McLean County will be forced to change their Public Comment policy – FINALLY

By: Diane Benjamin I’ve been waiting years for someone to file with the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access division concerning their policies. Public Comment is Freedom of Speech and a 1st Amendment Right to address grievances with YOUR government. McLean County thinks you need to give them 24 hours notice if you want to speak. […]

Announcement:

It is impossible for me to cover all local units of government myself, therefore I am going to quit covering Normal. If anyone actually cares about schools, I need help there too. Your part-time mayor driving a vehicle taxpayers paid almost $74,000 for and putting regular plates on it instead of government plates didn’t make […]

Republicans outflanked Democrats for County Board chair

By: Diane Benjamin One Democrat was denied the right to attend the meeting tonight remotely which meant 9 Republicans were present and voting to 8 Democrats present and voting. The rules were changed by the Republican majority to elect a chair based on the majority present instead of a majority of the total. On a […]

Update: Editorial: Don’t Vote County Board

I’m told the established rules require 10 votes for a chair regardless of who is present. By: Diane Benjamin The County Board now has two vacancies. Since every District has two elected officials everyone still has representation. The only District that doesn’t have the same representation is 5, it used to have a Democrats and […]

Is electricity GREEN?

By: Diane Benjamin If you haven’t opted out of electric aggregation in Bloomington and Normal you are paying than than you could have because both councils chose the higher “green energy” rate. At the last County Board meeting they did the same thing. The Board voted 16-3 to pay $41,776 more for “green” electricity than […]

The truth about District 10 candidate Corey Beirne

By: Diane Benjamin Corey Beirne teaches more than music to 600 Unit 5 students. He is also teaching transgender and LBGT+ ideology to ELEMENTARY STUDENTS. Beirne gave this speech in June of 2021 to the Unit 5 School Board, they must approve since he’s still there. (Unit 5 wants more money? For this?) Beirne mentions […]

Breaking News: County Board picks Don Knapp’s replacement

By: Diane Benjamin At tonight’s meeting the County Board voted in what sounded unanimous for Erika Reynolds to fill out the rest of Don Knapp’s term. Erika is a current employee of the State’s Attorney’s office. Don Knapp has been appointed judge in the Circuit Court and is running unopposed in November for the same […]

McLean County goes WOKE without a vote

By: Diane Benjamin The County Board never voted on forcing County employees to attend mandatory training in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Evidently County Administrator Cassy Taylor decided to fracture the work force all on her own. Maybe she should just visit the County Clerks office, I did several months ago to get a copy of […]

Nobody thrown off the ballot

By: Diane Benjamin Original story about the petition challenges is in this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/25/5-things-you-need-to-know-3/ The 3 person board ruled all County Board candidates will remain on the ballot. Court cases were cited concerning numbering pages. They showed not numbering pages did not threaten election integrity, candidates were not removed for this technicality. The vote was […]

Celebrate! Will Josh Barnett be gone in November?

Barnett decided not to run again! By: Diane Benjamin That question is hard to answer since MANY voters see a familiar name and vote for them. Low information voters are a huge threat to good government. Barnett is frequently an obstruction to keeping the County government as small as possible with low taxes, he sides […]

Democrats resort to fibs?

By: Diane Benjamin I wonder where at the County Board meeting anyone discussed taking the tablets away from the County inmates? Democrats told WGLT they did, of course it was printed without a fact check. https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2021-10-16/tussle-over-inmates-use-of-tablets-develops-at-mclean-county-jail I hope everyone is clear on this point: democrats favor inmates over taxpayers. They want TOU to pay for […]

Congrats County Board – the tablets got taken away

By: Diane Benjamin The $1000 payments to vaccinated employees was tabled without discussion: https://blnnews.com/2021/10/14/local-republicans-prove-their-worth/ The County has their own democrat who refuses to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Hannah Beer: Every Democrat and three Republicans voted yesterday to table the jail contract for tablets. The inmates love them, today they don’t have them. The […]

Unmask the kids-McLean County

By: Diane Benjamin The McLean County Board Health Committee met yesterday. One mother gave Public Comment. Julie Bakewell presented the Resolution below to Committee Chair Susan Schafer. The Resolution is a revised version of one another Illinois County has already passed. Julie spells out why Pritzker’s Executive Orders are meaningless and IDPH and ISBE have […]

