Failure to Launch: Local Dems

By:  Diane Benjamin Well it seems as if the Dems had a snafu at the last County Board meeting. Eventual candidate (more about that later) Derek M. Lough appeared to be ready to do a fire and brimstone speech about voter suppression in McLean County.  The Dems are all fired up about waiting lines in […]

Dan Brady, ISU, local Democrats, more SLBB and Pay-To-Play

By:  Diane Benjamin Dan Brady: It took until last night to connect with Dan Brady about HB 2040.  See this story:  https://blnnews.com/2019/05/06/illinois-gop-a-minority-on-purpose/ He told me he didn’t hear any opposition to the bill, one of the reasons he voted YES.  Evidently we aren’t a Representative Republic where the elected reflect the values of the people […]

Fundraising done wrong

By:  Diane Benjamin h/t  a reader See this Press Release: What is “For a Better Tomorrow” and where do the funds raised go? This was attached to the Press Release: I still have no idea who this group is, they don’t appear to be an official non-profit. The money raised is going to FOUR Chosen […]

Connect Transit and ISU – FACTS

By:  Diane Benjamin The purpose of this story is to clarify how many ISU students ride buses and how much ISU pays for those rides. Keep in mind employees at ISU ride with a pass just like students.  The information I received does not distinguish between the two. To determine what the relationship is between […]

Is ISU teaching Socialism?

By:  Diane Benjamin This guy ran for Normal Town Council – note the shirt: He was wearing this shirt on election night.  He is a graduate of Illinois State University.  So is Jenn Carrillo, a self-called democrat socialist. How many other kids leave ISU as socialists?  Is Illinois State University creating socialists on purpose?  Our […]

Incompetence! ISU

By:  Diane Benjamin It really isn’t difficult to stop employees from pocketing your money.  The City of Bloomington leaders buried their heads underground when they were repeatedly told about CIAM, evidently ISU did the same thing at Bone Student Center. Pantagaph article: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/woman-accused-of-stealing-from-isu/article_e6587ca4-0cf7-531b-b17d-1b3b4ec87c73.html#tracking-source=home-breaking A woman is accused of stealing $161,000 going ll the way to […]

Local Democrats need economics course

By:  Diane Benjamin The local Democrats shared this on Facebook: Of course they had to pretend the Republicans are the party of the rich, facts don’t matter when talking points to keep the minions uniformed work better. Since democrats don’t bother with history before legislating, Pritzker and crew think the rich will hang around and […]

More Bloomington Silliness

By:  Diane Benjamin Bills and payroll for Monday night:  http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21241 6 more employees will be spiking their pensions:       This is the penalty for the last group who spiked theirs: The legal budget must be running out of money, this is less than a normal month. I filed a FOIA request for the […]

More proof local elections aren’t non-partisan

By:  Diane Benjamin The ISU College Democrats endorsed Jenn Carrillo! Do you know what the Progressive agenda is? In short, socialism.  Progressives want to force government to run everything because they do not believe in freedom, liberty, and capitalism. They want to tell you how your property can be used.  They want higher taxes because […]

ISU provides Free Abortions

By:  Diane Benjamin Thanks to the Democrats in a Springfield and the traitor Bruce Rauner, Illinois taxpayers are forced to pay for abortions.  Illinois will become the abortion capital of the Midwest as women flock here to murder their babies. That is why Rauner lost – he lied about not signing the bill. This letter […]

Will half of all colleges close?

By:  Diane Benjamin Since Bloomington-Normal is a college town, this is an article that needs to be read.  It was printed in Forbes Will Half Of All Colleges Really Close In The Next Decade? Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen consistently turns heads in higher education by predicting that 50% of colleges and universities will close or […]

ISU: Promoting bigots

By:  Diane Benjamin For last years MLK dinner, Illinois State University hired Marc Lemont Hill as the Keynote speaker.  Hill was just fired from CNN for extreme antisemitic remarks.    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna942151 Previously ISU had Van Jones speak at an MLK dinner.  He resigned from the Obama administration after his ties to Marxist and communist groups became […]

Bloomington Council last night

By:  Diane Benjamin Ward 8 wasn’t represented as Diana Hauman was absent.  Of course nobody mentioned why. The ISU kids showed up in Bloomington to support Tobacco 21 during public comment.  ISU has indoctrinated them well to believe government needs to “parent” the population for the good of the collective.  Sending your kids to college […]

Pepsi Ice? Coliseum? Tax increases?

