Dave Askins, 60, is a bespectacled man with a wizard-like beard, a keen interest in bird photography and a penchant for local civics. He also ran the B Square Bulletin for over 5 years.
B Square was a primary source of Bloomington news, especially for city and county government affairs. Dave published his last report for the site Dec. 20, 2024, after the half-decade of stories, 90-hour workweeks and seemingly endless committee, council and board meetings.
It all became too much. He said he didn't believe that his journalism would help improve Bloomington local government, an institution he deemed dysfunctional.
He found himself with his head in his hands during its meetings – long meetings. The longest Dave ever sat through clocked in at more than nine hours.
“It was all-consuming,” he said. “No weekends. No holidays.”
Still, local government leaders have lamented his loss. It’s unclear what Dave will do next, or what the county will do now the burden is off his shoulders.
Dave came to Bloomington in 2018 to reunite with his wife, Mary Morgan.
He had been in Pierre, South Dakota, working for a newsroom there, but realized he didn’t want to be so far from her–– when he left, she was still in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
They made a geographical compromise and met in Bloomington, where they had met in graduate school in the 1990s.
His job search proved difficult. Dave knew his resumé was directionless, unfocused and uncertain. He applied for a job at the Herald Times, but was passed over.
So, he took matters into his own hands and made his own website.
B Square Bulletin got its name from the downtown square, with the ‘B’ standing for Bloomington. Dave said he liked that name because it was “whimsical.”
He has experience with the whimsical. When he lived in Ann Arbor, he started a blog called Teeter Talk, where he interviewed locals. The catch? He would only agree to interview people if they sat on the teeter totter he constructed in his backyard. He’d take a picture of his subject from down the plank.
Dave brought in all kinds of people. Many would ask to be exceptions to the rule, to be interviewed on solid ground, but he said no. Not even councilmen were spared from the teeter totter.
Teeter Talk gained enough popularity that Dave began selling advertisements to put on its site. He didn’t enjoy the business side of things. That said, he did secure an ad for the very lumber company from which he had bought a plank to build his teeter totter.
He also ran a website called the Ann Arbor Chronicle with Morgan. He took a hands-off approach to advertising for that site, opting to let her handle it.
“I just hated that task,” Dave said.
That’s why B Square Bulletin ran on a donations-based model. He said the work brought in about $3,000 per month from an average of 462 donors.
Though he cares for Bloomington and its people, he said he is “old and tired.” While his goodbye post said there was no “particular symbolic value” to the time of his departure, there is a definite finality to it. He does not plan to return.
Among the “dysfunctional” operations of local government and his 90-hour work weeks, he would find himself wondering aloud to Morgan what the point of it all was.
“Are these people nuts?” he would say.
“There are assholes everywhere,” she would reply.
Dave concedes that there are issues with every local government, but he’s seen enough of this one.
With B Square meeting its end, some wonder about the fate of local government coverage. Some local leaders lament his loss.
However, the years of reporting won’t vanish. Monroe County Public Library is looking into archiving all of Dave’s articles. That process may be complicated, but he said he doesn’t mind covering the website’s fees until its preservation is guaranteed.
And it’s worth noting: Dave isn’t retired, B Square is.
Dave intends to stay in Bloomington and find a job reporting – though he doesn’t know where. He doesn’t have concrete plans.
For now, he’s enjoying his free time and is trying to override the compulsion to record city council or attend public meetings. He posts pictures of birds, cocktails, coffee, cookies and AI-generated videos of celebrities on his Facebook page.