Oops, Democrats plan for County Board would be illegal

By: Diane Benjamin The McLean County Executive Committee held another meeting last night to discuss redistricting, or as they call it reapportionment. After many public comments, Assistant States Attorney’s Christopher Spanos explained the Democrats 20 single member district plan is unconstitutional. McLean County has an ordinance declaring Board Districts are multi-representative, changing to 20 districts […]

Correction: Local Democrats trying to suppress your vote

Final clarification: Farm Bureau supports 4-7 Districts while maintaining at least 20 Board members. The alternate plan to the Democrats 20 districts is not 10, it should have been 5. That was a typo on my part. The Farm Bureau claims now they aren’t supporting any plan even though I was told they were. The […]

The IL GOP will always be a minority

By: Diane Benjamin It is only a short time before McLean County will be taken over by Democrat Socialists. The Republicans are doing nothing to stop them. The GOP believes in working together. The local democratic socialists don’t want to work together, they want to control everything. McLean County will soon be run just like […]

Voting for Democrats costs you money!

By: Diane Benjamin It should be obvious, but evidently too many people think government needs your money, so they vote democrat. How many tax increases does the State of Illinois have to hand you before you figure out government is working for itself – NOT YOU? Illinois Democrats have no intention of fixing the unaffordable […]

Who is the real Rachael Lund?

By: Diane Benjamin Democrat Lund is running for the McLean County Board in District 5 against John McIntyre (Republublican) and Joann Litwiller (Libertarian) Lund cleaned up her social media sites before declaring her candidacy, but some of her posts were captured before that happened. Read below before you vote for “Nasty Woman”. Lund isn’t a […]

The Jenn’s running for the County Board

By: Diane Benjamin How Jenn describes herself on her Alderman Facebook page: How FIVE candidates running for the County Board describe themselves: Notice anything? All Jenn progressives The Democrat Party left you. Progressives want to run your life, they don’t think you are smart enough to run your own. Of course they think you are […]

Thanks for telling us who not to vote for

By: Diane Benjamin If you want a County Board full of Jenn Carrillo buddies – vote Democrat. Her socialist buddy who is running for Bloomington City Council (unless he chickens out) identified one for you. County Board meetings were already live streamed before COVID. Lawler and Laymon want to make sure the public won’t be […]

Local Stats nobody talks about – deaths

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 […]

Don’t forget who won’t let you work

By:  Diane Benjamin Indiana is open.  I know locals who have driven to the Beef House right across the border to sit down for a good meal. Iowa is open for full capacity in-restaurant dining. Wisconsin is open after their Supreme Court ruled the governor’s actions illegal. Illinois has Pritzker’s boot on everybody’s neck, he […]

Punting to a Tyrant

By:  Diane Benjamin Somewhere I heard it stated:  Illinois will open when the people want it to open.  Your elected officials aren’t going to help, they are bowing before Pritzker’s tyrannical rule. The County Board debated for two hours last night.  Peoria and the other cities who put together the HOI plan have all backed […]

Update:  County Board – 5:30 today

No decisions were made.  After almost two hours of many thinking they have the right to violate the rights of people and businesses, a motion was made to table.  Some republicans voted with the Democrats not to make a decision. Meanwhile, the surrounding states are open. ______________________ By:  Diane Benjamin Bloomington and Normal have no […]

The County vote sets up the November Election

By:  Diane Benjamin The McLean County Board is meeting at 5:30 next Thursday to vote on supporting the HOI re-open plan. The purpose of the shutdown was to “bend the curve”.  There was no “curve” locally but the destruction to the lives of McLean County residents has been beyond measurable. Democrats want to take over […]

Democrats aren’t playing politics?!

By:  Diane Benjamin Nikita Richards, failed candidate for McLean County Clerk, was recently elected to lead the McLean County Democrats. When the economy was shut down we were told it was “to bend the curve”.  The purpose was to prevent massive numbers of hospitalizations that would overwhelm the system. Overwhelming never came close to happening, […]

Sharon Chung: CHINA virus

By:  Diane Benjamin A couple days ago this Letter to the Editor from McLean County Board member Sharon Chung appeared in the paper: https://www.pantagraph.com/opinion/letters/race-connection-furthers-division/article_298225bf-64ea-5b14-b9a7-e62de06e15c4.html Chung is upset an amendment failed that would have removed “China” from the emergency proclamation the County passed. Sharon, Communist China wants the same thing!  Most of the media has knelt […]