By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, June 20, 2019 — It was 30 years ago this summer when I decided to get my ear pierced and start wearing an earring. It was 29 years ago when I met Carla Burt during a bicycle ride on a recreational trail. Jim Green inspired both big moments in my life. …
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, June 13, 2019 — If you’ve thought that U.S. policy toward our neighboring nation of Cuba couldn’t get much worse, you’re not thinking big enough. “Some people look at just Cuba,” said Rev. Luis Barrios, who’s been studying and traveling the region for more than 45 of his 66…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER SHENANDOAH, Iowa, May 22, 2019 — The biggest lesson of the Donald Trump presidency is surely this: A person who almost nobody thinks can be elected president of the United States can indeed win the highest office in the land. That is one of several reasons no one should be underestimating the candidacy…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER ST. PAUL, Minnesota, May 10, 2019 — Here is a photo re-cap of my wife Carla Offenburger, her sister Chris Woods and I finishing in the May 5 “Brave Like Gabe” 5K Run-Walk in beautiful Como Park here. The second-annual event was organized by and named for Gabriele Grunewald, 32, of St.…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, April 22, 2019 — The Lenten season just completed is probably the most spiritual period in my whole life. In my later adult years as a “cradle Catholic,” I’ve not been one to “give up something” for Lent. Rather, I always tried to “do something more,” like, oh, saying the…