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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.

Opinion: Bloomington city council should appoint a youth advisor, if it wants to keep pace with the GOP

Opinion: Bloomington city council should appoint a youth advisor, if it wants to keep pace with the GOP

A week before Christmas, both major political parties made local news with their caucuses. Republicans elected 18-year-old Taylor Bryant as Monroe County Republican Party chair. Bryant became the youngest county chair ever for Monroe County and probably the state of Indiana. At their caucus, Democrats chose Jennifer Crossley

Column | It’s spelled out for you: Happy New Year, Bloomington!

Column | It’s spelled out for you: Happy New Year, Bloomington!

The “Happy New Year” message in this column is a bit premature, because New Year’s Day 2022 is still nearly a week away. But it’s provided early, so that B Square readers have time to study these letters and try to discern their origin, without any time pressure.

At People’s Market, Santa speaks on climate crisis, potential record warmth at Christmas: “I didn’t cause it, because I use joy and wonder to power my sled.”

At People’s Market, Santa speaks on climate crisis, potential record warmth at Christmas: “I didn’t cause it, because I use joy and wonder to power my sled.”

This year, Christmas fell on Saturday, the regular day for the weekly People’s Market, which operates from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. out of Full House Fitness on Elm Street. The market was open for business as usual this Saturday. Around 10:30 a.m. about a

Two years of Bloomington city council votes or: Local government, how lovely are thy branches!

Two years of Bloomington city council votes or: Local government, how lovely are thy branches!

If you had to hang nine red globes on a Christmas tree, one for each Bloomington city councilmember, how would you approach that task? What if you had to make the distance between councilmembers on the tree show how close they are politically—at least when it comes to their

4th Street parking garage update: Public art wrapped up, security firm hired for overnight patrols

4th Street parking garage update: Public art wrapped up, security firm hired for overnight patrols

By mid-afternoon on Thursday, workers had completed the installation of the colorful quilt-patterned panels on three sides of the new 4th Street parking garage in downtown Bloomington. As they were packing up their gear, the crew from Ignition Arts, which did the fabrication and installation of the piece,

Pandemic notebook: Monroe County racks up 100 cases for one day in last update before Christmas

Pandemic notebook: Monroe County racks up 100 cases for one day in last update before Christmas

Indiana’s COVID-19 dashboard recorded 100 positive cases for Monroe County on Tuesday, Dec. 21. That’s the highest daily total the county has seen since early January. It’s the 19th time Monroe County has hit triple digits for a day, since the county’s first positive case

No salary change for Monroe County commissioners, as added increase fails on 0–5–1 vote by council

No salary change for Monroe County commissioners, as added increase fails on 0–5–1 vote by council

On Tuesday night, Monroe county councilors stood by the compensation for the three county commissioners that they had already approved on the last day of November as a part of the 2022 salary ordinance. The already-adopted salary ordinance for 2022 specifies $48,886 for each of the three commissioners,