Judy Stearns, age 74, from Bloomington, Illinois, was called home to be with the Lord on Friday, July 18, 2025. Her Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, July 25, 2025 at Epiphany Catholic Church in Normal. A visitation will be held from 10:00-11:00 a.m. prior to mass at the […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1112&Inline=True Monday will be the final meeting for: All three will be recognized at the start of the meeting. Kim’s common sense will be missed. I wonder if Joni ever figure out she was lied to? https://blnnews.com/2015/10/26/problem-joni/ I have my own parting gifts for Tari! 1) Remember last February when Tari Renner […]
By: Diane Benjamin No, this has nothing to do with the election. It does have to do with Judge William Yoder. None of the news stories pertaining to the former Normal Police Officer who admitted stealing $12,000 said who the judge was. The only way I know is from a WGLT picture: https://www.wglt.org/post/former-normal-police-officer-pleads-guilty-theft-case#stream/0 How can […]
By: Diane Benjamin We know why Stan Nord is being attacked in Normal – anyone actually representing citizens always has been. January 24, 2008 Pantagraph Headline: Officials not allowing city workers to talk with council members https://www.pantagraph.com/news/officials-not-allowing-city-workers-to-talk-with-council-members/article_f4228b0d-8f16-5899-b640-0ef103ab4ba3.html The first line: Since I know you can read, click the link and see the rest for yourself. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph thanked Alderman Diana Hauman for serving and for publicly stating she is not running for reelection to the Bloomington City Council because she was not able to develop a cohesive Council. When Judy Stearns and Kevin Lower were members, the Council was very cohesive. Everything they said was ignored. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Before the vote to neuter Tari’s agenda privileges, he gave a little speech. He claimed an Alderwoman came to him 30 days after he was first elected with a list of over 100 items she wanted him to put on the agenda. He claims that person has NEVER voted for a City budget. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The 2014 video of Tari Renner attacking Judy Stearns during a Council meeting because of cuts she proposed now has been viewed over 15,000 times. 13,000 of them have come in the last few months. I have no idea why! A viewer left a comment last night that perfectly summed it up: […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this recent WGLT story: http://wglt.org/post/new-documents-link-vague-coliseum-contract-criminal-charges The former Coliseum management could get greatly reduced sentences because the documents WGLT presented prove the City didn’t care – as in David Hales didn’t care. Hales was paid huge bucks to manage the City, he failed. I really hope he is called as a witness to […]
By: Diane Benjamin More than one story will be needed to cover the meetings. First some unusual items: Karen Schmidt motioned at the beginning of the meeting to take hiring the development manager for the BCPA off the agenda and move it to a Committee of the Whole meeting or Work Session. Alderman Bray pulled […]
By: Diane Benjamin The video below is from 2014. I have NO idea why it has gotten close to 8000 views in the last month. Maybe Tari will be the next internet sensation. This is the video of him attacking Judy Stearns for doing the unforgivable – proposing cuts. His speech prior to the attack […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when Tari Renner verbally attacked Judy Stearns at a City Council meeting? What the citizens of Bloomington need to hear again are Tari’s pre-attack comments. He claims local politics is not about ideology and philosophy. Local government is about “Protecting citizens and delivering services to them at a reasonable cost”. […]
By: Diane Benjamin I know some of you have seen this story on Facebook, but I kept running into people this weekend that didn’t. That means I HAVE to print it. Here’s the back story according to Judy Stearns: Tari Renner was on WJBC this week. Scott Laughlin asked him about Judy’s appearance Monday night […]
WJBC posted the podcast: https://audioboom.com/posts/6384179-tari-renner-bloomington-mayor-10-11-17 I forgot to mention he thinks the local acrimony is a bigger story than CIAM! He also claims he did everything possible to get information from CIAM AND he decided not to renew the contract. Funny Tari – I remember you were shocked they pulled out of the negotiations. I was […]
