By: Diane Benjamin

I know the Asahikawa Japan group gets tax dollars from Bloomington and Normal: http://bnsistercities.org/about/

This is the group Tari Renner went to Japan with, nobody ever spilled the story of him “acting up” while there. I predict we may have that information in the future.

Last I saw both cities threw $10,000 a year to this group.

The Russia Sister’s Cities group is a totally different group: https://vcsistercitybn.org/getinvolved/

They are active with two Russian cities: Vladimir and Canterbury.

Even though Chicago severed ties with their Sister City, Moscow, the local group has no plans to do the same with their two cities – according to the paper: https://pantagraph.com/news/local/bloomington-normals-sister-city-bond-unbroken-in-russia-despite-attacks/article_b0ad2027-920a-5848-b453-dea3e244806d.html

The article states this group hasn’t been in contact with their counterparts in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.

At one point Renner was scheduled to go to Russia, I can’t remember why it didn’t happen. I don’t remember seeing checks written to this group, but the probability is pretty high both cities do fund them. Maybe a reader will know.

I never realized there were two different groups. Now we all know!

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