By: Diane Benjamin 1) The Down Village Board failed to get a motion to take a vote: https://blnnews.com/2025/03/13/downs-tonight-flooding-shaddyville/ The issue isn’t totally dead, the people affected need to stay vigilant. 2) Barry Reilly’s Vote Yes for McLean County Schools received some donations they couldn’t hide until after the vote: Since the Unit 5 Teacher’s Union […]
By: Diane Benjamin Everyone endorsed by this PAC have an agenda. That agenda isn’t doing what’s right for taxpayers, it’s doing what THEY want done regardless of your opinion. Did you want a $30 million pedestrian underpass in Normal? I hope you are noticing what electing progressives means. They work for government, not you. Dave […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.responsiblecities.com/ Every feel like you are just pawns government sucks money from? You should. All most elected people want is your money, not your opinion. Responsible Cities PAC thinks they have innate powers to tell you who to vote for. The funny part is they don’t say who they are! NO names […]
By: Diane Benjamin Only contributions to candidates or political action committees over $1000 are required to be immediately reported. Other contributions are reported quarterly. That means you won’t know who contributed to either until after the April 4th election since reports won’t be filed before then. Reports are available on Illinois Sunshine for contributions that […]
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 From the PAC website: https://www.responsiblecities.com/ Gee, it sounds like this group wants the best candidates for the entire community. They don’t. Chris Koos and Kevin McCarthy have recently stated they were elected by the citizens of Normal and they don’t care about Bloomington. They want to run water pipes on top of […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Responsible Cities PAC was formed by people like Chris Koos and Mike Straza. Look at who donated to the PAC, these are the top 25: If you look at the entire list of donor you will find other familiar names: RC McBride, Allen Sender, his wife Elizabeth Robb, Paul Harmon, George […]
Actually Straza signed as Treasurer. The CHAIR never signed. Evidently he isn’t required to, but the form still proves who is behind Responsible Cities. (Status Quo progressives) By: Diane Benjamin The title is is a quote from Normal Township Supervisor Sarah Grammer who challenged the petitions of two people running for the Township positions, she […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Dave Shields must still be hurting from losing to Stan Nord 2 years ago: Sorry Dave, but it appears your opinion doesn’t carry a lot of weight. That doesn’t stop Dave from working for his good buddy Chris Koos however. Does Davie know Town elections are supposedly non-partisan? Sure […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m no fan of Jim Fruin but I’m not a fan of his opponent either. This story recaps a lot of what Jim Fruin did while he was on the Council: https://blnnews.com/2016/10/03/who-voted-for-taris-nonsense/ Jim was on the Council that ignored audit calls for Coliseum Concessions and he was on the Council when Tari […]
By: Diane Benjamin Refer back to this earlier story: https://blnnews.com/2021/02/10/more-on-the-responsible-cities-pac/ Who got paid $3,511 for consulting? Maura Freeman From the Elect Chris Koos Mayor of Normal Facebook page: Who is Maura Freeman? According to her Facebook page: Facebook friends include Dave Shields (Koos buddy). She “liked” the Marc Tiritilli for Mayor of Normal Facebook page. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The document above is from the filings with the State of Illinois. Where did the $4500 this PAC started with come from? We don’t know. Maybe it came from all the people mentioned in this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/02/the-document-you-must-see/ According to their website this PAC was formed in April 2019 – note above. They […]
By: Diane Benjamin Numerous items Normal citizens need to know: Below is part of an email written by Stan Nord. The yellow is City Manager Pam Reece’s response to his email. Pam does not understand citizens saw Target being looted and the destruction to police vehicles while the police did nothing. They know Mayor Chris […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember the Responsible Cites PAC? https://blnnews.com/2020/09/02/the-document-you-must-see/ Mayoral candidates Chris Koos in Normal and Mike Straza in Bloomington had to pretend to leave the group when they decided to run. Now Responsible Cities is pretending they don’t already know what candidates they are going to endorse. For mayor it will be Chris Koos […]
By: Diane Benjamin Ward 5 is now left with one far left candidate for alderman. Mike Straza is dumping his alderman campaign to run for mayor. https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/mike-straza-announces-bid-for-mayor/ Straza was the Treasurer for Responsible Cities PAC – the PAC the so responsible Normal Mayor Chris Koos helped form. Responsible? More like attempting to hide Irresponsibility! The […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/17188/CAFR20-FINAL-DOC See the below on PDF pages 177 and following. The only good news is the first one will be paid off next year. I added the interest rates in the lower left corner. The loans with no payments for many years carry high interest rates likely for that reason. This isn’t […]
by: Diane Benjamin Normal has an excellent chance of electing servant representatives next April. You do remember they used to be called PUBLIC SERVANTS, not tyrants with their own agenda? Bloomington not so much yet. Either everyone with morals and values is too busy working or they have left town. This guy claims he is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Marc saved me the trouble of writing further comments on the DOCUMENT I showed yesterday in this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/02/the-document-you-must-see/ The video has captions, watch it with or without the sound. Marc has researched the PAC and knows the contributors and how they have spent money so far. He proves the PAC is […]