Guest Editorial Hey Pravdagraph, News flash! Skip Crawford and Mike Matejka have been off the Council for more than a decade! The people voted them off after multiple terms because they were the ultimate insiders voting for a union agenda (Matejka, union official) and Crawford (pretend Republican) who loved dem Karen Schmidt (see campaign letter) […]
By: Diane Benjamin Official Misconduct? Flash back to April 14, 2014 The meeting minutes provide a little information, the video below provides much more. Minutes 4/14/14 Alderwoman Judy Stearns knew concessions were not audited at the Coliseum. She knew other problems existed and she wanted answers. Changing hockey from professional to junior was the perfect time […]
By: Diane Benjamin Attn: Council If your information on ANY topic, especially the Coliseum, is from David Hales or Tari Renner you are getting “Fake News”. Jamie Mathy is quoted in today’s paper saying the Management Agreement with CIAM “literally forbid the city from having access to the raw numbers”. SOURCE Jamie, why did the City […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this story from yesterday: Why City Councils Don’t Listen After writing more than 4000 stories, I had forgotten I wrote about the Julie Crowe case when she won the lawsuit: Julie Crowe Defeats the City of Bloomington That story contains a link to the original Council vote denying her the Vehicle-For-Hire […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner LIED to me the first time I met him. I knew he had been a speaker at “Camp Obama” in Normal, so I asked him about it. He told me he was asked to tell the attendees what happens during the Iowa Caucuses. Considering contrary information was on-line, I knew […]
I found this while looking for something else and just had to add it: By: Diane Benjamin Why a “legitimate” news agency would follow the loathsome people behind “Citizens Deserve better Than Kevin Lower” is beyond comprehension. These are the same people who accused the Bloomington police of harassing them at a local park […]
By: Diane Benjamin CLEAN audits mean nothing! Dixon Illinois got taken for $50,000,000 with CLEAN audits. Forensic Audits find fraud, regular yearly audits only mean the numbers are in the right columns. Thanks Pantagraph for printing what you were told. Why were the Bloomington financial statements released REALLY late? Tonight the Council will hear information […]
By: Diane Benjamin I thought pretty much everybody knew the story of Tari Renner’s comment he left on BlnNews that led to his censure. They don’t, so before Bloomington votes for the next mayor, everybody needs to know who Tari is. See the whole story here: https://blnnews.com/2015/02/11/tari-attacks-me-again-not-in-our-town/ Why didn’t Tari slink away? If he had […]
By: Diane Benjamin It was way back in November of 2013 when Judy Stearns walked out of what she called an illegal Executive Session (Secret Meeting). She filed a Request for Review with Lisa Madigan’s Public Access office – they didn’t bother doing much with the filing until Judy was long out of office. She […]
By: Diane Benjamin On August 31st I posted the Coliseum timeline to show how long I have been trying to bring problems at the Coliseum to the City’s attention. https://blnnews.com/2016/08/31/coliseum-the-timeline/ Today I found another piece to the puzzle that I had forgotten. The City Council meeting where hockey was changed from professional to junior was […]
By: Diane Benjamin We are supposedly a Representative Republic where people are elected to represent us in government. If you’ve ever watched a Bloomington City Council meeting, it doesn’t take long to realize only 1 guy on the Council represents citizens. Of course, Kevin Lower. The rest are there to represent the City to the […]
By: Diane Benjamin April 14, 2014 was the Council meeting where CIAM’s management agreement was changed to allow Junior Hockey instead of Professional Hockey. The badly worded contract could have been scrapped and renegotiated, the City choose not to. I realize most readers NEVER watch the video’s I post. You prefer reading what was said, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Mayor Mike James of Downs has a lot in common with Bloomington’s Mayor, Tari Renner. Both had a chance to not have situations explodes, but both chose to pretend nothing happened. Mary Goveia set up a meeting with James to discuss Adkissons liquor problems, he never showed. He must have thought Mary […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Executive Session that Judy Stearns walked out of was held during a RETREAT held 11/15/2013 and 11/16/2013. Tari had been Mayor since May 1st. The retreat was held at the Den at Fox Creek – so NO video exists because the retreat room isn’t equipped for live stream. On the 15th, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday I posted the 2nd email Tari Renner sent to Judy Stearns, but I didn’t post Judy’s response. See this post: https://blnnews.com/2016/07/13/renner-emails-judy-again/ The original email exchange started here: https://blnnews.com/2016/07/13/renner-hauman-running-scared/ As a review, here is Tari’s 2nd email: Here is Judy’s response: The next Council meeting could get interesting! Maybe Tari can explain […]
