Free Republic

The state has officially taken over the Interstate 69 Section 5 project from I-69 Development Partners.The Indiana Finance Authority announced it had reached an agreement with the private developer in June to take over construction, operation and maintenance of the project after several delays in the completion schedule. To officially take control of the project, the Indiana State Budget Committee had to approve the plans. Additionally, all parties had to endorse a settlement agreement and bondholders had to be paid in full.The finance authority announced Monday it had completed the settlement transaction to terminate the contract with I-69 Development Partners...

President Donald Trump desperately needs us all to know how important the battle against terrorism is to him. He tells us in speeches that he's "working night and day to keep our nation safe from terrorism." He flexes his Twitter fingers after any act of terror allegedly caused by a Muslim person hits nearly anywhere around the globe. But when an act of extremism appears to have been carried out against the Muslim community in the United States, he serves up radio silence. At around 5 a.m. on August 5, a bomb exploded at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center...

[]Full tite: FBI: 'Improvised explosive device' caused blast at Bloomington Islamic center **SNIP** A blast caused by what the FBI called “an improvised explosive device” rocked a Bloomington Islamic center before dawn Saturday...The blast was reported at 5:05 a.m.Even before the FBI update, congregants said the blast appeared to be a hate crime. Mohamed Omar, the center’s executive director, who was in the building when the explosion erupted...The building was once the site of Northgate Elementary School and Concordia High School. It also served as a worship space for Maranatha Community Church. The Dar Al Farooq Center bought it in...

It comes after a different group earlier said it was also offering a $10,000 reward. The blast occurred around 5 a.m. Saturday at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. Police say there were no injuries. The FBI is leading an investigation into the explosion. CAIR's local chapter says its national office is urging Islamic centers and mosques to step up security.

A rally Wednesday afternoon resulted in a disrupted workplace and gridlocked traffic as student protesters marched to demand more diversity at the Indiana University-Bloomington campus. The rally and march was organized by the student group Students Against State Violence (SASV) in support of a Resolution on Diversity that was passed last April by the Faculty Council, because according to the SASV, the university “has been delaying and opposing its implementation.”

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) – Viral video shows a car ramming into a group of protesters in Bloomington. That protest happening Monday night. The video was taken during a Black Lives Matter protest. “It’s just kind of scary. You wouldn’t expect, especially in Bloomington, stuff to kind of occur violently like that or get that hectic,” said Sitav Elturan, after watching the video for the first time. “Irrational behavior by the driver,” said Zach Warren, who also watched the video. “There’s no reason to even have to try to run someone over. Like, what is the reason for that?” It’s not...

The state of Indiana needs to do a better job of looking out for the interests of Hoosiers, especially Monroe County Hoosiers, when it comes to construction of Interstate 69. Section 5 of the project, the part that starts just south of Bloomington and goes north to Martinsville, has run into problems. Not for the first time. Again, the private development company the state picked to build the highway has fallen behind on payments for work that’s been done. So major contractor Crider & Crider of Bloomington has stopped working, again, until it gets paid. State officials aren’t saying so,...

Continuing delays on the construction of Interstate 69 between Bloomington and Martinsville have led to another ratings downgrade on the bonds issued to help finance the project. Standard & Poor’s has lowered its rating from BB+ to BB- on $244 million in bonds issued by the Indiana Finance Authority in 2014 for the interstate project. “The rating action reflects our view of increased construction risk at the project, which is eight months behind schedule and about 56 percent complete,” S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Tony Bettinelli said in the ratings agency’s statement on the downgrade last week. The 21-mile project,...

A radical mosque known for breeding terrorists has been granted special privileges by the city of Bloomington, Minnesota, which allows its members to take over a public park and treat it as their own, to the exclusion of other residents, according to complaints filed by a citizens group. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/07/u-s-city-rolls-over-for-radical-mosque/#7UHWQlF7O7Ccp8fO.99

At exactly 5 p.m. on March 13, 2007, just as I was preparing to leave my cubicle in Washington for the day, I got a phone call from the journalist Jonathan Landay of McClatchy Newspapers. To this day, I remember his exact words. 'One of your congressman’s constituents is being held in an Ethiopian intelligence service prison, and I think your former employer is neck-deep in this.' The congressman was Rush Holt, then a Democratic representative from New Jersey, for whom I worked for 10 years starting in 2004. The constituent was Amir Mohamed Meshal of Tinton Falls, N.J., who...

