By: Diane Benjamin Review: All of these commissioners were hand-picked by Chris Koos. The Council is told they have to approve whoever he picks. The names of appointees aren’t given to the public until after the Council rubber-stamps them with a YES vote. RC McBride was kicked off the Council by voters, now he chairs […]
By: Diane Benjamin I attended Normal’s Planning Commission meeting last night. I only stayed for 3 hours, it was still going on when I left. Here’s the takeaway: When government claims it can’t protect your property rights because laws and regulations don’t allow it, your government needs replaced with one who understands the Constitution. See […]
By: Diane Benjamin It wasn’t that long ago when the Town of Normal was punishing businesses with fines who were just trying to stay open. Hypocrisy now should encourage those businesses to file lawsuits against Chris Koos and Pam Reece because TWICE in the past few weeks they have proven that Executive Orders and internal […]
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos didn’t ask for nominations from the public before naming his good buddy Mike Matejka Normal’s citizen of the year. If that had been done he would have had to open up the party to everyone, instead it was by invitation only. In the many accolades to support why Matejka was […]
By: Diane Benjamin I attended the Normal Planning Commission meeting last night. It was over 3 hours because MANY citizens did not want alcohol in the park. The video below is of Town Planner Mercy Davidson. She claims the Town Council brought this forward last year. Actually staff brought it forward and the bobbleheads said […]
By: Diane Benjamin More on the “Attack” Stan meeting last week. Attorney Brian Day spoke about 3 items-video below: 1) Day didn’t talk about Pam Reece’s procurement ethics, just Stan Nord’s. Day complained about Nord talking to local vendors AFTER the Town had already picked their favorite. Day left out the AFTER. The Town didn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Public Safety and Community Relations Board (PSCRB) in conjunction with Not In Our Town conducted a survey concerning the Bloomington police and what citizens want in the next police chief. The PSCRB held a meeting Thursday, the survey was discussed. Mike Matejka (who voted yes to building the Coliseum when he […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader More hypocrisy from those local caring folks who just want to help. No they don’t, it’s all about political power. November 21, 2019 https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/protesters-in-normal-demand-end-to-detention-of-immigrant-children/article_2c2e903e-dcc7-556a-96cd-288d7b81c0b0.html Story claims more than 100 people protested government holding children who illegally crossed the border. Excerpt: Charlotte Alvarez, executive director of the Immigration Project in […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.pantagraph.com/opinion/columnists/mike-matejka-normal-election-potholes-vs-progress/article_b11f20fe-e830-5d01-bc84-d912acc37bf5.html Anybody know why the guy who voted to build the Coliseum gets to write a column in the paper? Better yet, why does anybody listen to him when he not only voted against the will of the people but has never apologized for his taxpayer fleece? Of course Mike is campaigning […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.wglt.org/post/final-coliseum-defendant-pleads-guilty-misdemeanor-agrees-restitution#stream/0 The last Coliseum theft case was settled last week. The two main culprits got off with misdemeanor convictions while 2 low level employees who couldn’t afford to pay lawyers for years now have felony convictions. All 4 received plea deals, another defendant had all charges dropped. The City of Bloomington received […]
By: Diane Benjamin Figure out LIMITED Government yet? I remember posting about limited government years ago and getting comments like “you don’t want police and fire”. Obviously that isn’t what LIMITED Government means. Government uses your money for their folly because they can. You would have much more money in your pocket if government only […]
By: Diane Benjamin See both previous stories at this link: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/23/in-support-of-art-and-camille-taylor/ . Art Taylor, in his four-page screed complaining of his treatment during the incident closes with this: Not being accorded the respect of the “benefit of the doubt” is what hurts the most, and that is why citizens of color feel like there are […]
By: Diane Benjamin 9:00 – Stan pulled the bills for further discussion – particularly paying property taxes. Pam Reece and attorney Brian Day didn’t have good answers for not filing paperwork to make them exempt. 14:45 Koos ends the conversation. Next was the contract with the McLean County Regional Planning Commission. Stan wanted the same […]
By: Diane Benjamin It probably isn’t possible that you missed yesterday’s story, but in case you did: https://blnnews.com/2020/05/09/chris-koos-taunts-protestors/ If you need more proof that Not In Town Town is a joke to silence free speech, keep reading. From the NIOT Facebook page – written by Matejka himself: Mike’s mission isn’t to stop bullying if the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Need proof Normal’s spending is to provide union jobs? Keep reading. When the private sector isn’t providing jobs, government is the only alternative. Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs Director, Great Plains Laborers District Council representing LiUNA locals in central Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Why is Mike Matejka arranging official […]
By: Diane Benjamin I already reported Mike Matejka left facts out of his forum commentary: https://blnnews.com/2019/11/15/mike-matejka-leaves-out-some-facts/ Yesterday he did some community organizing to make sure his followers stay fired up and uninformed. It’s all politics all the time for Mike, facts are immaterial. Matejka didn’t lead this event, but he posted it on his Facebook […]
By: Diane Benjamin You will probably remember Matejka as a former Bloomington Alderman. During his tenure he voted FOR the Coliseum and FOR the never used fire station. If he could get your money to fork over to union members with a government project he was all in. Now he is at it again. It […]
