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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you are one of the MANY people who contacted me about 4-H and the funding of the Extension office you need to watch at least Public Comment from the 11/10/22 County Board Board meeting. I think 7 people commented, 6 of them are intimately involved with Extension and all wanted the […]
By: Diane Benjamin County Board: The Safe-T Act is going to be a disaster January 1st for your family, criminals get all the benefits. If you don’t want Democrats to take over the County Board and defund the Sheriff’s office, vote Republican. You MUST vote for TWO candidates or you are helping a democrat get […]
By: Diane Benjamin Like a lot of people running for office Krystle attempts to act normal and caring until the election is over. She’s currently running for County Board. h/t a reader One more: , I wonder if Krystle knows Hitler was a socialist? (The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers’ Party) How’s […]
Why do Democrat County Board candidates refuse to talk with Steve Suess on his Sunday show (Cities 92.9)? If they can’t discuss issues with a non-threatening libertarian will any of them discuss issues with Republicans if they are elected? What are they hiding? What are they afraid of? Truth? Democracy?
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 […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The final words of the Declaration of Independence are: And for support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor. July 4, 1776. 56 men signed that document, all were marked for death by […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin In yesterday’s story I neglected to say the audio and video of this meeting don’t mesh. The first 16 minutes has no sound. Need some IT help County? Ask Bloomington, they use the same room. Refer back to this story, Sheriff Sandage is tired of Sharon Chung stirring up trouble in the […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Please read to the BOTTOM! County Board candidates who filed for office are listed below by District. Since redistricting you get to vote for two this year, a drawing will be held after the election to see who gets a 2 year term and who gets 4 years. District 2 will have […]
By: Diane Benjamin Not only does Democrat County Board member Hannah Beer refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, she has little respect for the death of a County employee. She refused to stand while the rest of Board did. If she can’t stand for a medical reason, she needs to explain that one! […]
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 […]
Dear George, You have been an invaluable asset to McLean County for MANY years. Your leadership has keep McLean County RED with common sense principles. But your health has been declining for a long time. Missing meetings is no longer an option the people of your district and the other Republicans deserve. George, you have […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I think I heard Democrat County Board member Logan Smith physically threaten Chair John McIntyre! Laurie Wollrab, I saw you were present. I was just flying around down the hall, loud enough office personnel heard the ruckus. If John wasn’t so nice he’d file a police report. (We all know laws don’t apply to democrats […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve never gone to County Board member Josh Barnett’s Twitter page until today. He has me blocked! Isn’t that special! Is it because this Republican hangs out with the Democrats on Twitter? You might have forgotten Jeff Crabill is on the Bloomington City Council only because Barnett claimed he was leaving the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader From the Facebook page of District 8 County Board Member Shayna Watchinski: This is who District 8 really elected, not the girl who pretended to be caring. If you don’t want to be deceived again, don’t vote democrat.
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The County is FINALLY live streaming County Board meetings. The chairs have been rearranged and two cameras are being used so almost all members are on the video. The problem now is most of the work is done in Committees. If any controversy occurs, it is most likely going to happen in […]