A radical mosque known for breeding terrorists has been granted special privileges by the city of Bloomington, Minnesota, which allows its members to take over a public park and treat it as their own, to the exclusion of other residents, according to complaints filed by a citizens group. The Friends of Smith Park started a petition drive and took its case to the Bloomington City Council with a formal complaint Monday night. At issue is the Dar al-Farooq mosque, which WND has previously reported has a record of turning Somali refugees into jihadists for ISIS and other terror groups.

Using NASA data and 3D modeling, Indiana University Bloomington professor Bernard Frischer and his research team have dispelled a long-held theory regarding the relationship between two famous monuments in ancient Rome. The Ara Pacis Augustae, or Altar of Augustan Peace, was built in 9 B.C.E. in ancient Rome's Campus Martius. The marble altar stood as a propagandistic celebration of the peace and prosperity ushered into the new empire by Rome's first emperor, Augustus. Near the Ara Pacis sat a 71-foot-high granite obelisk brought from Egypt by Augustus, which served as the gnomon, or pointer, of a meridian line. Following a...

On Monday, students at Indiana University Bloomington mistook a priest for a Klu Klux Klan member, taking to social media to express their fear of the alleged Klansman, who they claimed was carrying a whip, and dressed in “white robes.”

3 Rallies Today Sunday, March 13, 2016: GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally in Bloomington, IL at the Synergy Flight Center. The event is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM CDT. Sunday, March 13, 2016: GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold a town hall event in Cincinnati, OH at the Savannah Center. The event is scheduled to begin at 2:00 PM EDT. Sunday, March 13, 2016: GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally in Boca Raton, FL at Sunset Cove Amphitheater. The event is scheduled to begin at 6:00 PM EDT....

Donald J. Trump in Bloomington, IL Doors open at 7:00 AM WHEN Sunday, March 13, 2016 at 10:00 AM (CDT) WHERE Synergy Flight Center - 2823 East Empire Street, Bloomington, IL 61704

Yelling ‘White Power’ The Indiana University Bloomington student charged with shouting hateful slurs at a Muslim woman, trying to strangle her and then biting a police officer on Saturday has been expelled from the school. Officials at Indiana expelled the student, Triceten Bickford, earlier this week, reports Fort Wayne NBC affiliate WISE-TV. The bizarre incident occurred on a patio outside a Turkish restaurant and bakery in Bloomington, a few blocks from the IU campus. Bickford, 19, began the altercation by yelling “‘white power, white power,’ very loud,” the victim, an unidentified 47-year-old Turkish woman, told Indianapolis NBC outlet WTHR. Then,...

Years ago, the Tokarski family gathered with friends around a kitchen table in an old Indiana farmhouse. They were discussing the looming construction of Interstate 69 and how they could possibly stop it. The group suspected a project of such magnitude, an interstate route stretching across the southern half of Indiana, would cause severe environmental 
damage. “We really had the project almost at a standstill until Mitch Daniels came into office,” said Thomas Tokarski, now the president of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads. “We still have huge amounts of support from the people in Indiana.” Since that farmhouse meeting, Tokarski...

ecurity: A video by Somalia's al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab group warns Minnesota's Mall of America may be a repeat of a 2013 mall attack in Kenya. The Second Amendment may be our best defense against terrorism. The immense Mall of America in Bloomington would indeed make an inviting target for jihadists intent on martyrdom. Its 520 stores, the most of any mall in the world, attracts 40 million people annually and is a global tourist destination. It's as inviting a target and as much of an iconic symbol of Western capitalism and culture as was the World Trade Center on Sept. 11,...

Minnesota state Rep. Tony Cornish says the al-Shabaab threat against the Mall of America should be enough to motivate mall owners to drop their “no guns” policy so citizens can protect themselves. Mr. Cornish, a Republican who also chairs the House Public Safety Committee, said the Mall of America has interpreted state concealed carry laws incorrectly, and he’s intent on challenging them for it, a local CBS affiliate reported. “This is completely ridiculous. The complete opposite of what they should be doing,” he said. “If we’re threatened with an attack, the last thing you want to do is disarm...

Hundreds of protesters against police violence shut down part of the Mall of America in Minnesota on Saturday, during the final weekend before Christmas as shoppers scrambled to buy gifts at one of the nation's largest shopping centers, a community group member said. Demonstrators at the Mall of America shouted "Hands up, don't shoot!", referring to the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri, and "Black people can't breathe, while we're on our shopping sprees," referring to the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York. Police made 12 arrests in the demonstration on private property at the Mall...