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Dave Askins

Dave Askins

Bloomington, Indiana

Dave Askins is editor and publisher of The B Square Bulletin. A Hoosier native with a background in math and linguistics, he previously co-founded the Ann Arbor Chronicle with his wife, Mary Morgan.

Column: Staring into the civic sun in 2024, the year of a solar eclipse

Column: Staring into the civic sun in 2024, the year of a solar eclipse

In 2024, the local civic cosmos could see some big changes, in the same year when a rare literal cosmic event will unfold. On April 8, a solar eclipse will briefly cast a shadow directly over the Bloomington area, turning daylight into gloam. (Yes, that is an awfully fancy word

Column: Who will be the next president of the Bloomington city council, and does it even matter?

Column: Who will be the next president of the Bloomington city council, and does it even matter?

If the 2024 edition of Bloomington’s city council can get through its first two calendar days without violating Indiana’s Open Door Law (ODL), that will be an improvement over the group that was sworn in four years ago. On Jan. 2, 2020, two days after taking office, the

Analysis: Age-related facts about Bloomington’s next city council that nobody knew they wanted to know

Analysis: Age-related facts about Bloomington’s next city council that nobody knew they wanted to know

The outgoing edition of the Bloomington city council officially wraps up its service at noon on New Year’s Day. Returning to be sworn in at that same time are just four of the nine: Isabel Piedmont-Smith (District 1), Kate Rosenbarger (District 2), Dave Rollo (District 4) and Matt

Bloomington grants Academy Sports second set of variances, to occupy old Marsh grocery building

Bloomington grants Academy Sports second set of variances, to occupy old Marsh grocery building

Three months ago, Bloomington’s board of zoning appeals (BZA) granted a variance to Academy Sports + Outdoor as part of the Houston-based company’s plan to open a store in the location of the former Marsh Supermarket building on the city’s east side. Under the terms of that

Boutique hotel above former Peoples Bank on Kirkwood OK’d for height

Boutique hotel above former Peoples Bank on Kirkwood OK’d for height

The former Peoples Bank building on Kirkwood Avenue now has a future as a 5-story 47-room boutique hotel. That is made possible by Bloomington’s board of zoning appeals (BZA), which has granted a variance that allows for the adaptive reuse project to exceed the height that would

Column | Sliding into the holidays: Expectations for Christmas Eve blown away

Column | Sliding into the holidays: Expectations for Christmas Eve blown away

Mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve in downtown Bloomington was pretty quiet. It did not feel much like the traditional holiday season in southern Indiana. Because Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, some shops and restaurants were closed that might have otherwise been open for business. Temperatures in the mid-60s

Image: Merry Christmas, Bloomington! (even if not everything is spelled exactly right)

Image: Merry Christmas, Bloomington! (even if not everything is spelled exactly right)

The B Square’s experiments with AI (artificial intelligence) fake photo generation suggest that reasonably serviceable images for a specific set of purposes can eventually be obtained, though perhaps not on the first try. Today’s seasonal greeting comes from Microsoft’s Bing Image Creator (powered by DALL·E 3)