State Farm vrs Rivian

By: Diane Benjamin I received a tip a few days ago about layoffs at State Farm. Employees were blindsighted in another department, not claims. It doesn’t matter how long they have been with the company, State Farm is picking who stays and who goes by skillsets. Retaining jobs in McLean County hasn’t been mentioned much […]

Koos and his Rivian

By: Diane Benjamin I’m betting Chris Koos won’t be installing a super-charger at his house to charge the Rivian. He can charge it for free in the parking garage next to his Town office. If necessary he can leave it there and walk to his bike shop. This story has a list of other FREE […]

Illinois #1 on the Fleeing list

By: Diane Benjamin https://www3.forbes.com/leadership/the-u-s-states-people-are-fleeing-and-the-ones-they-are-moving-to-version-5-ifs-vue-mn-wnb/ Forbes has a new list of the top 12 States people are moving from, I will save you the trouble of reading it: 1. Illinois Total Moves: 8,157Percentage Moving Out: 63.4%Population: 12,802,000Median Household Income: $62,881Job Growth (2018): 0.9% Projected population growth is negative. Illinois is ahead of New Jersey and New […]

Normal is buying 2 Rivian vehicles and NOT telling you the cost

By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 69: https://www.normalil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4451 Remember when Pam Reece claimed buying these vehicles was not in the 5 year budget? Ha Ha. Remember the Vehicle and Equipment Replacement Fund where they stockpile your money so they can pay cash? Remember when they decided to LEASE 30 vehicles instead of paying cash? https://blnnews.com/2021/12/06/normal-truth-in-taxation-is-mia/ Remember […]

Scared of video Patrick Hoban?

By: Diane Benjamin 5/25/22 Unit 5 School board meeting video: This video should go viral, no I’m not going to tell you what EDC Director Hoban said. Hoban had just run through all the potential incentives offered to new businesses. The EDC might want to speed this up if they are going to push it, […]

Bus service to Rivian: $1 million

By: Diane Benjamin This won’t be the only story from the Normal Town Council meeting last night. How did employees get to Diamond Star? How did they get to Mitsubishi? Neither had bus service. Who wants bus service now? How many of those buses will be empty for the low low price of $1,000,000? General […]

Update: EV’s, Rivian, and Lithium

WGLT is reporting Rivian won’t raise the price for existing customers because of the back lash. Losing money on every vehicle sold is better? The Rivian stock price is still down today https://www.wglt.org/2022-03-03/after-backlash-and-canceled-orders-rivian-backtracks-and-wont-raise-prices-for-existing-customers?fbclid=IwAR3ewocgV5DUP_o9H624_U-dCPM3eO6IphJdXTUU8qkXd2DWWUV1DaAEs2w By: Diane Benjamin This story is more about interesting things you should know than anything else. Start with this story: https://www.autonews.com/retail/there-may-be-more-rivians-price-hike-materials-costs Automotive […]

Bloomington’s Master Planning

By: Diane Benjamin Government is not capable of Master Planning because they are spending YOUR money not theirs. They use your taxes as a piggy bank to fulfill their wishes. Voters keep electing progressives who promise to make their lives better and of course not raise taxes to do it. Insert your own joke__________________. Proof […]

Rivian went Public yesterday

By: Diane Benjamin Interesting Excerpts: A Saudi family that built its business on gasoline-fueled cars is sitting on an almost $11.5 billion fortune after electric truck maker Rivian Automative Inc. surged on its trading debut in 2021’s biggest initial public offering. Abdul Latif Jameel, a Jeddah-based group named after its founder and today run by his sons, […]

Rivian and the Plane

By: Diane Benjamin How about a fun story! I thought about naming it “De Plane De Plane”, but I refrained. Bloomington has some airport/flight enthusiasts, apps are available that show information on flights out of CIRA. One plane that makes frequent flights from CIRA didn’t show any information on the apps. Of course that made […]

Normal’s Rivian water project

By: Diane Benjamin Extending water down East College, where Bloomington already has water lines, is out for bid. Normal has said over and over they are not going to use this line for the current Rivian plant that Bloomington already serves. See this pic from the bid pack: Also from the bid pack: So who […]

Charging Ev’s

By: Diane Benjamin If you are a Corn Belt customer we are in the same boat: Paying more for electricity. You will get Illinois Country Living Magazine however. One story in this month’s edition that is NOT on-line concerns charging electric vehicles. Considering electricity is more expensive for Corn Belt customers, I don’t know why […]

Is Normal Practicing Corporate Welfare?

By: Diane Benjamin Stan Nord was absent from the meeting last night so business only took about 15 minutes. One item that was passed with little discussion of actual facts was this: Staff has said they have no requests for extending the current sewer lines, so how does Crawford etc. know what to design? How […]

Three things you need to know

Rivian deliveries are now delayed until July 1st: https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-cars/a36556537/rumor-rivian-r1t-pickup-delayed/ EPA is using fictitious data to claim Global Warming: https://climaterealism.com/2021/05/epas-new-climate-change-indicators-publication-misleads-on-heatwaves/ WEEK TV has a story on Wednesday night’s District 87 School Board meeting, unfortunately no video of the parents speaking but they are in the story: https://week.com/2021/05/26/district-87-parents-voice-concerns-over-covid-rules-and-curriculum-focus/

Two more things

By: Diane Benjamin 1) Ford’s F150 electric battery weighs 1800 pounds: https://jalopnik.com/ford-f-150-lightnings-battery-alone-weighs-as-much-as-a-1846925168?fbclid=IwAR08fR6H4a8DHjuzzpJ_sqKd6V4gazHoDIzIvDlw95456SYxszgtXlbBUkc That is the weight of a Volkswagen Beetle. Is Rivian’s the same? What happens to your car if you get hit by one of these tanks? 1800 pounds is just the battery. 2) The Pantagraph printed a picture of a Rivian employee charging […]

Truth must lie somewhere

By: Diane Benjamin Remember this Pam Reece email: This isn’t the only time Reece implies (or flat out states) spending $5 million+ to lay water lines on top of Bloomington’s isn’t to steal providing water to Rivian from Bloomington. I wonder how she explains this email: That brings me to this email from August of […]

More lies for Normal taxpayers

By: Diane Benjamin More emails the Normal taxpayers need to see. Note the date, Rivian never requested water from Normal. The Town of Normal is trying to talk them into it. Pam Reece has said OVER and OVER spending $5 million+ for water lines on top of Bloomington’s is for future economic development. The email […]

Chris Koos: Desperato

By: Diane Benjamin Remember the Eagles song Desperato? That should be the Chris Koos theme song. He has NOTHING to run on so he is now personally attacking Marc Tiritilli instead of addressing the issues. Chris is a divisive leader because he knows people don’t want the things he wants. Marc Tiritilli is running to […]

Think Pam Reece Lied?

By: Diane Benjamin Remember the $5 million water project Normal has in the budget? Stan Nord asked many times why this project is in the budget. Normal is running water lines on top of Bloomington’s. The only answer he ever got from Pam Reece was: 1) Nobody has requested water service 2) It is for […]