By:  Diane Benjamin Pepsi hasn’t paid for naming rights at the Ice Center for years.  That doesn’t keep Bloomington from still giving them free advertising: PDF page 196 of the annual financial statements:     http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=20281 “Pepsi” is also on PDF pages 32 and 33. Grossinger Motors does pay for naming rights of the former US […]

Privilege Tax

By:  Diane Benjamin It is very easy to describe government in Normal: “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” Ronald Reagan Hotel occupancy in Bloomington-Normal is way down, according to […]

Welcoming Ordinance will be back

By:  Diane Benjamin The local progressives are possessed with bringing in illegal aliens! The latest is Illinois State University: Since we have no borders, these people aren’t illegal, merely undocumented.     Yes it was sponsored by ISU: One of the speakers is a candidate for the Bloomington City Council – a former illegal alien […]

Democrats buying votes?

Why was the Democrat Party Chairman handing out pizza to the voters at ISU?  Erik Rankin just happen to be with Dan Brady’s opponent – Ben Webb.  Webb had to be asked to leave since his presence at a polling place is obviously illegal. Rankin didn’t know that?  (Seems democrats either never know the rules […]

Rule of Law Matters because women do LIE

By:  Diane Benjamin In this country the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.  Allegations mean nothing without proof.  Way too many people think that women should always be believed when they accuse a man of sexual assault.  They are wrong, below is why: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Brian-Banks-Rape-Case-Exonerated-NFL-Atlanta-Falcons-218978851.html Brian Banks was a great high school football player with […]

Media is destroying the country-it starts it ISU

  By:  Diane Benjamin The biggest threat to the Republic is uninformed people.  We are being destroyed from within by the people charged with Freedom of the Press in order to defend us against tyranny.  Much of media is purposely misinforming people by never reporting all sides of issues.  Media is reporting their agenda thus […]

Proof of ISU indoctrination

By:  Diane Benjamin This article was posted in the ISU newspaper – the Vidette – on September 27th and updated on September 30th. http://www.videtteonline.com/news/isu-students-react-to-kavanaugh-hearings/article_819fdaa0-c2bb-11e8-a372-77979e03b0e0.html These kids don’t know a thing about innocent until proven guilty.  They have never been taught what “due process” means.  If it was up to them, Brett Kavanaugh would have been […]

ISU usurps capitalism

By:  Diane Benjamin Everybody should already know that capitalism isn’t taught to most of the students at ISU.  The kids flocked to the last Democratic primary to vote for a socialist. ISU now has an Adventure Center!   https://campusrecreation.illinoisstate.edu/adventure/ The Center just opened this month.  Click on Equipment Rental A long list of items for rent […]

ISU enrollment – facts

By:  Diane Benjamin The media dutifully reported the freshman class at ISU is up 10% this year.  They mentioned the class is bigger than in recent years, they neglected to report real numbers. Incoming freshman LAST year was down 9.3%:   https://blnnews.com/2017/09/07/numbers-lie/ Note that number was reported by the same WGLT who reported this year the […]

Dickie Durbin at ISU

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 […]

No Voter Suppression at ISU

By:  Diane Benjamin A couple of days ago a comment was made on Facebook saying Republicans were trying to suppress the vote at ISU, and that’s why kids had to stand in long lines. The person who made that comment must have not realized the election was a primary.  Suppressing democrat votes does nothing to […]

What really happened at ISU?

By:  Diane Benjamin Think back.  Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are vying for the Democrat nomination for president.  The Illinois primary election was held on March 15, 2016. The Town of Normal has 30 precincts.  The entire County picked Hillary Clinton, 26 of Normal’s 30 locations picked Bernie Sanders. 

Is ISU suspending Christianity?

By:  Diane Benjamin The Campus Ministry Association has been a registered student association at Illinois State University since 1996.  It was called Ecumenical Campus Ministries until 2011.   For 22 years they participated in recruitment events through the Department of Admissions. I’m hearing two sides to this story.  A member of the Campus Ministry Association says […]

ISU must not teach capitalism

By:  Diane Benjamin The Normal Town Council meeting lasted more than 10 minutes last night!  It actually went over an hour because of the mandatory recycling ordinance. ISU kids showed up to demand their right to recycle.  Some called it a necessity, one claimed she had to drive 5-10 minutes to drop hers off and […]

Maybe the last Valente story, maybe not

By:  Diane Benjamin If you missed any of the first three stories, see them  HERE (Videos)  and  HERE (Phone Message) and  HERE (Emails) Judy Valente had settled down until the videos were published I obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.  Besides the phone message above, she also emailed Chief Woodruff.  She is no longer calling him Aaron.  […]

Valente – the saga continues

By:  Diane Benjamin If you missed either of the first two stories, see them  HERE  and  HERE The new information comes from another FOIA request I filed to see if STATE EMPLOYEE (as in YOU pay her salary) Judy Valente actually followed through with her threats to file a complaint against the officers involved in her traffic […]

More on Judy Valente

By:  Diane Benjamin This article must be read first:   https://blnnews.com/2018/06/24/smile-you-are-on-police-video/ h/t another reader Bio from:    https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B00E9BE1J2/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1?redirectedFromKindleDbs=true Judy writes what appear to be self-help spirituality books. Click the link above to see the titles. Any further comment appears unnecessary.  

