Corruption and Elder Abuse: Logan County

By: Diane Benjamin Wind farm developers have been targeting Logan County recently. The meeting below happened on 11/22. The video was taped from the Young Conservatives of Logan County Facebook page which has the entire video of the over 3 hour meeting. The part below happened very close to the end of the meeting. The […]

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 […]

UPDATE: Recovered from John Butler: $450,000

See this story for more information: https://blnnews.com/2020/08/25/john-butler-the-rest-of-the-case/ Page 1 of release from State’s Attorney Don Knapp. More documents should be coming, this summary doesn’t state why $450,000 was agreed to. It also doesn’t say if Butler agreed to jail time. See the entire document here:

ISU: When you hear from the Attorney General just plead guilty

By:  Diane Benjamin I have filed a Request for Review with the Attorney General’s office based on this meeting held by Dr. Susan Kalter, the Chair of the Academic Senate at ISU:  https://blnnews.com/2020/07/16/looks-like-a-revolt-at-isu/ Part 2 was supposed to happen tonight to finish what didn’t get done last Thursday.  Tonight’s meeting has been postponed indefinitely, the […]

Why no child abuse charges?

By:  Diane Benjamin Pediatric Resource Center for Child Abuse and Neglect in Peoria examined Mikey Cadena and documented several injuries as well as extensive dental problems. He had severe bruising, blunt force trauma, a human bite mark, black eyes, anal tear, rope burns, etc. They concluded he was abused.             […]

More State’s Attorney errors!

By:  Diane Benjamin Followup to this story:    https://blnnews.com/2018/06/19/the-next-mclean-county-states-attorney/ Charges have already been dropped against one of the Coliseum defendants – judge blamed the charges filed by the State’s Attorney’s office. Now rape charges have been dropped against another defendant – again the judge ruled the charges weren’t filed right:  See this story: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/rape-charges-dismissed-against-murder-suspect/article_8ac3ab38-b90e-57ae-9632-e6807d557d95.html In both […]

You will never know the truth

By:  Diane Benjamin According to this Pantagraph story, the charges in the Coliseum case have been dropped against one of the 5 defendants and three others are in negotiations for a plea deal: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/arena-defendants-involved-in-talks-with-state/article_db37d3a5-218c-5fb4-8d6a-812671ec0118.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-2 Can anybody guess why comments aren’t allowed to this story? The LAST thing any level of government in McLean County wants is […]

Who is the leaker?

By:  Diane Benjamin On January 23rd WGLT had an intriguing story.  I was hoping some other media cared or WGLT would do a followup because it left too many questions unanswered. See the story here:  http://wglt.org/post/emails-prosecutors-declined-citys-request-closed-session-coliseum-case According to the story, WGLT got their hands on some emails between Bloomington attorney Jeff Jurgens and the State’s Attorney office.  […]

When “public servants” aren’t

By:  Diane Benjamin I’m reading a great book called Anatomy of the State.  Shock:  “We The People” aren’t the government and government is not for “We The People”. Look no farther than the State of Illinois, now close to its second year of no budget.  Mike Madigan is threatening 4 years of no budget because […]

Bloomington holds illegal meeting

By:  Diane Benjamin Don’t miss the update:  http://blnnews.com/2015/11/04/more-on-the-illegal-meeting/ Today an illegal meeting was held at City Hall.  David Hales has divided the Council into groups of three to meet on various issues.  Instead of being open and transparent by discussing City business at City Council meetings, they are meeting with no public notification as required […]