Tomorrow I will print Judy’s response! By: Diane Benjamin Tari is a slow learner! See previous post: https://blnnews.com/2016/07/13/renner-hauman-running-scared/ Below is his latest email to Judy: Let me help you Tari: REDACTED 201606131459-1 Below are pages 2,3 and 4 with a lot of BLACK AREAS. That’s what has been kept from the public! There’s a […]
This story has two updates: https://blnnews.com/2016/07/13/renner-emails-judy-again/ https://blnnews.com/2016/07/14/stearns-response-to-renner-part-2/ By: Diane Benjamin After Judy Stearns reamed out most of the Council Monday night, Alderman Hauman and Mayor Renner had to attack her via email. Note: When Judy was on the Council she refused to give me emails under some belief that she shouldn’t. Now she’s free […]
By: Diane Benjamin My next lawsuit is going to be for the AUDIO of the Executive Session where the Attorney General ruled the Open Meetings Act was violated. I will demand the judge listen to the entire audio to insure the City doesn’t redact items that shouldn’t be redacted. Why? Stay with me: See the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Former Alderwoman Judy Stearns spoke during public comment last night. Mayor Renner broke HIS own rules and responded to her comments. Since he responded, so do she, at which time he called her out-of-order. Stearns was there to talk about the majority of the Council not representing the citizens of Bloomington. She […]
By: Diane Benjamin Today’s edition has a story on the Attorney General’s ruling about the Bloomington City Council violating the Open Meetings Act: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/ill-ag-city-council-violated-open-meetings-law/article_5dfb7bef-4515-52af-96a9-e8fb37c8abb0.html See this story from June 4th: https://blnnews.com/2016/06/04/renner-is-guilty/ Of course the paper’s version contains errors. The AG ruled the “verbatim recording” must be released in addition to the closed session minutes […]
Re-posted only to change how it was originally posted. By: Diane Benjamin The Attorney General finally ruled on the Open Meetings Act Violation filed in 2013 by then Alderwoman Judy Stearns! A couple of weeks I wrote about Madigan’s failure to rule and asked readers to call. https://blnnews.com/2016/05/19/madigan-too-busy/ I know at least a few of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Some points of law are never settled because government refused to act. Lisa Madigan’s Public Access office is doing just that. Remember many years ago when Judy Stearns filed a complaint against Tari Renner for violating the Open Meetings Act? It was right after he got elected. He decided winning an election […]
By: Diane Benjamin From last year – 11/24/2014 Council meeting: From the 12/6/2-14 Council meeting: This year Christmas didn’t happen at City Hall, at least in public. There was no tree lighting ceremony. Maybe the only reason it happened last year was Alderman Stearns insisted, Alderman Schmidt didn’t care to continue […]
By: Diane Benjamin Back in 2009 a company called Lyle Sumek Associates, Inc out of Florida was hired as a consultant. From their website: http://lylesumek.com/ Lyle Sumek Associates, Inc. is a consulting organization that specializes in team building, strategic planning and goal setting for local governments, developing more effective governing bodies and governance processes; assisting […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the video of Kirk Allen, John Kraft, and Judy Stearns speaking at the 5:30 meeting yesterday that was not live streamed. Kirk and John drove 2 hours to be in Bloomington to address the Council on the proposed changes to the Public Comment ordinance. Note, I intentionally filmed non-verbal reactions to the […]
by: Diane Benjamin If the bird-cage liner or the low information radio station ever want creditability – here’s a tip: When a government official glibly says the law doesn’t say we can, or I can’t by law – CHECK the law! I’ve seen a pattern with the local officials. To deflect further questions or discussion, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is a link to one of my all time favorite Pantagraph pictures In case you forgot or didn’t know, Judy Stearns was accused in 2011 of having multiple homestead exemptions because of rental properties she owns. Then Mayor Stockton tried his best to get her thrown off the Council, hiring 2 […]