6 things you need to know

By:  Diane Benjamin 1) RC McBride asked to be excused from voting on payments to WGLT at last night’s Normal Council meeting since he is the General Manager.  He did vote on the Harmon Grants, 3 of which went to ISU, also his employer since WGLT is the campus NPR station. ISU, McBride, and the […]

ISU – All Gender Bathrooms

By:  Diane Benjamin In the interest of diversity and inclusion, more than 20 all gender bathrooms have been added to campus.  Are showers included? Source:   http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/education/climate-change-isu-working-to-fill-gaps-in-diversity-inclusion/article_85982c94-c66e-598e-9654-532026d71e95.html Just who are they trying to include? Do you want your daughter walking in a restroom with a bunch of guys?  Why do they need more than 20? Next […]

College Free Speech Lawsuit

By:  Diane Benjamin I just found a story proving people are tired of University tactics to silence free speech.  A lawsuit was filed against the University of Michigan Tuesday: The lawsuit, filed by the nonprofit civil rights group Speech First, alleges that the university’s apparatus to investigate incidents reported as bias and enforce disciplinary measures creates […]

ISU: Teaching Tribalism

By:  Diane Benjamin Why is it impossible to talk to each other these days?  Many times it’s because people retreat to their corner and refuse to listen to any points of view that conflict with what they were taught or what they think they believe.  Common sense and rational thoughts must be attacked if doesn’t […]

Courtesy of the Progressives:

By:  Diane Benjamin Yesterday a lot people rallied in downtown Bloomington to force government to limit 2nd Amendment rights. Tonight the radicals are rallying to force a vote on protecting people living in Bloomington illegally.  They will show up at Council tomorrow night. One of these radicals is raising money to move to a new […]

What did Tari say?

By:  Diane Benjamin Monday’s Bloomington City Council meeting ended with accusations against Tari for what 2 aldermen heard he said at the conference below. It would be really easy to find out the truth – just ask Mike Matejka or Chris Koos – they were there with Tari: https://events.illinoisstate.edu/event/social-ethnic-racial-boundaries-campus-community-21st-century-race-immigration-trump-administration/ You might want to look at […]

Government thinks you are REALLY stupid

By:  Diane Benjamin Bloomington and Normal are the only cities doing their own garbage pickup in the area.  According to the Pantagraph, Normal did their own investigation of rates. They declared NO money could be saved by privatizing garbage pickup. See the chart here:  http://www.pantagraph.com/graphic-waste-collection-fees-services/pdf_a5d93a81-e7db-537c-b830-c5fafd8a34bc.html The Pantagraph must not have noticed some of those other cities […]

Does a Unit 5 School Board member have a conflict?

By:  Diane Benjamin A Statement of Economic Interest is required to be filed by EVERYONE who is elected and appointed to any unit of government.  Other employees may also be required to file. It is the law that SEI must be filed. Everyone on the Unit 5 School Board did file, unlike some other units […]

Normal: Know about this survey?

By:  Diane Benjamin Do you want more services from the Town of Normal? I’ve seen far too many surveys that nobody knows about except the “chosen” who will answer it correctly. This one is from Parks and Rec. Take the survey here:  https://illinoisstate.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4O2h5LyxDmw06oZ Yes, it looks like Illinois State University is running the survey. This link […]

Here is just one reason Normal raises taxes:

By:  Diane Benjamin Here’s just a few of the Town’s recent follies:  (there are more) Portillos give away – $1,825,000 plus interest:  https://blnnews.com/2016/12/02/portillo-town-monday-night/ Greenbriar Shopping Center – $4.8 million  https://blnnews.com/2017/10/16/normal-revised-schedule-spending/ $100,000 to the Mclean County History Museum + $700,000 that wasn’t budgeted:   https://blnnews.com/2017/09/04/normals-funnybusiness-tuesday/ $420,853.49 for new furniture  https://blnnews.com/2017/07/16/you-arent-supposed-to-notice/ Rivian! Here’s one you probably forgot or never knew: The […]