By: Diane Benjamin I don’t know how many people pay attention to the blathering on WJBC by Forum commentators, but what Matejka said about TIF’s is nothing more than government talking points. Matejka is after all Chris Koos’ good buddy. See what he said here: http://www.wjbc.com/2019/03/13/wjbc-voices-understanding-tif-investments/?fbclid=IwAR12JhuXkWjHND1rhHt_Y0UlUjfoszIG6WStPU9lVKiGpM2KofKlh3_DfII One side note first: It’s great to see Democrats […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Meeting docs: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/31937 In this story about Bloomington spending: https://blnnews.com/2019/01/26/bloomington-bills-for-monday/ I listed 4 payments to the EDC for $1600 each. It looks like Renner, Buragas, Mathy, and Tyus won the One Voice trip this year to Washington DC. Buragas is leaving the Council April 30th and Tyus is the brand new Assistant […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal needs to immediately kick Mike Matejka off their Planning Commission: http://www.normal.org/401/Planning-Commission Matejka is still spreading hate on the Not In Our Town Facebook page: The entire premise of the story is based on the false narrative of what happen. Matejka evidently only gets his news from far left-wing […]
By: Diane Benjamin Not In Our Town has done nothing to correct the #FakeNews on their Facebook page. The hateful comments below are still on their page with no apologizes. Obviously this Facebook page only exists to create dissension. Videos of what really happened are all over the internet. On this Martin Luther King day, […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council has until April 1st to fire VenuWorks: PDF page 2 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=10901 The Coliseum (Grossinger Motors Arena) continues to fleece taxpayers. The audited loss for last year was $2,168,534. https://blnnews.com/2018/11/18/the-media-wont-report-this/ Taxpayers were deceived by the consultants before it was built – against the wishes of citizens. They predicted revenues […]
By: Diane Benjamin Long time readers know the former Coliseum managers would issue their financial statements, and then the auditor would issue theirs. The media always reported the CIAM numbers but never the audited numbers. Audited losses were much higher! The media is continuing to report fake news because the audited number from VenuWorks aren’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Note: Comments on this site will be deleted if it’s obvious the writer is only trying to attack. It’s my site – my rules. Either come here to have discussion or start your own site. Note to the idiot commenting about BEC. The election results are not posted where they should be […]
By: Diane Benjamin Government doesn’t have to be competent, especially when incompetent people are elected! The City of Bloomington has proven over and over they know where to get more money. YOU! The naming rights for the Ice Center expired more than two years ago. Pepsi is no longer paying to have their name on […]
By: Diane Benjamin Ms. Lunny just published a story on the Jenn Carrillo violence post and didn’t mention where the Pantagraph found it. I know where she found it: I have this sweet little program linked to my website that tells me where reads are from. Above are two of the reads, I know there […]
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 majority of the meeting was spent talking about TIF districts. The City of Bloomington currently has two: Empire Corridor which is a massive area along Empire street, and Downtown Southwest. The City is trying to get approval from the other taxing bodies for two more: The old Junior High building area […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin I attended the Black-Sage-Schmidt Townhall meeting last night at the BCPA. At most 30 citizens attended and many staff members. The aldermen didn’t waste a lot of time going over what people already knew. Most of the time was questions and answers, mostly about budget issues. One citizen asked why a NO […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve been reading a TON of media stories from before and after the Bloomington City Council voted to build the Coliseum. Judy Markowitz didn’t care what people thought. She was going to build it and nothing was going to stop her. She really believed she was saving downtown. Mike Matejka and former […]
By: Diane Benjamin To understand why the Council approved building a fire station on 6 Points Rd, you have to go back in time. The current Council is convinced Bloomington’s future is downtown. Just as they are wrong, history has proven development in SW Bloomington started and stopped. Mitsubishi hadn’t yet failed and reduced its […]
By: Diane Benjamin Not In Our Town only means some people in town are not allowed to have opinions. Any mention of ILLEGAL and immigrant together could lead to public flogging! Laws aren’t meant to be obeyed, it all in how one “feels”. NIOT proved who they really are the first time Tari attacked me […]
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 At last Monday’s Council meeting Diana Hauman was the only vote against the citizens Review Board of the local police. She did the right thing. In this story (that went VIRAL) I stated in error what the Alderman said about Mike Matejka: https://blnnews.com/2017/07/25/bloomington-is-chicago/ She actually pointed out that he and a few […]
Did Tari Know a large crowd was coming? It matters. By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Police Department was told loud and clear last night they were a huge problem. I wonder how many officers today are questioning why they are willing to die on the job to protect and serve people who despise them. I […]
By: Diane Benjamin The entire Council came to last night’s Committee of the Whole meeting with plans to put citizens in charge of the police force – except David Sage. Maybe he didn’t get invited to the lunches and private meetings everybody on the Council obviously was treated to. I wonder if Chief Heffner already […]
By: Diane Benjamin Only a tiny group of citizens want bike lanes. Tari Renner ran for office twice pledging to fix the roads. He obviously isn’t as serious as the people with damaged vehicles are. This is from 2015: http://www.cityblm.org/government/departments/public-works/streets-sidewalks/street-resurfacing The table shows how much money per year is required just to have TERRIBLE STREETS. […]
I had to add this tweet – this person lives in Bloomington! NIOT! By: Diane Benjamin These pics are from the NIOT Bloomington-Normal Facebook page. Obviously not all the attendees agreed with what was being said, both pics show numerous people sitting and not clapping while other are standing and cheering. Note the sign in […]
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