exchange. […]
by Joe Wolverton Verizon’s willingness to give the federal government unfettered access to its customers’ phone records is paying off handsomely for the telecommunications giant. Verizon announced on August 16: The U.S. Department of the Interior has selected Verizon to participate in a $10 billion, 10-year contract to provide cloud and hosting services. This is potentially one of Verizon’s […]
This site will end without your support. Click here to contribute: http://blnnews.blogspot.com/ by Diane Benjamin Update to: http://blnnews.com/2013/02/20/uptown-and-crony-capitalism/ According to the TIF documents, the Town of Normal has an agreement with Heartland Bank to pay 30% of the interest on their new building. The TIF documents on-line were not up to date. Under the Freedom of […]
Guest Commentary Crony Capitalism 8/2012 Vice President Biden has created another stir by saying Governor Romney “would put y’all back in chains” – which most of us just chalked up as yet another gaffe by the VP. I’m sure (well, sort of) he wasn’t actually referring to slavery; it was just another empty-headed comment like […]
